🍽️ Grilled Erkuai

Grilled rice cake brushed with sauce, a Yunnan breakfast.

Grilled Erkuai is the most common street breakfast of Kunming, Yunnan, built around erkuai, a rice cake made by pounding steamed rice into a soft block, more tender than New Year cake. It is grilled over charcoal until lightly charred and puffed, brushed with sweet and savory sauces and chili, then rolled around a fried dough stick, braised egg, fish mint or pickled vegetables. The result is slightly crisp outside, soft and rice-fragrant within, with layered salty-sweet-spicy flavors. Kunmingites often eat one standing at a morning stall with hot soy milk. A representative of Yunnan's rice-food culture, it is warm, portable and endlessly customizable — a must-try for visitors savoring Kunming's street-side mornings.