Kunming Food
Food in Yunnan, as everywhere in China, is as varied as the local ingredients. Yunnan's diverse environment, from mountains in the west to subtropical forests in the south inspires an extremely palatable, although strange range of dishes. True to Chinese style, the thousands of varieties of plants and animals are well represented in cooking.
Cross-the-bridge noodles (Guoqiao Mixian) are prepared at the table by adding raw ingredients into a hot broth. The ingredients in the soup are seemingly unlimited, except by what your palate can handle. These include an assortment of meats, mushrooms, tofu (also available in many varieties, including dry tofu, tofu strips, and tofu skin to name a few), eggs, cheese, potatoes, pumpkins, melons and green vegetables. The story of the soup is famous-a woman preparing food for her scholar-husband realized that if she put a thin layer of oil on top of the broth and carried the raw ingredients separately, the hot broth would cook the food once she arrived at her husband's study-providing him a hot meal.
