Hohhot roasted wheat
Text/White Treasure
"Eating, living, traveling, traveling, shopping and entertaining" are the six elements of today's tourism. Putting "eating" in the first place shows the importance of "eating" in tourism, and also fully confirms the truth that "the people take food as the sky". If every time you go to a place, "eat" must be distinctive, "eat" with vigor, then this place will leave a deep impression on you, even unforgettable!
Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has such a famous cuisine outside the Country - roasted wheat. Everyone who has been to Hohhot, if they want to taste this delicacy, will give a thumbs up to this fragrant dish and praise it. A fragrant food, people will always give it a certain cultural connotation. The origin of the "roasted wheat" in Hohhot is no exception, and there is also a magical legend. According to legend, during the Kangxi dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor marched west to Gardan. One day, when the brigade arrived at the gate of Dazhao Temple in Guisui (Hohhot), it was late at night, and the Kangxi Emperor and his party were sleepy, hungry and thirsty. As the saying goes, "Three days without eating is nothing, and three days without drinking water will kill people with thirst." At this time, the night is quiet, the temple door is closed, where to get water? Just when everyone was at a loss, they saw the emperor's mount, as if they had guessed the master's thoughts, looked up and hissed, and their front hooves took off, and they slammed into the ground, and a clear spring gushed out. Later generations called the spring water cut out by this royal horse "Royal Spring" (玉泉), which is also the origin of the name of The Yuquan District of Hohhot. Speaking of the Kangxi Emperor, although he quenched his thirst, he was still hungry in his stomach, so he brought two personal retinues and dared to knock on a bun shop on the side of the road that had long been closed, and as soon as he entered the door, he asked the owner of the bun shop to quickly steam a few cages of buns to relieve the hunger in his belly. When the treasurer saw one of the visitors, who was well-dressed, with big ears and a lot of money, he expected that this person was either rich or expensive, and did not dare to be sloppy, so he hurriedly opened up. But at this time, after a full day of selling the bun shop, there is very little white noodles left to make buns, where to find white noodles in the middle of the night? What's more, to make buns, you need to use "hair noodles", that is, with white noodles, you can't make noodles for a while and a half. The anxious treasurer suddenly had a clever move, mixed the few remaining white noodles with a little starch, and into a piece of dead dough, pulled into a small dough, in order to save the dough, rolled into a thin dough skin with a rolling pin, and then wrapped with mixed lamb filling, quickly pinched the mouth with his hand, wrapped into a "small bun", and steamed it to the guests without much effort. After the Kangxi Emperor ate this food that resembled both buns and not buns, he was full of praise and asked what was the name of this delicacy? The treasurer said in passing, this is "piggybacking", Kangxi asked why it is called "piggy selling", the treasurer explained that the main thing we sell in the bun shop is buns, this kind of food is carried to sell, so it is called "piggy selling". Since then, this kind of food called "carrying and selling" has been passed down in the Guisui (Hohhot) area. There is also a passage in the "Three Character Classic of Burning Wheat" that says it well: "Return to Suicheng, outside the Sai; there are snacks, famous roasted wheat; tea houses, restaurants; star rob, everywhere; long history, nearly three hundred; Kangxi Ye, quite favored; city well disciples, cabinet slaughter; everyone tastes, saying that it is not bad..." In the plain vernacular text, the special snack "roasted wheat" of Hohhot is vividly described.
Although there are now places all over the country that sell "roasted wheat", the roasted wheat in Hohhot is the most authentic. The method of authentic Hoshi roasted wheat is to mix the stuffing first, the traditional roasted wheat filling is mainly lamb and green onions; mixing and roasting the wheat filling is a technical job, first remove the tender lamb from the tendons and brains, use the traditional kitchen knife made by the blacksmith, cut it unhurriedly, and chop the meat into the size of rice grains. After the lamb is cut, then put the ginger, ginger must be chopped, put more and less, there is a lot of exquisiteness, more spicy, less and no ginger flavor; then it is put on the chopped green onion, mixed with authentic sesame oil to stir, wait until the red is white, the white is green, the meat filling is full of aroma, and the roasted wheat filling is mixed. After mixing the meat filling, the next step is to make the skin, and the roasted wheat is made of unleavened "dead noodles", and you must choose the best white noodles and eat them well. When rolling out the skin, potato flour noodles are used as a noodle, and a special "rolling dough" with two thin ends in the middle is used to roll out the skin into a thin lotus leaf, as thin as a cicada wing and transparent tendons. The difference between pinched roasted wheat and bun is that the top of the bun is sealed and twisted, while the top of the roasted wheat is not sealed in the shape of a pomegranate. Because its shape resembles the slight edge of a pomegranate, the wrinkles are like the beauty of a flower, so it is called "slightly beautiful". Ming Dynasty historical records record that "in april and May, the wheat in the north has a slight layer of white frost", and the burnt wheat in the production of the mouth, there is also dry flour like white frost, so it is also called "burnt wheat". Originally steamed in cage drawers, roasted wheat is now also fried raw with water. After steaming (frying) cooked, the customer carries the pomegranate-like "flower mouth" on the top of the roasted wheat into the plate, shakes it with chopsticks, and puts it into the plate, the skin is like an open lotus leaf, and the filling is like a round meatloaf. Each roasted wheat husk is as thin as paper, flexible and not cracked; from the outside you can see the meat filling inside, the filling is not dry or wet, fat but not greasy, dipped in Shanxi old vinegar, with a bite of teeth, delicious. It is a masterpiece of the Saiwai diet.
Running a "wheat shop" is very simple, there are very few employees in the wheat shop, unlike other restaurants, there are big chefs, side dishes, food delivery workers, dishwashers... None of these wheat houses are there. All it takes is a master who can cook wheat, plus two or three guys who can help. When eating in a roasted wheat restaurant, it is also very simple, a drawer of roasted wheat, a pot of tea, is a veritable "fast food". Unlike eating breakfast in the mainland, when eating staple foods such as buns, fritters, and burnt cakes, you must make a "supporting role" such as a soup to make a meal. Of course, the "tea" of the Hohhot roasted wheat house is different from the general tea, and it must be brewed with traditional green brick tea to match the roasted wheat. Sometimes, the roasted wheat cage drawer has long since bottomed out, but the idle diners are still sitting there, "blowing tea" while "bragging", chatting and gossiping, and the "roasted wheat house" at this time is more like a "tea house". I remember the first time I came to Hohhot, when I was eating at a roasted wheat restaurant, the waiter asked: How much roasted wheat do you want. I said: Come and cook half a pound of wheat and beat an egg soup. As soon as the waiter heard it, he knew that I was a foreigner, so he laughed: one or two roasted wheat is 8, just one cage. Generally, guests with large meals can eat up to two cages, that is, two or two; in addition, we do not have egg soup here, only tea to drink. Since then, I have remembered the delicious taste and eating method of Hoshi roasted wheat, and I have also remembered the pot of "tea" that is perfectly matched with roasted wheat.
After more than 300 years of inheritance and development, Hohhot roasted wheat has now become a famous brand in Hohhot. In 2016, Hohhot City built a two-mile-long "Burning Wheat Street" in the back street of Wuta Temple, and there are more than 20 various wheat-burning restaurants, of which "Deshunyuan" is the most. This street was also named "China Roasted Wheat Food Street" by the China Restaurant Association. The daily crowds and continuous flow of passengers have formed a unique dining landscape, and this food street has become the main "punch card" for tourists. The Hohhot Municipal Government has also held several consecutive cultural competitions with the theme of "burning wheat", and not long ago CCTV introduced in detail the production process and cultural connotation of roasted wheat in Hohhot in the column "Distant Home".
However, on the street of roasted wheat, there is a bit of a fly in the ointment, that is, the "signboards" on the lintels of large and small "roasted wheat restaurants" are not the same: there are those who write "burned wheat", there are those who write "burned wheat", there are those who write "burnt wheat", there are those who write "slightly beautiful", there are those who write "slightly sold", there are those who write "carrying wheat", there are those who write "carrying beauty", there are those who write "piggy selling"... The author believes that since "Hoshi roasted wheat" has become a famous Traditional Chinese cuisine, intangible cultural heritage. It is best to have a unified name, fix the name of this delicacy, apply for a patent, and register a trademark. In this way, it will be able to further carry forward this delicious flower outside the Saiwai and pass it on forever.
About the Author:
Bai Bao, male, born in the sixties. Born in Shangyi, Hebei Province, he now lives in Xuanhua Ancient City. He is a researcher of contemporary Chinese education, a member of the China Modern Writers Association, a member of the Hebei Prose Literature Society, a director of the Zhangjiakou Writers Association, a director of the Zhangjiakou Poetry Association, a vice chairman of Xuanhua District of Zhangjiakou City, and a vice chairman of the Xuanhua District Literary Association of Zhangjiakou City.