Meat swallow is a well-known food in Fuzhou, among many meat swallow brands, in 2007 was rated as the Fujian Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Project "Fuzhou Tongli Meat Swallow Production Technique" is one of the representatives.
(Chen Junfan, the inheritor of Tongli meat swallow making skills, and his daughter Chen Yanjun.) ）
According to legend, in the first year of the Song Dynasty (1234), the imperial court appointed Zhen Dexiu, then the Governor of Fuzhou Zhixian and Fujian, as the Hubu Shangshu, went to Beijing to feast on the villagers, and the accompanying chef beat the lean pork leg into meat paste with a wooden stick, and wrapped the meat filling with a thin skin rolled into pieces of paper to make "flat meat swallow". Later, the flat meat swallow spread to Fuzhou, and the people of Fuzhou liked to cook the flat meat swallow with duck eggs, and there was a saying of "Taiping Swallow".
(Meat swallow is an indispensable ingredient for Taiping yan at traditional banquets in Fuzhou.) ）
Chen Junfan recalled that the origin of Tongli Meat Swallow can be traced back to his great-grandfather Chen Guanyan, when he beat swallow skins at home in the morning and sent the swallow skins to some rich families in the city to sell at noon. In order to facilitate delivery, in 1876, the "Tongli Meat Swallow" shop was opened at the intersection of Guanglufang and Nanhou Street, named "Tongli", which means "benefiting people, self-interest, and benefiting everyone".
Relying on the store training of honest management, when "Tongli" passed to Chen Junfan's father Chen Cuntan, it was already the 1950s, and in 1958, when the public-private partnership was engaged, the signboard of Tongli Meat Swallow was taken off, and Chen Cun talked about it and became the director of Taijiang Meat Swallow Factory.
In the era of food shortage, residents can only buy a ration of swallow skin at the surrounding food stations with meat tickets during the New Year's Festival. At that time, there were many large families living in the three squares and seven alleys, and they had to use swallow skin for marriage and funeral, and they could not buy it through formal channels, so they went to the "black market" to find it. Chen Junfan began to work in the production of swallow skins, starting with his father hiding in the air defense trench dug by his family and doing "rat work".
The dull sound of the Chen family's swallow mallet was baked in the trench, but in the hearts of the residents of Fangxiang, the hammer sound was never stopped. With the reform and opening up, Chen Cuntan resigned from the post of factory director, and in 1982, "Tongli Meat Swallow" reopened at the original site of the old store, and Chen Junfan became "Playing Yanlang" at this time.
(Heir chen junfan demonstrates hand-made meat swallows.) ）
(Tongli meat swallow products.) ）
In 1983, a small article in the Fuzhou Evening News entitled "Tongli Meat Swallow Shop Unique Characteristics" was the first time that the Tongli Meat Swallow brand was introduced in the media, and it attracted a restaurant owner who bought ten pounds of swallow skin wrapped into meat swallow for trial sale, and did not expect to be a hit. After that, buy five boxes, ten boxes at a time... Let Tongli Meat Swallow walk out of Fuzhou.
Now there are meat swallow shops everywhere on the streets of Rongcheng, in fact, before 1985, there were no meat swallow shops in Fuzhou, only swallow skin shops. Let the swallow shop sell the wrapped meat swallow, or the first of "Tongli".
Chen Junfan recalled: In 1985, Tongli Yanpi was invited to Quanzhou to participate in the Agricultural and Sideline Products Expo, but did not expect to open on the first day of stationing, because people did not know how to steam, so they bought a pot on the street, and the next day let people taste for free, and sales increased greatly. Affected by this incident, after returning to Fuzhou, he began to sell finished meat swallows.
(Feng Gong experiences beating meat swallows at Tongli Meat Swallow Shop.) )
(Fresh meat beaten to make minced meat.) )
The skin of Tongli meat swallow is still finely made by more than a dozen manual processes. The main ingredient needs to choose fresh pork hind leg meat and sweet potato powder of specific real estate, beat the pork mallet into a stretchy and tough pork puree through the traditional process, and then evenly sprinkle the sweet potato powder, after patting, pressing, rolling, milling, folding, whisking, sweeping, cutting and other processes, to make a thin as paper, color as jade meat swallow skin.
(Tongli Meat Swallow enters KFC breakfast food.) )
(Dehydrated instant swallow silk product developed by Chen Yanjun.) )
Today, Tongli Meat Swallow is managed by Chen Yanjun. Young people have their own distribution concept, she changed the business model of the factory before and after the old shop, established a new meat swallow and swallow skin factory, adopted standardized food production design, equipped with mallet meat, rolling skin, filling, testing, etc., established a complete process production line, and increased the "new meat swallow" with the taste of shrimp swallow and shiitake mushroom swallow.
Chen Yanjun also took the lead in developing the "instant swallow silk" that is stored at room temperature for 9 months and can be brewed in boiling water, which meets the consumer needs of young people today, is convenient and fast, and has become a "net red product". In July 2021, In cooperation with KFC, Tongli Meat Swallow and KFC landed on the KFC breakfast menu in Fuzhou and Xiamen, which is a classic fusion of Eastern and Western cuisine, helping the intangible cultural heritage on the tip of the tongue.
Source: Fuzhou Evening News