Huili's food is always Sichuan and Yunnan, which is similar to Yunnan across a river, but different from neighboring Yunnan. Huili people use Sichuan cuisine as seasoning to cook Yunnan's special ingredients, improve all kinds of delicious food handed down from foreign lands, and combine the cooking skills of the Han nationality with the eating customs of ethnic minorities to form a unique eating style. Huili is rich in Jianchang black goat, which is an excellent variety protected by national geographical indications. There is no fishy smell, and the meat is particularly delicate and delicious. According to county records, instant-boiled mutton hotpot with Huili black goat as the main raw material has a tradition and history of more than 300 years. Until now, Huili people still regard eating mutton on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and the winter solstice as a traditional custom.
Huili people eat mutton, and pay attention to eating their heads and hooves into the water. The head of the sheep is big and thin, the eyes of the sheep are soft and juicy, the belly of the sheep is crisp and refreshing, and the intestines of the sheep are full of oil. From beginning to end, it seems that they have eaten a whole sheep. Huili's real signature snack is mutton powder all over the streets. Huili mutton powder fully combines the spicy and delicious characteristics of Sichuan and the original and unrestrained style of local ethnic minorities in cooking methods and seasoning use.
Huili's mutton is very famous, and the rice noodles used are also very distinctive. It is thicker than ordinary rice noodles in Kunming, much thicker than common water-based fine powder in Chengdu and Xichang, and has a lot of heroism. Some people think it is a bit thick and not easy to taste, but mutton powder has to be scalded with this coarse powder to have a unique flavor. The meat is fat and thick, the soup is wide and full, white as jade, soft and firm. Less graceful and delicate petty bourgeoisie sentiment in the bustling city, more rugged persistence and enthusiasm in the ancient city of Shan Ye. There is a unique beauty of primitive wildness.
Mutton powder is the first choice for many people's breakfast, and the eating method is completely self-help. It is covered with colorful condiments, and the three spicy flavors of sea pepper, watercress and millet are roughly superimposed, and then ginger rice, chopped green onion and coriander are scattered all over the sea bowl, showing an unruly personality in a lawless way. Baikuai is a kind of convenient food which originated in Yunnan and is mainly rice. It is cheap and good, and it can be eaten in various ways. After being introduced from generation to generation, the bait Kuai Ming-ming has been continuously developed and perfected by combining the cooking styles of North and South for a long time, and its cooking method has greatly exceeded the simple limitation of monotonous baking in the country of origin.
The bait is delicious, soft and sweet, and all tastes can be blended. It can be eaten in many ways. The most famous way is the famous chicken firewire bait. Snow-white bait is cooked in a delicate copper hot pot, the cock and chicken are finely shredded by hand, and the best lean ham meat is also shredded, and a few vegetables are scalded, red and white, and a bowl of beautiful tips.
Whether the shredded chicken is authentic or not, the secret lies in this last spoonful of soup. Look at its color: white and red, taste its taste: strong but not greasy. There are ham, chicken, bone marrow, and that deep, thick and indescribable taste. Copper hot pot is one of the "three treasures" of Huili. Since ancient times, Huili people have used copper pots and bronzes to cook. The dishes cooked in copper pots have a special flavor and are very delicious.
Huili folk customs like to make copper hot pot in winter and spring, and the eating method is similar to that of Sichuan cuisine. Mainly stewed with miscellaneous vegetables, it is characterized by delicious soup, soft rake, loud steam and rich nutrition. Copper chafing dish uses charcoal as fuel, ribs, lamb ribs, beef, beef offal, chicken and duck are stewed with soup, and seasoned with pepper, ginger and onion. When the soup is thick and rotten, vegetables are cooked in season, and diners sit around and share. The operation is simple, convenient and quick. The flavor dishes used are made of homemade watercress, Chili oil, chopped green onion, millet spicy and garlic paste, and the taste is very strong. You can also add fresh vegetables and scalds while eating, and the more stewed the soup, the fresher it is. The tools for making iron harrows are shaped like old charcoal iron. A small dark copper pot is placed on the surface of the continuous carbon furnace. The stall owner skillfully turns the iron pot in the pot with a small iron solder until both sides are slightly brown. This food must be eaten while it is hot. Sweet and sour fermented rice slurry combines the creamy taste of eggs. After biting, it is soft, fragrant and slightly burnt, which makes you warm all over, enough to resist the chill in the morning.
Thin bean powder and camellia oleifera are also traditional cuisines of Huili, and their light taste is especially suitable for the elderly and children. Thin bean powder is selected from local excellent peas, stir-fried slowly with slow fire, then finely ground into powder and filtered. Stir well when eating and boil with clear water. The production method of camellia oleifera is to break white rice into fine powder, put it in a pot, add water and stir it into a thin paste, then heat it and cook it slowly. When the rice paste is cooked and stuck to the spoon, it can be taken out of the pot and put into the bowl.
Cook camellia oleifera and thin bean powder slowly over low heat. Golden rice paste is packed in a porcelain bowl. Grab a crispy prickly heat, scoop a few spoonfuls of pepper oil, sesame oil and ginger juice, and present a large bowl of sharp ones. Stir gently with a spoon until it becomes soft and thick, and the tip of the tongue has a hint of pepper and hemp. In the West Street near the Bell and Drum Tower, it is a habitual curtain call for Huili people to entertain guests with midnight snack to chew the bone. Chengdu people pioneered the female hoof flower, and Huili people found another way and introduced the stewed bone. A large bowl of pork bones simmered on a small fire looks like thick soup, crisp and fluffy bones, steaming, crystal clear and moist. In the bone feeling like silver hook and iron painting, there is a creamy charm, with round beads and smooth teeth and red lips.
After thousands of years of continuous absorption, change, inheritance and innovation, Huili's food culture has gradually spread to the surrounding areas, affecting the taste and cooking skills of southern Sichuan and northern Yunnan.