Shop with a local cook at a neighborhood wet market, among heaps of fresh chilies, mint, Xuanwei ham, edible flowers in spring and wild mushrooms in summer, then cook three or four home dishes in their kitchen.
- Good for:
- Food lovers, home cooks who want to recreate dishes back home
Steam-pot chicken goes into its Jianshui clay pot first because it steams for hours; while it cooks you make fried rice cakes (chao erkuai), a seasonal green and grandma-style potatoes, plus one dish foreigners often ask for, such as kung pao chicken.
Etiquette and what to know
Markets are at their best before 10 a.m. Wet markets are loud, crowded and not always tidy. Your cook can suggest substitutes for ingredients that are hard to find outside China.
