Continue your self-driving tour of Zhejiang.
The delicacy I want to talk about today can only be eaten in one place: the ancient town of Xinshi in Deqing, Huzhou.
Speaking of which, this dish is actually a regret that I stayed in Deqing: here, I made a serious "mistake". [Tears]
At noon on this day, I was hungry in the ancient town of Xinshi, so I went into a small restaurant and ate a bowl of noodles. The noodles themselves are nothing special, just plain noodles (or hand-rolled noodles), but I was impressed by the lamb in the ingredients. [Surprise]
This lamb is a big chunk with a thick skin —
Pictured: Lamb in the New City Hotel
The so-called "pigs do not put peppercorns, sheep do not have large materials", the most taboo of mutton is a "fat" word.
The mutton soup is white to supplement the temperature and blood, this is a stew pot; cumin, green onion burst the gas appetizer, this is the next meal; cut small pieces of skewers, sprinkled with pepper noodles, and then two large bottles of "Wusu", this is Xinjiang lamb skewers... The first process of their practice is very uniform: "skin the lamb". I don't know if you have found that the operation of lamb with skin cooking, it is not common.
On the one hand, the fat content of sheepskin is high, and the "taste" is too large. On the other hand, sheepskin is light, soft, warm and elastic, and is an excellent clothing material, especially for northerners.
According to historical records, cotton was only introduced to China during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (a song dynasty), and before that, the ancients had to spend a long winter, they could only take animal furs to keep warm. Sheepskin is such a practical "cover", which is willing to eat it? [Frown] Right. So to this day, it is rare to see a restaurant that cooks lamb with a large thick skin as "extravagantly" as making sauce elbows and Dongpo meat.
However, this bowl of sauce lamb from the new city ancient town has done it.
As for the origin of the "extravagant" life and "style" of the people in The New City, I will share it in the second half of this article. Don't worry, let's talk about the taste of this lamb first, because it really is... Rarely delicious:
The sauce lamb in Xinshi Ancient Town is dark red and uniform in color, the soup is very thick, and the taste of chewing in the mouth is crisp and soft, there is no smell, and it is very delicious. Most importantly, its bones are loose, melt in the mouth, do not need to gnaw, just a few simple gentle chews, enough meat taste to slowly melt in the mouth. [Crying without sound] gives people the feeling of eating lamb, and the taste is different from most lamb dishes. So that's where my "regret" lies—
Before I could even eat it, this large piece of lamb was already in its entire belly. When I think of taking pictures, even the soup with water is gone. Until, the local friends told me: This is the famous "Xinshi sauce lamb", its method and taste are different from the surrounding Wuzhen, Tongli and other famous water towns in Jiangnan in the various meat flavors.
Ah - [vomiting blood] what to do, I haven't taken a picture yet! %&#@...... Thankfully, I still have time for a meal, change restaurants, and take pictures before I leave tomorrow.
I thought that the New City Sauce Lamb in The Whole Deqing Was the same, but later I found out that once I got out of the last bridge at the mouth of the New City Ancient Town, I never saw the "authentic" New City Lamb again. In fact, in Deqing, the restaurant outside the new town also has mutton, also called "new city lamb", but it is different, it is really different - no matter the appearance or taste.
Sloppy. Careless. Rushed. [Tear Run]
Pictured: New City braised pork, this is also very delicious
So, I ended up only photographing a "modified version" of the new city lamb made in the NewMarket Hotel. You said that you are not angry, I do not have authentic photos of new city lamb, crying to death... What does the lamb in Xinshi Sauce look like? Please refer to the appearance of button meat or Dongpo meat - directly cooked with thick skin, shiny oil, not fat or greasy, but the appearance is higher than the previous two.
Okay, wipe away the tears, let's get down to business.
Thanks to the geographical advantages of Jiangnan Water Town, Xinshi Ancient Town was an important pier along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal before the middle of the last century. Merchants from the south to the north, folk culture from all over the world, and eating habits from the south and the north of the sea have been mixed and blended here for nearly a thousand years. Although today", some of the ancient folk customs and eating habits of this new town have not disappeared due to the decline of the ancient canal, but have flowed with the growth of generations of people and have continued to this day.
Lamb with Xinshi sauce is one of the traditional dishes.
The first impression it gave me was: I had an appetite. Especially when everyone has been driving (sitting) for a long time and hungry, this soft and rich piece of meat is a delicious experience.
We ate 3 famous restaurants around the new city, and lamb is a must-have dish in every restaurant.
Pictured: Lamb in another large restaurant in Xinshi
Xinshi people say that the dish of Xinshi sauce lamb has a history of thousands of years and originated in the Song Dynasty. At that time, there was a typical representative of "one person getting the Tao" in the new town, and his name was Wu Qian.
In the feudal era, Keju and the first step was the first step for a person to take a step forward, and Wu Qian won this "step" in this life - he was admitted to the yuan in his early 20s, and since then he has become the pride of the whole family and even the whole town.
Wu Qian was a man of good charity, and attached great importance to talents, helped the imperial court to develop water conservancy, and also passed the strategy, or a famous lyricist of that dynasty, and he soared all the way up in the ups and downs of the official sea, and finally ranked high on the left and right. There is a "Zhuangyuan Bridge" in the ancient town of Xinshi that is named after his story, and it is also one of the best "auspicious bridges" in the "72 Bridges" of this town. So far, whoever has students in the new city who want to take the college entrance examination will walk on it from time to time and ask for a gold list title.
In general, throughout Wu Qian's life, he not only had good official fortunes, but also left an inexhaustible legend for his hometown New Town. Therefore, the people of Xinshi are more willing to believe that the origin of this sauce mutton must be related to Wu Qian.
In the folklore of Xinshi Ancient Town, Wu Qian brought back to his hometown the imperial banquet practice of braised pork and sauce that was prevalent in the imperial court at that time, and used the "routine" of Dongpo meat on mutton, and then improved it, and since then the lamb in Xinshi has had a different taste.
It is estimated that at that time, every household was also covered with a quilt, so: sheep, liberated.
Over time, the inheritance of lamb in Xinshi has a unique secret recipe, and every household will cook according to the "square", and the sword will not be able to go sideways, because the taste that is accidentally made is not "right".
Asking the locals about the preparation of this dish, I heard my brain hurt:
First, it is necessary to choose the freshest part of the sheep, which is most suitable for processing with sauce and roasting;
Second, in the process of firing, you cannot leave people, you cannot cover the lid and stuffy, you cannot turn it at will, and the heat is adjusted at any time with the degree of convergence of the soup;
Third, the pot can not add water twice, must be collected at one time, nor can you add more materials, each unit must be accurate to pinch ...
In short, it is a very "court" dish, you just cook for the emperor, just right.
But (probably) because it was so cumbersome that the lamb we ate in town tasted different from even in the big restaurant at the entrance of the ancient town a few steps away.
Authentic Xinshi Ancient Town Sauce Lamb is not connected to the bones, a touch will be "scattered", the color is more crystalline, and although the lamb outside the ancient town is also called "Xinshi Lamb", but most of them are densely packed, the taste is slightly different: the lamb in the ancient town is very "thick", and the lamb in the big restaurant is a little "impatient", not to be careful, nibbling hard.
Xinshi people also said: Xinshi lamb is most suitable for late autumn and winter seasons to eat, in addition to holidays is a must for every household's dinner table, it is also suitable for daily meals with noodles, more suitable for visiting relatives and friends, many people to eat.
In addition, the people of the town cherish and care for the sauced lamb in their hometown, although it is from snacks to big tastes, but they have never eaten tired. It is said that there is also a "mutton festival" in Xinshi Ancient Town, which is displayed on the spot, tasted on the spot, sold on the spot, and vows to pass on the ancient law to the end.
Illustration: Generally speaking, the lamb festival looks like this
Even the waiter at the restaurant said that lamb with sauce in Xinshi was "a must-eat dish to travel to the ancient town of Xinshi" because "there is nowhere else". Combined with our previous travelogue (Zhejiang Travelogue | A small piece of tea cake is a "water town evolution history" of Xinshi Ancient Town) can be summarized: Xinshi Ancient Town has two "dishes that can no longer be eaten out of this town": one is Xinshi tea cake, and the other is this Xinshi sauce lamb.
Sit under the eaves of this waterfront corridor, order a sauce lamb, and then a few pieces of Xinshi tea cake, while enjoying the scenery, while chatting about the past and the future. Focus on the mouth food, do not waste the road, this trip to Jiangnan, really neat.
The Zhejiang trip continues, we continue in the next article. Remember to pay attention, I remember to watch.
I am a big red sister, an anchor of the audio radio travel channel, a professional travel player, focusing on niche gameplay and sharing unpopular destinations. Travel is not an attitude, but life itself.
Pictured: The theme of the next issue of the article, guess what it is