The Xibe ethnic minority mainly resides in the counties in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Xibes are good at riding horse, shooting arrows, singing and dancing. Xibes used to be engaged in hunting and fishery. They were polytheists in the past, and some of them believed in Lamaism. Xibes live on grains, including wheat, paddy, maize, broomcorn millet, glutinous rice and millet.
Xibes have a rich variety of foods, including wheaten food such as leavened dough, unleavened dough,Guokui(roasted cake), steamed bread, noodles, and hand pulled noodles; stuffed food such as stuffed bun, stuffed dumpling, leek dumpling, and meat pancake; and rice food such as cooked paddy rice,Shouzhuarice (rice eaten with hands rather than chopsticks or spoons), and rice (millet) porridge.
Falakakafen(leavened dough) is the indispensable daily staple food.
The meat food mainly comes from homebred livestock, including beef, mutton and pork. In slack winter seasons, Xibes often go hunting, and meat of boar, wild duck, wild rabbit, and gazelle is often seen on the dining table in winter. Xibes have a special way of cooking pork. When butchering pigs, they cut boiled pork and viscera into small pieces, and mix them with cooked blood sausage, as well as mashed garlic, chopped green onion and salt. The food is delicious but not greasy. It is called pig blood and meat mixture.
Xibes have a very special kind of pickles calledHatuhunsuojiorHuahuacai. It is made of grown leek, red and green pepper, celery, yellow radish and cabbage. Because the vegetables are mixed with salt and put into the jar in time, the red, green, white and yellow colors remain sharp. In the cold winter, a dish with so many colorful summer vegetables will surely arouse people's appetite.
Xibe women are good at making various confiture and canned food.
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