Whether rich or poor
Slaughtering a pig for the New Year
In the frigid depths of winter
All is quiet, serene and peaceful
Yet Bayannur bursts into vibrant life
With its annual Pig Festival, bustling with energy
When the weather turns cold and farm work winds down, people finally have time to rest. After toiling all year, it’s time to treat the family and themselves. That’s when households across the village start butchering pigs one after another, and the delicious Kill-the-Pig Cuisine makes mouths water...
The Kill-the-Pig Dish from Hetao farming households is not only a long-standing delicacy but also an indispensable part of Hetao’s food culture. For centuries, this dish has nourished generations of Hetao people and stirred homesickness in those far from home.
So here comes the question—
do you know
in a full pot of Kill-the-Pig Cuisine
which cut of meat is the most precious?
Baffled? Confused?
Do you feel like
you've been eating Kill-the-Pig Cuisine all these years for nothing?
Come on, repeat after me—
Pig Shoe Shoe (hái hái)
Why is “Pig Shoe Shoe” so precious?
In Hetao’s Kill-the-Pig Cuisine, about 20 pounds of pork jowl is used. Inside the jowl is a piece of throat bone, which farmers call “Pig Shoe Shoe.” Since it’s the only bone in the pork jowl, it’s considered special. This bone becomes a treasured treat for the most beloved family member, such as the youngest son or eldest grandson.
Where does the name “Pig Shoe Shoe” come from?
Many people don’t understand why farmers call the pig’s throat bone “Pig Shoe Shoe.”
It turns out that the shape of this bone closely resembles a sole-less shoe upper. After chewing off the meat and washing it clean, it’s placed on the stove to dry. Then, evenly spaced needle-like holes appear, resembling those from stitching shoes, making it a toy some girls like to collect.
A cleaned Pig Shoe Shoe — Photo by Qi Hongyan
= About “Pig Shoe Shoe” =
There’s also an interesting myth
’E back in the mists of time, the Queen Mother of the West kept a pet pig. The little pig was adorable and clever, following the Queen Mother around during the day and sleeping in her bedroom at night. But the pig had one bad habit it just couldn’t shake—a love of food.
’E One night, the little pig caught a whiff of an enticing aroma in its sleep and immediately got hungry.
It followed the smell and discovered a pair of embroidered shoes by the Queen Mother’s bedside. Mistaking them for food, it unhesitatingly nibbled on one, crunch crunch, devouring it.
The Queen Mother, half-asleep, heard a crunching sound and thought it was a mouse causing trouble. Lighting an oil lamp, she saw that it was a little pig gnawing on her embroidered shoes. She quickly tried to stop it, but it was too late — the pig couldn’t bite through the shoe, so it had swallowed one whole and was now waddling toward the other. The Queen Mother flew into a rage.
'e It turned out that these embroidered shoes were not easy to come by. The fabric was top-grade silk from Hangzhou, and the embroidery thread came from Suzhou. Moreover, both had been soaked in musk perfume from the Western Regions, and seven fairies had spent seven days and nights hand-stitching them. The shoes exuded an enchanting fragrance that could be smelled across the heavens. The Queen Mother had been planning to wear them during the Spring Festival to show off.
Who would have thought
that this little piglet would eat them?!
'e So she immediately put her punishment plan into action: considering that he was not yet an adult, she spared him from the death penalty. But as punishment, the piglet was banished to the human world, never allowed to return to Heaven. His diet, once of rice and flour, was reduced to chaff and greens, and he was transformed into livestock for human consumption — slaughtered every year, repeating the cycle annually. Still not satisfied, she added another condition: since his greed had led him to eat her shoes, she decreed that those shoes would forever lodge in his throat, never to be swallowed, so that even his pig-brained self would learn a lesson.
'e And thus, the pig ended up in its current state. "Pig head" and "pig brain" became synonymous with stupidity, and the name "pig shoe-shoe" came into being.
Though this is just a story
and we won’t delve into its truthfulness
the "pig shoe-shoe" is indeed a local specialty of Bayannur
and the tale of the "pig shoe-shoe" is widely circulated among the people
Hey, folks of Bayan Nur (Bayan Nur League)!
This year’s pig-slaughtering feast
did you get to try the pig shoe-shoe?
Leave a comment and tease our editor with your cravings
Text: Liu Bingzhong
Images: See watermark, some sourced from the internet
Author of piglet emoji stickers: AQiang’s Underground Team
Copyright belongs to the original authors. Please contact us for removal if there is any infringement.