The cuisine of Yunnan, a friend and frequent dining buddy informed of late, is relatively poorly represented on the Parisian restaurant-scape – and he, he told me, had found the one spot doing it up right. Seeing as I trust this man with my palate and I myself had never tried Yunnanese cuisine (that I know of), I immediately accepted his invitation to head all the way down to the end of the 13th and eat our weight in intestines.
The 13th arrondissement’s “Triangle d’Or,” as Heather Stimmler-Hall recently explored in her Secrets of Paris newsletter, is one of Paris’ multiple Chinatowns, though it’s perhaps poorly named, as it’s known for boasting residents and businesses from a mix of Southeast Asian countries, notably Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Taiwan. At Les Délices de Yunnan, the focus is on the specialties of of this province sharing borders with Guizhou, Sichuan, Guanxi, Tibet, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar is known for its fairly spicy cuisine, rice noodle soups, and unique cheeses. (And no, I didn’t get to try any of the latter, unfortunately. Next time!)
We ordered way too much food, beginning with this delicious lamb dish. Cilantro stems were threaded through among the crispy bits of lamb, which were designed to be heaped into bread pockets not dissimilar to pita. (To be fair… it might have been pita.)
The flavors here were positively on point: Rich and flavorful and aromatic and just fatty enough. I enjoyed the lamb even more on its own than in the bread, and in eschewing it, I perhaps unknowingly made more space for the copious portions that were to follow.
I was super intrigued by this dish of pea flour cubes topped with grated chicken, and I ultimately loved the texture of these little morsels. The pea protein cubes looked a bit like like silken tofu but (understandably) yielded in a way that was far more similar to legume-based creations like panisse.
Relatively mild in flavor, they provided the perfect structure upon which to heap richer flavors like the aromatic-but-n0t-too-hot chili condiment and a more than welcome heaping helping of marinated veggies on top. That the dish was served cold only allowed the delicacy of its flavors to shine.
I’m an offal stan… for the most part. Tripe is pretty much the only member of the category I find offputting, not because of where it comes from, but because of the honeycomb-esque texture. (It’s why I can totally get behind it when it comes to something like andouille or andouillette but have a harder time with pho or tripe alla romana.) But my friend let me know that the cold marinated meat dishes were a Yunnanese specialty we had to try, and he was gunning for the mixed dish. “Don’t worry,” he said. “From the picture it looks like intestine, not tripe.”
(I love when friends see me for who I am.)
It wasindeed loops of marinated intestine that joined the pigs’ ear, fresh tofu, and beef on this plate, and they proved to be my second-favorite bite after the collagen-rich ears. The pieces of marinated protein were delightful on their own or dipped into this spicy sesame dipping sauce.
By this point, we were full to the point of bursting…
And then the noodles came.
Les Délices du Yunnan offers two kinds of noodle soup on their menu: the Crossing the Bridge rice noodles, which are paired with loads of accompaniments, and Mi Xian, which the menu describes as “rice noodles cooked in a small pot.” And while the former is apparently one of the restaurant’s signatures, we had both opted for the latter, thinking that the “small” pot would make it easier for us to manage, given the absolute ridiculousness of our earlier ordering.
I wish I had taken a picture of this “small pot” with my hand for reference. This bowl of noodles was massive. (And delicious.)
I got mine with the house specialty of spicy marinated pork, while my friend opted for even more intestine and pigs’ blood. Delivered scaldingly hot, the soup was just the thing for a rainy February night.
The broth itself was well-made but missing a little something. Once we’d doctored it with a bit of black vinegar (which my friend luckily knew to ask for) and the house-made bomb of a chile crisp that puts mine to shame, it proved to be sheer perfection.
I loved discovering this new-to-me cuisine and will be back to try the dessert of sticky rice with durian. (If I manage not to over-order again…)
Les Délices du Yunnan – 128 Rue de Tolbiac, 75013