Fuyuan hotpot: A good match of sauerkraut, pettitoes

Editor's note:

Among the delicacies in Fuyuan County, east Yunnan’s Qujing City, the best one is the Fuyuan hotpot with sauerkraut and pettitoes. Having fermented the bitter green cabbages or radishes, the Fuyuan natives match them with pettitoes in cooking. The sauerkraut serves as an appetizer, while making the fatty pork with sourness taste greaseless and immensely pleasant.

Fuyuan hotpot: A good match of sauerkraut, pettitoes

The Fuyuan sauerkraut is a commonplace appetizer, but it will become a delicacy once the pickled vegetable is coupled with pettitoes.

In Fuyuan County, the sauerkraut is made from bitter green cabbages or radishes grown in the mountains. The chosen vegetables are firstly washed up and cut into sections or slim slices. Heat up a wok of water and add into it a small amount of corn flour or starch. When the water is boiling, pour into the chopped vegetable, instantly pick it up and put it into a sealed jar beside the hot stove. Following fermentation, the Fuyuan sauerkraut is ready.

In preparing the Fuyuan hotpot ingredients, the pettitoes need to be washed up, put them into the frying pan and till getting burned and looking yellowish. Then, cook some fried hog skin with ginger and salt for the ensuing steps. Later, bones on the fried and cooked pettitoes are removed, leaving only the pure pork with fineness and fragrance.

When cooking the hotpot, you should firstly put the cut pork into the boiling soup and have a dipping sauce with pepper, shallots and more. The fresh and pleasant dish with sourness and spiciness stir the diner’s taste bud. The sourness is thin at the beginning, and as it gets thicker, the refreshing spiciness also sets in. Even some port looks full of fat, but it doesn’t tastes greasy at all.

The Fuyuan hotpot originated in the Dahe and Yingshang towns of the county, and it later spread to the neighboring towns, counties and cities across Yunnan. Enjoyed by more dinners now, the Fuyuan dish is also visible in Guizhou province and Chongqing municipality.

Source: Yunnan Tourism and Culture Times; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue