Granny’s Potatoes or Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes (Laonai Yangyu)

“Granny’s potatoes” or “Grandma’s mashed potatoes” (Laonai Yangyu) is a traditional dish of China’s Yunnan province. Supposedly, the name is because the potato is mashed so much that even a grandmother can eat it without a problem—or maybe it’s just a dish that Yunnan grandmothers like to make.
 
“Granny’s potato” contains spring onion and dried chilli. A recipe for “Grandma’s potatoes - Laonai yangyu (老奶洋芋)” was published on the GoKunming website on December 3, 2008.
 
       
Wikipedia: Yunnan cuisine
Yunnan cuisine, alternatively known as Dian cuisine, is an amalgam of the cuisines of the Han Chinese and other ethnic minority groups in Yunnan Province in southwestern China. As the province with the largest number of ethnic minority groups, Yunnan cuisine is vastly varied, and it is difficult to make generalisations. Many Yunnan dishes are quite spicy, and mushrooms are featured prominently.
(...)
Granny’s potato  老奶洋芋   老奶洋芋 lǎonǎi yángyù  A local mashed potato style dish typically flavoured with spring onions and chilli.
       
GoKunming
Recipe: Laonai Yangyu - “Grandma’s potatoes”
By Guo Duomi in Features on December 3, 2008
Grandma’s potatoes - Laonai yangyu (老奶洋芋)
The grandmother of all Yunnan dishes, superlatives such as ‘instant classic’ hardly do justice to this simple yet delicious dish. Sure, it is basically mashed potato but it is potato mashed in a way your imagination never thought possible. It’s Yunnan name translates as ‘old lady’s potatoes’ but ‘grandma’s potatoes’ is altogether more appropriate given the dish’s comfort food pedigree.
 
Ingredients
2 medium potatoes
3 stalks of spring onion
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp of chilli powder
Oil for frying
 
WildChina
Dai food: Chinese cuisine’s best-kept secret
Posted January 5, 2011 by WildChina
(...)
Granny’s potatoes (laonai yangyu) :
This is one of the most popular dishes for many foreign travelers visiting the region, possibly because it is so similar to Western-style mashed potatoes, or maybe just because it’s so delicious. Granny’s potatoes is called such because there is little need to chew, so even toothless old women can enjoy it. It’s still a treat for us who still have teeth, and can be made with either sour pickled vegetables or spicy peppers.
       
Twitter
Wikipedia Stub Bot
@wpstubs
Someone created a Wikipedia article about “Laonai yangyu”. Help expand it! #Foodanddrink #China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laonai_yangyu?src=wpstubs&tour=firstedit …
11:58 PM - 5 Jan 2016
 
Google Books
Lonely Planet Shanghai
By Lonely Planet (Kate Morgan, Trent Holden and Helen Elfer)
Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
2017
Pg. ?:
SOUTHERN BARBARIAN   YUNNAN
(...)
It’s hard to fault any of the dishes but the goat’s cheese is unmissable, and the stewed beef and mint casserole is almost as good, as is the incomparable ‘grandmother’s mashed potatoes’.
 
Culture Trip
10 Traditional Yunnanese Dishes You Need to Try
Jessica Larson-Wang
Updated: 31 January 2017
(...) 
Old Grandma’s Potatoes 老奶洋芋
Yunnan’s version of mashed potatoes, just like grandma used to make. Potatoes are boiled until they are softened, and then put into a wok and stir fried with chives, green onions, and peppers. The result is a savory half-mashed potato dish that will remind you ever so slightly of home, but with a Chinese twist. For those who are not fans of hot peppers, simply say “bu yao la jiao,” to get a non-spicy, but no less tasty, version of this Yunnanese classic.
     
TimeOut Shanghai
The best alternative Chinese regional cuisines
You’ve heard about the 8 Great Cuisines, but what about the others?
Posted: Thursday June 8 2017
(...)
Laonai Yangyu 老奶洋芋
Grandma’s Potato
This pimped-up mashed potato dish was allegedly given its name because it’s so soft, even toothless grannys can eat it. Often likened to Bubble and Squeak, it’s a simple but delicious combination of stir-fried spring onion, dried chilli and mashed potato. Although an extra challenge for the toothless elderly, pickled vegetables or fresh vegetables are sometimes added to mix up the texture.
 
YouTube
Yunnan Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes (老奶洋芋)
Chinese Cooking Demystified
Published on Nov 19, 2018
Yunnan Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes are much beloved among travellers and an easy homecooked dish to whip up. They’ve got a lot of flavor… they’ve a bit spicy and also amp things up with some pickled vegetable.
 
Reddit—China
Posted byu/mthmchris
November 20, 2018
Recipe: Yunnan Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes (老奶洋芋)
So today, I wanted to share how to make a great mashed potato dish from the Yunnan province, laonai yangyu, ‘Grandma’s Mashed Potatoes’. It’s a Han dish that’s originally from the Northeast of Yunnan, but you can find it throughout the province and even a bit in neighboring Sichuan and Guizhou.
 
But perhaps paradoxically, this dish feels like something that might be more well known among foreign travelers to Yunnan than it is to people in China at large. I think that for a good chunk of people visiting, these mashed potatoes seem to hit that sweet spot between ‘new’ and ‘comforting’. At their core, they’re mashed potatoes… but they’re made with a bit of a different technique than you might be used to, and they really amp things up with some chili powder and pickled veg.