Bread is the pillar of life. Hui people in Ningxia love life. They make full use of the rich products of "being in the south of the Yangtze River" and cook many exquisite foods, thus forming a unique food culture. When dining in Ningxia restaurant, you can not only taste delicious food, but also appreciate the local culture.

There is a popular folk song in Ningxia, which sings: "Ningxia Chuan, with two sharp ends, depends on the Yellow River in the east, Helan Mountain in the west, and irrigates the land every year." This folk song vividly describes the topographical features of Ningxia in concise language. The famous Muslim tea "Oasis" shows the scenery of Ningxia in another form. When this cold dish is presented to you, you can see a beautiful scenery: on one side is the beautiful Helan Mountain made of lunch beef, with flowers and trees made of shredded mutton, shredded chicken and Nostoc flagelliforme on it, on the other side is the rolling Yellow River water made of scallops and golden cakes, with green peppers in the middle, like green fields. It seems that the mountains, rivers, plants and water in the dish are beautiful, and it is delicious and beautiful to eat.

"The fragrance of fish and rice" is another attractive famous dish, which skillfully shows the characteristics of Ningxia's land of fish and rice. This dish is made of Yellow River carp, Ningxia rice and Chinese cabbage. Cut the head, tail and bone spurs of the carp, cut the fish into grains, then mix the steamed rice with the fish grains and smooth them, and finally plate them according to the original shape of the carp. Fish heads and tails are placed at both ends of the plate, and fish grains and rice are placed in the middle section, which is white and crystal clear. The fish head is dotted with bright red Lycium barbarum in Ningxia, and there is a green rape heart on the back and navel of the fish, like shark fin. This dish is fresh and refreshing, delicious and tender, symbolizing the vitality of Ningxia, a land of fish and rice. There are also some famous dishes that are delicious and full of local culture, such as "mutton wine", which has a strong ancient Tang dynasty and western customs; "Snow Beads" is a legendary and mysterious dish. "Sifang Nostoc flagelliforme" is made of Nostoc flagelliforme and Lycium barbarum, which means that friends who come from all corners of the country to invest and operate in Ningxia have all the best and their business (vegetables) is rich.

These famous dishes with strong local colors are the masterpieces of Hui chefs who deliberately seek novelty. They are cooked after absorbing the advantages of delicious food from all over the country, and are the crystallization of the painstaking efforts of several generations of Hui chefs. These dishes are not expensive, they can be bought in mid-range hotels in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, and can be cooked with other dishes, so they are very popular with Ningxia people and foreign tourists.

On some grand occasions, the most famous Hui cuisine is the "Muslim whole lamb mat", which is the crystallization of the cooking skills of several generations of Hui chefs in Ningxia. "Muslim whole sheep sleeping mat" usually consists of nine main courses. The first course is "Lingding with Mouth", which is characterized by golden color, gorgeous colors and pure fragrance. The next dishes are "tiger skin meat", "mutton loquat" and "meat coral". Some of these dishes are soft and rotten, while others are crisp and tender. The last one is "yellow-robed sheep tail", which looks like shiny Huang Liang and tastes sweet in the mouth. "Muslim whole sheep mat" is a selection of all the meat, tendons and bones of a sheep from beginning to end. People will never forget it as long as they appreciate it once. In villages inhabited by Hui people in Ningxia, Hui people always cook the traditional "Top Ten Bowls" dishes for their families and relatives to enjoy during every wedding and festival. The cooking methods of the "Top Ten Bowls" dishes are mainly stewed, including stewed mutton, stewed shredded lamb belly, braised beef, stewed apples, stewed fake lotus seeds and so on. Although they are all popular dishes, they all have their own tastes. After eating the top ten bowls of rural Muslims, we can appreciate the dietary characteristics of rural Muslims in Ningxia.

In addition, there are different local snacks in different regions of Ningxia. Wuzhong is a Hui inhabited area in Ningxia, where local snacks is representative in terms of raw material selection and cooking methods. White water chicken, hand-grabbed mutton and crispy snacks are the three traditional snacks in Wuzhong. Their tastes are salty, spicy and slightly sour, with simple folk characteristics. For example, grabbing mutton by hand has a history of nearly a hundred years in Wuzhong area. Because most people sell it in stalls along the street, customers are always used to eating it with their hands, so they get the name. The cooked hand-grabbed mutton is white and red in color, fresh and delicious, not greasy or greasy. Cold food can be served with salt noodles or safflower oil; Hot food should be fried and dipped in salt noodles or Hua San oil. This is a famous local flavor dish.

Guyuan snacks have other characteristics. Guyuan area is dry and rainy, producing no rice, but more wheat, buckwheat and glutinous rice. Therefore, the dietary characteristics in Guyuan area are halal snacks with pasta as the main flavor. Buckwheat noodles are a popular snack. It is made by kneading buckwheat noodles with water, pressing them into strips with a wooden press, and then steaming them in a cage. The finished product is flexible and smooth. When eating, mix with chopped green onion, shredded mutton, pepper and other condiments, taste it, it is fragrant and has a unique flavor.

Fried mutton noodles are a very popular food, which tastes good. First, mix high-quality flour with water and knead it into dough. Put it on the case to sober up, and then slice the mutton and fry it. Heat hot oil in a hot pot, stir-fry mutton slices for a while, then stir-fry chopped green onion, ginger juice and garlic slices, then add soy sauce, salt and pepper water, and cook for a while to remove the pot from the fire. Boil a pot of boiling water, thin the noodles woke up on the table by hand, pull them into small pieces, put them in the pot, cook them and take them out. Pour the dough into the mutton pot and stir fry again. Add seasonal fresh vegetables and Chili oil, and then serve. Stir-fried mutton noodles are fragrant and delicious, tough, fresh and tender, with strong mountain village flavor and ethnic flavor, and are a cheap staple food.