Most Qiang people have two meals a day, that is, they go out to work after breakfast and take steamed bread (corn flour buns) to eat in the field at noon, which is called "pinching". Go home for dinner after work in the afternoon. Most staple foods are inseparable from steaming. The usual noodle steaming is to steam corn flour into granules in a retort, which can be eaten as rice. Sometimes washed rice is mixed with corn flour, or corn flour is mixed with rice for steaming, which is called "gold coated silver" or "gold coated silver". Making steamed bread with wheat flour and corn flour and baking it on a fire pond is also one of the main daily foods of Qiang people. In many areas, Qiang people also like to eat corn flour and bean curd, ferment it with water, steam it into bean curd, or grind tender corn into steamed bread. Cooked with wheat flour and sliced meat is called "Hui Mian"; Boiled water and corn flour are boiled into a paste, which is called "noodle soup". If you continue to add corn flour to thicken it, it is called "stirring the ball" because chopsticks can be picked up. Are the staple foods you often eat. When eating jiaozi, you should also eat sauerkraut soup made of sauerkraut soaked in Chinese cabbage and round roots (radishes) to stimulate your appetite. Commonly used corn, wheat and beans are fried first and then ground into fried noodles, which are generally eaten when traveling or grazing. When eating potatoes, Qiang people like to cook the whole potato, then peel it, mash it into mud, make it into potato cake, fry it in oil, or fry it with honey. You can also make soup with potato chips, sauerkraut and meat slices.
Because the time to eat fresh vegetables is only a few months, I often eat Chinese cabbage, pickled cabbage soaked in radish leaves and pickled vegetables all the year round. Meat is mainly cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, as well as fish and hunting animals. Generally, Qiang people scattered in mountainous areas do not eat fresh pork very often. They all kill pigs, depilate them, cut them in half or cut them into large pieces, hang them on the beams and smoke them to make "pig fat". The storage time is generally one year. When eating, they first cook them with vegetables. After cooking, they pick up the pig fat, cut it into rectangular pieces and put it in a bowl to eat. 2. Cut raw pickled pork fat into small pieces and fry them with vegetables to replace the oil of pork fat, and add some pepper and pepper to improve the taste. When the Qiang people slaughter Niannian pigs, they like to pour pig blood into the pig's large intestine, which is called blood sausage after cooking. Blood sausage is also a dish for banquet guests to eat wine. Some also mix pig blood with buckwheat to make blood steamed bread. Qiang people often put fresh pork in the belly of freshly slaughtered pigs and add salt and pepper. Tightly tied and air-dried to make a "stuffed stomach" that can last for a long time.
The wine that Qiang people generally drink is called miscellaneous wine, and Maoxian Qiang language is called "Rimaixi", which means Qiang people's wine. The production method of mixed wine is to cook highland barley, mix it with distiller's yeast, seal it in an jar, and drink it after 7-8 days of fermentation. Qiang people don't drink, but open the jar and suck it with a thin bamboo tube. When drinking, they take turns to drink and keep pouring cold water until the taste fades.
The stoves used by Qiang people for daily cooking are very distinctive. They often set up an iron tripod on the fire pit and put an iron pot on it to heat or bake food when cooking. The elegant iron tripod also needs silver ornaments.
For festivals, ceremonies, sacrifices, festivals, celebrations, funerals, parties, entertaining guests or changing jobs, besides sumptuous meals, wine is also essential. As the A Qiang proverb says, "It is difficult to sing without wine, and it is difficult to entertain guests without wine." When you get married, you eat "wine making", while the banquet guests eat "drinking". The wine brewed on the Double Ninth Festival is called chong yang wine, which needs to be stored for more than one year before it can be drunk. Chong yang wine is an essential wine for the Double Ninth Festival because of its long storage time, purple color and mellow taste. Another drink called steamed wine is made by steaming corn flour and mixing it with distiller's yeast. When drinking, it has both the smell of wine and the taste of top rice, similar to the mash of Han nationality. The Qiang people always take "September" as the auspicious occasion for Chinese New Year and reception of guests, so nine bowls should be placed at the banquet, and the dishes are the same as Sichuan cuisine. Stew the whole chicken, and it is customary to hold the head of the chicken with a bamboo stick to hold it high. Entertain guests (such as uncles) with the head of a chicken.
The first day of October in the lunar calendar is the New Year of the Qiang people. New Year's Eve is also called "Harvest Wine". On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the whole village made a wish in the "Shenlin", burning cypress incense to worship their ancestors, making buckwheat noodles with diced tofu, and some making cows, sheep, horses, chickens and other animals with different shapes with flour as sacrifices. The next day, a family dinner was held to invite the married daughter back to her family. Carry out various festivals. The mountain gods who pray for a bumper harvest will be a sacrificial activity in the whole village. Except married women, everyone in the village should bring wine, meat and steamed buns to the meeting. The village head will be rotated by all the residents in the village. At that time, 1 black ram, 1 red rooster, 1 jar wine, 3 kg of pork, 1 bucket highland barley, 13 kg of big steamed bread made of flour, incense wax, firecrackers and paper money. It will be prepared according to the regulations, and Xu (the wizard) will preside over the sacrifice. Finally, everyone sat on the floor and tasted their sacrifices.
When the Qiang people get married and hold a wedding ceremony, the groom will accompany the bride back to her mother's house, and a "Huimen wine" will be prepared at home. Relatives and friends should give gifts to the newlyweds and wish the bride and groom happiness and a long life together. In some parts of the Qiang nationality, there is also the custom of "teasing the groom". That is, at the Huimen banquet, the bride's family will give the groom four feet of chopsticks, and some chopsticks made of potatoes will be added behind them. The groom will be asked to use these chopsticks and sandwich dishes made of diced meat and beans through several oil lamps. Chopsticks are too long to hold food, or oil lamps burn your chin, you will be fined. This kind of activity is not only a holiday dinner, but also a kind of entertainment.
Typical food Qiang people pay special attention to medicinal diet. Typical medicinal diet dishes are: mutton with soup; Sheep return to soup; Pork stewed Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. 1-2. All three can tonify the kidney. Stewed chicken with Astragalus membranaceus or Astragalus membranaceus (Angelica sinensis and Codonopsis pilosula are also acceptable) and a little stew can also replenish blood and qi. Stewed duck with Cordyceps sinensis can nourish yin, replenish lung and kidney.