The Hani people are an ethnic minority with a long history and cultural tradition in southwest China. They live in the vast mountainous area between Ailao Mountain and Wuliang Mountain. They mainly rely on terraced land farming economy, which is a very typical mountain-dwelling agriculture. society. Hani villages are often located in the middle of mountains, on the mountainside at about 1,800 meters above sea level. The annual precipitation here is about 1,500 mm, and the air humidity is high. The vast mountains and good climate provide the Hani people with a variety of animal and plant resources. The special geographical environment and long cultural tradition have enabled the Hani people to form a very distinctive food culture.
Traditional drinks
The drinks of Hani people are mainly wine and tea. Wine includes Hani pot wine, corn wine, buckwheat wine and various soaked wines. Menguo wine and Baogu wine are also known as "shojiu" and "baijiu". The alcohol content is generally around 50 degrees. Hani people rarely drink beer, probably because they find it unsatisfactory. There is no Hani man who does not drink. He believes that only those who drink can do things and are capable. Every festival, Hani villagers drink and toast, mingling with each other, pushing cups and changing cups, without realizing that time has passed. What's more, he drank from noon to evening without stopping. The Hani people are famous for their hospitality. When guests from far away come to the Hani village, they are often greeted with wine. When the guests finish the big bowl of corn wine in one gulp, the Hani people truly treat you as a guest from the bottom of their hearts. A close friend.
The Hani people have a long history of growing tea. Some scholars believe that the Hani people are one of the first ethnic groups to grow tea. There are many types of tea, and the common ones include simmered tea, earth pot tea, Pu'er tea, Yunzhen tea, Nannuo Pekoe, Mayu Yinhao, Green Jade Yinhao, Yunwu tea, Pine Forest tea, Xiangtiao tea and so on. From a regional perspective, the Hani people living in Xishuangbanna mostly drink various world-renowned Pu'er tea series, while the Hani people living in the Honghe area drink mostly various green teas. Among many teas, simmering tea is very distinctive. It has its own unique method of making tea. Put the tea leaves in an earthen pottery pot and bake it on the fire. When you smell the fragrance, pour in mountain spring water and continue to simmer it by the fire pond. According to personal preference, The simmering time is determined by the intensity of the taste. It is best to simmer until the water level in the clay pot is nearly half. The simmering tea is dark yellow, bitter and has a slight smoky smell. This is the oldest way of drinking tea among the Hani people. There is a saying among the Hani people in some places that "you cannot live without tea for a day".
Specialty Food
The Hani dishes are rich in taste, among which Hani black bean sauce is famous far and wide. Hani Dougu is made of soybeans or soybeans as the main raw material. After being steamed in a pot, it is fermented in a sealed container and then sun-dried. As the saying goes: "If you don't have tempeh, you can't dip it in water."
The Hani people must have a salt dish when they eat, which contains salt, pepper powder, and chili pepper. It is said that Hani men cannot eat without this salt dish. Hani dipping water is a condiment with ethnic characteristics. It is prepared from local seasonings such as salt, chili pepper, kohlrabi, coriander, mint, pepper, spicy millet, fragrant willow, ginger, onion, garlic, tempeh, etc., and can be at least a few flavors. There are dozens of flavors, some mixed with chicken soup, chicken liver, chicken intestines, and chicken blood.
In terms of cooking methods, food is mainly boiled, stir-fried and steamed. Most of the vegetables are boiled in water without any seasoning. Even meats such as chicken, duck, and beef are cooked directly in large chunks and cut into pieces, then dipped in water and eaten. The Hani people believe that no matter how fresh and tender the meat is, if it lacks a bowl of water to dip it in, it will not be fragrant. Occasionally, there is a habit of eating it raw. For example, Baiwang is a flavorful dish made by mixing fresh pig blood and sheep blood, adding water and seasonings and pressing it into slabs.
In addition, when guests come to the home, the food will be richer. Hani people are very hospitable and often kill chickens and ducks to entertain them. Generally, they do not entertain guests alone. They think it is impolite. Take an egg. When eating, the chicken heads and tails should be presented to the guests, and the wine pouring should start with the guests. After filling the circle, add a little more to the first guest to show respect and welcome everyone from beginning to end. Therefore, Hani people sing nursery rhymes: "The food is not good if the guests don't come" and "the food tastes delicious when the guests come."
In addition to eating at home, Hani people also eat in terraced fields. The Hani people are world-famous for their thousand-story terraces in the valleys, forming a very magnificent scenery. Therefore, the Hani people are vividly called "sculptors of the mountains" by outsiders. But at the same time, farming is not easy. Some terraced fields are far away from home, and it takes about an hour to walk. Therefore, when the Hani people work, they have to get up at around 5 a.m. to prepare breakfast. The Hani people built a shack in the terraced fields for resting from work and for use when it rained. The Hani people usually do not go home at noon when they are farming. In the morning, they will prepare a bamboo tube or lunch box and bring some pickled cabbage, salt, chili, and black beans to eat with cold rice. It is said that when the weather is fine, they put their lunch boxes in a sunny place, so that the lunch will be a little warmer and taste better in the mountains and fields. However, the weather in the Hani area changes frequently. If it is windy or rainy, and there are no shacks nearby, it will be very difficult to eat. Some people simply don't bring lunch when they work, and only eat two meals a day.
Festival Diet
The daily diet of the Hani people is different from the diet of religious festivals. They usually eat more vegetarian dishes, but during festivals they mainly eat meat dishes; they eat more ground rice in normal times, and glutinous rice in festivals. More.
The Hani people consider glutinous rice to be more valuable, and often give it to relatives and friends or as a reward for wizards to host ceremonies. It is also often used in important activities such as festivals. For example, when worshiping ancestors, glutinous rice dumplings and dumplings must be wrapped in banana leaves.
During festivals, Hani people also like to use wild plant leaves to dye glutinous rice yellow and purple, forming national characteristics of yellow flower rice and purple flower rice, which are colorful, rich in smell and unique in flavor.
At the wedding banquet, the dishes are served in double portions. The essential dishes are loach, konjac, water celery, rat beans and yams. Among them, loach symbolizes male fertility and is believed to have the effect of replenishing qi and aphrodisiac. , Konjac is a symbol of female fertility, celery is homophonic to "love vegetable", rat beans mean more children and grandchildren, and yam is regarded as a treasure of tonic.
As for the food at funerals, it is relatively rough. Generally, there is no toasting to each other, the meat is relatively large, and food with raw blood such as Baiwang and Shengwang is never eaten. Generally speaking, as long as there is a ceremony, chickens, ducks, and even pigs and cows must be slaughtered. After the sacrifice is completed, both sexes must share the food. Therefore, nutritionists believe that the Hani people use festivals and religious ceremonies to supplement a large amount of protein, effectively ensuring nutrition.
The Long Street Banquet is the most distinctive food of the Hani people. It is usually held during the tenth month of the year (Zhalat). In other areas, it is held during the Angmatu Festival (sacrifice to the village god). According to the traditional phenological calendar of the Hani people, the first Dragon day in October of each lunar calendar is the New Year, and the entire October year lasts for 13 days. To welcome the New Year, the whole village dines together. Each family sets out a bamboo strip table and places their best Hani-style dishes. One table is next to another, hence the name "Long Street Banquet". During the meal, everyone danced, sang and toasted. All the elderly in the village were invited to sit at the front tables to show respect. In some places, long street banquets were moved from villages to county towns. At most, more than 3,000 tables were set up, and tens of thousands of people ate together. It was so spectacular that it entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Longest Banquet." Nowadays, the Hani Tribe Long Street Banquet Folk Tourism Festival has been held, attracting a large number of tourists from home and abroad.