The "Three Yaotai" custom of the Gelao people, "three" refers to the three banquets, namely the tea banquet, the wine banquet and the rice banquet. "Yaotai" is the local dialect of Zheng'an, Daozhen and Wuchuan, which means "end" or "complete". "Three Yaotai" means that a banquet must go through the tea banquet, the wine banquet and the rice banquet before it ends, so it is called "Three Yaotai". The "Three Yaotai" custom is spread in parts of Zheng'an County, Daozhen County and Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County in northern Guizhou. In ancient times, the Gelao people held banquets during weddings, housewarmings, birthday celebrations, major folk activities and festivals, and "Three Yaotai" was popular to entertain guests, which was grand and lively. Each Yaotai was accompanied by "blowing and beating" (gongs, drums and suona), that is, every time a table was put on and removed, it had to be played, creating a lively atmosphere. Later, it gradually became a way of entertaining guests during the Spring Festival. Nowadays, as long as there are distinguished guests, the Gelao people will entertain them with "Three Yaotai" to show their respect for the guests. When guests arrive, the main hall door should be opened to welcome them. The male host invites everyone to sit down, the female host prepares tea and food, and the children go to call the male hosts of the neighbors to accompany the guests. If there are elders among the guests, they will be called to accompany them, and peers will be called to accompany them. After the guests and hosts are all present, eight people sit at a table (sometimes ten people sit at a table), with their backs against the incense niche (commonly known as "incense"), facing the main door for the upper seats, the left for the guests, the right for the host, and the lower for the younger generation. There are customary rules for seating and seniority, and everyone sits down in turn. For people of the same seniority, the older person sits at the upper seat. Generally, women and children do not sit at the table. After everyone is seated, the first tea party begins. The tea party is mainly for drinking tea, accompanied by fruits and cakes. Tea is served in large earthen bowls, mainly to quench thirst and relieve fatigue. The so-called "drinking tea in a large bowl, drinking wine in a large bowl" is a folk custom. There are nine plates of fruit and pastries for the tea ceremony, including melon seeds, peanuts, chestnuts, walnuts, red hat cakes, beauty mole cakes, crispy flowers, crispy food, and sesame cakes. Most of the tea is local tea, and the best local tea is big tree tea (most people in Wuchuan County drink vegetarian tea (local tea), while people in Daozhen and Zheng'an counties drink oil tea). After the tea is finished, the first table is removed and the second table is moved to. The second table is the wine banquet. After the cups, plates and bowls are placed, incense and paper are burned first to worship the ancestors. First, it means not to forget the merits of the ancestors for benefiting the descendants, and second, it is to invite the ancestors to share the delicacies. Then invite the guests to take their seats again. The second table of wine and food is mostly braised and cold dishes, such as sausages, braised pork offal, braised chicken, braised duck, lean bacon, preserved eggs, salted eggs, pickled radish, pickled ground guni, peanuts, etc. The content of the dishes is not fixed, but there must be nine plates. Most of the wine is homemade corn wine. According to the local drinking habits, anyone who holds a cup must drink three cups, and those who do not drink can drink tea instead of wine. The first cup is a toast to the guests. The host will speak and toast to each guest, saying some welcome and humble words, and drink first to show respect. The second cup is a blessing wine. The guest representative will say some words of thanks and blessings, and then toast together. The third cup is a filial wine. The younger generation toasts the elders, and the younger generation must wait until the elders finish drinking before drinking. When the wine is about to be drunk, the second table is over, and the third table will be served. The third table is a meal, which is the main table of "San Yaotai". The number of bowls of dishes is still nine, commonly known as "nine big bowls". The "nine big bowls" are "Dengzi meat", crispy meat, meatballs, oil fruit tofu, gray tofu, braised pork, day lily, bamboo shoots, soup vegetables, etc. Among them, "Dengzi meat" is also called "big dish", which cannot be missed at any time. When eating, the younger generation cannot eat the dishes at will. They must wait for the elders to eat before they can start eating (especially when eating "Dengzi meat". "Deng" is a ritual vessel for meat in ancient sacrifices. "Er Ya Shi Qi" says "Wa Dou is called Deng." It can be seen that the name of "Dengzi meat" comes from the sacrificial ritual vessel "Deng" for meat). When the elders pick up the dishes, they must invite everyone to eat together. After eating, hold the chopsticks flat or hold them together to indicate "Everyone, enjoy your meal." The younger generation can leave the table only after the elders have finished eating. Each dish is either round or square, which means reunion and prosperity in all seasons. In the "San Yao Tai" banquet, there are sesame cakes, crispy food, crispy skin of hundreds of flowers, "red hat cake", "beauty mole cake", "Dengzi meat", meatballs, oil fruit tofu, crispy meat and other dishes, each of which is unique. Sesame cakes are usually made of glutinous rice, but there are also millet sesame cakes and sesame sesame cakes. The method is: first dissolve the locally boiled sesame candy, then add the fried rice, stir evenly, pour it into a special sesame cake box, compact it, take it out after cooling, and cut it into slices. There are red or green sesame cakes made by adding red or green. Sesame cakes are fragrant, sweet and crispy. Crisp food is also made of glutinous rice flour. To make crisp food, a special crisp food printing plate must be used. The printing plate is generally 40 cm long and has molds carved on both sides. The shapes include fish, birds, monkeys, butterflies, arhats, etc.; the round ones have the words of blessing, wealth, longevity, and happiness. Crisp food is soft, sweet and delicious, with a pleasant fragrance, beautiful shape, and beautiful meaning. Crispy flowers are made by cutting various colored dry glutinous rice cakes into various petals, frying them in hot sand, and then assembling them into various flower shapes. "Red Hat Cake" is made of glutinous rice. The vertebral body is shaped like a pyramid, and contains tofu, meat, sugar, washed sand and other cores. A small handful of red rice is placed on the tip (white rice is placed during the mourning period), which looks like the "red top" worn by officials in the Qing Dynasty, so it is called "red hat cake". "Pao Ba", made of a mixture of glutinous rice and sticky rice, round, and steamed in a bamboo cake ring. Cut a "cross" with one end of the chopsticks, and then dot a peach blossom on the center of the circle of the Pao Ba while it is hot, which looks like a beautiful woman's mole on the cheek. "Dengzi meat", first cook the pork until half-cooked, then cut it into 3 cm square pieces, then make juice with sugar and soy sauce, add ginger, cinnamon twigs, star anise, etc., put in the cut pieces of meat, and simmer over low heat. "Dengzi meat" is golden in color, not greasy, soft and delicious, and has a unique flavor. Meatballs, carefully selected pork is chopped into minced meat, mixed with seasonings, wrapped with red rice (white rice is used during the mourning period), and steamed. Crispy meat is made by mixing wheat flour or sweet potato starch into a paste, wrapping meat, and frying it. Oily fruit tofu is made by cutting tofu into triangles and frying it. Small pot wine is a homemade farm wine. Shen Shaobo, a native of Wuchuan in the Qing Dynasty, has a relatively detailed record in his book "Nanyuan Chronicle": "Use the steamer to cover the dregs, so that the gas rises and drips, which is called fire wine, also called Shaojiu." The brewing process is still mastered by the Gelao people. "Sanyaotai" is a food custom that the Gelao people have followed for thousands of years. It has infiltrated the food etiquette of national civilization and contains the warm and simple hospitality of the Gelao people. It has distinct ethnic characteristics and unique cultural characteristics, and has great value in the study of the folk culture, food culture, and historical culture of the Gelao people.