Yangshuo Cooking School

One afternoon and evening in Yangshuo we participated in a cooking school. Our time began with a guided visit to the local market. We've been to a few of these types of markets in China, so it wasn't completely surprising, but I did stay away from the booths where they were slaughtering chickens and ducks. Still don't like to see that!

Wondering what those long skinny body parts hanging over the edge of the table are... Somebody's dinner waits in these cages...

A huge array of fresh produce. Do you suppose people eat the duck's bill? I know duck tongue is a specialty...
Here we are at the cooking school. It was held in a traditional courtyard Chinese home, back in a village with dirt roads, off the beaten path. I never would have picked it out! The cooking area surprisingly modern, given its surrondings. Each of us, including Madelyn, had our own cooking station complete with chopping block, wok, and gas burner. Gwen helped me. :-) There were about 15 people total in our group.

Our instructor would first demonstrate how to make a particular dish, then send us back to our stations to do it on our own. Caleb was very into this... he liked the fire of the burner and flipping the food around in the wok.
This is the lovely setting where we ate what we had prepared, a few courses at a time. It was right outside the cooking area.

Here we are sampling the Yangshuo style eggplant that we stir-fried with ginger and garlic.

Taking a break and enjoying the view while our woks were being cleaned to start the next course.

Those big cleavers were a little too much fun! In front of Caleb are the steamers where our vegetables (pumpkin flowers, mushrooms, zucchini, and ball tofu) stuffed with a pork mixture are cooking.
Delicious! The kids especially enjoyed the chicken with cashew nuts that we made. We also made a local specialty, beer fish.
As we were leaving, the cresent moon was shining in the violet sky.