People who take a tour to Xizhou never forget to taste the food in Xizhou. As a city having various Chinese ethnic minorities, the local food is different from the one in other places. All the foods in Xizhou feature local culture of ethnic minorities, and all the materials are from this place. It is the creation of local people and the work of human wisdom. This article will take you into the local life to discover the stunning food in this Yunnan city.All the foods talked about below are the representatives of local food and the essence of local food culture. They are also the top recommended ones to tourists who will be or have been in Xizhou.

Xizhou Baba

Xizhou's most famous snack: Xizhou baba (喜州粑粑), a lardy flatbread that tourist-savvy vendors misleadingly call "pizza". Xizhou baba comes in two main varieties, a savory version with minced pork and spring onion on top and a sweet baba filled with dousha, a sweet and filling red bean paste.

Raw Hide(生皮)
Cut the baked pork (mostly from the hip and rear lag) and pork liver into filaments, take onions, garlic, parsley, stewed plum, spicy noodles, soy sauce, etc. As the condiments, put the filaments in the condiments for eating. This is known among the people as “eating raw hide”. The custom is said to date from the period of Nanzhao Kingdom with a long history. The shredded meat with condiments wipes off the fishy smell and provides unprecedented fresh, tender and sweet feeling.

Rushan

Rushan is made of the milk produced by local cows. It has a shape of a fan. Rushan does not only taste good, but is also nourishing. It contains many substances necessary to human bodies such as protein and amino acid. It can also regulate people’s lifeblood, soothe the nerves and strengthen the appetite, and thus is an ideal food to strengthen your corporeity and keep you fit. You can cook Rushan in different ways: fry, braise, bake, boil, blast, steam or stir-fry.

If you cook Rushan with meat and vegetables, you can manage some new and fresh dishes of Rushan. Raw Rushan is also edible. In the past when there were no highways among the high mountains in west Yunnan, transportation could only be done by horses. The horse drivers usually brought brown sugar and Rushan with them so as to ease their hunger when they are tired. All the visitors from home and abroad will taste Rushan and savor its special flavor.

The creation method is: After heat" the sour water" firstly, then ladle up the fresh milk to flutter lightly, it becomes the form of downy, then stand the thin slice with the bamboo chopsticks, dries by air on the bamboo. Because the shape likes inclined, it is called Rushan. The Rushan not only has the taste only, the nourishment is abundant, implies various materials of protein, amino acids...etc. that human body need, but also has the in harmony with spirit, blood and tranquilizes the nerves to cultivate mental calm, is good for the stomach to repair falsely etc. effect, it is the good product of the human body health to strengthen the physical endowment and promote.

The cooking method of the Rushan is varied, fried, steam, roast, very hot, fry, boil all can. Take the Rushan together with other meat or vegetables; you can boil to make a series food of various milk of a pleasant change of atmosphere. The Rushan also can eat without boiling, in the past, there weren¡¯t highways in Shenxi, the conveyance depended on horses, the people of riding horses often took the Rushan and brown sugar as the food when they were tired.

Er Kuai 

Er Kuai is one of the most conventional local foods, a rice-based dish. The rice is first washed, soaked, stewed and then mashed into a paste, before being molded into various lumps, slices and shreds. It is usually grilled over burning charcoals with a sugar, walnut, or sesame filling.

Shaba Fish（沙坝鱼）

Fresh and soft,spicy and tasty,the color of soup is white.