Episode 3 Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure

China, home to one in five of the planet's population.

The superpower the world fears, but few really know.

Ken Hom, is the godfather of Chinese food.

Heaven on earth!

He introduced the wok to the West more than 30 years ago.

This is the way you should be cooking it.

Ching-He Huang is leading the next generation of Chinese cooks...

I'm just going to chop off the head.

..with a modern, inventive approach to the cuisine.

Like ducks playing in springtime.

'We're taking a once-in-a-lifetime adventure across China,

'through food...'

-Rabbit head!

-Shall we try one?

'..to delve into its heart and soul.'

Bang it, pull it.

Food is the best way to explore Chinese culture

because we really live to eat.

It's an epic trip - 3,000 miles, from the mega cities of the east...

..to the forgotten villages of the wild west.

It's like we've been back to the time of Genghis Khan.

Eurgh! She's just decapitated it!

'We'll uncover the familiar, the secret and the surprising...'

Wow, I've never seen that done before.

'..cook simple, delicious dishes.' That is my Sichuan sausage.

And reveal the secrets of China, old and new.

It's like a journey that I've always dreamt about,

but in a China I've dreamt about.

We've left the heaving mega cities of eastern China far behind...'

Yes!

'..to embark on an intrepid journey across China's vast

'western frontier.'

It looks like an ancient medieval city we've come to.

It's really on the far fringes of China.

We're travelling 3,000 miles, from the tropical jungle of Yunnan,

to the deeply-divided Muslim city of Kashgar.

These regions are home to many of China's 55 ethnic minorities,

who make up almost 10% of the population.

Historically,

these minorities were seen as a threat to the realm by Han emperors.

We want to discover the fate of their culture and cuisines in modern China.

I think it's beautiful - it's like a ritual.

We're spending our first week in Yunnan province

in southwest China,

on the border with Vietnam, Laos and Burma.

-Ah, we're here!

-Yeah, it's beautiful!

This is Yuanping village, home to the Dai minority,

who settled in Yunnan in the seventh century.

Is this the village chief?

Tribal chiefs like Bo Wangjian have been head of Dai villages for centuries.

Once an hereditary post, today chiefs are elected by villagers

and report to their district Communist Party government.

COCK CROWS

These families live in homes with few modern conveniences.

This is the house?

With no electricity, cooking takes place over a simple open fire.

Wow, it's a limited kitchen, huh? I'd like to cook here.

That's wonderful.

THEY LAUGH

Tell him we'd like to cook

and share with him our love of cooking,

and especially the ingredients that you find here.

THEY SPEAK MANDARIN

We'll be cooking for the chief later, but first we're heading out

into the local farmland to learn more about the Dai way of life.

What I like is how they take the creek, how they irrigate the field.

-I like that very much.

-Yeah.

The Dai people were one of the first cultivators of rice in China.

Today, like 128 million of China's rural poor,

the villagers of Yuanping live on less than a pound a day.

To survive, they must utilise everything in their environment.

These local foresters prove just how resourceful they must be.

How do they know how to, you know, harvest bamboo?

Cos it is a skill, cos their knife skills are incredible.

This is as strong as steel. And it's flexible, too.

-And it can be reused again and again.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Yunnan has 250 types of bamboo

and the Dai villagers have found ingenious uses for it

from building houses, bridges and farm tools

to making food and medicine.

For these foresters, who spend long hours working up the mountains,

one bamboo tree will provide them with all the kitchen utensils

they need to make lunch on the go.

It's a big bowl. Look at this - they've made these, as well.

I like this. I want one of these.

Now they are making chopsticks

Oh brilliant! Bamboo chopsticks!

Amazing - can they make us a bamboo steamer to take home, as well?

Everything here is sustainable, natural!

'The men are making two dishes for lunch using the bamboo stalks.'

So first, the aromatics. Wow!

Yum! That looks great.

'First is a fragrant chicken stew

'with chilli, ginger and Vietnamese mint.

'The ingredients are stuffed inside the bamboo stalk,

'water is added, then rolled-up banana leaves are used

'to seal the contents to keep in the moisture.'

This shows what Chinese civilisation and food is all about.

It's ingenious,

because it's using everything from your environment in a nice way.

'The second dish is made of glutinous rice and peanuts,

'which are packed inside a smaller bamboo stalk.'

My grandmother always said, "Don't waste rice,"

because you know each grain of rice is like a bead of sweat,

because it takes such hard work and back breaking to collect each grain.

Now he said you can cook it, yeah!

'Both bamboo stalks are put on the open fire

'to cook for about half an hour.'

It's certainly a new thing for me.

I've never seen anything like this, and I think it's fantastic.

Oh, he's stirring!

I think this ritual shows that China is still very agrarian.

Almost half the population has moved to the urban areas,

but still it has a very rich, agricultural heritage,

and I think this type of ritual expresses that.

-Chicken is done!

-Oh, it's finished?

-Chicken soup.

-That looks good.

Oh, wonderful.

There goes the head!

THEY LAUGH

Now he's going to crack it open.

He's cracking it open.

Oh, that looks good. Wow!

You can taste all the herbs.

It's spicy, too. That's wonderful.

That is really wonderful.

There is that bamboo fragrance...

Which is very unusual.

..and that really beautiful delicate sweetness.

It's beautiful.

They have their tradition, and it's nice that they maintain it.

The eldest here!

Oh, thank you(!)

HE LAUGHS

There's some Chinese traditions I don't like.

HE LAUGHS

'After lunch, we head back to the village

'to prepare dinner for our host, the chief.

'Whilst Ching and the women go river fishing for some of tonight's ingredients...'

CHICKEN SQUAWKS

'..I start on the chicken.'

You must cut, like here.

CHICKEN SQUAWKS

Just one, and you let it bleed and the blood is not wasted,

because you put it with salt

and you can make a sort of blood pudding with it.

It goes in soup, or is stir-fried.

You can't feel the heart beating any more.

And that's it.

I did that when I taught professional chefs how to cook,

and half the class almost fainted,

and the other half went to complain to the dean,

and the dean said to me, "Ken, please don't ever do that again!"

But, if you want to really learn about food,

I think you have to take the good and the bad.

You just can't go to the supermarket and say, eat chicken,

you have to know how it's killed.

If you don't like it, it bothers you, then don't eat it.

Simple as that.

'The chief and I are going to cook a dish each with this chicken

'to feed ten people.

'This might look small compared to what you'd find in Britain,

'where we eat on average three times more chicken

'per person than the Chinese.

'But in a country where there are over one billion mouths to feed,

'that kind of consumption is unsustainable.'

Meat is to garnish the veggies.

In the West, veggies are a second thought.

You usually have a big piece of meat,

then you have all these vegetables that are a second thought,

and as we know, that's not good for your health.

To me, that's really the lessons.

I think the West can learn from Chinese dietary practices.

'I'm cooking a chicken stir-fry,

'which, in true, resourceful Dai style,

'is using ingredients sourced within 50 yards of where I'm standing.

'Even the sauce for the marinade is home-made.'

I asked the chief, "Can I have some rice wine?"

And this is a home-made brew that he makes!

Phew, God, if I taste this, I won't be able to cook!

HE LAUGHS

Ooh! That's - wow!

THEY LAUGH

I think I'd better give it to the chicken!

'I'm leaving the chicken to marinate for half an hour in light soy sauce

'and the chief's home-brewed rice wine.'

SHE LAUGHS

'The Dai ladies do all the fishing for their village.

'There are more than 600 rivers and lakes in Yunnan,

'with millions of people depending on them for food and water.'

I've never seen this unique way of fishing.

They're just upturning rocks and getting really in there.

But it's a very clever technique,

cos you kind of sandwich the net between your feet,

then you use your hands

to bring the vegetation

and the sea bed into the net.

Oh! Oh!

She's got two big quans!

It's just a river fish.

Crab?

'Living below China's official poverty line, the Dai women

'can't afford to overlook any potential source of protein in the river.'

She said that you can eat this.

It looks like some weird river centipede thing!

I was like, "Eurgh!"

Ah! She's just decapitated it!

"You can eat that," she said, "it's delicious."

They really have a respect for the environment.

They said they don't fish every day.

Which means they give the river a chance to recover,

and the fish to thrive.

For the time being, the women are safe to fish in these waters.

But this might not be the case for much longer,

because in recent years, many of Yunnan's waterways have become

contaminated with pollution from its cities, less than 40 miles away.

Back at Mei's house, we're going to prepare our river catch.

A lot of the fish are still alive.

Did you see that? Just with one knife cut,

she guts it.

And gets rid of the intestines, and the belly,

in one fell knife swoop, even though the fish is so small.

She just rips the head off, and the tail off the sort of centipede.

'I came to China to expand my knowledge of Chinese cooking.

'Learning how to gut a centipede is certainly doing that.'

She said women know how to cook,

and also that the men wash the dishes. I understood that bit.

Men don't understand -

they only know how to eat.

SHE LAUGHS

So I've got here the small river fish and local garlic,

wild garlic, some ginger,

some small chillies, the local chillies,

and then there's the Vietnamese mint,

and then they've got here some coriander as well,

and then some spring onion.

'I'm going to make a classic Dai dish of fish cooked in banana leaves.'

Just finely chop it.

My grandmother would always peel it, and the Chinese believe that

when you peel ginger,

it becomes more heat-giving property, more Yang. More fiery.

If you keep the ginger skin on, then it makes the dish more Yin,

it's more cooling.

'First, I put chopped ginger, garlic and chilli onto a banana leaf,

'closely scrutinized by my sous chef, who is keen to offer tips.'

She said, "Chop it, chop all the herbs together

"so it's really fine." I would have just thrown it all together,

but this is the way they're used to doing.

OK, so we put this all on the leaf, like that.

'Wrapping the food in a banana leaf

'seals in moisture and flavour, much like foil or oven-proof paper.'

And then, you just tie it.

'Being here with Mei and her family takes me back to my childhood

'under the supervision of two other formidable family cooks -

'my grandmother and mother.'

So she's just securing the package within some bamboo?

'I'm planning to steam the fish, but my sous chef has other ideas.'

Oh, then that's how they would normally cook it!

She said it's tastier like this than steaming it.

She said, if you steam it, it doesn't taste very good!

'While it cooks for 20 minutes, Mei offers me an appetiser.'

This is a baby. This is the centipede.

'The water centipedes she caught at the river have been

'boiled in a spicy broth of chillies, ginger and herbs.'

She said, "Don't be afraid, just eat it!"

It's like texture like prawns.

It's like river prawn texture, river shrimp.

It's not bad. It's not bad, actually.

'At the chief's house,

'he's doing his bit to prove not all men are useless in the kitchen.

'He's making chicken soup with ginger and chilli.'

This dish is relatively simple.

He's very smart not to do anything complicated!

But I think people don't realise, when you're cooking at home,

you should keep it really nice and simple.

'I'm using chilli and garlic to make one of my favourite dishes -

'chicken stir-fry with fresh herbs.'

I'm just going to put my chicken in.

Adding the marinade in there...

..and I'm going to add all my lovely herbs here.

'This is what I love about Chinese food. All you need is a wok,

'a flame and fresh ingredients to make a simple and delicious supper.

'To go with the chicken, I'm making a classic Yunnan dish.

'Pineapple rice.'

Ginger, a little bit of salt.

Then we do our rice.

'The key ingredient in this dish is pre-cooked cold rice,

'ideally a day old, stir-fried in very hot oil.

'To break up the clumps, give the rice a good stir.'

'Then add the pineapple and fresh mint.

'The wood fire gives it a lovely smoky flavour.

'With fresh local ingredients,

'this is traditional village cooking at its best.

-In Thailand, we say "hom".

-What mean "hom"?

Fragrant - if something smells good,

-we say "hom".

-"Hom"?

Fragrant? We are ready.

Just have to wait for Ching and the rest of the women for the fish.

Yeah, everyone is hungry.

So this is the banana leaf wrap, that's the fish.

Ah, beautiful!

ALL: Wow!

She says it's very good!

This is a soup the chief made,

and this is pineapple rice.

-You know what you just ate?

-No.

-It's a centipede.

Oh! That's an interesting flavour!

It's quite sweet.

Yes, but I wouldn't order it every day.

THEY LAUGH

Wow, this rice is delicious!

So inspired by their use of the local ingredients,

fishing for your own fish.

You can't get fresher than that. Isn't that wonderful?

-They're really close to the earth.

-Nature.

-Yes.

'It's our second day in Yunnan Province,

'and we're enjoying a traditional breakfast at the guesthouse.'

Look at her outfit, so beautiful.

-That looks like some sort of vegetable.

-It's fiddlehead fern.

-And I love it - chillies, like in Thailand.

-Garlic, chillies.

This is the most unusual breakfast I've had in China, so far.

This is supposed to be the birthplace of tea,

in the whole of China.

So I'm excited to try the pu-erh tea,

cos that's one of my favourite teas.

It's awfully good for you, it's very cleansing,

and it helps to lower cholesterol,

and helps prevent heart disease - all these good things!

Pu-erh tea, named after a town in Yunnan, came to prominence

when it was drunk by emperors during the Tang Dynasty, 1,300 years ago.

Today it's a global export industry worth millions of pounds.

Unlike most teas which can lose their freshness soon after production,

pu-erh tea is fermented, which improves the taste,

texture and aroma.

The most sought-after pu-erh teas can take 30 years to mature

and one cup of leaves can reach up to £1,000.

After a two-hour journey,

I arrive at the tiny village of Zhanglang,

home to the Bulang minority, who have been growing,

tending and harvesting tea for thousands of years.

Oh look! There's some tea being dried in the sun!

It's a very underdeveloped part of Yunnan.

Wow, we're really high up

and this is a gorgeous little village!

'Zhanglang is home to 45 families, 80% of whom make a living

'from selling pu-erh tea leaves to processing factories.

'Shau-Li and Shau-Lu are two young tea picker friends.'

THEY SPEAK MANDARIN

They started tea picking when they were 11 and 12.

So very young!

They went to primary school, there's a school in the village,

but they left school about ten.

And they've been tea picking ever since.

'We head outside to the plantation so the girls can show me the ropes.'

China's emerging free market economy and state promotion of tea

over the last ten years resulted in an export boom.

Many villages in Yunnan converted their subsistence land

into tea terraces.

This is just, the size of it! It's huge!

I've never experienced a tea plantation this big.

'But an investor buying frenzy

'led to lots of fake pu-erh teas flooding the market.

'And in 2008, the bubble burst,

'and thousands of tea producers went out of business.'

They're super-fast!

It's like a blink and then they've gone through a whole bush.

'But with their organic production methods and indigenous skills,

'passed down through the generations,

'the Bulang were able to brand the authenticity of their pu-erh tea

'and ride out the collapse.'

So this is the best part,

this is the part that they pick off the leaves of the tea.

First the tender shoot, that's coming out,

and the top two leaves - that's the most prized bit.

And it's because it has more tea fragrance,

as opposed to the older leaves.

I've never cooked with these pu-erh green tea leaves before,

so I'm really excited.

It's very tender...

..slightly bitter, but it's good for you!

Cos actually, with tea, in traditional Chinese medicine,

they say that you must have tea in your diet,

because there's that bitterness that we lack.

You can get salt, sweet, sour,

fiery, pungent flavours from many different vegetables,

and fruit, but you can't get bitterness, that flavour profile.

But you can get it from tea.

'After a couple of hours, we're heading back to prepare dinner

'with the leaves we've picked.'

I think the grandmother's the culinary expert.

She's looking at me out of the corner of her eye!

'Even though I've been cooking for years,

'it's always a little nerve-wracking entering another woman's kitchen.'

THEY SPEAK MANDARIN

She was saying normally they cut the chicken into smaller pieces,

but I haven't cut it small enough!

'For dinner, I'm making chicken, infused with pu-erh tea leaves.

'First I'm adding freshly-picked leaves and chicken

'to the hot oil in the wok.'

I love it, it's really woody and smoky

from the wood fire underneath.

'After stir-frying for about four minutes, I add a cup of pu-erh tea,

'made from sun-dried leaves.'

I'm just going to pour the tea in,

together with some of those leaves. Now I'm just going to

slowly let the chicken infuse with the flavours of the tea.

So a quick taste of the seasoning.

You know that the infusion, that soup base,

has now become really sort of bittersweet from the chicken.

It's really delicious, actually.

I quite like the idea of putting some of these pea aubergine in!

Just a handful.

And what I might do is just add another element of sweetness,

and that is from the leaves of the local pumpkin plant here.

So I'm just going to toss that with the pumpkin leaves,

in this tea chicken broth, and then, yeah! We're good to eat!

'If you want to try this recipe at home,

'you can use green tea leaves instead of pu-erh

'and substitute the pea aubergines with diced purple aubergine.

'Now it just remains to be seen what Grandma makes of my efforts.'

She said, "The flavour is good! Not bad!"

HORN BEEPS

'I'm on my way to Jinghong, Yunnan's fastest growing city.

'It's just 40 miles north of the tiny mountain village of Zhanglang.

'But it feels like a world away.'

I actually didn't expect this.

Like a mass construction site.

And things are being excavated like crazy.

The construction is at a frenetic pace.

'I came to China expecting it to have changed

'since my last big trip, 23 years ago.

'But this city is beyond what I imagined -

'brash, gaudy and jam-packed with tourists.'

It's sort of a Chinese Disneyland. The whole place, Las Vegas.

This place will really take off.

'Cultural tourism has been an integral part

'of China's modernisation strategy for 20 years.

'Here in Jinghong, there are 13 different ethnic minorities,

'and their colourful festivals and foods draw Chinese visitors from all over the country.

As the city adapts to the demands of tourism,

I want to know if these minorities have retained

their distinct cultural identities.

I'm in a suburb of Jinghong where many Dai families have set up

small cottage industries producing traditional Yunnan food

for the tourist trade, including one of my absolute favourites.

It's something I grew up with, my mum was a great fan of it,

she used to send me out, getting fresh rice-noodle stir-fries,

and it was a special treat.

Is this it? Oh, it's huge, wow.

Hello, Mr Ken, how are you?

This is Mr Ai! How are you?

Mr Ai and his wife used to be farmers.

Now they run a successful business supplying noodles

to some of the busiest tourist restaurants in the city.

And it's all done from their garage.

This is made from rice flour?

Yes, yes it is.

They soak the rice first and then, they grind it,

and then move it to that big pot.

After the rice is ground into flour,

it's combined with water to make dough.

The exact quantities are a closely guarded family secret.

Finally the dough is passed through a noodle extruder.

It's almost an art, the way she's handling it.

See, none of it breaks, she knows exactly at which point to cut it.

I love it, it's like putting out your laundry!

It all has to do with the weight, and she, she takes it,

and she feels the weight of it, it's too heavy on one side,

and, I guess it's an art, she's been doing it for a while.

She's amazing.

Mrs Ai invites me to have a go.

It's not as even as hers!

What a mess!

No prizes for guessing which one is mine.

Rice-noodles have been established fare in Yunnan for centuries.

They're gluten-free with a silky texture

that absorbs flavours more efficiently

than the less spongy wheat noodles,

which makes them perfect for soups and stir-fries.

SHE SPEAKS MANDARIN

I would like to invite you to have my noodles.

I would be so happy!

It's great to see Dai migrants from the countryside

making a successful living in the city producing traditional food

for the burgeoning tourist industry.

The rice-noodles, apparently, have been an old family recipe,

they were selling it out of their farm before, and they decided

to be more entrepreneurial, which is what has happened in China,

you have these very small families,

that are starting business like this.

This is really the base of capitalism, and who knows,

maybe in the next 30 years, they'll be a gigantic corporation!

HE LAUGHS

Based on this family recipe!

After breakfast, Mr Ai is keen to show me around his house.

Nice living room, a nice sofa...

Oh, that's their son?

THEY SPEAK MANDARIN

He's very cute. How many bedrooms?

Four. Four bedrooms.

Wow, it's very, a very big house!

HE SPEAKS MANDARIN

He says his house is smaller than others!

Oh, really? The neighbours' is much bigger!

Business is clearly booming for Mr Ai and things can only get better

with £1.5 billion earmarked for tourism development in Jinghong.

There's an airport over there!

You're kidding, wow! That's the airport?

Yes, it's under construction.

So many tourists will come and they need more airport

to meet the demand.

I see.

This tourist city might have a Disneyland feel to it.

But from what I've seen today,

the minorities here are really embracing the opportunities it offers.

And it's not at the expense of their cultural and culinary traditions.

They have ambitions.

They thought that their culture, and everything that went with it,

like their cuisine, would be wiped out.

And instead, it's thriving like crazy!

Nowhere is this more evident than in the local market.

This is exciting! It's things I've never seen before!

These local ladies are so elegant with their gloves

This excites me. Wow, this is beautiful.

It's our final night in Yunnan.

Ching is about to join me in Jinghong

so I'm picking up some local ingredients for dinner.

Now, this is something I really wanted to try here,

especially in Yunnan because Yunnan is famous for bamboo.

So several bamboo shoots would be nice.

We have tried these noodles before,

and I want to try one of my favourites,

these are rice-noodles as well,

and they've actually been partially cooked by steaming,

and it's again made with rice-flour and water.

Oh, God, that does look like... Looks like Las Vegas!

All these bright lights, and look, we've got Thailand over there.

Since rice-noodles are a specialty of Yunnan,

I'm using them to make one of my favourite dishes,

stir fried rice-noodles with broad beans and bamboo shoots.

It's really important when you cook rice-noodles

to get the flavour of the wok right.

I love that smoky gou wei, it's so great.

I'm going to add a tiny bit of this lovely chilli oil, the garlic...

Wow, that is fantastic.

But what I'm going to do, I'm just going to take it out for a second,

and I'm going to stir-fry the rest of the vegetables.

I love it, you're a perfectionist cook like my grandmother,

she'd always cook each ingredient perfectly

and them bring them back into the wok to warm through,

and then add the seasoning, like you know, the soy sauce, the vinegar...

Well, good Chinese cooking is in steps,

what I mean by that is you cook one thing

and then you take it out.

I'm putting in the bamboo shoots and the broad beans,

adding a little bit of rice wine to that.

Lovely soy sauce!

There, we just let that cook on quite a high temperature

-until it's sort of cooked and wilted.

-It looks good.

Oyster sauce.

Yum! I love oyster sauce! Am I allowed to try some?

Mmmm! Oh, that's so good!

That is delicious!

This dish is really Yunnan for me, especially with this rice-noodle,

which is very unusual, soft, and...

-Mmmm.

-It's really delicious.

Ching, I don't know about you, but even with all this incredible change

in this place, I don't think the food will change!

Simply because of its long tradition.

They're so proud of their produce, and for me,

the way when I saw the tea farmers farm their farm, and you know,

if that tradition has been going for thousands of years, I know for sure,

tea and food go hand in hand, their food will absolutely be preserved.

It's so good. Cheers, Ken!

To Yunnan, and its food, and its people.

-And to pu-erh tea, and the beer.

-Yes! Absolutely.

-And Disneyland.

-Disneyland!

We're on the second stage of our epic journey

across China's vast Western frontier,

where few travellers dare to venture.

After travelling more than 3,000 miles northwest,

we arrive in Kashgar in Xinjiang province,

which lies on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Kashgar is home to a veiled minority, whose culture

is at odds with the modernising zeal of the ruling Han Chinese.

Gosh, this looks like an ancient medieval city we've come to.

It's really on the far fringes of China.

This city was once a major centre on the Silk Road,

the 7,000 mile trade route that connected

China's Yellow River Valley with India and the Mediterranean.

Today, Kashgar is a deeply divided city.

In the old town, the Uyghurs, Turkic Muslim people from central Asia,

strive to preserve their ancient culture and religious practices.

While in the new city, the recent influx of Han Chinese,

who make up 92% of China's population,

build their skyscrapers with the riches of the region's oil and gas.

This is where the Far East meets the Middle East.

I don't feel like I'm in China, I feel like I'm in Central Asia,

but it's not China.

It's where there have been violent protests

from disenfranchised Uyghurs against the Han Chinese.

And where tradition and modernity are in open conflict.

We've come to the market to find out

if Uyghur culinary and religious customs are surviving

in this ethnically divided city.

This is certainly the most exotic place we've been to in China.

We're met by our guide, Mohammed.

Hi! Hello!

Hey!

Nice to meet you, I am Mohammed. Welcome to Kashgar!

-Nice to meet you, Mohammed!

-Just arrived?

-Yes, we did, yeah.

-Ah, come on, I show you around.

-OK, thanks!

-It's a pleasure.

1,000 years ago, this market would have been overrun with caravans

bringing goods in and out of China on the Northern Silk Road.

Today, with over 5,000 stalls, it's jam packed with traders

hot off the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan.

Raisins!

These are apricot seeds, those are sunflower seeds,

people just mix a little bit of everything,

put it into their pocket.

-Mmm!

-It's delicious, yeah?

Very good.

-You know apricot seed is very good for men.

-HE LAUGHS

Really? Oh.

I won't ask you why! You eat this, you don't need Viagra.

HE LAUGHS

Wandering through the market, it's striking to see one food

that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else in China.

-Ah, wow, this is what I wanted to see.

-Wow! Delicious!

-Can we buy one?

-Yes!

Here, naan bread is sold on virtually every street corner.

Mmmm!

Oh, this I love.

-It's sesame seeds with onion?

-Salt?

Yeah, they just put those on top.

2,000 years ago, the nomadic cattle herders

travelling through this region,

relied on this bread to sustain them in the desert.

Today, Uyghurs consider it to be sacred.

Bread means life.

So you can't throw bread away? It's like throwing away your life?

Never! Even if it's too old, I'd rather take it to somebody,

to just feed their sheep, you know?

With this. I never throw it into the rubbish.

Naan bread is traditionally baked in large outdoor tandoor ovens.

The hot clay walls of the oven bake the bread crispy on the bottom

but leave it soft in the centre.

But the skill lies in getting it to stick onto the oven wall.

OK. Oh, God!

Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, just push it, oh no!

It's fallen down, oh! Ching! Oh, my God, Ching, oh no!

-Where is it?

-Oh, no, my bread!

Oh, God! God, I dread to do this now.

-Just slap it on, Ken.

-OK.

Ah!

SHE LAUGHS

There it is?

Is it? It's not exactly like his.

Wow, there's mine. It's a new take on a calzone.

THEY LAUGH

Poor Ching!

Hey, this could be a new innovation here,

this style of bread, it's a new way of eating!

In 2009, the Chinese government began a £300 million clear up

of Kashgar, demolishing mosques, markets and centuries-old houses

in the Uyghur dominated old city.

How many people still live around here?

About 200,000, more than half of the population of the Kashgar city

are living in the old city.

It's really packed now!

Is it because it's convenient?

Because they've been living in this town for many, many generations,

about 1,000 years and, you know, they grew up here,

they like their home, you know most of the houses are inherited

from their, you know, parents, or grandparents.

Everybody knows each other in the neighbourhood.

Right.

Many Uyghurs are trying hard to resist assimilation

with the Han Chinese.

And one way they're doing it is through food.

One thing us Cantonese don't eat much of is lamb.

But in Kashgar, it's both a ceremonial and an everyday meat.

And every Kashgari knows there's only one place to buy it.

Thousands of people swarm into Kashgar every Sunday

for the livestock market.

It's a disorientating cacophony of animals,

car horns and bartering traders.

COW MOOS

Today is particularly busy because Noruz is coming up,

an ancient Persian festival celebrated by Uyghurs,

which marks the coming of spring.

And lamb is as essential to that as turkey is to a British Christmas.

With the market so busy,

we're relieved to have Mohammed's friend Wahub to show us around.

This animal market has been happening for over 2,000 years.

Wow!

It's crazy, I feel like we've stepped back in olden times.

It's like, back to the time of Genghis Khan!

We're meeting the number one roast lamb chef in Kashgar.

He's got an order for a new year's celebration

and is here to find the best sheep.

Hello!

This is one of the best quality sheep. Three years old.

Three years old, you can tell by the teeth?

Yes.

And why would you buy the three-year-old, is it different?

Yes, if it's younger, it's better quality.

The taste of sheep is more delicious.

If the sheep's ear is bigger, it's much better.

Really? For taste?

For taste and for breeding.

We're keen to know how the chef is going to prepare and roast the lamb,

so he invites us to his kitchen to observe an age-old tradition.

Hello!

This is the sheep? That he's going to slaughter?

He's going to slaughter it here, it must be done by Halal way.

It it's not, it's not possible to eat.

Before he slaughter, he must read the Koran.

He's reading the Koran and slaughtering.

39-year-old Osmanjan has been in the business for 15 years,

learning his skill from his father.

Very quick. That was fast, huh?

After the sheep is slaughtered,

air is pumped into the skin to make it easier for the chef to remove it.

He's a real expert.

He is a real expert.

The Muslim people, we don't eat the blood.

-That's why you don't save it?

-We don't save it.

Cos we keep the blood, chicken's blood, pig's blood,

and we make little, like rice cakes.

A sausage.

-And we grill it, it's actually quite good. No?

-No.

It's reassuring to see

that a centuries old Islamic culinary tradition,

is still going strong.

It's like an eggy, starchy wash?

Yes, and also when it's roasted, it's not burned.

Oh, protects it from the burning.

-I mean, it's not what I expected it to look like.

-No, no.

THEY SPEAK UYGHUR

Grandfather, and grandfather's father.

For many generations.

And his two uncles.

He's the number five.

Wow!

He said a prayer.

He says this at the start, and it helps with a successful ending.

I think it's beautiful, it's like a ritual.

Yes, like that, yes.

The chef has asked me

to make a dish to complement the lamb for the new year's feast.

I've cooked a lot of places in my time but this, this beats it!

I want to use local ingredients but with my Chinese style of cooking.

There's the chef's daughters, over there.

They look like him!

I'm making my version of a very famous Uyghur dish called polo.

This is rice pilaf flavoured with onion, fine strips of carrot,

dried fruit and nuts.

Add a little bit of water just boiling here,

which I'll flavour with some saffron that I got at the market.

The saffron should go into hot water.

This helps release the aroma that will infuse the dish.

I'm also adding a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of cumin.

That'll be flavourful.

Cumin isn't a spice we use much in Chinese cooking

because it's got such a strong flavour.

But it's very popular in Middle Eastern dishes.

When the oil is hot in the wok, add two chopped onions

and stir fry for about a minute.

Then add the carrots, salt and pepper

and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.

I'm just putting in some celery,

trying to use everything that it's in their resources.

That's local, yeah.

I'm going to cover that, because that will maximise the temperature.

This should be left to simmer for around eight minutes.

I have here some lovely pistachio and apricot seeds, and some raisins.

We're really here at the crossroads of east and west.

And this is very Middle Eastern, using all these nuts.

Next, the rice goes in.

Now this rice is a little bit like short grain, we'll just warm it up.

What I'll add is my liquid of water and saffron,

a little bit of salt and spices.

Finally add the pistachio nuts, apricot kernels raisins

and chopped celery leaves.

It's different, it's good different, the taste is good,

and it looks pretty and colourful.

OK, thank you, Chef.

The onions are really sweet, the rice is cooked through and tender,

the raisins in there really add a sweetness, yeah,

and the apricot kernels, a good crunch! Good texture.

Wow! That's amazing!

Wow!

That's great! It looks so ceremonial.

After a few embellishments,

the lamb is ready to go to the new year's feast.

Noruz is the most important date on the Uyghur calendar,

so it's an honour to be able to deliver the lamb

and my rice polo to a family celebration.

So, Ken, we go to the men, the men's party,

and, Ching, you go to the ladies' party here.

-Oh, OK, so it's separate.

-It's separate.

OK. Well that's nice, isn't it? But that's their culture.

So it's something I'm not used to.

So is this a tradition that men and women eat separately?

-Yes, that's one of our traditions

-Is that every day, or...?

No, once a year.

Once a year? Other times they eat together?

They eat together, yes.

OK, so how will the women have the lamb?

They bring some big plates, and just take it to the ladies' part.

All the food today was made by all the women, by all, uh,

her mum-in-law's family, and the sisters, they don't question,

you know, that's the way they have lived for many, many years.

I'd like to wish them all a very prosperous new year!

HE SPEAKS UYGHUR

We've left the new year's celebration behind to go to Mohammed's house

where we've been invited to his family's Noruz festivities.

Mohammed, is this it?

Yes, we have arrived, yeah.

Once again we're entering the domain of a formidable group of women.

-This is my mother. This is my wife.

-Hello.

-Hello.

This is my uncle's wife. This is my younger sister.

It's going to be a real privilege to cook with these women.

Particularly as men are usually banned from their kitchen.

Wow, Mohammed, your wife is really quick,

really good at making the noodles, huh?

Everything is prepared by hand, it tastes better, huh?

-I agree.

-I agree.

The Uyghurs, like Italians, are pasta specialists

and claim to make 72 different varieties.

Today the ladies are making two family favourites.

So the thickness should be all the same.

Mohammed's wife is showing me

how to make laghman,

the famous hand-pulled noodles of this region.

SHE SPEAKS MANDARIN

Oh, OK!

I said that this is quite a thick noodle, and she said,

"No, it goes through another stage, we pull it to make it thinner."

It's a two stage process.

First we roll the dough, made of flour and water, into long sausages.

Then we coil them around the circular base of an oiled tin

and leave them to rest for half an hour.

Well, the dough is ready now.

Meanwhile, Mohammed's mother is making chuchura,

which is a dumpling soup.

So this is for the dumpling,

how long has she been making these dumplings?

THEY SPEAK UYGHUR

About 50 years!

I can just tell by the way she moves, she's, she's very skilled.

First she rolls out the dough, which is made from egg whites

rather than yolks so that she can stretch it out more.

Instead of having a very big thing to roll, she rolls it,

like, on one thing.

This is how Italians also do pasta.

I paid my way through university by giving lessons

in how to make Italian pasta.

Now, I feel like the student.

Side by side, wow!

It's so clever

This was worth the trip out here, to see this.

Absolutely.

Once Mohammed's mother has cut the dough into small squares,

we roll them into parcels, which are then stuffed with alfalfa sprouts.

Oh, they're just like tortellini! That's a vegetable tortellini!

Take a little bit...

-Fold it into itself, like that.

-Like that?

As the honorary male cook, I want to know if I've passed the test

with the women of the house.

THEY SPEAK UYGHUR

Ken is OK though.

I think she's telling him off!

You should come in the kitchen more often!

She says she was really impressed,

she said, "Our men should come to the kitchen too!"

Aw, yeah I agree! All men!

It needed no translation, it needed no translation!

THEY LAUGH

The dumplings need to boil for five minutes

until they become translucent.

Meanwhile, I head outside to find out how Mohammed's aunty

is getting on with the rest of the meal.

-So this is just the sauce for the noodles, right?

-Yeah.

There's no meat in this one?

There is meat in it! Lamb in it.

Oh, OK, lamb everywhere!

I'm helping Mohammed's aunt finish the laghman noodles.

The first step is to pull each length of the noodle

onto an oiled board.

Just pull.

She's kind of working the dough, spinning it.

Then she winds the noodles around her hands.

And now for the most difficult part, stretching them out.

It looks like she's playing cat's cradle! Wow!

Wow!

Then they go into a wok of boiling water for three minutes.

Uh, she took it like that.

SHE GIGGLES

This is a long piece of noodle!

Bang it, pull it, bang it, slap it against the board, that's it!

Ta-da!

It's the end of our time in Kashgar

and our exploration of China's ethnic minority cuisines.

-Please.

-Thank you.

-We'll start with the noodles.

This is the one you pulled?

Mm, this I really, really am in love with the noodles.

It really is springy and delicious,

it's really satisfying making your own noodles!

China is so diverse, so many different people,

different ideas, different religions, different cultures.

The Dai minority, the Bulang minority, through food that's,

that's their identity, then now the Uyghurs, that's their culture,

just right on the plate right there.

It says it all. It's magnificent!

Mohammed, to you, and your whole family, thank you very much!

What I've learned and discovered by coming to Kashgar and Yunnan,

is I think it's deepened my understanding about China.

Even though they're within the Chinese nation,

they haven't lost their local traditions,

which I think is very important.

'Next time, we journey to Guangdong province...'

This is where my culinary soul is.

'..to explore the many faces of Cantonese cuisine...'

Oh, my God, alligators!

'..and culture in the city where my parents met.'

They're going to sing my mother's favourite aria.

Very touched.

Before we complete our journey across China

with an emotional pilgrimage to our ancestral homes.

My food memory started here and I think I have come a full circle.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd