Dai-style Beef Sasa

Dai-style Beef Sasa

　　Dai-style beef sasa from Xishuangbanna is a uniquely flavored dish from the Dai people, with beef tripe (i.e., the cow’s stomach, known as ox tripe in Han Chinese cuisine) as its main ingredient.

　　What sets Xishuangbanna Dai-style beef sasa apart is its unique seasoning — the semi-digested stomach contents mixed with gastric juices but not yet fully absorbed. It may sound hard to believe, but without it, the dish wouldn’t be sasa. With its cooling and detoxifying effects, those who eat it regularly tend to stay healthy.

　　The Dai-style beef sasa from Xishuangbanna is essentially bitter beef intestine. The sasa made by the Dai people is known for its numbing, spicy, bitter, cool, sweet, delicious taste and pearly white color. They have a particular fondness for it, not only enjoying it themselves but also serving it as a premium dish to guests.

　　The most meticulous part of making Xishuangbanna Dai-style beef sasa lies in the seasonings. To prepare it, ingredients such as beef tripe, tenderloin, rectum, liver, and spleen are cleaned and boiled in water while ensuring the meat remains tender. Once cooked, they are removed, chopped, and mixed with seasonings like Sichuan peppercorn powder, spicy polygonum, leeks, chili, and garlic. Then, pre-made bitter intestine juice and a small amount of eleuthero juice are added, along with some meat broth, stirred well, and it’s ready to eat.

　　This dish has medicinal value, aiding digestion, improving stomach health, and relieving summer heat. The version from Lincang differs from those in Dehong Prefecture and Xishuangbanna Prefecture.

　　How to Make Xishuangbanna Dai-style Beef Sasa:

　　More than an hour before slaughtering the cow, feed it some unique wild herbs from Dai villages — eleuthero leaves and spicy polygonum. Eleuthero leaves, surrounded by thorns, are also called thorny eleuthero, a cooling, bitter-tasting traditional Chinese herb. Spicy polygonum leaves resemble chili leaves, with a spicy and bitter flavor that offers antibacterial benefits.

　　After opening the cow, clean the tripe, blanch it in boiling water for two minutes, quickly scrape and rinse it, then slice it into strips and add seasonings. Extract the partially digested plant juice from the cow’s stomach and mix it with the tripe, then add other seasonings: bird’s eye chili, Sichuan peppercorn powder, peanut crumbs, star anise, tsao-ko powder, MSG, and salt. Add finely chopped fresh eleuthero leaves and spicy polygonum, along with wild scallions picked from the mountains — and your Dai-style beef sasa is ready. Oh, and don’t forget another unimaginable ingredient: a very bitter juice from the cow’s small intestine. Only with this bitter juice does the Dai-style beef sasa achieve its most authentic and distinctive flavor.

　　The aroma of Dai-style beef sasa is quite unique, carrying a blend of wild grass and earthy fragrance. Smelling it might remind you of lying in the grass herding cattle or the scent of a morning walk through a meadow — but certainly not of food.

　　The color of Dai-style beef sasa is distinctive: greenish with hints of yellowish-brown. At first glance, it looks like a bowl of freshly fallen autumn leaves that haven’t yet fully dried out.

　　Actually putting this in your mouth takes some real courage — the kind you’d need to try eating crab for the first time. When you frown and make a face, taking the first bite of Dai-style beef sasa, it’s like drinking an ice-cold soda on a sweltering day — a burst of spice — no, bitterness — rushes up your nasal passage to your forehead, instantly refreshing your mind and banishing all summer heat.

　　With the hot climate of the Dai region, beef sasa has become an essential summer dish for cooling off. On the hottest days, it’s common to see families sitting together under the eaves enjoying sasa. Kids often wrap some in banana leaves and run off to eat and play at the same time.