Located at the junction of Eyu and Yu and in the upper reaches of the Han River, Xiangyang has been a place of contention for soldiers since ancient times. Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army here, and the Battle of Xiangfan in the Song Dynasty was the longest-consuming battle in the world's military history, and the result was to determine the change of dynasties. Under Jin Yong's pen, Guo Jing and Huang Rong were killed in this battle. No matter how high the martial arts, they could not stop the bow and crossbow sword.
Left to right, Fancheng, Hanjiang, Xiangyang
I always want to see what Xiangyang looks like. When I returned from the qingqing tour that year, I took a detour to Xiangyang. When I drove through the mountains, stood on the shore of the Han River, looked at Fancheng on the other side, and then looked back at the reconstructed ancient city of Xiangyang and the unusually large first moat in China, I understood why it was called "the first city in China". Is the bridge that now crosses the Han River connecting the two cities exactly where the Southern Song Dynasty resisted the Yuan army to build an iron cable pontoon bridge?
Ancient city with moat
The ancient city itself made me feel a little disappointed, the traces of the new repair were too heavy, worse than the ancient city of Jingzhou. The so-called old streets are also antique buildings, and the museum is closed to customers for no reason. Maybe I didn't stay in Xiangyang long enough and didn't feel enough.
Now that you're here, try the local specialties. The number one in Xiangyang is beef noodles, which are all over the street. Although it is now called beef noodles, it is more accurately called butter noodles. This is due to the fact that butter noodles are divided into two types of meat and vegetable toppings, including beef offal noodles and beef noodles, and vegetarian tofu noodles and kelp noodles. Except for the difference in toppings, noodles and soups are the same. Therefore, it is more accurate to call this noodle in the name of soup.
I ordered a standard beef noodle, which is representative of the meat system (the vegetarian system is tofu noodles). The owner of the noodles is very ma li, long-handled bamboo fence, a ball of noodles, a handful of mung bean sprouts, boiling water, shaking water, poured into the bowl, a large spoonful of hot butter red soup and marinated beef offal, sprinkled with garlic, oil and spicy seeds poured, live together.
Looking at the combination of this side, it feels strange, and it is even more interesting to taste it.
The color of the noodles is very yellow, the alkali taste is very heavy, and the typical Wuhan hot dry noodle style (see "Taste China 61 Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles"). The alkali added to the noodles is everywhere, but only Hubei Province is added so much. Out of Hubei, except for a few areas in southern Henan, hot dry noodles are not popular, that is, due to the heavy alkali taste.
However, the beef and mutton are not in the southern style, more like the Practice of the Muslims. Traditionally, han Chinese, especially southern Han Chinese, have the skills to process beef and mutton in general, such as Hubei, there is no such thing as beef and mutton dishes that can be handy. If you look for the foundation of the special diet of beef and mutton in the Central Plains, almost all of them have the figure of Huimin. This is a natural skill of the people, and the Muslims make a living in the Hanmin area, mostly engaged in the catering industry. Therefore, the soup of this butter noodle is obviously not the style of Hubei.
Henan's? Nor does it. Butter is not beef, and the cheapest butter is made with spices such as butter and beef bones, which is not a grade at all compared to beef soup stewed with beef tendon meat. If you say that the dietary characteristics of the big cattle province are the cheapest butter and beef offal, Henan people will be anxious with you. This spicy bun, which adds a lot of spices to suppress the smell of organs, is more like the Sichuan-Yu style, such as hot pot base.
This is strange, how can the ancient city of Xiangyang have such a heavy spicy, heavy hemp, heavy alkali, heavy oil food? This is not Chongqing Chaotianmen Wharf.
Ask the locals to know that the most authentic butter noodles are across the river from Fancheng, where Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army. Fancheng, which is closer to Nanyang, Henan and is located in the plain, is the economic and commercial center of Xiangfan, known as "South Ship North Horse, Seven Provinces Thoroughfare".
That's understandable. The combination of The Alkali Noodles of the Hubei People, the Craftsmanship of the Shaanxi-Yu Hui, and the Spicy Taste of Sichuan and Shaanxi – the Han River originates in the Qinling Mountains and flows through Hanzhong, Shaanxi – and the high-calorie and inexpensive demand of commercial dock workers (there was no beef in the early butter noodles) created this style of mixed but paradoxical butter noodles. To say that it is paradoxical is that noodles, soups, and toppings can all find the source, but there are still changes. For example, alkali noodles, its taste is hot dry noodle style, but the noodles are harder, biased to the north, not like the loose taste of Wuhan.
It is conceivable that this butter noodles can only be born in modern times, and it is precisely because of the needs of commerce and logistics, and the influence of the north and south diets, that this kind of cheap and easy to sell quickly has produced breakfast foods that reconcile the tastes of merchants and workers in the north and south
In the morning, such a bowl of heavy butter noodles should be accompanied by some other clear mouths, and the mung bean sprouts added to the noodles are for this purpose. You can also choose Wuhan's traditional rice wine to make eggs, and more appropriate is the local Xiangyang rice wine. Saying that it is rice wine is actually ordinary glutinous rice wine, of course, glutinous rice wine is also a kind of rice wine. Xiangyang yellow wine is white and turbid, and the style is closer to Shaanxi thick wine, but it is far from the clear Xiaogan rice wine represented by Hubei. This rice wine is also mixed with water, the alcohol content is very low, and it is sweet with a slight acidity, fresh and refreshing.
Xiangyang butter noodles, Xiangyang yellow wine, two bowls together, red, yellow, white and green, the style taste is strange and mixed, perhaps, it represents the geographical and cultural characteristics of Xiangyang and Fancheng, right?
postscript:
Xiangyang, Xiangfan, Jingzhou, Jingsha, the two cities are quite similar, Jingzhou Dalian noodles are also born in the more commercially developed Shashi, rather than the ancient city of Jingzhou (see "Taste of China 8 Jingzhou Dalian Noodles"). Dietary changes are based on economic development.
When I made the first search map, I thought, why is Hubei so fond of changing the name of the city? Ten years ago, Xiangyang was still called Xiangfan. Other places changed their names, mostly small cities, for the tourism economy, but also a loud name, Hubei but all pick a big one, Xiangyang, Jingzhou GDP, but the province's second, fourth.