In Guangdong, no chicken is no banquet. Photo/sohu
Text/Feng Qi
A chicken breaks out of its shell, from twittering to clucking, it is not easy to grow, it is going to die, but it is just wrapped in paste, thrown into the frying pan, and becomes fried chicken... How does this work for chickens? The people of Guangdong did not agree.
Recently, I often hear people talk about "eating chicken". It is said that this is the line of the blockbuster game "PUBG", when the player wins the first place, the screen will appear eight big words: big luck, eat chicken at night! It can be seen that "eating chicken" is such an auspicious and gratifying reward.
People all over the world love chicken. In the United States, if you go to a casino in Las Vegas to play, there are probably not a few people who learn the male protagonist of the movie "Blackjack" and read "Winner winner, chicken dinner". Japanese devils also love chicken, and in the 1941 sweep of the Beiyue base area, they captured 50,000 chickens and returned to the labor army. The big bandit mountain carving was because he loved to eat chicken, and he made a hundred chickens stewed with mushrooms, and as a result, he was served by Yang Zirong.
Mountain eagles love to eat chicken. Photo/Movie "Wise Tiger Mountain"
In South Korea, the rise of fried chicken and beer for catering CP is actually not many years old, but since the heroine Qian Songyi's line "It's snowing, how can there be no fried chicken and beer" in "You from the Stars" has exploded on the Internet, even the people of Wudaokou in the center of the universe are eating Korean fried chicken.
Eat fried chicken in Wudaokou, fried chicken in People's Square, fried chicken in the office late at night, fried chicken in the loneliness of refusing to sleep... In short, fried chicken may be the most positive food in the world, celebrating you when you succeed and comforting you when you fail.
However, such a thing as fried chicken is too difficult to think about, too difficult to taste, too disrespectful to the ingredients, and cantonese people who are mouthy may have reservations. A chicken breaks out of its shell, from twittering to clucking, it is not easy to grow, it is going to die, but it is just wrapped in paste, thrown into the frying pan, and becomes fried chicken... How does this work for chickens?
<h1>Nine stars arch illuminate the ingredients needed for white cut chicken. Photo: "Grandpa's Kitchen"</h1>
Cantonese people eat chicken, talking about "etiquette"
China is a big country of food and a country of etiquette, and there are many ways to respect chicken, such as white cutting, soup boiling, mud wrapping, steaming, palace explosion, stewing and so on. In order to make the chickens go decently, the chefs in the north and south of the river racked their brains to exert the life value of chickens to the extreme, and came up with famous foods such as Guangdong white cut chicken, Jiangsu Guifei chicken, Xinjiang large plate chicken, Guizhou spicy chicken, Hainan Wenchang chicken, Hong Kong chicken stewed wings, Sichuan Gongbao chicken diced chicken, northeast chicken stewed mushrooms and so on.
A chicken born in China has a vast world of its own. China's chicken eating history is about 7000 to 8000 years, probably the world's earliest chicken country, which is estimated from the chicken skeleton left over from the ancients. The oracle bone also has the word "chicken", which is the shape of the sound word "Xi" next to "bird". China is also the main distribution of red original chicken, in 2004, many countries of scientists published the genome map of red original chicken, Darwin proposed that the domestic chicken originated from red original chicken has been confirmed.
Nice red original chicken. Photo: Subramanya C K
Chinese love to eat chicken, which is also related to the auspicious meaning of chicken. In the ancient Chinese founding myth, the chicken appeared earlier than the human, and was an animal that was kneaded out of mud on the first day of the nuwa niangniang. And chicken chirping in the sky, smelling the chicken dancing, wins the championship and other sayings, more bright and vibrant symbols. Nowadays, people must eat chicken in the New Year, which is a continuation of the New Year food customs formed by the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties - the ancients liked to beg for good luck in the New Year.
And this kind of chicken-eating consumer psychology has been inherited by the more exquisite Cantonese and carried forward. Not only to eat chicken during the New Year's Festival, but also to be inseparable from chickens, so there is a saying that "no chicken is no feast", which shows that the status of chickens in Guangdong is extraordinary.
At banquets in Guangdong, white cut chicken is a must-have dish. Photo: 15yan
There is chicken on the table, so the dish is perfect. Cantonese people with a mouth are particularly picky about the breed of chickens, and mostly choose local varieties with relatively good quality, such as Yangshan chicken, Shalan chicken, apricot blossom chicken, Huaixiang chicken, three-yellow bearded chicken, Qingyuan ma chicken and so on.
The common characteristics of these varieties are small size, slow growth, low reproductive rate, and long feeding time, so the meat quality is particularly good, the most suitable for "white cutting", which can show the original taste of the chicken itself. That kind of white-feathered chicken that is catalyzed by 45 days of fattening? Please, they only deserve to be thrown into the frying pan and fried so that their mother will not recognize it.
No matter what kind of chicken, it is better to walk on the ground.
As for how to eat chickens, there are countless more. Guangzhou's particularly famous signature chickens alone include the salt-baked chicken of Dongjiang Hotel, the crispy chicken of Datong Restaurant, the flower carved chicken of Beiyuan Restaurant, the Wenchang chicken of Guangzhou Restaurant, the garden perfume chicken of Panxi Restaurant, the Taiye chicken of Zhou Shengji, the Qingping Chicken of Qingping Hotel, and the roadside chicken of Jiuji...
Don't know which one to eat? It doesn't matter, you just find a restaurant to order a white cut chicken, the product will not be bad. After all, if you open a Cantonese restaurant in Guangdong, if you can't even make chicken, you are not qualified to mix.
White cut chicken dipped in ginger is a more mainstream way to eat. Photo/ Songxinxie
As for the Greater Guangdong region, almost every place has a famous chicken on the side of the shock, such as the Zhuhou chicken in Foshan, the Yiji chicken in Zhanjiang, the bean sauce chicken in Chaozhou, the mud kiln chicken in Huizhou, the white cut chicken in Zhanjiang, and the sesame oil chicken in Huazhou... In addition to the thin skin of the chicken and the smooth meat, the taste of the sauce is a local must, as if it is secretly passed on, and it is difficult to eat the same taste in the field.
It is perfectly normal to drive for hours from the Guangdong and Shenzhen regions to the remote northern and western Guangdong provinces, just to eat a plate of chicken.
Huazhou sesame oil chicken. Photo/See Maoming
The most expensive Cantonese cuisine is chicken, not abalone wing belly
Cantonese people really love chickens with their lives. If the breeding of chickens in the past has been high standards and strict requirements, then the emergence of "special chickens" is simply amazing of their endless pursuit of chicken breeds and ingenious breeding creativity.
The "sunflower chicken" that grows up in the million sunflower garden, the "cordyceps chicken" that eats insects and eats grass and natural feeding, the "sandalwood chicken" that grows up eating precious medicinal materials, the "corn chicken" that grows up eating corn... These chickens are herded in beautiful places, drinking spring water, listening to music, enjoying a natural and happy life, and living more comfortably than people. Guangdong people who advocate healthy health care believe that loving chicken is loving life, and the happiness of chicken is the happiness of people.
Sunflower chickens that eat sunflower seeds. Photo/sohu
Sunflower chicken. Photo/ifeng
In today's increasingly rich material life, chicken is no longer a rare ingredient. Then, these chickens raised with their lives have become another kind of food luxury.
Among the traditional Cantonese dishes, hong kongers' favorite italian dish "phoenix swallowing wings" can be said to be an old-school luxury. This soup dish, which is both expensive and luxurious, was once very popular on high-end food tables. The phoenix is a chicken, and is now called "chicken pot wings", which is often used to joke about "rubbing a meal". However, all the extravagant "abalone wings belly", if there is no "phoenix" background, I am afraid that it will be greatly lost, and even let the valuable ingredients lose their value.
The reason is that the abalone wing belly should have a taste, and it all depends on the broth to simmer. Broth, which used to be referred to as chicken soup, was left to cook for other dishes after a long time, precisely for the purpose of freshening. This chicken soup is where the soul lies.
The Qing Palace Fire Phoenix swallows its wings. Photo/jipin
Therefore, it is the chicken that is precious, not the wings. Although the phoenix swallows the wings, it is precious, but if there is no "phoenix" finishing touch, any high-level "wings" are useless. Therefore, shark fin soup can be replaced, with people's environmental awareness improved, shark fin will gradually withdraw from the table, and then the people of Guangdong will use other ingredients to match, continue to eat chicken with taste.
Without any high-grade ingredients, it is the most common material on the street, and Cantonese people can make chicken high-grade. For example, the "Four Treasures Yuan Belly Chicken" uses bamboo wire chicken, that is, black chicken, which is also known as "White Phoenix" in Guangdong. Put the whole glutinous rice, red dates and lotus seeds into the chicken belly, then wrap the whole white phoenix in pork belly and simmer in the broth until soft. After taking it out, break open the pork belly and chicken belly, the three treasures inside have become delicious baked rice, and the bamboo silk chicken that usually eats more "chai" also absorbs the sweet aroma of the three treasures and the tenderness of the pork belly, which will definitely make you eat "licking and licking".
Four treasures yuan belly bamboo silk chicken. Figure/openrice
Cantonese people who like health care naturally do not forget to put a little Chinese herbal medicine in the chicken soup. The famous "Yellow Wine Phoenix Swallowing Pigeon" is stewed with yellow wine and Chinese medicine, and it is said that this dish originated from the legendary "Cao Cao Chicken", which was used by Cao Aqi to cure headaches.
Before stewing, a few pigeon eggs should be put into the belly of the pigeon, then the whole pigeon should be put into the belly of the chicken, and then the whole chicken should be put into the soup with rice wine and water, and the Chinese medicine packet made of tianma, cinnamon and fennel should be added and stewed for several hours. When the last dish is served, the chicken soup emits the fragrance of Chinese medicine, there are pigeons after the chicken belly is broken, and there are pigeon eggs in the belly of the pigeon, which are delicious and rich in layers, and do not stop until the end.
Therefore, the people of Guangdong who are mouthy will not treat any chicken badly. From the shed food stalls to the CBD's premium eateries, chicken is a well-deserved signature dish that is enjoyed equally by people of all walks of life.
Yellow wine phoenix swallows pigeons. Photo/Headline Daily
Only by understanding chickens can we understand Cantonese people
Chicken is not only the soul of Cantonese cuisine, but also a key to understanding Cantonese people.
The Cantonese diet pays attention to the pickiness of chickens, which is actually a kind of respect for food. The "chicken culture" of cantonese dialect also gathers the humor of Cantonese people, and the laughter and anger are full of love for life.
In Cantonese slang, "chicken" is undoubtedly the animal with the strongest sense of existence, and its uses are extremely extensive: there is a kind of luck, called "clinging to the chicken"; there is a mistake, called "walking chicken"; there is a kind of busyness, called "Tengji"; there is a kind of benefit, called "fishing chicken"; there is a kind of laziness, called "stealing chicken"; there is a kind of looking away, called "chicken blindness"; there is a kind of commanding the overall situation, called "blowing chicken"; there is a kind of rubbing and drinking, called "pineapple chicken"; there is a dilemma, called "falling soup chicken"...
In fast food restaurants, simple white cut chicken soy sauce chicken rice is the most common delicacy. Figure/openrice
The "chicken culture" slang is humorous, and there is no sense of showing off or laughing, good times or bad times, laugh, praise without ridicule, self-deprecation and not thinness, is a kind of humor that is equal and self-effacing.
There are also two similar kinds of "chickens", which can be described as the most appropriate for Cantonese people - there is an environment called "jing ji", and there is an action called "jing ji ji".
Scholar Ye Shuming once talked about the silence of Cantonese people in "Actually You Don't Understand Cantonese People", and complained about the notoriety of Guangdong people being rejected but still bearing xenophobic reputation. In fact, being sensitive to words and being sensitive to deeds has always been the characteristic of Guangdong people. South of the south, in such a "quiet chicken" place, a corner of the quiet chicken, has never delayed the Cantonese people to "quiet chicken chicken" to do things.
Eating chicken is the way of life of Cantonese people. Photo: Full time living
You have yours, I have mine, directions. No matter how much you say, it is still the most practical action.
If you have time to fight a war of words, it is better to do things well, work hard to make money, and eat chicken beautifully.
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