Lijiang Cooking Class & Market Visit
Tue through Fri at 9：15 am • 3 Hours • Walking Tour
Overview
Activity details
Start the day by exploring Lijiang’s oldest market to shop for your cooking class, with hands-on instruction led by a local ethnic Naxi family. The cooking class will take place in the instructor’s home cooking studio. Each person will prepare and eat three dishes.
What's included
A guided market visit, transportation to our cooking studio, all ingredients and hands-on instruction for preparing 3 dishes, plus snacks and drinks throughout the class.
Itinerary
Local Market Visit
Meet your host at one of Lijiang’s largest local markets (no tourists here!) and discover the unique selection of seasonal ingredients. From wild herbs used for traditional Chinese medicine to sipping on a local version of moonshine to trying a few local snacks, you’ll experience market life like a local.
Yunnan Ghost Chicken
Rich in folklore and flavor, this dish’s name comes from ancient stories that suggest chickens were the most common sacrifice for ancestral ghosts. In order to not waste the meat, it was prepared with local herbs as a cold dish. Still popular today, it’s the perfect starter for us!
Clay Pot Rice Noodles
Due to Yunnan’s high altitude, rice wasn’t always easy to cook. It was easier, however, after it was turned into flour and formed into noodles – which is today’s go-to staple food. Flavored with fermented soybean paste and local pickles, then cooked in a small clay pot, this is sure to become a staple in your kitchen too.
"Palooda" Dessert
Originally from Persia, these flavors were brought to India, through Myanmar, and into Southern Yunnan. Seasonal fruit, sago, and purple rice is added to a base of coconut milk for a delicious way to finish your meal!
Enjoy a Traditional Yunnan Countyard
After lunch, enjoy some local snacks while soaking in Yunnan’s famous sunshine in your instructor’s courtyard garden.
Highlights
Join an ethnic Naxi family and learn about the ingredients and recipes that they grew up with.
For thousands of years, Yunnan inhabitants communicated and traded with each other along what’s known as the “Tea & Horse Caravan Road.” This ancient trading route stretched for over 4000km, and served as a link to places like India, Tibet, and Central China.
Traveling for months at a time forced these traders to get clever with their culinary skills. Foraging for mushrooms and wild herbs became the norm, and the high altitude required cleverness to prepare simple things like rice. But beyond that, unique flavors and ingredients criss-crossed Yunnan from far-away places, making Yunnan’s cuisine incredibly diverse.
Discover these ingredients while learning to prepare local recipes that can become part of your recipe collection too.
Additional information
Special requirements
This tour can accommodate travelers with vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, no-spicy, and no-nut dietary needs.
FAQs
What if I have special dietary requests?
All dietary requests must be communicated at the time of booking. When booking online, you will have the opportunity to let us know if you have any dietary requirements or special requests. Please use the following information to understand if this tour is right for you.
Since you will be cooking your own food, you can omit any ingredient that you prefer. Due to the nature of the dishes we prepare, we will need to know your requests in advance so we can prepare proper alternative ingredients.
We do not recommend this tour for anyone with severe allergies. Travelers that don’t eat nuts are welcome, but the recipes and kitchen do use nuts and cross-contamination is possible.
If you have any questions not answered here, please contact us prior to booking.
How much food and drink will I get?
In addition to trying a few snacks at the market, each guest will make three separate dishes, all of which are full portions. Since you are making each dish yourself, you’re also able to adjust each portion size. After lunch, a selection of snacks and drinks will also be available.
We recommend eating a very light breakfast before meeting us at the market. You won’t be hungry again until (a late) dinner.
Will I need to walk very far?
You’ll be on your feet for about 1 hour while we visit the market, and the pace is very slow with a lot of (standing) stops to visit with local vendors.
During the cooking class, you’ll be on your feet for another hour while you are at your cooking stations. You are welcome to take seated breaks at any time once we get to our cooking studio.
What happens if it rains or the weather is hot or cold?
All of our tours are rain-or-shine, so we suggest you dress for the weather. If rain is possible, an umbrella, along with shoes that can get wet, is a good idea. In rare cases of extreme weather, your guide will cancel the tour and provide a full refund. During times of extreme air pollution (AQI over 400) our tours will run but refunds will be provided if you are unable to join due to health concerns.
Should I sign up for multiple Lost Plate Tours? Are they all different?
We have many happy customers who do more than one of our tours in Beijing and across China! We have designed our tours to focus only on food from each city. This means that each dish, story, and vibe is unique to each tour and there aren’t any repeats.
Most people are very surprised how much the cuisine changes as they travel throughout China, and our tours are a good way to discover those differences. We encourage you to pick the tours that best fit your itinerary and we offer a 10% discount if booking more than one tour.
Cancellations
Bookings cancelled 24 hours or more before your tour begins are fully refundable (100% refund). Bookings cancelled less than 24 hours before your tour begins are not refundable. Rescheduling requests made less than 24 hours before your tour begins will be charged an additional 50% of your previous total.