Have you tried the trendy pre-made dishes?

"It's not a dream to enjoy at home a full and formal Chinese banquet." Photo source: Movie Drink Man Woman

In Eat Drink Man Woman, a 1994 dish-themed movie directed by Ang Lee, the heroine Jia Qian was good at cooking. Her dishes lured the audience a lot. Almost three decades later, having a feast at home is no longer so challenging thank to the pre-made dishes.

Squirrel-like fish, salted chicken, hot pot... In just half an hour, Kunming housewife Xu Ying rolled out a banquet for her family party.

Xu Ying is a regular consumer of the pre-made dishes. "Unlike take-away food, the dishes need some cooking at times, which is a chance to show love to your friends and families," said Xu.

In the past, pre-cooked dishes were for restaurants. However, the on-going Covid has helped popularize the dishes among young guys that are troubled by cooking trivialities

Fresh Hema has seen sales of pre-cooked dishes increase by 345% in the Chinese New Year holiday year on year, while Dingdong Maicai said its 2021 sales increased by 300%. More supermarkets are selling pre-cooked dishes.

Pre-made dishes are gaining popularity, and Yunnan companied are trying to adopt to the new business mode.

From 2020 on, the Classic 1909 canteen in Kunming has rolled out the Yunnan-featured pre-made dishes of Liaoshen, crispy buns and more. They are favored by diners.

To ensure the food safety, local restaurants began to use rapid freezing, vacuum packaging and other technologies.

The pre-made dishes by Carrefour have also grown to be a bulk in local residents' dining structure. "We can deliver our dishes to the destination within one hour or half a day, according to needs of customers," said a stuffer at Carrefour. Carrefour also innovated pre-made dishes, rolling out stir-fry food, stewed dishes and others to woo more consumers.

The Yunpinhui e-commerce company has served the dish "rice with goose oil and amomum tsao-ko" for over a month, winning likes from consumers.

"It’s tasty. I’ve tried many times."
"I’ve had it several times in my office."

Besides the goose-oil rice, the pre-made Yunnan dishes of 8-element rice, Zhanyi spicy chicken and others have also made sensations in the market. They feature fine packages and dining ease.

So here comes the question: How can the pre-made Yunnan dishes really survive the competition? Cao Lei, deputy general manager of Yunpinhui, said companies need to show their uniqueness and universality.

Uniqueness means the soul of dishes cannot be lost, that is, the flavor and quality should be fine. In the preparing the Yunnan dishes, we need to keep local flavor, giving full play to the quality of Yunnan ingredients. Universality is to grasp preferences of different diners, so that Yunnan dishes could be improved to maximize the volume of consumers.

"Using our organic ingredients, Yunnan cooking traditions and the trend of pre-cooked dishes, we can bring Yunnan green foods into dinner tables home and abroad, while enriching local vegetable farmers,” Cao said. “This is a possible new way for Yunnan specialties to go global."