Spicy Minced Pork (shaqji shaqbyehf)
The staple of the Akha diet is dry-planted mountain rice, but there are a number of dishes that are uniquely “Akha”. A combination of five types of dishes may be served at a traditional formal meal: a fried dish (usually pork or chicken and vegetables), a boiled dish (a soup, sometimes vegetables, sometimes potatoes cooked with stewing bones), a pickled dish (any combination of vegetables which have been preserved through a pickling process), a crushed dish (a salsa created by combining chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and other unique ingredients by mortar and pestle), and a raw dish (raw vegetables used to dip in the salsa, and occasionally raw meats).
In this image you can see a cooked version of the Akha spicy minced pork. This savory dish is probably the most common celebration dish and is often made in very large batches to feed large groups or entire villages. The pork (or beef) is finely chopped with machetes and cleavers slowly adding 7 or 8 additional flavorings. The meat is then fried and served as pictured or in a light broth.
Occasionally this dish is also served raw. Most commonly eaten by the men, the spices are all added and then the meat is eaten as-is or in a small amount of the animals blood.
All versions of this dish are eaten over rice.
