Tujia cuisine cartoons for 4th Lin Jun Cultural Tourism Festival

By Tan Maolin, Yichang International Communication Studio

The 4th Lin Jun Cultural Tourism Festival opened this Monday in Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, Yichang City. Lin Jun, born in Wuluozhongli Mountain, Changyang 4,000 years ago, was the earliest tribal leader of the Ba People in their primitive society. For thousands of years, the descendants of the Ba people have been living in the Wuling Mountains, eventually forming the Tujia ethnic group today found throughout Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing.

​Tang Fengzhu, a painting enthusiast in Changyang, created a series of hand-drawn cartoons on the theme of Tujia cuisine in Changyang in celebration of the 4th Lin Jun Cultural Tourism Festival.


Ten bowls with eight "steam and flip” dishes:
It’s the traditional feast of the Tujia family. As the most grand banquet of the Tujia people, the dish is made by only master chefs during joyful events or funerals. The first bowl is made with meat paste and a local yellow flower, the second with bamboo shoots, third with chicken, fourth with fish, fifth with steamed pork, sixth with mutton, seventh with pork balls, eighth with pork belly, ninth with sliced pork, and the 10th is soup. All bowls, except for the first and the last, are turned upside down into larger bowls after being steamed.


Handmade Konjac Tofu:
It’s a popular traditional food in the Yichang region.
Cooking steps:
1. Grind fresh konjac into a semi-liquid, then mix it with grass ash water.
2. Stir the mixed liquid well and wait for it to solidify. Once solid, cut into small pieces like tofu.
3. Boil for about half an hour.
4. Change the water and then boil for another half an hour. Then the konjac tofu is ready to serve.


Turnip Cake:
Turnip cake is a traditional snack spread around Changyang Tujia Autonomous County. It is made of locally produced radish and rice, with fatty meat, egg white, ginger, onion and other ingredients, and prepared by steaming.


Smoked Sausage:
An essential dish for the Tujia people during the Chinese New Year.
Cooking steps:
1. Have fatty and lean pork ready, and clean the sausage casing.
2. Cut meat and prepare condiments.
3. Stuff the well-marinated meat into the sausage casing.
4. Smoke the sausages with firewood. Finally, when 85 percent of the water within the meat is evaporated, it is ready.


Corn Sugar:
There is a long history of boiling sugar with corn or sweet potatoes in Changyang.
Cooking steps:
1.Select high-quality wheat and soak it, then drain it and put it in a wooden container until the wheat’s malt grows to about 3 centimeters long for use.
2.Shred corn into cornmeal and soak it using clear water.
3.Grind the wheat malt into a slurry, and then pour the slurry into the soaked cornmeal pulp, boil until pasty and then cool.
4.Pour the remaining malt slurry and a spoonful of gypsum powder into the bush paste, stir well, and start fermentation. Two hours later, boil the fermented sugar paste for another two hours.
5.Strain the sugar paste through a filter cloth and separate the sugar water for future usage.
6.Boil the filtered sugar over high heat, keep stirring until thickened to the point where it is difficult to stir, then change to a simmer over a light fire until it is crisp when picked up with a wooden stick to collect or eat.


Zhaguangjiao (A snack marinated in a mixture of cornmeal and crushed pepper)
It’s a traditional food unique to the Tujia people.
Cooking steps:
1.Mince the chopped up fresh red pepper with diced ginger and garlic.
2.Mix with coarse cornmeal and salt.
3.Place the mixture in jars and marinate for about half a month to a month before using.