Yangshuo: Shampoodle

I just got back from getting a haircut and wash. Kelly got her hair washed as well, and Leo was there to take some pictures. I was holding Pippy since Kelly was getting her hair rinsed, and I thought I looked pretty ridiculous, getting a shampoo while holding a poodle. So I asked Leo to take a picture.

Yangshuo: Party Cruise

Four days ago I went on a walk up the hill behind the market - the entrance to the trail is just behind Leo and Kelly's house, and from there a staircase leads straight up the mountain. The climb took me about 25 minutes, and at the top there was a fence with a sign saying "Do Not Enter," but the gate was open, so I went in anyway. I saw nobody at all on the hike or at the top. The views of the city below were great.

Three nights ago I went on a party cruise on the Li River to celebrate Tim's birthday. He's an Australian who manages the bar that we always go to. I went with my friend Vivian and also met lots of local expats and teachers. The boat just went up and down the river a bit, and I couldn't see much of the scenery since it was dark. But we took lots of photos, including some that ended up with double images since so many flashes were going off at once.

Yangshuo: Breakfast

On most days, I go to the market early in the morning, so I get an early breakfast either before or after the shopping, and before the cooking classes begin.

 

The typical breakfast foods in Yangshuo are steamed buns and 'mee fan' (rice noodle soup). Both can be found everywhere, even in small villages.

 

There are three places I regularly visit for mee fan. Pam introduced me to the small place in Yima, a village between my house and Yangshuo. Their noodle soups cost 2.5 RMB (about 35 cents) and they are my favorite. Already cooked rice noodles are heated up in boiling water, then drained a placed in a bowl. Next comes chopped meat (I always get roast pork here, and this might be all they have), then pickled green beans and bamboo shoots, crunchy peanuts, a drizzle of a soy-based sauce, and a drizzle of another sauce (salt + oil?) and then a ladleful of broth (pork based). Everything is garnished with fresh chopped scallions, and at the place in Yima, they also put on some bits of fried crispy donut.

 

Every place has a different variation of this soup. At one place in the market, where Pam also brought me, they use soybeans instead of peanuts, and you get to choose your own condiments - they have about 6 kinds of pickles, plus chili flakes of various heat levels....you also get to spoon your own broth into your bowl, so if you want drier noodles, it's an option. Probably this could be done anywhere, but since I don't know how to say that in Chinese, getting to do it myself allows more flexibility.

 

Kelly and Leo prefer a different place in the market, where Kelly always gets soup with kidney and liver. I usually get roast pork here too, but one time I tried the beef tendon which was delicious as well. Both shops in the market have the option of rounded noodles or flat noodles, though it seems like in most places the round noodles are the default. The condiments at Kelly and Leo's favorite place are the best - they have a tomato based salsa (tastes a lot like Mexican salsa) that usually is gone by mid-morning, and they have very nice pickled cucumbers too. The payment system is different here too, since they are quite busy. You first buy a token from a lady outside the shop, then you give the token to the woman serving soup - so if you don't know the system, it can be confusing (luckily Kelly taught me how it works the first time I went, but I saw some Chinese tourists getting all confused).

There are tons of places to get noodle soups - probably over 100 places just in Yangshuo - so I have hardly tried any. But the spot in Yima is my favorite of all of the soup places I've tried - the balance of flavor in the soup is just right; not too salty, not too pickly, not too spicy and not too oily. I also really like their steamed buns, which are two for 1 yuan. In Yima they have three kinds of steamed buns - bao zi: red bean, black sesame and peanut. I like the red bean, but the black sesame and peanut ones are the best - there is only a small amount of filling, and they are mixed with a bit of sugar. I am usually there pretty early, so the buns are fresh and the filling is hot. Really good.

In the market and throughout town there are other kinds of buns - filled with black bean paste, red bean paste, sesame, peanut or pork. There are other types that look like cinnamon buns, but instead of cinnamon it's sweet soy sauce and scallions, so it's savory rather than sweet. Then there are plain buns (no filling), but I don't like these as much. In the market there is a place that sells miniature pork buns - the filling tastes like a dumpling filling (not roast pork - char siu - which is common in Cantonese steamed buns) - and these are four for 1 yuan.

So I frequently buy buns to eat for breakfast in addition to a noodle soup.

Last week, I discovered a new quasi-local breakfast, and I've had it three times now. It's a stand on my way to the market that is run by a guy from Guangdong Province. He has a special steamer to make rice noodle rolls that are a common Cantonese breakfast, although this contraption is a bit more primitive than the rice noodle steamers they had in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. A plate of these costs 3 yuan. To make the rice noodle rolls, they oil a metal tray and then spoon on some liquid rice milk. They top this with scallions, beat up egg, and a bit of lettuce, and then the tray is pushed into the steamer for about 2 minutes. When the tray is pulled out, the rice milk has turned into a white slippery noodle, and they scrape it off the tray and serve it with sweet soy sauce and a salsa made with fresh green chilies. A plate consists of two trayfuls of noodle, with 1 whole egg in the mix. Even though this breakfast isn't common here, it's still local prices and a nice break from noodle soup on days when I'm not in the mood.

So that is breakfast! I often drink coffee as well - the tourist places in town have good coffee, but we also make good coffee in the French press at the cooking schools, so I often just make it myself or have it with the women who work in the kitchen at the school. I once sat at a nice cafe by the river and had a fancy drip coffee for 28 yuan - it was a very nice cup of Yunnan coffee, but it was quite funny that it cost me 7 times more than what I spent on breakfast. More normal price for a good cup of coffee is 12 yuan at a cafe, where I often get to use the internet for free as well.

Hopefully I'll take some pictures of breakfast dishes soon. More soon!