Learning Something New

Day two in Yangshuo started out with another one of my favorite activities of the trip. I'm a big fan of learning something new when I travel, so when I heard about the Yangshuo Cooking School I knew I wanted to take a class while we were there.

First of all, they come pick you up, and they speak English. Awesome. Second, the school is nestled against the river and is surrounded by the beautiful karst mountains that are all over the area. Amazing. Third, the food is DELICIOUS and you make it yourself. So cool.

So first we met at the entrance to the city park and after introducing ourselves to our guides and our British classmates, they took us basically across the street to the market. It was really similar to the market that we went to every week in Nanjing for fruits and veggies, but it was bigger. AND they explained what everything was, so I finally knew what all the weird looking produce was called that I had always wondered about.

We then piled into vans and drove for a few minutes to the school.

The students

The view

The classroom

The station

And then we started cooking!

First course: egg-wrapped dumplings.

Yeah baby...

Note to others who might do this in the future. This is not some advanced, difficult class. The purpose is to teach simple, authentic recipes using standard Chinese methods like steaming and wok cooking. There is a lot of chopping and frying, but it was so fun and I loved actually learning a few real recipes that I could replicate at home.

The final meal.

Aren't they so cute?!

So much fun. If you're ever in Yangshuo, I highly recommend it. We loved the food and we loved doing it together!