Cooking lesson

On our last day in Yangshuo we take our pick of the many classes that are available locally, such as Chinese painting, calligraphy and kung fu. Elliot and I choose a cookery class. There are lots of cookery schools in and around the town. Here is a poster for one school that made us laugh: Happy Cooking Women -  be a traditional wife or mother.

Cookery school poster

Cathy, our Chinese cook, collects us from our hotel and we walk through the town like ‘the girl with the golden goose’ collecting other western tourists on the way. She shows us the large daily indoor market first and she buys some of the ingredients we need and explains about some of the more unrecognisable foods.

Vegetables in the indoor market

Cathy buying aubergines

Lotus root and yams

As well as vegetables there is a section for fish and seafood, such as we have seen before in other markets. But here we also see live frogs in a bowls. They are inside small nets to keep them from jumping out.

 Frogs for sale

There is also a meat section which includes live chicken and rabbits etc. You can take these some to slaughter yourself, or someone in the market will do it for you. She warns us that in one corner of the meat section, just past the chickens, there is dog meat for sale. Anyone who wishes to avoid seeing this can take a detour. Cathy says she does not eat dog meat herself. She tells us that the dogs come from the countryside. It is more expensive than other meat and is eaten in the winter to warm the body.

Dog meat alley

Outside the market people also sell their produce on the pavement. These are people who can’t afford an inside stall, or who only have a few items for sale. They walk in from the countryside each day, carrying their produce in baskets on the end of a pole. They are not officially allowed to sell their goods like this and often get moved on by the police, or have their goods confiscated.

Villagers carrying market produce

We arrive at the cookery school which has a purpose-built room behind a restaurant in the main street. We are going to prepare and cook a Sichuan dish called Gong Bao Chicken; an aubergine dish and dumplings. We each have a bamboo chopping board, a large cleaver-type knife, a wok and burner and the ingredients we need. Cathy shows us each part of the process and the techniques we need to use and we copy her.

Food preparation

 I am unfamiliar with using such a big knife for preparing vegetables, but I am quickly converted. It is surprisingly efficient for fine tasks like dicing carrots; and smashes garlic and ginger in a very satisfying way. I am definitely getting one of these when I get home.

Me with a big chopper!

Next we learn how to prepare dumplings. We bought the dough ready-made at the market. The filling is made with pork mince, carrots and chives, which we chop to a fine paste. This goes onto the middle of the circle of dough and then closed up in various ways and shapes, rather like a pasty. Cathy is far more dextrous than us and some of our efforts are rather messy. The dumplings go into small bamboo steamers which are piled up and taken off to the kitchen to cook.

Dumplings ready to be steamed

We learn how to use the wok to make the chicken and aubergine dishes. We make it very hot until it smokes, before putting in the vegetable oil and then throw in the meat or vegetables, turning the heat down and up as necessary. It is all done very quickly, which is why it is necessary to have everything chopped up and prepared beforehand and the seasoning, such as soy and oyster sauce close to hand.

Wok skills: 'It's easy, do it like this.'

Gong Bao chicken

As each dish is completed we go down to the restaurant to eat it. We are all pretty pleased with the end results and Cathy gives us copies of the recipes, so I can cook it all again for you when I get home.

Lunch