GUIZHOU Province in southwestern China is famous for its Moutai sorghum liquor and also for cooking that is spicy, sour and infused with ethnic, Sichuan and Hunan elements. Hu Min checks the menu.

Guizhou Province in China's mountainous southwest is known for cuisine with a tantalizing aroma and spicy and sour taste.

It includes Guiyang cuisine, Qianbei cuisine and specialities of ethnic groups. Guizhou is also known as Qian, so provincial cooking is also called Qian cuisine.

Visiting any household or eatery, one is met by a strong and pleasing aroma that whets the appetite.

Guizhou people like spicy food cooked with red pepper, and it can be very hot. Typical dishes like gan guo ji (literally "dry pot chicken") and snacks like chang wang mian (noodle with pig intestine and blood) are all cooked with fiery red pepper.

Overall, the cooking is similar to Sichuan and Hunan cuisines, but it's special in combining sour and spicy tastes.

Households traditionally pickle Chinese cabbage with white radish, which improves the appetite and is said to "clear" internal summer heat in traditional Chinese medicine. Sour fish soup is famous and has the effect of refreshing the body, cutting fat, strengthening the spleen and preventing gallstones, or so it is said. There's a fun saying that if Guizhou people don't eat sour food for three days, they will stumble when they walk.

"For Guizhou people, the dishes can be tasteless without pepper, and we like sour flavor as well," says Guizhou native He Yunxiang, who lives in the capital of Guiyang. Every meal traditionally has a spicy dish and sometimes locals dip the food into spicy sauce or dried pepper.

Still, it's not as spicy as Sichuan and Hunan cooking.

Guizhou is home to 48 ethnic groups such as the Miao, Bouyei, Dong, Yi, Bai, Hui, Tujia and Zhuang, and they account for around a third of the population. These groups eat a lot of glutinous rice and sour food.

Guizhou is mountainous and landlocked and in ancient times there was little or no salt. It is said that the food was tasteless and people felt weak without salt, so they picked tart-tasting wild fruit and made them into sour seasonings. The food was refreshing, so they started making sour soup by fermenting tart fruits.

Guizhou cooking involves many methods, such as frying, steaming, boiling, stewing, braising and roasting.

Guizhou neighbors Yunnan, Sichuan and Hunan provinces, Chongqing Municipality and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and so there's a lot of fusion food.

Guizhou people combine chili, mashed garlic, ginger powder, chopped green onions, pepper, parsley and coriander and add water to create a popular dipping sauce.

Famous snacks

Famous snacks include xiao mi zha (steamed millet) and si wa wa (literally "silk baby"). Legend has it that a Miao king once visited a household in a poor mountain village. The villager had almost nothing to offer the king. He steamed millet with jujubes, which are a little sweet and have a delicate fragrance. The king was pleased with this xiao mi zha and the snack is now served during celebrations.

Si wa wa is a thin pancake wrapping radish slices, soybeans, peppers and kelp. It looks like swaddling clothes.

Moutai distilled liquor, made from sorghum, is probably China's most famous alcoholic drink and it comes from Guizhou. The best quality is mild with a mellow, soy sauce-like fragrance that lingers after it is consumed. It was named a national liquor in 1951 and is served in Beijing at state dinners and festivals.

A number of Guizhou restaurants are scattered around Shanghai, a number with colorful ethnic decor. The spicy taste has been toned down for locals and expatriates. We visit some of them.

Gan Guo Ju (Nanjing Road E. branch)

干锅居

Cuisine: Guizhou cooking

Ambience: Pleasing, colorful ethnic decor. Black pillars are inlaid with red and gold strips. Hanging lamps are made of delicately fashioned metal. Wait staff wear ethnic clothing. Sitting at tables near the window, guests can see bustling Nanjing Road E. pedestrian street.

Who to invite: Friends who want authentic Guizhou taste.

Pros: The food is authentic and delicious. It is large and spacious, so reservations are usually unnecessary. Near Metro lines 2 and 10.

Cons: It's noisy and crowded, wait staff are very busy and not too efficient. Sometimes the floor is slippery with oil.

Recommended: Miao jia gan guo ji, or Miao ethnic dry pot chicken, is a specialty and tops the list of most popular dishes - there's a sizzling pot on almost every table. It was originally made of rooster, but now chicken is used and it's tender and succulent. Ingredients include red chilis, bean curd roll, bamboo shoots, garlic and peanuts. It's served in an iron pot and people need to stir it for five or six minutes until it's totally cooked.

Don't order: Libo suan cai yu, or sour fish popular in Libo County, is very greasy, and there is much more bean sprouts and pickled cabbage than fish. Drinks: Soft drinks, beer and baijiu (distilled liquor)

Cost: 50-100 yuan (US$8-16) per person

Address: 479 Nanjing Rd E.

Tel: 6352-6692

Guizhou Miao Jia Suan Tang Yu Guan (Zhongxing branch)

贵州苗家酸菜鱼汤

Cuisine: Fish, Guizhou cooking

Ambience: The ambience isn't great and the decor is a bit old and shabby.

Who to invite: People who love fish and sour taste.

Pros: Thumbs up for fish cuisine and large portions. Service is excellent; wait staff is efficient and enthusiastic. Staff even advises what to avoid, based on other guests' experience. If you tell them what you don't like, they will steer you in the right direction.

Cons: Seating is very uncomfortable, though the venue is not spacious. The menu is not in English.

Recommended: As its name indicates, the restaurant specializes in fish, such as long snout catfish and catfish. Its sour soup fish and roast fish are both savory, tender, juicy and fresh, with a strong sour taste, due to addition of special tomato juice. The sour taste whets the appetite.

Don't order: Those who don't like bitter flavors should avoid dishes made with fern, including chewy fern root vermicelli and fried fern root with cured meat. However, fern root is very nutritious and used to treat high blood pressure and various ailments in traditional Chinese medicine.

Drinks: Soft drinks, tea and beer

Cost: 60-90 yuan per person

Address: 1233 Zhongxing Rd

Tel: 5632-2015

Qian Zhuang

黔庄

Cuisine: Innovative Guizhou cooking

Ambience: Quaint and refined Chinese classic decor with black tile roof, carved wooden window frames and lattice, blue bricks and red lanterns. The seating is comfortable and the environment visually pleasing.

Who to invite: Business partners, diners who want a nice environment.

Pros: Qian Zhuang offers some specialties that can't be found elsewhere.

Cons: Access not convenient; the nearest Metro station is about 20 minutes' walk from the restaurant.

Recommended: A dish made of pine tree bark is cooked with leeks and has a light, refreshing flavor, rather like tea-tree mushroom. San xian quan shui tofu (a tofu cuisine cooked with mountain spring water) has a refreshing, light and sweet taste.

Don't Order: Dao han ji (a chicken dish) is chicken steamed in special earthenware, but it is extremely spicy.

Drinks: Soft drinks, beer and tea

Cost: 65-80 yuan per person

Address: 933 Wuzhong Rd

Tel: 2428-8860

Xiang Guo Fang

香锅坊

Cuisine: Guizhou cooking

Ambience: The two-floor eatery has simple, modern Chinese decor and a warm and relaxing environment. Not too many tables.

Who to invite: Friends and family.

Pros: The taste is tempting and portions are large.

Cons: The menu does not indicate spiciness, showing a number of chilis to rate the level of heat. The menu is in English, but contains many mistakes. Service is not efficient.

Recommended: Rice tofu is aromatic, spicy and tasty, made of mashed rice. Shi guo piao xiang niu rou (beef in a hot stone pot) is tender, juicy and not very spicy. Portions are large. Ci li ya (duck wrapped with lettuce) is also very popular.

Don't order: Miao ling suan cai yu (boiled fish with pickled cabbage and chili) is tasteless. Those who don't like very spicy food should avoid tan tan xiang, or pickled spicy chicken feet.

Drinks: Beer, soft drinks and tea

Cost: 60-80 yuan per person

Address: 1921 Zhongshan Rd N.

Tel: 6203-6165