This is the most famous dish in Yunnanese cuisine and is extremely popular with locals, especially in Kunming where there are numerous dedicated restaurants. The dish is similar to a hotpot or Swiss bouillon fondue, except that the meat stock (of chicken, pork and duck) is kept boiling hot by a thin layer of oil on top of the soup. The ingredients are added by the diner: wafer thin slices of huotui ham and fish; raw quails eggs; yan cai pickled vegetable; lotus root; lettuce leaf; mushrooms (wood ear and cauliflower fungus); xiang su deep fried battered pork fat slices; doufu pi tofu skin; and of course mixian rice noodles.
According to legend, the dish was created by a resourceful wife in the SE Yunnan town of Mengzi whose daily task it was to provide her scholar husband with a hot lunch. The problem was that he worked on an island in the middle of a distant lake, accessed by a long wooden bridge, and she was constantly frustrated by his complaints about cold food. One day she accidently discovered the heat-retentive properties of soup topped by a layer of oil – and the rest is history!
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