---
title: 'The Chinese stir fry with Southeast Asian flavors (云南油呛)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=0m-FKRRScs4'
video_id: '0m-FKRRScs4'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 566
---

# The Chinese stir fry with Southeast Asian flavors (云南油呛)

> Source: [The Chinese stir fry with Southeast Asian flavors (云南油呛)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0m-FKRRScs4)

## Summary

Youqiang (油呛) is a spicy, herbaceous stir-fry from Jinghong, Yunnan, that uniquely blends Dai (Southeast Asian) flavors with Sichuan heat. The dish combines a pounded paste of lemongrass, chili, ginger, and garlic with dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns, fried in generous oil. This video explains the cultural fusion behind Youqiang and demonstrates how to make it with tripe or shrimp.

### Key Points

- **What is Youqiang** [0:00] — Youqiang is a stir-fry from Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, mixing Dai (Southeast Asian) aromatics with Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies.
- **Two core components** [0:20] — The Dai paste is pounded in a mortar from lemongrass, fresh chili, ginger, and garlic. The Sichuan part uses dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns.
- **Cultural fusion** [2:04] — The dish likely emerged from the intersection of Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking in Jinghong, though its exact origin is unknown.
- **Tripe and shrimp recipes** [5:09] — Two versions: tripe (blanched 10 seconds) and shrimp (Cantonese-style prepped with soda water, then butterflied and marinated).
- **Cooking method** [6:54] — The stir-fry process: fry Sichuan chilies and peppercorns in oil, add pounded Dai paste, then the protein, then sauce (soy, oyster sauce), finish with cilantro.

## Transcript

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