Cover news reporter Li Yuxin photography Tian Lulu
In Chengdu in the 1950s and 1960s, when the rhythmic sound of wooden poles appeared at the end of the streets and alleys, the children in the courtyard dam would surely cheer. Ask your parents to take a few loose money, gather around the guy who is carrying the burden, and wait for the steaming steam to dissipate, but in a few minutes, you can harvest a sweet and soft sticky snack - steamed cake.
Steamed cakes on the streets of Chengdu
Steamed cake, the most common on the streets of old Chengdu, is also the most common snack. But now, under the neon sign, the milk tea shops and dessert shops on the Internet are endless, but it is difficult to find the fragrance of steamed cakes. "This is a famous snack in old Chengdu, originally for small dolls to eat, but adults also have to eat, because it is too delicious, and the price is good." Although at present, steamed cake has slowly faded out of the memory of Chengdu people, in the narration of folklore expert Shuai Peiye, you can still faintly see the sweetness and happiness that this delicacy brought to ordinary people in that era when the material was not developed.
Folklore expert Shuai Peiye
Pick a heavy burden, one burden is filled with stoves, pots and steamers, the other burden is placed on rice noodles, eating utensils, wooden boxes and other raw materials, holding a hammer that can knock out the sound, and the vendors selling steamed cakes are wandering in the ordinary alleys of Chengdu, waiting for people to come forward. Shuai Peiye said that in the old days, the vendors selling dan dan noodles and cold powder in Chengdu were all like this, but the sound knocked out of their hands, even if they did not come to the front, the residents in the streets and alleys could "listen to the sound and identify things" and know what they were selling. "For example, if you sell steamed cakes, the sound that comes out must be '梆-梆梆,'" which is unique."
The sticky aroma is sweet, soft and delicate, and a small steamed cake is actually very demanding for craftsmanship. "First of all, the rice and glutinous rice are mixed in a 9:1 ratio and fried in a pan." At this step of stir-frying, the heat is particularly important. If the heat is not enough, it will be born, and if the heat is too hot, it will be scorched. "The reason why steamed cakes are wonderful is because of the stir-frying technology, or it is not raw or scorched, just right." Stir-fried to the point of aroma, it is picked up and slowly scooped, scooped into a very fine powder, and then sifted with a sieve. Then the fine powder after the sieve is placed in a large tile jar, which becomes the raw material for steaming cakes. ”
In addition to stir-frying, "hair powder" is also an important part, which is to take out the powder in advance and use warm boiling water to make the rice flour fully fermented. "The second key is to get the powder, not to get the powder wet and go steaming." Instead, there is a natural fermentation process, and fermentation is a matter of craftsmanship. The weather is hot, and it is easy to eat; if the degree of fermentation is not enough, it is far from the taste of sticky soft fragrance. Only those who make steamed cakes have this skill. ”
The powder is ready, and the next link is steaming. And the step of "steaming" is by no means simple. In terms of utensils alone, the material of the steamer must be made of hemp willow wood, which is divided into two parts, with a hollowed-out hexagon in the middle as a place to place rice noodles. "It must be noted that the scooped rice flour cannot be scooped with ordinary spoons and bamboo spoons, but must be spooned with mussel shells and put into a steaming box made of willow trees."
A layer of rice flour as a base, a little red bean paste in the middle as a sandwich, and then a layer of rice noodles, you can start steaming. "There is also brown sugar powder in the middle, and the high-grade point is the white sugar powder." After steaming for two or three minutes, the vendor leaned the steamer basket against the raised stake, and then pushed the steamed cake out of the steamer basket and put it on a plate to eat. You see this little steamed cake, it is actually a sandwich. ”
Now, walking in the streets and alleys of Chengdu, it may be difficult to hear the sound of the steamed cake that belongs exclusively to the steamed cake. In the steamed cake shop searched for on the food review website, Shuai Peiye only looked at it once and felt that it was no longer the taste of that year. "But in the past, steamed cake was definitely one of the best snacks in Chengdu." He sighed.
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