A big banquet.                                        Photo: xinhua.net

As you learn about the Miao, you may think that they are wealthy people with an endless supply of silver jewels and riches. But in reality, most Miao people live a fairly simple life without many of the comforts we have in the West.

Gourmands, for example, may be quite disappointed with Miao cuisine. Living high on rocky mountains, away from popular trade routes and market places, most Miao food is quite simple, even during holidays and weddings. They do, however, have a few interesting delicacies.

Endless Oil-Tea

If you go to a Miao village, you may be surprised when you host pours you bowl after bowl of delicious oil-tea, and you may feel obliged to drink it down until you burst!

Delicious Miao oil tea.                            Photo: fokok.com

Oil-tea is a Miao specialty made of ginger, salt, and, of course, oil. All of these ingredients are fried and mixed in a pan before being put into a pot with water to boil.

After it’s done cooking, almost anything, including  beans, peanuts, corn, glutinous rice, spring onions, garlic, and peppers can be added.

The result is a rich, tasty beverage that’s served in bowls with chopsticks.

When you don’t want to drink any more, just put your chopsticks into the bowl, and the flow of tea will finally stop!

Colorful Rice Means Marriage or Broken Hearts

One of the main impressions most visitors to Miao villages come away with is the multi-colored rice the Miao serve. Rice is their staple food, and it has five different colors: white, black, red, yellow, and blue, and every bowl of rice can have social meaning.

Colorful rice.                                            Photo: huaxia.com

The colors are made by grinding various plants and fruits into a fine paste, then mixing the paste with rice while it’s cooked. As a result, most of this rice is quite sweet and stickier than that found elsewhere in China.

Miao rice even holds social implications for the local people. It’s very common for single women to give baskets of colorful rice to the men who are pursuing them. They’ll usually put a small item in the rice to tell the man what she thinks of the relationship:

-A branch that splits into a fork means the relationship is over
-A curved piece of bamboo means the man should give her a gift
-A small slice of a toon bud, which is a special woody vegetable, means the two can get married

When it’s time for the wedding, the happy couple will exchange fine silver jewelry and eat rice with images of flowers, babies, and phoenixes painted on it.

Get Ready for Burning Mouths and Tongues

Spicy Miao dish.                              Photo: zhfs.gov.cn

Diced and fried hot peppers are probably the most common additions to Miao food these days, and there are a few different ways to cook up spicy Miao dishes that really have a kick.

Sometimes baked or boiled the peppers with garlic, vinegar, and other condiments to get different levels of spiciness and different flavors.

Some Miao people even jar chili peppers, much the same way that your grandmother would jar plums back home!

Almost all throughout ancient times, it was quite hard for Miao people to get many of the spices we take for granted, like salt or black pepper. So what can you do? They grew a taste for the extremely spicy, wild red peppers that grow around their towns.

(Not) Sweet and Sour Soup

We’re all familiar with the sweet, tangy soup served in most Chinese restaurants, but the Miao have their own kind of sour soup that is quite different.

Fish in sour soup.                             Photo: lotour.com

Made of radishes, cabbage, and fermented rice, calling this stuff sweet is a bit off the mark. Most Miao people don’t just drink it as it, but rather use it as a kind of marinade to cook fish, beef, chicken, and other kinds of meat to add a little zest.

Get Some Drinks: Time for Wine

Like most Chinese liquor, Miao wine is made of rice. Also like much of the rest of China, welcoming guests or holding celebrations usually comes with a healthy dose of wine, which unsurprisingly usually leads to singing and dancing.

For special guests, some Miao families will set bowls of wine in 12 places from the village gate all the way to their homes. The guests try to empty each and every bowl before arriving, although it’s no surprise that many don’t.

Potent Miao snake wine.        Photo: wuyishan.gov.cn

If you do finish, however, you’ll be the talk of the town, and don’t be surprised if many of the local men challenge you to a drink-off later!

Miao culture is so rich and full, it’s no surprise that they were able to come up with at least a few unique dishes. Visit a Miao village to see it all rolled out, of course along with their unique silver jewels and other silver ornaments.