Jianshui Barbecue (Jianshui chaokao 建水 烧烤)
Jianshui is a small town in southern Yunnan Province, China. It’s not glamorous as Yangshuo or Dali. There’s not much to do or see. It’s not famous for anything, I don’t think. Yet this is one of personal favourite places in China so far. People are laid back and kind, and they seem to familiar with how to communicate with people who don’t speak their language. And I met a good friend at the night market, who didn’t want us to pay for his noodle soup. Read the story of dollar guy and me from Jianshui.
From early evening, the whole city starts to smell like charcoal, and that’s the sign of Jianshui chaocao 建水 烧烤: Jianshui Barbecue. Little alleyways, like Hanlin Jie and Lin’an Lu are the best places to find a place for barbebue.
Stephen and I went out to get barbecue, especially to have bugs. There were so many different kinds of bugs on the table, some were I couldn’t even tell what they were. Of course, we had some vegetables and meats to go with them.
Be aware, Jianshui barbecue is very spicy. They use chilly pepper powder for everything. I’m sure the vegetable and meat taste great, but mostly we taste the spices. At later rounds, we told her to not put any spices for our food.
Bugs were, different, in one word. It tasted like the spices, but the texture was really exquisite. Dragonfly’s head was smooth and crunch. Hm, kind of weird thing to say, isn’t it? But that was the truth.
See this video below to see our adventure in Jianshui. You may neet a glass of beer for the courage, just like I did!
