Taste the fresh Miaojia sour soup fish

Miaozhai girls in Guizhou toasted the tourists with a toast. Photo by Cai Xingwen (People's Vision)

"Not eating sour soup fish is equivalent to not having come to Guizhou." The words of friends in Guiyang aroused our interest. In order to find out, we came to the restaurant located in Guiyang City, which specializes in sour soup fish- Qiao Miao Zhai.

Diners in front of the restaurant are bustling, and Hmong girls wearing silver are holding barricade wine, accompanied by the melodious sound of reeds. Stepping into the hall, I saw a copper hot pot the size of a washbasin in the center of each table, and the bright red soup in the pot emitted a burst of heat. After taking a seat, the waiter quickly served a plate of cut raw carp, catfish, rainbow trout and several yellow spicy dice (fish). When the soup began to boil, we hurriedly put the fish out of the pot. At this moment, a group of Miao youths poured out of the stage, the young men blew the reeds, and the girls danced along the way. In the cheerful and warm atmosphere, the red and white fish dishes are cooked, which is gratifying. Pick up a piece to taste, the meat is tender and delicious, sour and spicy, unique taste, pleasant fragrance. After eating, I feel a little sweet in my mouth. The sour soup fish is indeed worthy of the name. Vegetables and noodles were added one after another, and just as we were feasting, a few Miao girls gathered around, put the wine bowl in front of your face, and then connected three bowls from low to high, and the wine in the bowl was sent into your mouth from high to low. It is said that this way of toasting, called "alpine flowing water", is regarded by the Miao family as the highest etiquette for hospitality, which invisibly adds a bright color to the sour soup fish.

During the meal, I asked why the fish in sour soup has such a special taste? Local friends told us that this dates back to ancient times. According to legend, the ancestors of the Miao people are Xuan You, and there are 81 brothers, which should be 81 clans. They fought bravely and well, and fought with the two major tribal groups of the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor for the Central Plains. Xuan You was defeated and killed, and his descendants were subjected to conquest and exile many times during the Yao, Shun, and Yu periods, and some of them went to western Hunan and southeastern Qian. This area is mostly mountainous, inconvenient transportation, and the shortage of daily necessities, especially salt, has forced the Miao people to create a "acid instead of salt" diet method, which not only gets rid of the dilemma of salt shortage to a certain extent, but also effectively prevents food rot and enriches the taste of diet. The original sour soup was made with the sake tail after brewing, and then changed to the natural fermentation of white acid in clear rice soup, and then developed into the collection of wild tomatoes to pickle and ferment the red acid, that is, the kind we taste. The sour taste of the soup is mellow, red and fragrant. Today, Guizhou's sour soup products are not limited to fish, but have expanded to pig's feet, ribs, beef offal, etc.

There is also a moving legend about the Miao family sour soup fish. Legend has it that in ancient times, Miaoling Mountain lived an Intelligent and beautiful Girl who could sing and dance, and was very good at brewing wine. Within a radius of a few hundred miles. Many young men came to her invariably to court her. Ana pours a bowl of homemade wine for each suitor. But the boys felt that the taste was very sour after drinking, resulting in a kind of penetrating coldness. They did not understand the mystery, so they called out at night by singing mountain songs and asked the girl. Ana also replied with a song, indicating her heart: "Sour and slippery Tang You, sour Andy Lang, Sour Lang Yo listen to her sister's heartfelt intestines." In March, the betel nut does not bear fruit, and the September orchid has no aroma. Sentient mountain springs become fine wine, and ruthless wine becomes sour soup. The boys understood what they meant and left reluctantly. In the end, a young man who makes a living from fishing is caught by Ana. The young man offers the girl the live fish he caught in the river, and Ana uses her own wine and sour soup to make a delicious dish, that is, sour soup fish - "the crystallization of love". Since then, this dish has become famous and has been passed down to this day.