Our first full day in Kunming started a bit past noon. We missed our hotel’s complimentary breakfast by two hours so we headed out to town in search of “breakfast.” Just a couple of paces from the hotel, we found a cluster of al fresco vendors dishing up all sorts of goodness. Without English menus or grasp of Chinese characters, we resorted to scanning the crowd of diners and pointing to what looked tasty.

First up, fried tofu with scallions and cilantro sprinkled with some intense chili powder (3 RMB). The tofu’s texture was silky, yet firm. The Astronomer and I both enjoyed this spicy jolt early in the day.

Nooooodles (4 RMB)! These ones were round and thick like engorged spaghetti. The noodles were topped with an oily pork mixture, silken tofu, sesame seeds, chili oil and scallions. The Astronomer and I carefully scooped the chilies out of the bowl to avoid searing our tongues. The noodles really made the dish special.

Here’s what the noodles looked like all mixed together. Although the oily pork mixture didn’t look too imposing at the start, it really managed to flavor and color the entire dish. After a cheap and filling breakfast, The Astronomer and I were ready to seize the day. Our plan was to catch a mini bus to see the Bamboo Temple located 12 kilometers away. Supposedly there are statues of surfing Buddhas!

On our way to the mini bus station, I perused a store called Bear Family. It was filled with, you guessed it, BEARS! I am fascinated by how infantile Asian women are allowed to be. The crowd wasn’t my scene, but the store’s slogan drew me in, “Love me, I will give you more!”

Similar to Hong Kong, Kunming is filled with wonderful bakeries. The Astronomer picked up this lovely creation at Jiahua (3 RMB). We’d never seen anything quite like it—swirly and fancy!

A couple of bites in, The Astronomer thought the baked good was a simple buttery number. However, towards the center, he hit gold, AKA pork floss! Unfortunately, there was also some mayo that The Astronomer scooped out with his fingers and flicked to the sidewalk in disgust. Ick.

Rent a cop.

After walking a solid 400 meters without any food, The Astronomer ducked into a stall selling dumplings and picked up one (0.5 RMB).

The dumplings had a wee bit of pork and lots of doughy breading. Not spectacular, but certainly not shabby for less than a kuai!

A square in downtown Kunming. It’s hard to fathom how a city can be so developed and still so inexpensive to live in. Very impressive.

While on the search for Muslim eats on Shuncheng Jie Street, we found some kids playing pogs! They were so engrossed in their game that they didn’t even notice me spying.

Chinese mosque.

According to our handy dandy Lonely Planet, the area around Shuncheng Jie Street is supposed to be brimming with kebab stands and Halal noodles, but we only found one lonely stand serving steamed buns (1 RMB). The construction in the area seems to have pushed this community elsewhere.

I expected the steamed bun to taste sweet like Vietnamese banh bao, but it ended up tasting neutral. The best part was the texture—the bun was composed of a zillion thin layers. After struggling to locate the mini bus pick-up point, The Astronomer and I decided that we’d rather nap than see surfing Buddhas, so we headed back to the hotel.

On our walk back, we stopped at Jiahua again. When we swung by earlier to pick up a pastry, I noticed that all the kids eating were eating a treat that resembled fro-yo with fresh fruit, a la Pinkberry. I’ve yet to partake in the fro-yo craze, so I was really excited to give it a try.

Turns out the kids were just eating shaved ice topped with fresh fruit and beans (4 RMB). It doesn’t sound like anything special, but trust us, it really was. The passion fruit syrup permeated every ingredient and the beans texture became appealing due to the ice. The Astronomer liked it much more than che.

As expected, the Chinese are really into the Olympic games. There are large screen TVs set up in public places for everyone to watch the competition unfolding. I was hoping to find more unofficial gear for sale, but this is the lone T-shirt I’ve seen thus far. It would’ve been mine, but it was much too small. After napping and watching the Games on TV, The Astronomer and I went on a quality run around the city and Green Lake. By the way, Kunming is located at 6,200 feet, so we’re technically training at elevation. I hope to reap the speedy benefits when I return to sea level.

After our run, we went to a nearby restaurant for a pre-dinner snack because our dinner destination was quite a ways away.

We ordered fried goat cheese ( 乳饼 rǔbǐng) with ham (22 RMB). According to Diana of Appetite for China, goat cheese is “one of the well-loved specialties of Yunnan cuisine. It comes from the Bai and Sani minorities of Yunnan province, and is made by heating fresh goat’s milk with a souring agent until firm, then either pan-fried or steamed before serving.”

Although the dish resembles stir-fried tofu with vegetables, it was SO much more than that. The ham was sliced thinly and had a decadent ration of meat to fat and the goat cheese—OH, THE GOAT CHEESE—was firmer than the varieties stateside, and much milder. Truly, it was nothing short of magical! Fried goat cheese with ham is just so crazy delicious that we’re gonna have to return and have it once more before we leave this town.

A view of Green Lake on our walk to dinner destination number two—Brothers Jiang. After a mile and a half walk, we arrived at the eatery around 9:30 PM and found it closed. We were so bummed.

Back in our ‘hood, we ate at a Muslim restaurant serving fresh noodles and lovelies on a stick—our standby late-night foodstuffs.

The Astronomer and I both ordered the fresh noodles in broth (5 RMB). Both servings were made to order in front of our eyes—the chef’s skilled hands transformed a blob of dough into long strands of perfectly uniform noodles in seconds.  How’d he do that? The noodles were topped with a savory mixture of cubed beef and mustard greens and a simple broth. The Astronomer made a keen observation as we were eating our luxurious noodles—whereas the broth is the star of the show in Vietnamese cuisine, in Kunming, the noodles outshine the broth. He’s totally right! The serving size here, as with all of the eateries we’ve frequented in China, was super-sized. The Astronomer had to help me out with this one.

The Astronomer went for potatoes and lamb on a stick (1 RMB each). The lamb stick alternated between cubes of meat and fat, and The Astronomer found it fantastic. My ‘shrooms on a stick were fabulous as well. This could be paradise.

As long as the powers that be allow it, gas•tron•o•my is blogging live from China! Eee! There’s still so much to share from Vietnam, but since the eyes of the world are currently focused on China, I thought it would be most appropriate to share my travels as they’re actually taking place—a novel concept considering the back log of posts in my queue!

Ever since The Astronomer and I decided to venture on this yearlong journey to Vietnam, our plan has been to travel home via Beijing in time for the Summer Games. In addition to being food enthusiasts, we’re also jocks at heart.

We entered Heiku, China via Lao Cai, Vietnam. It’s pretty crazy how one side of the bridge is China and the other is Vietnam. Boundaries and borders are fascinating.

Farewell, Vietnam. It’s been an absolute pleasure. As I crossed the bridge into China, I kept singing to myself, “It’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.”

After finding a suitable hotel, The Astronomer and I sought an ATM to procure some Chinese currency (RMB) in order to buy me a snack and to buy us bus tickets to Kunming. I settled on a squishy white bread concoction with pork floss and scallion oil for my pre-run nibble. Even though the baked good was the size of my hand, the lack of density made it possible to down it in three bites.

After changing into our running gear, we jogged along the Red River. We knew for certain that we were no longer in Vietnam as we trucked along the manicured riverside path because as anyone whose ever been to Vietnam knows, the rivers are stinky, filthy and definitely not exercise friendly.

Upon returning to our hotel post-run, we discovered that there was no longer running water in our room (or in the entire facility). Wah wah. For the next hour or so, we argued with the manager for our security deposit and searched for a hotel with working showers. By the time we finally found suitable shelter, I was too angry and exhausted to eat dinner, which is a shame because there was some really good looking stuff on the streets of Heiku.

We woke up early the following morning to have a hearty breakfast before boarding our 11+ hour bus ride to Kunming. Most of the eateries with storefronts were closed at 8 AM, which was another sign that we were no longer in Vietnam. We stumbled upon a vendor under an awning and tucked in for some hot noodle soup.

Since neither of us spoke Chinese, we pointed to a bowl of noodles and smiled and then pointed to the chilies and shook our heads no. We’ll take everything but the chilies, sir.

After we placed our order, the vendor added fresh scallions, bean sprouts, mushrooms and a salty/oily pork mixture atop the noodles and poured a hot broth into the bowl. The broth was actually brown, but turned bright orange due to the oily pork mixture. Whereas the portions in Vietnam are quite modest, this bowl of noodles was nothing short of hearty.

The wide pappardelle-like noodles were my favorite part. Although I didn’t have high hopes for a bowl of noodles served in a parking lot, these were so so good that I couldn’t stop talking about them for the rest of the day. Two bowls of noodles set us back 10 RMB ($1 USD = 6.8 RMB).

We boarded the Yunnan Express at 8:45 AM and got comfy because eleven hours ain’t no joke.

A little past noon, we stopped over for some lunch and a restroom break. The Astronomer and I didn’t know what the heck was going on, so we mimicked our bus mates.

Inside a darkish room, a couple of workers were serving up meat, veggies, and rice for 10 RMB a plate. Even though we weren’t hungry, we played along and bought some food. Our hodgepodge of Chinese delights included stir-fried chayote (a familiar treat and my favorite item), cucumber salad, bamboo shoots and two pork dishes.

This porky number resembled what we knew to be Chinese food in America, with the inconvenient addition of bones. Everything but the chayote was too spicy for me. I wish I were tougher.

The accompanying squash soup was the blandest thing ever, but it turned out to be a good thing because after eating such fiery foods, I needed a calming broth.

All the locals were garnishing with this great-looking cilantro, scallion, garlic, soy sauce and chili salsa. As expected, it was much to spicy for me. After lunch, we boarded the bus and got comfy once more.

The scenery from Heiku to Kunming is gorgeous—seemingly endless green hills and mountains. The only disturbing sight was this burning-action on the side of the road.

And the huge cloud of smoke as a result of the burning.

A few hours later, we were rewarded with another rest stop! This one specialized in deep-fried meats on a stick!

The Astronomer went for deep-fried blocks of tofu sprinkled with chili flakes, which was hot and good! He would have ordered another stick, but the conductor was screaming, “all aboard!” Or so I translated in my head.

I bought some snacks at the convenient store. I was hoping that the product on the left were sweet and sour plums, but they turned out to be wickedly sweet dates. I was totally disappointed. Good thing I had haw flakes because they never let me down.

We finally arrived in Kunming a little after 8 PM.

After the cabbie dropped us off at our hotel near Yunnan University, we suited up for a run. It turned out to be a short one because I was mighty hungry. We started searching for dinner at 11 PM and were bummed that most places were closed. What kind of college town is this? Luckily we found a hole-in-the-wall serving up grilled meats on a stick and hot noodles.

I ordered two sticks of tofu (or so I thought). The one on the left was definitely tofu, but the one next to it turned out to be something totally different—it tasted like a cross between squid and pork fat! The Astronomer ordered a stick of the faux tofu as well and a stick of good ‘ol beef.

A bowl of bun bo Kunming. Not as tasty as the soup from Heiku, but pretty decent considering the options available. The broth started out brown, but after mixing around the oily beef it turned orange. Our entire meal of meats on a stick and noodles cost a mere 13 RMB.

On the way back to our hotel, The Astronomer bought a package of guangsu cake for dessert (6.5 RMB). It tasted really terrible—chalky, saccharine-laced pieces of foam.