More of Yangshou

The view from the restaurant where we had lunch after the rafting trip.

Before our cooking class, we went to the local market to buy the ingredients. This woman was picking out a chicken for her family's dinner. Talk about fresh!

Kelly, the chef, looks with approval at her appreciative students.

Now that is a perfect dumpling! Made by Chef Sara

Hill dropped us at the hotel after the rafting trip and Mary and I made a beeline for the shopping street, while Tom and Neil scouted for a restaurant for lunch. We met at the appointed hour and went to the restaurant they had picked which overlooked the river and according to the guys, was frequented only by Chinese and no Big Noses.

The food was excellent. We had Chinese eggplant with pork, one of my favorites and the best I’ve ever had, and local shrimp that were so tiny you could eat them shell and all. We also had more of the beer fish which is an elaborate fish dish cooked in beer and served in a beautiful skillet surrounded by vegetables and covered with a divine sauce. We were congratulating the guys on their fine choice when about mid-way through the meal, in walks a whole busload of American tourists. It was so funny, because if they had been there to start with we would have turned up our noses and refused to eat there. They were actually the only Americans we saw in Yangshou.

Hill was going to pick us up again at 3:30 for our scheduled cooking class, so we had to hurry. If you remember, we had a class with Miss Vy in Hoi An, Vietnam—a wonderfully classy affair with white linens and carefully arranged platters of raw ingredients and the beautiful Miss Vy to explain and illustrate the techniques.

This cooking class was no Miss Vy. It was a little rough around the edges, but still worthwhile if only for the cultural experience. First, we went to the local market with “Kelly,” our hostess/chef, to buy some of the food—a trip to the market seems to be part of every cooking class but it really is just to show us the market and to be able to point out some of the strange foods. We all love markets and roaming them has been a highlight of the various countries we have visited. This one, though, was a little too authentic even for my tastes. There were live animals in cages—chickens, rabbits, all varieties of fowl, snakes, frogs, wriggling baby eels, and some creatures unidentifiable. And the locals were shopping earnestly, picking up pheasants and chickens and hares to check for plumpness. Some of the things that were available I don’t even want to put in the blog because of innocent eyes. Suffice to say our worst fears about the eating habits of the Chinese were realized. Kelly just shrugged at our shock and talked about the Yin and Yang of eating.

After the market we went back to Cloud Nine, the restaurant that Kelly claimed had been featured on the Yan Can Cook TV show several months ago. I’ll have to check that. The actual class was an open air affair on the roof of the restaurant, where Kelly demonstrated the techniques while we dutifully copied her. We made eggplant with pork (we had it for lunch!), Szechuan chicken, and some really delicious dumplings that are now going to be a permanent part of my repertoire. I definitely had a knack with the dumplings!

I thought it was kind of fun, but Mary and Neil and Tom to some extent hated it and pronounced the food greasy. The alert among you will have noted that we had two big meals within about four hours. Not to worry, we are now world class, Olympic quality, championship eaters.