Yao's dietary customs: Make camellia oil +"bird vinegar" to entertain distinguished guests

The Yao people are an ancient ethnic group in China and one of the oldest ethnic groups. It is mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of several provinces and regions in southern China. It is a typical mountain ethnic group in southern China. They mainly focus on farming, practice shifting farming, and also engage in hunting, fishing and gathering. Their handicrafts are relatively developed; high-quality red rice and medicinal materials are produced in their settlements.

The main staple food of Yao residents is corn, rice, sweet potatoes, etc., and daily dishes include soybeans, rice beans, pumpkin, peppers, poultry and livestock. The Yao people in Dayaoshan, Jinxiu, Guangxi use "bird pots" to catch migratory birds and pickle them into vinegar. It is a delicious dish to entertain distinguished guests. Some Yao people in northern Guangxi are popular in "tea making", which means frying tea leaves with oil and frying soup, seasoned with ginger, pepper, and salt. They take advantage of the situation to brew fried rice, fried beans, rice flowers, etc., which has a special flavor.

In the past, the Yao people often added corn, millet, sweet potatoes, cassava, taro, beans, etc. to rice porridge or rice. Sometimes "simmer" or "roast" methods are also used to process food, such as simmer sweet potatoes and other potatoes, simmer bitter bamboo shoots, roast tender corn, and roast cake. The Yao people living in mountainous areas have the habit of cold eating, and the production of food is considered easy to carry and store. Therefore, zongba and bamboo tube rice, which are both staple and non-staple foods, are their favorite foods. During labor, the Yao people all picnicked on the spot. Everyone gathered together and took out the dishes they brought to eat together, while the staple food each ate the food they brought.

The vegetables

often eat include various melons, beans, green vegetables, radishes, peppers, as well as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, fungus, fern, toon, yellow flowers, etc. Yao areas are also rich in various fruits. Vegetables are often made into dried vegetables or pickles. Some Yao people in Yunnan like to make vegetables very light, basically boiling them with salt and white water. Some are boiled directly in white water and dipped in dipping water made of salt and pepper to maintain the original flavor of various vegetables; meat is often processed into bacon. The Yao people in Guangxi generally cook meat by dry frying, boiling, seasoning with salt, and using less seasoning; on the other hand, meat should be made into dishes with a very strong flavor. Fresh meat or bacon should be fried and browned first, and then boiled.

Yao people like to eat pickled food. "Bird vinegar" is a famous food with unique flavor of the Yao nationality. It is pickled with bird meat. Remove the feathers of the captured birds, wash them, dry them, mix them with rice flour and salt, place them in a small mouth tiled jar, seal the mouth of the jar with banana leaves, and they can be eaten in a few days. The Yao family often uses "bird vinegar" to entertain distinguished guests. Sometimes, this method is used to pickle pigs, cattle, mutton, etc.

The Yao people also like to eat insect pupae. The ones they often eat are pine pupae, kudzu vine pupae, wild bee pupae, bee pupae, etc. The Yao people also like to use the characteristics of mountainous areas to process sugar, sweet potato sugar, bee sugar, etc.

Most Yao people like to drink alcohol. Generally, they brew it with rice, corn, sweet potatoes, etc. at home and drink it twice or three times a day. The Yao people in Yunnan like to use glutinous rice to brew water wine and drink it. When going out, they often use bamboo tubes to hold water when drinking.

The Yao people also like to use cinnamon, wild ginger, etc. to brew tea, believing that this tea has the effect of refreshing and clearing fatigue. The Yao people in many areas like to make camellia oleifera. They not only eat and drink every day, but also use camellia oleifera to entertain guests. On Qingming Festival, every household has to make dyed flower rice.

Banquets include the "tea and bathing welcome wine" known as the "Three Rites of the Yao Family"; the "bowls of wine and meat" used by the whole village public banquet for distinguished guests; the "Xianxian" with mixed delicacies from mountains and wild games; and the "Dragon Sausage mat" with the famous "Water Dragon Sausage". In addition, there are also "door-to-door red wine" to mediate civil disputes, and "fried beans and boiled eggs" to announce the breaking of diplomatic relations.

Among them, many food customs are quite interesting, such as bringing a bag of meat and two gourds of rice wine to the marriage proposal. If the woman agrees, she will accept the meat and pierce the gourd if she does not agree; selecting a son-in-law often involves the act of "burying an egg", and the decision is made based on the changes; when a girl gets married, she will give burnt soybeans to her neighbors; the divorce ceremony is a "broken bamboo tube". Each party carries a barrel of wine, exchanges the bamboo tube and breaks up harmoniously.

The Yao people who worship Panhu abstain from dog meat and turtle meat; the Yao people who worship Miluoda abstain from sow meat and eagle meat; the vast majority of Yao people abstain from pork and snake meat; pregnant women abstain from lard in the first few days after giving birth; Dogs, cats, snakes, and frogs should not be used for worshipping gods; after hunting animals, you must first pay homage to the mountain god before you can eat them separately.

Because there are usually many people during the Yao festivals, rice is not cooked in iron cauldron, but steamed with wooden Zhen. This kind of rice has a stronger aroma. Every festival. Yao people still have to make cakes. The main festive dishes are chicken, duck, fish, pork, tofu, vermicelli and various vegetables. The Yao people in the Wuling Mountains like to make tofu rounds (Shengshui tofu brew-the first brew of the Yao Family's Eighteen Brews) during festivals, which are packed with "rice flour and meat in a purse)."

Panwang Festival is only held every few years. In the past, when the Panwang Festival was celebrated, a large number of livestock were slaughtered and sacrificed. Spring festivals are held every year, usually in the third month of the lunar calendar. At that time, young men will go up the mountains to hunt and go down the river to catch fish; women will make rice dumplings and steam five-color glutinous rice. On New Year's Eve, Hualuyao would first serve a piece of meat and a ball of cake to the dog, called a dog sacrifice, before the family could have a meal. They believe that the grain seeds are brought by dogs, and that the first sacrifice to dogs is a pre-prayer for a good harvest of the grain. Festival dishes should be colorful and colorful. In addition to chicken, there are also river fresh food, hunted mountain poultry, game and tofu.

In some places, the Yao people also cook black rice on April 8th. Yao girls in Jiangshui County, Hunan Province eat flower eggs, make flower cakes, and eat flower candies every year when celebrating the "Picnic Festival" on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. When girls are eating flower eggs, flower candies and flower cakes, young men are not allowed to peek, and violators will also be punished. Shuagetang is a large-scale recreational activity for Liannan Paiyao to worship ancestors and celebrate the harvest. It is mostly held after the 16th of the tenth lunar month. The duration varies, about 3-9 days. At that time, every family will have water wine and glutinous rice cakes to entertain guests. Many young Yao men and women will take the opportunity of playing the song hall to choose the right person. Once the men and women agree, the parents of both parties can use the matchmaker to make a marriage appointment and use pork and wine as gifts. When holding weddings, a big banquet is held. According to traditional customs, village elders must be invited to attend the wedding banquet, and the bride and groom must drink wine.