🍽️ She Rice

Wild herbs with sticky rice, Dong/Miao spring dish.

She Rice is a traditional glutinous rice eaten by the Dong, Miao and other peoples around Tongren in eastern Guizhou at the Spring She festival. Glutinous rice is mixed with ordinary rice, tossed with seasonal wild herbs such as wild mugwort and wild scallion, plus diced cured bacon and dried tofu, then steamed or braised until done. The fresh fragrance of wild herbs and the salty aroma of bacon fuse together, the rice oily and lightly sweet. She rice is made only around the Spring She day, shared after village collective work and rites to the earth god. Tongren's mountains are rich in wild greens, and the dish shows how Dong and Miao households follow the seasons and cook with whatever the hills offer. Today it is also found in local restaurants and farmhouses, a seasonal wild-mountain bite for visitors entering eastern Guizhou villages in spring.