Text | King Gun Gun
There are 3 holy places in China – Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi. There are many schools of rice noodles in these three provinces, and there are countless fans, but among them, the most famous and the farthest is Guilin rice noodles. Even out of Guangxi, Guilin rice noodles are everywhere, and they are usually scattered on streets that are not very good in those areas, with narrow spaces and compact tables and chairs. Diners who come and go are also in a hurry, a posture that will not stay for a long time, suck a few sips to solve a bowl of powder, and then drink a few mouthfuls of soup, a convenient and affordable lunch will be solved.
Guilin rice noodles are affordable, but few people think that Guilin rice noodles are a delicacy worthy of careful tasting and serious treatment. This is somewhat wronged by it. The Guilin rice noodles that "go north" have obvious differences from the place of origin, from the classic method to the way of eating. Even if you have eaten a lot of Guilin rice noodles, it does not necessarily mean that you have seen the real Guilin rice noodles.
▍ "Guilin rice noodles = soup powder", an inexplicable mistake
The origin of Guilin rice noodles, legend is related to the qin shi huang sent Shi Lu to dig a spiritual canal to solve the problem of grain transportation. But the story of the origin of folk snacks is far-fetched, and everyone listens to it. But the production of Guilin rice noodles is indeed related to the fusion of food culture in the north and south. It was the love and dedication of northern immigrants to their hometown food that made them create a kind of imitation of soup cake in the southern region, which was far away from their hometown and mainly based on rice, and northern immigrants became the earliest consumers of rice noodles. In addition, the influx of immigrants from other places has also prompted Guilin rice noodles to continue to innovate. In particular, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, military and political personnel, industrial and commercial personnel and refugees from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places were evacuated to Guilin in large numbers, which provided a new historical opportunity for the development of Guilin rice noodles, and the Anti-Japanese War period thus became the golden age of the development of Guilin rice noodles. [1]
Today's Guilin rice noodles mainly include brine powder, raw soup powder, beef brisket powder, horse meat rice noodles and so on. The first three are more common, and horse meat rice noodles are generally more expensive and not often eaten by people. Bai Xianyong mentioned guilin's once well-known Rongji rice noodles in "Huaqiao Rongji": "When we mention Huaqiao Rongji, that sign is resounding. Of course, I'm referring to the former Guilin Shuidongmen Flower Bridgehead, the rice noodle shop opened by our grandfather. Huang Tianrong's rice noodles, Guilin City, who does not know? Which one doesn't know? Grandpa started by selling horse meat and rice noodles, two small dollars a plate, always selling a hundred plates a day, a little late, still can't eat it. ”
▲ Marinated vegetable powder in a stainless steel bowl, photographed by the three craftsmen's kitchen
A small bowl of Guilin rice noodles is cheap, lightweight, but rich in content, and is a code to understand the lives of locals. However, in terms of classic style and eating method, Guilin rice noodles in Guilin have very obvious differences with the improved version of Guilin rice noodles in big cities:
1, Guilin rice noodles are the most classic is brine noodles, not the popular soup powder in big cities. The so-called brine powder, is the fresh powder in boiling water to heat the bowl, and then the store in the powder supplemented with pot roast, brine beef and other "brine dishes", drizzled with brine, sesame oil, diners and then according to the taste of their own addition of sour shoots, fried soybeans, fried peanuts, capers, green onions, coriander, chopped peppers and other ingredients, there are also people do not put sour shoots and capers, it is said that the traditional brine powder in the consumption, do not put acid, because "the brine taste is not enough, just use acid to make up."
▲In Guilin, the side dishes in the rice noodle shop allow diners to freely add according to taste. Three craftsmen's kitchen photo
2, the authentic Guilin rice noodles eating method is "dry mixing", that is, mixing powder does not put down the soup, get the powder to add soup This is a layman's way of eating. When you have finished eating or eating a little powder, scoop a spoonful of bone soup to drink, comfortable.
▲Three craftsmen kitchen photo
▍ Brine, the soul of Guilin rice noodles
Although fresh rice noodles have a rice flavor and slightly fermented flavor, they still need brine to enhance the taste. Therefore, whether the rice noodles are delicious or not, the key lies in the brine recipe. Guilin people also have a deep love for brine.
In general, the production method of Guilin brine is to first mix water in the pot, and then add spices and ingredients such as peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, grass fruits, cloves, tangerine peel, betel nut, licorice, monk fruit, etc., first boil it with a martial fire, then boil it for several hours, and finally filter out the residue, that is, the original brine juice. [1] In addition, beef, beef bones, pork, pork bones, etc. are often added to the boiling process. Some shops also add snakes and yellow eels to give the brine a personality that makes diners feel good.
The brine recipe of each store is different, and it is meticulous to the amount and proportion of each ingredient, the size of the heat, the length of the boiling time and other aspects. As far as the experience of the three craftsmen's kitchen is concerned, a good brine should not be too salty, should not be bitter, and there are spices and ingredients that are sweet and fragrant. The brine poured on the rice noodles should be no more and no less, and after eating, the bowl can not be souped with soup and water, and it is said that connoisseurs call this "brine hanging on the wall".
▍Pot roast, only those who know the goods understand
There are many kinds of brine cauliflower in Guilin rice noodles, common ones are pot roast, beef bar, brine liver, brine tongue, pork belly, horse meat, sausage and so on. There is a kind of "Seven Star Arch Moon Powder", and its brine dish is made of seven kinds of brine meat such as pot roast, brine beef, brine Kamada, brine beef liver, grilled enema, brine tripe, and brine pig arch, which is a fine product in the brine powder.
Marinade, the traditional rice noodle master gives rice noodles ingredients, the most is the shape. Yao Gu, a native who has studied Guilin rice noodles for decades, once described it like this: "Pot roast, cowba, brine liver, brine tongue, char siu, slices are cut wide and large, their thin as paper, lifted to the sky, transparent and transparent, the nose exhales, you can also blow it." "Three craftsmen's kitchen photo.
▲ Seven stars arch moon powder, picture source: Guilin Rice Noodles Cultural Center
Out of Guangxi' least common, but also the most able to identify a Guilin rice noodle restaurant authentic and not authentic, is the "pot roast meat". Pot roast meat is made by boiling or brineing the meat and then frying it in oil. The raw materials for pot roast meat are generally made of pork head meat (preferably chin meat), washed and cooked, and then fished out and dried. Then put a few small holes in the skin of the meat, and apply salt and other condiments, and repeat this several times before putting it into the oil pan. The best pot roast color is golden and translucent, and the texture is crispy and the meat is cotton.
▲Pot roasting
▍ Rice noodles, delicious and bouncy teeth are enough to taste
Unlike the dry powder used in snail powder, authentic Guilin rice noodles should be made of fresh powder. The production process of fresh powder is not complicated - rice is ground into a pulp, bagged and dried, kneaded into a powder ball and then pressed into a round root or flake, and can be heated in boiling water, and the finished surface of fresh wet rice flour is white and bright, smooth and flexible. However, after Guilin rice noodles "went north", due to cost and dosage considerations, most of the rice noodles used in Beijing and other cities can only be made of dry powder.
▲Image source: Tianya Guangxi
▲ The shop is steaming rice noodles, and the three craftsmen's kitchen is photographed
When eating rice noodles, put the rice noodles in a fence and heat them with boiling water. The shape of the powder is divided into round powder and cut powder. According to the observation of Sanjiangfood (ID: Sanjiangfood), locals prefer round powder.
▍ Why can Guilin rice noodles grab the stomachs of northerners?
Snacks that can sweep the country have two characteristics: affordable and fast. Guilin rice noodles obviously match, but this is only one of the factors. On the expansion road of Guilin rice noodles, the most important thing that cannot be ignored is a place called Tianhe. Most of the operators of Guilin rice noodles are not From Guilin, but from Tianli County, which has come out of the DashiShan District of Guangxi. In the mid-to-late 1990s, they went out of Dashan and began to operate Guilin rice noodle shops across the country, first in Shenzhen, then in Shanghai, and in 2005 in Beijing. In 2012, the Guangxi Office in Beijing provided a set of data, in Beijing, Tian and others opened nearly 400 Guilin rice noodle shops in Beijing, an average of 300 bowls of rice noodles per day.
In Chinese culture, nostalgia is an important sustaining factor, even "productivity". The Tianren people who came out of the poor countryside and remote areas, contrary to the principle of "peers are wrongdoers", were particularly united, and their development model of "friends calling friends" and "relatives with relatives" laid the foundation for the expansion of Guilin rice noodles in Beijing.
▲ A bowl of typical "tianzu version" Guilin rice noodles
In addition, on the one hand, Tian and others are good at playing the sign of "Guilin rice noodles", and on the other hand, they know how to study the tastes of northerners and improve Guilin rice noodles. Sansmith Kitchen said before that guilin rice noodles after going north are almost the most out of all snacks, because Guilin rice noodles, which have become synonymous with low-grade catering in the north, are actually improved "heavenly versions" of Guilin rice noodles. Northerners love to eat soup noodles, soup powder, and the "heavenly version" of Guilin rice noodles just cater to the tastes of northerners, will be the traditional Guilin rice noodles based on brine powder into soup powder, brine dishes also from pot roast, beef, etc., into fish balls, beef, beef brisket, char siu, chicken, ribs, the amount becomes larger, but the price is low. In large cities with high cost of living, it can be filled with more than ten yuan, which is enough to make Guilin rice noodles have a stable source of customers.
The spirit of tian and other people who are poor and think of change, as well as the history of hard work and entrepreneurship in Beijing, are admirable. However, the three-craftsman kitchen still prefers brine powder. Guilin rice noodles can not be fired without improvement, and after improvement, they have lost that unique taste and personality, which is really confusing.
Resources:
[1] "The Crystallization of Cultural Exchanges between The North and the South: A Little Thought on Guilin Rice Noodles"
[2] "How to Make Guilin Rice Noodles", Sichuan Cooking, Sha Xiaoci.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, the pictures in this article are from the Internet