OK so I'm being a bore by replying again to my own post, but I thought someone out there might be interested in Hubei mountain food. Sorry for the quality of the photos - they were taken with my crappy camera phone!
The main feature was the 'bumper harvest' plate which was present at every meal:
which consisted mainly of potato, sweet potato, corn on the cob, peanuts, tomatoes (occasionally) and shanyao (Often translated as Chinese yam).
The meals had some lovely surprises like this soft doufu dish, which had a lovely flavour and gentle, soothing texture:
One of the most interesting dishes for texture and flavour was the one of stir-fried lotus flowers (the young buds) with chillies (but not too many chillies - just enough to add a gentle heat);
at the same meal, we had the braised leaves of some sort of mountain plant - apparently it is only eaten in the mountains of Hubei (I didn't catch the name!). It had a very odd texture, slimy yet tough - but with good flavour:
The most delicious dish, though, was one of the mountain mushroom braised in abalone juice. Beautiful texture and flavour!
A very cute dish was this little fellow made from sweet potato and sticky rice:
For the last meal, we went to a place which was more minority (Tujia I think) and had some food that was slightly spicier like this river fish (whose flesh had a terrific texture!):
and one of THE BEST vegetable dishes I have ever had. It was fried, chopped up turnip greens with garlic and chilli. It was like vegetable crack - I just couldn't stop eating it!
n all I really enjoyed the food there. It was great talking to people about Hubei dishes! It appears that there is a great difference in Mountain food and that of the area closer to the Yangtze. Three guys who had come up from Wuhan were at pains to explain to me how much more river fish they ate!
Yes, I know it sounds strange!) and will have two nights there. 
