In most areas the Zhuang nationality people are used to have three meals a day, while in some places the local Zhuang people have four meals a day that means they have one more snack between lunch and supper. The breakfast and lunch are both very simple, at which they usually have some porridges, and they take supper as a very formal dinner, as a result they have more dishes besides rice. Rice and corns are grown abundantly by the Zhuang People, as a result they are also the main foods for them naturally.
In daily life the vegetables they eat include green vegetables, young plants of melons, leaves of melons, cabbages, little cabbages, rapeseed plants, mustard, lettuce, celery, spinach, Chinese kale, water spinach, radish and so on, and even leaves of soybeans, leaves of sweet potatoes, young plants of pumpkins, flowers of pumpkins, and young plants of peas are cooked and eaten by the Zhuang people of. Putting the vegetables into boiling water is a very common way to cook them and lard, salt, and scallion are also put into the water before finishing the cooking. They also have the habit of pickling vegetables. Sour vegetables, sour bamboos, salty radish, kohlrabi can all be pickled and eaten.
The Zhuang people eat meats of all poultry and livestock, such as pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, goose and so on, however in some places the meat of dogs cannot be eaten, while in some other places the local Zhuang people love to eat dogs. When cooking the pork, they also first boil a big piece of it in hot water, and then make it into small pieces and mix it with condiments. The Zhuang nationally like to put fresh chickens, ducks, fish and vegetables into boiling water until they are seventy or eighty percent cooked, then sauté them in a hot pan , which can keep the fresh flavor of them.
The Zhuang ethnic group like to cook wild animals and insects and they are also quite experienced in curing illness with diet therapy . They usually make dishes using the flowers, leaves and roots of Sanqi Flower , which is a herbal plant that can be widely used in traditional Chinese medical science. The Zhuang nationality is also adept at baking, frying, stewing, pickling and salting different food. They love alcohol as well as hot and sour food. Flaky and spicy vegetables are quite favored The main special dishes of this nationality include spicy pork and blood, torch meat, roast duck, salty chicken livers, crispy bees, spiced soybean insects, fried sandworms, powers of animal livers and skins, meat of wild rabbits with fresh ginger, sauted wild frog with Sanqi flower, Bahang chicken ,and so on.
The Zhuang families also make rice wines, sweet potatoes wines, and cassava wines themselves, usually with a low degree of alcohol. And rice wine is the main beverage when treating guests or celebrating important festivals. In some places people also mix rice wine with chicken galls, chicken giblets or pig livers to make special wines. When drinking wines with chicken giblets or pig livers , people have to drink it up at one time , then chew the giblets or livers in the mouth slowly, which can alleviate the effects of alcohol and in the meanwhile serve as a type of food.
Typical snacks:
The Zhuang nationality has a lot of famous dishes and snacks, the main representative snacks of which include meat slice of horse hoofs, fish, roast sucking pig, colorful sticky rice food, rice dumplings in Ningming County, No 1 Scholar Meat, sliced dog meat, flaky and spicy chicken, boiled broken dog face, and small intense and blood of pigs.
