In a person's life, there are some very inconspicuous little things that will make you nostalgic and even nostalgic for life. Former chairman of the Sichuan Gourmets Association, 90-year-old Mr. Li Shuren once emotionally talked when chatting with me: "When people go to old age, there are always some nostalgic feelings, I sometimes especially want to eat pearl balls, but I ran several places, but I didn't find them, and I was depressed for a long time." ”
But Elder Li has such a sigh, how many Sichuan people, especially the natives of Chengdu, how many wanderers who have left their hometowns, when they mention pearls as bright and clear, sweet and moist, or with a fresh meat flavor of pearl balls, they can't help but want to taste it again, relive the sweet and warm taste of pestering their mothers to ask for a dime or two when they were children.
Speaking of pearl dumplings, let's first talk about the strange things in Sichuan snacks - rice snacks. Tianfu land, since ancient times is the world's granary, especially rice as the main food, rice, glutinous rice snacks are naturally colorful, colorful. In addition to the folk ye er rice, parfait, white cake, steamed steamed bun, pig er rice dumpling, yellow rice dumpling, tangyuan, pearl balls, steamed steamed cake, triad mud, oil tea, oil cake, pretzel rice dumplings, mash powder, sugar oil fruit, three cannons, rice dumplings, rice noodles, there are also from the hands of snack masters, silver bud rice dumplings, phoenix jade dumplings, shrimp crystal dumplings, a pint of roasted wheat, fresh shrimp jade box, sea cucumber hibiscus bun, phoenix stuffing four joy dumplings, crystal cold rolls...
What is less well known is that Sichuan rice products actually treasure legendary delicious love affairs. In the 1930s and 1940s, Lin Jiazhi, who was known as the bashu noodle point master, was deeply impressed by the weight of Master Gao Qishan, a rice noodle smith in the early years, and obtained the special skills of making rice products snacks and dim sum. He absorbed the essence of folk rice and glutinous rice snacks, and created a series of rice products snacks, especially master Lin skillfully combined the sichuan cuisine red case technology with the white case production process to create a series of banquet snacks, such as the widely acclaimed shark fin hibiscus treasure, shrimp dumplings, anchovy cake, flower cake and so on.
What is valuable is that Teacher Lin unreservedly imparted the stunt of rice products to his proud student Zhang Zhongyou. Master Zhang, who is proficient in both red and white cases and was the head chef of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations, presented classic Sichuan cuisine and exquisite snacks to the world. Teacher Zhang, who is now the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of Chinese Culinary Masters, and who unreservedly passed on the skills of snacks and rice products to his proud protégés, Shu Guozhong (today's headlines: Shu Guozhong Cuisine) and Lan Guijun of Yuzhilan, who are now the master of Sichuan cuisine in both red and white cases. Passed down from three generations, the essence of Sichuan cuisine, rice products and snacks, has been passed down and carried forward. What is particularly gratifying is that in 2016, Shu Guozhong's masterpiece "Classic Sichuan Snacks" was published on both sides of the strait, which not only reproduced Sichuan classic snacks, but also left precious historical and technical materials for Sichuan snack skills and culture, which can be passed on to future generations.
Shu Guozhong's classic best-selling masterpiece
Pearl balls are funny
Speaking of pearl dumplings, in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min, there was a village cook named Zhang Herong in Guan County (now Dujiangyan City). Rural areas often run field mats, also known as nine bowls, but where there are red and white happy events, they will be in the bamboo forest or their own homes, invited to specialize in handling field mats chefs, set dozens of tables, neighbors fathers and fellow villagers together lively. Zhang Herong runs a field mat, and likes to adjust the taste of a sweet dish after several big dishes are served in three steaming and nine buttons. He wrapped the brown sugar sesame dumplings in a layer of steamed glutinous rice, steamed them quickly for a few minutes on high heat, and then put a bright red cherry on each tangyuan. The steamed tangyuan, the glutinous rice grains on the skin surface are crystal clear, and the cherry foil is very gratifying, very popular with the villagers, and Zhang Herong's steamed tangyuan is also famous in all directions.
In 1910, Zhang Herong was invited to the "Rong Paradise" hotel in Guanxian County to take charge of the white case, specializing in feast desserts. Zhang Herong's steamed tangyuan, which is stained with snow white and bright, crystal clear rice grains, is topped with a bright red cherry, which looks very auspicious and satisfactory, and when eaten in the mouth, it is sweet and sticky, soft and refreshing, which is amazing. Because not only selling, many large households rushed to Zhang Herong's dessert to set a banquet, and the table business of Rong Paradise was extraordinary.
After a long time, some old diners suggested to Zhang Herong: If your steamed tangyuan is operated alone, it will definitely sell well. Zhang Herong really moved his mind after listening to it, he repeatedly observed the market food market, and decided to go to the provincial city to break in. So he sold all his belongings, borrowed another debt, and came to Chengdu with his family and his family, renting a shop on Huifu West Street (now Zhonglieci Street), mainly steamed tangyuan and eight treasure porridge.
Rice snack classic Mandarin duck leaf
Huifu West Street has always been a lively place where Chengdu's famous three religions and nine streams converge, a center for antiques trading, and a concentration of antique dealers. Smoking cigarettes, playing mahjong, drinking small wine, and tasting snacks are the daily lives of these people. As soon as Zhang Herong's shop opened, people wanted to be fresh, eating hot, they competed to taste, and once they ate it, they found that it was very different from Chengdu's Lai Tangyuan, Dragon Scribe, Dan Dan Noodles, Zhong Shui Dumplings and other famous snacks, with unique characteristics and unique flavors, and Zhang Herong's business quickly flourished.
At that time, Zhang Herong's sweet shop did not have a name, and most of the antique dealers had some ink. See the steamed rice balls are large and round, grained glutinous rice, sparkling, like pearls; bright red and beautiful cherries are like rubies. As soon as everyone summed it up, they gave it an elegant number: "Pearl Ball", and those who were familiar with calligraphy sent it to the print. As soon as the "Pearl Balls" sign was hung, it was in full swing within a few days, selling more than 400 pearl balls a day at first, and later increasing to 1,000. Every day, several large steamers are steamed in turns, and customers still have to wait in line, and they are sold out before 12 noon. Zhang Herong had to apologize to the buyer every day: "I'm sorry Ha, please come early tomorrow!" ”。 Pearl balls rose in fame and word of mouth.
Pearl balls made by Mr. Shu
Pearl Balls Of The Past
After Zhang Herong arrived in Chengdu, he changed the original brown sugar heart to black sesame seeds, and then inspired by Lai TangYuanxinzi, added the flavor of pearl balls to bean paste, date paste, osmanthus flowers, roses, preserves, and ice oranges; the skin of pearl yuanzi was also made of 70% of the fine glutinous rice mixed with 30% rice and grinding and hanging pulp. In order to make the "pearl" more fascinating, he uses snow white round sago, which becomes more crystal clear and dazzling after steaming. In this way, Zhang Herong's pearl balls have a variety of flavors, sweet and nourishing, tender and sticky, soft but not sticky, and comfortable to eat, and the eaters are all impressed.
Soon, Zhang Herong thought that no matter how many varieties are desserts, he added fresh meat, golden hooks, cloud legs, bacon, mushrooms and other salty and umami pearl yuanzi according to the sweet and salty flavor of Ye'er, sweet and salty, and when eating, it was accompanied by free red and white tea, which was even more praised. Zhang Herong simply did not stop for two, the accumulated money invested in the decoration of the store and the taste of the tableware update, so that the store inside and outside the hall is very elegant, cups and dishes are all jingdezhen porcelain and Fuzhou black lacquer chopsticks, giving people an elegant and comfortable, refreshing and clean feeling, the business is naturally too good to be out of control. Those who fried antiques and played with silver dollar merchants simply invited guests to eat and talk about business in the shop, feeling that they were both distinctive and faceless.
Pearl balls stuffed with sesame brown sugar
In 1918, When General Xiong Kewu, who was in charge of Sichuan, passed by the Zhonglie Martyrs' Shrine, an aide named Liu Yalin told him that there was a pearl dumpling here, so famous that even foreigners liked to taste it. When General Xiong heard this, he gladly led his subordinates into the store, and at first glance it was very elegant, he even ate two sweet and two salty, he felt that it was really worthy of the name, and he was very happy to call Zhang Herong, praise and encouragement, and asked the attendant to give Zhang Herong a hundred silver dollars. In this case, Zhang Herong, along with the pearl balls, became famous for Yang Bashu. Not only that, but the upper echelons of the military, government, industry, and commerce circles set up banquets for guests, and they all sent people to order pearl balls to add color and color to the feast. The business of Pearl Balls is so hot that people are stunned, and even those gangsters,, and Qiu Ba dare not fight Zhang Herong's crooked ideas.
After 1950, Zhang Herong saw that the pearl ball was far better than his original "ambition", coupled with his age and poor health, he retired and handed over the shop to his son Zhang Guangli and daughter-in-law Zhou Guorong. After the public-private partnership, Pearl Dumplings merged with the "Yongxiang Sweet Shop" which mainly operated Ye Erzi, still using "Pearl Dumplings" as the signboard, featuring the three major sweets of Pearl Dumplings, Eight Treasures Porridge and Ye Erzi, and the business was still hot, and the tasters were endless.
After Zhang Herong's death in 1957, Zhang Guangli was transferred to "Guo Tangyuan" to work. In 1960, three years of natural and man-made disasters, material shortages, raw materials out of stock, pearl balls in name only, in Chunxi Road to sell braised noodles and sweet rice paste, ten years after the "Cultural Revolution", pearl balls disappeared. In 1981, it was re-unveiled in a classical building next to Daci Temple on Dongfeng Road, renamed "Pearl Yuanzi Restaurant", presided over by its third generation Zhang Xingtao, in addition to the traditional operation of Eight Treasures Porridge and Ye Erzhuang, more than 40 other flavor snacks were added. The ground floor of the hall sells a few points for individual customers, and the second floor operates snack sets and snack feasts, which are often also in the market. At that time, I also visited from time to time, a sweet and salty two pearl balls, a bowl of red and white tea, eating full of heart, leisurely. But after the 1990s, Chunxi Road was renovated, and the simple and elegant building was demolished, replaced by a high-rise building, and the pearl balls disappeared again, and I don't know where to go. Although there are also snack stalls selling pearl balls in Jinli and Kuanzhai Alley today, but where is the pearl balls, it is steamed tangyuan, and it is not lukewarm, and it is really sad to eat dry burps!
Snack master Tang Zhou (today's headline: Teacher Tang talks about food) made a tri-color rice dumpling
Since the pearl dumplings became famous, many sweets merchants flocked to imitate, so Chengdu and Bashu many places have "pearl dumplings", although still chengdu pearl balls as authentic, but also appeared with a different flavor of pearl balls, the formation of Sichuan west, Sichuan and folk "pearl balls" three main flavor schools.
Chuanxi "pearl balls" skin embryos are usually kneaded with egg liquid and dried bean flour, mostly with sesame seeds as the filling, and half a cherry is placed on the top of the steamed finished product, and some are printed on the top with a red circle print similar to a cherry, with a light yellow color, glutinous rice grains, moist and sweet.
Chuandong "pearl balls" are mostly wrapped in sago sticky, mainly washed sand, roses, steamed and also put half a honey cherry, the finished product is crystal clear, shaped like pearls, sweet and delicious.
The other is the pearl balls with fresh meat filling, made of fat and lean pork, mushrooms, egg liquid and spices to make the filling, the tangyuan is glued to the yin rice, the finished product after steaming is bright in color, the beads are crystal clear, and the filling is delicious, tender and moist.
The "pearl balls" of bashu folk are mostly chopped with fresh lotus root, fat and lean pork, mixed with spices into lotus filling; tangyuan is steamed with colored yin rice, the finished product is bright in color, the filling is fragrant and delicious, moisturizing and refreshing.
In the past, because of the tight supply of materials, most of the tickets were limited to purchase, and people were always in a state of semi-starvation, so occasionally tasting an oily, sweet, glutinous pearl ball was really a rare enjoyment. Nowadays, under the double warning of "three highs" and "obesity", most people see cute and seductive pearl balls, although they are hungry and flustered, they also have to hold back the saliva with extremely weak concentration. In fact, you may as well think about it, life is short, it is rare to get drunk several times, how to torture yourself, eat when you want to eat, and eat when your belly is full, this is culture. Food like eating pearl balls, accompanied by a cup of red and white tea, degreasing and sugar, diluting sweet, isn't it both beautiful and healthy?
Teacher Shu (middle) and Teacher Tang (left) demonstrate beef bun making
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.04.08 Chengdu