When it comes to Hubei cuisine, Wuhan is the most mentioned city. But drive to Jingzhou, more than 200 kilometers away, where there is another "food" paradise.
When you talk to a Jingzhou person about food, they can always open the conversation box immediately, casually report the noodle restaurants and restaurants near their homes, and often sigh at the end, if "China on the Tip of the Tongue" shoots our delicious things, they will not lose to anywhere.
"Then why aren't you on fire?"
"Because, because... Everyone has the heart to eat and do not have the heart to do! ”
Since the locals are disdainful of promoting themselves, let's not talk much, just order food, and let the taste speak!
Jingzhou Ancient City
Speaking of Jingzhou, the most familiar to outsiders should still be the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou - whether it was borrowed or not. But in fact, as early as the Chu state period more than 2,000 years ago, it had already laid the gastronomic foundation for this ancient city located on the plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
The Huainanzi Qi Folk Training records that "Jingwu Fenxin", the food dishes made by the Chu people are listed as the "precious tastes" of the current world. The Chronicle of the Chronicle of Cargo Breeding refers to the chuyue land as "rice rice soup fish", and rice and fish are the main food of the Chu people.
01 | Fish cake
When it comes to fish, fish cake must be the first bite of every Jingzhou person when they miss their hometown. Legend has it that When Emperor Shun took His daughter Ying and Emperor E's second concubine on a tour of the south, when he crossed the Area of Jiangling (Jingzhou), Emperor E became ill, his throat was swollen and sore, and he wanted to eat fish but hated fish bones, so Under the guidance of a local fisherman, Nüying integrated her cooking skills and made fish cakes for Emperor E.
Eating fish does not see fish, there is no need to pick and spit out thorns, and the delicate taste is unmatched by other fish feasts.
In Jingzhou, it is the only dish that invites guests to set up a table, so fish cake is also called head dish, three fresh head dish, and family fun. Fish cake-based, plus pork liver, waist flower, belly and other three fresh, supplemented by yellow cauliflower, black fungus, magnolia slices and other ingredients, thick juice hook, attractive color, soft taste layer by layer, tender!
(Regarding the detailed production process, this article has a detailed explanation ➡️ of eating fish and not seeing fish, and the unique flavor of the Yangtze River Basin that has lasted for thousands of years!) ）
02 | Fin fish chunks
Fin rice dumplings are another traditional dish with a strong Hubei local flavor, which is made by marinating, drying and frying grass carp as the main ingredient.
The taste of rice dumplings is salty and spicy, and the aroma is fragrant, and there is a saying that "smell is smelly, and eat is fragrant". Rice can be increased, and sake can be converted into flavors. The surface of the fish is golden, take a bite, and the fish meat hidden in the crispy starch is tender and juicy, with fewer spines and good taste!
03 | Fish jelly
In addition to hot eating, fish with soup will form a crystal in a low temperature environment, and when it is hot, Jingzhou people will directly use fish to freeze rice. The fish is frozen and cold, put into the mouth, immediately melted by the body temperature, the taste of the ice and fire double day quickly struck, continue to bite, slowly touch the thickness of the fish meat, the taste buds fell!
04 | Fish hot pot
In the winter, the hot fish hot pot makes people think about it, and for the children who grew up in Jingzhou, the fish they ate in childhood was always full of fish roe and fish bubbles.
Don't like to pick thorns, don't like to find meat, fish offal is just right. The fish bubble is soft and soft, the more it is cooked in the hot pot, the more it is drummed, the fish roe is scooped up and a mouthful of incense, accompanied by some tender tofu that can best set off the deliciousness of the hot pot, and what is casually clipped into the mouth is full of protein dancing on the tip of the tongue.
05 | Grilled eel with cucumber
Eel, in the jingzhou people's recipes, always have a different taste. In addition to the common dried stir-fried shredded eel, cucumbers have become the most delicious accompaniment to eels.
Boiled cucumber and roasted fish, the first bite is hot, the eel meat is thick, into the taste, there is only one main bone in the body, soft, easy to remove, cucumber is more soft lying down, is completely the representative of the entrance.
06 | Pimp eel
The other is to extract the bones of the eel, cut into long strips, and then wrapped in sugar sauce, and the fried, crispy skinned eel becomes the first brand of Jingchu cuisine. It tastes like ten times crisper pot-wrapped meat, the fish is crispy to the point of slag when chewed, mixed with the outermost syrup, sweet but not greasy, just right.
Although many locals have not yet realized that this dish that has lasted for a hundred years is their specialty, they always feel that eels can be seen everywhere, and it is delicious to stew and fry, but they do not know that the evolution of eel dishes is the continuous exploration and improvement of Jingzhou people for more than two hundred years.
07 | Braised turtle
Jingzhou people need to experience a psychological struggle when they are very young, turtles are cute and can't be eaten, turtles are prolific and ugly, and they can be eaten! When you go to the market, the turtle is always ugly and scary, but when you eat it, no one cares about its ugliness.
Braised turtle as the finale dish in the banquet, the appearance of people can not help but sigh, this jio is a little scary, but the transfer of hands to clip the shell of the turtle to bite, the skirt is sticky and sticky, although the amount is small, but the aftertaste is endless. Then close your eyes and take a bite of the turtle jio, from the cotton to the middle collagen-like fleshy feeling, it is really indescribable.
08 | Pearl balls
The "rice" of the land of fish and rice is also in many forms. Here the pearl balls are picked up, the pork is three fat and seven lean and crushed into meatballs, and the combination of glutinous rice wrapped on the outside is really talented.
Eat meatballs alone, greasy; eat glutinous rice directly, choke. Pearl balls, fragrant and appetizing, staple food and protein are presented in the tiniest way, creating the greatest satisfaction in the mouth and abdomen.
09 | gruel
If rice is to be presented as a staple food, porridge should be the insistence of the people of Jingzhou. In addition to a bowl of porridge for breakfast, you can spend the morning comfortably with capers, kelp shreds, and spicy radish.
The main meal and supper can also be ordered with richer materials of green vegetable porridge, duck porridge, pumpkin lily porridge with pot stickers, the universe is invincible. Liang Ji porridge shop does not know from which year began to bloom everywhere in Jingzhou, salty porridge soft rotten appetizer, sweet porridge is just suitable for a meal of meat after the clear dessert, carb plus carb stack impact, and finally can find a gap in this full stomach to slip in.
"The Chu people's side food is mainly fish, supplemented by various animals and domestic animal meat"
When it comes to poultry, chickens and ducks are common, and when they enter the local table, they have more forms of transformation.
10 | Du family chicken
If you talk about chickens, nine of the ten Shashi people mention the Dujia chicken on Daqing Road. Among those who have elders eating out, Dujia chicken is a local taste recognized by parents. The full-bodied three-yellow chicken has become the first choice of Dujia chicken, and if you want to delve deeper, the rooster tastes even better.
A full pot is served on the table, set on the alcohol stove to continue heating, the chicken is already cooked, and the chicken offal is still raw and freshly stewed on the table. Dried mushrooms and dried peppers to make this pot of stewed chicken into magic, dry oil taste heavy, eat anxious easy to choke, eat slowly, spicy will immediately head, hurry up to make up some chewy dried mushrooms to solve the spicy!
11 | Wax duck
Compared with chicken, Jingzhou people are much less enthusiastic about fresh duck, and they prefer roasted duck when they have to eat duck.
Every Wax Month, the abandoned wires outside the residential buildings, or their own anti-theft nets are hung with bacon, bacon chicken, wax duck, wax fish, sausages, and the window full of competition is every family's full pouring on the New Year, waiting for the Chinese New Year's Eve that meal, cutting a dried wax flavor to welcome the New Year.
Roasted lettuce is definitely a warm role in the Chinese New Year's Eve rice, sweet lettuce is like the cucumber in the eel cucumber, it is delicious to melt when it meets high temperatures, the salty oil of the duck is put into the pot, a bite of duck is salty and delicious, a bite of lettuce is so fresh that the eyebrows are dropped, and then drink a mouthful of soup, in place!
12 | Marinated
Another way to eat duck is to marinate, such duck heads, duck necks, duck palms in the food stalls are often flopped at night, in the old night market 99 food stalls when the old site is still on the side of The Red Star Road. In addition to good pickling, Hubei people also love to change the flavor of the marinade, which is a little spicy with a little bit of sweetness.
The duck head is really on the head when it goes down, and when you open the duck's mouth, you can only get a small amount of meat, but sucking the tendons and chewing on the duck skull, the more spicy you eat, the more vigorous it is.
Often after the heavy taste goes down, jingzhou people will come to a spicy and refreshing cold dish. Cold mix lotus chapter must not be wrong, this kind of small lotus knots that are about 5 times smaller than ordinary lotus are actually their tender bud parts, Hubei people found its beauty, so they picked them, washed and pickled into sweet and sour taste often accompanied by heavy dishes. When you pick up a bite and put it in your mouth, you will be wrapped in the sweetness of the soup, and bite off its "small wild waist", tender enough to come straight out of the water!
Hubei people are famous for loving too early, but Jingzhou people can even get up early every day in order to be too early. sleep in? Not required.
The children of Jingzhou found it interesting that the appointment was not too early.
"Tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., we'll see you at the entrance of xx noodle shop, and when you arrive, you'll line up first, so as not to have to wait for half a day." This kind of street style similar to the code in Hong Kong films is a scene that every local person plays out every day when he is a student.
Regarding rice noodles and noodles, each of them has several breakfast places in mind.
01 | Morning noodles
Morning noodles, properly take the "king of cost performance" laurel, about 3-6 yuan price range, eat a drop left. As the shoulder handle of Jingzhou noodles, it has always won the favor of the people for its cheap, meaty, good taste and full eating.
The clear soup and water seem to be tasteless, and the dried pork slices of the white flowers are sprinkled with a few slices at random when it is meat, with alkaline water coarse noodles, really, it is enough. The entrance is extremely fresh, drink soup, a slice of pork jerky, perfect is so.
02 | Dalian noodles
Dalian noodles followed, locals who like to pursue a variety of flavors using the most familiar ingredients eel, cut into small strips, the fish meat and fish bones together fried until crispy, and then accompanied by chicken shreds, pork slices, the three meat flavors echo each other, crisp, tender, sweet, even if the wood has some magic. For the first time, foreigners heard that they were always curious about what Dalian noodles had to do with Dalian, but casually asked a local person the reason for the name, they were all speechless, paused, and continued to eat, no matter why he did it, it was delicious or not.
03 | Beef noodles with pickled peppers
Pickled pepper beef noodles are actually a new flavor developed in the past ten years, opened in the alley in front of the three middle schools, Longxing Piaoxiang Beef Noodle Restaurant created a tender beef wrapped in flour seasoning, and then with the bubble pepper, shiitake mushroom balls soaked in the wonderful taste, beef sticky straight into your throat, bubble pepper flavor in the noodle soup spread, some sour and spicy, but if there is nothing.
04 | Noodles with pickled pepper duck soup
Another dazzling pickled pepper duck soup noodle soup across a large road is also made of pickled pepper, and the duck has become the protagonist this time.
Compared with the fragrant smell of beef, the smell of duck meat is not so easy to remove, but the duck skin sticks to the tendon meat, not chai, not hard, is the two streets of the third middle school and the first middle school students back and forth to compare the premature taste.
05 | Beef rice noodles
Jingzhou's breakfast is very clear, unlike the round flat vermicelli or rice noodles of foreigners, their noodle restaurants only sell noodles and rice noodles, which are divided into one or two, two two, three two by portion, adults default to two two one bowl, and children eat one or two just right. Therefore, flat rice noodles have become a real hometown flavor that is difficult to find for Jingzhou people who are working outside.
Jingzhou people call the toppings "yards", beef, beef offal, pork, three fresh, haggis are generally different flavors, they are particularly fond of beef rice noodles, beef cut into small dice size, the selected brisket part is chewy and solid.
Speaking of this, Huangjiatang's rice noodles have gradually become a feature of external publicity, "Huangjiatang" was originally an unknown alley, because of this bowl of rice noodles, it has become a "delicious street". There are different rice noodle shops all written on the street that are authentic, but we all agree that the second shop with a long queue and now making beef yards is authentic.
This rice noodle feels like some Chinese medicine secret ingredients, pepper and pepper powder is washed to the eaves of the bowl by red soup, butter taste is very heavy, chopsticks gently sandwich rice noodles, constantly but extremely soft, no noodle strength, but more delicate slippery mouth of rice products.
There is also an alley called "Meitai Lane" across the beijing road, and the handmade rice noodles here are another scenery.
It is five times thicker than ordinary rice noodles, doubles in length, and is very solid to chew, with stir-fried minced pork, add a little vinegar, and taste.
06 | Rice wine dumplings
Jingzhou people really love Yujia for the breakfast of soup and water, the rice wine tangyuan here is not perfunctory at all, now boiling a lot of mash and eggs boiling, hand pinching small tangyuan one by one under the pot, filled with a full bowl, the entrance, wine and eggs as smooth, sweet, warm stomach in winter is satisfied!
07 | Rice yuanzi, yuan bean soaked glutinous rice
Walking into the big race alley, the stomach that was already stuffed seemed to be empty again.
Mi Yuanzi is also a special existence in the hearts of Jingzhou people, it is small and crystal clear, I did not expect that rice can also evolve into such a delicacy. Rice dumplings are often drizzled with salty sauce, minced pork floats in a bowl, and a spoonful is filled with a lot of small rounds, a mouthful, smooth and tender, wonderful.
Opposite the round bean soaked glutinous rice also tastes wonderful, white glutinous rice in the soup soaked, round beans have long been cooked, although the yard still has a few choices, but, the locals know, the most authentic is what meat is not added, pure glutinous rice and round beans, is already excellent.
When it comes to Jingzhou specialties, the little bearded duck dominates. Its main sweetness opens up another world for the taste buds of Hubei people, the first bite is sweet, followed by the crispy duck skin.
The sweetness of the little mustard duck is very direct, very thorough, and does not mix with any other taste, but this sweetness is combined with the roasted crispy duck, even the Jingzhou people who are more heavy in nature are amazed. Therefore, at the major stations, airports and transportation hubs in Hubei, the little bearded duck is always equal to the neck of the Zhou black duck and the tasteless duck, which can also be regarded as a fierce battle for the people of Jingzhou.
But the other chicken, but low-key people regret, only the locals can taste the delicious alone, this is Yanqingguan fried chicken. It is fried chicken, but the taste is not similar to any shop that sells fried food, they dismantle the chicken very easily, only sell chicken wings, chicken legs and chicken strips, and there is no whole big chicken town countertop, which is completely enough.
Yanqingguan fried complex, sweet with salty, the aroma of chicken is constantly smelling, the outer wrapped powder is very delicate, need to be chewed slowly, full of crisp in the chicken to tear, not spicy, not light, not chai, too wonderful. But I don't know if it is too lazy to be big or other reasons, Yanqingguan opened the store for a long time than the small hu duck, but after so many years, the small hu duck has become a well-known local trademark, Yanqingguan fried chicken is still guarding the small shop opposite the sixth middle school, and the decoration every few years is the greatest respect for this chicken.
Along the road, there are grandfathers who teach others to dance lions over and over again, and retired grandmothers who carefully blow gourd silk according to the music score on the embankment.
The steam whistle of the steamship by the river has long not sounded as long as it did many years ago, and the Jingzhou, which was originally a restaurant, has also closed its doors due to the epidemic last year.
Today's young people with their dogs are training them to swim by the river, the uncles on the side are still fishing, and the sun is hitting the faces of every city person impartially, they look so simple but so love life. Although the city is small, a few steps of a delicious restaurant, breakfast stall, and mobile stall are enough to support the city's calm and leisurely every day.
Text | Zoo brother
Figure | Si Yu