Legend has it that ancient Guizhou suffered from a lack of salt, and the resulting insipid diet kept the locals in this mountainous area in continually low spirits. To make food more appetizing members of the Miao minority population started to use tart, wild fruits in their cooking in order to give their meals a sour taste. An old folk saying from the region relates this culinary revolution was: "A lack of sour food for more than consecutive three days makes Guizhou people unable to walk fast."

Defined by its sourness, as well as its spiciness, courtesy of local chillies, Guizhou cuisine is also known as "Qian" cuisine, the word being a Chinese shorthand term for Guizhou Province.

 

Ethnic tastes

Food found in Guiyang in northern Guizhou, for example, typifies this style and it is particularly common among the region's ethnic minorities.

The sourness in Guizhou cuisine is best exemplified in its soups, the best-known being the classic sour fish soup. The essence of this soup lies in its wild fruits (notably cherry tomatoes), pickled vegetables (for example carrot and Chinese cabbage) and fermented rice, all organically cooked without the need for additives.

Another signature element of Guizhou food is a chili seasoning sauce that can include a variety of diverse ingredients such as garlic, ginger, parsley, peanuts, minced meat, fennel, mint and fried soybean. This sauce is often enjoyed with the popular Guizhou snack, rice tofu. Water-soaked rice is ground into rice milk, and after being boiled and cooled it is made into the shape and texture of tofu, hence its name. Be warned, however, that rice tofu itself is almost tasteless.

Preserved pork and ham is also popular, fried with chili and vegetables such as fern roots.

In Shanghai, Guizhou eateries may not be as ubiquitous as their Sichuan and Hunan counterparts, but the Global Times has found several that offer an ideal introduction to this often overlooked cuisine.

 

 

Guizhou Miaojia Sour Fish Soup Restaurant 贵州苗家酸汤鱼馆

No prizes for guessing which Guizhou staple this eatery specializes in. There are two types of fish used in the soup: Wujiang River fish and long-snout catfish, both of which are transported direct from the region.

An order of the soup, containing roughly 1 kg of fish, costs 88 yuan ($13.94). "To adapt it to the Shanghai palate, the sour fish soup isn't as sour as when it is served in Guizhou," Xu Suhui, manager of the restaurant, told the Global Times.

The fish is usually served raw and then boiled and cooked in the red soup at the dining table. It usually takes about 15 minutes.

Cherry tomatoes remain the main ingredient that gives the soup its sour flavor with fermented wild tart fruits and sticky rice also playing their part. The entire kitchen is made up of staff from Guizhou, and they claim to have a secret recipe to steam and ferment the cherry tomatoes to give them a special sourness. If customers want the fish to taste spicier, they can request the chef to use specially-made chilli-based dipping sauces - the chilli are grown in Zunyi and Huaxi in Guizhou Province.

 

Add: 61 Guoding Road East 国定东路61号

Tel: 5558-1077

 

Add: 1233 Zhongxing Road 中兴路1233号中兴财富广场

Tel: 5632-2015

 

 

Qian Xiang Ge 黔香阁

Qian Xiang Ge today has four branches around the city. The décor of its Hongzhong Road outlet is typical of ancient China, featuring lots of wooden furniture and fittings.

The Wujiang River fish sour soup is highly recommended here, where tofu can also be added into the dish. Other popular dishes include Daohan chicken, which is steamed in an earthenware pot. The Chinese word daohan means nightly sweats, which vividly describes the evaporated water that drops from inside the pot cover onto the chicken.

The cold dish, fern root noodle, is also worth trying at Qian Xiang Ge.

 

Add: 525 Hongzhong Road 虹中路525号

Tel: 6401-9777

 

Add: 171 Pucheng Road 浦城路171号

Tel: 5887-1717