Yi people's unique food culture and flavor food

Jiang Zhicong (Jinai) Yi people, relying on the colorful natural environment and rich natural resources in Yi township, create a happy and beautiful life with hard-working wisdom, inherit unique food customs and write colorful food culture. Yi cuisine--------nurture a nation and intoxicated the whole world. When you are eating tender and fragrant meat and drinking sweet and fragrant wine, do you think of a hospitable nation-Yi people-with a unique and unique flavor, round root sauerkraut that makes the finishing touch to monotonous bacon soup, potato soup, chicken soup and fish soup? Do you want to know the living customs of Yi people? Let's learn about the Yi people's food culture in the northern part of Liangshan Prefecture, Yuexi and other areas, and give due consideration to the food culture of other Yi people's areas, and collect and sort out the more common flavor foods in some Yi people's areas. This article was first posted on the Yi people's forum. Later, because it was well received by netizens, it was compiled into Yi People's Unique Flavor Food and sent to Yi People's Network and Yi People's Culture and Art Network. Later, it was published in Shan Hai Jing, Gold Coast, Xichang Yizhai Restaurant, Nanjian Tourism, Liangshan News Network and Yi People's Home. Now, through the collection and arrangement in the past year, some flavor foods have been supplemented, and the newly added food culture part is specially for Yi flavor food lovers to review. The area where Yi people live has complex geographical environment and natural conditions, and is extremely rich in plant and animal resources. Yi people living in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas mainly grow buckwheat, barley, wheat, corn, oats and potato. In mountain areas of valleys and lakes, pingba mainly grows rice, supplemented by corn and other crops. In most areas of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Xiaoliangshan Yi inhabited area in northwest Yunnan and Weining County in Guizhou, buckwheat is the oldest crop, followed by oats, rice, wheat, barley and potato. Vegetables are round roots, followed by radishes, vegetables and cabbages. The animal husbandry is mainly pigs and sheep, while cattle, horses and chickens are raised. The Yi people in Liangshan, Zhaotong and Bijie eat buckwheat cake, rice and corn rice, and they like it whether it is made of pig or mutton or large pieces of meat, and they like to drink sauerkraut soup made of broth. The diet culture of the Yi people is more fragrant in the mountains because of its special national habits. The flavor snacks with endless aftertaste make people drool and forget to return. Yi nationality is a hospitable nation, and it is a nation that loves to drink and hates alcoholism. The favorite seasonings used by Yi people are pepper, litsea cubeba, pepper, salt and so on. Yi cuisine is characterized by freshness, tenderness, crispness, fragrance, oily flavor, no greasy mouth, no greasy heart and endless taste. Yi people are mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and like to grow miscellaneous grains, with corn, wheat, buckwheat and barley as their staple foods. Vegetables, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens and game are their main cooking materials. Yi people mostly live in mountainous or semi-mountainous areas. The mountains are densely forested, inhabited by many rare birds and animals, and produce rare game such as bear's paw, velvet antler, muntjac, rock sheep and wild boar. Large and small rivers such as Dadu River, Jinsha River, Nanpanjiang River and Yuanjiang River, which gallop in high mountains and valleys, also provide aquatic products such as fish, shrimp and snails. Yi people are good at cooking, roasting, mixing, burning, steaming and stewing. Especially good at cooking raw materials of fur animals such as sheep and deer. Taste is salty, fragrant, spicy, hemp and alcoholic. The main festivals of the Yi people are the October solar calendar, the Year of the Yi people and the Torch Festival. Regional festivals include Children's Day, Mother's Day, New Year Taste Festival, February 8th, Mi Zhi Festival, Qiao Nian Festival, Sun Zugong, etc., and there are also many sacrificial festivals, such as dragon festival. Whenever there is a festival, the Yi people have the richest diet. Kill chickens and pigs, fry glutinous rice, make "meat", "sheep soup pot", beef soup pot, oatmeal noodles, steamed mutton ribs and so on. During the Chinese New Year holidays, the Yi people always slaughter cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, but they seldom move animals unless they entertain guests. The Yi people's custom of eating at home is two meals a day, which has been followed for a long time. Generally, in Yi village, people leave work early at dawn, stop work at around 9 o'clock to have their first meal, and finish eating at around 1 o'clock. Take a break and go out for lunch, and then have the second meal in the dark. During the busy farming season, there should be a meal between meals, that is, take food such as Baba, steamed buns, potato and stinky tofu and green pepper sausage with you to the fields and add meals at any time. Food customs are generally simple and casual. Staple food is coarse cereals and potato. In spring and summer, I like to cook sour soup with pickled cabbage or dried vegetables (Chinese cabbage or green vegetables cooked in white water and dried in the sun). There is also grinding corn into rice grains, removing bran, steaming with rice as the staple food, and rolling all kinds of flour into coarse noodles as the staple food. The mountainous area is also rich in mushrooms, fungus and walnuts, and the vegetables produced in the garden make the sources of vegetables very wide. Except for fresh food, most of them are made into pickled cabbage, which is divided into two kinds: dried pickled cabbage and pickled pickled pickled cabbage. Another famous dish that is blocked by Laba is also the most common dish among the people. The meat is mainly pig, sheep and beef. It is mainly made into lump meat, beef soup pot, sheep soup pot, or roast sheep and pigs. Deer, bears, rock sheep and wild boar obtained from hunting in the old days are also supplements to daily meat. Yi people also have the habit of beating sheep and cattle to welcome guests. Where there are visitors, they will kill the animals to treat them, and treat them with cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc. according to the identity and closeness of the visitors. Before killing the animals, the live animals should be brought to the guests, and the guests should be invited to have a look and then slaughtered to show their respect. Cattle and sheep don't have to be treated with knives, and they are crushed or beaten to death by hand. Therefore, it is called killing animals, and its technique is extremely agile, and the animals are often skinned before they die. When entertaining guests, the seating order has a certain habit. Generally, they eat on the floor around the pot farm, and the guests are generally allowed to sit on the top of the pot farm, which is called "Xia' erguo". The host sits at the right head of the pot farm, which is called "Nimu" by Yi people. Helpers, women and relatives and friends sit at the bottom of the pot farm, which is called "Xiajiguo" by Yi people. When there are many guests, it will be postponed to the right. The order of wine is based on the Yi proverb, "Cultivated land is from bottom to top, and wine is served above and below". Sit first and then sit down. "The wine belongs to the elderly, and the meat belongs to the young." After serving the wine to the distinguished guests, the elderly or elders should be given first, and the young people should be given second. Everyone has a share. Wine is a welcome gift for guests. In Liangshan, as long as guests enter the house, the host must first treat them with wine, and then make various dishes. The fat pig is the most decent meal for the guests. In the middle of eating, housewives should always pay attention to the food in the dustpan of the guests, and add it at any time if they don't eat it up, to show their sincerity in hospitality. Due to their special geographical location and natural conditions, the Yi people have formed their own unique food culture. Let's take a look at the Yi people's food culture from two aspects: customs and special flavor.