Wen | Zeng Qingwei
Red Soup Hunan Rice Noodles Information Picture
From the perspective of my Hubei delicious guy, eating rice noodles prematurely in the century-old shop "Yang Yuxing" in Changsha, Hunan Province, is definitely a gastronomic enjoyment.
On both sides of Dongting Lake, which is wide and wide, that is, Hunan and Hubei, both provinces are rich in rice, and since ancient times, there has been a saying that "the lake is widely ripe, and the world is enough". People in both places love to eat rice noodles that are processed from rice and can be used as a main food or as a snack. This is also in line with China's "south rice north" dietary customs.
For rice noodles, it seems that with the geographical location moving south, the more refined the process of making rice noodles, the richer the variety, the more delicate the taste, so the south is rich in famous flour, such as Guilin rice noodles, Guangdong rice noodles, Yunnan bridge rice noodles, etc. are excellent in the country. If you compare the rice noodles on the side of the two compartments in Hubei, Hunan, it can also be divided into high and low. In general, Hunan rice noodles are far superior to Hubei from the production process to the taste and taste. From the perspective of the catering market of the two places, it is rare to see the signboard of the store with Hubei rice noodles hanging on the boundary of Hunan, but on the boundary of Hubei, the signboard of the Hunan rice noodle restaurant can be seen everywhere, and the city where I live, Hunan rice noodles even occupy half of the country.
Hunan rice noodles are on our side, which can be described as famous and famous for many years. During the Republic of China, there was a powder restaurant called "Fuqinghe" in Hankou Liudu Bridge, which was very famous in Wuhan, and its variety was also Hunan rice noodles. But then again, the Hunan rice noodles eaten in Hubei have been improved after all, and if you want to eat authentic And authentic Hunan rice noodles, you can only get Hunan to get your wish. So my opinion is that a Hubei person who likes to eat rice noodles, but who went to Changsha, Hunan, and did not eat the rice noodles there, especially did not eat "Yang Yuxing" rice noodles, is to take a trip to Hunan in vain.
Recently, because of the south to Changsha, stay for three days, supper too early, eat three meals of flour, the delicious rice noodles in Hunan, it is some appreciation. If you distinguish from the shape, Changsha rice noodles are divided into two kinds: round powder and cut powder, and the market is mainly cut flour. Whether it is round powder or cut powder, it has the characteristics of pliable noodles, mellow soup, rich cover size, and mixing with people. If you divide it from taste, there are Changde's heavy flavor red soup powder and Changsha light flavor white soup powder. Changsha people's taste preferences seem to prefer lighter white soup powder.
Hunan and Hubei, as two provinces with the same origin and root of culture, belonged to the chu state in ancient times, and the food customs of the two places were more consistent than different. In the cuisine, Hunan cuisine, with its strong local characteristics of Sanxiang, has profoundly influenced the development direction of Hubei cuisine. However, Hubei people, especially Wuhan people, have a much higher rate of early meals in stall shops than Hunan people, especially Changsha people, because the number of snack bars in Changsha is too small compared to Wuhan, so that Wuhan people who come to Changsha feel that it is not too convenient.
On the day of preparing to return to Han, our group got up early in the morning, washed up before dawn, and hurriedly went to the street to find early paving, intending to rush to the road early to avoid the rolling truck traffic on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway. Unexpectedly, after driving around Changsha City for more than 40 minutes, I was stunned that I could not find a snack bar that opened its doors to customers. A car of people is frustrated, some people see the "Yang Yuxing" gate on the side of the avenue open, the lights are bright, so they hurriedly stopped and sat down, bought tickets to eat rice noodles, and inadvertently appreciated the beauty of "Yang Yuxing" rice noodles.
This is the old saying, stepping on the iron shoes is nowhere to be found, and it takes no effort at all.
The century-old shop "Yang Yuxing" noodle restaurant is famous in Changsha, Hunan, or can be called the image representative of Changsha snack bar, right? Founded by a shopkeeper named Yang Xintian in the 20th year of the Qing Dynasty (1893 AD), it has a history of 120 years, through the Three Eras of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and the Republic. Yang Xintian named the shop as "Yuxing" big trumpet, is to take the meaning of "rich and prosperous", after more than a hundred years, "Yang Yuxing" grew up and grew strong is indeed not false, but it is also the vicissitudes of wind and rain, all the way bumpy; repeated destruction and construction, death and life. In particular, in the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Changsha "Wenxi" fire in 1938, and the foundation of "Yang Yuxing" was destroyed. Built on the eve of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the old shop of "Yang Yuxing" was destroyed by artillery fire twice. Therefore, as a last resort, "Yang Yuxing" shrunk the front line, changed the product structure, and switched to soup noodles, because of its excellent quality and fresh taste of soup noodles, so "Yang Yuxing" was famous in Changsha.
Century-old shop Yang Yuxing information picture
What I ordered was a traditional product of "Yang Yuxing" - "three fresh rice noodles". Three fresh people, belly slices, squid and shredded pork, reflect the taste of one word: fresh. The soup is made of pig bones, the soup is white, not thick or light, just right; there are a few pieces of green cabbage floating in the soup, green and white, raising people's eyes. The cut powder is white, the cabbage is emerald green, although it is a bowl of premature breakfast, it is liked to sell it. The width and narrowness of rice noodles is half of Wuhan rice noodles, which looks a bit like the hanging noodles in the barrel, no wonder some Changsha people call rice noodles "flour noodles", the original source is here. In fact, the powder of "Yang Yuxing" is indeed very powerful, with chopsticks, not broken continuously, set cotton and flexibility in one, excellent taste. If you are afraid of the powder soup and the taste of the lid code is light, each table has a bottle of bright red minced pepper and a bottle of red pepper oil. Three years ago, I tasted the power of Hunan peppers, and I didn't dare to add more chili oil, so I added chopped peppers to mix, the taste was not spicy, and I could eat the sweetness from the chopped peppers. "Yang Yuxing" rice noodles, composed of flour, soup, lid and pepper seasoning, constitute a unique flavor, which has lasted for hundreds of years and has been dominant to this day, attracting visitors from near and far.
The process of the waiter serving powder to the table is also a unique scenery of "Yang Yuxing".
They used the traditional "Yang Yuxing" trick, not using a two-handed holding, nor using a tea tray-style tray, but using a rectangular wooden board, about 1 centimeter thick, rounded around, without edges and corners; the length and width size was just the size of two large soup bowls. Two bowls of rice noodles, add another wooden board to the bowl, and put two bowls of rice noodles until stacked on 10 layers, and the waiter can bring out 19 bowls of rice noodles at a time. Some diners told us that watching the waiter "Yang Yuxing" carrying a stack of powder bowls through the store was like watching an acrobat perform juggling. Because we came early in the morning, the shop was sparsely populated, and we did not see the waiter holding a large stack of flour bowls, which seemed to be a pity.
Light Hunan fine round rice noodles data picture
Some diet experts have concluded that if a food has three elements of "delicious, good-looking and fun", this food is determined to be "easy to sell". "Yang Yuxing" flour noodles for a hundred years, well-known in the jianghu, just interpret the "three good theory" of food experts is not false.
Ate a bowl of "Yang Yuxing" rice noodles, enjoyed the delicious food, although it was a very early morning, I think it is worth it.
This article was published in Nostalgia on the Taste Buds (by Zeng Qingwei, Beijing Daily Publishing House)
About author:Zeng Qingwei, writer and food critic, is currently the director of the Food Culture Committee of the Wuhan Yanhuang Culture Research Association, the Distinguished Professor of the Wuhan Research Institute of Jianghan University, the deputy secretary-general of the Wuhan Essay Literature Association, and the deputy secretary-general of the Wuhan Catering Association. He has published many books such as "Chu Tian Talks About Eating", "Taste of Wuhan", "Nostalgia on taste buds" and so on.