Chengdu cuisine has always been a unique presence in the hearts of many foodies, and many popular snack shops are also scattered in the streets of the city. Every time I have not seen the store, I have been attracted by the fragrance that wafts out in advance, so today I will introduce a classic snack in Chengdu, "Three Cannons", to see how it was made and some historical stories.
Three cannons
The three cannons are famous sichuan traditional snacks, mainly made of glutinous rice, because when throwing glutinous rice balls, the three cannons like "projectiles", emitting a "dang, dang, dang" sound, divided into "iron cannon", "artillery", "gun cannon", so the name is generally called "three cannons".
When eaten, it is accompanied by "Lao Yin Tea", which has a unique flavor. The three cannons have the characteristics of sweet and delicious, non-greasy, non-stick and slagged, and the price is cheap and good. The main ingredients of the three cannons are glutinous rice, brown sugar, sesame seeds, and soybeans, which have a sweet taste. The three cannons are not cold food, and when they are sold, the scooped semi-finished rice dumplings are put into a pot and kept warm on the stove over a low heat, and are cooked fresh when eating.
The Three Cannons are a delicacy made of glutinous rice, and it is also a special form of sale of "rice dumplings" that only existed in the old "flower catching meeting". Because each portion (plate) is only three lumps, and it is now a hot pot and pot to grab a large lump of rice dumplings divided into three small lumps, now it is now forcefully thrown to the center of the board.
Because there is a steel dish on one side of the board, a metal sound is made when it vibrates due to hitting the board, only three "bang bang" sounds are heard, and the three sticks have already flown to the bamboo dustpan leaning on the opposite side and rolled into the bamboo dustpan filled with sesame powder and soybean flour below, and the other person picked the three rice sticks into the plate (at this time, the rice dumplings have been naturally wrapped with a layer of powder), and then poured thick juice and sent to the diners.
The tourist attractions of the Three Cannons in Chengdu will basically have well-known alleys such as Jinli, Wenshu Monastery, and Kuanzhai Alley. The way the three cannons attract tourists is to make a loud noise, making people feel interesting and material-making process, and can't help but stop and watch.
When you focus on smelling and going away, the three clumps of glutinous rice balls are already ready, and few people can see the production process clearly if they don't capture the details. The finished glutinous rice balls will fall into the bamboo bowl diagonally placed opposite with the help of elasticity, mixed with soybean flour, sesame powder aroma, sprinkle some sauce, juicy and delicious three cannons are ready! When visiting the scenic spots, everyone has a bowl, and they have eaten Chengdu's special snacks!
In fact, people who understand know that the three cannons are actually glutinous rice dumplings, there is a local name called glutinous rice dumplings, and the taste of brown sugar rice dumplings is similar, more sesame powder and soybean powder taste will increase a little sticky smell, spherical balls may look more appetizing than long brown sugar sticks, alley mouth shouting 10 yuan a bowl, tourists rushing to rush up.
However, in the eyes of the locals, it is still more correct to eat brown sugar, after all, there is no praise and hype of tourists in the streets and alleys, and it is the right thing to eat with peace of mind. These are actually relatively new to outsiders, like those old Chengdu people have no feelings for these things, they have already seen strange, plain and plain is the truth. But the three cannons are a kind of sweets, so they are not as popular as other snacks, and it can be said that there are not many people who know the three cannons.
In fact, the story of the three cannons is also very interesting, the following small editor to tell you, the Kangxi Emperor likes to go out of the palace in micro clothes and understand the people's feelings. On this day, the emperor sneaked out of the palace with the three dezi, they saw a shop on the road is very hot, but at first glance they found that it was a lantern shop but now it is not to the Lantern Festival, they also followed in and called two bowls, and after understanding it, they learned that their old two were coming to the capital to find their son who had not been heard for two or three years, and after a short greeting, they saw a blind man with a long beard on the street, shouting at the passing crowd: "Fortune teller!" Fortune teller! Free fortune telling! ”
Kangxi heard the free fortune telling, came to be interested, was about to walk towards the blind man, did not expect the blind man to take the initiative to speak: "Two masters, count a gua? Sandoko was puzzled and asked, "How do you know we are two?" The blind man laughed and said, "This... I am blind but my hearing is sensitive, and since I can tell fortunes, can't I calculate that two of you want to come to me to calculate? After the blind man finished speaking, without waiting for Kangxi to open his mouth, a panicked look appeared on his face: "The two masters are in a very bad state, what did you eat just now?" Kangxi smiled slightly: "Just now I ate the Lantern Of the reunion of the delegation." The blind man shook his head and sighed three times. Kangxi asked him what he meant by the sigh, and the blind man said, "How can you eat the Lantern Festival?" Lantern is the harmonic sound of 'yuan dissipation', representing the dissipation of yuan qi, can a person's yuan qi be dissipated or survive? If you think about it again, when you bite down on the Lantern, does the contents flow out like an intestine? It is the meaning of opening the stomach and breaking the belly! Moreover, the Lantern Festival is white, and white represents the funeral, the big murder! What a murderer! Later, Kangxi had been sullen and unhappy since he returned to the palace, and later Sandoko also found the son of the Lantern Shop and told them about the situation, and then the old man's son said that it was not really the emperor who was deceived by the blind man and said that his uncle was a Taoist priest and had a way to solve it, and then Sandoko took him back to the palace. Then after the Daoist priest made the ceremony, the Daoist leader took out a white ball the size of an egg in the altar and smashed it the big drum, and the drum bang sounded, Kangxi was startled, and the Dao commander roared: Yingji avoids the murder! After smashing two more and shouting "Yingji to avoid murder", "Duofu Duoshou" and then said to the emperor that this was Juyuan Dan, the yellow powder on it meant that the yellow robe was added to the body, Kangxi listened to it very happy and ate on the spot, the next day Kangxi was really much better and wanted to look for the Daoist, and later learned that the Daoist was a Bashu person who had returned. Later, some of their descendants were smart, and they made "Juyuan Dan" to sell, in order to attract customers, the louder the sound when the drum was hit three times, the better, so they changed their name to "Three Cannons", which is still a famous snack in Chengdu!
As a foodie who loves food, do you prefer brown sugar sticks or three cannons? Is there anything else you think is worth tasting? Welcome to discuss leaving your thoughts and discover more real cuisine with us.