A bowl of peppery soup. Photography / Wu Xuewen
-Fengwujun Language-
Thick and simple skin bag
A fiery burning soul
A piece of central plains land, a bowl of peppery soup
Peppery soup, the first business card of Henan cuisine. On June 10 this year, the peppery soup in Xiaoyao Town was selected as a national intangible cultural heritage, which shows its status.
Its name, its teeth and claws, deters the spectators; its appearance, its appearance, makes the first-time visitors frown. In one bite, the wild taste of pepper comes to the face, like a hot firework exploding on the tip of the tongue; another bite, the salty aroma is thick, and the intricate flavor of spices and fresh meat dances in the mouth. Then, it was sweating, the fatigue of the bowl went down, and the day of life began again.
Peppery soup, the world's first refreshing. Photo/Visual China
That's the magic of peppery soup. When you first see it, the process of tasting it is an adventure. This courage will immediately get a fresh and hot reward, until your taste buds are completely captured by it, wandering in the thick foundation of the Central Plains, while sincerely admiring, while in awe, and then calmly and idly said, "Medium! ”
No tired soul can't wake up from a bowl of spicy soup. If so, drink two bowls.
How delicious the peppery soup is, you must understand
How common is Hu spicy soup in Henan?
Here, in any city, get up in the morning and walk down any street, and it won't be long before you can find a shop selling peppery soup. No matter how bad it is, you close your eyes, carefully discern the pepper and meat aroma fluttering in the wind, plus the fragrance of fried buns and fried fritters, and slowly follow, it is there.
The people of the Central Plains cannot resist the charm of peppery soup. Photography / Wu Xuewen
It is said that if you want to make Henan people get up early, peppery soup is more powerful than an alarm clock. A bowl of hot peppery soup can make sweat in summer and warm the stomach in winter; Henan is a big province for pasta, it can be paired with sugar cakes, oil cakes, fried buns, large fritters, and can also be "two mixed" with salted tofu brain to deepen the taste collision; or, after a full of hot and spicy impact, then a bowl of sweet tofu brain to ease up... This is the morning routine of Henan people.
The Central Plains is vast and rich in history, and the peppery soup is naturally a hundred flavors, which is a school of its own. In Henan, the main players in the field of Peppery Soup happen to be three-legged - the Xiaoyaozhen Sect, the Beiwudu Sect, and the Hundred Flowers Blooming Faction.
Getaway Town Peppery Soup
The first school of peppery soup has the most fans, and the name sounds very jianghu. Graph/Network
Xiaoyao Town is located in Xihua County, Zhoukou City, where the Shahe And Yinghe Rivers meet. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, this was an important water and land rush in the Central Plains, and the Ming and Qing dynasties prospered because of the transportation industry, which also made The Peppery Soup in Xiaoyao Town famous in the Central Plains.
This spicy soup, pepper is the absolute protagonist, the taste is fierce and spicy, the entrance is full of power, after the belly is even more domineering, as if to make people know all seven tricks, suddenly feel free. At the same time, compared with other genres, the town of Runaway is thicker, with ingredients such as diced meat, fungus, gluten, etc., and the feeling of fullness.
Hokumado peppery soup
The existence of the North Dance Ferry, which competes with the town of Runaway. Graph/Network
Located in Wuyang County, Luohe City, Beiwudu has been an important ferry port of the Shahe River since ancient times, and is known as the "Beiwudu that fills the dissatisfaction". During the Ming and Qing dynasties, as an important town for cargo transshipment, merchants gathered here, and it was full of vitality.
This spicy soup focuses on the blending of broth and spices, and pepper should coexist peacefully with beef and other spices. Compared with the Runaway Town Pie, the Beiwudu Sect is softer and more mellow, and the broth needs to be simmered for a long time, and the pungency will not be slowly reflected until after the belly, as if a flame slowly ignites from the stomach and gently warms you.
A hundred flowers bloom in a peppery soup
Xi'an meatball paste spicy soup, oil splash spicy seeds is the essence. Photography / Wu Xuewen
The same kind of food, in the face of rich history and culture, even if it is only separated by a river, will evolve different appearances and flavors. Hu spicy soup is not only the case, not only sitting firmly in the top position of Henan breakfast, but also affecting Shaanxi, Hebei, Anhui and other places.
Across the Yellow River, it has meatballs and becomes Xi'an meatball paste spicy soup; across the Huai River, it fades the broth base color, and changes to kelp and egg flower as the base, becoming Hefei spicy paste soup. Nowadays, with the footsteps of Henan people, Peppery Soup has spread to major cities in China, comforting the taste buds of the Central Plains Wanderers and opening a new door for diners everywhere.
Who is the king of the spicy soup world?
Which kind of peppery soup is delicious, 100 million Henan people have 100 million mouths, no one can say it well. However, in addition to a hundred flavors, Henan people have a consensus on the standard of a good bowl of peppery soup.
The first is color. A good bowl of peppery soup, no matter what genre, must be shiny and shiny, and the texture is dense and almost battery. Peppery soup is mostly beef and mutton soup base (chicken soup in some areas), which itself contains animal fat, boiled out of full flavor, and additional ingredients are added in the middle to make it thicker. If the peppery soup is not shiny enough, it is obviously cutting corners.
Thick and sparkling. Graph/Network
This is followed by incense. A good bowl of pepper soup, pepper is the protagonist of aroma and spicy taste, pepper can only be used as a foil. This has requirements for the quality of pepper, which requires black and white collocation, but also the fusion of peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, fennel, nutmeg, cloves, grass and fruits and other more than a dozen spices, some stores will also add Chinese herbal medicine. Therefore, a good peppery soup must be a complex of aroma, and the more fragrant the better.
Finally, the taste. A good bowl of peppery soup, of course, is hot and fragrant, thick and spicy, thousands of tastes gathered in one bowl, wonderful. The ingredients usually include gluten and diced meat, which fill the stomach and add a touch of the tip of the tongue. Not fresh enough, not rich enough, not enough flavorful, are not qualified.
Its appearance is not good, and it is addictive when it goes down. Photography / Wu Xuewen
If you are hungry, hurry up and get a bowl to make sure you refresh your soul.
A grain of pepper unifies the taste buds of Henan people
Pepper, the protagonist of the peppery soup. For Henan and even the whole of North China, pepper is an extremely important spice.
In the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, pepper set out from Central Asia and crossed the mountains and mountains all the way into the Central Plains. In Zhang Hua's "Naturalist Chronicle" of the Western Jin Dynasty, it is recorded that a pepper wine is served: "Take five liters of spring wine, one or two dried ginger, and seventy peppers, all mashed; five pomegranates, and take the juice." They are all made of ginger, minced pepper and pomegranate juice, which is served in wine, warmed by fire, and can also be drunk cold or hot. ”
Pepper, one of the earliest spices introduced to China. Photo/Visual China
This may be the earliest "peppery soup". In the Tang Dynasty, pepper began to be promoted in China, according to the "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks", at that time pepper was used to flavor food, but the price was extremely high, only the nobles could afford to use it. The Zizhi Tongjian writes that the Tang Dynasty prime minister Yuan Zai was raided for bribery, and the stolen goods had "eight hundred stones of pepper", which shows its value.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the overland Silk Road has entered its heyday, Luoyang as the central plains trade hub, pepper and other spices as a starting point, gradually going to various places, a little rich Chinese taste. Nowadays, the taste of pepper is particularly prominent in Luoyang cuisine, which is the historical accumulation of thousands of years and still affects modern tastes.
Luoyang tofu ball soup, pepper flavor is obvious. Figure/Figureworm Creative
In the Ming Dynasty, transnational trade flourished, pepper and various spices gathered in China, and prices began to fall. The "History of Ming" mentions that during Xuanzong's years, there were 3 million catties of pepper in stock, and it simply served as an official, and a pound of pepper was counted as one or two pieces of silver. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the price of pepper fell further, "all over China, for daily use."
Before the Tang Dynasty, such a bunch of pepper powder may have to be exchanged for gold. Photo/Visual China
Another protagonist of peppery soup is water.
Throughout North China, Henan people tirelessly love soup. From the landmark Luoyang water mat, to another Henan business card - braised noodles, to Yu cuisine's signature carp baked noodles, special soups from all over the world (beef soup, mutton soup, etc.), and the famous snack Kaifeng soup bun... Where there are Henan people, there must be soup.
All this reflects the deep relationship between Henan people and water - contradiction and symbiosis.
Zhengzhou Liujiang Yellow River Bridge. Photo/Visual China
In the Central Plains, water and land transportation is developed, and the five lakes and seas meet here, integrating spices and cultures from all over the country. The Central Plains is also a place of frequent floods, the struggle between people and water runs through thousands of years, and the symbol of "water" is also carefully shaping the soul of this land. Henan is widely grown wheat, noodle culture flourishes, since ancient times is also a distribution center for the land spice trade, a variety of factors are integrated, is this flavor - peppery soup.
A bowl of seemingly simple peppery soup is actually intricately crafted and has many ingredients, and there are no less than a dozen kinds of spices alone. Among them, some come from the western region thousands of miles away, some come from villages within easy reach; near and far, spices are ground into powder, ingredients are cut into cubes, the flavor of cattle and sheep of ethnic minorities, the cooking techniques of the Han people, and the strong feelings of the people of the Central Plains for water... In Henan, they all melted in.
Luoyang water mat, peony swallow dish, one of the "four town tables". Figure/Figureworm Creative
No one expected that a small pepper, combined with inexhaustible water, would unify the taste buds of the Central Plains people more than two thousand years later.
A thousand words, right in this bowl of soup
In China, the land is vast and rich, and all kinds of cuisine are everywhere. Each place has a proud snack, some of which are facades, more loved by tourists, and the average local. Some look ordinary, not even able to get on the table, it just silently accompanies the locals, perfectly integrated into life, and becomes the taste of the hometown people's dreams.
No matter how far away from home, you will never forget this smell. Graph/Network
Peppery soup is typical of the latter. It is really not very photogenic, gourmand Chen Xiaoqing once said: "No matter how to shoot, (Hu Spicy Soup) is a slimy and not photogenic, we even buried the camera under the Hu Spicy Soup, but a little deeper is not transparent, when it floats up from the bottom, it is unbearable to see." ”
People who love peppery soup don't care about this at all. They were able to see the thick and powerful inner being and the fiery soul burning in the simple skin.
Isn't this a true portrayal of Henan's character?
Heaven rewards diligence, and the breakfast industry is even more "diligent" word. Graph/Network
A bowl of peppery soup, behind it is more emphasis on a "diligent" word. Every day, the store gets up early and greedy, uses meat and bone to boil out the original soup, and then finely ground powder, chopped raw materials, including more than a dozen spices, fungus, kelp, yellow cauliflower, gluten, etc., all of which are exhausting physical work; the exquisite shopkeeper also has to wash the gluten by himself, and then use gluten water to hook the peppery soup, and the simmering process must always stir, beware of the paste pot...
The four bodies are not diligent, the spices are not divided, the mind is not heavy, and they cannot make this bowl of soup.
Isn't this the thick background of the laborer?
In Zhengzhou, Henan, sanitation workers receive breakfast with love. Photo/Visual China
Day after day, year after year, the melodious steam of the peppery soup pot awakened the sleeping Central Plains.
Early neighbors, carrying a warm pot, lined up to bring a pot of delicious food home; diligent wage earners, come to work to a bowl, stimulate the power of the whole body; a family of old and young, business white-collar workers, foreign tourists, hipster men and women, no matter who you are, in the hot pepper soup shop, are the simple passers-by of life, regardless of each other.
Spicy, the most refreshing. Soup, the most able to coax the stomach. Life is varied, but eating men and women. The world is chaotic, and it will eventually return to the basics. Thousands of worlds finally converged in this bowl of peppery soup.
Remember to go home and drink a bowl of soup. Graph/Network
This bowl is "and". This bowl is the Central Plains, with a simple face, a thick foundation, a fiery soul, and self-improvement.
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