The intriguing tastes of Shuicheng's 'three pots'

Lao guo is a feast that comes from famine. It's a contemporary culinary celebration that hails from deprivation over four centuries ago. The delicacy is one of "three pots" — along with goat meat soup and Cichong chicken hotpot — now gaining growing acclaim beyond the borders of its origins in Shuicheng district, Liupanshui city, Guizhou province.

Lao guo is said to have been created 400 years ago, when Wu Sangui, a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) general, sent troops to suppress an uprising by the Yi in what is now Shuicheng. The soldiers ran out of food and had to hunt game and forage for vegetables, which they grilled atop roof tiles heated over open flames.

Over the years, people switched out the clay tiles for circular black-iron domes. Their shape allows the juices to drip downward toward the round edge and oil poured on the top to cascade over the morsels of meat, vegetables and tofu that sizzle on the metal.

The specialty continued to evolve as street food served in small roadside stalls until the 1990s, when it started to move into actual restaurants, leading to the emergence of the Lao Guo Food Street. Each eatery has its proprietary dipping mixes, typically mingling ground chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, fried salt, powdered peanuts and toasted sesame.

Cichong chicken hotpot similarly takes its namesake from war. It was eaten in Shuicheng since time immemorial but got its name from Cichong village, which was renamed in 1979 to commemorate the Red Army's passage through it during the Long March (1934-36).

In the later part of the 20th century, it became known as a "highway food" appreciated by truck drivers and travelers making stopovers in Shuicheng.