The Cooking School

The best thing I did in Yangshuo was attend a Chinese cooking school located in an old farmhouse out in the countryside. The head chef was Chinese, but had studied in Australia for a few years, so her English was quite good. After a tour of the local produce and poultry market we were driven to the farmhouse where everything was prepared, right down to the ingredients and our own wok.

The market was a hoot, not that I hadn’t stumbled across one of these large, dark, teaming markets before, but this time I had a guide. She pointed out what this and that odd vegetable was (lettuce stock and bamboo beans), bought some ingredients for our meal including a live fish (well it was, until they diced it up before our eyes… after selecting it the butcher calmly stood there with a fish in a plastic bag flapping crazily while he haggled over the price!). From there we drove the 5 miles outside town to the farmhouse.

We made 5 dishes – steamed stuffed vegetables, garlic fried greens, eggplant Yangshuo style, chicken with cashew and beer fish (a local specialty). In addition to learning how to prepare all these dishes, we had a small feast after class to sample the fruits of our labors. As it turns out, I had known nothing about Chinese cooking – all my stir fries were basically Mexican food with soy sauce (and I think I just insulted Mexican food). The true secret appears to be oyster sauce, because we used it in basically every dish. What is the best news? I can cook Chinese food now! I’ve been eating homemade Chinese food all week since I got back and it’s delicious!!!