Stop Assuming Guizhou Cuisine Is All About Fishy Herb and Chili Dip!

Guizhou, a culinary province brimming with treasured spring delicacies.

Hidden gems abound! In spring, gazing at the 1.258 million hills across this land, you’ll find tender bamboo shoots deep in the forests, along with a wild bounty of ingredients like fish mint, wild onions, earth stars, purple flower mushrooms, milk-cap mushrooms, and golden bamboo shoots.

In spring, Guizhou’s mountains and fields are teeming with fresh wild greens.

How many of these wild delicacies do you recognize?

Boundless culinary creativity! Guizhou’s snacks dazzle with innovation—savory chicken soup dumplings, Anshun grilled small intestines, and Qingyan rice cake porridge reflect the vibrant culture. Meanwhile, eco-conscious Qian cuisine restaurants in Guiyang showcase refined, international techniques:茅台-braised garlic chicken, steamed conch with chili paste, roasted duck paired with mountain pepper, and local fermented beans paired with Australian finger lime—all testaments to Guizhou’s culinary imagination.

In Guizhou, street food’s rustic charm coexists with elegant eco-Qian cuisine.

A heritage of flavor! The Miao people’s white sour broth, fermented for centuries, embodies Guizhou’s culinary legacy. The red sour soup, brewed from tomatoes and fermented chili, continues the locals’ ancient love for tangy tastes.

The clear, long-lasting sour aroma of fermented rice water—

a defining memory of Guizhou’s palate.

This spring, National Geographic China’s "Authentic Flavors: Spring Mountains of Guizhou" journey begins! Over six days, our team explored Guiyang, Qiandongnan, and Anshun, uncovering Guizhou’s seasonal secrets.

We hiked hills, ventured into bamboo groves, and wandered markets—

all in pursuit of spring’s freshest flavors.

Photo: The team savoring Guizhou’s culinary treasures.

If you’re visiting Guizhou this May Day, don’t miss these fresh delights!

The team dined at "Huang Xiao Xi’s Dinner"—

tasting spring’s bounty under Xijiang’s Thousand-House Miao Village nightscape,

discovering wild ingredients’ endless potential.

Where to find Guizhou’s spring flavors?

First stop: Guiyang’s Youzha Street morning market, a treasure trove of local produce. Beyond its narrow entrance lies a vibrant world—steaming buns, brown sugar-scented cakes, sizzling tofu balls, charcoal-grilled peppers—every aroma a slice of Guiyang life.

The bustling Youzha Street market at dawn.

Following the crowd uphill, the Youzha Street morning market presents a different style, with various fresh vegetables, wild greens, and spring bamboo shoots lining both sides of the road. Groups of uncles and aunts carrying baskets sit on the ground, showcasing the fresh flavors of Guizhou to passersby.

The Youzha Street market features snacks like bowl-shaped rice cakes and the specialty charred chili peppers.

A market is a microcosm of urban life and the most straightforward reflection of local food products and dietary habits. So when we arrived at the Rongjiang Jiangxi Dock Farmers' Market, we saw a completely different scene compared to Guiyang's Youzha Street.

Far from urban bustle, Rongjiang's market feels richer and more rustic, with dried bamboo shoot cakes, pungent fermented black beans, glossy cured fish, freshly cut rice noodles, and various locally exclusive ingredients—all dazzling.

Pickled fish, zongzi, bamboo shoot cakes...

Rongjiang's market is filled with many local specialty ingredients.

The most fascinating part is the vegetable stalls, where wild greens of all shapes, aromas, and uses dazzle the eyes. A single vendor's basket might be packed with dozens of varieties. Outsiders may feel lost, but Rongjiang locals know exactly how to prepare and pair them. Some stalls even sell pre-combined bundles for stewing fish or cooking beef.

Vegetable baskets in Rongjiang's market.

Though markets vary by region, in spring, wild greens and bamboo shoots are ubiquitous. Statistics show that Guizhou locals consume about 589 types of wild greens, with around 80 common varieties and over 20 most frequently eaten.

Guizhou's bamboo shoots are equally diverse—thick, thin, yellow, white, purple, green—all easily found in markets. Notably, Chishui bamboo shoots stand out; Chishui earned the title of "Top Ten Bamboo Towns" in 1996 and is Guizhou's most developed bamboo region, famous for golden bamboo shoots and tube bamboo shoots.

Peeled golden bamboo shoots in Rongjiang's market.

The variety of wild greens and spring bamboo shoots are high-quality ingredients hidden in Guizhou's mountains, representing its abundant produce and the foundation of its springtime delicacies.

Food blogger @Huang Kuaikuai on Guizhou's soul food, fish mint:

Fresh fish mint carries a bright, uplifting fragrance.

Guizhou, a well-deserved snack kingdom, offers hundreds of dazzling street foods—enough to keep you eating for a year.

Snacks, or "small eats," trace back to oracle bone inscriptions. Their defining feature is local sourcing, reflecting regional life and culture. As a historically multi-ethnic region, Guizhou naturally boasts a wide array of snack ingredients.

Chicken dumpling soup, Weining ham, Qingyan braised pork trotters, molten-center tofu...

At Guiyang's Baozheng Restaurant, you can sample snacks from all nine Guizhou prefectures in one stop.

Guizhou snacks are often praised as universally delicious—a testament to fresh local ingredients, skillful cooking, and locals' love for snack culture. Between meals, Guizhou people enjoy "mini-meals," savoring snacks as a leisurely pleasure.

But snacks are just one part of Guizhou cuisine. With urban development, eco-conscious Qian cuisine restaurants have emerged, blending local ingredients with modern techniques to refine Guizhou's culinary artistry.

Renowned food critic @Dong Keping evaluates ecological Qian cuisine:

Guizhou cuisine is poised to step beyond its provincial borders.

"Outsider ingredients, Guizhou techniques" is a common cooking method in ecological Qian cuisine restaurants, where non-local ingredients are prepared using Guizhou methods. Zanthoxylum, also known as the "flavor mountain sprite," captivates the palates of Guizhou locals with its intense, refreshing aroma and inspires chefs to create innovative dishes.

For example, Quanshang Gourmet Club in Guiyang creatively combines zanthoxylum with roast duck by adding it to the dipping sauce. The herb's fragrance perfectly balances the duck's richness, creating a harmonious pairing. Zanthoxylum also pairs well with international seafood, such as pan-seared slices of Australian black abalone, where its flavor enhances the dish's umami.

The counterpart to "outsider ingredients, Guizhou techniques" is "Guizhou ingredients, modern techniques," which involves preparing local Guizhou ingredients with contemporary methods. A standout example is the cold spicy chicken we tried at Jiushuo Gouchou Restaurant in Guiyang. Spicy chicken is a Guizhou specialty, distinct from Sichuan and Chongqing versions, as it’s stir-fried with sticky chili paste, resulting in a layer of red oil. It can be eaten directly or used in hot pot.

However, Guiyang’s endlessly curious food enthusiasts argue that spicy chicken tastes best not fresh out of the pan but after being refrigerated overnight, when the chicken broth turns into jelly, giving the dish a melt-in-the-mouth texture. This inspired local chefs to debone the chicken, mix it with pork skin broth, and set it in molds to create spicy chicken terrine—a playful shift from hot dish to cold appetizer, showcasing Guizhou cuisine’s versatility.

You can enjoy creative ecological Qian dishes like cold spicy chicken and Moutai-braised garlic chicken.

Chefs at Guizhou’s ecological Qian cuisine restaurants don’t just innovate; they also travel across the province to source local ingredients, drawing inspiration and introducing diners to authentic Guizhou flavors.

Dishes like numbing bamboo shoot salad and spring garden tofu chicken mousse highlight the diversity of creative Qian cuisine.

At Twelve Mountain Lodge near Guiyang’s forest park, we sampled fermented tofu discovered by the chef in Chishui, Zunyi, where the blend of wine and bean flavors lingered delightfully. Similarly, the steamed stinky tofu at Jiushuo Gouchou was unearthed by the chef in a village, offering a bold collision of spice and funk—a taste of Guizhou’s rugged mountains.

Food blogger and Bilibili top creator @Shi Pin Dao Bing Shu evaluates Guizhou cuisine:

Guizhou offers a rich variety of ethnic flavors.

Sour soup hot pot is a must-try for most visitors to Guizhou, with its vibrant red broth alone whetting the appetite. But beyond hot pot, red sour soup proves versatile—serving as a base for noodles, dipping sauce for "silken doll" wraps, or the foundation for spicy-sour soups. Whether as the star or a supporting act, this crimson broth harmonizes effortlessly.

Sour fish soup is another iconic Guizhou dish.

Guiyang’s red sour soup derives its color from two local ingredients: "maolaguo" (a small, tart local tomato) and red chili. The tomatoes are fermented with salt and rice wine in jars, creating the base. Modern versions also incorporate fermented chili paste, with each restaurant’s unique blend yielding distinct flavors.

Knowledge creator @Zhan Yan on Guizhou fermented foods:

Red and white sour soups are incredibly appetizing and delicious.

Venturing beyond Guiyang into Guizhou’s counties reveals even more astonishing varieties of sour soup. By flavor, there are fresh, astringent, spicy-numbing, and salty sour soups; by ingredient, vegetable, tofu, chicken, tomato, meat, fish, egg, and shrimp sour soups; by quality and clarity, clear, thick, premium, high-grade, and secondary sour soups; and by ethnicity, Dong, Shui, Miao, and Buyi sour soups.

Science blogger @Aquarium Biologist on Guizhou white sour soup:

White sour soup is the pinnacle of Guizhou’s sour soups.

Among these sour soups, the most representative is not the red sour soup, but the white sour soup. The emergence of red sour soup came after tomatoes and chili peppers were introduced to Guizhou, but long before that, locals had already been enjoying sour soup—specifically, the white sour soup.

Both red and white sour soups pair perfectly with beef slices or fish fillets for hot pot.

Making white sour soup seems simple: just boil a handful of rice, remove the grains, and ferment the rice water in an existing sour soup jar. However, upon closer inspection, every step reflects the fermentation philosophy of Guizhou people.

At the Lianghuanzhai Restaurant in Kaili, a jar of white sour soup has been passed down for a century.

For example, during the rice-boiling process, the water temperature must not be too high, as it could kill the yeast in the aged sour soup. When adding new rice water, fill the jar only 60-70% to leave room for oxygen during fermentation. The jar must be sealed with water to allow gases to escape while preventing new oxygen from entering. Today, in many Miao villages of Guizhou, white sour soups preserved for over a century can still be found, with yeast passed down through generations, much like the enduring culinary culture of Guizhou.

The workshop where Yumeng Factory produces red sour soup.

Guizhou people’s love for sour flavors has many reasons. Historically, Guizhou lacked salt, so locals relied on "using sourness to replace salt." Additionally, the warm and humid climate, rich in microbial diversity, made Guizhou a natural fermentation paradise, giving rise to such exceptional sour soups.

A bowl of sour soup tells the story of Guizhou’s sour-loving history, as well as the fermentation artistry and survival wisdom of its people.

The warm and humid microclimate turned Guizhou into a fermentation haven, creating the captivating sour soup while also leading locals to discover another bold fermented delicacy: niubie (牛瘪). Bie is a specialty dish of southeastern Guizhou, made from partially digested grass and juices from the stomachs of cattle or goats, most commonly served as hot pot. Due to its unusual ingredients, many assume eating niubie means consuming waste.

Some adore it, while others recoil at the mere mention.

So, who exactly eats such a peculiar dish? The answer lies in Rongjiang, the birthplace of the "Village Super League." Rongjiang might be China’s niubie capital, with an entire "Niubie Town" where shops selling the dish line the streets. To uncover its secrets, we visited its origin, waking at 4 a.m. to witness the entire niubie hot pot preparation and taste the first pot of the day—only to realize how deeply misunderstood niubie is.

Food blogger @Xiaoyun Zhang Zhang’s review of Rongjiang niubie hot pot:

Properly prepared niubie is fresh and fragrant.

First, the ingredients come from the rumen and omasum, where the grass is not fully digested but fermented, developing a complex yet refreshing flavor—far from being waste.

Second, let’s revisit the preparation: after extracting the stomach contents, they are rinsed and double-filtered for the broth. Then, scallions, ginger, and chili are stir-fried before adding the bile-infused broth and boiling it with local spices like evodia, Sichuan pepper, and sand ginger to enhance its aroma. Finally, fresh beef seasoned with fennel, scallions, and cilantro completes the hot pot.

With imaginative ingredients, methodical cooking, and fresh spices, niubie hot pot is anything but a haphazard "dark cuisine." Locally, it’s also called "hundred-herb soup" because Rongjiang’s free-grazing cattle feast on wild herbs, infusing the broth with their essence.

In the past, southeastern Guizhou’s staple was glutinous rice, which is hard to digest, making niubie’s digestive enzymes a helpful aid. Today, however, the only reason people love it is simple—it’s delicious.

Niubie is an eccentric standout in Guizhou’s beef cuisine, but the province offers many other beef dishes: sliced in sour soup hot pot, bones as a base for rice noodles, Rongjiang’s mustard beef snack, or Zunyi’s fiery beef rival.

Beef rice noodles, one of Guizhou locals’ favorite breakfasts.

When asked where to find Guizhou’s best beef, the "Village BA" answer is: Guanling yellow cattle. Last year, Taipan’s "Village BA" went viral, drawing nationwide attention to this grassroots basketball tournament. As the finals concluded, the championship prize—Guanling yellow cattle—sparked widespread curiosity.

Why is Guanling cattle the "champion cattle"? First, let's look at its "impressive background." Guanling cattle are a native beef breed of Guizhou, with a nearly 400-year history of rearing in Guanling County, hence the name "Guanling cattle." They are one of China's "Five Famous Cattle Breeds" and rank first among Guizhou's "Four Major Yellow Cattle Breeds." Historical records show that during the Tang Dynasty's Kaiyuan era, Guanling cattle were already listed as a premium "beef cattle" tribute to the imperial court. At the 106th Panama International Exposition in 2021, they even won the "Gold Award."

Guanling cattle have highly developed humps.

Secondly, Guanling cattle have a distinctive appearance. Their overall coat is primarily yellow, but the areas around the eyes, lower abdomen, and inner legs display a lighter shade, making them quite beautiful. The bulls have prominent humps, typically about 10 cm higher than the backline, with abundant fat in this area, which is the main source of marbled beef. Additionally, Guanling cattle have clearly defined tendons and strong muscles in their limbs.

Guanling beef is tender and suitable for both boiling and stir-frying.

Robustness is the unique charm bestowed upon Guanling cattle by Guizhou's mountainous terrain. With little flat land in Guizhou, the cattle naturally become sturdy from daily uphill running. Moreover, their diet is also uniquely Guizhou-style. After harvesting, grasses like king grass, alfalfa, ryegrass, oat grass, and sweet elephant grass are naturally fermented in bags, blending wild vegetables and fermentation—two signature features of Guizhou. This gives Guanling cattle their distinctive flavor.

King grass consumed by Guanling cattle.

Tests show that the protein content in Guanling cattle muscle reaches 23.93%, about 2 percentage points higher than other local breeds, while the fat content is 3.64%, lower than other breeds. Despite the lower fat content, Guanling beef remains exceptionally tender, with pronounced marbling and a rich aroma. Such high-quality cattle were discovered early by Cantonese people. As a major beef-consuming province in China, Guangdong loves beef but produces little, so they turned to Guizhou, upstream of the Pearl River Delta. For instance, the nationally popular Chaoshan beef hotpot uses Guizhou Guanling cattle as its ingredient.

The "Local Flavors" team visits Guanling Shibanjing Cattle Farm.

The Chaoshan beef hotpot involves meticulously slicing beef by cut. In recent years, many hotpot restaurants in Guanling have adopted this refined approach, showcasing the circulation of ingredient flavors and the spread of culinary techniques.

Guizhou's landscapes and culture nurture boundless culinary delights and inspire endless creativity in its people. The potential of Guizhou's flavors knows no limits.

This article is original content from [Local Flavors].