A few distant friends came to visit Hanzhong, and as a local, I needed to do my best to be a landlord, and one of the necessary procedures was to take them to taste food. They are all friends who like to travel, of course, they are well-informed, how far their feet can be, and how wide the scenery on the tip of their tongues is. Regarding local food, my friends unceremoniously set two principles for me: one is to visit the night market, and the other is to taste snacks.
Usually, we go to an unfamiliar town, and night markets and snacks are the way to get to know a place. There are two reasons: first, where the local people gather, the people like to eat, that is, the local signature food; second, all snacks, are local native cuisine, it often reflects the local taste, products, and even reflects the advantages and disadvantages of the local climate and ecology.
So what to eat?
Friends said: You Hanzhong are the land of fish and rice, of course you will eat this.
But the four words of the land of fish and rice come from nowhere. Before the Tang and Song dynasties, the political and economic center of China was mostly in the Central Plains, that is, north of the Line of the Huai River in the Qinling Mountains. Due to climatic water and soil reasons, in the Central Plains north of the Line of the Qinling-Huai River, there are not many places where fish and rice are produced, and even fewer places are rich in these two things. To say that the closest to the Central Plains is the "land of fish and rice", of course, it is Hanzhong.
In a modern city, fish and rice are the most common daily food. The fish patterns on the clay bowls of the Banpo site and the rice grains at the Hemudu site let us know that fish and rice were placed on the table of our people five or six thousand years ago.
In Hanzhong, fish and rice bring us an unusual taste, ancient and fresh.
The smell of fireworks in the city
Many of the streets of Hanzhong are the main streets of the ancient Hanzhong City, and in the nearly two decades of urban change, they have retreated to the secondary role of the bustling city. New buildings coexist with old streets that have not yet been demolished, and through the small streets and alleys on both sides, you can even see some traces of the old city that have not yet been erased. At dusk, the street lights are bright and the food stalls here are busy. Cooking barbecue makes this bustling street smoke billow, as a Hanzhong person, I am somewhat sorry - from an environmental point of view, this is not good.
The friend said sympathetically, if the city has no night market, no such human fireworks, then it is not dead?
With that being said, we found a stall and sat down, ready to eat "rice".
Hanzhong dough skin is famous throughout the country. Many friends from other places know about Hanzhong dough, but they don't know that Hanzhong dough is also colorful.
Hanzhong dough is ground into a pulp of rice, scooped in a cage, steamed into rice skin on high heat; after the rice skin is cooled, the large knife is cut into finger width, poured with cooked rapeseed oil, pepper grass and fruits of various spices boiled into seasoning water, add chili oil soy sauce vinegar MSG, a bowl of red and fresh cool skin is mixed. People who eat are so hot that their tongues hurt, their mouths are full of red oil, and their lips are bright red. This is the Hanzhong cool skin that many people like, and it is also the main daily breakfast variety of Hanzhong people.
In addition to the cool skin, there is also hot dough and fried dough. The hot dough skin is a hot dough that has just come out of the basket and is mixed with hot soup, the soup is fried with tomatoes, there is also chicken soup, which can be ever-changing; the fried dough skin is a plate of vegetable minced green peppers added to the vegetables and meat, and fried to make it fresh and spicy. The practice of bare skin is also dazzling in the night market, and if we take the same part, our stomach may be difficult to accommodate. Therefore, although there are five or six people in the same industry, they can only take one part of each, which is counted as a shallow taste and a taste.
In a happy and refreshing tasting, all kinds of dough skins made friends marvel. Hemp is spicy enough, spicy is spicy enough, but it inevitably makes people feel that their tongue is strongly challenged.
At this time, I called for a small round thing, and I beckoned my friends to try it. This is another delicacy made of rice in Hanzhong: rice cake buns. It looks round and white, and it overflows with sweet fragrance in the hot steaming, which makes people appetizing. Rice cake buns are made by beating rice into a pulp, balling them into small round buns the size of a child's fist, adding sugar and steaming. There are also people who do not add sugar and eat with honey. Even if you don't add sugar or honey, a bite is full of rice sweetness.
I told my friends that rice cake buns are the sweetest memories of my childhood and hometown.
Decades ago, I was studying in a small town, and Lao Yang, who sold rice cake steamed buns in the town, would come to our campus on time every morning at nine o'clock, and he would carry a dustpan of white and fragrant rice cake steamed buns, five cents each, ten minutes between classes, and this dustpan rice cake steamed bun was snatched up. On a winter morning, each student in the classroom holds a steaming rice cake bun and eats it with relish.
Indulge in paddle sound and light
I took my friends to the Han River to taste "fish". It was the time when the city was brightly illuminated, and when we came to the south of the city, which was slightly far away from the bustling city, in Jiangbin, we found a barbecue stall to sit around the table. Under the embankment is the illuminated Han River, Hanzhong City South Han River riverside water gathering water to form a river on both sides of the river, at night the lights on both sides of the flashing, a river reflection, the night wind blowing, friends are not uncomfortable leaning on the beach chairs, although did not eat fish and wine, but have long been immersed in the wonderful night in this paddle sound and light shadow, as if coming to the Qinhuai River, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties.
I asked my friends for a whole grilled fish. More than three or two crucian carp, sprinkled with various shades of ingredients, dipped in clear oil soup, the sound of roasting, the aroma has overflowed the air. After taking a crisp and raw bite, I know the delicious and soft fish aroma. The Carp of the Han River is sliced into fillets, spilling grease on the grill and emitting a fresh fragrance. Foreign friends especially like grilled fish maw, the unique taste of fish maw, teeth bite up and tendon without effort, tongue is tempted by the fish aroma and various shades, addictive.
At this time, the musical fountain by the river was playing Hanzhong folk songs, and the beautiful voice of the mountain girl Gao Yuan brought people into the Qinba Mountains. At this time, a gorgeous cruise ship slid over the river, and in the shadows of the brilliant lights, people sat on the bow of the boat, leisurely listening to the sound of the water and tasting green tea.
Everyday cuisine by the water
In Hanzhong, there are many types of fish, and there are many ways to eat fish. Fish shops abound in Hanzhong, and can be found in less than three or five steps, and each has its own fish delicacies. Tomato fish, spicy fish, stone pot fish, all kinds of flavors; yellow spicy ding, silver carp, all kinds of colors.
It is often a large pot, adding a variety of vegetables and vegetables, eating people sweating; after a good night's sleep, come to a bowl of stewed fish head soup, which relieves the greasy and spicy, but hooks up a new appetite.
Like fish, it comes from the water, and you can taste more in Hanzhong.
Stir-fried field snails, garlic ginger pepper salt, all kinds of heavy taste, but can make a large piece of food. Fried river shrimp, is a small shrimp from the Han River, with green peppers and ginger onion garlic, stir-fried, a plate of shrimp to make the wine, enough to make the drunkard drunk.
Dried fried small river fish and fried noodle fish are small fish from small rivers in the mountains, and are often the delicacies in hanzhong farmhouse meals.
Folk aroma
Early in the morning, I took my friends to a small shop that only made two kinds of snacks, which are the signature snacks of Luoyang County in Hanzhong: canned tea, vegetable tofu festival. In almost every county in Hanzhong, there are one or two local staple snacks, such as the Luoyang Canned Tea and Vegetable Tofu Festival, which can be said to be unique and authentic local taste.
It is difficult for foreign friends to understand the vegetable tofu festival, what is this kind of thing, is it noodles, or tofu? Is it a dish, or a staple? The Vegetable Tofu Festival is a soup with fresh tofu with corn and wheat noodles, and served with a variety of cold vegetables, green peppers, red oil spicy seeds, garlic and green onions. Tasteful, yet refreshing and delicious.
As for the cans of tea, it is said that when Zhuge Liang marched south to the barbarians, passing through the Liuyang area at the junction of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, the soldiers were infected with miasma and became ill, Zhuge Liang consulted the townspeople, only to know that there was such a kind of food in the local area. The method is to add multi-flavored herbs such as tea leaves and herbs in clay pots, burn them into a soup, add walnuts, fried rice, fried noodles, bacon, diced potatoes, etc., and boil them into a jar of fragrant oil tea. The soldiers ate this food, naturally relieved the miasma and restored their health. The herbs and tea leaves in the jar of tea have detoxifying and appetizing effects, have a medicinal effect, and are food, which can both satisfy the stomach and modulate the body. Friends listened, think interesting, even people who do not like the smell of herbs, but also pinched their noses to eat the first bite, did not expect the first bite to eat, the smell of herbs diluted, full of incense, and sure enough appetite.
One side of the water and soil nourishes the other side, and also nurtures the culture of a place. It can be seen from the "fish and rice" that the Han River cuisine can absorb the flavors of the eight parties, and the delicious collection is complete, so that people can eat a table and know the tastes, and taste one side and pass through the eight directions. This is a clear proof of the cultural integration and communication of the Han River.
Source: Hanzhong Daily