Cooking and Kayaking in Yangshou

Today I woke up refreshed and excited; not only did I manage to catch up on some sleep but it was time for my next cooking class. I love food and I love cooking so I unsurprisingly love a cooking class. It starts with us being driven to a local market to meet our instructor. Tom, Erika and I are joined by two others who we find out later are at the end of their trip in China, they have loved it. As a group we walk around the market taking in all the sight and sounds – some more surprising than others. You have your usual fruit and veg stalls but towards the end we get to the fish stalls; here I see sights that for China are nothing special but for me rather different: tanks full of crabs, eels, fish and a variety of different clams, molluscs and other sea food – all alive, sold to butchered at home. Then venturing deeper still we see sights that many wouldn’t want to see. Along side the pork and beef in the butcher shops is rabbit, cat and dog. Now I am not one to judge and have no issue with the different food cultures that countries have but I have to admit the idea of cat and dog does feel a little weird, although I have eaten and very much enjoy rabbit.

I have yet to try either cat or dog.

After the market we are driven to the cooking school slightly out of town. The group walk in and are taken into the kitchen. We each have out own station. In front of us is a gas hob on top of which sits a wok, a chopping board and cleaver as well as an assortment of sauces, oils and some fresh ingredients we didn’t buy in the market. In the market the group got some choice over what we could cook – two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. I personally jumped at the opportunity to learn to make dumplings properly, I usually buy mine frozen, so that was one of the vegetable dishes down. The other Tom like the sound of noodles, I did too, it was the most filling of the options given, so that was the second vegetable dish chosen. For meat the group chose sweet and sour pork as well as beef and mushroom. Well, in fact, we said sweet and sour chicken but once at the butchers our teacher ordered a nice slab of pork, which, to be honest, I was rather happy about, do love some pork.

Yangshou Fruit & Veg stalls

We started by cooking the sweet and sour pork. It was fun although cutting wafer thin slices of pork with a massive cleaver is not something I excelled at. The dish turned out great, although I have to admit the sweet and sour I have had in China so far is essentially just ketchup with a little wine vinegar mixed in; so all a little sweet. These were paired with the dumplings that although we prepped before the pork, were taken away to another kitchen to be steamed. Once the group had eaten our pork and dumplings with some rice, we were back in the kitchen to cook the noodles and then beef. I really enjoyed both these dishes. I have found Chinese food to never have enough vegetables and/or meat in it, in comparison to the levels of carbs, usually noodles or rice, so it was nice to have control over this. I loaded my beef up with mushrooms. After the group had finished all the cooking and more importantly eating, we unanimously agreed it was the best meal we have had in China so far. Although that is probably just because we enjoyed cooking it so much. I’m not sure it was the best tasting on an objective level!

After the cooking Erika, Tom and I were dropped back at our hostel with just enough time to change before we headed out for our second activity of the day. Kayaking. For this activity Ping was joining us, unlike with the cooking this morning. The group was picked up and driven to the Li river where we put on our life jackets and loaded our kayaks onto a bamboo boat to be taken up stream. The plan today is not a race and no rapids, just a gentle, calm drift down current taking in the beautiful scenery around. It does not disappoint; once in our kayaks we take off, gently making our way down river. The group take turns taking photos of each other as we gently row our way past rolling hills, trees and greenery as far as the eye can see, as well as the occasional fisherman on the bank. The trip ends with us passing our starting point to row under a nearby bridge. We do a turn around the bridge and row up stream back to the dock and all somewhat struggle to get out of the kayaks and back on to dry land.

Cooking – Chinese style
(click on the top right hand icon)

Once back at the hostel we shower and change before heading out for dinner. Ping shows around some of the streets of Yangshou, a beautiful town. It is getting busy; tomorrow is the start of the mid-autumn holiday, a rather large eight day national holiday in China and Yangshou is a very popular holiday destination we are learning. Working our way through crowded street with bright lights, bustling bars and restaurants, street entertainers and vendors, we are taken by Ping to a local restaurant to try an array of foods. It is a nice meal and after the other Tom and I decide to go for a drink. Ping has suggested a roof top bar but it takes us a while to find it, such a long time that we stop and have a drink somewhere else first. Lucky we did as when we do find it at 7:45pm it is closed, it doesn’t open until 8. So we decide to go for wander finding a place that does a local beer for the equivalent of £1.20 at the edge of the market. Once we’ve had our second drink of the evening we head back to Mojo at 8:30 to find it open but empty. It remains that way until roughly 10pm – I am starting to realise bars here aren’t really a thing until after 10. Anyway we end up running into some other English people who are here to study, and stay up later than we should. The night ends with us all in a Maccies for a drunken bite to eat before bed.