Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Liang Shiting Li Guang
In the past National Day holiday, Foshan, Guangdong Province, became a popular self-driving destination.
According to the "2021 National Day Travel Report" released by AutoNavi Map, Foshan ranks 4th in the country in the ranking of popular cities for driving, followed by Chengdu, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other tourist cities.
The result may come as a surprise – Foshan has left an impression of ceramics, kung fu and world-renowned manufacturing. But in addition, Foshan also has the tenderness of making people "head up".
As early as the Song and Yuan dynasties, the unique production method of Mulberry Garden Waijian made Foshan Nanhai one of the largest producers of "wide rice". This provides raw materials for the local winemaking industry, coupled with the dense network of rivers in the Pearl River Delta, only in Foshan there are Dongping River, Shunde Waterway, Chencun Waterway, the river water through the upstream of the accumulation of thick layers of sand filtering, become transparent and pure, become a high-quality water source for winemaking.
For many years, it seems that it is not eye-catching in the outside world, nor is it overwhelmingly promoted, but the low-grade liquor produced in Foshan such as Jiujiang double steaming and Shiwan Yubing roasting has long been a necessity for Foshan people and even Guangdong people to live - more than 10 pieces can buy the happiness of daily drunkenness, and the cost performance is unparalleled.
Wine is one of the city symbols of Foshan.
There must be knowledgeable people, and through this glass of liquor, it can be seen that Foshan manufacturing, martial arts, and overseas trade developed in the soaking of rice wine have connected a "Foshan storm".
However, there are also times when the wind and clouds change. New challenges ahead of the city.
The generation that has been immersed in liquor for decades is gradually aging, and the young people in the new consumption era are picky and changeable. How can the people of Foshan, who are full of a spirit of change, also let them enter the Foshan-style micro-drunkenness?
A life of drinking
At 6:50 a.m., Uncle Li was at the entrance of the breakfast restaurant as usual, which was the place where he would definitely punch after his morning luck.
At the door to meet the old acquaintances, Uncle Li as usual nagging a few homely, just at 7 o'clock, the breakfast restaurant opened. As soon as the roller shutter door opened, he went straight to the wine cabinet and took down a bottle of Jiujiang double steaming that had not yet been drunk.
There are many bottles of wine in the wine cabinet, and the way to distinguish them depends on the words left on them. Although the handwriting is sloppy, it does not prevent the owner of the bottle from identifying. Just like a code, people who understand will naturally understand.
Wine stored in the restaurant's wine cabinet Source: Network
Two or three refreshments are paired with a cup of double steaming, which is the morning wine habit of the older generation of Foshan people. In some village tea houses and breakfast restaurants, there is usually a simple wine cabinet with a densely packed wine bottle, of which Jiujiang double steaming and red rice wine have the largest number.
Different from the common high liquor, this low-grade liquor produced in Foshan belongs to the ancient method of brewing, because of the mixture of soybeans in the sake, so that the wine has a unique soy sauce. The aging process also adds fatty pork – not only adding soy aroma to the wine, but also adsorbing impurities in the wine. This unexpected brewing process in the eyes of outsiders is widely spread in the production of Foshan Distillery.
This is also the taste that Uncle Li remembers. Finding a place to sit down, he shouted at the door, "Business as usual!" (Cantonese, meaning to come as usual) then began to fiddle with the bottles and glasses.
The large steamer at the door began to steam. After 10 minutes, the shopkeeper who was familiar with Uncle Li brought a cage of ribs and a plate of intestinal powder as usual. Uncle Li also took a sip of rice wine as usual, and then sent a chopsticks of intestinal powder into his mouth.
Such a morning is enough to make Uncle Li refreshed.
Rice wine is a partner for breakfast Image source: Video screenshot
He drank a lot of liquor, but rice wine has always been a breakfast partner. "Cheap, don't think too much, too expensive to be willing." Compared with the starting price, Uncle Li is still accustomed to this taste of drinking for forty or fifty years, in his eyes, such a wine is the most correct taste, "just came out to work, with relatives to do carpentry, then will start to drink." Thinking about the events of that year, Uncle Li naturally picked up the wine glass and took another sip.
Foshan rice wine is naturally integrated into the life of Foshan people in this way. Similarly, in the Cantonese cuisine system, rice wine is also naturally integrated into it, not showing mountain dew, but it is the finishing touch.
Almost every Cantonese person has intentionally or unintentionally tasted the charm of Foshan rice wine.
In Shunde, the "capital of gastronomy", the practice of using red rice wine to eat has a long history, and a very representative dish is drunken goose.
The fat and lean goose meat is fried in an iron pan, the moisture and aroma of the goose meat are locked in at high temperature, and the sauce made of curd milk and oyster sauce is added to add additional aroma.
Pour rice wine, flame drunken goose Image source: Network
Next, the chef pours a whole bottle of red rice wine along the edge of the pot without hesitation, and the flame is triggered. This method of burning over an open flame will produce a large amount of steam, quickly increase the temperature in the pot, and achieve the effect of stewing.
The cooking of the drunken goose does not add a drop of water, and under the wrapping of rice wine, the goose meat is soaked with the aroma of wine, so it is called a drunken goose.
Cantonese roasted pork is also indispensable to liquor. The skin of the roasted duck is crispy and fragrant, and the secret is to add white wine to the skin water. When the air humidity is high, the liquor is volatile, which allows the skin of the roasted duck to dry quickly and help color. The aroma of char siu also comes from liquor, and the chef will add rose liquor to add its aroma.
Foshan liquor is eaten with char siu, and the two complement each other perfectly. The mouth has a faint smell of soot, followed by the sweetness and slight acidity of the rice oozing out, and when swallowed, the mouth is full of coolness and sweetness, just neutralizing the rich oil and sweetness brought by the char siu.
In the 1980s, Hong Kong writer Huang Xia once created a classic advertising song for this liquor: "Chopping material, chopping (block) big char siu, oil chicken brine flavor everything, there is jade ice roast." ”
Kung Fu and Commerce
"Every day to do not stop, there is always a time to eat." Sip a cup, sip a sip, drink a cup of Jiujiang double steamed wine. (Translation: "Every day I can't stop working, and there is always a time to eat.") Take a break, take a break, drink a glass of Jiujiang Double Distillery") In the 1980s, the Jiujiang Double Distillery produced in Foshan was already playing catchy advertising songs in Hong Kong, and the advertising protagonists were workers engaged in manual labor at construction sites and wharves.
Jiujiang double steamed wine has occupied the civilian market cheaply, and the slightly drunk "upper head" can just relieve the tiredness after high-intensity work. With the flow of people, not only the laborers in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have a good bite, but also the merchants and migrant workers from all over the world to Foshan have also quickly fallen in love with this local liquor.
In Foshan's Shiwan, potters call shochu "brother burning", and they always have to "sigh a few times" after work. There is also a popular song of exhortation between them: "If you have money, you have to buy a roast brother, mo buy Luo Yi to dress up, he comes to summon the king of Yan, and he does not recognize Luo Yi but only recognizes people." ”
The Foshan River network is dense, providing a high-quality water source for winemaking Source: Visual China
Unlike the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, Foshan's industry requires a lot of labor. In the early years, laborers from all over the world slowly found their own organizations in Foshan, and gradually subdivided into a kung fu team that was skilled in fists and feet.
A group of local martial arts folk masters in Foshan played Nanpai Kung Fu on the bridge, attracting many tourists to watch Source: Visual China
Among the southern fists and north feet circulated in the kung fu rivers and lakes, some of the southern fist moves originated in Foshan, including the signature kung fu - Foshan shadowless feet. Such a social structure gave birth to martial arts masters such as Huang Feihong and Ip Man, and it is not surprising that Wing Chun and Choi Lee Fo Fist evolved.
Wine has become the lubricant that underpins this social structure. In modern film and television works, wine and kung fu appear in pairs, with the straightforward "Drunken Fist", and foshan rice wine with the highest degree of tribute - Xu Anhua's "The Story of Hu Yue" directed in his early years, and Ah San, who was a killer for the underworld boss in the Philippines, always drank a sip of Jiujiang double steaming on the night when he was not on a mission.
Screenshot of the movie "The Story of Hu Yue"
The scorching heat in the south and the mutual exchange of kung fu rivers and lakes have also made wine a catalyst for the development of foshan medicine.
Foshan Pharmaceutical began in the Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 400 years. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Foshan, with a population of more than 300,000, had nearly 100 pharmaceutical stores, and there were more than 30 century-old brands that have been handed down to this day. Most of them produce drugs for the treatment of bruises, blood invigorating blood and stasis, just like Feng's rheumatic iron medicine wine, which can be taken internally or externally.
These highly alcoholics inadvertently bring a two-pronged solution to those who are laboring—on the one hand, to treat physical pain and exhaustion, and on the other hand, to quickly obtain a slightly drunk feeling, so as to temporarily withdraw from the pain of reality.
New packaging for old business cards
Rice wine makes Foshan "on the top".
According to historical records, when Su Dongpo was degraded to Lingnan, he invented huangjiu such as Zhenyi liquor and wrote the "Dongpo Wine Classic", which was the first book in Lingnan to record the production of Lingnan small wine songs and the brewing technology of yellow wine. In the Qing Dynasty, Foshan's liquor industry grew more and more prosperous with the rise of industry and commerce.
"The number of households is thirty or forty, and the number of wine is seventy or eighty", which refers to the fierce competition in Foshan distilleries at that time.
Cylinder Cheng Aging Source: Visual China
The highest status in the jianghu is Chen Taiji Winery. The third generation of the owner Chen Ruyue was once hand-picked by Guangxu as a Hanlin bachelor, resigned from the government and returned home to inherit the ancestral industry to concentrate on winemaking, after being inspired by the villagers to soak snakes and medicinal materials with rice wine, he used the convenience of raising pigs with wine lees to try the aging process of pork soaking, and unexpectedly found that pork can adsorb impurities in the wine and make the wine soft and plump.
The process of adding fatty pork to rice wine continues to this day Image source: Video screenshot
The brewing process of "cylinder aging and fat soaking" created by this is the famous Yubing roasted soy sauce type liquor since then. Since its development, the production process of this wine has become more mature. Usually the pig shoulder back fat meat, after boiling water boiling first soaked in high wine for 4-5 months, and then the aged fat pork into the liquor, the fat of the fat pork slowly dissolved, and the wine worked, improve its old maturity, but also on the surface of the liquor to form a rich layer of fat, to prevent alcohol volatilization.
Such a thick history has brewed the mellow aroma of the vigorous development of Foshan's wine industry.
According to the data, in 2020, the total annual output value of the three major rice wine brands of Jiujiang Double Steaming, Yubing Roast and Hongli is nearly 3 billion yuan, plus many small and medium-sized rice wine manufacturers, and preliminary estimates show that the overall amount of rice wine in the entire Guangdong market is about 5 billion yuan. Among them, the overall volume of Foshan's local market reached about 900 million yuan.
However, the thick history also makes the current Foshan rice wine have to face the embarrassment of "aging".
The soy aroma of pork soaking is very different from the floral and fruity aromas and oak barrel flavors that consumers are looking for in whisky in the current period. While craft beer and whiskey are increasingly becoming popular drinks for young people, the traditional rice wine market has repeatedly shrunk.
The long-established brand also pushed out the craft beer to attract young consumers Image source: Visual China
When the previous generation of Foshan people gradually grew old, and young people no longer continued to drink early wine, how to maintain the freshness of the brand, how to innovate in inheritance, and cater to the current lifestyle of young people has become a problem that Foshan wine companies must face.
Some liquor companies have tried to subtract in rice wine. Taking Jiujiang Distillery as an example, this enterprise with a production history of more than 200 years has launched products of polished rice 30 and polished rice 30+ in recent years, controlling the saccharification and fermentation speed through the ratio of northeast pearl rice and southern indica rice, so that the aroma of rice wine is more obvious.
This meant that, in addition to maintaining traditional craftsmanship, new products began to try to eliminate the soy sauce in rice wine.
There are also liquor companies that try to do addition - let rice wine catch the express train of domestic consumption. Shunde red rice wine, which has appeared in the CCTV food documentary "Taste of Shunde", has sparked discussion on social media and has become a business card of Shunde cuisine and driving sales. Recently, Shunde Red Rice Wine was successfully approved as a "China Geographical Indication Protection Product", giving its products a unique competitive advantage that it does not have with other similar products
Whether it is addition or subtraction, this change is the characterization of Foshan people who understand the law of market development and then change and innovate. In any case, Foshan wine is constantly trying, hoping to let more cities get a beautiful experience from being slightly drunk.