Blood-Cake Duck

Blood-cake duck is the most representative dish of Fenghuang in western Hunan. Fresh duck blood is mixed with glutinous rice and steamed into a firm "blood cake," then diced and simmered with a local mallard duck, dried chilli, ginger and garlic until the meat drinks in the sauce and the cake turns soft and chewy.

The dish grows from the everyday cooking of the Miao and Tujia people of western Hunan, traditionally served at festivals, weddings and longevity banquets; its name comes from setting the blood into a "cake," a clever way of keeping blood food, and it has become the must-try emblem of a visit to Fenghuang.

Served steaming in a single heaped pot, diners first lift the blood cake through the sauce and then the duck, the heat and savour deep and the cake soft enough to soak up every drop, usually paired with rice or rice wine as the headline dish of old-town restaurants and Miao family feasts.

The dark-red blood cake set in glutinous rice, woven through the fiery savour of the duck sauce, is the unmistakable mark that sets blood-cake duck apart from duck dishes elsewhere.