Dou Jiao La (Shaking Chili) is the most classic famous dish in Anren County. Outsiders who take a bite of it mostly clap and praise it; while locals, especially those wanderers living far away from home, can't help but swallow their saliva when they talk about it. In terms of ingredients, Dou Jiao La is incredibly simple and inexpensive. The main ingredient is a selection of fresh green or red chilies, locally produced in Anren. Side dishes can be century eggs, eggplants, salted duck egg yolks, or small dried fish. Seasonings include fine salt, oil, MSG, soy sauce, chopped scallions, and ginger particles, but authentic Dou Jiao La cannot be made without bean oil. The tools required for making Dou Jiao La are a chili mortar and a small wooden mallet.
There are two main methods for processing the chilies. The first is frying. First, pour in some cooking oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the wok. Then, heat the oil, add a little salt, and put in the washed and stem-removed chilies. Stir-fry them continuously until about half of the outer skin of the chilies turns white, then they are ready to be taken out of the wok. The second method is blanching. Place the chilies in boiling water, cover and simmer for three to five minutes, then take them out. Regardless of which processing method is used, the cooked chilies are then placed in the chili mortar along with the side dishes and seasonings. They are mixed and pounded with the small wooden mullet until they are well-combined and evenly mixed, ready to be served.
When a bowl of Dou Jiao La is brought to the table, you pick up your chopsticks and take a bite. It's spicy with a fragrant aroma, and the fragrance carries a spiciness, fresh and refreshing with a unique flavor. In Anren, there is a saying, "A meal is not complete without Dou Jiao La at noon, and a night is not peaceful without Dou Jiao La at dinner." People eat Dou Jiao La, sweat, shout about the spiciness, and yet continue to pick up more, making it utterly irresistible. The most appetite-whetting part comes at the end. When a bowl of Dou Jiao La is almost finished, a large scoop of rice is poured into the mortar, mixed and eaten together. The locals call this "Lu Jiao Ba".
Historical records state that Dou Jiao La has a history of several thousand years in Anren. Legend has it that when Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs in Anren, he saw the local people living in hardship and felt compassion for them. He casually picked a string of chilies, threw them into a pile of burning firewood to roast, then placed them in his traditional Chinese medicine mortar to pound into a paste, which he then distributed for the people to eat. As a result, not only did the people's appetite increase, but they also recovered from illnesses and avoided disasters.