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Spring Festival 春节 bounty：A generous friend brought bought me back a big piece of slow-cured mountain ham from his village up in Zhaotong Prefecture 昭通州 and I asked about some of the favorite ways they used it back home. Today's dish headed the short list. Use the tender shoots of the garlic plant to make a simple stir-fry. I gave it a try and it turned out first rate. The complex aged ham was offset by the slightly sweet garlicky flavor of the tender spring vegetable. Let me show you how to do it yourself. (Please click the photos to enlarge them.) Lately these garlic stems been abundant and inexpensive at my local wet market. The ones I got cost 4 Yuan for a big bundle, and the sign says they were grown locally. This is another of those vegetables I'd never seen until moving to China. My background reading says they are sometimes called "garlic bolts" or "garlic scapes" in the west, though I admit to never having heard either of those odd names. Farmers cut them off so that the (underground) garlic bulb will grow larger. In any case Chinese love them and call them suantai 蒜苔。They are at their best right now. Later in the full heat of summer they become tough and somewhat woody; now they are juicy and tender. I bought one large bundle, washed them and cut them into pieces between two and three inches long. Trimmed and discarded a few brown tips. You can see the unopened garlic flowers near the growing end of most stems. (Yes, you eat that part too.) They have a pleasant garlicky flavor without any of that garlic bulb heat and bite. Almost sweet, though not quite. Texture is close to that of young asparagus. Washed and then cut a couple of small red bell peppers 红甜椒 into thin slivers (removing the stem and the seeds.) 洗净、去蒂、去籽、切丝。 Rinsed off a piece of ham and carefully cut it into very thin slices. Leave the fat, it adds to the flavor. (Sharp knife is essential. My trusty Hong Kong caidao 菜刀 did not let me down.) This ham was two years old; rich, complex flavor. The pigs from which it came are about half wild, roaming large pastures instead of being confined to small pens. Elevation 3,000 meters. Yunnan's most famous ham comes from Xuanwei 宣威, in Qujing 曲靖, a bit south of Zhaotong 昭通。It is similar in character to an Italian Parma ham. Smack a large spring onion 大葱 with the side of the blade to crush it and flatten it somewhat, then slice it thin. Partly flattening it like that makes the volatile aromatics release easier when it hits the heat. Boil a small pot of water and drop the garlic stems into it. When the water returns to a boil, scoop them out and drain them well 沥干水。You only want to blanch 焯 them; be careful not to overdo it. These were so tender I actually could have omitted that step. Readied my soy sauce 生抽 and some cooking wine 料酒。Put a teaspoon of corn starch into a rice bowl along with a tablespoon or two of tap water, mixing them together to make 水淀粉。Will use this in the last step to thicken the sauce and bind the various flavors. A little oil swirled around in the bottom of my hot wok to coat. Full flame, almost making it smoke. Add the ham, stir it around to render some of its fat. Quickly add the red peppers and spring onion, stirring constantly. Then in go the blanched garlic stems. Continue to stir fry 翻炒 briskly and shake the wok at the same time to keep things from sticking and burning. I've turned the heat to medium, but the steel of the wok is still plenty hot. It smells real good by now. Add about a tablespoon of soy sauce and the same amount of cooking wine. No salt or MSG needed. When the vegetables are just beginning to take on a golden color, add the corn starch solution and stir a few seconds more. The entire cooking time was only a minute or two: fast and hot is the ticket for this. You are done. Serve it up. Sip a glass of white wine. The vegetables are tender, but have retained their crunch. Eat it with steamed rice and a simple clear vegetable soup to make a light warm-weather meal. If you can locate the ingredients, give it a whirl. A farmers market would be the place to look for these garlic stems. I've seen recipes which use processed ham links 火腿肠 and young asparagus 芦笋。Not quite the same, but probably still good.

Now is the time for cauliflower: it's at its best in local markets. We find two kinds at the wet market near my house, one being the traditional tight head of cauliflower such as is popular in the west, and an organic 有机 variety which has longer-stalked, gangly, looser florets. This latter kind has more flavor, and it's the one I usually buy. It's the one I used today. Here's what they look like. (You can click the photos to enlarge them.) Dry frying or 干煸 (gan bian) is a cooking process popular in the southwest of China: Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. The idea is to cook a mild vegetable with a minimum of extra moisture so as to concentrate the vegetable's flavor. 干煸花菜 (gan bian huacai) is popular here and you can find it in most restaurants, large and small, at this time of year. If you like Sichuan food 川菜, you are probably familiar with dry-fried green beans 干煸四季豆 (gan bian siji dou); they are a staple menu item, both here in China and overseas in the western world. It's a dish that has been successfully exported. I'll show you a straight-forward way to make this nice cauliflower dish at home. Doesn't take much time; requires no fancy tools. Today I was making it for one, and I used about a third of a head of organic cauliflower, the kind with the longer, somewhat spindly florets. Use your fingers to tear it into shreds. Large pieces of stalk should be cut into thin pieces. If you are using western cauliflower, with the bigger florets, cut it up into thin slivers. The idea behind this is to allow it to cook fast with dry stove-top heat. Thick pieces would require a different cooking method to become tender. Soak these cauliflower pieces in dilute salt water for about 20 minutes. (I used a scant teaspoon of salt in nearly a quart of water.) While it is soaking, prep the other ingredients. Many Chinese recipes call for using fat pork belly meat 五花肉 (wuhua rou) sliced thin. Others call for sausage. Today I used Yunnan slow-cured ham from Xuanwei county, in the NE mountains of the province. 宣威火腿。Sliced it thin, alongside some minced ginger 老姜 and garlic 大蒜。Tore up two or three dry red chili peppers 干辣椒 and sprinkled out a half teaspoon of cumin seeds 孜然。I had some tasty cherry tomatoes 小番茄 in a basket on the window ledge, and I sliced a few of those. Since the quantities were small, I used a non-stick saute pan today 不粘平底锅, but I could just as well have used a wok 炒锅。Quick fried the garlic, ginger, peppers and ham slivers over medium heat until they began releasing their aroma 去香味。Careful not to burn the garlic; only takes 20 or 30 seconds. Drain the cauliflower and blot it dry, then add it to the spices in your skillet. Stir it with a flipping motion 翻炒 of your spatula or wok tool 锅铲 keeping the heat between medium and high. When the cauliflower begins to take on a bit of golden color 变金黄, add the small tomatoes. At this point you could also add some fresh hot green peppers 青辣椒 for more heat, or sliced spring onions 大葱 for greater complexity. Reduce the heat to medium now and continue stirring until the cauliflower is tender-crunchy and the tomatoes have lost most of their moisture (about 5 minutes.) Add a sprinkle of salt and another of sugar. (Remember that the ham has some salt, best not use too much extra.) Add a teaspoon or so of light soy sauce 生抽 and another of dark aged vinegar 老陈醋。Don't be tempted to add water to make a gravy, as you might if this were a standard stir-fry. You want all the flavors to be absorbed into the vegetable as it cooks. It's ready when the stalks yield easily to being pinched with chopsticks. Plate it up 装盘 and dig in 动筷子。This can be served with rice as a side dish in a larger meal. If you prefer a vegetarian version, just leave out the meat. Consider a few wild mushrooms in its place. The finished product!

I went to a working lunch a couple weeks ago at a respected restaurant in an exclusive conference center out near Dian Lake. It was sponsored by a hospital group with which I'm consulting part time. About a dozen people were present and it didn't take long for the conversation to shift to the always-interesting topic of "Spring Food." China eats by seasons as well as by regions. Most of you probably knew that. But it's not just a little bit; it's fairly extreme. Some of this is simply dictated by what's available when, but lots is also dictated by what is considered beneficial for health as the body is going through this particular stage of its annual changes. What promotes qi when emerging from winter, for example, and what helps maintain the proper balance between wet and dry, internal heat and internal cold? Such subjects are not considered esoteric here, and are things every boy or girl grows up understanding while still at grandmother's knee. The consensus of our group of knowledgeable locals was that the absolute glory of this time of year is wild vegetables. Things that don't thrive in cultivation and must be harvested by hand up on the side of the mountain. Under their guidance, we ordered several such items and my curiosity was piqued about several more. Here's a quick look into that world: Yunnan's wild spring vegetable world. Remember -- You can click the photos to enlarge them. Many wild vegetables are served with eggs. The dish above left is one of those. The small golden flowers are called 金花，logically enough, and are cooked tender and moist with their supporting green tips, resulting in a thin griddle cake, or 煎饼 of the type we have encountered before. What makes them great is that their taste is so fresh, so pleasant, so mild. The eggs let them shine. The bamboo shoots on the above right are a special kind found only in spring. Their distinguishing characteristic is that they are ever so slightly sweet. Being tender, all they require is a quick stir fry, here presented with red and green peppers. I often make them at home. The lady at my neighborhood wet market, above left, peels the tough outer leaves after weighing your purchase. Easy to fix, they are one of my "go to" meals at this time of year. One can also buy baby bamboo shoots, already peeled, that are usually sold as 春笋, sometimes a 竹呀 (bamboo sprouts.) I like these too and have posted recipes for them here in the past. You can see them above right. Our meal included a spicy, vinegary salad with an unusual earthy kick. It was made from the leaves of a root vegetable that's popular in Yunnan, namely the 折耳根。It has no translation, pronounced "zhe er gen" and I'd be surprised if it's found in the west. It's not even popular in other distant parts of China. The roots are like "underground vines" and can be found year round here, but the leaves are at their best now, tender and "peppery." I bought some at the market this morning, shown above right. Plan to prepare them at home tonight. Adding a spoon or two of fermented beans 豆豉 rounds out their taste. They served a large basin of small fish that were freshly caught an hour before in the nearby lake that we could see from the window. They were served in a spicy sauce, one to each diner, and were considered a special spring treat because each fish was filled with roe. The roe had been cooked in place. Interesting flavor and texture. I had not had it before. The lunch featured lots of vegetables, emphasizing what was best right then, going light on meat. These pictured above right are related to asparagus. Lightly steamed and served with a sauce, ready to be mixed at the table. The sauce had fire and a bite. Yunnan does love its spices. The lunch left an impression and I've been trying to make a lot of the same things to enjoy at home. When I went to the wet market this morning, I was bowled over by a huge assortment of edible flowers and edible ferns. Some I've made at home in years past, but others are still a mystery. Those give me something to which to look forward in days to come. Lady above left, in ethnic garb, has 3 or 4 kinds of flowers displayed as well as lots of young okra, popular here just now as 黄蜀葵。It's usually fried, sometimes pickled and served as a salad. 凉拌。Pretty sure you can make out the red roses, lower left in the frame. The fiddlehead ferns on the basket on the right above are sold as 蕨菜。 Often they are served scrambled with eggs. I bought a bunch of the fresh, crimson tipped 香椿 (aka "Chinese toon") pictured here to the left, and plan to make it tomorrow. They require a little knack, and if not done right can taste too strong to be pleasant. It's actually the young tip of a tree branch, the tree from the mahogany family, and it occupies an interesting niche partway between delicacy and survival fare. But I've made them in past springs and enjoyed them. Pretty sure I've posted some recipes here. Will go back and check later. I bought three of these small tropical pineapples for 10 Yuan. Some are brought up from Vietnam, but I understood her to say these were from Xishuangbanna, in the deep south of Yunnan. The seller will cut them into bite sized pieces, but I usually do that at home one at a time so they keep longer. I passed on the cherries this morning, though I bought some last week. Tasty. These are the small tart Yunnan cherries that become available in the middle of March every year. You recall that our cherry trees bloom in February, much earlier than those revered in the Cherry Blossom Festivals of Japan. No trip to the market would be complete without stopping off at the food stalls for a nice hot bowl of something or other local and delicious. Today I opted for won ton in a spicy red sauce 红汤馄饨 。Sometimes instead I have a bowl of 豆花米线，rice noodles with soft tofu "flowers," equally good for a Saturday snack. Both can be made at home, of course, but they are 6 or 8 Yuan very well spent in my estimation, just to avoid all the fuss and give the morning a "holiday" feel.

Kimchi is more than a staple in Korea: it's a national passion. It's nearly a religion. Not sure I've ever had a meal anywhere on the peninsula which didn't include it, regardless of the time of day. But any Chinese north-easterner 东北人 will be quick to remind you that it was invented in China and only later exported or stolen. A debate of that subject draws more heat and patriotic emotion than a discussion of nuclear weapons. Let me just say that pickled, fermented and salted vegetables are extremely popular here in Kunming, regardless of their origins. These are typically made from Napa-type cabbage and slivers of large white daikon radish, but hundreds of variations exist. Even a trip to the grocery store (below left) shows an ample selection, and my local wet market has even more (below right.) Note that all of these are spicy, to some degree or other. If you have a strong preference for bland 清淡 food, this glorious stuff is not for you. You can click the photos to enlarge them. And the Chinese equivalent of kimchi, usually called 泡菜 or 腌菜 or 酸菜, makes up into a killer fried rice. You can find it on the menu of even the most humble small eateries, and it's a snap to make at home. Let me show you how it worked out tonight as a tasty one-dish meal. I bought some robust cured beef 牛肉干吧 at the stand where they use lean mountain cattle from Yunnan's northeast Zhaotong Prefecture 着通州。It comes in large pieces of hind leg that are hanging in the shade. The helpful young guy cuts it into thin slices for you 切片。I bought 20 Yuan worth, pictured here below right, which was enough for two meals. It's more expensive than pork. When I got ready to use it, I cut it up into very thin slivers and marinated them in corn starch 淀粉 and yellow cooking wine 黄酒 for 20 or 30 minutes. I prep the meat first and let it stand while I'm washing and cutting up the vegetables. This "velveting" process makes the meat more tender; allows you to use a shorter cooking time. Today I used some small cherry tomatoes, ripe on the vine, and some freshly-cut spring corn. Both have a subtle sweet flavor that makes a nice contrast with the other, more forward ingredients. The pickled, salted vegetables are the star of this show. The ones I bought today were made from mustard greens. Yesterday I made the mistake of using an extremely hot type made with lots of pickled peppers. That didn't work out, set fire to my mouth, and today I knew better. Here below is the more temperate kind that I bought from the same seller's wife. She is usually more helpful, giving me recommendations and tastes of this or that, but she was off on my first shopping trip. The devil is often in the details of these things and many recipes I found on the Chinese internet said things like "Use enough, but be careful to not use too much." Well thanks many times over for that sagacious tip. The result of my own experimentation over the years and deep discussions with knowledgeable friends has resulted in this secret formula: One heaping tablespoon of cut up 腌菜 pickled vegetables for each small bowl of rice used. (The small, individual rice bowl 饭碗 is an accepted unit of measure.) Today I was using three bowls of left-over rice, hence three generous tablespoons of finely chopped greens. Obviously this is not ironclad, and will need to be adjusted to suit your taste buds. But at least it gives you a starting point. Fried rice works best with left-over rice, some that has spent a night or two in your fridge (not a week or two.) It dries out a little and is less likely to stick together. It still needs to be fluffed up with chopsticks or even with your dampened fingers before using. Everything is assembled now, as seen below, ready to rock and roll. Fire up the wok. Add a small amount of oil after it's hot. Use high heat: after all the name of this game is "fried rice," not "stewed rice." A timid, low flame results in an unpleasant mush. Start with the meat. Quickly stir fry, until it just begins to brown. This only takes 30 or 45 seconds. Scoop it out and set it aside. One can make a a vegetarian version of this dish by substituting firm tofu. Smoked tofu strips work especially well. Start with the corn and tomatoes. Stir them fast until they begin to release some aroma and then add the preserved vegetables. Work quickly; this is not the time to walk away and check your phone for messages. When these ingredients have mixed well and the corn has begun to develop a slight surface caramel color, add back the meat, continuing to flip everything with flourish and vigor 翻炒。Try your best to not let things stick to the bottom of the wok. You would like to avoid a burned flavor. Now it's time for the rice. Notice that it's not just one large chunk. Break it up even more with your spatula 锅铲 using the edge and the flat part alternately. Work quickly, as mentioned before. Notice that there is lots of rice, relative to the added ingredients. If you put in chicken and ham and left-over shrimp and peas and mushrooms and carrots and celery and so on, you will wind up with a mess. Please exercise some restraint, hold those creative urges in check, and make a different stir fry with a selection from those other goodies tomorrow. You may have noticed no mention of adding salt, pepper, or any other seasonings. That wasn't an oversight: this dish doesn't need them. The meat 干吧 and the pickled greens 腌菜 supply all that is needed. No soy sauce, etc. Serve it up and eat it while warm. A fried rice dish like this can serve as a one-dish meal or you can supplement it with a soup or a salad. I followed mine tonight with some sweet freshly-cut pineapple, brought up from Xishuangbanna 西双版纳傣族自治州 in the very south of the province. Pro tip: It's OK to eat fried rice 炒饭 with a spoon. Look around next time you are in a small lunch room off on a side street in whatever province, all across China. A few people are doing it with chopsticks, but most efficiency-minded Chinese have picked up a spoon. Even though this tasted real good, I might have to relinquish my Michelin star because the rice isn't all individual grains. Perfect fried rice has no clumps at all, not even small ones. Never mind that. Give it a try. It's easy to find Korean kimchi in refrigerated packages all over the world, and it works very well, even without being Chinese.

A dear friend went home for Hani New Year 哈尼族过年 recently and returned with a gift of some specialty meat from her village. It's a prime cut of pork belly 五花肉 that is first marinated or brined 腌制, then slow smoked over low coals, followed by a quick whiff of evergreen cypress 柏树。Finally, it's hung outside in the shade for a week or two and rubbed daily with various spices, sort of kneading them into the meat. Each part of the process must be adjusted for weather and other natural factors. So much flavor is packed in by this intricate process, that it's best when cooked simply. Goes by the name of 烟熏肉 or 烟熏腊肉, with 烟 and 熏 both meaning smoked. It was made from my friend's family "New Year's pig," the animal which had been carefully raised for most of the year with this special occasion in mind. Here's how I prepared for supper it today, at home in Kunming. After first washing under running water, it should be briefly blanched 焯。I put into boiling water, then turned off the flame after it returned to a boil, and left it 5 or 6 minutes. Lifted it out 捞出来 and set it aside to cool and dry 一旁待用。 Meanwhile I prepped the vegetables, a simple but flavorful combination of garlic greens 蒜苗, spring onions 大葱，and peppers 请教/红椒。These long green peppers have a little bit of heat, but nothing really challenging. I remove the white pith and some of the seeds. Sliced the meat thin after it was cool enough to handle. Got everything ready. When my rice cooker signaled that it was done, I fried the meat fast 翻炒 in very little oil. The meat itself releases some fat as it cooks. When it has turned a deep golden color, scoop it out and save it off to the side 备用。 Even though we often wipe out the wok after precooking 煸炒 the meat, this time that would be a felony crime. The oil that is left has way too much flavor to discard. We use it to stir-fry the vegetables, adding them in an appropriate cooking order. Ones that take longest to cook, such as the peppers, go in first, followed by the garlic greens and finally the spring onion. Last of all, add back the meat. I added a dash (about a quarter teaspoon) of MSG 少许味精, but you can omit it if you prefer. No salt needed most of the time. Stir in a small amount of corn starch slurry 水淀粉 as a binder and agitate the wok slowly another half minute or so. (I used 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch and a tablespoon of water.) Serve it up 装盘 beside bowls of steamed rice 米饭。Go right ahead and 动筷子，no need to stand on ceremony. It's a robust and hearty dish which goes well with 白酒。(And no, Dorothy, that does not translate as "white wine.")

Since I am fortunate enough to be able to easily put my hands on some of China's best tofu and some of China's best ham, it would be a pity not to combine them into a simple main dish from time to time. The premium Yunnan tofu I'm bragging about is from Shiping Town 石屏县城 in Honghe Prefecture 红河州 to the south of Kunming, and this fine Yunnan ham is from Xuanwei 宣威 in Qujing Prefecture 曲靖 to the northeast. I buy them both fresh by weight at my local wet market. Bear in mind that wherever you are, it's easy enough to substitute a local tofu and a local ham for these particular specialty items. The results can still be tasty and the cooking technique is the same. Here's how I did it today. Assemble the ingredients. Only used about half of this small block of dark-cured ham. Three or four dried chili peppers 干辣椒 for a little heat. This isn't a fussy recipe with critical weights or measures; a little more or less of any single item won't much matter. You can adjust it to taste. I've made it many times and never had it fail. Smash the big spring onion 大葱 with the edge of your knife 菜刀 to partially flatten it out and release more of the aroma and flavor. Then slice it thin on a bias, with the knife blade almost parallel with the cutting board. Slice a little bit of ham into very thin slivers. Use a just-sharpened knife and try to make them nearly transparent. Roughly dice one fresh tomato. The one I used here is from a batch that I knew to have slightly tough skin, so I quickly dunked it in boiling water and slipped the skin off before cutting it up. Put one large tablespoon of oyster sauce 耗油 together with one large tablespoon of catsup 番茄酱 in a small bowl and mix in two or three tablespoons of water, making a slurry. Cut the tofu sheets into rectangles of a size that will later be easy to grasp with chopsticks at the table. Brown them slightly over low to medium heat in a non-stick pan with a little bit of oil. When they are golden on both sides, take them out and reserve them nearby. Now add the ham, roughly-torn chili pods, and spring onions into the pan and lightly saute them. Add the tomatoes and the sauce, stir it up, and then add back the tofu. Heat through to combine flavors and serve. Since the ham, the oyster sauce and the catsup all have some salt, you won't need to add any extra. This tasty dish only takes 10 or 15 minutes from start to finish and doesn't require much in the way of special equipment or cleanup. Give it a try one day when you aren't sure what to cook for supper. Your expedition into the flavors of Yunnan will be amply rewarded.