I remember when I was a child, a group of children often surrounded a mobile iron pot in the market, and everyone looked at the dried potato flour and dried beans rolling in the oil pot and showed a salivating expression. At that time, a piece of dried potato flour and dried beans cost two cents, and the person who fried dried beans would cut it in half along the diagonal line, a small piece and a dime. Buying a few small pieces with pocket money and eating them wrapped in old paper is the most beautiful taste of childhood.
▲Jieyang potato flour dried beans
Later, he often shuttled around Chaoshan and ate the Dried Beans of JiexiBuzai, Puning Dried Beans, and Phoenix Floating Dried Beans thoroughly. All four are cooked through "stew" (fried), which is similar and very different, just as the Chaoshan culture is diverse in various places.
Although Chaoshan also has many regional characteristics of dried beans, such as Longhu Zhai dried beans and Chaozhou Gusu xiangfu, they are not as famous as the four fried dried beans mentioned above. I think Puning dried tofu, Jieyang potato flour dried tofu, Chaozhou phoenix dried tofu and Jiexi Buzai dried tofu are worthy of the four kings of Chaoshan dried tofu. As a Chaoshan person, you must eat thoroughly in this life, and your life is complete.
So what are these four? What are the same and different?
First, the king of dried beans - Puning dried beans
It is not an exaggeration to say that Puning dried tofu is the king of Chaoshan dried tofu, Puning has a variety of beans since ancient times, especially more soybeans, so Puning's soy products are famous.
Puning dried tofu has a characteristic, according to Puning dried tofu non-hereditary person Huang Chusheng said: "The characteristic of Puning dried tofu is that it has a skin, which is not found in other places. "Once the Puning dried tofu is fried to the point of bulging, it forms a separate state of skin and meat, with the hot air of the bulging in the middle, which is not seen by other dried tofu.
Yes, the authentic Puning dried tofu should be like the following picture, the skin and flesh of the dried tofu is if it is immediate, and what cannot achieve such an effect is fake Puning dried tofu.
▲Puning dried beans separated from skin and flesh
It is precisely for this reason that the contrast between the crispy outer and tender puning beans is particularly strong, and its taste level is extremely rich.
For Puning dried tofu, I think there are still a large number of non-Puning people who have a certain understanding of it. Because Jiexi has a kind of dried tofu that is more similar to it- Buzai dried tofu, which is often misrepresented as Puning dried tofu, let's talk about this kind of dried bean that is similar to it.
Second, it is often regarded as puning dried tofu - buzai dried tofu
Buzai dried tofu is a traditional snack in Jiexi, with a crispy outer skin and tender inner meat. In the markets of Jieximian Lake, Dongyuan, Tatou, Ash Village and other places, there are many stalls of dried fried beans.
Speaking of puzai dried tofu, many people think of it as Puning dried tofu. In the Pearl River Delta, many Chaoshan cold stalls or small food shops hang signs of Puning dried tofu and sell the fact that they are dried buzai tofu.
As for the difference between the two? I think that if a person has not eaten the two in contrast, it is difficult to understand what is different between the two, after all, the two are too similar, both are yellow on the outside and white on the inside, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, and it looks very similar to eating.
So what's the difference between the two? In terms of production process and taste, the proportion of potato flour in the dried buzai bean is slightly higher than that of Puning dried tofu, so the dried buzai bean is softer, smoother, and easier to deform. At the same time, because Puning tofu is skiny, the crispness of Puning tofu is the crispness of the skin and meat separation, and the crispness of the cloth bean jerky is the grainy crispness. (The comparison can be seen in the picture below, the upper is Puning dried tofu, the lower is Puzai dried tofu)
▲Puning dried tofu compared with Jiexibuzai dried tofu
It is estimated that everyone should compare and eat to be clear, in short, the two are different dried beans, and must not be confused. Here I would like to introduce you to two simple ways to judge Puning tofu and buzai dried tofu.
One is to look at the intaglio. Puning dried tofu will make a square intaglio effect in the middle of the dried tofu by pressing a small piece of wood, because the word "dry" is homophonous with the word "official", and the intaglio represents the official seal and represents the Puning people's yearning for a better life. Of course, it also has a substantial effect, by pressing a small wooden board in the middle of the dried tofu to help squeeze out the water, you can make the tofu become "dry" as soon as possible. This feature does not exist in the dried tofu of TheIss.
▲Puning dried tofu with official seal
Another way is to see if it is wrapped. Although both kinds of dried tofu are wrapped in cloth during the production process, Puning dried tofu is boiled under the cloth after the press is formed, and the dried tofu is steamed with the cloth, and it is not unpacked until it is sold or fried, thus protecting the dried tofu from being unchanged.
▲Cloth-wrapped dried tofu
Third, dried beans without beans - dried potato flour
The most dried potato flour and dried bean is in the Jieyang Jiedong area, its main raw material is potato flour, and does not contain soybeans, which is quite special. Dried potato flour and dried beans are a kind of dried beans without beans, and as for its name, it is probably named from the similarity of taste and shape to dried tofu.
▲Dried potato flour and beans without soybeans
Compared with the dried beans in other parts of Chaoshan Province, the color of dried potato flour is light gray (there was a red one before, but it has now been eliminated due to the addition of pigment), similar to the color of foreign sweet potato powder. In terms of taste, because of pure potato flour, the dried potato flour after frying is not as crisp as other dried beans, but has a special toughness. In terms of aroma, it is obviously potato flour aroma, not bean flavor.
▲Dried potato flour with outstanding toughness
Here Puning or Jiexi's friends may have a question?
Some people in Puning will call Puning dried tofu potato flour and dried beans, and some people in Jiexi will call buzai bean jerky as dried potato flour, why do these two also have such other names?
This is because Puning dried tofu will add 20% potato flour in the production, and the quality of potato flour is the most critical, followed by soybeans, so it is also called dried potato flour, there is a saying of "head powder two beans and three masters". The same is true of Jiexi's buzai dried tofu, except that its potato flour content is higher than that of Puning dried tofu. It is precisely because both contain potato flour, so they also have another name for dried potato flour.
Fourth, the smallest fresh dried tofu - phoenix dried tofu
In the past, when I went to Chaozhou Phoenix with my friends, it was always indispensable to eat a few pieces of phoenix dried beans to satisfy my appetite, and this thing was almost difficult to find in Chaozhou.
Compared with the above three kinds of dried tofu, Phoenix dried tofu has two more obvious difference points.
First, in the production of raw materials, the other three have added potato flour, but phoenix dried beans do not add potato flour, and its main raw material is soybeans.
▲A thinly shaped phoenix dried tofu
Second, in terms of eating method, it is different from the other three ways of eating that generally use brine as a dipping sauce. To eat phoenix dried tofu, you must pick "grass boy", wash it with water and eat it together with dried tofu, dipped in chili garlic vinegar and other sauces. The so-called "grass boy" is a mint-like herb, which in addition to having a mint flavor, also has this special bittersweet taste, which complements the refreshing dried tofu in taste.
▲ Grass boy
This is the four most famous fried dried beans in Chaoshan Province, which are tilted differently between beans and potato flour to form four flavors with different strengths. I don't think there are many Chaoshan people who can eat these four in its entirety.
A lot of people are asking where to eat? I think it, to eat authentic dried tofu everywhere, or to eat locally, after all, the production level of dried tofu has a great relationship with water quality, not this side of the water and soil, can not make that taste, and through long-distance transportation, the quality has also declined.
Eat Puning dried beans to quicksand, eat dried cloth beans to Jiexi Dongyuan or Mianhu, eat dried potato flour beans to Jieyang Xinheng, and eat phoenix dried beans to Chaozhou Phoenix.
Material source: Zheng Xiaotao Zheng Xiaotao circle of friends