[0:00] Throughout Yunnan today you can find a herbaceous 
and spicy mix of flavor called Youqiang. There's  
[0:07] Youqiang tribe, Youqiang marrow, Youqiang shrimp, Youqiang heart, 
Youqiang whatever. And this flavor itself comes from  
[0:14] the city of Jinghong right at the heart of the 
Dai minority region next to the Laotian border. And  
[0:20] what it is, it's a mix of lemongrass, spicy fresh 
chili, ginger, and garlic. and all pounded in a  
[0:28] very traditional Dai way. Then put together 
in a sizzling stir fry with dried chilies and  
[0:34] Sichuan peppercorns over some really strong flame. 
But this is a puzzle. If you know anything about  
[0:40] Dai food or its cousins down in Thailand, you 
might have know that those cuisines don't really  
[0:46] lean on that much oil. They will stir fry it, but 
as a cooking technique, stir frying is a lot less  
[0:53] common than grilling, deep frying, boiling, and 
steaming. But in a Youqiang, there's not only dried  
[1:00] chilies and Sichuan peppercorns in a stir fry. That 
oil quantity, it's matching some hunan or Sichuan  
[1:08] cooking level. Now, there have been waves of 
immigrants into Sabang Pana over the years,  
[1:14] and among them, there are such people. Some came 
back in early 20th century and back then many  
[1:21] of them end up just becoming die. Then after 49 
there were agriculturalists sent to develop the  
[1:28] cash crop plantation industry and over time some 
stayed and some returned home. Then post reform  
[1:35] and opening basically from the 80s until today 
there's a more pronounced influx of people into  
[1:42] Jing Hong following the city's development from 
this humble Mikong River town into its current  
[1:48] day status as the Chinese Honolulu. But this is a 
puzzle. If it's just another Satron migrants dish,  
[1:56] why does it use basically the Thai holy trinity? 
and especially why it's pounded in that distinct  
[2:04] Southeast Asian cooking style. Well, we don't 
have an answer for that. There's no record of  
[2:09] chefs or restaurants who first started to Yo 
Chang. But what is clear is that Ching Hong  
[2:15] sits geographically and demographically at 
the intersection between Southwest Chinese  
[2:22] and Southeast Asian cooking systems. So probably 
it's only a matter of time before someone fuses  
[2:29] this great cuisines together and yo it's tasty. So 
today we'll show you how to make a jingong yo yo  
[2:37] tribe is one of the most classic yoang dishes but 
because it's a newer dish from the ' 90s you can  
[2:44] basically yo anything. So, we'll also show you how 
to make a yo-yang shrimp, but using the Cantonese  
[2:52] shrimp preparation hako. It's really good in a 
yoang context because the shrimp really takes on  
[2:59] the zoo flavor. And personally, I do hope some in 
maybe really consider adding this to their menu.  
[3:08] I do think it will be a hit. Anyway, now I'll 
hand it off to Chris who will walk you through  
[3:14] the process of yo chang. So, right, two core legs 
of our yo-chang, the die bit and the sichuan bit.  
[3:22] The latter is pretty dead easy on the sourcing 
front. You'll need 10 g of dried chilies. These  
[3:28] guys were sichron argental, but cayenne, guajillo, 
arble, Aleppo, really whatever tasty that you got,  
[3:35] together with one teaspoon of cichron peppercorns. 
And then that's that. Then the die half is  
[3:41] actually not too bad. We will be finishing our 
stir fry with this stuff, cilantro. It's a nice  
[3:47] herb also seen in viet Thai and Mexican cooking. 
But push comes a shove, you could swap it for  
[3:53] cilantro. But the important part, the base of 
it all, all it is is just five cloves of garlic,  
[3:59] roughly chopped, 10 g of fresh spicy chilies, also 
roughly chopped, and an inch and a half of ginger,  
[4:05] also roughly chopped. Then we've also got 40 g 
of lemongrass, which will split into the core and  
[4:12] also the harder, more fibrous tops. This dish is 
actually kind of unique in actually using up those  
[4:19] tops. But if your lemongrass is already topless, 
that's also completely fine. So then we'll then  
[4:25] pound those, tossing that dye mix into a mortar 
and going at it. Now, if you don't have a mortar,  
[4:32] I do think that a food processor might work. 
Just don't take things too too fine. We do want  
[4:37] something about like this in the end, which 
for us took about 5 minutes of pounding. Then  
[4:43] the last thing before yo changing anything is a 
simple stir fry sauce. Now, Thai food in Yunan is  
[4:50] kind of interesting to me in that compared 
to the similar cuisines of North Thailand,  
[4:55] they seem to swap the fish sauce for soy sauce 
and the blah for oyster sauce. orders, I guess,  
[5:02] apparently do matter for something. So, right, two 
primaries for you to choose from today. We've got  
[5:09] shrimp and we've got tripe. The stirfry process 
being exactly the same for both of them. But to  
[5:15] prep those for the tripe, we've got about 300 g 
worth rolled up and cut into about 2 cm pieces  
[5:22] and then quickly quickly blanched in boiling 
water for a very brief 10 seconds. Then remove,  
[5:28] dump it in some cool water and rinse that well 
under cool water to stop the cooking process  
[5:33] because tripe does cook in a flash. So then just 
drain that well and then our tripe is prepped.  
[5:40] Then for the shrimp, I should probably say at 
first that my way of prepping shrimp for stir  
[5:45] fry is definitely kind of anal. Um, I'm going to 
be doing me, but definitely shrimp how you want to  
[5:51] shrimp. This prep is the one Canney style that 
we covered in detail in our previous maximally  
[5:57] delicious shrimp video. The long and short of it 
is to get your shelled shrimp, rinse off the gunk,  
[6:03] and let it soak with a teaspoon of sodium 
carbonate or consu together with some water for  
[6:08] about 5 to 10 minutes. Then you take that, rinse 
it really well, and then let it sit under a good  
[6:13] trickle of running water for another 5 or 10, 
give or take. Then you drain that well, pat it,  
[6:19] and then toss it on a towel and wrap everything 
up to ensure that your shrimps are really, really  
[6:24] dry. Then you take those, about 300 g worth at 
this point, and butterfly them by cutting into the  
[6:31] back, opening them up like a book, and removing 
any digestive tracks that remain. Work through  
[6:36] those, then marinate them with an eighth teaspoon 
salt, 1/4 teaspoon each, sugar, white pepper,  
[6:41] and shaing wine. mix. Then toss in a gug of 
about a tablespoon of oil to coat. And again,  
[6:48] definitely prep your shrimp how you want to prep 
them. But this is a really delicious way and it's  
[6:54] ready to fry. So to do so, to a hot walk, swirl in 
4 tablespoons of oil and over a medium high flame,  
[7:01] toss in your Sichuan leg. Fry those until the 
chilies begin to get a bit chestnut colored.  
[7:07] Then optionally color that oil with a teaspoon 
of a red fragrant chili powder like Kashmir or  
[7:12] gochugaru. Once it's stained about 15 seconds or 
so, go in with your pounded diale. Mix it and then  
[7:19] up your flame to maximum. Fry that all until you 
can begin to see the oil once again after about  
[7:24] 1 minute. Then go in with your ingredient, tripe 
or shrimp. Fry the shrimp until it looks mostly  
[7:31] cooked, about 30 seconds. Tripe only needs about 
10 seconds. Then the sauce. Mix it for another 15  
[7:38] seconds or so. Then heat off cilantro or cilantro 
in. Mix it again and out. And that's how you fry  
[7:46] up a yo- ch. So, right. How to enjoy this thing? 
As you might be able to tell from the intro that  
[7:54] organ meat is very classic in a yo chang. Well, 
that's because organs often have a lot of nooks  
[8:00] and crannies for the flavors to get into. So if 
you are vegetarian um maybe something like a fuju  
[8:07] tofu steak or some kind of deep fried tofu will be 
great in this application. In fact at restaurants  
[8:14] in Yunan, you will sometimes be able to find some 
uh yoang deep fried stinky tofu which is really  
[8:20] really good. And if you are organizing a meal 
I think you will be able to squeeze yang into  
[8:27] a d or a northern Thailand meal which we actually 
did when testing. However, in my personal opinion,  
[8:33] I do think Yo Chang will be easier to be placed 
in a southwest Chinese context such as a guel  
[8:42] central Yunan or a satry meal. So, right, as 
always, uh recipes down in description box. We  
[8:49] will have full recipes for both the shrimp and 
the tribe version. And of course, a huge thank  
[8:55] you for everyone that's supporting us on Patreon. 
and subscribe for more fun Chinese cooking videos.
[9:03] [music]
[9:06] I say I'm fine.
[9:16] [music]
[9:17] [music]
[9:17] [music]