Tengchong Spring: Buying Edible Flowers at a Yunnan Market

Channel: Lala Chinese Published: March 23, 2025 Duration: 8:03 Views: 69.0K

What this video shows

Lala, a Mandarin teacher who has recently moved to Tengchong in Yunnan province, spends a spring day shopping for edible flowers and vegetables at a local market and then cooking lunch at home. She walks past rapeseed fields in bloom, asks a vendor how to prepare magnolia flowers, and negotiates the price down. Near the market she visits an ancient town where shops sell Yunnan flower cakes, and she asks a seller about the ingredients. Back home she washes and cooks the magnolia with eggs and ginger, stir-fries rapeseed shoots, and eats both with a flower cake in place of rice.

At a glance

LocationTengchong, Yunnan province
SettingSmall city with a market and an ancient town nearby
What it coversSpring market shopping for edible flowers and home cooking
Costs mentionedMagnolia flowers, RMB 10 (about $1.40) a bag, bargained to RMB 8 (about $1.10); cymbidium pot, RMB 60 (about $8.40); rapeseed shoots, RMB 1 (about $0.14) per bunch
Time of dayDaytime, from a morning market visit to a home lunch

What stands out

Flowers are treated as ordinary produce rather than decoration: magnolia petals are chopped and stir-fried with egg, ginger and garlic, and the vendor says the same flower can be stewed, stir-fried or steeped in water, and helps with sinusitis. The magnolia was picked that morning and grown at home by the seller, while the cymbidium in a pot is ornamental and cannot be eaten. Flower cakes are made from fresh rose or jasmine petals, flour and lard, which the seller says gives the pastry its flaky texture; rose vinegar is sold by the barrel and drunk as a beverage. Lala admits her cooking is poor, finds the magnolia dish too salty, and calls the shop-made flower cake the best she has had.

Video transcript

Hi everyone! I am Lala. Welcome to join me to learn authentic Chinese in daily life. Recently, I moved to Tengchong, Yunnan. It's a place with fresh air and warm weather. Tengchong's spring is especially beautiful. There are flowers everywhere. The air is filled with the fragrance of flowers. This is rapeseed flower. Rapeseed is used to make oil. Rapeseed flowers can be stir-fried or served as a cold dish. But I can't steal vegetables here. I need to go to the market to take a look. In Yunnan, people not only like to grow flowers but also like to use

various flowers to make food. Especially in spring. Excuse me, is this magnolia flower? Magnolia. How do you cook this after buying it? Stew it with eggs. Stir-fry it. Or steep it in water to drink. This can also be stir-fried! Yes, it helps with sinusitis. How much is this? 10 yuan for a bag. 10 yuan for a bag? It's a bit expensive. Can it be cheaper? 8 yuan for a bag. Chop it up and mix it with eggs. Oh, chop it. Then stir-fry it with eggs. It's quite fresh. It was just picked this morning. Hmm, yes. It is quite fresh. It's grown in your own home,

right? Yes, grown at home. What is that yellow flower? Cymbidium. Cymbidium. How much is that pot? 60 yuan per pot. 60 yuan. It will bloom for another two months. Oh, it can bloom for two more months. Yes, yes. That one can't be eaten, right? This one can't be eaten. Is this rapeseed shoots? Yes. This is rapeseed shoots. How much is this? 1 yuan per bunch. 1 yuan per bunch. What is this? Is this also rapeseed? This is green vegetable stems. Oh, This is green vegetable stems. Then I'll take these two bunches. Okay. After I got home, I realized that what I

bought wasn't rapeseed flowers but another kind of vegetable. Near the market, there is a beautiful ancient town. There are many shops selling flower cakes. Flower cakes are a specialty of Yunnan. Excuse me, are these rose petals inside? Yes. Petals, flour, and oil. They are fresh flower petals. Yes. Only roses? Do you use other flowers? (Also) There are jasmine ones. Oh, there are also jasmine ones. Yes. After pressing it into a cake, you just put it in the oven and bake it, right? Yes. Then what kind of oil is used? Lard. Lard. Hmm, yes. Lard makes it

flaky. Is this big barrel rose wine? Oh, rose vinegar. Drink it as a beverage. Drink it as a beverage. This is my lunch today. Magnolia flowers and Rapeseed shoots, and Flower cakes. Let's wash the magnolia flowers. The vegetable seller said to chop the petals then add ginger, garlic, and eggs. Then mix them together. Although I've never eaten magnolia flowers, rapeseed shoots are quite common in China. They are a common vegetable. For those who cook often or rarely, you can probably tell that I'm not very good at cooking. However, now I practice cooking

every day. The color still looks good, right? Do you remember what it looked like before? Now it doesn't look very good. Hmm, although it doesn't look good, it doesn't taste very good either. But I think it's because my cooking skills are not good, not because of the eggs or the flowers. It's too salty. I hope this one isn't too salty. Rapeseed, delicious. Rapeseed. It tastes very tender. It really has the taste of spring. Because I didn't cook rice today, let's use this flower cake as the main dish. You can really smell the rose fragrance. You can see

there are many rose petals inside. Actually, I didn't like flower cakes before, but this is really the best flower cake I've ever had. Maybe it's because my cooking was too bad. If you come to Yunnan, I really recommend you try this flower cake. It must be the handmade ones where you can see in the shop them using fresh petals to make the flower cakes. Because I've bought them in other places before, Yunnan flower cakes, but they are really different. The taste is different. This one is better. Let me try it again. That's it for today's video. Thank you

for watching. See you next time, bye-bye!

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