Ants on the tree is a Sichuan dish that is made by stir-frying minced pork and vermicelli with spicy seasonings. The minced pork and the tender vermicelli, which are full of spicy seasonings, fully demonstrate the spicy taste of Sichuan cuisine.

The dish is named after the minced meat, which is distributed on the vermicelli like ants climbing up a tree. The main ingredients of "ants on the tree" are minced meat and vermicelli, so it is also commonly known as "minced meat and vermicelli". Rumor has it that its origin is also related to the June Snow Doue.

There was a Dou E in Chuzhou who lost her mother at the age of three, and her father, Dou Tianzhang, was a poor scholar who sold her seven-year-old Dou E to a debtor, Mrs. Cai, as a child bride in order to pay off her debt and take care of Dou E. She was widowed at an early age, and her husband had to pay for the debt. The woman, who was widowed at an early age, had a son, and saw that Dou E was well-behaved, so she planned to let them grow up and get married.

Ten years later, Dou E changed from a child bride to a daughter-in-law of the Cai family, and her husband lived two or three years of love, only to be saddened that her husband soon fell ill and died, and her grieving mother-in-law also fell ill.　　

In order to cure her mother-in-law's illness, Dou E spent a lot of money on seeking famous doctors and using noble herbs, and in order to nourish her mother-in-law's body, the meals were all delicious delicacies, although her mother-in-law's condition is getting better day by day, but it also spent all the family's wealth, and the family's expenses also appeared to be in trouble.　　

But in order for her mother-in-law to eat meat and recover soon, Dou E had to pull her face down and go to the meat vendor's stall on credit again. The butcher said, "The money you owed on the previous two occasions has not yet been paid off, so you can't get any more credit today." Dou E had to ask again and again, and the butcher had no choice but to give her only a small piece of meat.　　

Dou E watched this small piece of meat, thinking about how to cook it, inadvertently saw a small handful of vermicelli in the cupboard, so the light of day, this small handful of vermicelli softened and expanded in water, and then the small piece of meat patiently chopped into small minced, add some green onions, ginger, chili peppers and soy sauce stir-fry, into a large plate of fragrant fried vermicelli, and then hurriedly served to the mother-in-law on the hospital bed.　　

The mother-in-law asked, "What are you frying that smells so good?" Dou E replied, "Fried vermicelli, eat it while it's hot!" Before moving her chopsticks, the blurry-eyed mother-in-law saw many small black dots like ants on the top of the vermicelli, and she chided, "How can there be ants on this vermicelli?" Dou E was aggrieved and burst into tears, "My daughter-in-law is unfilial! In order to cure her mother-in-law's illness and recuperate her body, she spent all the family's wealth, and because she had no money to buy meat, she could only get a small slice of meat on credit, which was cut into tiny minced meat, just like the ants in the little black dots, and which made her mother-in-law frightened and frightened!"

When the mother-in-law understood the reason for this, she hurriedly moved the chopsticks and tasted a bite and said, "I'm such a filial daughter-in-law, good boy, don't cry! Such delicious fried vermicelli, let's call it 'Ants on a Tree'!" Dou E breaks into a smile, "Uh-huh! Good call! It does look like ants climbing up a tree! Let's call it 'ants up a tree'!