Apenjie

Hanging from branches, clusters of grapes become ripe in June and taste sweet. It must be great to use them to make wine. After over two months of fermentation, the grapes of different varieties I picked finally turned into wine, just before Ahao will leave home for high school. This must be the most extravagant wine I’ve ever drunk. I’ve also prepared a table full of colourful dishes, each of which shows our love and support for Ahao… I hope he can have a good life in high school and get into the college of his choice in three years.

As of this year, I've finally videoed all the methods of marinating pork in Yunnan that I know! It took me 6 years to do it. With their ingenuity, our ancestors invented these methods to preserve a pig for a whole year when resources were extremely scarce, which have been passed down from generation to generation and have created the unique hometown delicacy of each place!

In the past, the pigs slaughtered during the Spring Festival were supposed to last the villagers for a whole year. So the older generations would try to store enough pork for a whole year. They’d use pig’s small and large intestines to make sausages. Since the meat wouldn’t be enough for making sausages, they had to add other ingredients, such as tofu, broad beans and taro. Over time, it has become our local delicacy. The sausages we’ve made at home this year will be enough for us for a while!

In August, the tart, winey flavour of plum is gently softened with sweetness, making people want to take a bite of it in the hot afternoon. Sweet and sour plums can refresh your body and soul. I’ll use the juiciness of plums to prepare several refreshing appetizers. Using fruity ingredients to add aroma and flavour to our food is the essence of “One Fruit for a Table”. In this series, you can see familiar ingredients appear in surprising ways and imagine how stunning and joyful it is when it’s hitting all your taste buds. I hope you like this series as always.

In everyone’s growth process, there is always an unforgettable experience. Each time you return to your maternal grandmother’s home in the countryside, you can have the freshest fruits and vegetables, free-range chickens and ducks, native eggs, and top-quality ham specially kept. Zhang Jun is my nephew. During this month of his holiday, he eats various kinds of food from morning to night. Whatever he wants to eat, I cook for him. He has gained some weight. When he goes back home, the trunk is filled with food. Seeing him, I seem to see myself when I stayed in my grandmother’s home. May our happiness be as simple and pure as a child's.

Twisted-flower rush herb is a kind of parasitic plant that grows on tea trees. Because of the strict requirements it has on the altitude, climate and age of the tea trees, the twisted-flower rush herb is rare in number. In addition, it has a certain medicinal value, which makes it even more precious. During the tea-picking period in Jingmai Mountain, I tasted the chicken stewed with twisted-flower rush herbs, a dish made by a female farmer, which I found to be delicious and unforgettable. When I got home, I cooked a pot of it for my family. I also picked some vegetables. After having the meat and soup, I added some boiling water to cook the vegetables, which also had that savoury umami finish! You should definitely visit Jingmai Mountain and have a bowl of chicken stewed with twisted-flower rush herbs if you have the chance!

One thing many of you don’t know is that I got my pet named “Penji” (basin and chicken) because my maternal grandma visited our home with several chickens and a basin when I was born. The chickens were for my mom to nourish her body and the basin was for me to have a bath in. Born into a common rural family in a far-flung area, I’ve always been proud of having a happy, loving family. Ever since my birth, grandpa and grandma, maternal grandpa and grandma, and dad and mom have been loving me in every way they can, which is my lifetime treasure. My maternal grandma was an ingenious old lady. Whenever we visited her, she’d make us all kinds of sugary food using different methods. Maltose used to be my maternal grandma’s unique recipe. She’d make maltose for us every year. She passed away three months ago. My mom said: “Your maternal grandma is gone, but we’re gonna live on and try not to make life miserable.” Have something sweet when you have bitter feelings!

The story of Zhu Bajie eating pepino melon ( GinSeng Fruit ) in Journey to the West is deeply imprinted in our minds. It's said that it takes pepino melon 300 years to bloom and 300 years to bear fruit. After eating it, people can become immortal. When children eat too fast and gobble, the old will say that they are like Zhu Bajie who is eating pepino melon. The pepino melon grown in the unique karst landform of Yunnan Stone Forest has a faint honeydew melon fragrance, and it's sweet and juicy. It's appetizing and thirst-quenching! A distant relative of my family, my great uncle came to visit us for a few days, and this year's pepino melon is just ripe. I made a delicious meal with the sweet pepino melon. I hope that the elders can live a long and healthy life as in the cartoon after eating the pepino melon feast.

Back in my hometown, there’s a fruit that looks like a pomelo with no pips or flesh inside. We call it a citron. In autumn and winter, we dip it in honey and eat it, which is said to be a way to soothe the lungs and prevent coughing. We eat it every year. The Buddha’s hand is a variety of the citron. They’re just different in shape. The Buddha’s hand is used as a scented ornament or ritual offering in many areas. The people in Yunnan eat the two kinds of fruits the same way. Today, I’ve made a couple of snacks out of them. I’ll dry the rest in the sun and then make fruit tea out of it. The white part is flesh. It has a soft, crisp, mildly sweet and fruity taste, with little moisture. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth after you eat it. I like its unique taste and texture! In this season, it’s rather dry and people tend to cough. If you can buy Buddha’s hands nearby, you can eat them by peeling them or dipping them in honey!

It seems that we can grow anything colorful in Yunnan. Although we haven’t eaten the pomegranates of our home for several years due to no harvest, there are countless pomegranates in the orchard. Sweet and sour, hard-seeded and soft-seeded, dark red, bright red, pink, and white, there are all kinds of pomegranates! I picked a large bamboo basket of pomegranates, made a big container of wine for my grandpa, made the jelly I promised Keke last time, and made the cake I wanted to have for a long time. This table of sweet food is a reward for the hard work in the harvest this autumn.

My family's favourite food is chillies, apart from salt. We always grow chillies on the few acres of land at home. In the past, we used to sell them for some money, but now we eat most of them. Sun-dried red chillies soaked in Wild Chilies in soy sauce, and storable stir-fried chilli sauce, our family can basically finish these chillies in the first half year. We often say that red chillies represent a prosperous life. Hanging some red chillies at home and having some red chillies on the dining table brings an irreplaceable flavour to our hometown as if the touch of red can always ignite the enthusiasm and desire for cooking in our hearts.

The kiwi fruits in Yunnan are not big, but they're very sweet and soft... I went up the mountain to pick a basket of kiwi fruits and let them ripen slowly. The weather is getting cold, and we roasted a lamb. Every year when the weather turns cold, our family eats some lamb. It seems that we have to have some lamb before entering the winter. The lamb was a bit greasy, so I made some refreshments. Enjoying the delicious foods and chatting together with family members help wiping out fatigue after a day's work. It's getting cold and please keep warm and healthy!

Many places in Yunnan grow cassava. It is often sold at a price of several jiao per jin. My grandpa says that in places where cassava can be successfully grown, other crops do not grow well. Moreover, it is laborious to dig it out. Most villagers don’t know that those delicate desserts and milk tea on the streets are made from cheap cassava starch… So this time, I want to make desserts with it and let them have a taste. A bottle of milk tea, a bowl of taro balls with brown sugar, and a piece of steamed little bowl cake. The villagers have grown cassava for so many years, and when they have food made from cassava this time, they find it most fashionable and satisfying.

There is no sea in Yunnan, so we just eat freshwater fishes, river shrimp, grass carp, tilapia, etc. My family members love fresh and sweet seafood, especially the plump crabs in autumn. There are several households in Shiping who raise hairy crabs. The price of their hairy crabs is half of that in other provinces. The average market price is about 12 yuan. I took 32 hairy crabs, and the boss only charged me 300 yuan. I bought some Portunid crabs and Burmese crabs at the market and made a few dishes. It's such a sweet grand feast! This is the first episode of "A Grand Feast". I made this series because I really love eating meat, and I hope you can also feel the joy and happiness brought by eating meat.

Yunnan people are so obsessed with sauces that they almost believe a meal is incomplete without a sauce. When they are busy, they may just grill a few dried chilis in the charcoal fire, grate them and add some salt. In this way, a bowl of sauce is done! When they have time, they would prepare all kinds of condiments, grill and pound them, being very particular about the sauce! A sauce makes a meal more delicious! I have six kinds of sauces for a barbecue. Which one is your favourite? Even if the temperature difference between day and night can be more than 20 degrees in Yunnan, people here still feel that "it's like spring all the year round". When there is no sun, we have a fire. This pot of fire brings us warmth, companionship and all kinds of delicious barbecue food!