Walking in the Dragon King Temple in the urban area of Liulin County, the aroma of Xinghai sesame cake comes to the nose. Li Xinghai, 65, has been in the industry for 46 years since he played sesame cakes with his brother-in-law at the age of 19.
Old Li said while playing sesame cake, playing sesame cake can be exquisite, flour must be boiled water and dough, kneaded well, and then put into the basin to ferment, must be through, the cake can be crisp; if it is not transparent, then the cake out of the barbecue is dead.
Only to see Lao Li say, with his hand pinched a small piece of dough, with a small rolling stick spread into a thick cake, with his fingers to hook a little ghee, wrapped into the filling, and then rolled into a thin edge thick cake embryo, put into a small basket one by one, brushed with a brush to color the liquid, and then sprinkled with a layer of wet sesame seeds. Old Li pinched, kneaded, rolled, brushed, sprinkled, held, put, and swung skillfully, which made the viewers all exclaim.
The Book of later Han says: "The Ling Emperor is good at Hu Cake, and the JingShi (Luoyang) all eat Hu Cake". Ming Dynasty Jiang Yikui's "Chang'an Ke dialect cake": "Cooked in the oven and eaten are all Hu cakes, and now burnt cakes, hemp cakes, and thin crispy shortbreads are also". Sesame cake originally belonged to the pasta of people of all ethnic groups in the western region, when it was introduced to Liulin, historical records do not record, it is speculated that it should be in the Yuan Dynasty, which has a history of about 700 years.
Sesame cake has been passed down from generation to generation in Liulin and carried forward by Liulin people to the point of "pure fire", which has become an indelible memory for generations of Liulin people.
As a traditional noodle snack, Liulin Bowl Dumplings arose in the Western Jin Dynasty general Shi Letun Bing Liulin. Shi Le commanded three armies to attack Luoyang, the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty, and camped at Liulin Sanlang Fort. Due to the shortage of military food, buckwheat was often ground and boiled porridge to drink. Once when a few sergeants went out and missed a meal, after returning, the soba porridge had condensed into pieces, and the soldiers took the cold soba noodles in the bowl by hand and cut it into pieces to eat, which felt good, and the bowl ball spread, which has a history of more than 1,000 years.
Like the bowls in Yulin, Shanxi, Zhongyang, Pingyao, Baode and other places, they are all made of soba noodles, but because of the delicate method of liulin bowls and the spicy flavor of their condiments, they have won everyone's special favor.
Whether you are a native or a passer-by who is in a hurry and wanders the world, the willow forest bowl balls and sesame cakes are always addictive, so that after leaving, you still enjoy and remember the delicious taste of the willow forest. A small bowl of dumplings, sesame cakes, one spicy and one fragrant delicious, is the most popular and representative specialty of Liulin.
In fact, the value behind Liulin sesame cake and bowl dumplings is more than this, it crosses different cultural barriers, so that all tourists who come to Liulin know the food, and then have a strong interest in Liulin, the "little Beijing", which is due to the call of bowl dumplings and sesame cake culture.
Nowadays, sesame cakes and bowl dumplings have changed from local stall snacks to supermarket "new favorites", selling well in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, and becoming the rich industry of local people. In 2017, Liulin Bowl Tuan, together with 310 snacks from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country, was selected as one of the "Top Ten Famous Snacks in China".
On October 24, 2018, the Liulin County Government reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the "Wangku Group", the country's largest vertical B2B single-product e-commerce enterprise, to jointly build the "China Bowl And Tuan Industry E-commerce Base" project, which invested 20 million yuan and landed in Liulin County in December of the same year.
The construction of China's network library China bowl group industry Internet base is of great significance for making the Liulin bowl group industry bigger and stronger and the transformation and development of Liulin, and the platform construction of the base can further integrate the resources of Liulin bowl group, guide more local bowl group enterprises to participate in online marketing, and promote Liulin bowl group to the national market. (Li Qin)
Lvliang Daily