Black Dragon Cafe

Another great venue with fantastic food… The Herb Garden (大理香草园) is on the road from Dali old town to Caicun by the lake, just look out for the windmill. It is run by a lovely Taiwanese lady Mrs. Xu (许太太) whose main business is making all natural soap and essential oils*. They haven’t formally opened yet, so if you’d like to eat you need to give her a call first (13988562366). It’s Western food (real Western food), salad, filled jacket potatoes, quiche, and they have a wood-fired pizza oven that can cook ten pizzas at a time.

* The brand name of their soap and essential oils is Bobobot, which is a combination of two words: “bot” as in “robot”, meaning they’re a manufacturer, and “bobo” which comes from the Chinese word “bobozu (波波族)”. “Bobozu” comes from bourgeoisie and bohemian, now meaning the trendy, health-conscious, well-heeled kind of people who are happy to buy artisan bread and organic veg.

It’s been hard recommending places to eat traditional Baizu food, as even the fun venues (around the Fuxing road Renmin road intersection) have food that’s on the salty/oily side. But now there’s Duan’s Kitchen, which has beautiful, delicious local dishes in a lovely old house. Just follow Renmin lu all the way down, it’s about thirty metres from the East Gate (no.12). There’s a weibo too.

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There are a few places to buy Western cooking ingredients (a small place in Taixing market, one on Bo’ai lu in the old town, but this place has bacon, big blocks of cheddar and flour (plain and wholemeal)…

Jiayuan Shipin, 31 East Jianshe Road, Xiaguan (directly opposite Taixing market) 0872 2181176
嘉源食品 下关建设东路31号（泰兴市场正对面）

Paojiu – Chinese rice spirit or sorghum spirit in which fruit has been soaked for six months. Tastes like mulled wine or sherry…

From the back of the packet (translation):

Delicious! Really delicious!
But some people
don’t know how good they smell,
because a drunkards’ sense of taste
is dulled.
Little Lee of the Flying Daggers is just one such drunkard,
but even though his taste has been dulled,
it cannot obstruct
his fondness for these peanuts.
When the dagger flies out of his hand,
he eats a peanut,
a thin smile breaks across his composed features.
The gratification gained from the peanuts
is equal to that of the daggers flying from his hands!

Yogurt maker

Chicken-shaped egg boiler

Heart-shaped egg frying pan

Banana cutter

All available from dangdang.com

This song by Paula Tsui is an ode to the glory that is Chinese pickled vegetables (paocai ):

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Hey hey, restaurant proprietor, give me pickled vegetables! (Hey hey, lao ban, lai pan paocai!) (chorus) Hey hey, restaurant proprietor, give me paocai! Hey hey, restaurant proprietor, give me paocai! Paocai paocai Wooo! paocai paocai (2nd verse) Everyone loves it, yeah, Don’t you reckon it’s funny? Just put a plate of paocai on the table, Wooo! My intention is to Whet the diners’ appetite…

Autumn Night album cover - Paula Tsui (1969)

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Xin Ru Yue Vegetarian Restaurant - View of Santa

Just behind Santa in Dali is a new vegetarian restaurant opened by Stanley Tong (Hong Kong director of The Myth, Rumble in the Bronx) and his rumoured girlfriend Ruby Lin . In 2005 Lin shot a CCTV television serial near here entitled Dali Princess , and as far as I can figure out Tong’s new film Love in the City also used Dali as a backdrop.

To get there take the No. 19 bus from Dali old town to the square at the bottom of Santa, then a RMB 5 minivan up to the main entrance of Chongshengsi temple , it’s right next door.

The restaurant menu includes “mock” dishes , using tofu, mushrooms, and other vegetables to replicate meat – the cold duck starter is particularly realistic.

A private room - free for minimum ten people