Zhangjihuai high-speed railway runs through the golden tourism corridor in the mountainous region of western Hunan,rich in its the profound history, humanity and beautiful landscape. It welcomes the tourists from all over the world and brings the delicaciesof Western Hunanto other places. If you come to Western Hunan,don’t forgetto tastethem.

Preserved meatof Western Hunan, spicy and delicious,ispopular among the consumers.There are a lot of preserved foods in western Hunan, such as the preserved pig's head, the preserved sausage, the preserved pigj’s belly, the preserved pig’s tongue, the preserved pig's foot, the preserved pig’s liver, the preserved pig’s lung, the preserved pig’s intestine, etc. The practice of preserved meatis relatively simple: cut the fresh pork into long pieces, each piece weighing 3 to 5 pounds; wipe it with heated salt, together with some pepper powder and then pickle together in a wooden barrel. After a week, the meat is taken out of the barrel and hung above the fire pit to be smoked and roasted. In a few days, when the white pork slowly becomes golden, you can take the meat off, clean it , put it into the grain in the warehouse. Thenyou have the preserved meat. It can be kept for two or three years. The longer it is stored, the better it tastes.

Duck blood is healthy food.The duck cooked with the blood cakes is a well-deserved delicacy in Western Hunan. The process of making blood cake duck is complicated. The duck blood is poured into glutinous rice to solidify and then steamed in a pot. After cooling, it is cut into small cubes and then fried in tea oil. The duck meat is stir-fried together with pork fat, pepper and vegetable oil, and then the blood cakes are added and cooked together. The duck with blood cakes not only has the delicious taste of duck meat, but also the delicate flavor of the bloodcakes with the surfacebeingcrispy, the inside being fragrant and soft.

GuzhangTeppanyaki can be said to be a typical cuisineof Western Hunan. Youcan oftensee a big table and a few benchesin the shops propped up with cloth, plastic or umbrellasin the streets.In the middle of the bustling downtown, you can invitesomefriendshere to talk around the stove at night, while enjoying mutton shashliks, fried stinky tofu, pickled radish, sweet potato vermicelli,rice tofu, and fried sausage, a hodgepodge of dishes placed on the pan with the special pickledpepperof Western Hunan, as well as good wine.

Talkingabout Western Hunan,we can't help but talk about its rice noodles. The rice noodle stores in the street are often full of customers. Unlike rice noodles from other places in the south, rice noodlesof Western Hunanare made from selenium-rich rice, and the noodles are strong, tasty and smooth. Different ingredientsare used here to boil the soup to make the rice noodles tasty. There are many kinds of ingredients, including shredded meat, pork ribs, beef, tripe, mutton, stewedpork, pettitoes, preserved meat, and sausage. The rice noodles are rich in taste, and with a mouthful of noodles you can dip into the flavor ofWestern Hunan.

Phoenix ginger candyis a food we are familiarwith.Although ginger candyhas been a tourist specialty on the assembly line, there are still many ginger candy stores, making a snack full of sincerityof the peoplein Western Hunan.Ginger, brown sugar, water and other raw materials are put in the iron pot and boiled. When it becomes sticky, pour it out and put it on the stone countertop to cool. When it is cold enough to pull out the strips of sugar, hang the ginger candy dough on the iron hook by the door and quickly pull out strips of sugar, then cut it into thumb-sized triangles with scissors, and it is the ginger candy that is generally sold. Ginger candy tastes sweet and spicy. Two wonderful flavors strike the taste buds of diners, making people unable to stop. It has special effects on lowering blood lipids and blood pressure, and preventing myocardial infarction, as well as improving appetite, helping digestion, and providing some relief for dispersing cold, stopping vomiting, reducing phlegm and common cold due to wind-cold. Ginger sugar technology, originated in the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, has a history of more than 200 years. Whether it is used as an ordinary snack or a snack beneficial to health, it is a good choice.

Peoplefrom Western Hunan are the sonsof the mountains, which have nurtured many generations. Every year during the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the mountains in western Hunan are overgrownwith artemisia,a kind of wild vegetable. Its green stems, branches and leaves are covered with white velvet and have a faint fragrance. Every year around the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the industriouslocal people,carrying backpacks, pick baskets of artemisia grass before the dewdries, and come back to make artemisiacakes.The glutinous rice is soaked in spring water and finely ground into powder. The sugar filling is fried sesame seeds with white sugar. Wash the artemisiapicked from the mountain, boil it in hot water and remove its bitter taste. After picking it up, rinse it with cold water and twist it dry to remove the melanin and fine hairs.The process is repeated several times to make the artemisiasoft and turquoise enough to blend. The chopped artemisiaand glutinous rice powder are poured into a basin with warm water, stirred with a little salt, and kneaded vigorously. The green juice of artemisiais immersed in the glutinous rice powder, and then kneaded into a dough.Then, pull out a lump as big as a child's fist, wrap the sugar filling into it, and form a ball, wrap it with monkey chestnut leaves, and so on and so forth, making numerous round balls. Finally, they are steamed in a steamer. While steaming, the refreshing aroma slipsout from between the cracks of the steamer and floatsall over the room. After about an hour, the artemisia cakes areready.

There is a saying inWestern Hunanthat "on the 28th day of the 12th lunar calender, glutinous ricecakesare made". When Chinese Spring Festival comes, at the end of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, every family willmakeglutinous rice cake.According to the local annals, "glutinous rice is pestledlike mud in the stone trough, pressed into a shapeof thefull moon.The largest one is 1.5 feet in diameter, the ordinary one is about 4 inches, and the thickness is 3 to 8 centimeters."After the small glutinous ricecakesare made, the women who are most skillful at making glutinous ricecakes will make several large ones, ranging from three or five pounds to more than ten pounds, which symbolizes the "harvest" and shows the generosity of the Tujia people. Making glutinous ricecakesis a labor-intensive physical task, and it is usually done by young men. Two men stand opposite each other, kneading first and then beating, and sweating even on snowy days. The process of making glutinous rice cakes is very particular. You have to apply beewax or tea oil on your hands, rub the lump first, and then press it with your hands or boards to make it smooth and beautiful.

The friedcakein the shape of an oil lamp is the characteristic food of Western HunanThe ingredients are rice, glutinous rice and soybeans. Grind them into a pulp, add chopped green onion and water, then pour the pulp into a spoon. Put it into the frying pan and fry slowly. When it slowly turns golden brown, pick it up and put it in a colander to strain the oil and then serve. Some people also like to put some chopped garlic leaves and peppers preserved in winein the paste. It tastes delicious but not greasy. The big ones are soft outside and the small ones are crisp outside. It has been popular in Western Hunanfor more than 100 years and has become a special snack with good quality and low price.

Western Hunanis located in the microbial fermentation zone, which is suitable for processing pickles. There are about 300 kinds of pickles inWestern Hunan, including green vegetable acid, calabash acid, kohlrabi acid, chili acid, soybean acid, cucumber acid, scallop acid, dry vegetable acid, sour fish, sour meat, etc.Corn acid is one of the most common and versatile, and a little corn acid is often added to other foods, which immediately gives you a special taste. The way to make corn acid is to mix the powdered corn with the chopped pepper, and then pour it into a jar. After half a month, it can be taken out and fried.

Rice tofu is a traditional snack of Tujia and Miao ethnic minorities inWestern Hunan, which is most popular in summer.The raw materials for making rice tofu generally include rice, soybeans and lime, which are roughly the same as rice tofu in other places. The main difference lies in its ingredients. The color ofWestern Hunanrice tofu is generally green and bright, and the taste is fragrant, soft and delicate.It can be stored at 0 to 25 degrees Celsius for up to three days without spoiling and can be used for cooked or cold food.In the popular movie "Lotus Town" in the 1980s, besides Liu Xiaoqing, Jiang Wen and other actorsand actresses, the most important "actor" isWestern Hunanrice tofu. The film was shot in Wang Village, Yongshun Countyof Western Hunan, now known as Lotus Town.