(Anhui-style pork belly hot pot)
I didn’t visit Huangshan, China’s famous Yellow Mountain range, for the food. Jacob wanted to ride in the annual mountain bike festival and I needed to see nature again. (Fellow expats know that Chinese cities can be energy-drainers.) But food, or hints of it, weren’t hard to find.
I tried hard to find a narrative thread for this post, but decided that the photos themselves do a much better job of showing the area.
Take, for example, this sea of yellow. Isn’t this a pretty backdrop for thigh-burning, adrenaline-fueled exercise? We came at the optimal time to find that Yellow Mountain was, in fact, surrounded by lots and lots of yellow. What are these plants and why are they everywhere, from the sides of mountains to people’s from yards? Rapeseed. I would not be surprised if China’s entire supply of rapeseed oil came from the Huangshan area.
I didn’t compete in the mountain bike race, but I did have fun photographing activities by the finish line. Specifically, villagers sitting on plastic stools roasting chicken. I normally don’t associate China with good roast chicken because of the lack of ovens in city kitchens; in the countryside a fire is all you need.
In the Huangshan area there are also a handful of picturesque villages like Hongcun, where tons of tourists pass through but real villagers also live. It’s easy to forget that beyond China’s modernish cities people still grow their own vegetables and cook in kitchens such as these.
When you end up in a restaurant many kilometers away from anything except rapeseed fields, trust the kitchen to prepare whatever’s fresh. That’s how we ended up with the nice pork belly casserole dish in the first photo, which came with its own hot pot burner. I didn’t like the fennel in these following spring rolls, but the bean curd skin was crispiest I had ever tasted.
And really, how can you say no to cycling on such a postcard-worthy bridge?
From Shanghai, you can reach Huangshan by plane (1 hour, 560 rmb or so), by train (12 hours, 175 rmb for hard sleeper), or bus (5 hours, 130 rmb). Yes, you read that correctly: 12 hours for train and 5 hours by bus. However, I still preferred the train; this particular bus was was run down, cramped, and could face enough traffic on weekdays to double your journey.
Your pictures are beautiful, they make me really want to go back to China. I love that you can get tasty, interesting and fresh food in the middle of nowhere.
Oh nooooo. I am on a diet as of tonight but a friend just dropped off ingredients I couldn’t get here like Sichuan peppercorns and other goodies and I found your website! I’ve found so many recipes here I want to make and I love noodles. eeek
Yo, I am enjoying those pictures of food!
Hek
Diana, thanks for the lovely photos! The spring rolls look incredibly delicious. I wish I’d travelled more when I lived in Beijing…
I admit I’m a terrible gardener, but could those possibly be wild mustard plants? In the hills of N. California, where I am, you’ll often see fields of yellow blooms in spring. I know for sure those are wild mustard plants. With yours, I’ll let the more astude plant experts weigh in. ;)
Carolyn – Research online is a bit fuzzy, but it seems like rapeseed and wild mustard are in the same plant family. I just know that when I was in Huangshan all the locals and fellow travelers were commenting on them as rapeseed plants, used mainly for cooking oil. And a German guy in the group was saying how the town reminded him of home, where the fields look exactly like this every spring and almost all the plants go toward biodiesel.