Jinghong, a tropical town where you can eat delicious food.

When the Lancang River flows through Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna, it shows its gentle side. The river has a wide surface and a gentle flow rate, which often reflects the reflection of the city like a mirror.

The Lancang River divides Jinghong into two parts, one part is the Gaozhuang West Shuangjing Resort, which was built for tourists with huge investment, and the other part is the quaint ancient city. I didn't choose to live in Gaozhuang, which exudes the network celebrity style, but settled in an ancient town of simplicity. It's not far from the places I want to go, such as Tropical Flower Botanical Garden and Manning Park, and it's also very close to the night market by the river, so it's full of life.

The articles on the banks of Lancang River are all Liu's.

Whenever night falls, the busiest place in the old city is the riverside night market. I put on shorts and flip-flops like the locals in the hotel and walked for more than ten minutes to the riverside night market above the towering breakwater on the Lancang River.

Delicious and fragrant, the night is gentle.

Compared with Gaozhuang, the largest night market in Southeast Asia, Binjiang Night Market is somewhat backward, but in a sense, this is its attraction. You can always find a nostalgic atmosphere here, even some magical unreality.

As night fell, booths were quickly set up, and most of them sold clothes, handicrafts, small department stores, mobile phone accessories and so on, which were equally cheap. But there are also some unusual things: here, a man spits lotus flowers under the guise of "the first divination in Qian Shan, Liaoning Province" and brings bad luck to passers-by with a strong northern accent. Over there, God knows how a scrapped old car was brought up, and there was a second-hand antique next to it. Next to them, three Pakistanis in white robes are singing and dancing. One is playing drums, the other is singing and the other is dancing. Their roles are constantly changing. All three of them can speak fluent English. When they see anyone who is curious, they will pull you to chat and sell tambourine, their band's CD and the ongoing live performance.

In addition to selling goods, some stalls also provide door-to-door services, such as pulling out ears and painting nails to make eyelash mobile phone masks, as well as tattoos that Dai people like very much. However, the most popular night market must be catering, and this is no exception.

The most popular place in the night market: food

Dining areas are located at both ends of the night market, where most customers arrive and leave. The stalls are mainly barbecues or drinks and desserts. Stalls are usually husband and wife stalls. One person picks up customers in front to collect money, and the other person cooks in front of the stove facing the seat. I chose a restaurant that looked very popular and sat down. When I was in Rome, I looked at the ingredients without a menu and ordered: roasted tilapia, steamed pigskin, pineapple, mango and glutinous rice. As soon as Laos beer was filled, a cool breeze blew from the river, and the mild beer seemed to be slightly smooth in an instant.

Soon, the food was served. The air was suddenly filled with fragrance. Tropical barbecue spices add a lot of color to food: on the upward side of tilapia, Chili powder completely penetrates into the flesh and is eaten with the crispy and oily skin below, and citronella adds a lot of color. Bao Shao is a special cooking technique in Xishuangbanna-the ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves and roasted on the fire. Plant-scented pigskin, full of sauce mixed with its own oil and seasoning, is delicious and rich in layers. After eating a bunch of grilled shrimp, shellfish and snails, pineapple, mango and glutinous rice appeared at the right time. Sticky and full glutinous rice combines the sweetness of pineapple, the fragrance of mango and the smoothness of coconut milk, which is the most suitable staple food. The rice with a pineapple was quickly eaten by me.

tilapia

Dessert stalls don't need an open flame, they rely on the preparation of kung fu. I saw Paoluda's signboard many times along the way, and this time I ordered one directly: two pieces of toast floated on the bottom of iced coconut milk, because the baked bread was still crispy when I first put it in, sago and cassava jelly tasted strange, and the following tropical fruit slices made coconut milk particularly refreshing. I walked with it and drank it, and there was a fast-paced and high-volume rock in the disco next to it. In the distance, Gaozhuang West Twin Towers are reflected on the quiet Lancang River. In the water, someone started the power station and groped in the shallows. The faint light reflected their outline.

The vegetable market is like a botanical garden.

In the early morning, I was temporarily trapped under a certain roof by a sudden thunderstorm, so I had a chance to enjoy the city scenery: the leaves at the top of the towering coconut trees on both sides of the road were almost connected, bringing the whole street the shade needed in the tropical area. There are more motorcycles coming and going in the street than cars, and the roadside food stalls are still open. Last night, the wine table for two guests continued.

After the rain, I came to the most lively Jinghong farmers' market in Xishuangbanna. The indoor wholesale hall, which opened at two o'clock in the morning, has mostly closed its stalls at this time, and the retail part behind it has just been put on the shelves, welcoming the first guests including me.

The fruit area next to the aisle and at the entrance first makes people feel the beauty of the morning. Banana, as a dominant species in tropical areas, appears with a domineering appearance: it is not separated one by one, but hung in a whole string with thick poles in the middle, as if it still grows on trees in the tropical rain forest. Several strings of plants of different varieties, sizes and colors are like a plant background wall, behind the owner. The stall owner often picks up a sharp knife and cuts it according to the customer's requirements. In addition to bananas, there is also a pillow of jackfruit, which has been cut in half, revealing golden and full flesh. There are many varieties: snakeskin, lotus fog, guava, coconut, guava, pitaya ... Most tropical fruits are not affected by seasons, and people can enjoy sweetness at any time of the year.

Jackfruit slices

Bananas are full of treasures. Besides fruits, there are flowers and leaves to eat and use. Banana leaves are more common. They are baked in various foods, and their aroma can remove the fishy smell. When it is used as a food container for glutinous rice, the wax on its surface can overcome the viscosity of glutinous rice. Banana flowers can only be seen in tropical areas. Pale pink purple water droplets are a bit like unopened lotus buds, but they are much larger.

Pumpkin flowers

Flowers are edible, which is not new to Yunnan people. In Jinghong, it is said that there are more than 100 kinds of edible flowers. I looked around and saw Chihuahua, pumpkin flowers, Jasmine and Bitter Thorn Flower I had eaten before, and cauliflower and taro flower I had never seen before. I know their names with the software on my mobile phone. The application "Various Flowers", which can only be used in jungles and botanical gardens, can actually show its talents in the vegetable market in Xishuangbanna.

After some inquiries, I figured out how to eat. Boil cauliflower and pumpkin together, clear away heat and relieve summer heat, cut the flower stem into small pieces and stir-fry with pickled peppers, which is an artifact for cooking. Stewed fried taro flowers and fried eggplant are both popular home-cooked dishes. Listening to the practice, I seem to see these three dishes coming up at the top of the table in Daijia Courtyard at night.

Banana flower

The market is full of rich colors. All kinds of freshly picked peppers are piled up in a booth, from dark red, bright red, orange, orange, green and dark green, as rich as chromatography. Although they are all the same spicy in my opinion, for local people, their uses are just like wearing different clothes on different occasions. They have strict rules and are not sloppy at all.

Next to it is another popular seasonal food-mushrooms, which are not as bright as peppers, but also very charming. Although the reputation of Tricholoma matsutake has been heated up, it is recognized as a high-grade food in the country, but it is not the most popular in front of Yunnan people who know the goods. I'm afraid the protagonists here are all kinds of termites, the so-called "post-bacteria". Green chicken fir, yellow chicken fir and white chicken fir are not only different in color, but also in different ways. In addition, there are boletus, dried fungus, tiger palm fungus, and the legendary green hand who can "see a villain" if he doesn't eat well ... This time is the busiest time in the vegetable market, and neither customers nor stall owners have time to answer my questions, so I have to turn to the mobile phone software again, but the flower-watching software is not very smart in front of fungi. ...

Abundance of the market

Wang Zengqi, who has lived in Yunnan for a long time, has visited the vegetable market here. He said, "Look at raw chickens and ducks, fresh and watery melons and vegetables, and red peppers. Living is a pleasure. " At the farmers' market in Jinghong, I also felt what Wang Lao called "the joy of life". Not only that, I also walked into a tropical botanical garden and had an eye-opening natural history class.

Out of town looking for food

Out of the market, I looked around for glutinous rice, which is a traditional food of Dai people and suitable for breakfast.

"You have to go to the stockade to eat authentic glutinous rice." The local people in Lu Yu gave me this advice. He told me that there is a glutinous rice paste shop outside the ancient village of Manhna, which is very authentic.

It is said that the ancient village of Manhna has a history of thousands of years. According to the local people, there used to be a magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda, but now the scenery is gone, and it is impossible to imagine the past. There is a row of stalls on the roadside outside the gate building of Guzhai, which has a strong cottage flavor. I saw the glutinous rice I was looking for at a glance. Although it is a humble roadside stall that can only be taken out, there are many people in long queues in front of the stall owner wearing the red Dai traditional costumes embroidered with embroidery.

The process is to buy glutinous rice first, and then choose your favorite side dishes in stainless steel pot. I ordered about two and a half servings of rice, two slices of bacon, pickled bamboo shoots, some kind of pickled seaweed, sour cowpea and spicy bean skin. White rice is spread in transparent plastic bags, and various ingredients are covered on the rice. Next to the glutinous rice stall is a small restaurant. I ordered a bowl of bait and found a seat. The bait soup is fresh and smooth, the glutinous rice is soft and glutinous, and all kinds of side dishes are full of enthusiasm. Such a simple meal makes people full of energy, which is even better than the advanced buffet in a five-star hotel not far away.

Composition of glutinous rice

Going south, we soon passed a bustling area, which is the market in Keno Township. Living here is 1979, which was recognized as the 56th ethnic group in China. In a shop, a man in a white linen embroidered hat is knitting with all his heart. Instead of silk and needles, he took rattan and bamboo, surrounded by all kinds of finished products he made: baskets, lunch boxes, plates and small tables ... almost all related to diet. Outside, the bright red tomatoes on the grill sizzled until they were black.

Peel the soft baked tomatoes, put them into a bamboo mortar together with the ingredients such as millet pepper and lime, and crush them. This is the ubiquitous "Mi Nan" on the dining table in Xishuangbanna. I sat down to have a rest and ordered Mi Nan and roasted bamboo shoots. Roasted bamboo shoots remove astringency, but leave a sweet taste. A second ago, I was admiring its unique combination with Mi Nan, but I was immediately defeated by Mi Nan's spicy endurance. Fortunately, I ordered an iced coconut, took a few sips with a straw, and finally drowned out some spicy taste.

Baked tomato

At the roadside stall in Han Meng town next to the Olive Dam, the sign of "Old Cold Mix" makes people feel quieter than a smoky oven. After the owner translated between me and the Lao-speaking chef, I ordered bean jelly and cold mango. Cold mango is a green mango with chopped peanuts and many fresh tropical spices. Bean jelly is a rich juice extracted from tree tomatoes. The similarity between them is that they all add a lot of ice to cool the food. To tell the truth, this afternoon tea is not delicious to me. The food is too sour, and the passion fruit juice is too sweet-maybe this is just the taste that food needs in the hot sun.

In the evening when the summer heat faded slightly, I drove all the way to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and got into the lush plant kingdom. I have seen all kinds of ferns in the rain forest and plantains full of flowers and fruits in the plantain garden. I understand how the flowers and fruits of plantains grow. After sunset, I crossed the suspension bridge connecting the exit of the botanical garden and got into Dai Lou by the river to enjoy the scenery. At this time, the Solo River shows the most beautiful moment of the day. The sunset dyed the sky red, and a boat became a silhouette on the water from near to far, which was particularly small under the spectacular scene.

Botanical gardens make people quiet.

A plate of oily plantain flowers was swallowed up in the last ray of sunlight and "opened" in front of me. Its internal texture and hierarchy are not available in the market and botanical garden: the color and taste of the hierarchy are slightly different, from the toughness outside to the crispness inside. I don't know which of dozens of bracken buds I have seen before, but I just feel tender and smooth, which is not available in other green leafy vegetables. It is easy to eat with rice. From the market, to the botanical garden, and then to the table in front of us, the distance between plants and food seems to have never been as close as in Xishuangbanna.

Proofreading: Zhang Yan