Ethnic eats in China

There are dozens of ethnic groups living in southwest China, each with completely different backgrounds and culture, as well as a diverse array of ingredients and cooking styles. As a result, it is difficult to classify this area's cuisine. Nonetheless, the flavors of the minorities living in the region can be generalized as spicy or sour and sweet, although the degree of sourness and spiciness varies from place to place.

Southwest China's relatively unspoiled moist and damp forests grow an abundance of unique vegetables, such as qingwa pi (frog skin), songjian (pine needles), xianren zang (cactus), lihao (similar to baby asparagus), yuxing cao (a skinny straw like vegetable), qingtai (green moss). These conditions are also perfect for wild mushrooms, including niugan jun, jizong jun and yang duzi – known in the West as morels these mushrooms are prized for their unusual taste and texture.

Insects such as fengyong (bee pupae), caochong (straw worm) and mazha (locust), which may send some of us running from the dining table, are part of the menu in many minority areas.

The Dai people of southern Yunnan make liberal use of mint leaves, lemon grass and lime juice, not surprising as this group lives along the borders of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, whose peoples also use banana leaves and bamboo as natural vessels for baking their food. They are also known for their glutinous rice – their main staple – that is baked in a strip of bamboo or in a hollowed-out pineapple.

The Miao people also cook their rice in bamboo tubes but, unlike the Dai, they prefer regular rice. The Miao cuisine is known to be sour and spicy, and every Miao kitchen is stocked with a sour liquid called suantang, a fermented rice liquid, or beancurd liquid, as well as cherry tomatoes.

Buyi people like to steam their rice, and sour pickled vegetables and sour liquid are a must in almost every meal; fermented black bean is the obligatory Hani condiment.

Mixian, ersi and erkuai, rice-based noodles, and baba, steamed glutinous rice cake, are the staple foods of the Naxi and Bai people in Lijiang and Dali. Baba comes in two flavors, a sweet type filled with brown sugar, sesame seeds, and a salty one filled with scallion, diced ham, and a little lard. The Yi's baba is made from buckwheat flour, while the Hani people make theirs with corn flour.

The Zhuang are closer to the Han in their dietary habits, enjoying rice and many of the same dishes that the Han people prepare, including mustard greens, cabbage, rape, celery, spinach and pea sprouts.

One thing in common with all these minorities is that they each have their own unique alcoholic beverage, either made from rice, glutinous rice, sorghum, barley or whatever the local environment provides.

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