Buckwheat cakes served with honey

Buckwheat cakes served with honey

　　The Yi people mostly live in mountainous areas. There is little farmland but plenty of open land, where they often grow bitter buckwheat. "Buckwheat" is known as the "king of grains." When making foods like buckwheat cakes, no yeast fermentation is used, so the cakes can be stored for dozens of days or even longer without spoiling and remain edible. In the past, in these regions, when making Buddha statues, instead of filling them with other grains, they would specifically place a handful of bitter buckwheat inside, showing the Yi people’s fondness for it. Foods made from buckwheat are excellent for aiding digestion. For infants lacking breast milk, buckwheat flour can be used for nourishment, and its nutritional value is better than that of rice flour. Strangely enough, in Yi villages, bitter buckwheat doesn’t taste bitter—this may have something to do with the water quality. The buckwheat cakes made with mountain spring water in the region have a fragrant taste with a sweet aftertaste, offering a unique flavor. Over time, the Yi people have developed various ways to prepare bitter buckwheat: one method is to shape the buckwheat flour into round cakes, bake them hard in a flat pan, and then roast them in “spicy hot ashes,” which makes them very fragrant; another method is to form the buckwheat flour into small lumps, boil them in a pot, and then place the pot next to the hearth to dry out the moisture until they turn orange-yellow and are ready to eat—these taste even more fragrant. Additionally, there are also other foods made from buckwheat, such as buckwheat cakes and buckwheat threads.

　　The Yi people enjoy beekeeping and are skilled at it. Taking advantage of the mountainous terrain, dense forests, and abundant wildflowers, they actively raise bees and harvest honey all year round. Among various types of honey, winter honey is considered the best, with both high nutritional and medicinal value. Buckwheat cakes served with this kind of honey are especially delicious and represent a distinctive flavor of the Yi mountain region.