When it comes to preparing for the winter, the Yao kitchen gets extended outside. An extended family raises a pig (or two) over the year and then slaughters it in order to prepare it for preserving by various means to see them through the winter.
There is no grocery store in the village. People eat what they grow or raise.
The pig is slaughtered and butchered in the street outside the house before being air dried, salt cured, pickled, or smoked then hung up inside the kitchen. It is bled first and the blood preserved and all the offal is carefully collected. The carcass is then singed in a straw fire to get rid of as much hair as possible. Any left will be shaved off.
They also have fish and frogs from the rice paddies and raise duck and chickens. They grow corn (alas) and various greens.
Their diet is heavily vegetable based.
