Cakes of steamed, pounded rice, sliced and stir-fried with pork and greens, grilled on the street with sauces, or cut into noodles for soup.
What makes it erkuai
Rice steamed and pounded smooth, not a batter.
Chewy and firm, sliced thin.
Cooked fast — in the wok, on the grill or in broth.
Where it comes from
Rice is steamed, pounded and shaped into blocks or sheets, which keep well and cook quickly. Kunming grills them over charcoal as a snack, brushed with sweet and spicy sauces and folded round a stick of fried dough.
In Tengchong, in the west, stir-fried erkuai is called dà jiùjià — 'saved the emperor' — after a story that villagers fed it to a fleeing Ming emperor in the seventeenth century. It's a story, but a well-loved one.
How it varies
Dà jiùjià
Tengchong's stir-fry, with pork, tomato, pickles and greens.
Shāo ěrkuài
Grilled sheets brushed with sauces and folded, from street stalls.