Yī guō nèn hè, tāng rú nǎi yè; shí yú nián huǒ, wèi zài rén xīn. — One pot of knuckles, soup like milk; the fire of more than ten years, its flavour in memory.
The cured pork knuckle hotpot (腊猪脚火锅, Làzhūjiǎo Huǒguō) is the county’s communal dish: knuckles from the same winter smokehouse as the cured pork, stewed for hours until the collagen gives way and the broth turns milky, then served as a hotpot base into which the table cooks the county’s vegetables and potatoes. The material’s note that the leading local shops have run for more than twenty years (20 多年本地老字号) tells you the dish’s register — this is not new-county cuisine but a mountain standard that predates the tourist boards.
The pot’s texture is time, not cream. Knuckles are skin, tendon and bone; hours of gentle stewing convert the connective tissue to gelatin, which suspends in the broth and turns it the colour of milk. The cured meat’s smoke seasons the liquid rather than flavouring a sauce, so the pot’s depth is cumulative — the longer it runs at the table, the better it eats, which is precisely the hotpot logic the mountain invented.
Order the pot by size for the table, not per person, and expect the first course to be the knuckles themselves — skin, meat and bone — before the vegetables go in. The correct second act is the county’s highland potatoes and whatever greens the kitchen has. Locals treat these shops as institutions and pick by neighbourhood reputation rather than by menu.
flowcloud would say that the county’s smokehouse has a winter output and a hotpot output — and that the knuckle pot is the smokehouse’s second shift, running all year.
Where to find it: the leading local shops that have run for more than twenty years — locals pick by neighbourhood reputation rather than by menu. All checked October 2026.
Words and Names
腊猪脚 làzhūjiǎo — cured pork knuckle, the pot’s main ingredient · 火锅 huǒguō — hotpot, the communal format · 老字号 lǎozìhào — “old shop name”, the local badge of a long-running trade · 奶白 nǎibái — milk-white, the broth’s target colour