It’s Trevor James

And it is 6:30 in the morning

I am in deep Southern Sichuan

I’ve been riding my bike since 4 in the morning

I have a 100km to bike today

We’re going to a little town

Butuo

And it’s a Yi Minzu

Yi minority group of people

There’s going to be a lot of good food

Actually, I have no idea what we’re going to find

But we’re going to look

And I have a lot of biking to do today

Visiting the rural side of China is always a great experience

Whether you ride a bike or take a bus

You can go to little villages where few travellers ever go

And see sights and discover new foods and cultures

This trip involved a 12 hour intense ride to Butuo

A little farmers village in South Sichuan

Endless little villages and fields and mountains

Made it truly spectacular

It was one of the most beautiful rides and towns I’ve been to

You can get a true feel for rural life in China

The local morning market was packed with vendors

Selling live chickens and wool

But I couldn’t find anything to eat on the spot

So I went to the first little place that looked good for breakfast

And then explored around for more food in the afternoon

So we’re going to have a classic morning breakfast here in China

This is like fresh hot soybean milk

And this is like a rice porridge

We’re getting a full Chinese breakfast

Look at that

So we’re going to start of with a fresh steamy steamy baozi

There is going to be fresh pork in there and veg

Let’s try it out

It’s so juicy

That is delicious

It tastes like really juicy slightly salty pork

This is youtiao

Basically deep fried dough

You can find this all over China

All over the breakfast joints like this place

And you can just dip it right into the zhou

This rice porridge

It’s crispy deep fried dough

That’s alright

This one really doesn’t have much flavour

That’s great

So what’s nice is you can wash it all down with this steaming hot soybean milk

After breakfast I went out for a little ride deep into the countryside

The beautiful scenery really made it a great experience

Seeing children as young as 7 or 8 working in the fields on the schooldays

And caring for their younger siblings

Really put things into perspective

I met a lady farming potatoes

Who asked me for water

It really made me realize how hard life in the fields can be

And how we take for granted how much work goes into growing food

After giving her all of her water

I made my way back to the village in search of lunch

I got lucky

I found a Yi Jia Le

Yi food

Minority food

And we’re going to try it out

But the cooking process couldn’t begin without first taking some pictures together

Then, 30 minutes later

It was time to feast

Look at this

We have a plate full of local fresh potatoes here

These are grown right here in Liangshan

Wow

I have no idea how we’re going to eat all of that

This is like Chinese cured pork

This is qiaomai

Qiaomai cakes I should say

Buckwheat cakes

That looks interesting

This is like baby pig chunks

Covered in chilies and garlic

Boiled and steaming hot

And then over here I really don’t know what this is

I’ll be honest

This is something completely new

A lot of this is new to me

Everything looks

This looks earthy

Look at that soup

It’s full of veg

Looks like there is some beans in there

Chilies

Amazing

First thing I’m going to try is the tuotuo rou

This is what everyone says you have to try

Look at that

Baby pig chunks

Covered in chilies and garlic

That is really fatty

It tastes just like boiled pork

It’s really juicy

A slight chili flavour

Not too spicy

We’re going to try this local soup here

That is like really earthy

I can tell it’s right from the dirt

Wow

The greens in there are quite strong

Now we’re going to go for the qiaomai buckwheat cake

This is super unique

It tastes exactly like buckwheat

Really there is no other flavour to it

Look at this

Look at this sausage

It’s like complete fat

Complete fat with one little chunk of meat

This is all really good

It’s quite simple

Full of energy

They give you whole potatoes just to eat

Full of energy

I’m so lucky to be eating this right now

In the Yi minority restaurant here

I am just so happy and lucky to be eating this

I’ve got the potatoes I’m going to take on my bike ride back to the main city tomorrow

Have some meat, that was great food

I shared the rest of the unfinished food with the kitchen

I wasn’t expecting the portions to be that big

And after a big rest that evening

I made my way back 120 km to Xichang the next morning

Through mountains and surprisingly cold weather in August

What an unforgettable experience

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It was a wonderful trip down into the deep southern Sichuan on the bike

Completely beautiful

Completely exhausting

And it was totally worth it to meet the local people

Walk around

Bike around

Awesome food

Awesome experience

Thanks again

I got a little bit more biking to do

Back to the main village

Awesome fun