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COOKED CHOPPED ENTRAILS OF SHEEP (entrails /’entreɪlz/ the inside parts of an animal’s or person’s body, especially their intestines/ɪn’testɪn/肠)
LINXIA, GANSU,AROUND 1,917 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] At the Dujiaya Village in October, it’s time for corn harvest.
This is followed by a rest period that can last four months.
Fang Hong is thinking of an important matter.
[Fang Hong] Gaigai, come. There’s a sheep for you to kill.
Bring your child in the afternoon for the gathering (非正式性的聚会或集会).
[sheep baaing]
[narrator] After the autumn harvest each year, neighbors and friends will have a special gathering.
Locals call it dapinghuo.
Today, it’s Fang Hong’s treat.
According to the convention(根据惯例), he’ll provide one whole sheep.
The lamb just needs to be cooked simply.
The rest of the parts, such as sheep entrails, requires more effort in handling.
In Gansu, different combinations and cooking techniques make the sheep entrails very flavorful.
Stir-fry various sheep entrails with vegetables, serve them on a warm plate, and eat them while it’s hot.

SHANDAN STIR-FRIED BOLA

Use a small pot to stew them.
The sheep entrails soup is rich and thick.
It’s most suitable for warmth during winter.

LINXIA SMALL SHEEP ENTRAILS SOUP

Fry them on a hot plate, the sheep intestines are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.
Dipped in garlic sauce, it’s very enjoyable.

ZHANGYE HOT PLATE FRIED BLOOD SAUSAGE

But today, Fang Hong’s family will make a more special sheep entrails dish.
Mince /mɪns/ the sheep’s heart and lungs /lʌŋ/, add scallions /‘skælɪən/ and ginger to season, and mix them repeatedly.
Then, pour fragrant flaxseed oil.

Place the thoroughly mixed filling into the sheep intestines.
Locals call them fazi.

This name came from a mode of traditional transportation on the Yellow River: Sheepskin raft/rɑːft/木筏.
Fresh sheep entrails are very flavorful.
They need to be cooked as soon as possible.
Poke (/pəʊk/stick using fingers) holes to release excess air.

After cooking for an hour, the fazis are ready.
The rich flavor of various sheep entrails are gathered together in the intestines.
Every juicy bite has a rich, chewy, and complex flavor.
Dapinghuo.

This “go dutch” approach in the village comes from frugal times /‘fruːg(ə)l/.
Its core significance is to evenly distribute food
That’s also Fang Hong’s last duty today.
Seven, eight, nine, ten… that’s right. Come and eat.
[narrator] Nowadays, dapinghuo has becomea common social gathering in the village.
In the backyard of an ordinary household, people sit and gather together because of delicious food.
FAZI

As Linxia’s specialty snack, there’s a more intricate /ˈɪntrɪkət/ way (complicatedly designed) of making fazi in the city.
Here, it has a pleasing partner.
Mix flour and water in a two to three ratio, and season it simply.
The clean and delicate small intestine is formed.
Fazi is rough, while the flour intestines are dense.
When they collide, their tastes complement each other.
FAZI INTESTINE NOODLES

People in Gansu are good at making staple food.
There are many combinations similar to fazi flour intestines.
Hundreds of combinations exist for grains and meats, creating all kinds of rice dishes.
Delicious and satisfying.

LINXIA HEYAN NOODLES
HEZHOU BUNS

Gansu is composed of various complex terrains.
From Linxia, travel 700 kilometers north and reach the grasslands in the Hexi Corridor.
The Yugu tribe herders here have a different experience in handling sheep entrails.
At their summer pasture residence in the Qilian Mountain, Mu Rong and her husband are making shaokezi.
That is their daily staple food.
Today, her younger brother and his family return from the city.

[Mu Rong] Long time, no see.
[narrator] Shaokezi is just an appetizer /‘æpɪtaɪzə/ (a small dish that you eat at the beginning of a meal).
The kids miss a unique dish made from sheep entrails.
Five-year-old Tibetan sheep accumulates more flavor in its body.
Among sheep’s entrails, herders prioritize sheep liver more (/’lɪvə/肝脏).

They have a unique way of handling it.
Clear and transparent, with webbed patterns like lace (/leɪs/蕾丝), that’s a fatty membrane in the sheep’s stomach (/ˈmembreɪn/ a very thin piece of skin that covers or connects parts of your body).
It’s called caul fat.
As it’s rich in fats upon removal, it oxidates and spoils very fast.
Mu Rong needs to handle it quickly.
With sheep liver as filling, and caul fat as the covering, these two sheep entrails transform in the hands of herders, and are reborn.
The technique of using caul fat to wrap food already has 3,000 years of history in China.
For hundreds of years, the ancestors of the Yugu tribe constantly migrated in the Qilian Mountain region.
In the end, they settled here.

Based on their food, we can see traces of how they lived before.
The caul fat tightly covers its filling.
The fats melt from the heat and penetrate into the sheep liver.
These two flavors complement and fuse together (/fjuːz/ to join together physically. Also, a short thin piece of wire inside electrical equipment which prevents damage by melting and stopping the electricity when there is too much power) .
Slicing and frying them releases the flavor again.
It’s even richer and sweeter.
It’s twilight.
The rich aroma floats in the valley.
This kind of food traversed in the nomadic times (/nəʊ’mædɪk/ nomadic people are nomads /’nəʊmæd/ 游牧(生活)的 a member of a tribe that travels from place to place instead of living in one place all the time, usually in order to find grass for their animals), and its flavor never diminished.

-[woman laughing]-[indistict Mandarin]
In the language of the Yugu tribe, it has a simple and elegant name:
Fat-wrapped liver.
[instrumental music fades out]
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