There is a thousand-year-old county on the banks of the Yishui River in the land of Yanzhao - Yi County. Within the county boundary, there are not only the golden platform where the Yan King recruits talents, the Jingke Pagoda where the wind is xiaoxiao and the water is cold, and the Qingxi Mausoleum, the mausoleum of the Qing royal family. In particular, there is a phoenix terrace, which is famous for its Manchu specialties.
Fenghuangtai Village is located about one mile east of the Qingxi Ling TaiLing, because there is an east-west Phoenix Ridge in the south of the village, and there is a large tomb between the ridge and the village. It is said that the residents of the village are all Manchus, descendants of the Tailing tomb keepers. Every tourist season, the business of the Manchu (farmer) family courtyard in Fenghuangtai Village is extremely hot, and various Manchu specialties have become the main brand to attract customers and are widely popular.
This time in Fenghuangtai Village, not only did I get the luck to get one of the eight treasures of "steamed deer tail", but also learned a lot of Manchu food culture.
We ate this full house music, the treasurer's surname is Sue. Originally, it was run by Lao Su, and when the old man was older, he handed it over to his son Xiao Su. This time, my friend specially called Xiao Su, who specially picked up his old father from the city to make us authentic Manchu specialties, and when we arrived, the dishes were basically ready. The old man is seventy years old, the spirit is strong, in the city to raise the day, several times a year to personally take charge of the spoon, one is a long time itch, the second is to teach the craft. According to him, the ancestors of the Su family were all imperial cooks in the Forbidden City, and he began to follow his uncle as a cook at the age of 16, and he did not have all kinds of Manchu specialties.
In the middle of the chat, the dishes are already on the table. But friends and treasurers are selling Guanzi, did not introduce what dishes are, let us guess for ourselves, just remind that a plate of dishes in the middle of the table can not be chewed, you have to use chopsticks to dip to eat. I took a special look at it, and it was a plate of sliced sausages, brown in color, similar to the meat sausages I usually eat, but not as red and white as the meat sausages. Looking at a good table, we hold the chopsticks and look at this, look at that, but we are reluctant to get off the chopsticks.
Uncle Su said, eat it quickly, the dish is eaten, not seen, can you taste the taste without chopsticks? Because of the reminder just now, we were all interested in the dish in the middle of the table, one person clipped a piece from the plate, put it in the dish, clipped a little with the head of the chopsticks, sent it to the mouth, and took a sip with the tip of the tongue, smooth, slippery, fine, melting in the mouth, full of fragrance. Tasting the food, looking at Uncle Su, everyone wants to know what this dish is called and what ingredients are used, but they are afraid of timidity and are embarrassed to ask. This is said to be quite like a sausage, but it is not a sausage. That says there is no meat, what intestine? Some people say that it seems to have the taste of Chinese medicine, but it is not a medicine. I felt cool and slippery, a little like water tofu, but without water tofu strength, and there was an indescribable taste. Uncle Su looked at us as he listened, smiled and told us that this was the steamed deer tail.
Steamed deer tail? Is it the steamed deer tail mentioned in crosstalk?
There is a famous tongue twister in the traditional cross-talk "Newspaper Name": "Steamed lamb, steamed bear paw, steamed deer tail, roasted duck, roasted chicks, roasted goose, boiled salted duck, sauce chicken, bacon, pine blossom belly, sauce meat, sausage...", although it is said to be the "through the mouth" of practicing the skin in the line, it is indeed a delicious dish, and it can't help but be mouth-watering. In particular, the steamed deer tail, the tail does not make a tail (wei) sound, the hair tail (yi) sound, the deer tail (yi), but also "child" is unique in the hundred and ten dishes.
Uncle Su told us that the real deer tail belonged to one of the eight treasures in the Qing Dynasty, and only people in the royal and official circles could eat it, which was rare for the people. The folk saying that the steamed deer tail is mainly based on pork liver, with more than 20 kinds of accessories made of enemas, because the shape resembles the tail of a deer, named steamed deer tail.
The theory of the Eight Treasures first came from the Han Dynasty, and Liu Xiang's "Biography of the Immortals" began to have the saying "Eight Treasures to Promote Life". However, the specific eight treasures are not determined by the dynasties and dynasties. In the Song Dynasty Lü Xizhe's "Miscellaneous Records", it is believed that the eight treasures are dragon liver, phoenix marrow, leopard fetus, carp tail, bear paw, orangutan lip, puff pastry, crisp cheese cicada, and it is not an ordinary thing to hear the name. In the Qing Dynasty, deer tails, bear paws, humps, etc. were regarded as eight treasures. Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" said: "Eight treasures are common in bear paws and deer tails, and humps are rare outside the plug." The orangutan lip is only heard by name. "The deer tail into the eight treasures, probably related to the Manchu ancestors eating deer outside the Guan.
In the Qing Dynasty, the sika deer tail was not only a delicacy, but also a gift for the royal family to show off martial arts and reward the heavy subjects, and it was also a symbol of the status and glory of the courtiers. For example, Gao Shiqi, a favorite of the Kangxi Emperor, once recorded: "In the past, I saw the heavenly yanxi, and the deer tail and the bear were given a lot." Deer tail, bear's tail, oriental taste, the official kitchen is precious. The annals of ortai, a major minister of the Yongzheng Dynasty, also record that they were rewarded with deer tails seven times, and were rewarded with ten sticks many times; during the Qianlong period, Fu Kang'an and Helin led their troops to fight in the front and won great victories, "rewarding Fu Kang'an and Helin, dried fruit two boxes, and deer tails ten." So that the greeting and sending of the courtiers in the DPRK and China, in addition to the letters and paintings, also exchanged deer tails, highlighting the nobility of the temple. It is precisely because of the pursuit of deer tail by the royal family and the officialdom that the price of deer tail is high. Wang Qishu's "Records of Water Cao Qinghui" records: "In recent times, the banquet has not been very heavy with bear paws and scarlet lips, but only with a deer's tail. "The deer tail Kyoshi is extremely expensive, the value of platinum varies from five or six to two, and he is in a whole deer, and he cannot rival the Kyoshi one deer tail." The price of a deer tail even exceeds the price of a whole deer. Gu Chun (Gu Taiqing), the great-granddaughter of Ortai and the first female lyricist of the Manchu people, said in the "Deer-Eating Tail Poem": "The deer eating apples in the sea immortal mountains also entered the shenjing with Fang Gong. Dinner is full of one tail, that is, there is a nostalgic heart to live one thing. "From a deer's tail, I miss my hometown outside of Saiwai. After the abdication of the Qing Dynasty, although Luwei lost its political meaning, its price was still high, and non-upper-class people were not allowed to taste it.
Deer in ancient China is regarded as a beast, deer, "Lu" also, meaning auspicious; deer tail is regarded as a medicinal tonic function, "sperm to replenish the marrow, nourish the yin, strengthen the bones, cure all paralysis", and sea dog whip, bear bile, tiger bone and other things juxtaposed; deer tail is fresh and tender as liver, chopped and boiled porridge, clear but not greasy, delicious taste. Qianjiashi poet, essayist, literary critic and gourmet Yuan Ming recorded his feelings about eating deer tail in the "Suiyuan Food List", "Steamed with vegetable leaves, the flavor fruit is different." At its best, there is a pulp ear on the tail. ”
Deer tail is so sought after, it is difficult for folk to have the opportunity to eat. But the fame of steamed deer tails is widely spread, and people naturally come up with a magic way to replace the real deer tail with common ingredients.
The ancestors of the Manchus originally lived in the northeast region and lived on hunting all year round, mainly meat. Due to the frequent hunting of wild boars, we have explored the folk "steamed deer tail" with pig liver and pig intestine as the main raw materials. When cooking, first chop a pig liver with a kitchen knife, over the basket, accompanied by eggs, sesame oil, sesame paste, pine nuts, peanut kernels, walnut kernels and peppercorns, white root, cinnamon and other more than 20 kinds of condiments mashed, poured into the pork intestine, placed in the pot steamed, that is, become a deer tail like a delicacy. And pig liver can supplement the liver, nourish the blood and eyes, pine nuts soften the blood vessels, nourish the yin and nourish the face, reduce blood lipids, sesame paste calcium supplementation to reduce blood pressure, delay aging, Bai Zhi active blood anti-inflammatory, antipyretic analgesia, cinnamon cold relief, antipyretic and blood, appropriate to eat a little steamed deer tail not only will not bring "three highs", but also has a good nutritional health care effect, to prevent Alzheimer's disease. Uncle Su's words made us laugh, and it also relieved our concerns about the "three highs".
Uncle Su also told us that eating deer tails is also exquisite, one is that when cutting, the knife edge must be upwards, so as not to squeeze out the urns; and the other is to press the pieces according to the number of visitors, such as a table of 10 guests, on 11 pieces, one per capita, and the remaining one as a press plate. And it is very labor-intensive, often taking several hours to chop a pig liver with a kitchen knife.
Listening to Uncle Su's introduction, we felt more curious. The steamed deer tail is not a real deer tail, so is the steamed lamb steamed with real lamb? Uncle Su pointed to a plate of dishes on the table and said, You have already eaten. We quickly used chopsticks to clip a little, and when we ate it, it was really lamb flavored, but with tofu added. Uncle Su said that the ingredient for steaming lamb is real lamb, chopped into filling, mixed with spices and put to the bottom of the bowl to compact, the tofu is mixed with bone broth, placed on top of the lamb filling, and steamed for 20 minutes. Once out of the pan, flip into another bowl and serve. The lamb stuffing is on the top, and the tofu is on the bottom, which is what the folk call steamed lamb.
After listening to Uncle Su's introduction, and then tasting the steamed deer tail, there is really a little bit of pine nuts, walnut aroma in it, fresh, refreshing, fragrant but not greasy, the more tasteful, indeed as the ancients said "a pulp", worthy of the Manchu first specialty dish. The cultural content contained in it, such as political meaning, food evolution, nutritional compatibility, health care effect, and historical applause, has brought us a long-lasting aftertaste