Rushan (Bai Milk Fan)

Rushan is a traditional Bai solid dairy food made by heating fresh cow's milk with an edible acid broth until it curdles, then stretching the curd into thin sheets wound on slender rods to dry; the finished fan, ivory or pale yellow and shaped like a folding fan, is richly fragrant and nourishing, centred on the Dengchuan area of Eryuan county.

Rushan was anciently called "milk thread" or "rice thread"; the Ming-era Annals of Nanzhao records a line about "milk-thread floating green in the cup," suggesting the craft may reach back to the Yuan dynasty, and it is said to be linked to dairy techniques brought by Mongols who settled after Kublai Khan's southern campaign—a clever invention of the Bai for keeping and carrying milk.

Rushan can be pan-fried, deep-fried, grilled, boiled or cold-tossed; the most common street version is grilled rushan, softened over charcoal, spread with rose-sugar jam and rolled up so a crisp skin yields to a chewy, milky centre woven with floral sweetness; it is also chopped into the second, sweet course of the Bai three-course tea.

Its singular fan shape, full milky aroma and the floral sweetness of rose sugar, together with the crisp-yet-chewy texture after grilling, are the unmistakable marks of rushan.