I remember when I was a child, there was a kind of sugar sold on the street, as fine as a hair, one by one, wrapped in soybean noodles to eat, especially delicious, that kind of sugar is called dragon whisker candy, as the name suggests, like the dragon's whiskers as fine sugar, this sugar was often seen when I was a child, and there were sales at the school gate, but with the passage of time, now I basically can't see its shadow. However, recently found it in Kaifeng, Henan, it is really mixed feelings.
The owner who made his fortune with dragon's whisker candy
The owner of this dragon whisker candy is a 97-year-old post-90s, newly married for a few years, his craft was learned in his wife's mother's home, it was the New Year's day, the old man in the family made food for the children, then he learned the technology. At that time, he and his wife had a total of only 10 yuan, very difficult, he did not want to go to work and wanted to start a business, his wife supported him, so his wife helped him borrow money to open this stall in the Gulou Night Market, originally he thought that he could sell a hundred and eighty yuan a day, but he did not expect to sell more than 1,000 yuan on the first day, which gave him great encouragement!
In just a few years now, he has bought a house and a car on dragon's whisker candy, bringing a stable income to his family, no worse than going to work.
Deceptively simple approach
The steps to make this kind of dragon whisker candy seem simple, but in fact, it is not simple at all, it is very laborious, in fact, the overall steps are only 3 steps, but these three steps are not easy to do.
In the first part, boil the sugar, put the caramel, white sugar and honey into the pot and simmer until the foam is viscous, then pour into the dish and cool.
The second part, drawing, the cooled and solidified sugar into a circle, from a circle to many circles of the cycle of pulling the eight characters, until the sugar into more than 65,000 filaments, the process is particularly laborious, and it is not easy to do, it is said that the boss has been pulling for 3 hours.
In the third step, the pulled sugar shreds are made into small balls and packed into boxes, a box of 12, sprinkled with soybean noodles and sold.
Strict selection of ingredients
To make this dragon whisker candy requires a lot of soybean powder, you must wrap the powder while pulling, otherwise it will be connected to a pile and will not achieve the effect. The boss said that although there are many ready-made soybean flour in the world, he still insists on making it himself, frying soybeans himself and grinding his own flour, because it is healthier and tastier.
Now there are not many such traditional snacks, and we young people must pass it on, just like the boss, so that traditional snacks will not become extinct.