The magical diet culture of Dong nationality

Dong nationality is a southern minority distributed in the adjacent areas of Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi provinces, among which Guizhou province has the largest population and is called "Max Loehr", "Liao" and "Dong Man" in ancient literature. They are mainly engaged in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting in Shanba, and their handicrafts are developed. It produces "Xianghe Nuo" (known as "the king of glutinous rice"), rice carp, camellia oleifera and fir trees, and is good at weaving Dong brocade. Drum Tower and Yufeng Bridge are unique and exquisite architectural art, and they are the landmark buildings of Dong Village.

Dong people's food culture has its own system, which can be roughly summarized in three words: "miscellaneous" (food structure), "sour" (taste hobby) and "happy" (banquet atmosphere). Its colorful food culture contains many magical contents.

Strangers: Heterogeneous Food Sources

In most Dong areas, there are four eclipses, two meals and two teas. Rice is the main body of rice. Pingba eats more japonica rice and mountainous areas eat more glutinous rice. There are many kinds of glutinous rice, including red glutinous rice, black glutinous rice, white glutinous rice, bald glutinous rice and dried glutinous rice, among which Xianghe glutinous rice is the most famous. They make all kinds of rice into white rice, flower rice, rice congee, flower porridge, zongzi, Ciba and so on. When eating, they knead rice into a ball with their hands, which is called "eating rice".

Dong people are generally used to cooking all day in the morning and taking them up the mountain to eat. Among them, the "steamed rice" made by Xianghe rice is particularly sweet, and there is a saying that "a steamed rice is fragrant in the whole village". The tea that Dong people drink refers to camellia oleifera, which is a thick soup made of tea, popcorn, fried peanuts, crisp soybeans, glutinous rice, meat, pig water, salt, chopped green onion and tea oil. It can not only quench thirst, but also satisfy hunger. Accompanied by rice and tea, there are vegetables, fresh fish, meat, melons and fruits, game, fungi and drinks, and the food sources are extensive.

Vegetables are mostly made into sour garlic. Fresh fish include carp, crucian carp, grass carp, eel, loach, shrimp, crab, river snail, clam, etc., and can be made into famous dishes such as roasted carp, grass carp soup, fried crucian carp, sucking river snail, sour shrimp and sour crab. Meat is mainly pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, with little difference. Melons and fruits include thorn plum, kiwi fruit, black persimmon, wild bayberry, wild pear, rattan pear, full fruit, thorn chestnut, dawangpao, tender bark of Matsumura, tender bark of mulberry and vanilla root. Among them, the fruit of oak can be made into tofu, the skin of "fragrant tree" can clean white teeth, and the "tea bubble" on tea tree is natural sweet and sour juice. Game includes rats, snakes, tadpoles, quadrupeds, cicadas, locusts, ground bees, Shi Wa, pangolins, baby fish, elk, sika deer, muntjac, and pine cone-eating turpentine chickens and pigs, which can be skillfully used by Dong people. In terms of auricularia auricula ears, there are Tricholoma matsutake and delicious frozen shredded chicken mushrooms, as well as vine roots and kudzu roots that can be used to make Baba and vermicelli. Tess, who grows in paddy fields, is full of bamboo shoots. The drinks are mainly home-brewed rice wine and "bitter wine", as well as tea and juice. According to a rough estimate, there are no fewer than 500 kinds of common foods for Dong people, including those that fly in the sky, those that swim in the water, those that grow on the ground and those that crawl in the grass. It shows their intelligence and strong survival adaptability.

Erqi: Nothing sour.

Dong people like sour taste. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "Dong people are inseparable from acid". They also said: "If you don't eat sour for three days, you will lose when you walk." In Dong cuisine, more than half of them are sour, and there is a saying that "no pickling is no acid". The characteristics of these sauerkraut are:

(1) has a wide range of materials. Pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, fish and shrimp, river snails, river crabs, dragonflies, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, bamboo shoots, radishes, garlic sprouts, mangosteen, onions and taro can all be preserved in jars.

(2) The pickling method is ingenious. First, make slurry water, add salt to boil, add raw materials to continue cooking, put it in a pickle jar, mix it with alcohol, sesame seeds and soybean powder, and seal it deeply.

(3) Long storage time. Preserved vegetables can be preserved for 2 years, preserved chickens and ducks for 3 ~ 5 years, preserved meat for 5 ~ 10 years, and preserved fish for 20 ~ 30 years. Unless there is a Daqing ceremony, the altar will not be opened. Dong family banquet, bowls of hot and sour fish, and "Dong Village Hot and Sour Fish Banquet" composed of ten major dishes are rare in the world.

Three wonders: a jubilant banquet

In the minds of Dong people, glutinous rice is the most fragrant, sweet wine is the most mellow, sauerkraut is the most fragrant, tobacco leaves are the coolest, wine songs are the coolest, and banquets are the most jubilant.

Dong people want to feast and play "Tongba", and its technology is complex and meticulous, and there are many varieties. For example, those with perilla juice are called red Dongba, those with bayberry leaves are called black Dongba, those with stuffing are called bean paste Dongba, jujube paste Dongba and so on. When making tea, you should add candied flowers carved from grapefruit skin and winter melon skin; At the banquet, we should prepare five kinds of ginger, fragrant and palatable camellia, sweet and soft black pearl rice, sour dragon meat prepared by buffalo and famous wild grass carp, so that the host and guest can get together.

The most distinctive feature is the special welcoming ceremony when guests enter the village-"blocking the road". When the Dong people entered the stockade, they set up "roadblocks" at the gatehouse to stop the guests and drink songs. You sing and I answer, and the lyrics are humorous. After singing the wine, they swept away the obstacles and welcomed the guests in. After sitting down, it's time to change the wine and "make a cup". Neighbors either come to accompany guests automatically, or invite guests to their own homes, or "get together" to hold a banquet in the Drum Tower, regardless of each other. There are also some rules in the banquet, such as "treat the guests with the head of a chicken", "treat the guests with camellia oleifera", "treat the guests with sauerkraut and bitter wine", "eat closed meals" and "drink instead of wine". A poem in the Qing Dynasty said: "When the Lusheng is blown, the Drum Tower is full of words, and sour fish and glutinous rice often stay. There is no need to dye your teeth. " It is a portrayal of the vivid scenes of Dong Zhai guests.

Four wonders: thanks to the chef

Dong people's respect for chefs is also a unique content in their food culture. At many banquets, guests and chefs sing in pairs and thank each other. For example, a song "Thank the Chef" sings like this: "Chefs are always worried. They got up in the middle of the night and sat on the cold bench. Burning their hands and feet takes a lot of energy. Heap pork into carp back, cut radish into embroidery needles, stir-fry fungus, stew pig's trotters with chives, mix eggs with flour to make crispy meat, and steam honey and millet with flour. Ten kinds of tapestries are made by skillful hands, and the skill is the first. Eating in my mouth will have a hundred flavors, thanks to my wholehearted chef. "

Dong people's dietary taboos are mainly: don't sit on the threshold and eat, don't watch others eat; There is no fire on the first day of the first month; No outsiders are allowed to enter the village during the sacrifice; During the mourning period, dutiful sons should avoid vegetarianism, but fish and shrimp are not limited.