Dong people have their own very unique eating habits, with four famous categories, namely sour taste, eating raw meat, glutinous rice and oil tea.

Glutinous rice is the staple food for Dong people. Here the rice is so mellow with lily white luster that they are also nicknamed “Pearl Rice”. People are used to putting the rice in a special pot named “Bo” made of hollowed dried melons, which can help keep the rice warm and humid.

The refreshingly aromatic and unique Oil Tea has a slightly salty, bitter and pungent flavor. It is prepared by pouring boiling tea into bowls containing a mixture of such ingredients as puffed rice, fried peanuts, soybeans, chopped green onions, spinach, and lean meat and so on. When ready, the first bowl of oil-tea must be presented to the eldest or the most distinguishing guest at table, and then to other guests and the host family.

Dong people are fond of pickled foods and sour taste. The specialty dishes are sour fish, sour duck, and sour pork along with other kinds of pickled vegetables. Raw fish is prepared by firstly scraping off the scales, slicing and soaking in tea seed oil for sterilization. Then it is mixed with vinegar, pickled vegetable and its juice, corn powder, peanut powder and so on.

“Baijiayan” Feast is also a traditional custom. When people from other villages or distinguished guests come, each family of the whole village will prepare meals and wines to bring to a spacious ground. There, villagers place many long tables in a row to make a feast. On this enjoyable occasion, people eat, chat and sing together. It is the symbol of friendship and affinity for Dong people.