With VPN connections to the outside world severed lately (cough, thanks Two Meetings!), we’ve turned to the Chinese language web to look for delicious foodie content.
Much thanks to our Sherpa’s customer Gordon from Seattle for introducing us to the fantastic videos of Li Ziqi (李子柒).
Apparently, we’re slow to the game as she first gained popularity back in 2017, but she’s just started on her second season of short videos on Youku. It’s the perfect time to start watching. Altogether there are 68 videos in the first season and three in the second at the time of writing. Ziqi aims to produce one new video each week.
Credit: Youku.com
Born in Mianyang, Sichuan, Ziqi was orphaned at a young age and moved in with her grandparents in the countryside. She lived and worked in the city as a young adult, but chose to return to the countryside to take care of her grandmother after her grandfather passed away.
Credit: Youku.com
She started to shoot and edit incredible videos highlighting ancient-style recipes and techniques for cooking. She does everything herself from harvesting the ingredients, scavenging for mushrooms, mashing beans on a hand-cranked stone grinder, and cooking the final dish on a wok over an old-school fire oven. The only technology is her DSLR camera and fancy Apple iMac.
Credit: Youku.com
She even has videos showcasing how to make bamboo furniture, craft wool clothes from scratch, and D.I.Y. printmaking! All these videos take place in an idyllic, peaceful nature setting. It’s a relaxing change from the usual hustle and bustle of China.
Credit: Youku.com
We’ve watched mouthwatering videos on mountain chicken fried rice, pomelo tea, mapo tofu, and char-grilled wild mushrooms.
Credit: Youku.com
Credit: Youku.com
A word of warning though: every single dish she creates looks absolutely amazing. You will be consumed by food cravings, and there’s no way to get homestyle dishes like these unless you hop on the next plane to Sichuan.
Have any of you checked out Li Ziqi’s videos? Which ones are your favourites? Let us know in the comments below.
P.S. If you can make it on YouTube, Ziqi’s fans have also uploaded her videos there. You can check them out with less of those annoying unskippable ads. Hoo rah!