Dajiujia (Stir-fried Erkuai)

Dajiujia is built on Tengchong's own erkuai rice cake, sliced thin and stir-fried with ham or pork, egg, tomato, fermented chilli and greens until glossy red, savoury with a faint tang — Tengchong's most representative dish.

Legend has it that around 1658, as Qing armies entered Yunnan and Wu Sangui hounded the Southern Ming emperor Zhu Youlang westward, the fugitive emperor reached Tengchong near starvation; local people stirred their finest erkuai, ham, egg and greens into a single plate, and the emperor sighed that "stir-fried erkuai has saved my imperial person," giving the dish its name. Tengchong has worked erkuai and ersi rice cakes for several centuries.

Made to order and served with a clear soup, the thin erkuai soaks up the savoury meat and the sour heat of the fermented chilli, soft yet chewy, eaten as a main course and the headline dish of the little restaurants in Heshun old town.

The soft-chewy bite of erkuai, the sour-savoury of fermented chilli and tomato, and the legend of the emperor it is said to have saved are what set Dajiujia apart from ordinary fried rice-cake.