In summer, Meile Happy Farm in Pailu Village, Liushu Town, Yongdeng County, Lanzhou City is full of tourists. At the baked cake stall of Happy Farm, tourists rush to buy special delicacies - Yongdeng baked cakes and flower steamed buns. In less than an hour, more than 200 baked cakes and flower buns were snatched up.
"This kind of baked cake is charred on the outside and soft on the inside, it is very chewy in the mouth, and it has a fresh flavor of wheat, which is very delicious." A tourist said while eating. "Yongdeng's characteristic mille-feuille cake (flower bun) is really finely made, and after breaking it one layer at a time, there are roses, red yeast rice, and bitter beans in it, which makes people have an appetite at a glance, not only ornamental, but also beautiful in color, flavor, and flavor." Another visitor said.
"I've been making Yongdeng Baked Cakes and Flower Buns for almost 20 years, but I didn't expect that the business that used to support my family turned into my own business." Ma Tinghong, a villager from Pailu Village, Liushu Town, who was cleaning up his stall, said while busy. In the Red Sea Baked Cake Shop, Ma Tinghong's husband is mixing noodles, and there is no other equipment in the whole store except for a dough mixer and an oven. "Except for these two machines, the rest of the processes of our baked cakes and flower buns are all handmade." Ma Tinghong said.
Twenty years ago, after Ma Tinghong married in Pailu Village, he wanted to start a business and improve his family's life. By chance, I saw the baked cake shop in the county town delivering the ordered baked cakes and flower buns to the villagers. After inquiring, I learned that when people in the village wanted to eat baked cakes and flower buns, they had to go to the county seat to buy them, or call the county store to deliver them, but they didn't send them if they didn't give them, so they came up with the idea of doing this business. At first, I wanted to buy the baked cakes from the county bakery to sell, but several stores were afraid that she would rob her of her own business and were unwilling to give them to her. The stubborn Ma Tinghong decided to do it herself! It happened that her family had a tobacco and alcohol shop, and after the makeover, Ma Tinghong bought an oven and started her "business".
"This is a kind of noodle that every rural woman in Yongdeng County knows, but it is not easy to make it well." Ma Tinghong said that at the beginning, the baked cakes she made were the same as those made by other women in the village, and after giving them to the villagers, everyone said that the taste she made was not bad, but the quality was not very good. So she began to "learn art" everywhere, every day will go to the village of the little daughter-in-law, the eldest lady's house to carefully inquire about the know-how of production, some villagers will also tell her some production methods after tasting, some villagers in the processing of the special proposal to add some condiments to the flower bun, she silently wrote it down, and then combined with their own production methods, in the continuous practice made both personal characteristics but without losing the characteristics of the flower bun.
After several years of hard work, Ma Tinghong's baked cakes and flower buns have become famous, and people from the surrounding and county towns have come to her to buy them. From 30 catties of noodles a day at the beginning, 300 catties of noodles are now used up a day. Some villagers from as far away as Liancheng, Wushengyi, and Zhongbao will come to buy. Since her pancake shop is located on the side of the national highway, many passing drivers and tour groups will also come to buy it. Some Lanzhou citizens will also let passing drivers go to Ma Tinghong's shop to buy on their behalf.
"Now I make Yongdeng baked cakes with flower rolls, baked pots, shortbreads, and flower buns with mille-feuille cakes and Yongdeng special moon cakes." Ma Tinghong said that burning pot is a special snack in Yongdeng County, Lanzhou, and it is also one of the staple foods and dry foods that local rural people usually eat. The pot is made by fermenting flour and then firing it in an oven. It tastes charred and crispy, and it is very filling. When Ma Tinghong makes a pot, it will mix a small amount of dry noodles with the good noodles, mix it with an appropriate amount of gray water to remove its sour taste, and then put it into the dough mixer, take it out for about 10 minutes and then knead it manually, and add rapeseed oil, pepper leaves, bitter beans and other condiments, after the noodles and these condiments are kneaded evenly, cut into a dough of appropriate size, hit a diamond-shaped knife flower on it, and put it into the oven for barbecue. After more than 20 minutes, a pot with yellow skin, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside is ready.
In Yongdeng, it is more important to string relatives, visit confinement, see patients, and send pots. "Yuepozi" eats this fragrant pot, which can not only nourish the body, but also dissolve blood stasis, invigorate blood, and pass menstruation. Therefore, Yongdeng has "white noodles, picking saffron, and making a pot to go to my sister's house." What is my sister doing at home? My sister gave birth to a nephew ......".
"The process of making mille-feuille and mooncakes is almost the same, but when making mooncakes, it is made into a circle, which is much larger than mille-feuille, and the mooncakes are steamed in a steamer." But mille-feuille can be baked or steamed, Ma Tinghong said. The mille-feuille or mooncake is cut into four petals from the middle, and the layers of dough bloom like flowers, and the red of red yeast rice, the yellow of turmeric, the green of bitter beans, and the black of flax come into view.
Ma Tinghong said that now making Yongdeng special baked cakes and flower buns has become his own business. Next, she plans to develop a large pot and a moon cake that can be baked, and re-excavate the food of the lost stacked eagle to carry forward the special cuisine of Yongdeng. (Lanzhou Daily)