The customs and traditions of some of China’s minorities based in southwest Yunnan are under threat, as modernization and tourism creep in. A new cookbook spotlighting cuisine from this diverse southwestern province aims to help preserve their culinary traditions.

“The Yunnan Cookbook: Recipes from China’s Land of Ethnic Diversity,” by Annabel Jackson and Linda Chia, mixes recipes with colorful descriptions of the many ethnic minorities and styles of cooking that make up China’s most diverse region.

It’s one of the few Yunnan cookbooks available in English, says Ms. Jackson, an England-based food anthropologist who lived for many years in Vietnam and Hong Kong, and spent a year in Yunnan. Her co-author, Australian Linda Chia, is a chef and food consultant who has lived in Jinghong, Yunnan, for about 10 years.

One reason for the rarity of Yunnan cookbooks in English is the difficulty of defining Yunnan cuisine, Ms. Jackson says. “Is there such a thing as Yunnan cuisine, or are there many?”

In addition to recipes, the book offers vignettes from daily life -- from a breakfast in a Tibetan village to a flower festival to profiles of local chefs.

Trio Photo

Despite the difficulty in defining it, it is clear that Yunnan food is the Chinese cuisine du jour. Dozens of chic Yunnan restaurants have sprung up throughout Beijing and Shanghai in recent years offering the city varying version of the region’s specialties, including rice noodles, tilapia with lemongrass, and rubing, the region’s fried goat cheese. Yunnan restaurants haven’t quite reached the ubiquity of those from neighboring Sichuan, but they are on their way. Even many U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, now boast Yunnan restaurants.

One of the challenges of collecting recipes for the book, says Ms. Jackson, is that many cooks in Yunnan rely upon a creative mélange of styles – not to mention whatever ingredients might be the most fresh and available in the market that day. Even her co-author, she says, tends to look in the refrigerator and spontaneously make something from whatever is on hand.

When the Chinese government started recognizing ethnic minorities, some 400 groups applied for classification, says Ms. Jackson. Today, 51 of China’s 56 recognized ethnic minorities live in Yunnan, the authors write. Even then, many groups intermix, as do their cooking styles. Ms. Jackson says she has often found herself in a restaurant specializing in the cuisine of the Naxi that also offers food of the Dai.

A classic tomato and egg dish that is a staple in many restaurants illustrates why this might happen: “The tomatoes are gorgeous, the eggs are gorgeous, so everyone cooks it,” Ms. Jackson says.

“The Yunnan Cookbook” puts a more modern twist on many traditional Yunnan dishes. The book’s recipe for pineapple rice, which it calls “an iconic Dai dish,” for instance, includes a “new trend” of adding cooked peanuts and mixing red and white rice. There’s also what it calls a “modernized,” vegetarian version of Dai noodle soup, which uses shitake mushrooms and very little in the way of seasoning beyond a few chili peppers.

Cookbook authors Linda Chia and Annabel Jackson. Courtesy San Lin

The authors were forced to rely on substitutions for many of the recipes because so many of the region’s famed ingredients – mushrooms in particular – aren’t readily available outside of the province. “Try to head off to your local supermarket to find yak butter,” used in yak butter tea, a popular drink in the Tibetan regions of the province, says Ms. Jackson. “There are so many products you can’t find outside Yunnan.”

Ms. Jackson admits that the cookbook might wind up more as a reference or coffee table book. “I’m not sure people are going to be cooking very much Yunnan food.”

The two tested recipes in Ms. Jackson’s Hong Kong kitchen, as well as visiting Yunnan homes, going to markets with chefs and sampling a variety of street food.

Ms. Jackson, who has also written cookbooks about Macaunese and Vietnamese foods, says another purpose of the book is to serve as a record.

“As the ethnic minorities move away and tourism sees no end, traditions are being lost,” she says. “It’s a way of recording it. It’s really dishes in a cultural context.”

--Debra Bruno

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