China South of the Clouds

I stumbled upon this dish on my very first trip to Xishuangbanna. I ordered it kind of accidentally in a restaurant on the outskirts of Jinghong that was located in a mall built to look like a collection of Dai-style houses. The restaurant’s specialty was grilled chicken, but the waiters thought my small pigeon-like bird wouldn’t be enough food, so they suggested I add this is the dish to the meal. And it blew me away. It was minty and gingery and spicy, and unlike any dish I’d ever had in Yunnan.

This dish is best if you can make it over a very high flame, like a traditional wok-stove flame so that the meat will brown before the herbs have completely wilted and lost their flavor. If you have a more normal American stove, you can reverse some of the steps and add the herbs just before the meat is done.

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp – 1/4 cup sliced Thai or bird’s eye chiles
3/4 lb finely chopped or ground beef
1 1/2 packed cups mint, roughly chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Prepare the beef (if ground) by breaking it up with a fork so that it has a loose consistency. In a large wok, heat the oil over the highest heat possible until it begins to smoke. Add the ginger and the chiles to the oil, then immediately add the beef. Stir-fry the mixture, using the wok shovel to break up any large pieces of meat. When the meat has begun to brown, add the mint and cilantro. Continue to stir-fry the mixture for another minute until the greens have wilted slightly, then add the soy sauce by pouring it across the side of the wok in an arc so that it is distributed throughout the meat. Continue to stir-fry the mixture until the meat is fully browned (the timing will vary depending on how hot your stove is; if the flame is fairly low, the mint may end up more wilted than in the above photo). Remove the meat from the wok, draining off the oil.

Photo: Georgia Freedman