Stretching for thousands of miles and flowing for thousands of years, the Grand Canal connects the north and the south, integrates different customs, gives birth to a unique Grand Canal culture, and also leaves many intangible cultural heritages for future generations.
Thanks to the convenience of the Grand Canal, Hongqiao District of Tianjin has produced many national and municipal intangible cultural heritages. Among them, the "Ear and Eye Fried Cake", which was rated as an intangible cultural heritage project of Tianjin in 2009, is even more famous and has become one of the "Three Uniques of Tianjin".
Originating from the banks of the canal
"Tianjin Wei at the bottom of the nine rivers, three pontoon bridges and two passes", Tianjin Wei, which was born by the sea and prospered because of Cao, the canal plays a pivotal role in it.
The National Museum has a painting of "Luhe Supervision", the author is Jiang Xuan, a painter from Zhenjiang during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and the picture scroll depicts the prosperous scenery and folk customs of the Luhe River in the area of the Sancha River estuary in Tianjin. The picture takes the official boat as the core, and unfolds to the left and right, and the left side is the representation of the Grand Canal.
The transportation of the Grand Canal has brought logistics, which has also brought the flow of people. In 1892, Liu Wanchun and his nephew Zhang Kuiyuan bought a small door house on the east side of Tianjin Beidaguan and opened Liu Ji Fried Cake Shop. Because the fried cake shop is located at the mouth of the Eryan Hutong, people wittily call Liu Ji fried cake "Eryan fried cake".
Where is the North Gate? If you ask young people today, many people may not be able to answer, and more than 100 years ago, it was a well-known and prosperous place at that time. The earliest was located outside the north gate of the city, the north end of the pontoon bridge on the south canal, covering the area of Beimenwai Street and Hebei Street in Hongqiao District today.
At that time, the business around Sancha Estuary and Beidaguan was the most prosperous, and the nearby catering industry was extremely developed, with all kinds of fast food snacks and fierce competition. With a concentrated population and diverse tastes, the popular snacks should not only be "bearable" in practice, but also adapt to the market life and the wharf ecology of Jingu.
Because there are many short-term jobs, heavy work is required, and food is sufficient, such a regional environment and social and cultural background have created the common snack of fried cakes.
In order to make the homemade fried cake win, Liu Wanchun improved all aspects of materials, quality, taste and flavor. Using high-quality glutinous rice and red adzuki beans as raw materials, noodles are made, filled, billet and fried. The finished product is a regular flat spherical shape, the crispy shell color is like gold, the dough meat is white like jade, and the bean paste is sweet and delicious; It has a strong fermented aroma, and the taste is crisp, fragrant, sticky, soft and sweet, reflecting the ingenuity spirit of "paying attention to production and pursuing taste"; Strictly select materials, improve the frying process of red bean paste, and develop processes such as draining and fermentation in the noodle making process; At the same time, a series of unique methods are adopted, such as frying twice with simmer and high fire in the frying process to form a unique flavor.
Ear and eye fried cakes are especially popular among diners, and they have made a name for themselves here.
So far, Zhu Xiaohao, general manager of Tianjin Ear Eye Fried Cake Catering Co., Ltd., recalls the past and still respects the store motto of "although the snack is small, the conscience is the first, the skill is the first, and the reputation is great".
Fried cake is a traditional delicacy, not only delicious, but also auspicious, with the meaning of "backgammon", so it is widely loved by Tianjin citizens, and there are many diners who come and go, so that "the telephone poles in front of the ear and eye fried cake shop are shiny".
After breaking into the famous hall, Liu Wanchun had savings, took down the two-story building above the store, and at the same time taught the production skills to his three sons, so that there would be successors to the ears and eyes fried cakes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the ear eye fried cake was turned into a public-private partnership, and it became a state-owned brand product in short supply.
"Non-Lingering" Representative
Zhu Xiaohao believes that if this brand wants to continue to rejuvenate in the new era, it needs to keep pace with the times.
In 1978, it was officially named "Ear Eye Fried Cake Shop" by Tianjin Catering Company, and the inheritance system of traditional skills was also changed from family inheritance to master and apprentice inheritance. Zhu Xueli and many other young workers have learned from teachers, so that this traditional skill has a fourth generation of inheritance and radiates new vitality.
In 2009, the second batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage lists and the first batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage expansion projects were announced. The skills of making fried cakes and the skills of making Goubuli buns were included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Tianjin.
In 2012, "Ear Eye" was turned into a private enterprise, and Zhu Xiaohao became the fifth generation of Ear Eye Fried Cake Making Skills, and developed "Ear Eye" towards a modern enterprise management model.
"When I took over, 'Ears and Eyes' was still the state-run model of the front store and back factory, and the production of fried cakes was not standardized, and the taste was relatively simple." Zhu Xiaohao recalled, "It can be said that the brand of 'Ears and Eyes' has not played its full value, which requires a modern business model to rejuvenate 'Ears and Eyes'." ”
Store staff making fried cakes by hand (data map)
Create a "national tide"
To rejuvenate the "ears and eyes", we must work hard from both internal and external aspects. "Internally, it is necessary to innovate the taste and optimize the product, in the current popular words, it is to make the traditional product into a national tide product, and externally it is necessary to have a modern business model."
In the early years, the traditional ear and eye fried cake was fried with sesame oil, when the dock workers needed to have a full stomach, so the fried cake with sesame oil was very popular, but now people eat more healthily, and it is too greasy to fry with sesame oil.
The glutinous rice used in the ear-eye fried cake is now a special blend of various glutinous rice, and the filling is purchased from the production area, and the filling retains the traditional special technique. "Those that do not meet the requirements of the times will be improved, and the parts that meet the times and are secretly made will be carried forward." Zhu Xiaohao and they kept trying, "In order to enrich the products and provide more choices for the citizens, we have also launched fried cakes with red fruit, chocolate, taro and grape filling, which are very popular." ”
Not only the innovation of fried cakes, but also the "ears and eyes" have also derived more new products, based on the advantages of excellent glutinous rice and excellent fillings, the production of donkey rolling, preserved fruit, fruit crisp and other dim sum products.
In 2012, in order to inherit and carry forward the traditional brand, "Ear and Eye" invested in the construction of a production and processing base, covering an area of 60 acres and a construction area of more than 30,000 square meters.
"To carry forward the skills of ear and eye fried cake making, we must not only rely on the master, but also have standardized advanced equipment to assist in production, so as to produce snack products in a stable, safe and standardized manner." Zhu Xiaohao led the team full of enthusiasm, "The ear and eye management team we formed is mostly post-90s, and we, the 'newcomers', want to carry forward the traditional snacks, that is, to have new thinking and new development." Nowadays, in addition to snacks and snacks, "Ear Eye" has also opened the "Ear and Eye Club" and opened stores in Gulou, Tibei and Wudao.
(Jinyun News reporter Zhang Heyang)