Chicken bean cold powder is a unique delicacy in Lijiang, with its unique taste and a variety of cooking methods, attracting diners' taste buds. The status of chicken bean cold powder in the hearts of Lijiang people is like rice noodles in Yunnan people, and its traces can be found in the morning, middle and evening dishes of Lijiang people every day.
And this unique taste of Lijiang, but in the Lijiang ancient city of Qiyi Street, No. 222, No. 222 Naxi courtyard, the way of palm food engraved with the way of palm writing belongs to the ancient city of Lijiang century-old memory.
"This cold powder must be eaten on the hand, you can taste the taste in one bite, and it is the memory of the cold powder on the hand." Cao Wenqi, 66, the owner of the A-Mo Milk Snack Bar, said that the palm powder was handed down from her grandmother and has a history of hundreds of years.
Eat chicken bean cold powder with your bare hands
Palm cold powder, to put it simply, eats Lijiang's chicken bean cold powder, and the diners' slap is the "tableware" of this delicacy. The cold powder made of the best chicken beans, with about the thickness of the palm, cut off the palm-sized cold powder and put it on the hand, and then use the spice spoon to pick the appropriate amount of oil and spicy seeds from the earthen pot, evenly smear on the cold powder, and the diners can use the other hand to break the entrance at will. There are not too many flavor levels, more is the mellow bean flavor of chicken bean cold powder.
Entering the Ah Mo Milk Snack Bar, Cao Wenqi will quickly beckon guests to the wash stand to wash their hands. "When you come to the shop, you must eat palm cold powder, so wash your hands." Cao Wenqi is almost stubborn about the way to eat palm cold powder, she will repeat the way of eating with the guests who enter the store over and over again, in the "bargaining" of the eating method, Cao Wenqi is always the winner, no matter how reluctant the guest, in the end can always praise in this strange way of eating, "Too novel, there is a taste of childhood home." ”
Cao Wenqi is extremely concerned about the way this piece of palm cold powder is eaten and the diners' evaluation of this dish. In her cognitive system, it is customary to tilt the palm of the cold powder upwards, as close as possible to the neck, and then use the other hand to leave a piece and put it in her mouth. "Why be so particular?" Cao Wenqi said that in fact, how to eat is the same, but if you bite into the mouth, it is not indecent, when I was a child, my grandmother taught me this.
Palm cool powder reappeared in the ancient city of Lijiang, and Mr. Xuanke played a crucial role in what Cao Wenqi said. "In the years of studying in the Middle School (now Lijiang No. 1 Middle School), the most memorable thing was Grandma Cao's 'slap cold powder'." Xiao Cao, you have to inherit your grandmother's skill and keep the memory of the cold powder in your hand. Because of Xuanke's words, Cao Wenqi remade palm powder in the small courtyard of the ancient city of Cao Family.
Maximum 40 people per day
Cao Wenqi introduced that the cold powder she made was not much different from the traditional cold powder production method of the Naxi people, but the quality requirements were quite high, from raw materials to ingredients to ensure the original taste and freshness of the two fundamental elements.
Every day at 3 a.m., it is the time for Cao Wenqi and her lover to get up. The soaked chicken beans are drained, milled, filtered into a pulp, and simmered to make a grayish white, in this process, the heat and constant stirring are crucial for the finished quality of the chicken bean cold powder. After boiling, the cold powder paste is placed in the container, cooled naturally, and the chicken bean cold powder is ready.
"Every season, every time to make cold powder, in fact, there is a difference in taste, our cold powder must be made by themselves, with the best chicken beans, slowly boiled, natural cooling, so if you can't get up at 3 o'clock on any day, the time to open the store will be moved backwards." Cao Wenqi said that the raw materials every day are only three or four small pots of chicken beans, which will not be sold when they are sold, all the food is handmade, and the snack bar receives up to 40 people a day. Many times customers go late and can only return home disappointed. This can be said to be another feature of the Amo Milk Snack Bar in addition to the unique way of eating.
3 set menus to unlock Lijiang snacks
Palm cold powder, glutinous rice sugar roll, rice cake, yak yogurt, earth alkali cold noodles, fire spatula, Lashi sea fish cold mix, rice enema, oat bait formula, fried wild mushrooms, butter tea, including a variety of types of Naxi preserves and Naxi red cakes spelled out desserts. Today, Ah Mo Milk Snack Bar has launched 3 set menus to unlock Lijiang snacks and taste the taste of the Tea Horse Ancient Road. One set of exquisite snacks for one person, no more, no less, just right.
At the small table at the entrance of the Ah Mo Dairy, every day when the snack bar opens, Cao Wenqi will put out the snack package neatly. "The introduction of these is not direct, look at the most intuitive, like will come in, do not like I will not force, this is all fate."
"I see that as soon as you come in, as soon as you drink yogurt, you know that there is a fate, this yogurt, really drink according to what I said, can not be held in the mouth, grunt and drink half of the bowl, the remaining half, and then slowly taste." 」 Cao Wenqi's homemade yak yogurt is the food that is "planted" the most by the locals in the store, except for the palm cold powder.
During the interview, the details of a Cao Wenqi reception of diners made the reporter remember it particularly deeply. When the diners ordered the first set meal containing palm cold powder in the store, the guests tasted the palm cold powder according to the special eating method, and after eating some rice cakes, Cao Wenqi insisted on withdrawing the remaining package content. "She's not used to eating palm cold powder, she also doesn't like to eat rice cake, I can see, she doesn't like to eat, I won't be forced, everyone is not happy and it's not interesting."
"For the diners to say that 'the rice cake is too dry', this is actually a problem of the ancient tea horse road culture, how to bring the rations on the road without drying? The snacks here may not be the kind of food that is delicious at once, but they contain the culture of Lijiang, and each can tell a long story. But Cao Wenqi did not want to say more, in her place, fate became more important.
The reappearance of palm cool powder evokes the memories of Lijiang people, it was the summer of childhood, under the crooked neck weeping willow at the mouth of the village, Grandma put the cold powder in the child's hand, dug a small hole in the middle of the cool powder, and put simple oil peppers... The taste in memory, distant and clear.
For an ancient town with a history of more than 800 years, the horse bells of the Tea Horse Ancient Road have long been hidden in thousands of sunrises and sunsets. In this ancient city, when you occasionally sneak around to piece together those fading memories, you will suddenly find that some pictures do not have to strive for perfection, even if the fragments, even if they are only "palm-sized", are enough to evoke the memories of generations. (Spring City Evening News reporter Mu Xiaowen photo report)