Kwei Fei hit the Charleston dining scene as a popup in 2017 before finding its permanent home at the Charleston Pour House on James Island in late 2018. Since its inception, the restaurant has been wowing the Lowcountry with its take on the foods of western China, specifically the province of Sichuan.
Each January, Chef and Owner David Schuttenberg and his team roll out a one-month-only menu that lets the kitchen stretch creatively and gives guests something different at the start of the new year. For 2026, Kwei Fei is looking for inspiration from Yunnan, one of China’s most celebrated culinary regions.
Kwei Fei’s “Welcome to Yunnan” menu features dishes that celebrate wild mountain ingredients and bold chili-and-herb flavors.
“I have been interested in this region for a while,” said Schuttenberg. “It sits immediately south of Sichuan, with borders to Tibet in the north and Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar in the south. The rich cultural diaspora in the region means the foodways have crossover flavors and distinctions that are largely unseen in other regions of China.”
While this special menu does have much of the spice and heat that Kwei Fei is known for, guests should not be deterred if they like things a bit milder.
“Expect lots of fresh chilies rather than dried ones, along with several regional chili pastes made from scratch. Heat will not be a problem with this menu. That said, we have built it with balance in mind, featuring noodles, gluten-free options and vegan and vegetarian dishes as well.”
Yunnan-inspired dishes
Schuttenberg said a lot of research goes into developing the menu.
“When wading into unfamiliar waters, we typically do a ton of reading and research, and many of our menu choices come directly from those resources,” he said. He also shared that Georgia Freedman’s book, Cooking South of the Clouds, has been indispensable as have been other regional Chinese cookbooks and internet deep dives.
The January menu offers dishes that many diners may have never encountered. The Kunming cold noodles take rice noodles and pair them with local mushroom conserva, carrot, cucumber, garlic, tamari, black vinegar and chili crisp, and the claypot noodle soup serves pork broth with house-made pulled noodles, ground pork, preserved mustard greens, cabbage, garlic chives and chili oil.
Vegetable dishes include a mixed vegetable crudo with fresh herbs and spicy tomato chili dip and the crispy Yunnan confit potatoes have Chinese-style bacon, scallion, ginger and chili crisp. The southern Yunnan spice grilled fish is a chili-herb marinated local fish wrapped in banana leaf. The charcoal-grilled half chicken is brined in a combination of chili, herbs and lemongrass and served with a fresh herb salad, chilies and crispy lemongrass.
One standout dish that may feel familiar, but has the Yunnan spin, is the ham and cheese. This Yunnan-style dry cured ham is served with griddled goat’s cheese and green Sichuan peppercorn.
“Yunnan is renowned for its cured hams, not unlike a southern U.S.-style cured ham,” Schuttenberg said. “We are working with Lady Edison out of North Carolina, which currently cures a ham in the Chinese style. Due to the many ethnic minorities who call Yunnan home, dairy appears in the cuisine, which is something we do not normally see in much of Chinese cooking.”
While sourcing goat’s milk cheese from Yunnan is not an option, Schuttenberg said it is like halloumi, a semihard Greek cheese that is easy to find in Charleston. The Kwei Fei team is griddling two slices of the cheese with thinly sliced ham in-between.
Schuttenberg noted that he is especially excited to serve the crossing the bridge noodles since it has great history. The dish has chicken broth, rice noodles, local mushrooms, roast pork belly, chinese ham, lap cheong, veggies, tofu skins and chili crisp.
As legend has it and as shared in a 2017 article in The New York Times article, “Once upon a time, there was a scholar who was studying hard for his imperial exams on a small island of Yunnan. The scholar’s wife brought him soup every day, but by the time she crossed the bridge it was cold. He grew wan. Then, she started spooning chicken fat over the broth to keep the heat in, and carrying the other ingredients separately so they wouldn’t get soggy.” These noodles remain one of the best-known in Yunnanese cuisine and they are rarely seen on menus in the United States.
The beef baba is a Lijiang-style flatbread with a mala (a seasoning that is spicy and numbing) beef filling and scallion. “It is similar in style to guo kui (baked flatbread), which we regularly see as a street snack in Chengdu,” Schuttenberg explained. “A slightly yeasted dough is rolled, stretched and filled with a spicy beef mixture, then rolled back up into a pinwheel, turned on its side, pressed and rolled again. This creates several flaky layers alternating between meat and bread. Divine.”
Schuttenberg’s excitement for the menu is clear and he looks at it as a great opportunity for guests to try something new.
“We really try to encourage our guests to stretch a bit during this time of year, and we hope we have built enough trust that they will come along for the ride,” he continued. “Yunnan features much of the spice that Sichuan brings, so it should not feel too unfamiliar, but we are excited to work with dairy a bit more.”
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