▲ All kinds of tofu, just like the taste of Anhui, and different. Photography / Chen Zhi
This year's Spring Festival home for you
Have you tasted something you've been thinking about for a year?
You are on the spot for the New Year
Have you received an "airdrop" from your hometown?
Authentic Objects · 2021 Spring Festival album
From the first to the seventh day of the first year, call for your hometown
Participate in voting at the end of the article
Pick the taste of home in your heart
Win the Chinese New Year gift package and punch the duck!
The second stop is Anhui
During the flood season of 2020, the people of Anhui touched China.
"If the floodgates are not opened, Henan will be flooded." If the floodgates are opened, Jiangsu will be flooded. Located in the Flood Storage Area of Funan County, Anhui Province, the Wangjiaba Gate is known as the "First Gate of the Qianli Huai River". Anhui's opening of floodgates and flood storage is not only to defend the hometown, but also to guard the safety of the brother provinces.
▲ The Huai River and the Yangtze River divide Anhui into three sections. Drafting/F50BB
The Huai River, a river that divides the north and south, runs through the whole of Anhui. The Yangtze River also crosses from Anhui, about 400 kilometers long, and is known as the "Eight Hundred Mile Anhui River." "One river and one Huaihuai have nourished 70 million people and nourished 140,000 square kilometers of land."
Anhui Province, named after the southern cities of Anqing and Huizhou, is actually a "bulk province" that spans the north and south. The two major rivers have become a natural geographical boundary, dividing Anhui into three major plates: Huaibei, Jianghuai and Jiangnan.
▲ Ma'anshan section of Wuhu, Yangtze River. Photography / Fu Ding
Correspondingly, from northern Anhui to southern Anhui, we can taste three flavors of cuisine: the northernmost is crisp, salty and refreshing Central Plains flavor, which is close to Lu cuisine in the majority; in the middle is the flavor of the rivers and lakes along the Yangtze River, which belongs to Huaiyang cuisine; the ancient Huizhou area in the southern Anhui Mountains has derived the emblem cuisine that pays attention to firemanship, and anqing and other Yangtze River areas are full of river fresh flavors.
▲ Anhui food collection. The upper row is braised Tianhe miscellaneous fish, fried edamame tofu and Huangshan stewed pigeon from left to right; the middle row is from left to right: Huainan beef soup, Huizhou stinky mandarin fish; and the lower row is from left to right: Anqing beef bun, Bengbu roast cake sandwich loin, crab shell yellow braised cake. From top left to bottom right, Figure 1 Photography/Song Changhong, Figure/FigureWorm Creative; Figure 2/ Figureworm Creativity; Figure 3/ Marketmap Network; Figure 4 Photography / Cattle Farmer, Figure / FigureWorm Creativity; Figure 5 / FigureWorm Creativity; Figure 6 Photography / Tang Shuang; Figure 7 Photography / My name is Yang Yaxian, Figure / FigureWorm Creative; Figure 8 / FigureWorm Creative
Which one best represents Anhui? Northern Anhui, central Anhui and southern Anhui are full of delicious food, and I am afraid that I will stage an intractable "Three Kingdoms Killing"!
01 Southern Anhui, brewing the Jiangnan flavor of Anhui
Among the eight major cuisines, Anhui has a place. The representative emblem cuisine of southern Anhui cuisine is the first business card of the whole Anhui cuisine outside the circle.
"Salt is heavy and lustful, mildly corrupt" is used to describe the ultimate pursuit of color and flavor in Hui cuisine. Huizhou cuisine is not only full of inner color and fragrance, but also has an external appearance online. The land of Huizhou is known as "seven mountains, half water and half a field", and the locals take the mountains and rivers to freshly add vegetables, forming a "hui flavor" of water and land mixtures.
▲ The meat of the stinky mandarin fish is garlic cloves, fresh and tender teeth. Figure/Figureworm Creative
The most popular is the stinky mandarin fish. Originally called "pickled mandarin fish", This Huizhou dish has a fermented, stinky smell. The whole fish is fried first and then cooked, and the condiments such as bamboo shoots, meat, peppers, onions, ginger and garlic will not dominate, but will fully hang out the freshness of the fish. Sandwich a chopstick fish meat, juicy teeth, chewed up to be full of mandarin fish unique sweetness.
"Stink" is just a gimmick.
▲ Top: Edamame tofu production; Bottom: Fried edamame tofu. Figure/Figureworm Creative
What is even more "corrupt" is Huizhou edamame tofu. Tofu fermented into edamame tofu not only has an enviable layer of thick hair, plant protein is converted into amino acids, but also produces a more delicious taste. Fried tiger skin edamame tofu is a famous dish in Huizhou: after frying edamame tofu, the skin is golden and slightly wrinkled, and the inside is still tender tofu.
In addition to these two famous dishes, Huizhou people have also developed a perfect match between the salty freshness of the wax flavor and the crisp and fresh flavor of the bamboo shoots, the Shexian Wenzheng mountain shoots, the sealed slow-simmered Huangshan stewed pigeons, and the one pot suitable for both the hall and the city...
▲ Above: Laba tofu; Bottom: Huizhou Yipin Pot. Figure/Figureworm Creative
Even if it's a daily snack, almost everything is painstaking.
Thin and smooth, like a hook of the crescent moon water stuffing bag is the nostalgia of the Jixi people; crab shell yellow, plum vegetable baked cake, golden crisp shell and oily and fragrant inner filling at once; stone kway, bean yellow kun, crispy outside, and fragrant, who does not like; Keemun character bean sugar inlay, the combination of culture and food taste to the fullest.
▲ Keemun word bean candy. The principle is that the two colors of syrup solidify and roll out the pieces, and spell out the words through the superposition of different angles and orders before hardening. Figure/Figureworm Creative
02 Northern Anhui, boil out the central plains flavor of Anhui
Huainan beef soup made Mr. Chen Xiaoqing remember: "That delicious soup full of animal fat, just thinking about it, can make me full of food." ”
▲ Huangpan district on the border between Henan and Anhui. Photography / Fu Ding
However, its taste has moved away from the apricot blossom smoke and rain of southern Anhui, closer to the arrogant and rough Huanghuai.
From the banks of the Xin'an River to the huai river, the increase in latitude means a sharp increase in the cold index: the endless Huang-Huai Plain, with almost no mountain barriers, can easily cross the Huai River in winter cold winds. On a winter morning, a bowl of Huainan beef soup filled with thousands of pieces, vermicelli and coriander, paired with freshly baked shortbread, the cold of the whole winter disappears in an instant.
▲ Steaming Huainan beef soup. Photography / I love my daughter-in-law, photo / market map network
The daily life that Huainan people are most familiar with has now become the daily life of many foreigners. Following Shaxian snacks and yellow braised chicken rice, Huainan beef soup has also sprung up south and north at a rainy pace.
Tangsheng Huainan is beef soup, and Tangsheng Huaibei is sá soup - this is the favorite of the people of Suzhou, Fuyang and Bengbu. Northern Jiangsu and Lunan also have the habit of drinking "sá soup" for breakfast, but they are more written as "grits", and northern Anhui people like to write "moon + 䪞".
▲ Should sá soup be sprinkled with coriander? In Bengbu is a big problem. Photo/Visual China
The main ingredients of sá soup are meat and cereals, which are the taste of the Central Plains with a long history. Bengbu "sá soup" mainly uses chicken, and other areas mostly use lamb and beef. Either way, put the meat, wheat kernels, and spices into a large pot and simmer for more than ten hours.
Bengbu people's snacks also include the four-color lantern of sake-stuffed soup, a beef box larger than the face, a thick and cute gluten bubble, and a grilled bread sandwich on the pyramid tip of Bengbu cuisine.
▲ Grilled bread sandwich loin, Bengbu people always care about the delicious stomach. Photography / Temperament Zhu Zong, Picture / Figure Worm · Creativity
Northerners are good at making roast chicken. On the Chinese roast chicken map, the Fu Li Ji roast chicken in northern Anhui must have a name. The chickens and fish bite sheep that are popular in the northernmost region of Anhui are generally consistent with the eating methods of Lunan and northern Jiangsu.
▲ Hand-torn off the set of roast chicken. Photography / wmei5881, photo / figure worm · creative
03 In Anhui, the Huaiyang flavor of Anhui is burned
The glory of the old provincial capital period is gone, but the traditional delicacies of Anqing are still passed on. Anqing people's mornings start with a dozen pot stickers, a drawer of beef buns or a bowl of Jiangmao dumplings; all kinds of fried noodles, rice noodles, every day is not the same; the soup of mountain noodles and dumplings roast meat is the hometown flavor that every Anqing person can't give up.
▲ Freshly baked Anqing Da Nanmen beef buns. Photography / Chen Zhi
No duck can swim out of the Yangtze River alive, along the river Anqing, Tongling, Wuhu, Ma'anshan people will not let them go, the most famous is the Wuwei plate duck, golden butter bright, thick sebum it, both the aroma of Beijing roast duck and the freshness of Nanjing plate duck, can be called "Anhui's first duck".
▲ Above: Wuwei Plate Duck, Photography/Old Wind Man; Bottom: Li Hongzhang Chowder, Photography/windowsxpwei. Figures/MarketMap
Due to the advantage of "in Anhui", Hefei became the new provincial capital. Compared with the profound northern Anhui and southern Anhui, there is a lack of famous food out of the circle, and the most famous hard dish is also made of mixed four flavors - chicken as the main ingredient, accompanied by water hair sea cucumber, oil hair fish belly, water hair squid and other chowder, plus the blessing of local celebrities, the name is "Li Hongzhang Chowder". Out of the provincial city, the suburbs are full of delicious food, Feixi Sanhe rice dumplings, Feidong loach noodles, Feidong canteen donkey...
Speaking of hard dishes, we can't help but mention the Golden Zhai hanging pot. The so-called hanging pot, that is, hanging a wooden hook on the roof beam, and then hanging an iron pot on the wooden hook, under the pot is a fire pit, everyone sits around the pot, while eating and chatting, quite a jianghu atmosphere.
▲ Jinzhai hanging pot. Photography/, I Love Persimmons, Photo/MarketMap
A pot of Large Stew in Anhui is like a jianghu hero conference.
04 The Anhui people went out on a campaign, and the taste of Anhui was full of flavors
Anhui is a large labor export province together with Henan, and about 1/3 of the population (including the floating population in Anhui Province) leaves their hometowns and wanders around every year. Following the footsteps of the Anhui people, the Anhui brand food has also gone from the land of Jianghuai to the north and south of the river.
Among them, Fuyang, Anhui Province, is the first city for migrant workers in China. In Fuyang, where the land is sparsely populated, more than 3 million migrant workers go out every year. Founded in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, the special snack "Authentic Anhui Beef Plate Noodles", originated from the famous lamb plate noodles of Taihe County under the jurisdiction of Fuyang.
▲ Taiwa plate surface. Photography/I'm a regent, photo/marketmap
Anhui people have been invading the north since the establishment of Tianjin Weicheng, more than 80% of the bulk cannabis flowers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area are made by Anhui people, and the beef pies and large fritters on the streets of Tianjin are also mostly operated by Anhui people.
Anqing's Jiangmao wontons "captured" the city of Nanjing along the Yangtze River: 8 million Nanjing people, everyone's stomach, there is a bowl of "Anqing wontons"; Nanjing people originally only ate duck blood soup, Anhui people added vermicelli and other spices, so that duck blood vermicelli soup became popular.
This New Year, most of the more than 20 million Anhui compatriots who are struggling outside the country stay in a foreign country for the New Year. The bells of the Year of the Ox are still ringing around the beams, and the Anhui people who walk the streets and alleys have already begun to work in the Year of the Ox, and have left the taste of their hometown in all corners of the Land of China.
▲ Anhui people let "Nanjing duck blood vermicelli soup" go to all parts of the country. Photography/Yiyi very, figure/market map network
Anhui is delicious, just like this fertile land
Scattered but not scattered
Northern Anhui, Anhui, Southern Anhui, fell in love in the midst of mutual killing
Three styles, three flavors
Together, they constitute the legend of the tip of the tongue of the Anhui people
On the second day of the Chinese New Year, don't forget to take a bite of your hometown!
Guess what:
Which province will be delicious tomorrow?
- END -
Wen 丨 Big Feather
Cover photo | Chen Zhi