AFTER seeing commercials for the Yelang Kingdom Restaurant of Guizhou flavor Zhou Jian couldn’t wait to dine there.

　　Aside from the fact that he’s from Guizhou, Zhou has a special reason to love Guizhou food.

　　“Food from Guizhou is green food. Unpolluted young bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and edible wild plants assimilate the essence of our mountains and thus are my favorite,” said Zhou.

　　Zhou said it is interesting that the restaurant is named Yelang Kingdom. The “arrogant Yelang” is a Chinese idiom describing someone who is full of ludicrous conceit. But how does it relate to a restaurant that serves Guizhou dishes?

　　One of the waitresses said that the ancient Yelang Kingdom was part of Guizhou Province during the Han Dynasty, when China was scattered into different kingdoms. The Yelang Kingdom was a remote neighbor to the Han empire. While Yelang was bigger than neighboring kingdoms to the southwest, it was smaller than the Han empire.

　　However, the king of Yelang once asked an ambassador from Han which kingdom was bigger, the Han or Yelang, and thus gave himself — and Yelang in general — a reputation for arrognace.

　　Guizhou dishes are very different from local Cantonese dishes. Guizhou food is a little like Sichuan food, in that it contains a lot of peppers. The difference lies in that Guizhou dishes are saltier and do not contain Chinese prickly ash, a widely used seasoning in Sichuan cuisine.

　　In addition to the salty and spicy flavor, Guizhou cuisine is characterized by its use of natural ingredients from the mountains. This is to be expected since Guizhou is a very mountainous area.

　　On the Yelang Kingdom Restaurant’s menu you will find long list of dishes made of tender bamboo shoots, preserved peppers and other unexpected specialties.

　　Among them, chicken stewed with bamboo shoots is the chef’s choice. Without any strong-flavored seasonings, the dish is extremely light and delicious, preserving and even enhancing the original flavor of the chicken and bamboo shoots. And it is one of the few dishes on the menu that is not salty or hot.

　　Zhergen (houttuynia cordata), a herb mixed with sauces and served over cold dishes, is a specialty in the province. This herb is believed to be able to eliminate internal toxins and reduce inflammation.

　　About nine out of 10 people consider zhergen a Guizhou specialty. But those tasting it for the first time may find it a little hard to swallow. Like the strong-smelled fruit durian, it has certain followers but some simply can’t accept its unique flavor.

　　Historically, due to Guizhou’s remote geographic position and lack of adequate transportation routes, people there tended to preserve meat in salt water and then smoke it to increase its shelf life.

　　Though people in other inner provinces also make larou, dried and smoked pork, it usually tastes totally different than larou from Guizhou. Perhaps Guizhou’s unique climate has something to do with it.

　　Suantangyu, fish in sour soup, is also a renowned Guizhou dish. The soup is made of wild tomatoes and glutinous rice powder. All the ingredients are spiced and fermented in a large jar for more than a month.

　　Guizhou people have an old saying that states “a person who doesn’t drink suantangyu soup once a day will not be strong.”

　　Yelang Kingdom Restaurant offers folk dance performances at 7:30 p.m. and all customers who arrive in time for the show will be treated to a free glass of home-made rice wine.

　　With a spacious dining room and exotic decor from Guizhou, such as wax printing hangings, ethnic embroideries, articles woven from bamboo and a huge reed flute, the restaurant offers a pleasant respite from the hustle and bustle of downtown.