🍽️ Sapi

Dai bitter-spicy dipping sauce.

Sapi is a distinctive flavor of the Dai and Jingpo peoples in Dehong, Yunnan, famous for its 'bitter' taste. Thin slices of raw or lightly prepared beef are dipped in a bitter sauce made from gall, lime, bird's-eye chili, garlic, crushed peanuts and cilantro, commonly eaten with thin rice noodles. The taste hits strong at first then settles—bitter, spicy, sour and fragrant woven together; newcomers may find it intense, but once used to it, it feels cooling and refreshing with a long finish. Sapi is a representative cold dish at Dehong streets and Dai restaurants, showing the western-Yunnan ethnic preference for bitter flavors. It is an adventurous dish for outsiders and a key to understanding Dai culinary taste.