These must‑try Li ethnic delicacies in Hainan — how many have you tasted?

Fish Tea

When visiting Li villages and settlements, one dish that must be tasted is Fish Tea. "Fish Tea," which is both sour and sweet with a flavor of wine and vegetables, is a superior dish served only when entertaining honored guests. It is made by mixing cooked rice with raw fish in a jar, adding seasonings, sealing it, and letting it ferment for about 8 days. This tea can be made into two types: dry tea and wet tea. Similarly, "Meat Tea," "Vegetable Tea," and "Egg Tea" can be made using the same method.

"Nansha"

In the areas inhabited by the Li people, a delicacy indispensable for entertaining honored guests and during major festivals is called "Nansha."

"Nansha" is divided into two types: meat and vegetable. "Meat Nansha" is made by placing cooked rice into a jar, then adding raw beef or pork, small animals like mountain rats, and other ingredients; the jar mouth is sealed tightly, buried underground for a month, and then dug out to eat. "Vegetable Nansha" is made by putting wild vegetables into rice porridge, sealing it in a jar, burying it underground for a month to ferment, and then tasting it.

When the jar mouth of "Nansha" is opened, a pungent sour odor that rushes to your nose might make it unbearable, but when you summon the courage to take a bite, the sweet and sour taste accompanied by a faint foul smell will make you unable to help exclaiming that it turns out to have such a unique fragrance.

Mountain Ant Eggs

Mountain ant eggs are a great dish for the Li people to accompany alcohol. Mature ant eggs are white with a hint of red, crystal clear, just like tiny pearls. Mountain ant eggs are not only delicious but also extremely high in nutritional value; they are a rare natural delicacy.

The dietary habits of the Li people are relatively primitive and traditional. The elders like to cook mountain ant eggs with wine lees, adding oil, salt, and old mountain ginger. Another way to eat them is to mix and cook them with pumpkin leaves.

Wild Vegetables

Hainan has a diverse variety of wild vegetables:白花菜, Shuzai Vegetable, Deer Tongue Vegetable... "Leigong Root" (Centella) is a wild vegetable often eaten by Li people; when cooked with small fish and shrimp from the river or with meat bones, it makes an extremely savory delicacy.

Bamboo Rice

After soaking rice in water and draining it, mix it with lean meat, five-spice powder, and an appropriate amount of salt, then stuff it into a bamboo tube. Pour in some clear water, and block the opening with banana leaves to seal it. Then place the bamboo tube into a fire pile and slowly rotate it to roast, creating bamboo dry rice. That fragrance is simply irresistible~

Turmeric Rice

Pound raw turmeric until it is mashed, take the yellow turmeric water, and use it to cook rice. The rice is yellow in color and has a unique fragrance. It has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, and can also help replenish the body for postpartum women.

In addition, Li people also like to add mountain yams, mountain fruits, and the like to the rice to cook together, forming uniquely flavored Li family meals. There are sweet potato rice, pumpkin rice, corn rice, Chinese yam rice, Baozi fruit rice, foxnut rice, and so on.

Shanlan Wine

Shanlan wine is truly a nectar and jade liquid. The Li people call it "biang" wine. It has a mellow taste, is sweet and fragrant, rich but not strong, and is full of nutrition. It enjoys many laudatory titles such as "Hainan Maotai" and "Shanlan Jade Liquid."

Similarly, there are also corn wine, sweet potato wine, cassava wine, pumpkin wine, banana wine, mountain fruit wine, and others.

Tea•Drinks

Shuiman Tea, Kuding Tea, May Tea, and Calabash Tea are the most representative teas of the Li people.

Li sweet lees are made from Li specialty Shanlan glutinous rice through fermentation. The sweet lees have high nutritional value, and are even more fragrant and delicious when used to boil eggs.

In addition, when traveling away from home, people drink spring water; when going up the mountain, they cut old vines and drink vine water. This has been the living custom of the Li people since ancient times.

Snacks

Glutinous Rice Pastry, Cassava Pastry

These are baked and fried from glutinous rice flour and cassava flour respectively. They are soft in texture and fragrant and sweet, each retaining the aroma of glutinous rice and cassava. They can be eaten alone, or shredded coconut can be added inside as a filling. I have tasted them myself; they are truly sweet, fragrant, soft, and glutinous, with a unique flavor.