Heshun Ancient Town

Mr. Li Genyuan, the founder of the Republic of China, admired in the poem of “the place surpasses little Suzhou and Hangzhou absolutely at the foot of Wanjia Slope with boundless and indistinct far mountains and melodious near water”. This is not the Yangtze River Delta, but a small town in extreme edge of Yunnan – Heshun of Tengchong.

Heshun Town, situated in 4 kilometers away from the southwest of Tengchong County, was called as “Yangwen Pier” in ancient times. It changed the name as “Heshun” because the river passes through the village. Then it is called as Heshun Village with elegance by taking the meaning of “harmonious soldier and favorable public”. Now it, called as Heshun Town, has population of more than 6,000 while it is the famous hometown of overseas Chinese in Yunnan because there are more than 12,000 natives of Heshun living abroad.

Delicious food in the quiet and beautiful place

Food in Heshun Ancient Town is not like delicacy in ordinary restaurants, in which they do not know plate placing and additive, there only have coarse but indeed delicious experience with original taste and flavor. What is called that know yourself and know your enemy, you will win every war. You have to know what to eat and how to eat before you eat more efficiently with empty belly!

Dajiujia (fried rice-flour cake)

According to the legend, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and other Daxi Armies supported Yongli Emperor, Zhu Youlang, and moved to Kunming in 1656 after the end of the Ming Dynasty. Two years later, the Qing Army divided into three routes to enter into Yunnan and Wu Sangui led the army to approach Kunming, so Yongli Emperor and General Li and Liu led the army to go west. When they arrived at Tengchong, less food has endangered life for several times, the ordinary people of Tengchong cooked the fried rice-flour cake to rescue them. Yongli Emperor amazed that it indeed saved him from an awkward situation. Therefore, the fried rice-flour cake in Tengchong is called as “Dajiujia”.

Food that can please the Emperor is absolutely remarkable. Food is quite delicious with fresh and salty ham and sausage, clear and tasty vegetables and soft and tough rice-flour cake through authentic seasoning and skilled cooking.

Thin pea powder

Cooking method: wear the pea into thick liquid, cook into paste with boiled water and inject caraway, chili oil, juice of bean curd in spiced sauce, amomum tsaoko oil, sesame oil, pepper oil and other seasoning. The taste is sour and spicy, thick and smooth. It has another flavor as injecting into flour cake and fried bread stick.

Eating thin pea powder right now after cooked. It can be mixed with rice noodles and rice-flour cake thread as eating, but it needs to put seasoning at last that is different with the thin pea powder with fried bread stick. The seasoning contains fresh red chili oil, snow-white chopped green onion, yellowy ginger juice, white mashed garlic, monosidum glutamate, soy sauce and sesame oil. 

Fried pork with palm fruit

Palm is generally divided into two kinds, one kind is bitter palm and the other one is sweet palm. Palm that we often see is generally bitter palm and cannot eat. The edible palm is the sweet palm (actually, the taste is still bitter). Pick the palm fruit before no flowering and fry with carrot and fresh sliced meat.

Fry the palm fruit (the fruit of palm) with carrot and fresh sliced meat. The dish with eye-catching color and overflowing aroma is a bit bitter at the first taste, but later the sweet can be felt in bitter. In Tengchong, palm fruit is also named “son-in-law dish” for using to test son-in-law’s ability of bearing hardships and standing hard work. 

Tuguozi 

It is also called as Datuanyuan. Fresh bone soup is used as soup base, associated with green vegetables, dasheen and yellow bamboo shoot, etc. Sliced pigskins are fried and soaked in cold water, putting a circle in the pot. Then, local hot pot characterized by flavour and color is served.

Tengchong Hot Pot uses earthen pot made by Manyi Village in suburbs of Tengchong rather than metal pot. Being particular about simmering with slow fire, Tengchong Hot Pot has a taste of fresh, sweet and mild. Either in the wild or at home, people can sit around the hot pot and enjoy delicacy accompanying happy laughter and cheerful voices, just like the hot pot effervescing above the oven. 

Tanzi Chicken 

Undoubtedly, Tanzi Chicken is a special dish. It originates from the late Ming Dynasty and thrives the early Qing Dynasty. In unique porcelain jar (or special marmite), mysterious Chinese herbs integrate with local food ingredients through cooking methods of braising—Tanzi Chicken (due to difficult cooking methods, it is not common even in Tengchong). 

Jar must be sealed closely and ste