Tianshui snacks, top croak
The historical and cultural atmosphere is endlessly evocative
Tianshui Croak
Locally sourced snacks can highlight the local material culture and social life style, which is an indispensable and important feature of a region, and it is also the main carrier of the nostalgia of the wanderers who leave their hometown. Eat a variety of snacks in Tianshui, in addition to the abundant ingredients, wonderful cooking skills, the rich historical and cultural atmosphere is even more evocative!
In Yusheng Lane in Tianshui District, we tasted a long-established Tianshui Quak. The size of a basin made of soba noodles, with its characteristic yellow-brown color, emits a delicate fragrance on the board.
When the hostess grabbed the croak, she wore transparent gloves and kept pinching her thumb, index finger and middle finger, and the action was full of rhythm.
In the blue and white porcelain-colored sea bowl, a brass spoon is flying, and the spices such as sesame sauce, chili oil, salt, vinegar, and garlic juice fall into the bowl one by one. Mix the condiments full of various aromas, and the fiery, red bowl will make people's fingers move. Lifting chopsticks, soft tendons, noisy croaks, sour and spicy, making it difficult to stop chopsticks.
Legend has it that in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, the mother of a generation of tyrants especially liked to eat soba noodle cold powder. Although Kui Huan lived on the battlefield licking blood on the tip of a knife and trying to compete with Liu Xiu for the world, he was very filial and often cooked for his mother to make her favorite snacks. Once, the fire was too big, and inadvertently the bottom of the pot was burned, and the kitchen was filled with a mushy smell. Kui Huan sighed and was about to pour it out and make a pot again, but the mother who was beside her said not to waste the grain and insisted on taking it and tasting it.
Food is often born inadvertently. The couple found that the charred soba noodle powder at the bottom of the pot was more fragrant than ever. The unique aroma of soba noodles becomes more intense just because of such a little paste. Since then, Kui's chefs have deliberately scorched some of them when making soba noodle cold powder. This practice spread to the people.
The cold powder that has been pasted into the pot is very sticky, and it needs to scrape off the cold powder at the bottom of the pot to eat, and over time, this cold powder with a paste flavor is called croak.
Why such a strange name? First, because when eating it, the spatula will scrape the bottom of the pot to "croak", and secondly, the taste of the croak is indeed beautiful.
Nowadays, in the streets and alleys of Tianshui, it can be seen everywhere and has become the most local snack in Tianshui. If you don't eat a bowl of croaks in the morning, it seems that your intentions will become depressed.
Qin An belly silk soup
In addition to the famous pulp water surface, we also tasted a pot of food with the same strong acidity in Tianshui - belly soup from Qin An.
It is said that authentic old food eats belly soup and will definitely come to Tianshui. The key reason why belly silk soup can become a unique snack in Qin'an is the particularity of Qin'an's water quality, and the belly silk soup made with water from other places is far less delicious than Qin'an belly silk soup.
Ask the chef the secret, it turns out that Qin'an's water is alkaline, the acidity of the soup and vinegar that is burned is neutralized, and the aroma naturally comes out, sour and spicy, delicious, and unique flavor.
The wonderful use of sour and spicy belly soup is to warm the spleen and stomach, and has the effect of refreshing the stomach and warming the body and driving away the cold. After the oil is boiled, sauté the shallots, ginger, garlic and dried chili peppers to taste, then simmer in a pan with balsamic vinegar and add the stock prepared in advance. Once the soup has boiled, add salt, chicken essence, monosodium glutamate, white wine and pepper to the soup.
Belly soup seems simple, but many people can't hold the proportion of ingredients, either sour blinking, or spicy frowns, it is not easy to make this dish, mainly depending on the chef's craftsmanship and experience.
In March of Tianshui, all the flowers rushed to besiege the city with spring rain, but the early spring still refused to fade the winter clothes. In such a season, drinking a bowl of hot belly soup warm and cold, it is comfortable to think about.
Tianshui flat food
Flat food
Regarding the origin of the term "flat food", the north is collectively called flat food, also known as dumplings or dumplings. Dumplings can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, with a history of more than 900 years.
In the long course of history, the name "flat food" has gradually disappeared, and it is surprising that the title of "flat food" has been retained in the daily life of Tianshui people.
Friends said that in Tianshui, flat food and dumplings are different, from the appearance, the skin of dumplings is round, while the skin of flat food is trapezoidal. In my opinion, flat food seems to "look" the same as wontons. But flat food is bigger than wontons, and the bun is filled with more than wontons.
Tianshui people prefer vegetarian stuffed flat food. As for the side dishes with vegetarian fillings, they vary depending on the season. The tianshui flat food is eaten in two ways: dry mix and soup: dry mix, which can almost be equivalent to dumplings, but its skin seems to be thinner, closer to wontons.
Dry-mixed flat foods have a stronger flavor because they are better wrapped in chili oil. Isn't the one with the soup more like wontons? In fact, its ingredients are much richer, can be meat, can also be vegetarian, there is an indispensable dashing temperament.
No meat is not happy, of course I have to choose to have meat cheeks.
Carefully observe the side dishes in the bowl of vegetarian flat food in front of you: there are spinach, kelp shreds, egg shreds, fungus, coriander, etc., of course, the floating pork belly in the soup is my favorite "little cute"!
Friends recommended that you have the opportunity to go to Qingshui County and try the local hemp and flat food. Hemp is abundant in Towns such as Shanmen and Qinting in Qingshui, and hemp rotten flat food made with hemp seed kernels and tofu for filling is a treasure in the taste.
Smack your lips and enjoy the delicious food in front of you.
Top the side dish with a few spoonfuls of red oil and fry it fragrantly enough that the spiciness is gentle. Such a bowl of red, white, yellow, black and green, color, aroma, taste, shape of the Tianshui vegetarian flat food on the table, how can you not be moved?
Tianshui teppanyaki
The first time I tasted the delicacy of teppanyaki, it was not in Lanzhou, but in Tianshui.
Teppanyaki is also a famous food in Tianshui. Why so many people love teppanyaki, because the iron plate used can quickly reach and accurately maintain a high temperature of more than 300 degrees Celsius, the ingredients can be rapidly matured, the maximum retention of the nutrition of the ingredients, in a variety of spicy ingredients under the impetus, the slightly pyrotechnic similar to the barbecue taste is unforgettable.
Twenty years ago, in a market near People's Square in Qinzhou District, there were four or five teppanyaki shops operating on the street. Teppanyaki lamb, teppanyaki fatty intestines, small yellow croakers, bean skins, potato shreds, etc., are basically home-cooked dishes and emit a strong fragrance in the air.
This time, I came to the "fat teppanyaki" of the pedestrian street to see if I could find the taste memories of the past. I ordered four dishes of squid, lamb, tofu and shredded potatoes, all of which were made on a very heavy iron plate, and the plate was a bit like an ancient Yantai, which felt very simple and strange.
The surface of the ingredients on the iron plate is burnt, the inside is juicy and delicate, and the aroma is overflowing, which is the charm of the iron plate. After the lamb is fried on a teppanyaki, it makes a "whooshing" sound, which is delicious and has no smell. The squid is decent, but it's also delicious when served with onions. Iron plate frying not only ensures that the fat is not lost in the high temperature, but also the combination of various homemade sauces reduces the greasy feeling of the meat, but also maintains the delicious taste of the meat, the taste is plump and full, delicious and delicious.
Freshly eaten teppanyaki pursues tenderness in the taste, whether it is meat, seafood or mushroom vegetables, they strive to cook in the shortest possible time, so that it can firmly lock in the moisture, so as not to become dry and tasteless, so the vegetarian dishes on the teppanyaki have a different flavor. Especially recommended is the teppanyaki tofu, which is tender on one side and charred on the other, and the taste is super good.
Text/Photo Pocket Lanzhou Lanzhou Morning Post reporter Liu Xiaolei