Pịa

Pịa is a seasoning in the food culture of the Tai people of northwestern Vietnam: digestive fluid collected from the junction of the small and large intestines of ruminants such as buffalo, cattle, and goats. An academic-journal article describes it anatomically as 「小腸と大腸の接合部の消化液」 (in translation: "digestive fluid at the junction of the small and large intestines"), while a government ethnic-culture page describes broadly the same thing as 「小腸から採った浸し汁」 (in translation: "steeping liquid taken from the small intestine"). It is described as an ingredient often used for bitterness at the Tai table.

Pịa also plays an important part in "chéo" (in translation: "chéo, a dipping sauce indispensable to the Tai table"). An ethnographic account records all five tastes in a bowl of chéo: saltiness from salt, heat from chilies, bitterness from pịa, sourness from bamboo-shoot vinegar, and sweetness from meat or fish. Pịa is positioned as one source of the bitter taste.

Pịa is also a principal ingredient in Nậm Pịa, a dish made by simmering a broth of offal and bones. A Vietnamese government ethnic-culture page further states that dishes made with the meat of herbivorous ruminants—buffalo, cattle, goats, and the like—are always served with this liquid from the small intestine. This is a statement from a single source; differences in frequency by region or cook are unknown.

The practice of using ruminant digestive contents or fluids as a bitter seasoning also occurs in other regions, including เพี้ย (khi phia) in northern Thailand and Isan and 「牛瘪」 (niubie) in Guizhou. Similar names or practices do not establish a common origin, so this record notes only a parallel practice. The word pịa itself also appears as a term for a bitter ingredient in a separate ethnographic study of Tai food culture.