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This article was published in Sanlian Life Weekly, No. 2-3, 2020, the original title is "The Choice of Rice Snacks", it is strictly forbidden to reprint it privately, and infringement will be investigated

In addition to rice noodles, there are more options for rice snacks in Hunan. If you want to taste more at a time, changsha's fire palace is a good place to start. Because there is a fire temple here, the incense is exuberant, and many food stalls have gathered in the Republic of China era. Now the "snack kingdom" in the fire palace is to echo the old pattern. The Fire Palace is not only a punch card for tourists, but also a place frequented by locals, and the food products are superior. But if you are particularly fond of a certain kind of rice product, you may wish to go to a few more places to compare, the same kind of snack, different shops, have a richer interpretation.

Chief Writer /Qiu Lian

Intern reporter / Liang Zilin Jia Yuxin

Photography / Yu Chuzhong

Rice snacks from "Fire Palace"

Sisters

Sister Dumplings is one of the most prestigious snacks in Changsha Fire Palace, originating from the Fire Palace and almost exclusive here. This kind of steamed dumplings made with glutinous rice fine flour as the main raw material, the color is porcelain white, and is usually sold in pairs. Among them, a high, top, flat bottom is the "sister" sweet dumplings, Beiliu sugar, osmanthus sugar, red date meat mixed and stir-fried sugar filling is melted in the mouth, sweet and fragrant; a short, round, spherical is the "sister" salty dumplings, the meat filling inside is to take pork with five flowers, with shiitake mushrooms, some people will also use the water of the soaked mushrooms to prepare the meat filling, making the taste more mellow and delicious. If you encounter a festive day such as the New Year's Festival, you can also sprinkle some red silk on the sugar dumplings, which is more pleasing to the eye with the red and white of the jade snow crystal dumplings themselves.

The sisters got their name not only because of their form, but also from their makers, a pair of Jiang sisters in Changsha. In the early 1920s, the Jiang sisters set up a stall selling glutinous rice dumplings in the Fire Palace polder. The dumplings they make sell exquisitely, soft and sticky, so they are deeply loved by diners, and some diners simply name them "sister dumplings", and this name has spread. The appearance and practice of the sisters were created and retained by the Jiang sisters at that time. This has also been recorded in Changsha folk songs from generation to generation: "Fire palace, everything is there; there are rice and vegetables, there is sweet wine, and there is sugar, salt and vinegar root; fried tofu spraying incense, sister dumplings count two ginger..."

Sugar oil

Hunan people have an extreme pursuit of sweetness, just like this sugar oil soup, which is an extremely sweet thing for me, and one or two bites can not be more. But in the local area, both men and women, young and old, are full of enthusiasm for it. When you meet the right stall, one person holds a copy, and his face will be filled with happiness.

Hunan people call round cake-like food called 粑粑. The old-fashioned method of sugar oil and sugar oil requires the use of ice flake sugar from Guangxi. The sugar is golden, melted into a syrup in a frying pan, and the wet glutinous rice flour is kneaded into a circle and fried. Oil temperature is the key to success. If the temperature is too high, the color of the sugar and oil is black and the color is bitter; if the temperature is not enough, the crispy hard shell of the epidermis cannot be formed. The right size of the sugar oil cane, the color is golden, the outer skin is crisp and hard, the inner core is soft and sticky, and it is pulled up and brushed. Shops that do it according to tradition should recommend "Liu Ji" located at the entrance of the Lotus Pond Vegetable Market on Cai Yi North Road. The owner Liu Zhongqiu and his wife Liao Xizhen began to sell sugar oil and rice dumplings in 1991, making more than 3,000 per day, and the techniques were quite skilled. Sugar oil must be eaten out of the pan, otherwise the outside becomes hard, it is not easy to bite.

The "Golden Candy Oil Tuotuo" at 55 College Street is even more popular, and the queue is to be thrown into the alley on the side. It is in the shape of a round ball, worn on a wooden skewer, and the texture is a little harder, so it is called a lump. There is also a way to cook glutinous rice balls in sugar water, which is a new type of sugar oil rice dumpling, which was the first for the Fire Palace. This is done to prevent the taste of the fried sugar oil from getting cold after it has cooled. Although this improvement is no longer authentic, it can preserve the flavor for a long time after it is cooked, and it is suitable for restaurant operations. It can be seen that the local people are addicted to sugar and oil, and there are special tips written on the table of the fire palace to remind the elderly to be careful when eating.

Rice tofu

Ordinary tofu is a soy product, while hunan rice tofu is made of rice. Rice should take non-sticky indica rice as well, japonica rice and glutinous rice because of their strong stickiness, are not suitable for making rice tofu. After soaking the rice overnight and washing and refining the pulp, the rice tofu is similar to making ordinary tofu, and the "brine" is also added. The local practice in Hunan is to use grass and wood ash or lime water to point brine, and now it is also changed to edible alkali. At this time, the rice milk is put into a large washed pot, first boiled on high heat, then turned to low heat, and stirred continuously during the boiling process. Wait until the rice milk is viscous and tofu-like, then turn off the heat and cool.

The cooled rice tofu is smoother and more delicate than ordinary tofu. In order to avoid sticking to the knife, you can use cotton thread to cut it into chunks and strips, and then cook it according to your preference, which is more common practice of stir-frying with minced meat, peppers, onions, ginger and garlic. However, in different parts of Hunan, the color and eating method of rice tofu are different: for example, Changsha's rice tofu is dyed yellow with yellow gardenia water, while Changde and other areas will add vegetable juice to make it green; for example, Chenzhou's rice tofu likes to heat up and eat in soup, while Xiangxi region has to add minced chili peppers and tomato sauce as toppings. As far as Changsha is concerned, such as the braised rice tofu of the "One Lantern" restaurant, which is soft and thick, the spiciness is moderate, and the rice is extraordinarily cooked; the small fried rice tofu of the "Juanjuan Restaurant" is not heavy, fragrant and sticky, and it is closer to the homely flavor; the sour winter melon rice tofu of "Wu HouDe Tang" is sour and spicy appetizer, which is unique. Outside hunan, Sichuan, Hubei, Guizhou, Jiangxi and other places are also popular rice tofu this dish, the method is from cold mixing to frying and frying and frying.

If the rice tofu has not yet cooled, let the rice milk naturally flow out of the mold with small holes, fall into the cold water into a round ball, and make another Changsha special snack - white grain pills. Boil a pot of bone broth or chicken broth, put out a bowl sprinkled with salt, green onions, sesame oil, and diced row of winter vegetables, oil radish, sauce squeezed vegetable heads, small yellow dried peppers, and then cook the white balls in water, fish out and put them in the soup bowl. The white pill of the Fire Palace is the base of chicken soup, salty, spicy and fragrant, and widely acclaimed.

Shallot oil

Shallot oil 粑粑 is a kind of round cake with a hollow middle and a shallot sandwich. However, unlike the northern shallot oil cake, Hunan's shallot oil is made of rice, and japonica rice is generally selected as the main raw material, and some glutinous rice and soybeans can also be added. After soaking the japonica rice for 6 to 8 hours, drain and grind the flour, add a small amount of leftover rice, add water, chopped shallots and salt and other condiments and stir well. Then let stand for 30 minutes to allow the rice paste to ferment fully, and then you can leave the pan. When the oil is 60% or 70% hot, scoop a spoonful of rice paste into the oil pan with a round, iron rod in the middle of the mold, and turn the rice paste into the mold after setting, fry until both sides are golden brown.

The best thing to eat is the crisp and crisp shell on the outside, and when it comes out of the pan, it takes a bite, and the heat and aroma all come out together. The cake inside is fluffy and soft, and the shallots are still green. Scallion oil can be counted as one of the most common snacks on the streets of Hunan, and an inconspicuous cart in the alley may have this kind of delicious and inexpensive food. For example, in Changsha, Xinghanmen's "Xiangtan Onion Oil Dumplings" has many green onions and fresh, the oil is not greasy, and the fried rice dumplings are more crispy; the "Xiangtan Yige Shallot Oil Dumplings" at the entrance of the South Gate Vegetable Market is fluffy and large, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Although these two are small stalls, they are quite famous in the local area.

Sugar dumplings

Although Changsha sugar dumplings contain the word "dumplings", their appearance is far from the familiar folded yuanbao shape. According to folklore researcher Ren Dameng, the dumplings of sugar dumplings are the harmonic sounds of "qiao" or "twisted". This kind of snack made of glutinous rice fried is the "beggar fruit" that the ancient Changsha people ate during the Tanabata Festival. The appearance of the sugar dumplings is fluffy, and a bite of the golden crispy skin, the powdered sugar melts in the mouth, and the hot glutinous rice inside is still sweet and fluffy.

To make sugar dumplings, it is necessary to use round glutinous rice from Hunan to grind the pulp, so that after doing a good job, it is enough to "fin" and pull out the filament. After kneading the dough, the left and right hands hold the two ends and twist them into an "S" shape, which is "twisting", which means concentricity. The oil temperature should be controlled under the frying pan, and while frying the glutinous rice core, ensure that the outer skin is not charred. Drain the oil slick, put it in a sugar bowl and roll it, and take advantage of the high temperature to coat the golden crispy skin with a layer of powdered sugar. The powdered sugar neutralizes the grease and keeps the crust crisp, which was called "Golden Wind and Jade Dew Meets" in the old days.

In the 1970s and 1980s, sugar dumplings were a popular food in Changsha. The sweet-loving man was anxious to eat hot mouths, and even licked the powdered sugar clean after eating. The traditional old taste is still hidden in the ordinary alley, and many "sand yards" (native Changsha people) go to the rice barn alley to buy a "white sugar dumpling" made by a Xiangtan couple, which is authentic and more crisp than the old-fashioned sugar dumplings. The sugar dumplings of the "Lu ge Hotel" on Beizheng Street are wrapped in bean flour, which is a little more delicate. The chefs of the Hunan restaurant make sugar dumplings into exquisite Xiang dim sum. The sugar dumplings of "Wu Hou De Tang" are shaped with cheng noodles in addition to the pure glutinous rice flour to retain the upright shape.

Wick cake

The name of the wick cake was taken by the Ming dynasty. The ancient method of making wick cake is not only white and soft, shaped like the wick of an oil lamp, but also has a cinnamon fragrance after being lit with fire - the ingredient of the wick cake is high-quality late glutinous rice, supplemented by lard and cinnamon extracted from cinnamon oil. Holding a stick in your mouth, the sweetness of glutinous rice is wrapped around the spicy taste of cinnamon oil, leaving a hint of licorice, mint and other herbs cool.

There is a legend about the origin of the wick cake in Xiangtan: a poor student rushed home to find that the old mother was seriously ill and unconscious, and had a wick in her mouth. Shusheng rummaged around at home, found the only remaining bit of glutinous rice, quickly ground and put sugar, steamed it and cut it into a wick shape, and fed it to his mother one by one, who woke up. Shusheng's urgent middle life wisdom has been improved by folk workshops, and the production process is more exquisite. First of all, the glutinous rice is fried and ground into a fine cake powder, the cotton white sugar is boiled with water, and the lard and cinnamon oil are added, and the tank is fermented for several days to make "bubble gum". The flour and bubble gum are mixed in proportions, and the traditional practice is to sprinkle red silk – made from orange peel. After potting, scoop the cake from the corner of the pot to the center, compact it firmly and put it into the steamer. Steamed cakes can only be cut into threads after they have been dried, and experienced teachers can cut 5 mm wide wires with a broad knife.

As early as the Qing Xianfeng period, the wick cake that is not tired of eating is listed as a "first-class specialty" at the National Famous Specialty Products Expo. Nowadays, many old brands in Hunan still retain their old craftsmanship. Traditional cord wick cakes can be tasted at oil shops such as Ma Fusheng, Sullivan, nanbeite and other oil shops in Changsha and the "Yihezhai Pastry" house in Xiangtan, but they may be out of stock around the New Year.

Eight treasure rice

An authentic Changsha Chinese New Year's Eve meal is inseparable from the eight treasure fruit rice at the end. The combination of "Eight Treasures" is slightly different from each family, which can be red dates, lotus seeds, orange cakes, green and red silk, cinnamon balls, goji berries, winter melon sugar, and raisins. In the fire palace, the chef stir-fried these ingredients in lard, mixed the glutinous rice that had been soaked for two hours with them, and steamed them for half an hour. The steamed sticky rice is upside down on a plate topped with sugar and water. Eight treasure rice is also served in small portions at the Fire Palace, made with small abrasives so that diners will not be full and only taste it.

The Eight Treasures Fruit Rice, which is based on agricultural civilization, has also been innovated with the development of the times. During the Republic of China period, Xu Changxing Roast Duck Shop created the original "dry fried chicken fat eight treasure rice", mixed with chicken fat, the eight treasure rice fried into two sides of the golden brown; contemporary Hunan cuisine famous chef Xu Juyun also created a double flavor eight treasure rice, in addition to the "sweet eight treasures" added "salty eight treasures": golden hook, ham, Yaozhu, squid, sea cucumber, shiitake mushrooms, chicken breast, fat meat, made of eight treasure rice is red and white Tai Chi pattern.

Nowadays, Changsha families rarely make their own Eight Treasure Rice, and most of them go to the supermarket to order Eight Treasure Fruit Rice during the New Year's Festival. A bowl of Eight Treasure Rice condenses rich legends and imagery: the lotus seed is transformed from the two immortals of Hehe, symbolizing the harmony of marriage; the guiyuan symbolizes reunion; the kumquat symbolizes auspiciousness... The sweetness and crispness of the dried fruit, the softness of the glutinous rice, and the mellowness of the lard are all melted in the beautiful expectation of the coming year.

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