The rice is the staple food of Mayang folk, with two meals a day, and one more meal for farming seasons or entertaining guests. For the lunch is an extra meal, it is customarily called “Dim Sum”. In fact, it is no different from the usual meal, even more sumptuous. The sour and spicy food are much favored and the wine is very popular among the Miao people. As the saying goes, “A meal with no sour food will cause one to drowse the whole day”; “A meal with no spicy food will make one struggle faintly to his knees”; “No wine, no feast”. The Mayang Diet vary with seasons, with a range of delicacies ranging from the coarse to the refined.
February Fools’ Feast On the fifth day after the beginning of spring (around the 20th day of the second lunar month) in Mayang, every household uses artemisia and wild onions as seasonings, mixed with glutinous rice to prepare “Fools’ Feast”, with paper money burned and sacrifices offered to the God of the Earth. The feast is finely crafted. Ingredients need to be prepared by collecting wild and tender artemisia annua, washed clean with mountain springs, chopped and pinched dry off from bitter water, and stir-fried in a pot until slightly dry. Wild onions are to be ready, washed and dried. Garlic seedlings are available from the garden, washed and dried too. Cured meat is taken to be singed and washed clean. Japonica rice and glutinous rice (3:7) are soaked in cold water for a day and a night, and dripped dry. Subsequently it is produced by the finely cut cured-meat stirred with the artemisia annua until fragrant, then added with finely chopped garlic and wild onion, and an appropriate amount of salt. It can be coddled or steamed. For coddling, after water getting boiled, Japonica rice is added first, and glutinous rice next, until half cooked, with the rice soup squeezed out, mixing artemisia annua and simmered mildly. For steaming, rice grains and artemisia annua are to be mixed well before they are steamed. The February Fools’ Feast has a complete range of colors, aromas, and flavors, especially the rice crust is crispy and delicious. Although slightly bitter and pungent, it helps to clear meridians and collaterals, and eliminate stasis to relieve pain.
Mayang Rice Cakes Rice cakes are very popular in Mayang in festivals. During the Chinese New Year, people enjoy the Ciba Cake and Box-Printing Cake, and during regular holidays, prefer Artemisia Annua Cake and glutinous rice dumpling (foremost the Dragon Boat Festival).
Ciba Rice Cake Mainly with glutinous rice, the Ciba Rice Cake mixes an appropriate amount of japonica rice, soaked, drained, and steamed before being hammered into a ball in a rectangular wooden or circular stone trough. The small balls are squeezed out and flattened into a round cake. NianBa Cake is coated with yellow wax mixed with water to prevent adhesion on the utensils. Generally, during the Dragon Boat Festival and Double Ninth Day, the Ciba Cake is coated with soybean powder. Nianba Cakes are often produced into a “giant goddess of cake”, weighing several pounds or even more, used by couples to pay New Year’s greetings to their parents-in-law.
Box-Printing Rice Cake Japonica rice mixed with a proper amount of glutinous rice, soaked and drained, and then ground into rice powders with a pestle or mill. About 1/3 of rice powders are put into a pot, mixed with water, and stirred into the shape of congee. Then the rice paste is scooped up into a utensil, kneaded into a hard ball, squeezed into a special “printing box” made of a small half-round wood (inside with two hemispherical recesses, engraved with flowers, birds, insects, fish, or double happiness, and longevity patterns), with the front flattened, and the back hemispherical pattern protruded. Eventually, it is served after steaming.
Artemisia Annua Cake Japonica rice is added with a proper amount of glutinous rice, dipped in water, rinsed and drained before being ground into rice powders with a hammer or mill. About 1/3 of rice powders are put into a pot, added with water and chopped artemisia, and stirred into a Congee shape. Then the rice paste is scooped up into a utensil, mixed with rice powders, or with raw rice powders and water, mixed with chopped and boiled artemisia, and kneaded into a hard ball. It is squeezed and pinched into a nest, and wrapped with sesame powder or soybean powder, pickled vegetables, meat dishes as stuffing, and shaped into a flat ball shape. It is wrapped with tea leaves or bamboo leaves before being well-steamed. Mostly it is wrapped in tung tree leaves, hence the name “tung leaves cake”, which is a unique flavor of Mayang.
The delicacy of glutinous rice cake, the fragrance of Artemisia Annua Cake, and the festive atmosphere of printed box cake lead to endless aftertastes. Mayang cake is also a “Dim Sum” commonly used by farmers who go up and down the mountain during the busy seasons. The dried cake, either steamed, fried or barbecued, has a different taste. Especially during the plowing season, the leftover Chinese New Year glutinous rice cake mixed with red beans is fried and pressed into a ball, known as “bean cake”, which is often made and consumed during the “carrying rice manure” season. It promotes our recollection of the pleasant flavour.
Pickled Pork and Fish The fresh meat and fish are washed clean and mixed with rice (mostly glutinous rice) powder, salt and spices, preserved in the crocks and sealed up for half a month. When it is slightly sour, they are taken out to be sautéd or fried. Fresh and delicious, they are widely served to entertain guests in Miao families.
Pickled Allium chinense Allium chinense is scattered everywhere on the slopes and ridges in the hilly areas of Mayang. The stems and leaves of Allium chinense can be used as vegetables and medicine. It is warm in nature and bitter and pungent in taste, functioning to promote unblocking meridians, activating collaterals, and dispersing nodules. It is mainly used for treating chest pain, diarrhea, and other diseases. The pickled Allium chinense is simple to produce: wash the newly collected Allium chinense, dry and cut it into small pieces, put it into a crock, sealed tightly and stuffed with straw, tung leaves, or palm leaves, and covered with water. The pickled Allium chinense is bright yellow with pungent aroma. It tastes better if fried with green peppers. If served as soup, it is refreshing.
Grinding-Bowled Dish The grinding bowl engraved in stone is popular among mountainous villagers. It is usually taken to grind the peppers with coriander, or pickled Chinese cabbage, Zingiber striolatum, bamboo shoots, soaked Chinese toon sprouts, etc., sprinkled with salt and pepper powder, then crushed with stone mallets and eaten raw with rice. Due to its simple approach, time saving, and excellent taste, it has been widely enjoyed up to now.
(Translated by Tian Xia)