Baba is a pastry pronounced in Yunnan dialect. To Yunnan people, Baba could be considered either as a snack or as a staple. In many places of Yunnan, people make Baba with varieties of raw materials, having created different flavorsome tastes.

For example, Tsam-pa, a pastry cake made of roasted Qingke barley flour, is a staple in Shangri-La. In Lijiang, local people have a tradition to eat Lijiang Baba. In Dali, local people have potato Baba, wheat Baba, buckwheat Baba, etc.

In Luxi, a small county located in south-eastern part of Yunnan province, the natives like to have buckwheat Baba. It is mainly made of glutinous rice flour and buckwheat flour, which is mixed with eggs, carrots, black mushrooms, and green peppers. The ready-made Luxi buckwheat Baba tastes a little bitter at the first try and then sweet. A unique faint scent will fill in the mouth.

Glutinous rice Baba, produced by Hani nationality in Hani mountainous areas, the southern part of Yunnan province, also tastes very special. As the Hani areas abound in glutinous rice, the natives will produce the glutinous rice Baba with original wooden or stone tools.

Jiuxi Baba, another kind of glutinous rice Baba, mostly eaten by people from Jiangchuan County in middle part of Yunnan province, is made in a new way. The natives firstly soak the glutinous rice for a day, and then pour the soaked rice into a stone mortar to grind. Until the rice become 80% broken during the grinding procession, the natives will add in some milled orange peels, ground-up Sichuan peppers, and some white sugar. After grinding all these materials that are mixed well, they usually forge the mixed paste in a shape of moon cake by hands.

When all the above procedures are finished, the natives will bring moon-cake-shaped fresh pastries over fire for baking. The baked Jiuxi Baba looks white outside and yellow inside and tastes soft, crispy, and a little sweet.