Section / eating
What to eat in Lijiang
Naxi baba, mushroom hotpot, cured pork, rose cakes, and the basin's own table.
7 dishes / what to order and where
In this section
07
entries in the ledger
Lijiang's food is built around wheat, pork, mushrooms, and chillies: baba from a street stall, rice noodles at breakfast, cured ribs at dinner, and hotpot when the wild mushrooms arrive. This is not a restaurant directory. It is a guide to the dishes, what a good version tastes like, and how to order without the tourist markup.
Field desk / updated 14 Nov 2026
Naxi baba
A thick griddled flatbread, sweet or savoury, eaten for breakfast and carried on the road for centuries.
Wild mushroom hotpot
The basin's most serious meal: a clear broth, a pile of wild mushrooms, and a strict cooking time.
Cured pork ribs
Salt-cured ribs hung over the stove, then stewed with potato or beans: the taste of a Naxi winter kitchen.
Lijiang rice noodles
Round rice noodles in pork broth with peanuts, pickles, and chili: the basin's default breakfast.
Rose cakes
Flaky pastry filled with sugared rose petals: the snack that follows you home from every shop in the old town.
Yak yogurt
Thick, tangy yogurt from highland yaks, served with honey or rose jam: simple and better than it sounds.
Wild mushrooms
Porcini, chanterelles, matsutake, and things with no English name: how to read a Yunnan mushroom stall.