The key to judging whether a Shanxi person has a Shanxi soul or not depends on how he evaluates the noodles.
Most Shanxi people, as long as they talk about noodles, will have their eyes light up, subconsciously swallow their saliva, and are eager to come to a bowl in situ. A shanxi person who has traveled far away, if he can't eat a meal of noodles when he goes home, he can't dispel his homesickness.
But whenever a friend asks me: How do you Shanxi people eat noodles? I don't even know how to answer.
Because there are too many ways to eat noodles in Shanxi.
So much so that in the north, Guangshen, I want to judge whether a Shanxi noodle restaurant is authentic enough, just see if their noodles can support a category on the menu, it is enough.
Noodle combination
01
Steamed noodle army
/ To see how you eat /
Noodles are branded
Most people eat it for the first time, and they eat it.
The surface is loose and rough, and it is not as good as white gluten.
In order to make the noodles smooth enough, experienced Shanxi people will generally add a little starch to neutralize, then put a little salt, pour an appropriate amount of boiling water, quickly take chopsticks to "wrap" the noodles and hot water into a snowflake-shaped, and then use their hands and form a smooth dough.
When steaming the noodles, the elderly in the family often put a few sliced potatoes into it, wait for the steaming to come out of the cage, press it into mashed potatoes, and mix the dumplings together.
As long as the taste is smooth, it is considered to have done its part. The matter of taste has to be left to the cheeks. The noodles are meaty and vegetarian.
There are fewer vegetarian dishes, mainly tomatoes and eggs, with a little sour and sweet tomato soup juice is quickly absorbed by the dumplings, and then a little mashed potatoes, when the beauty of the carb bomb blooms on the tip of the tongue, you have no time to take care of anything else except for eating noodles.
Steamed noodles, but generally do not put ham sausages
There are countless possibilities for the combination of meat and cheeks. The most common thing is potato meat. Yes, it is potatoes again, in the recipes of Shanxi people, potatoes are the original ingredient of the noodles.
Potato meat with noodles
The noodles are chestnut
This honeycomb staple food is also one of the representatives of Shanxi noodles. The name is given because it resembles "笆斗", which is called "栳栳" in the local dialect.
Kind of similar to this
Some restaurants will pour the cheeks directly on the chestnuts, but this is only suitable for the immediate eating scene. Because once the cheeks are pressed on the chestnuts, the soup will destroy the tendons of the noodles, making the already loose surfaces softer.
The seeds are poured directly on the chestnuts
Shanxi people eat chestnuts at home, and the noodles and the cheeks are separated.
Scoop the chestnut into the bowl, tear some chestnut into it, mix until each roll of chestnut is wrapped in a spoon, and clip it up without dripping the soup, and it is the best time to eat.
The creeds and the bulwarks are separated
There are two criteria for measuring whether a chestnut is excellent, one is thin enough, and the other is "velvet" (Shanxi dialect, described as soft). And thin and "velvet", complement each other. Once thick, it will be dry and woody, very rough.
The thin and transparent chestnut not only retains the softness of the noodles, but also because the hand work is in place, there is a little more texture of the tendons, and the advantages of the noodles are brought to the extreme.
Very thin face chestnut
In the world of noodles in Shanxi, many steamed delicacies are deformed by the noodles, such as the caves.
Also known as 莜面洞, it is more common in the northwest of Shanxi, and you can understand it as a plus version of a chestnut stuffed with shredded potatoes. Yes, and the double slug is potatoes.
Peeled and washed potatoes, rubbed into thin strips with a rub, wrapped in a thin and soft oval dough skin, not sealed up and down, directly into the basket and steamed. The noodles are not sealed, and each one has a bare belly, like a roll of randomly rolled up, so it is also called begging (beggar) cover roll.
Cave
If you seal the hole and pinch it into a completely closed form, it is steamed dumplings.
But whether it is a cave or a dumpling, it is not dipped in vinegar to eat, the old man likes to dip in the "brine" in his own pickled sauerkraut.
"Salt water" tastes as its name suggests, very salty, as long as a little, enough to eat a large bowl of noodles, can be said to be a hard time to fill the stomach of the memory. But the older the family, the more they like to dip the brine and mix sauerkraut when eating the noodles.
Although this way of eating is not difficult to eat, it is really monotonous, and the younger generation likes a richer way to eat when eating noodle holes and dumplings.
This richness is not only reflected in the dishes in the buns, but also in the abundance of caves and steamed dumpling fillings.
Adding a little shredded radish to the shredded potatoes is just a routine operation, and the law of "rolling everything" in green onions, garlic sprouts, celery shreds, and even bean sprouts applies to the steamed dumplings.
Steamed dumplings
Dough is a dough
Put the dough the size of a little thumb on the abdomen of the thumb and rub it into the shape of a cat's ear, which is a dough that can be steamed or boiled. In the family, it is generally rarely made into separate dishes, mainly because of the trouble of production.
When making a dumpling or a bird, the little bit of noodles left or the noodles stuck to the bed of the bird will often be kneaded into a ball, which is considered to be the best use of things and never wasted.
02
Lonely boiled noodles
/ But wins in styling /
Fish is almost the only category of noodles that is "best to use cold water and noodles", and the colder the water, the harder the noodles.
Every grandmother of shanxi people has rubbed a good hand of fish and fish.
Kneading fish, like dumplings, requires a dough squeeze first. But instead of pulling the dough into small balls, it is made into a cylindrical thick dough, sandwiched between the index and middle fingers of the left hand.
The right hand pulls a little noodle down, puts it in the palm of the hand, folds it, and rubs it and presses it, which is a small fish.
Shanxi people make noodles and eat noodles, their eyes can not tolerate sand, there are large and small fish, not a pot of good fish. Qualified fish must be the same size and thickness, and the placement is very exquisite, can not be stacked at will, must be neatly arranged.
Rub the noodles with fish
The practice of fish and fish is roughly divided into two types, one is "fish in the pot" and the other is "stewed fish fish".
Under the pot of fish and fish generally first burn oil stir-fry, diced potatoes, diced radish, diced beans, meat foam and other dishes to fry out the aroma, add water to boil, down into the kneaded fish, wait for the soup boiling noodles to cook, catch a bowl of steaming boiled fish and fish, even the soup with noodles suck down the belly, fiercely sweaty, eat a thick soup gluten noodles.
Fish fish under the pot
The process of braising fish is slightly more complicated, first steam the fish, then fry with the side dishes, wait until the side dishes are cooked, add a little water, cover the pot and simmer until the soup is put away, and you are done.
Braised fish pay attention to the "red and green" collocation, generally will put in beans, radish shredded color, stewed to quick dry soup to hang on the noodles, so that the color of soy sauce wrapped in the gray and dark of the noodles, it can be said that this is the noodles look the most able to mobilize appetite.
Braised noodle fish
03
Fried noodles despise chains
/ Leftovers can also eat flowers /
Shanxi people are at home, in fact, they rarely eat fried noodles. The steamed noodles used for stir-frying are usually leftovers at noon.
The fried leftover noodles are completely amorphous, depending on what dishes are left at home. Even the noodles that have not been eaten at noon can be used on the spot and work closely with the remaining noodles again.
But if you think that stir-fried noodles are leftovers, you have missed the peak of the delicious taste of the noodles.
Steamed and then fried, the noodles not only retain the original taste of the noodles, but also have the blessing of oil and pot gas, with a little green onion, a stir-fried noodles with a little caramel flavor, with a soothing magic.
Stir-fried noodles, fish and fish
But in the fried noodles, there is also a chain of delicious contempt.
Fried noodles are the most difficult to say, although the loose structure of the noodles increases the elasticity, but it is easy to break after all. If you are not careful, the bird will break into a "thread", if you don't abandon it, you can also call it a slag. Any food that breaks into slag is difficult to eat, two, three or four, and can only be at the bottom of the chain of contempt for fried noodles.
Stir-fried chestnut chestnut is a more recommended choice, the stir-fry process is cut into pieces of chestnut, with slices of meat, peppers, and a little cabbage, absolutely worthy of the title of delicious in the world.
Stir-fried noodles
Fried noodles and fried dumplings are the presence of everything overlooking the noodles. Without him, mainly because I stepped on the law of "potatoes + noodles = delicious".
The noodle hole and the dumplings are cut into strips before being fried. After the aroma of onion, ginger and garlic is fried, the noodles appear, accompanied by the "background music" of "hissing and hissing", and the aroma of shredded potatoes and noodles rises and falls, and in the process of stir-frying, it wins everything.
The practice of noodles is varied and difficult to master, but because of this, it has become a unique existence that carries the memory of family affection. Even my mother, who is nearly 50 years old, often calls my 75-year-old grandmother to ask for directions when she makes noodles. After eating, she even had to "call her mother" to review: the noodles were not and the tendons arrived, asking for guidance; inventing new toppings, asking for praise.
It can be said that the moment of a middle-aged daughter's pampering to her white-haired mother is all hidden in her replay phone.
Although it is difficult to eat the liveliness of the "Sea and Sky Feast", it is this homely feeling that is the most difficult to replace. So that whenever Shanxi people see the noodles, it is as if they have returned to their hometown.
What is the food that carries your nostalgia for your hometown? Come and leave a message to tell the editor