Zhangjiajie Food: What to Eat in Zhangjiajie

• Chinese：三下锅
• Pinyin: sān xià guō
• Price (CNY): from 60

Zhangjiajie Mixed Pot (San Xia Guo) is the most notable dish of Zhangjiajie. “San” in Chinese means “three”, and "Xia Guo" means "cook together". When the dish was firstly created, it mixed three kinds of materials together, including rabbit, bacon and dried bean curd, hence the name. With time goes by, the dish has improved a lot to suit most tastes and preferences. Instead of cooking with only rabbit, bacon and dried bean curd, currently San Xia Guo gives foodies more choices. You can also add other treasures in, like salted pork, walnut, pork intestines, fresh vegetables, etc.

San Xia Guo can be griddle cooked and also cooked as a soup. Both Griddle Cooked San Xia Guo and San Xia Guo Soup are presented in Chinese-style pans. So don’t be surprised when the waiter or the chef put a big pan in front of you. It is the dish you ordered. All the small restaurants in Zhangjiajie can offer such a delicious dish for you. You can also find it at some of the hotels.

• Chinese：腊肉
• Pinyin:là ròu
• Price (CNY): from 38

The dish is cooked with local thick fragrant cured meat with salty and hot flavor. Preserved Pork is popular in Zhangjiajie because it can be stored for a long time and the locals can make delicious dishes with these meats at any time they want.

There is more than one way to cook the preserved pork meats. And the most popular way is cooking with local chili.

If you’ve never tasted a homemade slice of preserved meat, you’re missing out on a world of flavors and textures that have stood the test of time. Order such a dish on the day you arriving, and then you can also get close to the local life immediately.

• Chinese：岩耳炖鸡鸭
• Pinyin: yán ěr dùn jī yā
• Price (CNY): about 138

Umbilicaria Esculenta, or called Shier by the locals, is a kind of edible lichen hidden deep in the mountains of Zhangjiajie. To get this precious gift from nature, the locals have to collect them by climbing steep cliffs. If you are lucky enough, you could meet one of those brave heroes when you hiking in Wulingyuan Scenic Area. He is hanging on the cliff and moving, with only a long rope tied with to his waist.

Stewed Chicken and Duck with Shier is one of the best dishes to warm you up during the winter season and also some cold nights. Besides, it is also one of the several dishes without spicy flavor. If you gave tried some classic spicy Zhangjiajie food and looking for some light food, this is the best recommended.

• Chinese：泥鳅钻豆腐
• Pinyin: ní qiū zuān dòu fu
• Price (CNY): about 68

This dish has an interesting Chinese name - Niuqiu Zuan Doufu, which literally means the loach digging into the tofu. Loach is a kind of small fishes with great nutritional value. The dish gets its interesting name because the locals will allow the loaches living with fresh and tender tofu first before cooking.

Loaches and tofu are the main materials of Loach Stewed with Tofu. The locals stew the tofu together with the loaches and add peppercorn, shallot, gourmet power, chopped ginger, sauce and so on other seasonings. The smooth taste of tofu and the soft taste of loach make this dish extremely popular in Zhangjiajie. If you are going to Zhangjiajie and looking for something to east without red and spicy chili, you can have a try of Loach Stewed with Tofu.

• Chinese：酸酢鱼
• Pinyin: suān cù yú
• Price (CNY): from 68

Among the Tujia and Miao People, there is a kind of little-known but delicious food with unique local flavor - Sour Fried Fish. This dish is not using vinegar to create its sour flavor but the magic of nature.

The locals put the fresh fishes with rice powder into a jar and seal up the jar until these fishes have a sour taste. And then fry these sour fishes with local tea oil, creating the delicious Sour Fried Fish. Such a kind of snack doesn't taste fatty or smell fishy. It is golden in color, tender on the outside, sweet and sour, and delicious. Besides, it can be stored for a long time. Therefore, you could not only try it in the restaurants and the stall of Zhangjiajie, but also bring some back to your hotel as a snack.

• Chinese：血豆腐
• Pinyin: xiě dòu fǔ
• Price (CNY): from 28

Blood Tofu is a special dish of Tujia Minority Groups. Tujia people mix tofu, pork, pork blood and some other seasonings such as pepper, chili and sault together, and then rub them into many small balls. Let these balls smoked and baked until yellow. When you order such a dish, the chef will cut one of the balls into slices and cook them with fresh pepper and chili.

The chewy and fragrant dish is an excellent choice served with Chinese liquor or fizzy drinks. It can be easily found at the local’s family gatherings. If you are going to visit Zhangjiajie, remember not forget to have a try.

• Chinese： 葛根粉
• Pinyin: gé gēn fěn
• Price (CNY): about 5

If you type the word “Piermaria” on google, you could get a list of articles telling you the benefits of it. Also, you will get some recommended shopping links of Amazon. Piermaria Lobate is also known by the names Kudzu, Kuzu, Gwat Gun, and Ge Gan. It is a coarse, high-climbing, twining, trailing, perennial vine, containing more than 10 kinds of amino acids and 10 kinds of trace elements needed by human body.

Among the mountainous areas of Zhangjiajie, there grows many Pueraria Lobata. The locals collect them and grind them into powder. And using the powder, they created a snack - Ge Gen Fen. Ge Gen Fen tastes fresh and cool. It is a superstar during the hot summer days, because it is the best way to kill the heat.

• Chinese： 糍粑
• Pinyin: cí bā
• Price (CNY): from 20

Glutinous Rice Cake is one kind of snack made up of steamed glutinous rice. It needs many steps to make such a snack. Firstly, it requires about 2-3 hours to allow the glutinous rice to soak in thoroughly in water before putting it into a wooden pot to be steamed. After cooking, grind the glutinous rice with a pestle and mortar. After several rounds of hard pounding, divide or cut the rice dough into dozens of egg-sized rice balls or square cakes. This is not the end. Once get the balls or square cakes, the locals may fry or roast them and drizzle with brown sugar and other seasonings.

Glutinous Rice Cake is crispy on the outside with a gooey texture inside. The first bite of the slightly spongy and pleasantly fragrant rice cake has such a delightful mouthfeel. Besides, it can cheer you up after the tiring hiking experience on those mountains in Zhangjiajie.