Zhangjiajie's Big Bowl of Meat
Big bowls of meat, steaming hot; big bowls of meat, mouths open wide; big bowls of meat, satisfaction in the heart. Zhangjiajie people are famous for eating big bowls of meat. In the Bai village where I live, everyone is an expert at it. Especially at banquets, those who can eat big bowls of meat are the most favored guests by the host. The serving cook brings out a big bowl of meat,
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Big bowl after big bowl of meat, steaming hot; big bowl after big bowl of meat, mouths agape; big bowl after big bowl of meat, satisfaction in the heart.
Zhangjiajie people are famous for eating big-bowl meat. In the Bai village where I live, everyone is an expert at eating big-bowl meat. Especially when entertaining guests, the person who can eat big-bowl meat is the one most favored by the host among all the guests. When the serving man brings out a big bowl of meat, he watches to see who picks up chopsticks and opens his mouth first. When the big bowl of meat is scraped clean, the serving man will say to the kitchen chef across the room: "Today we've met a scary (in Bai language, meaning formidable) fellow—he attacks meat like drinking wine!" The chef laughs: "How many bundles of ox grass does it take to burst an ox's belly? One word: swell!" Swell means swelling the meat—that is, adding big bowl after big bowl of meat. The chef personally carries it to the table, waves his hand warmly in greeting: "Attack—!" encouraging that meat-eater dubbed "the ox" to eat big mouthful after big mouthful. Perhaps he hadn't tasted the meat he'd dreamed of for so long, perhaps he was already ravenous from a long journey on foot, perhaps the chef's skill was just too perfect—the meat-eater with the ox's belly and horse's stomach chuckled and responded with great boldness: "Attack it is—!" When he encountered another table's meat-eating champion, several men would follow the rules and hold a special meat-eating contest, with the host as witness, to see whose big bowl of meat disappeared fastest. In the end the host would ask the last meat-eater with a grin: "Can you still attack?" The meat-eater would proudly pat his belly and answer loudly: "Attack? Attack again and your family will have to slaughter another sow!" Once a meat-eater gained fame, when someone's wife gave birth, he'd be invited to be the "stepping elder" at the birth-stepping ceremony, and according to Bai custom he'd have to be "stuffed"—invited to eat, and of course still eating big bowl after big bowl of meat.
Zhangjiajie big-bowl meat is famously delicious. The meat is of the finest quality—good texture, beautiful color, fragrant taste. The most popular among big-bowl meats is "fat-slice pork": palm-sized, palm-thick, palm-long, particular about each piece being a piece, each bowl being a bowl, particular about retreating being worse than being scared off, particular about whoever can eat it being the one who can do the work. Especially during the rice-transplanting season, every household prepares big bowls of fatty pork, the largest piece weighing half a catty, laid on top of the bowl, called the "cover-face meat." Whoever eats this piece represents the best hand at transplanting and must go "plant the lead row." If someone doesn't understand and secretly steals a bite, it violates the taboo, and that day he must grit his teeth and "plant the lead row." If he can't out-plant the others, he's trapped in the middle of the field, called "penned as a stupid pig," and loses face completely. Among big-bowl meats there are also trotter meat, chunk meat, knuckle meat, lean meat, minced meat, smoked sausage meat, cured meat, strip meat. By type of meat, there are also mutton, dog meat, chicken, duck, goose, beef, fish, and so on.
Zhangjiajie big-bowl meat is a yearning for the good life. In olden times, whichever family served big-bowl meat to guests became known locally as a prominent household, and was envied by others. Some families short on cash would also, when entertaining guests, lay out big-bowl meat like the prominent households—except that under the meat they'd pad the bowl with chili peppers, while still laying slices of big meat on top. When they encountered a man who could put away meat, a few chopsticks would expose the family's impoverished circumstances.
Zhangjiajie people all love to eat big-bowl meat. When we were children, attending the adults' banquets, the first thing we did at the table was grab that bowl of big chunks of meat. In remote mountain villages, when hosts hired farm laborers, they invariably entertained them with big-bowl meat—first, to show the host's generosity and boldness; second, to test whether the laborer could eat meat and had the strength to work. As the host would say: "If you can eat it, you can do it. Think about it—a grown man who can't put away a few big bowls of meat, won't those few-hundred-catty loads crush him flat?" Of course, the fellow who could put away several big bowls of meat was quickly chosen. There were also brash fellows who, after eating several big bowls of meat and being chosen, worked like a pile of wet mud—limp and soft. At night, the host still entertained with big-bowl meat, and the brash fellow didn't decline at all, eating until grease dripped from his mouth. The host asked with a smile: "Why can you eat so much?" The brash fellow answered: "Look—what a big frame I have!" The host asked with a laugh: "Then why are you so weak?" The brash fellow answered: "Look—I was born so soft and floppy!"
Father was especially attached to eating big-bowl meat. The year the responsibility system was assigned to households, my father went to help at a family that had a funeral. After the fast-breaking, the overseer shouted: "Fast-breaking is over! Attack the big-bowl meat!" Father was overjoyed, and sitting at an eight-immortal table with several farmers, his eating was crude and vulgar—eating until his mouth dripped grease, the table dripped grease, the floor dripped grease, his whole body was smeared with grease, his hands and mouth and cheeks and bowl all covered in grease, drop after drop of fragrant grease! Mother stood under the eaves, quietly watching Father's vulgar manner of eating big chunks of meat, and tears streamed down as she said: "It's all my fault—I didn't manage the household well, and let your father go without a few full meals of meat!" Grandmother also stared blankly and said: "It's all my fault—all these years I only cared about earning work points, and let my son suffer in life, never even eating a decent meal of big-bowl meat!" I know that Grandmother, for the family and for the production team's good harvest, never in her life ate a full meal or full meat. The second year after the responsibility system came to households, our family slaughtered a big fat pig. Just as the meat was hung up, word came that Grandmother, who lived alone, was gravely ill and bedridden. I remember that in the final moments of her life, Grandmother was still murmuring: "Meat... big-bowl meat... big... chunks... of meat...!" Mother brought big chunks of meat to Grandmother's lips, but Grandmother couldn't swallow them; forced to eat, she forced them back up, unable to get them down. In the end, Mother could only let Grandmother smell the big-bowl meat. Grandmother ultimately passed away without ever eating the big-bowl meat from the first big fat pig our family had raised, departing this world with eternal regret. Every New Year's Eve, when we go to Grandmother's grave to pay respects, we bring a big bowl of meat, call Grandmother's name, and tell her to "eat the big-bowl meat"—using this helpless way to express our longing for our ancestors.