🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshan, Xiangtan, Hunan Province. His dietary habits throughout life remained simple and plain, reflecting the characteristics of a farmer, with a strong local flavor, essentially staying within the range of Hunan cuisine tastes. Nowadays, many restaurants in Shaoshan, Changsha, Shanghai, and Beijing offer "Mao Family Cuisine," some of which use ingredients once consumed by Mao, but these dishes are often priced very high and given fanciful names, almost resembling rare delicacies. This is a distortion of Mao’s simple diet; we must restore its original nature to see what Mao actually ate and understand his dietary habits.
Mao spent his youth in Shaoshan, Xiangxiang, and Changsha. His father was a middle peasant, and the family was not wealthy. During his youth, Mao never tasted fine wines or exquisite dishes—he ate only common foods that ordinary people in his hometown usually consumed. Even after becoming Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, according to recollections from those around him, he still avoided extravagance and continued eating home-style dishes.
People from Hunan and Sichuan enjoy spicy food. Mao also loved it. Chili peppers are rich in nutrients and have health benefits such as disease prevention and longevity. Mao always had a small plate of red chili peppers at every meal, preferring them spicier the better; without chili peppers, he could not eat. In winter, when he felt hot all over from the spiciness, that was the peak of enjoyment. Mao once humorously said: “A person who dares to eat chili peppers has nothing to fear in doing anything. The Red Army rebels who rose up in revolt back then—none of them disliked chili peppers.” This shows how deeply Mao cherished chili peppers.
Mao also liked braised pork belly. The cooking method is: first cut fresh pork into small pieces and stir-fry until the fat is rendered out, then add salt, monosodium glutamate, soy sauce, chili powder, and other seasonings. The result is greasy, fragrant, and delicious. In old society, people in Hunan would only eat this “luxury dish” on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month. Now it is eaten regularly. Mao did not eat it every day; he would only ask the chef to prepare a bowl after winning a battle or when feeling a lack of fat in his stomach, just to satisfy his craving.
Mao also enjoyed bighead carp stewed soup with a few slices of tofu—fresh and tasty, especially popular in Xiangtan and Yiyang areas of Hunan during winter. Mao once joked: “Eating bighead carp will surely make your brain more developed and smarter.” Of course, the main part of eating bighead carp is drinking the soup.
Mao loved small side dishes, especially bitter melon. Bitter melon can be stir-fried with duck or meat. Once, while enjoying bitter melon, Mao told his staff beside him: “Bitter melon is common in my hometown. Some people dislike its bitter taste and won’t eat it. But I’ve liked it since childhood. Actually, the bitterness of bitter melon does no harm to the body—it helps clear internal heat and improves eyesight.”
Mao’s meals always consisted of four dishes and one soup: two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and one soup. All were ordinary items. Main staples were rice. After meals, he sometimes ate a roasted sweet potato or boiled corn. Of course, he occasionally ate expensive foods like bird’s nest or shark fin, but that was merely to change his taste.
Mao’s food was simple, yet nutritionally adequate, so his physical constitution remained strong. In the 1950s, when a severe flu epidemic hit Beijing, Mao’s personal guards were among those infected. When urged to get a preventive injection, Mao refused, confident in his own immunity. Indeed, he survived without catching the flu.
Mao rarely fell ill under normal circumstances. When he did have minor ailments, he often refused medication. Despite this, he lived a long life, passing away at the age of 83.