This REGION Has The BEST Food In China (Yunnan & Guizhou)

I don't even like this dish, to be honest, but this is like the best version I've ever had. Does it come from the minority groups? You don't see a lot of people do this. This is a very Yunnan thing to do. On our next episode of what Chinese food are you actually eating, we go into the wet and damp mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou. This region borders Southeast Asia and is famous for having the highest percentage of ethnic minorities out of anywhere in China. It's hard to generalize their cuisine, but here's what you can say that they're known for. Sour, spicy herbal brews and the rice noodle soups often having mint, lemongrass, lime, and Thai chilies. Our first spot here is Bert Bowl. This hole-in-the-wall spot is serving authentic Guizhou dishes, which some consider to be the hottest style of Chinese food. After all, the most famous chili oil in the world, Lao Gan Ma, did come from there. So please hit that like button, hit subscribe, and let's go. Leading off this video, guys, we find ourselves in the unlikeliest of neighborhoods, Andrew. We're in Gramercy right now and we're in front of Bert Bowl, which is the most authentic experience that you could possibly imagine in terms of Guizhou cuisine. I'm mind blown because you wouldn't expect to find Guizhou cuisine in Manhattan. It's even hard to find in Flushing. It might be even hard to find an authentic Guizhou restaurant in the middle of Shanghai. And you know it's real because the owners and chefs are from Guizhou. Guys, it's very difficult to describe Guizhou food because it's really a province in the middle of a bunch of other ones. Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan. Dude, Andrew, I heard that this spicy chicken dry noodle from Guizhou is like a 10 out of 10, man. As you can see, there's a presence of a heavy cilantro, heavy peanuts. Man, this looks good. Hey, this is about as authentic of Guizhou food you will find in Manhattan. Laji Mifen. This is based off Laji, but completely different. Wow, that is so good. It's like a light oil noodle. Spicy, but not too spicy. Obviously, you know, probably toned down from the American version. You know what I can definitely see some similarities with? Burmese food. Right off the bat, guys, I'm going to go ahead and give this a five out of five. The Laji Mifen from Guizhou is good. Here we have two noodle soups. On my side right here, you have the beef noodle soup, which obviously you can find all over China and Chinese speaking countries. But here you have a lamb noodle soup. He said that this is like super authentic to Guizhou. Lamb. A lot of the minority influence can be seen in like the pickling and a lot of like the kind of mixture of spices. Guizhou Mifen. The lamb one's really good. I think so far you come here, get the chicken and the lamb. All right, moving on, Andrew. I've got the Hong Shao Zhu Jiao, which is a red braised pig trotter. Oh, let's go in on this real quick. He said that Western people love this until they find out what it is. So he never tells them. They got some authentic known dishes here, man. What is good, man? Should be Luther, man. This one is called Yang Ba Niu Du. Beef tripe. I don't even like this dish, to be honest. But this is like the best version I've ever had. It's very meaty, lots of spice, cold, a little bit sweet. Hey, at some point, you won't even know what cut of the meat you're eating. It's good. So these Hong Shao Zhu Jiao, these spicy wontons and the Kou Shui Ji, they came over from Sichuan to Guizhou. But they have their own way of doing it, their own recipes. Hey, it's not wrong to take some of the top dishes from the neighboring province. Hey, man, I don't know what it is in Guizhou, man, but they're taking a lot of different influences, making something new, man. The chicken noodle and the lamb noodle were clear five out of fives. Now we move on to the province of Yunnan. You may have not gone to a lot of Yunnan restaurants, but you probably have seen their rice noodle shops. Recently, their crossing bridge noodles or Guo Chao Mian became a hit in America. Get a hot bubbling pot of broth, lots of small plates of different little ingredients, thick rice noodles similar to Vietnam's bumble whey and throw it all together. Fun fact, Yunnan is also considered the king of mushrooms with over 250 kinds of mushrooms in the region that people eat. Let's go and find out the best rice noodle spot in New York City. All right, you guys, we are here at Yun Shang, which is a chain from Yunnan, China. I had to get the mushroom Guo Chao Mian. This has got about seven different types of mushrooms in there. Obviously, in Yunnan, there's about a thousand different varieties of edible mushrooms. And I had to get the Yunnan Yashou, which is a duck tongue, a spicy braised duck tongue. They eat it a lot in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guilin. This is my first time having this. All right, guys, we tried a lot of different Guo Chao Mian at a lot of different Yunnan spots. I'm going to go ahead and give my recommendation. As far as Yun Shang goes, I think their mushroom broth is the best one. And for me personally, at any of the spots, I'm generally going to pick the mushroom. However, I do think that each brand have their own strengths and weaknesses. Yun Shang here in Chinatown is really a crossover spot. I think it's most people's first introduction to the Yunnan cuisine. But the other spots might be even deeper cut. And we have the duck tongue, aka the Ya Shi. Ya is duck, Shi is tongue. You know, maybe my tones are a little bit off, but that's what it means. This looks actually really tasty. So it's like a braised spicy duck tongue. What's the origin of the spicy Yunnan duck tongue? Does it come from the minority groups? What is the origin of the duck tongue? Does it come from the minority groups? Does it come from Han people? I don't know. But I do know that a lot of different types of people in Yunnan eat this dish. This one in particular has a little bit of mala, but just a slight bit. Because as we know, Yunnan is still, you know, in that zone of the southwest near Sichuan. So of course, there's crossover flavors. All right. Our next Yunnan Meishan spot in Manhattan is Shi Miao Dao. And I was told by someone inside, I'm not saying it was the worker, but she said that this is the most authentic Yunnan rice noodle spot in the city. Even more authentic than the last couple spots we went to. So let's go see how authentic it is. So here I got the pickled beef Yunnan Meishan. And I can smell the pickling right off the bat. The sourness is hitting my nose. And this is very traditional because, you know, in parts like Yunnan, they do a lot of pickling. So here's the thing about these Chinese rice noodles. Now, they look very familiar. You might have seen this in the Vietnamese Bun Bo Hue. I do think it is the same noodles. And how they make these noodles is actually a lot like pasta. So a lot of the time, and I don't know the exact recipe, but a lot of the time, they're half rice, half potato starch. For those people out there that are more familiar with Vietnamese food, I would say this particular sour beef soup might remind you more of like a Bun Bo Hue. And the chicken one that David had earlier would remind you of like a Pho Gia. There is nothing that makes you feel healthier than some hot and sour soup. What I think is cool about Yunnan is that it's in the southwest, where it's bordered by other things. And in the U.S., I kind of compare it to like New Mexico, where New Mexico is in the southwest, and it's very Mexican and Native American influenced by the food. And that's just New Mexico food in general. Anybody who's a New Mexican is going to eat it, whether they're Caucasian or black or whatever. They're all going to be familiar with it. So I think that's pretty cool that, you know, Yunnan is very proud of the influence from the minority ethnic groups. But this is actually really delicious. I would recommend you guys come to Xiamen Dao and check this out, because this is going to give you that authentic vibe. These noodles are very stretchy, very bouncy. I like them a lot. This region is interesting because it's got a ton of flavor, but is relatively unknown to most people. One theory says that the Thai people of Thailand are thought to have originated in Yunnan. The theory goes on to say that they are related to other people, such as Dai, Lao, and Zhuang people. From there, they began migrating southward in successive ways, perhaps around as early as 1050 A.D. Am I saying that Thai people are Chinese? No, I'm just saying that the term Chinese technically encompasses a lot more people than just Han people. What you're taking a look at is the most traditional Guo Chao Mian, Yunnan crossing bridge noodles. This is called Hua Jiao Ji Tang. So it is a mixture of chicken broth, fish broth, and pork broth all together. This is the original broth that the story is said to be about the scholar doing imperial exams. His wife was worried that the soup was always getting cold. On this little island, he was isolated and studying on, so she started breaking stuff up into compartments to keep it warm so he could mix the broth and the ingredients right there. Now, there are a ton of different flavors, some modern, some traditional at like Yunnan Mi Xian spots. However, I do recommend trying the Hua Jiao Ji Tang at least once because you get a gigantic chicken drumstick and this really only comes with the traditional flavor. So Yunnan actually borders Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, and a lot of people theorize that sort of the like, I guess, precursor groups actually originated in Yunnan, whether they're the Dai, the Zhuang, the Miao people who actually are Hmong. So you see some influence there, but Guo Chao Mian in Yunnan is considered more of a Han Chinese dish. We got to talk about one of the most unique dishes that I believe only is carried at San Shi Noodle compared to the other Yunnan chains, and this is a fern noodle. This is made from an extract from a fern that grows in the mountains of Yunnan province. And I heard there's a lot of health benefits. It's kind of like suan la, which is like pretty sour. Let's check it out. You got the fresh bird's eye chilies, which tastes very Southeast Asian, very spicy. It almost tastes like a Thai dish, but with like even more vinegar and more garlic maybe. And yeah, this is actually really, really solid, very refreshing, and actually has a medicinal vibe to it. Next, we move on to the capital city of Yunnan, Kunming. This spot south of the clouds is started by a guy who really wants to represent what the modern day city dwellers are eating. Let's see what he's coming up with. All right, you guys, kicking off this episode, we are going to be explaining the sour, spicy rice noodle soup region of China, whether that's Yunnan, Guizhou, or Guangxi. What you're going to see is a lot of rice noodle dishes and a lot of ingredients that we know as to be Southeast Asian due to the minority groups that are actually in that region. So like we said, guys, I'm going to be taking a look at the regular Yunnan noodle mixian, which is the regular beef noodle. Andrew, you are going in on the guochao mian, which is actually a really interesting mix of chicken, fish, and pork broth. Yunnan rice noodles. You guys, I'm a big fan of guochao mian, but honestly, I really like this beef mian too, man. All right, you guys, we are looking at the douhua mian right now. The tofu, Andrew, has replaced the noodle. You don't see a lot of people do this. This is a very Yunnan thing to do. Now, this looks like a zhajiangmian, except it has very, very soft tofu on the side. Oh, they got noodles underneath the tofu. Wow, you can see the mixture of a lot of cilantro. You have your pickled vegetables in there. That's very symbolic of the region. So this is a Yunnan version of my beloved zhajiangmian. So this actually doesn't have mixian in it. So I think, David, what I'm going to be looking for from this dish is kind of the Yunnan additions. Whether that's some of the sourness or the peppers, I'm going to be looking for those type of elements to represent Yunnan in this dish. I got tofu on my noodles. This is new to me. There's a lot of preserved pickles, which I heard is actually more of a technique that the minorities use, whether that's the Yao, Dai, Miao people. As we said, Yunnan food is definitely going to feel like it has some Southeast Asian influence. And this dish with the julienned carrots and the julienned cucumbers, it actually does feel a little bit like there's some elements of a bun mian. All right, this is cold eggplant called liangban qiezi. Let's check out some of the Yunnan flavors. Sour and spicy. Like we said, each flavor profile, guys, from Yunnan to Guizhou to, you know, Guilin, which is in Guangxi, is going to be different. But, you know, there are some shared characteristics, much like Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang. I didn't think I was going to like cold eggplant that much, but that garlic flavor is busting through right now. That is crazy. All right, you guys, as far as South of the Clouds go, this is a very authentic Yunnan restaurant. However, they did have to take some of the ultra authentic things off the menu recently. They told me there just was not enough demand. Unfortunately, they had the Yunnan large chicken pot, which was my favorite thing to order here. Andrew, you knew I used to get that all the time, but that is the nature of the restaurant business. David, you are a chicken pot dude. And that's why you got to be really, really grateful when you do find a very, very authentic dishes, even if they're not the most appealing cuts. Maybe it's like tripe or something like that. But when you do find it, you got to know that's really cool because a lot of restaurants, due to economics, they're going to have to cut certain dishes out that aren't ordered very often. All in all, I wish there was more Yunnan restaurants in America. The rice noodle spots are great, but Yunnan and Guizhou are so much more than that. But regardless, if you've had Guizhou food, we've all experienced some of the spice through our old godmother, you know, Lao Gan Ma. So let me know what you think about Yunnan and Guizhou food in the comments down below. And until next time, until the next episode, I mean, I'm out. Peace.