Three Major Meat Dishes with a Tangy Flavor

Three Major Meat Dishes with a Tangy Flavor

　　The Miao and Dong ethnic groups have a strong preference for tangy flavors. Among their dishes, the three most distinctive meat dishes with a sour taste are sour pork, sour fish, and sour duck.

　　Sour pork is made from pork, which is cut into chunks weighing about one jin (approximately 500 grams). The pork is salted with raw salt for two days to fully infuse it with the salty flavor, then slightly air-dried. It is then mixed evenly with chili powder, glutinous rice, and some sweet fermented rice. The container used for fermenting the sour pork is typically a wooden barrel—wide at the top and narrow at the bottom—with a wooden frame supporting the base. On the frame, two to three layers of bamboo husks are placed, followed by a layer of straw from rice plants. The seasoned pork is then layered and pressed tightly into the barrel. On top of the pork, three or four more layers of bamboo husks are added, and the barrel is sealed with a stone lid to ensure it’s airtight but allows liquid to seep out. The sour pork is usually prepared from early winter to just before the beginning of spring. After two months in the barrel, the pork begins to develop a sweet and sour aroma, becoming what can truly be called sour pork.

　　Fish and duck are cleaned and gutted whole before being preserved. The preservation method is the same as that used for sour pork. There are generally two ways to eat sour pork: one is to stir-fry it—slicing the meat and pan-frying it until cooked, then adding celery, garlic sprouts, and a little water to finish cooking. The other is to roast it over charcoal, which is the most traditional way of eating it among ethnic minorities. Roasting sour pork fills the air with an irresistible aroma that can be detected dozens of meters away, making mouths water. The three major meat dishes with a tangy flavor are the best methods the Miao and Dong people have developed through life experience for preserving fish and meat, and they represent the wisdom of these ethnic groups.