China's tongue
Chapter 3 The Staple Story
Chapter 3 The Staple Story
The diverse changes in China's natural geography allow people living in different regions to enjoy completely different and rich staple foods.From south to north, the ever-changing delicate staple foods not only provide most of the calories needed by the human body, but also affect the Chinese people's perception of the cycle of the four seasons, bringing them a rich, healthy and interesting life.
[-]. Miscellaneous grains: satisfaction beyond food and clothing
Shanxi Ding Village is the oldest village in the Central Plains.Housewives are best at making pasta, and people in Dingcun refer to grains that are processed into powder as noodles.Grain processing has a history of tens of thousands of years. The oldest stone mill was unearthed near Ding Village, and the same shape is still in use today.The grain is ground into powder with a stone mill, and then the coarse impurities are filtered out with a sieve, so that the real noodles can appear.
Shanxi is located in an inland area with many mountains and few rivers. There are few varieties of vegetables, and housewives have no conditions to adjust non-staple food.In order to increase the appetite of the whole family, we had to change the way of making various pasta.There are hundreds of kinds of pasta, and housewives process pasta into various delicacies on the table.These exquisite pasta with many patterns all make people feel the agility of slender hands and rich imagination of wisdom and wisdom.
While the aunts in Ding Village were busy making steamed buns for a birthday feast, the fragrance of noodles wafted from the cave dwellings on the Loess Plateau.Suide Hanzi Laohuang has just steamed a basket full of yellow buns. The ancient millet has been processed by Laohuang to become very sweet and delicious.
Starting from November of the lunar calendar, every three days, Lao Huang will ride a car for an hour and a half to the county town to sell yellow buns.He has been selling yellow buns for seven or eight years. When he first started, he bought ten and got one free, and he only earned [-] cents.
The yellow steamed buns made by Lao Huang are known as "Suide No. 1". They are of high quality and low price, and they are sold out quickly every time. He always praises his yellow steamed buns unabashedly as the best.
Suide County is located in the hilly and gully area of northern Shaanxi. In today's Suide, miscellaneous grains and wheat are the main characters on the table, and they are transformed into various patterns by the people of northern Shaanxi.Suide is rich in millet, and Huang Momo is a steamed bun made from millet noodles.Millet, also known as millet, has become the most important crop on the Loess Plateau because of its drought tolerance.
More than 8000 years ago, millet seeds were grown in the Yellow River Basin. The millet seeds were steamed into rice, and the taste was slightly inferior. However, in the past, this local food was the most common staple food for people in northern Shaanxi.
There are two types of millet, soft and hard. Lao Huang mixes hard millet and soft millet at a ratio of 7:3, soaks them in water overnight, grinds them, and sieves them carefully before using them.Lao Huang firmly believes that millet milled by machine is far less delicious than millet milled by his own stone mill.In addition, the fried millet will emit a natural fragrance, which is the secret recipe that Lao Huang is most proud of.After the millet is fried, the dough needs to be fermented overnight in the vat. According to Lao Huang's experience, the best effect is to wrap it with a quilt.
Lao Huang's steamed buns are well-made, and the people are also real, one yuan each, and never counter-offer.During the two coldest months of the year, Lao Huang can sell 15000 yellow buns. After excluding the cost, his actual income in one winter is about 8000 yuan.
Lao Huang made his home in cave dwellings, the oldest form of living on the Loess Plateau in China, dating back more than 4000 years.A farmer has worked hard all his life, and his most basic wish is to build a few cave dwellings. Only when he has a kiln and married a wife can he start a family and start a business.Lao Huang raised a son and a daughter here. Now, the children have settled their homes in the city and no longer deal with the land.However, Huang is unwilling to leave. He lives in his own cave and eats the food he grows. Huang is self-sufficient and down-to-earth.
For thousands of years, the Chinese have obtained food and clothing from five grains, and the satisfaction created by this kind of carbohydrates is provided by hundreds of millions of farmers who work hard on the land like Lao Huang.
In the vast north, ripe wheat determines the basic color of the earth.Wheat was introduced to the Central Plains from the Hexi Corridor. Because of its rich nutrition, after more than 4000 years of localization, it has become the most widely cultivated crop in northern China.This fine species native to West Asia has become one of the most important staple foods for Chinese people.
After the wheat flour is fermented, it is baked in a special fire pit. This kind of bread called naan contains less water and is extremely durable to storage. It is a must-have staple food for Uighur families all year round.The name of naan comes from ancient Persian and has a history of more than 2000 years.
When steamed buns first appeared, they were also called cooking cakes and steamed cakes. It was the most popular staple food in the Central Plains.Chinese ancestors got inspiration from the principle of boiled food, and made China the first country to cook with steam.
Mantou Story
It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang captured the barbarian Meng Huo seven times and forced him to surrender.On the way back to the imperial court, Zhuge Liang's team passed Lushui. When the chariots and horses were about to cross the river, a thousand-foot wave suddenly rose on the river, and the wind was strong, blocking the way of the people.
Zhuge Liang summoned Meng Huo to ask why. Meng Huo said that the violent wind and waves were caused by the souls of the fallen soldiers. If the army wanted to cross the river, they had to sacrifice 49 heads of barbarian soldiers to calm the resentment. .
Zhuge Liang made a mistake, and the two armies had already lost countless lives in the battle. How could they behead the soldiers for no reason?So he came up with a plan, and asked the cooks accompanying the army to use rice noodles as skins, wrap the meat of black cattle and white sheep inside, and squeeze out 49 human heads as sacrifices to Jiang.
In Ming Dynasty Lang Ying's notes "Seven Revised Class Drafts", it is recorded: Mantou's real name is Mantou, and Mantou sacrifices human heads to gods. Zhuge's conquest of Meng Huo ordered bread and meat to be sacrificed to human heads, which is called "Mantou". And for steamed buns.And Zhuge Liang is also regarded as the ancestor of "Mantou".However, because Zhuge Liang’s steamed buns are relatively complicated, after development, later generations omitted the stuffing inside and transformed into today’s steamed buns, while those with stuffing are called steamed buns.
However, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, those with stuffing and no soup are still called "steamed buns", and those without stuffing are called "white flour steamed buns".And "baozi" refers to soup dumplings with soup, such as Suzhou soup dumplings.
[-]. Rice: the first of the all-inclusive grains
China's five grains are always a changing concept.
About 2000 years ago, the order of the five grains was rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean.Today, the top three grain producers in China have become rice, wheat and corn.However, no matter how the order changes, it cannot shake the primacy of rice among the five grains.
"Dimen" means the source of spring water in Dong language.Dimen Village, located at the source of the Qingshui River, has mostly rainy days throughout the year.Wu Shunyu is picking rice from her granary.
In this humid environment, the granaries play a vital role in the storage of rice.The grain warehouses with wooden stilts and wooden structures are built on the water, which can prevent fire, rodents and termites.The oldest Hecang in the area has a history of 300 years.Wu Shunyu's family stores unhulled rice in the granary, which can keep the rice fresh for a long time.
Today, the rice that Wu Shunyu took will be sent as a gift to a family of the same clan in the village.In Dimen Village, on the day of the full moon for a woman who has given birth, her husband's family will send the bride price bought at the time of marriage to her mother's family, and the ceremony of establishing a new family will be considered as the final completion.The female family members of the same clan will also pick baskets and baskets, put new rice on them, and put eggs on the new rice to express their most sincere blessings for the birth of new life.
Rice noodles are the most important rice product in Liping, Guizhou, and can be seen everywhere in local markets.After spring plowing, summer cultivation, autumn harvesting, and winter storage, the fresh soaked rice is ground into rice milk, which is the first step for Yang Xiuxia to make rice noodles.Scoop the pulp and put it in the cage. The rice pulp is steamed in boiling water over high heat, and stored after cooling.Yang Xiuxia and her husband cooperated tacitly, and they repeated every action like this countless times.
China is the country with the earliest history of rice cultivation in the world.As early as 7000 years ago, rice cultivation began in the Yangtze River Basin.Rice starts from clumps of green seedlings and grows into golden rice. According to the eating customs of various places, it is made into rice food with various eating methods and rich tastes.Today, more than 65 percent of Chinese people eat rice.
Very similar to Liping rice noodles is the favorite rice dish of Guangzhou people—hor fun. 150 years ago, this kind of food, also known as Shahe powder, appeared in the Shahe area of Guangzhou.Shahe noodles are thinner and more transparent, and the taste is more flexible and smooth.With sand river noodles as the staple food, the most acceptable to Cantonese is dry fried beef river.In the eyes of northerners who are used to eating noodles, this is probably noodles made of rice.
Grain
"Grain" originally refers to grains with shells, and "five grains" refer to the five kinds of grains called in ancient China.After development, five grains have been generally referred to as food crops.Rice (commonly known as rice, rice), millet (commonly known as yellow rice), millet (also known as millet, commonly known as millet), wheat (commonly known as wheat), and bean (commonly known as soybean) are collectively referred to as "five grains".
With the development of the times and agricultural technology, rice and wheat are still widely planted and eaten in modern times; although millet, millet, and bean are also planted, they are basically no longer the first choice for Chinese people.
After the millet is hulled, it becomes yellow rice, which becomes sticky when cooked, and can be used to make wine and cakes.As a staple food, it is not conducive to digestion.
Millet, also known as millet, is a kind of millet.Natural drought tolerance and variety. "Su has five colors" refers to millet in various colors such as white, red, yellow, black, orange and purple.The earliest wine in China was also brewed from this kind of millet.Its stems and leaves are hard and can be used as feed for livestock, but generally only cattle can digest it.
The general term for beans.Soy products are also one of the favorite foods of Chinese people.
In ancient times, the five grains were also divided into "sky valley", "ground valley", "hanging valley", "wind valley" and "water valley".The five grains represented by heaven, earth, suspension, wind, and water are not necessarily staple foods.Sky valleys refer to crops with fruits such as rice, sorghum, and wheat growing on the top of plants; ground valleys refer to crops with fruits such as peanuts and sweet potatoes growing underground; hanging valleys refer to crops with fruits such as beans and melons hanging on branches. Water valley refers to crops that grow fruits in water such as water chestnut and lotus root; wind valley is very special, referring to crops that spread the pollen from the top of the plant to the stems, nodes, and whiskers through the wind to bear fruit.
The old saying "the four bodies are not diligent, and the five grains are not distinguished" means that lazy people who are afraid of walking and working with hands lack the ability to distinguish the essence of things.The seedlings of the five grains are very similar. In ancient times, most people were engaged in agricultural work, and those who did not work naturally could not distinguish the five grains.
Dry Fried Beef
Stir-fried Niuhe is a famous dish in Guangdong, which is fried with bean sprouts, rice noodles, beef, etc.In Cantonese restaurants and tea restaurants in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and overseas, dry fried beef has almost become a must-have dish.
Ingredients preparation
Main ingredients: 300 grams of rice noodles
Accessories: 80 grams of beef (lean) meat, 50 grams of mung bean sprouts, shredded peppers, green onions, ginger
Seasoning: soy sauce, raw powder, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar
Production steps
1.Clean the beef, cut it into shreds, mix well with soy sauce and raw powder, and marinate for half an hour to fully absorb the flavor.Wash and cut the green onion into sections, peel and wash the ginger and cut into thin shreds, wash the bean sprouts and set aside;
2.Heat the wok with high heat and put oil in it. When the oil is [-]% hot, slowly slide the marinated beef shreds into the wok and stir-fry until the beef turns white, then put it out for later use;
3.Heat up the remaining oil in the pot, add shredded ginger and rice noodles, stir-fry, add shredded beef, green onion, bean sprouts, and shredded colored peppers, stir-fry together to mix them evenly, add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar, continue Stir fry evenly until cooked.
[-]. Pasta: the common favor of the South and the North
More than 1000 years ago, China divided the agricultural distribution of rice in the south and wheat in the north along the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River, which led to the phenomenon that people in the south love to eat rice, while people in the north cannot live without pasta.
Thousands of kilometers away in Xi'an, a restaurant in the old town is always full of people waiting. Roujiamo is probably the only thing that can make straightforward Guanzhong people wait so patiently.
In Xi'an, steamed buns are the most popular staple food among the locals, and Roujiamo is the most classic way to eat steamed buns.Roujiamo is a wonderful combination of two foods - Baijimo and cured meat.The Baiji buns eaten by Xi'an people are baked with fire, and the meat made by adding more than 30 kinds of seasonings and simmering over a slow fire is soft and rich, and the blandness of the buns highlights the mellow aroma of the meat.
Cao Shi, a native of Xi'an, and his friends formed a rap band that sings in Xi'an dialect. He also serves as a university teacher, a lyricist for the band, and a lead singer.In a rap song describing Shaanxi common food, he listed dozens of tempting delicacies in a series: spinach noodles, belt noodles, noodles, Qishan simmered noodles, garlic noodles, noodles with fried sauce? ?
Historically, Xi'an was once the most prosperous city in the world, where 13 dynasties established their capitals, and people from all over the world gathered here, bringing different cuisines from all over the world.To this day, it is still a staple food paradise for Chinese people.
Paomo is also a staple food in Xi'an that has evolved from steamed buns. Everyone breaks it into buns of different sizes and shapes according to their own taste.For Xi'an people, this little effort is a process of great enjoyment.
In Northwest China, the perfect combination of staple food and soup, in addition to steamed buns with beef and mutton, Lanzhou beef noodles cannot be missed.Lanzhou people start their morning with a bowl of beef noodles.
Lanzhou, the city where the Yellow River passes through, has more than 1000 halal ramen restaurants, and consumes more than 100 million bowls of beef noodles every day. The soft and hot taste is the key to the praise of Lanzhou ramen.
100 years ago, Ma Baozi, a Hui nationality, mixed the boiled beef and mutton liver soup into the pot, and the fragrant hot pot noodles became very popular.He also creatively added Penghui water when kneading the dough to make the dough more elastic.The entire process of making this kind of noodles is done by hand. To pull out dakuan, leek leaves, capillaries, and buckwheat ridges of different thicknesses, not only must the strength be extraordinary, but the control of strength must be firm and soft.The same wheat is ground into the same flour, but different noodles can be made, showing different splendor.
Regarding the taste of noodles, the requirements of southerners and northerners are also very different.In Guangdong in southern China, although rice can be cooked two to three times a year, this does not prevent Cantonese people from eating noodles.
The thin noodles that Guangzhou people like are completely different from the Lanzhou noodles, which are crispy, elastic and full of toughness.Duck eggs are used for this kind of noodles, and the dough needs to be rolled after being kneaded in the traditional way. The key is the strength when pressing the noodles.Roll the dough with moso bamboo, use the gravity of the human body to make the dough evenly stressed, and the thinned dough can be used to make noodles and wonton skins.Guangzhou people call this kind of noodles made with traditional methods Zhusheng noodles.This ancient way of pressing noodles has been used by Cantonese people from generation to generation.
The same is for making noodles, Cantonese use moso bamboo, and Central Plains people use rolling pins.Rolling noodles is a life skill that girls in the Central Plains must master when they grow up.It is the custom of Dingcun people to treat guests for birthdays in the morning.For his wife's [-]th birthday, Aunt Wei made preparations early on for the pasta to be eaten at the banquet.
Why do you eat noodles on your birthday?How did noodles become a symbol of birthday celebration in China?There is a saying that the shape of the noodles is long and thin, which is a homonym for "longevity". The Chinese call this bowl of noodles eaten on birthdays longevity noodles.Noodles have also become the favorite birthday staple food for Chinese people who pay attention to flattery.
At the birthday banquet of Ding Village people, there is a ceremony that must be completed by the whole village.Before eating noodles, pick out the longest noodle and put it in the bowl of Mr. Shouxing. A birthday feast will not be complete until he eats this bowl of noodles, which is blessed by the whole village and means longevity. .
People in Qishan, Shaanxi also eat noodles during their birthdays.Whenever an old man celebrates his birthday, people from Qishan will get together and invite the Qin Opera Troupe to set up a stage to sing.At this time, a bowl of hot, hot and sour Qishan saozi noodles is absolutely indispensable.The most important thing to eat glutinous rice noodles is the running water table, which opens just after dawn in the morning.
According to the local historical records, Qishan saozi noodles originated 3000 years ago.Only eating noodles and not drinking soup is a customary dietary rule of the local people.Shanxi people call the ingredients for stir-frying diced meat saozi, and the production of Qishan saozi is more particular. The diced meat should be sliced thinly and evenly, stir-fried until transparent, then served with vinegar and Qin pepper spicy noodles, and stir-fried slowly.
The top-quality saozi should be bright red and pure in color, and the taste should be hot and sour. Such a spoonful of red oil saozi, which is bright in color, spicy but not dry, is the essence of Qishan saozi noodles.The side dishes of the saozi noodles are five-colored. Tofu with fungus symbolizes black and white, eggs symbolize wealth, carrots symbolize prosperity, and garlic sprouts symbolize vitality.The five colors of red, yellow, green, white and black represent Qishan people's best wishes for life.
For thousands of years, saozi soup has been rolled in the noodle pots of Qishan villages, and Qishan saozi noodles have become a wonderful art.
Steamed mutton
Mutton steamed buns evolved from the food known as "yangkan" in ancient times.
Yangkan, that is, soup made from mutton, is also the embryonic form of mutton steamed buns.Regarding yokan, there is a poem in the Song Dynasty as evidence: there is Xiong La in the Long delicacy, but yokan is the only thing cooked in Qin Dynasty.Its history can be traced back to the 11th century BC. At that time, it was listed as a tribute for sacrifices by kings and princes and an indispensable delicacy for royal banquets.
Many ancient documents, such as "Book of Rites" and pre-Qin philosophers, mentioned beef and mutton soup; "Warring States Policy" records that Sima Ziqi was angered by a cup of mutton from the king of Zhongshan. Wang raised his troops to attack Zhongshan, and since then the Zhongshan Kingdom has been destroyed. According to the "Book of Songs", during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Mao Xiuzhi, a captive, was granted the title of Taiguan Ling because he offered yang soup to Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty, and was later named Shangshu and Guanglu. doctor.
It is said that both the court and civilian restaurants in the Tang Dynasty were good at cooking soup: three days into the kitchen, washing hands to make soup.
After the changes of Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan and other dynasties, people of all ethnic groups moved to the mainland one after another.In Xi'an, Lanzhou and other places, mutton steamed buns improved according to local characteristics appeared. Although the shapes and seasonings have their own advantages, they are still considered one of the indispensable delicacies in Guanzhong.
[-]. Rice cakes and dumplings: the spiritual inheritance of food
Qishan saozi noodles are both rice and vegetables. This combination of food and food can be seen everywhere in Chinese rice dishes.
A day of peace of mind for Jiaxing people starts with a hot meat dumpling.Jiaxing, located in the Taihu Lake Basin, is known as the granary of the world.Nowadays, the fast-paced production and lifestyle have made zongzi, which has always had a seasonal temperament for thousands of years, become a daily staple food.
Every year on the Dragon Boat Festival at the beginning of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, in order to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river 2300 years ago, every household in southern China soaks glutinous rice, washes zong leaves, and makes zongzi.
Liu Guangrong is a zongzi wrapper who came to Jiaxing from Sichuan to work. He can wrap 3000 zongzi every day, averaging seven zongzi per minute, and each zongzi takes less than ten seconds.In a standardized workshop, one zongzi has 36 processes, and more than 100 million zongzi are produced every working day.
This age-old staple is presented in another era, but still wrapped in handcrafted charm.Those young rice-wrapping masters from all over China care for the vitality of traditional food with the warmth of their hands.
From farming civilization to industrial civilization, technological progress has made zongzi no longer limited to regions and seasons, but for Chinese people, following nature and making suitable food by themselves means a certain continuation of the traditional way of life.
After the late rice is ripe, it's time for Ningbo people to make rice cakes.For five-year-old Ning Ning, the most fun game is making rice cakes with Grandma Zeng.
Jingtou Village is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the surname Gu is the largest surname in the village.Grandpa Gu, whose ancestors have lived here for generations, is 78 years old this year.Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu, who married and lived here for more than half a century, raised four children and brought up a group of grandchildren.Now, they have begun to take care of the fourth generation of the family.
Making rice cakes is a traditional way for Ningbo people to celebrate the New Year.
Ningbo Shuimo New Year Cake is made from late japonica rice newly produced in that year. After soaking, grinding, steaming and pounding, the molecules of the rice are reorganized and the taste is improved.In the past, Ningbo families had to make hundreds of catties of rice cakes before the new year, store them in cold water, and eat them from the twelfth lunar month until the next year.
When working in the fields, Ningbo people use rice cakes as a meal, which can save time; and using rice cakes with vegetables is not only a staple food that can fill your stomach, but also a delicious dish.
The Gu family's kitchen was steaming and full of aromas.Near the end of the year, the children made an appointment to return to the village from Ningbo.The grandchildren are all grown up and have families of their own.For a family of four generations living under the same roof, there are only rare two or three times a year when they sit together like today, and the grandparents are very happy.
On a rather sumptuous dining table, the children's favorite rice cake is naturally indispensable.As the children grow up, the frequency of making rice cakes at home is less and less, but the old couple still follow the old tradition of making rice cakes.
Here, making rice cakes is a very grand event, and neighbors will help each other at this time.The locals also call rice cakes dumplings, which means reunion.Grandma mixed the wormwood stored in the spring into the steamed rice noodle balls, and between pushing and turning, the green wormwood juice and rice fragrance were mixed together, and kneaded into a soft green rice cake.
When Ning Ning grows up, she may not remember how to make rice cakes, but the soft and chewy taste, carrying the taste of family, may remain in Ning Ning's lifelong memory.
After a short family reunion, the children returned to the city with rice cakes made by their grandparents.
For the Chinese, the Spring Festival is a festival that belongs to the family. During the Spring Festival of 2012, Bai Bo spent the New Year in Beijing with his whole family.Bai Bo, who grew up in Shanxi, stayed in Beijing after graduating from university. He brought his parents, younger sister and parents-in-law to his Beijing home for the Spring Festival, which was the first time in ten years.
Baibo has a pair of five-year-old twin daughters, whose nicknames are Jixiang and Ruyi.As a professional photographer, Bai Bo has worked in various film crews all year round. Jixiang, Ruyi and their mother live in their grandmother's house.In a year, and only on rare days like the Chinese New Year, can the daughters return to their father.
Dumplings are an indispensable staple food on the table during the Chinese New Year.Dumplings, implying the new age.No matter how the year goes, the family reunion eating dumplings on New Year's Eve is a year-end feast that cannot be replaced by any delicacies from mountains and seas.
Bai Bo remembers that when he was a child, his grandmother would always wrap various auspicious and precious things in the dumplings.Today, seeing the dumplings gurgling and rolling in the pot, Baibo is still genuinely happy.
The traditional Chinese family concept continues, and Bai Bo thinks that the best thing to eat is the braised noodles made by his mother.The taste that I have been accustomed to since childhood will always remain in the body and will never be forgotten.No matter when you eat it again, you will feel delicious. The deliciousness is hard to describe, maybe it's just because it was made by my mother.
Today, the five-year-old twin daughters already know that they will make dumplings for their parents when they grow up.Dumplings have already planted a seed of family affection in their young hearts.No matter where they go in the future, no matter how far they fly, they will always think of their parents and the steaming dumplings at home.
While many handmade foods are being copied on the assembly line, the Chinese—the group that values family values the most in the world—are still repeating the same story year after year under their own roofs.Their traditional concepts are passed down from generation to generation, and what their parents pass on to the next generation, the next generation will continue to pass on.Just like dumplings, this is a kind of memory that Chinese people pass down from generation to generation, a memory of food.
For Baibo and his family, this moment is the happiest time of the year.In fact, on such a night, what is eaten is not important, nothing is more important than being with the family, which is all their hope.
This is the Chinese people, this is the Chinese tradition, and this is the Chinese story about the staple food.
Zongzi all the way
Spring and Autumn Period: Wrap millet with wild rice leaves (Jiazania officinalis), and wrap it into the shape of an ox horn, which is called "corner millet"; use bamboo tubes to seal and bake rice, and it is called "tube rice dumpling".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty: The millet was soaked in water with plant ash, and because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped with wild rice leaves into a square shape, and after being cooked, it became Cantonese alkaline rice dumpling.
Jin Dynasty, dumplings were officially designated as the Dragon Boat Festival food.At this time, in addition to rice, the raw material for making zongzi is also added with Chinese herbal medicine - Yizhi kernel, and the cooked zongzi is called "Yizhi rice dumpling".
Southern and Northern Dynasties: The variety of zongzi increased, and miscellaneous zongzi appeared. The rice was mixed with poultry meat, chestnut, red dates, red beans, etc.At the same time, zongzi is also used as a gift for human relations.
Tang Dynasty: The use of rice for zongzi was more sophisticated, and the shapes of zongzi appeared in cones, diamonds, etc., and "Datang zongzi" was recorded in Japanese literature.
Song Dynasty: There are "Aixiang rice dumplings" wrapped in rice leaves soaked in wormwood, and "candied rice dumplings".Su Dongpo wrote in a poem like this: "When I see red bayberry in rice dumplings." At this time, rice dumplings were piled up to build towers and pavilions, and advertisements were advertised on carriages, indicating that eating rice dumplings was a very fashionable thing in Song Dynasty.
Yuan Dynasty: The wrapping material of zongzi has changed from wild rice leaves to bamboo leaves, breaking through the seasonal limitations of wild rice leaves.
Ming Dynasty: There appeared zongzi wrapped in reed leaves, and the additional materials included red bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates, walnuts, etc., and the varieties were more colorful.
Qing Dynasty: "ham dumplings" appeared.
Nowadays, zongzi are even more varied. In addition to reed shells, zongzi in various places also use bamboo shoot shells, and glutinous rice is wrapped inside. According to local customs, longan, fresh meat, lotus seed paste, candied fruit, chestnut, sauerkraut, ham, eggs etc.
Talk about eating dumplings
Tang Lusun
In the past, people in the north used dumplings as a staple food, and people in the south used dumplings as a snack. Since the rise of the Anti-Japanese War, people from the front and rear have migrated, and there have been great changes in eating habits.Because the younger generation has lived in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guizhou for a long time, they have a preference for chili, and more and more people take pasta as their main meal.Now no matter which county or city in Taiwan, dumpling restaurants can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, which proves that dumplings have become the most popular food in society.
Dumplings can be steamed, so the boiled ones are called boiled dumplings, and the steamed ones are called steamed dumplings.Manchu people call boiled dumplings boiled dumplings, and some places on both sides of the Yellow River call it flat food, especially in Shandong cuisine. baffling.
Back then, the people in the northern countryside were simple and frugal. Apart from eating white flour dumplings during festivals, they usually ate dumplings made of buckwheat noodles, sorghum noodles, bean noodles, and black bread with bran.As for dumpling stuffing, there are meat and vegetables.In addition to pork, beef and mutton, meat fillings also include chicken, shrimp, fish, and three delicacies; meat fillings are also served with Chinese cabbage, small cabbage, spinach, leeks, leeks, leeks, green onions, fennel, zucchini, Winter melon, pumpkin, shepherd's purse, lentils, and some people even use radish sprouts to make stuffing.Although it belongs to the use of waste, it is unique, and it has a different flavor if you eat it once in a while.Vegetarian fillings include cabbage, spinach, vermicelli, tofu, golden needles, fungus, winter bamboo shoots, etc. If you add eggs, golden hooks, and chives, it will become flower elements.In addition, pumpkin, chicken and duck blood, and golden hook are used as fillings. They are both meat and vegetable, and they are also very fragrant and palatable.
To make dumplings, there are five steps: mixing stuffing, kneading noodles, rolling skins, wrapping, and cooking.There is a saying in the north: "Comfortable is better than falling down, and delicious is better than dumplings." Everyone loves to eat dumplings. I think it is because there are so many kinds of dumpling fillings that make people never get tired of eating them.Whether the dumplings are delicious or not depends on how well the stuffing is mixed.There are three types of dumpling fillings: chopping, cutting, and rubbing. There are certain rules for which one should be chopped, which one should be cut, and which one should be rubbed with a plane.If the ingredients are prepared properly, the dumplings will taste just right in saltiness.The amount of oil used is more important. Only when it is soft and soft, without knots or greasy, can it be considered a master.Although it is not difficult to knead the dough, the amount of water used is also very important. If the dough is to be moderately soft and hard, it depends on whether the amount of water used for kneading the dough is appropriate or not.There are two types of dumpling wrappers: pressing and rolling. Pressing is fast but not round. Rolling is slow but round. Naturally rolled dumplings are more neat and beautiful than pressed. Roll the skin and press the skin separately.
Making dumplings is also called kneading dumplings. Most of the dumplings made in restaurants are different from the way of making dumplings at home. They are called "squeezing", and the technique is very fast.There is also an old mother in the north who makes dumplings on the [-]th night. When receiving the God of Wealth, no matter men, women, old or young, they must make three or two dumplings.It is said to make a few dumplings, you can pinch the villain's mouth, so as to prevent the villain from talking nonsense and causing some right and wrong.To eat the God of Wealth dumplings, you need to wrap a small amount of money. I am afraid that the dumplings will not be squeezed firmly, and if they are broken, you will lose money, so the God of Wealth dumplings are all pinched with lace.
Do not cook too many dumplings in one pot. If the dumplings cannot be turned over in the pot, not only will it not be easy to cook, but they will also be sticky and easy to break. Cook the stuffing with water once and it will be cooked. Raw stuffing may need to be ordered two or three times. water, the stuffing can be cooked, it depends on the size of the stuffing and the thickness of the skin, so there is a way to cook dumplings!
When eating dumplings, northerners pay attention to thin skin and big stuffing to satisfy their cravings.The author thinks that the size of the stuffing has nothing to do with it. On the contrary, if the stuffing is filled too much, the flavor of the skin and stuffing will be lost. Narrow sides and thin skin are the only conditions for eating dumplings.If the side is wide and the skin is thick, and the mouth is light, it will be difficult to swallow.Although the author is famous for being gluttonous, I never pick my mouth. One year when I was abroad, a friend from Northeast China invited me to eat dumplings.Each dumpling is two inches in size, the skin is thicker than a copper plate, and the stuffing is as big as diced meat buns. At that time, I really wanted to change the sentence "there is nothing better than dumplings" to "the worst thing to eat is dumplings".So I have become a little bit more wary since then. Whenever people I don’t know very well invite me to eat dumplings, I always thank them.
When the bride and groom in the north enter the bridal chamber after worshiping heaven and earth, the family members first make a few dumplings for the bride and groom to eat. This kind of dumpling is filled with a chopstick. Call it descendants, probably the smallest dumpling.
For the stuffing of dumplings, as far as the author is concerned, pork stuffing with winter bamboo shoots is the best meat stuffing. Cut the winter bamboo shoots into fine pieces and stir-fry them with minced meat. Poke through, this is a wonderful product of winter dumplings.The vegetarian stuffing is divided into half spinach and Chinese cabbage, chopped eggs and finely chopped shrimp.Shrimp can be used more, whichever is fresh and salty, and seasoning can be used less.When there are leeks and carrots, add a little bit of flavor to match the color, and add tofu vermicelli, golden needles, and fungus more than ordinary drinks.
When it comes to being the best at eating dumplings, you have to admire Xunqing Baylor Zaitao.One year, it snowed heavily for the ninth day of the year, and he suddenly became infuriated. He went to Donglaishun, Dong'an Market, and wanted to eat mutton and cabbage dumplings. .On the Ganqing stove, I saw a piece of lamb tenderloin that was thin and tender, so I chopped up the tenderloin and stuffed it.Unexpectedly, that gourmet expert has a good tongue, and he actually tasted something wrong, which can be described as miraculous.
Southerners seem to be less particular about eating dumplings than northerners, but once at Shanghai Yihong Restaurant, I ate soup-filled dumplings, two in a bowl, and they were boiled and served right away.The rare thing is that Wuyang noodles all use Chengfen, while dumplings in soup use pure flour instead of Chengfen, and they are boiled in water instead of steamed. Although the price is twice as high as that of ordinary noodles, it is still commendable.Later, in Guangdong restaurants in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, no such soup dumplings were sold.
In the dim sum of the North and South Banquet Road, there are very few dumplings, and occasionally small dumplings are cooked in chicken soup. Most of the dumpling skins are thick and hard, which is not palatable.However, the steamed dumplings at the banquet (called hot noodles dumplings in the north) are better in the south than in the north, and I have eaten quite good steamed dumplings a few times.I ate emerald steamed dumplings once in Shanghai Laobanzhai. It is said that they were taught by Chen Buyun, the owner of Fuchun Tea House in Yangzhou, and then improved.He chopped the small green vegetables into puree, and filled them with sugar.Dajichun in Hankou has a kind of steamed dumplings with pea paste. It is not easy for his family to serve customers. The master of the white case is from the old family in Xuancheng, Anhui. It just so happens that when it is in its prime, the bones are moist and fragrant, and it is indeed a wonderful delicacy.Now old friends in Wuhan sometimes talk about meals, and when they talk about steamed dumplings with pea paste in Hankou Dajichun, they can’t help but salivate!There is a cart selling steamed noodle drums in Beicheng, Beiping. He has a kind of three delicacies stuffed stuffing.
During the general cleaning at the end of last year, I accidentally found more than a dozen small silver dimes made in Guangdong Province in the old collection. They were small silver coins used to eat the God of Wealth dumplings and make dumplings in the mainland.The children and grandchildren are very interested in eating the God of Wealth dumplings with small silver coins, so they put more than a dozen small coins in the dumplings. come out.I think, if you want to eat dumplings, but you are not very good at making them, if you can follow the five steps mentioned above, you will definitely have a meal of delicious dumplings.
(End of this chapter)
The diverse changes in China's natural geography allow people living in different regions to enjoy completely different and rich staple foods.From south to north, the ever-changing delicate staple foods not only provide most of the calories needed by the human body, but also affect the Chinese people's perception of the cycle of the four seasons, bringing them a rich, healthy and interesting life.
[-]. Miscellaneous grains: satisfaction beyond food and clothing
Shanxi Ding Village is the oldest village in the Central Plains.Housewives are best at making pasta, and people in Dingcun refer to grains that are processed into powder as noodles.Grain processing has a history of tens of thousands of years. The oldest stone mill was unearthed near Ding Village, and the same shape is still in use today.The grain is ground into powder with a stone mill, and then the coarse impurities are filtered out with a sieve, so that the real noodles can appear.
Shanxi is located in an inland area with many mountains and few rivers. There are few varieties of vegetables, and housewives have no conditions to adjust non-staple food.In order to increase the appetite of the whole family, we had to change the way of making various pasta.There are hundreds of kinds of pasta, and housewives process pasta into various delicacies on the table.These exquisite pasta with many patterns all make people feel the agility of slender hands and rich imagination of wisdom and wisdom.
While the aunts in Ding Village were busy making steamed buns for a birthday feast, the fragrance of noodles wafted from the cave dwellings on the Loess Plateau.Suide Hanzi Laohuang has just steamed a basket full of yellow buns. The ancient millet has been processed by Laohuang to become very sweet and delicious.
Starting from November of the lunar calendar, every three days, Lao Huang will ride a car for an hour and a half to the county town to sell yellow buns.He has been selling yellow buns for seven or eight years. When he first started, he bought ten and got one free, and he only earned [-] cents.
The yellow steamed buns made by Lao Huang are known as "Suide No. 1". They are of high quality and low price, and they are sold out quickly every time. He always praises his yellow steamed buns unabashedly as the best.
Suide County is located in the hilly and gully area of northern Shaanxi. In today's Suide, miscellaneous grains and wheat are the main characters on the table, and they are transformed into various patterns by the people of northern Shaanxi.Suide is rich in millet, and Huang Momo is a steamed bun made from millet noodles.Millet, also known as millet, has become the most important crop on the Loess Plateau because of its drought tolerance.
More than 8000 years ago, millet seeds were grown in the Yellow River Basin. The millet seeds were steamed into rice, and the taste was slightly inferior. However, in the past, this local food was the most common staple food for people in northern Shaanxi.
There are two types of millet, soft and hard. Lao Huang mixes hard millet and soft millet at a ratio of 7:3, soaks them in water overnight, grinds them, and sieves them carefully before using them.Lao Huang firmly believes that millet milled by machine is far less delicious than millet milled by his own stone mill.In addition, the fried millet will emit a natural fragrance, which is the secret recipe that Lao Huang is most proud of.After the millet is fried, the dough needs to be fermented overnight in the vat. According to Lao Huang's experience, the best effect is to wrap it with a quilt.
Lao Huang's steamed buns are well-made, and the people are also real, one yuan each, and never counter-offer.During the two coldest months of the year, Lao Huang can sell 15000 yellow buns. After excluding the cost, his actual income in one winter is about 8000 yuan.
Lao Huang made his home in cave dwellings, the oldest form of living on the Loess Plateau in China, dating back more than 4000 years.A farmer has worked hard all his life, and his most basic wish is to build a few cave dwellings. Only when he has a kiln and married a wife can he start a family and start a business.Lao Huang raised a son and a daughter here. Now, the children have settled their homes in the city and no longer deal with the land.However, Huang is unwilling to leave. He lives in his own cave and eats the food he grows. Huang is self-sufficient and down-to-earth.
For thousands of years, the Chinese have obtained food and clothing from five grains, and the satisfaction created by this kind of carbohydrates is provided by hundreds of millions of farmers who work hard on the land like Lao Huang.
In the vast north, ripe wheat determines the basic color of the earth.Wheat was introduced to the Central Plains from the Hexi Corridor. Because of its rich nutrition, after more than 4000 years of localization, it has become the most widely cultivated crop in northern China.This fine species native to West Asia has become one of the most important staple foods for Chinese people.
After the wheat flour is fermented, it is baked in a special fire pit. This kind of bread called naan contains less water and is extremely durable to storage. It is a must-have staple food for Uighur families all year round.The name of naan comes from ancient Persian and has a history of more than 2000 years.
When steamed buns first appeared, they were also called cooking cakes and steamed cakes. It was the most popular staple food in the Central Plains.Chinese ancestors got inspiration from the principle of boiled food, and made China the first country to cook with steam.
Mantou Story
It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang captured the barbarian Meng Huo seven times and forced him to surrender.On the way back to the imperial court, Zhuge Liang's team passed Lushui. When the chariots and horses were about to cross the river, a thousand-foot wave suddenly rose on the river, and the wind was strong, blocking the way of the people.
Zhuge Liang summoned Meng Huo to ask why. Meng Huo said that the violent wind and waves were caused by the souls of the fallen soldiers. If the army wanted to cross the river, they had to sacrifice 49 heads of barbarian soldiers to calm the resentment. .
Zhuge Liang made a mistake, and the two armies had already lost countless lives in the battle. How could they behead the soldiers for no reason?So he came up with a plan, and asked the cooks accompanying the army to use rice noodles as skins, wrap the meat of black cattle and white sheep inside, and squeeze out 49 human heads as sacrifices to Jiang.
In Ming Dynasty Lang Ying's notes "Seven Revised Class Drafts", it is recorded: Mantou's real name is Mantou, and Mantou sacrifices human heads to gods. Zhuge's conquest of Meng Huo ordered bread and meat to be sacrificed to human heads, which is called "Mantou". And for steamed buns.And Zhuge Liang is also regarded as the ancestor of "Mantou".However, because Zhuge Liang’s steamed buns are relatively complicated, after development, later generations omitted the stuffing inside and transformed into today’s steamed buns, while those with stuffing are called steamed buns.
However, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, those with stuffing and no soup are still called "steamed buns", and those without stuffing are called "white flour steamed buns".And "baozi" refers to soup dumplings with soup, such as Suzhou soup dumplings.
[-]. Rice: the first of the all-inclusive grains
China's five grains are always a changing concept.
About 2000 years ago, the order of the five grains was rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean.Today, the top three grain producers in China have become rice, wheat and corn.However, no matter how the order changes, it cannot shake the primacy of rice among the five grains.
"Dimen" means the source of spring water in Dong language.Dimen Village, located at the source of the Qingshui River, has mostly rainy days throughout the year.Wu Shunyu is picking rice from her granary.
In this humid environment, the granaries play a vital role in the storage of rice.The grain warehouses with wooden stilts and wooden structures are built on the water, which can prevent fire, rodents and termites.The oldest Hecang in the area has a history of 300 years.Wu Shunyu's family stores unhulled rice in the granary, which can keep the rice fresh for a long time.
Today, the rice that Wu Shunyu took will be sent as a gift to a family of the same clan in the village.In Dimen Village, on the day of the full moon for a woman who has given birth, her husband's family will send the bride price bought at the time of marriage to her mother's family, and the ceremony of establishing a new family will be considered as the final completion.The female family members of the same clan will also pick baskets and baskets, put new rice on them, and put eggs on the new rice to express their most sincere blessings for the birth of new life.
Rice noodles are the most important rice product in Liping, Guizhou, and can be seen everywhere in local markets.After spring plowing, summer cultivation, autumn harvesting, and winter storage, the fresh soaked rice is ground into rice milk, which is the first step for Yang Xiuxia to make rice noodles.Scoop the pulp and put it in the cage. The rice pulp is steamed in boiling water over high heat, and stored after cooling.Yang Xiuxia and her husband cooperated tacitly, and they repeated every action like this countless times.
China is the country with the earliest history of rice cultivation in the world.As early as 7000 years ago, rice cultivation began in the Yangtze River Basin.Rice starts from clumps of green seedlings and grows into golden rice. According to the eating customs of various places, it is made into rice food with various eating methods and rich tastes.Today, more than 65 percent of Chinese people eat rice.
Very similar to Liping rice noodles is the favorite rice dish of Guangzhou people—hor fun. 150 years ago, this kind of food, also known as Shahe powder, appeared in the Shahe area of Guangzhou.Shahe noodles are thinner and more transparent, and the taste is more flexible and smooth.With sand river noodles as the staple food, the most acceptable to Cantonese is dry fried beef river.In the eyes of northerners who are used to eating noodles, this is probably noodles made of rice.
Grain
"Grain" originally refers to grains with shells, and "five grains" refer to the five kinds of grains called in ancient China.After development, five grains have been generally referred to as food crops.Rice (commonly known as rice, rice), millet (commonly known as yellow rice), millet (also known as millet, commonly known as millet), wheat (commonly known as wheat), and bean (commonly known as soybean) are collectively referred to as "five grains".
With the development of the times and agricultural technology, rice and wheat are still widely planted and eaten in modern times; although millet, millet, and bean are also planted, they are basically no longer the first choice for Chinese people.
After the millet is hulled, it becomes yellow rice, which becomes sticky when cooked, and can be used to make wine and cakes.As a staple food, it is not conducive to digestion.
Millet, also known as millet, is a kind of millet.Natural drought tolerance and variety. "Su has five colors" refers to millet in various colors such as white, red, yellow, black, orange and purple.The earliest wine in China was also brewed from this kind of millet.Its stems and leaves are hard and can be used as feed for livestock, but generally only cattle can digest it.
The general term for beans.Soy products are also one of the favorite foods of Chinese people.
In ancient times, the five grains were also divided into "sky valley", "ground valley", "hanging valley", "wind valley" and "water valley".The five grains represented by heaven, earth, suspension, wind, and water are not necessarily staple foods.Sky valleys refer to crops with fruits such as rice, sorghum, and wheat growing on the top of plants; ground valleys refer to crops with fruits such as peanuts and sweet potatoes growing underground; hanging valleys refer to crops with fruits such as beans and melons hanging on branches. Water valley refers to crops that grow fruits in water such as water chestnut and lotus root; wind valley is very special, referring to crops that spread the pollen from the top of the plant to the stems, nodes, and whiskers through the wind to bear fruit.
The old saying "the four bodies are not diligent, and the five grains are not distinguished" means that lazy people who are afraid of walking and working with hands lack the ability to distinguish the essence of things.The seedlings of the five grains are very similar. In ancient times, most people were engaged in agricultural work, and those who did not work naturally could not distinguish the five grains.
Dry Fried Beef
Stir-fried Niuhe is a famous dish in Guangdong, which is fried with bean sprouts, rice noodles, beef, etc.In Cantonese restaurants and tea restaurants in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and overseas, dry fried beef has almost become a must-have dish.
Ingredients preparation
Main ingredients: 300 grams of rice noodles
Accessories: 80 grams of beef (lean) meat, 50 grams of mung bean sprouts, shredded peppers, green onions, ginger
Seasoning: soy sauce, raw powder, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar
Production steps
1.Clean the beef, cut it into shreds, mix well with soy sauce and raw powder, and marinate for half an hour to fully absorb the flavor.Wash and cut the green onion into sections, peel and wash the ginger and cut into thin shreds, wash the bean sprouts and set aside;
2.Heat the wok with high heat and put oil in it. When the oil is [-]% hot, slowly slide the marinated beef shreds into the wok and stir-fry until the beef turns white, then put it out for later use;
3.Heat up the remaining oil in the pot, add shredded ginger and rice noodles, stir-fry, add shredded beef, green onion, bean sprouts, and shredded colored peppers, stir-fry together to mix them evenly, add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar, continue Stir fry evenly until cooked.
[-]. Pasta: the common favor of the South and the North
More than 1000 years ago, China divided the agricultural distribution of rice in the south and wheat in the north along the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River, which led to the phenomenon that people in the south love to eat rice, while people in the north cannot live without pasta.
Thousands of kilometers away in Xi'an, a restaurant in the old town is always full of people waiting. Roujiamo is probably the only thing that can make straightforward Guanzhong people wait so patiently.
In Xi'an, steamed buns are the most popular staple food among the locals, and Roujiamo is the most classic way to eat steamed buns.Roujiamo is a wonderful combination of two foods - Baijimo and cured meat.The Baiji buns eaten by Xi'an people are baked with fire, and the meat made by adding more than 30 kinds of seasonings and simmering over a slow fire is soft and rich, and the blandness of the buns highlights the mellow aroma of the meat.
Cao Shi, a native of Xi'an, and his friends formed a rap band that sings in Xi'an dialect. He also serves as a university teacher, a lyricist for the band, and a lead singer.In a rap song describing Shaanxi common food, he listed dozens of tempting delicacies in a series: spinach noodles, belt noodles, noodles, Qishan simmered noodles, garlic noodles, noodles with fried sauce? ?
Historically, Xi'an was once the most prosperous city in the world, where 13 dynasties established their capitals, and people from all over the world gathered here, bringing different cuisines from all over the world.To this day, it is still a staple food paradise for Chinese people.
Paomo is also a staple food in Xi'an that has evolved from steamed buns. Everyone breaks it into buns of different sizes and shapes according to their own taste.For Xi'an people, this little effort is a process of great enjoyment.
In Northwest China, the perfect combination of staple food and soup, in addition to steamed buns with beef and mutton, Lanzhou beef noodles cannot be missed.Lanzhou people start their morning with a bowl of beef noodles.
Lanzhou, the city where the Yellow River passes through, has more than 1000 halal ramen restaurants, and consumes more than 100 million bowls of beef noodles every day. The soft and hot taste is the key to the praise of Lanzhou ramen.
100 years ago, Ma Baozi, a Hui nationality, mixed the boiled beef and mutton liver soup into the pot, and the fragrant hot pot noodles became very popular.He also creatively added Penghui water when kneading the dough to make the dough more elastic.The entire process of making this kind of noodles is done by hand. To pull out dakuan, leek leaves, capillaries, and buckwheat ridges of different thicknesses, not only must the strength be extraordinary, but the control of strength must be firm and soft.The same wheat is ground into the same flour, but different noodles can be made, showing different splendor.
Regarding the taste of noodles, the requirements of southerners and northerners are also very different.In Guangdong in southern China, although rice can be cooked two to three times a year, this does not prevent Cantonese people from eating noodles.
The thin noodles that Guangzhou people like are completely different from the Lanzhou noodles, which are crispy, elastic and full of toughness.Duck eggs are used for this kind of noodles, and the dough needs to be rolled after being kneaded in the traditional way. The key is the strength when pressing the noodles.Roll the dough with moso bamboo, use the gravity of the human body to make the dough evenly stressed, and the thinned dough can be used to make noodles and wonton skins.Guangzhou people call this kind of noodles made with traditional methods Zhusheng noodles.This ancient way of pressing noodles has been used by Cantonese people from generation to generation.
The same is for making noodles, Cantonese use moso bamboo, and Central Plains people use rolling pins.Rolling noodles is a life skill that girls in the Central Plains must master when they grow up.It is the custom of Dingcun people to treat guests for birthdays in the morning.For his wife's [-]th birthday, Aunt Wei made preparations early on for the pasta to be eaten at the banquet.
Why do you eat noodles on your birthday?How did noodles become a symbol of birthday celebration in China?There is a saying that the shape of the noodles is long and thin, which is a homonym for "longevity". The Chinese call this bowl of noodles eaten on birthdays longevity noodles.Noodles have also become the favorite birthday staple food for Chinese people who pay attention to flattery.
At the birthday banquet of Ding Village people, there is a ceremony that must be completed by the whole village.Before eating noodles, pick out the longest noodle and put it in the bowl of Mr. Shouxing. A birthday feast will not be complete until he eats this bowl of noodles, which is blessed by the whole village and means longevity. .
People in Qishan, Shaanxi also eat noodles during their birthdays.Whenever an old man celebrates his birthday, people from Qishan will get together and invite the Qin Opera Troupe to set up a stage to sing.At this time, a bowl of hot, hot and sour Qishan saozi noodles is absolutely indispensable.The most important thing to eat glutinous rice noodles is the running water table, which opens just after dawn in the morning.
According to the local historical records, Qishan saozi noodles originated 3000 years ago.Only eating noodles and not drinking soup is a customary dietary rule of the local people.Shanxi people call the ingredients for stir-frying diced meat saozi, and the production of Qishan saozi is more particular. The diced meat should be sliced thinly and evenly, stir-fried until transparent, then served with vinegar and Qin pepper spicy noodles, and stir-fried slowly.
The top-quality saozi should be bright red and pure in color, and the taste should be hot and sour. Such a spoonful of red oil saozi, which is bright in color, spicy but not dry, is the essence of Qishan saozi noodles.The side dishes of the saozi noodles are five-colored. Tofu with fungus symbolizes black and white, eggs symbolize wealth, carrots symbolize prosperity, and garlic sprouts symbolize vitality.The five colors of red, yellow, green, white and black represent Qishan people's best wishes for life.
For thousands of years, saozi soup has been rolled in the noodle pots of Qishan villages, and Qishan saozi noodles have become a wonderful art.
Steamed mutton
Mutton steamed buns evolved from the food known as "yangkan" in ancient times.
Yangkan, that is, soup made from mutton, is also the embryonic form of mutton steamed buns.Regarding yokan, there is a poem in the Song Dynasty as evidence: there is Xiong La in the Long delicacy, but yokan is the only thing cooked in Qin Dynasty.Its history can be traced back to the 11th century BC. At that time, it was listed as a tribute for sacrifices by kings and princes and an indispensable delicacy for royal banquets.
Many ancient documents, such as "Book of Rites" and pre-Qin philosophers, mentioned beef and mutton soup; "Warring States Policy" records that Sima Ziqi was angered by a cup of mutton from the king of Zhongshan. Wang raised his troops to attack Zhongshan, and since then the Zhongshan Kingdom has been destroyed. According to the "Book of Songs", during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Mao Xiuzhi, a captive, was granted the title of Taiguan Ling because he offered yang soup to Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty, and was later named Shangshu and Guanglu. doctor.
It is said that both the court and civilian restaurants in the Tang Dynasty were good at cooking soup: three days into the kitchen, washing hands to make soup.
After the changes of Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan and other dynasties, people of all ethnic groups moved to the mainland one after another.In Xi'an, Lanzhou and other places, mutton steamed buns improved according to local characteristics appeared. Although the shapes and seasonings have their own advantages, they are still considered one of the indispensable delicacies in Guanzhong.
[-]. Rice cakes and dumplings: the spiritual inheritance of food
Qishan saozi noodles are both rice and vegetables. This combination of food and food can be seen everywhere in Chinese rice dishes.
A day of peace of mind for Jiaxing people starts with a hot meat dumpling.Jiaxing, located in the Taihu Lake Basin, is known as the granary of the world.Nowadays, the fast-paced production and lifestyle have made zongzi, which has always had a seasonal temperament for thousands of years, become a daily staple food.
Every year on the Dragon Boat Festival at the beginning of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, in order to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river 2300 years ago, every household in southern China soaks glutinous rice, washes zong leaves, and makes zongzi.
Liu Guangrong is a zongzi wrapper who came to Jiaxing from Sichuan to work. He can wrap 3000 zongzi every day, averaging seven zongzi per minute, and each zongzi takes less than ten seconds.In a standardized workshop, one zongzi has 36 processes, and more than 100 million zongzi are produced every working day.
This age-old staple is presented in another era, but still wrapped in handcrafted charm.Those young rice-wrapping masters from all over China care for the vitality of traditional food with the warmth of their hands.
From farming civilization to industrial civilization, technological progress has made zongzi no longer limited to regions and seasons, but for Chinese people, following nature and making suitable food by themselves means a certain continuation of the traditional way of life.
After the late rice is ripe, it's time for Ningbo people to make rice cakes.For five-year-old Ning Ning, the most fun game is making rice cakes with Grandma Zeng.
Jingtou Village is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the surname Gu is the largest surname in the village.Grandpa Gu, whose ancestors have lived here for generations, is 78 years old this year.Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu, who married and lived here for more than half a century, raised four children and brought up a group of grandchildren.Now, they have begun to take care of the fourth generation of the family.
Making rice cakes is a traditional way for Ningbo people to celebrate the New Year.
Ningbo Shuimo New Year Cake is made from late japonica rice newly produced in that year. After soaking, grinding, steaming and pounding, the molecules of the rice are reorganized and the taste is improved.In the past, Ningbo families had to make hundreds of catties of rice cakes before the new year, store them in cold water, and eat them from the twelfth lunar month until the next year.
When working in the fields, Ningbo people use rice cakes as a meal, which can save time; and using rice cakes with vegetables is not only a staple food that can fill your stomach, but also a delicious dish.
The Gu family's kitchen was steaming and full of aromas.Near the end of the year, the children made an appointment to return to the village from Ningbo.The grandchildren are all grown up and have families of their own.For a family of four generations living under the same roof, there are only rare two or three times a year when they sit together like today, and the grandparents are very happy.
On a rather sumptuous dining table, the children's favorite rice cake is naturally indispensable.As the children grow up, the frequency of making rice cakes at home is less and less, but the old couple still follow the old tradition of making rice cakes.
Here, making rice cakes is a very grand event, and neighbors will help each other at this time.The locals also call rice cakes dumplings, which means reunion.Grandma mixed the wormwood stored in the spring into the steamed rice noodle balls, and between pushing and turning, the green wormwood juice and rice fragrance were mixed together, and kneaded into a soft green rice cake.
When Ning Ning grows up, she may not remember how to make rice cakes, but the soft and chewy taste, carrying the taste of family, may remain in Ning Ning's lifelong memory.
After a short family reunion, the children returned to the city with rice cakes made by their grandparents.
For the Chinese, the Spring Festival is a festival that belongs to the family. During the Spring Festival of 2012, Bai Bo spent the New Year in Beijing with his whole family.Bai Bo, who grew up in Shanxi, stayed in Beijing after graduating from university. He brought his parents, younger sister and parents-in-law to his Beijing home for the Spring Festival, which was the first time in ten years.
Baibo has a pair of five-year-old twin daughters, whose nicknames are Jixiang and Ruyi.As a professional photographer, Bai Bo has worked in various film crews all year round. Jixiang, Ruyi and their mother live in their grandmother's house.In a year, and only on rare days like the Chinese New Year, can the daughters return to their father.
Dumplings are an indispensable staple food on the table during the Chinese New Year.Dumplings, implying the new age.No matter how the year goes, the family reunion eating dumplings on New Year's Eve is a year-end feast that cannot be replaced by any delicacies from mountains and seas.
Bai Bo remembers that when he was a child, his grandmother would always wrap various auspicious and precious things in the dumplings.Today, seeing the dumplings gurgling and rolling in the pot, Baibo is still genuinely happy.
The traditional Chinese family concept continues, and Bai Bo thinks that the best thing to eat is the braised noodles made by his mother.The taste that I have been accustomed to since childhood will always remain in the body and will never be forgotten.No matter when you eat it again, you will feel delicious. The deliciousness is hard to describe, maybe it's just because it was made by my mother.
Today, the five-year-old twin daughters already know that they will make dumplings for their parents when they grow up.Dumplings have already planted a seed of family affection in their young hearts.No matter where they go in the future, no matter how far they fly, they will always think of their parents and the steaming dumplings at home.
While many handmade foods are being copied on the assembly line, the Chinese—the group that values family values the most in the world—are still repeating the same story year after year under their own roofs.Their traditional concepts are passed down from generation to generation, and what their parents pass on to the next generation, the next generation will continue to pass on.Just like dumplings, this is a kind of memory that Chinese people pass down from generation to generation, a memory of food.
For Baibo and his family, this moment is the happiest time of the year.In fact, on such a night, what is eaten is not important, nothing is more important than being with the family, which is all their hope.
This is the Chinese people, this is the Chinese tradition, and this is the Chinese story about the staple food.
Zongzi all the way
Spring and Autumn Period: Wrap millet with wild rice leaves (Jiazania officinalis), and wrap it into the shape of an ox horn, which is called "corner millet"; use bamboo tubes to seal and bake rice, and it is called "tube rice dumpling".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty: The millet was soaked in water with plant ash, and because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped with wild rice leaves into a square shape, and after being cooked, it became Cantonese alkaline rice dumpling.
Jin Dynasty, dumplings were officially designated as the Dragon Boat Festival food.At this time, in addition to rice, the raw material for making zongzi is also added with Chinese herbal medicine - Yizhi kernel, and the cooked zongzi is called "Yizhi rice dumpling".
Southern and Northern Dynasties: The variety of zongzi increased, and miscellaneous zongzi appeared. The rice was mixed with poultry meat, chestnut, red dates, red beans, etc.At the same time, zongzi is also used as a gift for human relations.
Tang Dynasty: The use of rice for zongzi was more sophisticated, and the shapes of zongzi appeared in cones, diamonds, etc., and "Datang zongzi" was recorded in Japanese literature.
Song Dynasty: There are "Aixiang rice dumplings" wrapped in rice leaves soaked in wormwood, and "candied rice dumplings".Su Dongpo wrote in a poem like this: "When I see red bayberry in rice dumplings." At this time, rice dumplings were piled up to build towers and pavilions, and advertisements were advertised on carriages, indicating that eating rice dumplings was a very fashionable thing in Song Dynasty.
Yuan Dynasty: The wrapping material of zongzi has changed from wild rice leaves to bamboo leaves, breaking through the seasonal limitations of wild rice leaves.
Ming Dynasty: There appeared zongzi wrapped in reed leaves, and the additional materials included red bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates, walnuts, etc., and the varieties were more colorful.
Qing Dynasty: "ham dumplings" appeared.
Nowadays, zongzi are even more varied. In addition to reed shells, zongzi in various places also use bamboo shoot shells, and glutinous rice is wrapped inside. According to local customs, longan, fresh meat, lotus seed paste, candied fruit, chestnut, sauerkraut, ham, eggs etc.
Talk about eating dumplings
Tang Lusun
In the past, people in the north used dumplings as a staple food, and people in the south used dumplings as a snack. Since the rise of the Anti-Japanese War, people from the front and rear have migrated, and there have been great changes in eating habits.Because the younger generation has lived in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guizhou for a long time, they have a preference for chili, and more and more people take pasta as their main meal.Now no matter which county or city in Taiwan, dumpling restaurants can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, which proves that dumplings have become the most popular food in society.
Dumplings can be steamed, so the boiled ones are called boiled dumplings, and the steamed ones are called steamed dumplings.Manchu people call boiled dumplings boiled dumplings, and some places on both sides of the Yellow River call it flat food, especially in Shandong cuisine. baffling.
Back then, the people in the northern countryside were simple and frugal. Apart from eating white flour dumplings during festivals, they usually ate dumplings made of buckwheat noodles, sorghum noodles, bean noodles, and black bread with bran.As for dumpling stuffing, there are meat and vegetables.In addition to pork, beef and mutton, meat fillings also include chicken, shrimp, fish, and three delicacies; meat fillings are also served with Chinese cabbage, small cabbage, spinach, leeks, leeks, leeks, green onions, fennel, zucchini, Winter melon, pumpkin, shepherd's purse, lentils, and some people even use radish sprouts to make stuffing.Although it belongs to the use of waste, it is unique, and it has a different flavor if you eat it once in a while.Vegetarian fillings include cabbage, spinach, vermicelli, tofu, golden needles, fungus, winter bamboo shoots, etc. If you add eggs, golden hooks, and chives, it will become flower elements.In addition, pumpkin, chicken and duck blood, and golden hook are used as fillings. They are both meat and vegetable, and they are also very fragrant and palatable.
To make dumplings, there are five steps: mixing stuffing, kneading noodles, rolling skins, wrapping, and cooking.There is a saying in the north: "Comfortable is better than falling down, and delicious is better than dumplings." Everyone loves to eat dumplings. I think it is because there are so many kinds of dumpling fillings that make people never get tired of eating them.Whether the dumplings are delicious or not depends on how well the stuffing is mixed.There are three types of dumpling fillings: chopping, cutting, and rubbing. There are certain rules for which one should be chopped, which one should be cut, and which one should be rubbed with a plane.If the ingredients are prepared properly, the dumplings will taste just right in saltiness.The amount of oil used is more important. Only when it is soft and soft, without knots or greasy, can it be considered a master.Although it is not difficult to knead the dough, the amount of water used is also very important. If the dough is to be moderately soft and hard, it depends on whether the amount of water used for kneading the dough is appropriate or not.There are two types of dumpling wrappers: pressing and rolling. Pressing is fast but not round. Rolling is slow but round. Naturally rolled dumplings are more neat and beautiful than pressed. Roll the skin and press the skin separately.
Making dumplings is also called kneading dumplings. Most of the dumplings made in restaurants are different from the way of making dumplings at home. They are called "squeezing", and the technique is very fast.There is also an old mother in the north who makes dumplings on the [-]th night. When receiving the God of Wealth, no matter men, women, old or young, they must make three or two dumplings.It is said to make a few dumplings, you can pinch the villain's mouth, so as to prevent the villain from talking nonsense and causing some right and wrong.To eat the God of Wealth dumplings, you need to wrap a small amount of money. I am afraid that the dumplings will not be squeezed firmly, and if they are broken, you will lose money, so the God of Wealth dumplings are all pinched with lace.
Do not cook too many dumplings in one pot. If the dumplings cannot be turned over in the pot, not only will it not be easy to cook, but they will also be sticky and easy to break. Cook the stuffing with water once and it will be cooked. Raw stuffing may need to be ordered two or three times. water, the stuffing can be cooked, it depends on the size of the stuffing and the thickness of the skin, so there is a way to cook dumplings!
When eating dumplings, northerners pay attention to thin skin and big stuffing to satisfy their cravings.The author thinks that the size of the stuffing has nothing to do with it. On the contrary, if the stuffing is filled too much, the flavor of the skin and stuffing will be lost. Narrow sides and thin skin are the only conditions for eating dumplings.If the side is wide and the skin is thick, and the mouth is light, it will be difficult to swallow.Although the author is famous for being gluttonous, I never pick my mouth. One year when I was abroad, a friend from Northeast China invited me to eat dumplings.Each dumpling is two inches in size, the skin is thicker than a copper plate, and the stuffing is as big as diced meat buns. At that time, I really wanted to change the sentence "there is nothing better than dumplings" to "the worst thing to eat is dumplings".So I have become a little bit more wary since then. Whenever people I don’t know very well invite me to eat dumplings, I always thank them.
When the bride and groom in the north enter the bridal chamber after worshiping heaven and earth, the family members first make a few dumplings for the bride and groom to eat. This kind of dumpling is filled with a chopstick. Call it descendants, probably the smallest dumpling.
For the stuffing of dumplings, as far as the author is concerned, pork stuffing with winter bamboo shoots is the best meat stuffing. Cut the winter bamboo shoots into fine pieces and stir-fry them with minced meat. Poke through, this is a wonderful product of winter dumplings.The vegetarian stuffing is divided into half spinach and Chinese cabbage, chopped eggs and finely chopped shrimp.Shrimp can be used more, whichever is fresh and salty, and seasoning can be used less.When there are leeks and carrots, add a little bit of flavor to match the color, and add tofu vermicelli, golden needles, and fungus more than ordinary drinks.
When it comes to being the best at eating dumplings, you have to admire Xunqing Baylor Zaitao.One year, it snowed heavily for the ninth day of the year, and he suddenly became infuriated. He went to Donglaishun, Dong'an Market, and wanted to eat mutton and cabbage dumplings. .On the Ganqing stove, I saw a piece of lamb tenderloin that was thin and tender, so I chopped up the tenderloin and stuffed it.Unexpectedly, that gourmet expert has a good tongue, and he actually tasted something wrong, which can be described as miraculous.
Southerners seem to be less particular about eating dumplings than northerners, but once at Shanghai Yihong Restaurant, I ate soup-filled dumplings, two in a bowl, and they were boiled and served right away.The rare thing is that Wuyang noodles all use Chengfen, while dumplings in soup use pure flour instead of Chengfen, and they are boiled in water instead of steamed. Although the price is twice as high as that of ordinary noodles, it is still commendable.Later, in Guangdong restaurants in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, no such soup dumplings were sold.
In the dim sum of the North and South Banquet Road, there are very few dumplings, and occasionally small dumplings are cooked in chicken soup. Most of the dumpling skins are thick and hard, which is not palatable.However, the steamed dumplings at the banquet (called hot noodles dumplings in the north) are better in the south than in the north, and I have eaten quite good steamed dumplings a few times.I ate emerald steamed dumplings once in Shanghai Laobanzhai. It is said that they were taught by Chen Buyun, the owner of Fuchun Tea House in Yangzhou, and then improved.He chopped the small green vegetables into puree, and filled them with sugar.Dajichun in Hankou has a kind of steamed dumplings with pea paste. It is not easy for his family to serve customers. The master of the white case is from the old family in Xuancheng, Anhui. It just so happens that when it is in its prime, the bones are moist and fragrant, and it is indeed a wonderful delicacy.Now old friends in Wuhan sometimes talk about meals, and when they talk about steamed dumplings with pea paste in Hankou Dajichun, they can’t help but salivate!There is a cart selling steamed noodle drums in Beicheng, Beiping. He has a kind of three delicacies stuffed stuffing.
During the general cleaning at the end of last year, I accidentally found more than a dozen small silver dimes made in Guangdong Province in the old collection. They were small silver coins used to eat the God of Wealth dumplings and make dumplings in the mainland.The children and grandchildren are very interested in eating the God of Wealth dumplings with small silver coins, so they put more than a dozen small coins in the dumplings. come out.I think, if you want to eat dumplings, but you are not very good at making them, if you can follow the five steps mentioned above, you will definitely have a meal of delicious dumplings.
(End of this chapter)
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