The scope of snacks is too broad, and it seems that all snacks, snacks, pasta, tea, refreshments, side dishes, etc., can be listed. Judging the prosperity of a place's food is based on the state of its folk and street food. Changshu is not big, but the types of snacks are numerous and innumerable, and the optimistic happiness of Changshu people can be seen.
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > ice hyacinth</h1>
Ice gourd
Originally created by Changshu's century-old Mountain View Garden, it is an acclaimed feast name and has since spread in urban and rural areas. To make, the pork plate oil is filmed, diced, chopped, and kneaded with cotton sugar to form a gourd shape with a handle. Flour and egg whites are mixed and fried in cooked lard until the teeth are brown, and the pot is sprinkled with sugar. After being fried in oil, the batter on the surface of the ice hyacinth forms an extremely thin layer of crispy skin, which diners figuratively call "lantern shells". Lantern paper paste, its thinness is known. The inner plate oil melts when it meets heat, and it seems that there is no heat on the outside, but it is actually hot, so the ice gourd is actually a "hot gourd". The requirements of frying ice gourds are extremely strict, and the precision of controlling the oil temperature is based on experience, and the cook cannot do it without the hard work of the stove for several years. When the oil temperature is high, the billet is fried, the sugar oil leaks a pot, and the pot oil is wasted; the oil is soft, the plate oil filling is not all dissolved, and the mouth will be like "meat oil", without any sweet and smooth flavor.
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > steamed buns</h1>
Raw fried steamed buns
This steamed bun is not a steamed bun: northerners call those who do not have fillings as steamed buns, and those with fillings as buns; Jiangnan people call the opposite. Changshu steamed buns, with a variety of flowers, sweet bean paste, roses, etc.; salty stuffing includes pork, crab powder, rotten paste (cabbage), pickles and so on. The dough is white and plump, and the fermentation is fluffy. In the Qing Dynasty cooking book "Tuning Ding Collection", there is a "Changshu Steamed Bun" article, which details the process of making yeast noodles. In addition, there are small steamed buns and raw fried steamed buns, which have a unique flavor. The skin of the small steamed bun is thin and pleated, and the mouth is like a crucian carp mouth, which tastes fresh and juicy; the raw fried steamed bun, as the name suggests, is fried in a pan, sprinkled with green onions before cooking, and the bottom is burnt and fragrant, and the taste is rich in layers.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > oven cake</h1>
Oven cakes belong to the pastry of the layer pastry. Water and noodles are made into skin noodles, and lard and noodles are made into puff pastry. Cut each into a suitable size of the dough, wrap the pastry into a dough, roll it out into a shoe sole, roll it up, roll it out again, and make the dough. Finely sliced cabbage with sugar and lard for sweet filling, or chopped flowers with chives and lard for salty filling. The filling is wrapped in dough and rolled out into a cake. Brush the egg mixture on both sides, pat the white sesame seeds, add to the cake pan, fry on both sides until slightly brown, out of the pan. The oven cake is crispy and fatty, and it should be eaten hot.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > plate of incense cakes</h1>
During the Republic of China period, there were many tea houses and tea shops near Changshu Shimei, and a kind of shortbread was sought after by tea customers, called "Shimei Pan Fragrant Cake", which has been passed down for a hundred years. Pan xiang cake preparation method: skin noodles wrapped in puff pastry, rolled into strips, set aside. There are many kinds of fillings: sugar rose, sugar lard, bean paste lard, green onion lard. Strips of dough are wrapped in filling, kneaded into long strips, rolled into a "fragrant dish", that is, into a cake embryo, brushed with sugar water, sprinkled with sesame seeds, baked into a golden brown, and eaten crispy and fragrant.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > osmanthus syrup</h1>
The production of osmanthus sugar lotus can be described as ingenious: take a section of snow lotus that is as thick as a child's arm, wash the silt, cut it diagonally in one-third, shoot the soaked glutinous rice into the lotus hole, and insert bamboo sticks to still connect the two lotus sections. Put the pot in water and boil, add old alkali, brown sugar, rock sugar, sugar stained osmanthus flowers, and simmer for a long time on low heat, commonly known as "boiled lotus". Remove to cool, slice, drain onto a plate and spoon the broth over. Lotus flakes carmine, glutinous rice snow white, viscous soup in the pale yellow osmanthus blossom on it, sandwich a slice of the mouth, sweet glutinous palatable, teeth and cheeks left fragrant.
Walk the streets and alleys of Changshu, feel the unique fireworks of the city among various snacks, and taste the small luck of ordinary life.
- END -
Wen 丨 Wang Mingjiang
Edit | Hu Yin
The original text is taken from "Authentic Wind And Things Changshu" with additions, subtractions and changes
Book "Authentic Customs and Objects changshu"
The unsigned pictures in this article are from "IC photo" or "Figureworm Creative", and any website, newspaper, television station, company, organization, or individual may not be used in part or in whole without the permission of IC photo or Figureworm Creative.