Qingyan pig trotters are a popular marinated food in Guizhou featuring a red and brown skin and a salty and fresh taste.

Qingyan marinated pig trotters. [Photo/Dongjing news]

The trotters cooked by Jinbixuan, a famous restaurant in Qingyan, are slowly simmered in a large sealed pot with an aged brine soup that includes chicken bones, pork belly and various spices, enhancing the aroma of the trotters. Some pots of brine soup have been used for over a decade, and some for over a century.

No Qingyan pig trotter complete without first being dipped in a special sauce, which a mixture of dried chili flakes, local Shuanghua vinegar, minced ginger and spring onion.

A fun fact about the name of this dish – it is said that Zhao Yijiong, a resident of Qingyan who became the first zhuangyuan in Yunnan and Guizhou during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), liked eating marinated trotters. Zhuangyuan refers to candidates who finished at the top in the annual national-level recruitment exams for officials in ancient China. Therefore, the pig trotters are also called "zhuangyuan trotters" to commemorate him.