Grandma's cuisine, also known as Wancai, is a home-cooked dish in Xiangxi region of Hunan Province and belongs to Hunan cuisine.

Grandma's dish is made from prunes, dried radish, dried cowpeas, sword beans, etc., which are dried in the sun and marinated in jars using traditional folk production methods in western Hunan.

Add Chaotian pepper, Hangzhou pepper, red dry pepper, vegetable oil, salt, garlic, etc. and stir-fry it before eating. The taste is spicy.

In some places, pork belly or eggs are added to grandma's dishes to increase the taste, but real Xiangxi grandma's cuisine does not include meat and eggs, and mainly relies on spicy flavor to go with the rice.

Since its main purpose is to serve with rice, the real Xiangxi grandma dish is chopped very finely.

The legend of grandma’s dish: According to legend, in ancient times, it was difficult for a daughter in western Hunan to return to her natal family to visit relatives after getting married.

So when her daughter gets married, she will cook a dish with various flavors such as salty, sour, spicy, crispy, sweet, etc., which is grandma's dish, which embodies the love of a loving mother for her daughter.

Food Culture Related to Grandma's Cuisine The real grandma's cuisine in western Hunan will be chopped very finely (because the main purpose is to serve with rice), unlike the packaged grandma's vegetables on the market today which are a bit chunky.

And now many non-Xiangxi area restaurants’ grandma dishes mostly appear in the form of steamed buns.

The real grandma's dish is not paired with steamed buns. Even if it is paired with braised pork, and sour cowpea minced meat, it is because there is no cowpea grandma's dish in non-Xiangxi areas, so Xiangxi's cowpea grandma's dish is converted into sour cowpea minced meat.

So it is also transformed from the Xiangxi cowpea dish.

Xiangxi's cowpea dish is much more delicious than sour cowpea minced meat. Usually a bowl of authentic Xiangxi's dish (very spicy) is enough to serve dozens of bowls of rice, so it is the true ancestor of bibimbap.

Therefore, grandma’s dishes are particularly suitable as an appetizer for those who have no appetite for meals.