Yangtze River shipping
Source: Eclipse
When you hear "cold shrimp", friends who do not understand it will definitely think that it is some kind of seafood, in fact, it is a dessert made of rice milk from Yichang, Hubei Province. The rice milk leaks out of the colander, falls into the pot, and becomes the shape of a head and tail, shaped like a small fish and shrimp churning in the water, so it is called cold shrimp.
Yichang river is numerous, has natural shipping conditions, since the ancient water operation industry developed, but also located in the transition zone between the central subtropical and the northern subtropics, belongs to the subtropical monsoon humid climate, the summer is wet and dry and hot, so many boatmen will bring their wives boiled cold shrimp as food to supplement energy and water.
On the river like a furnace, there is no place to shade, and their moisture and energy are lost very quickly, so they will take a sip when they dock. A cup of cold shrimp at home, to save the tiredness of the whole day, they paddle hard with their hands, carrying the wish to go home, they drank the cold shrimp, drinking the sweet heart of their wives.
Source: Gourmet Workshop
Regarding the origin of cold shrimp, the most widely spread is that there is a Peng family of mother and son living on the Yangtze River in Nanjinguan, Yichang. One year in the cold winter, the elderly mother fell ill, and the old man wanted to eat the shrimp by the river. The filial son braved the cold to go to the river to catch shrimp for his mother, but found that the river had long been frozen. In a hurry, he undressed and melted the ice with his body temperature, but it didn't take long for him to faint. In the dream, an old man with a white beard said to him, Don't you want shrimp? I teach you... After waking up, he made shrimp and fed them to his mother according to the old man's method. Later, the production method of small shrimp spread in the folk, and people called it "Peng Guihua Cold Shrimp" or "Xiaozi Cold Shrimp".
The chilled rice milk is soft and chewy, and it seems to be dancing in the mouth. The whole bowl is sweet and soft, brown sugar is deep in the cracks, the aroma of osmanthus is pleasant, the fruit block is added to color, scoop up a spoonful, as if there is a refreshing wind blowing in the face. Although summer has passed, it is also refreshing to have a cup in the autumn.
Source: Food Taste Art Literature
Cold shrimp have other "siblings". Yichang people drink cold shrimp is most commonly added brown sugar water, in Sichuan, Chongqing people drink cold shrimp in addition to the standard brown sugar water also like to add goji berries, raisins, white sesame seeds to increase sweetness. In Yunnan, people like to use rose sugar water as a match, and in Guizhou, cold shrimp is also known as rice shrimp and rice tofu.
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Guangxi's special snack - locust pollen, which can be said to be a close relative of the cold shrimp, looks yellow, but smells with a refreshing fragrance, it is the work of taking locust flowers and rice. Rice milk is mixed with locust flowers, then cooked with a colander drip, and eaten like cold shrimp with brown sugar water, it is sweet and smooth.
In the Huaibei region, especially in Xuzhou, Jining with a salty cold shrimp-like food, the practice is still similar to the cold shrimp, because the drip has a long "tail", shaped like tadpoles, small fish, so named "frog fish", or called "baby fish", but the production materials of frog fish and cold shrimp are different, frogfish use sweet potato starch, so the production is translucent, with peppers, dried radish, squeezed vegetables, sesame oil, peanuts, with a very key sweet vinegar, a salty spicy and sweet frog fish is ready.
Source: Yicheng Film Entertainment, Yichang Foodie King,