The first time he watched the dragon whisker noodle performance, He Liang was immersed in a feeling of wonder and surprise. The noodle teacher "clicked and snapped", and a strand of hair-like dragon's whiskers appeared on the desk. This picture has been playing in He Liang's mind. When he got home, he tried the noodles on the small round table at home according to the gourd drawing. As a result, the walking surface (walking the noodles refers to the operation of kneading, rolling, throwing (falling), and smoothing the tendons, so that the disordered protein molecules are arranged in an orderly manner, laying the foundation for pulling out the noodles with uniform thickness. They couldn't walk up, and finally the door of the house, on the table, and on the ground were all flying noodles.
After many failures, He Liang finally walked the noodles, and he encountered a problem in the noodle rolling process: there was no big desk at home. He saw the bed board, moved, rolled up the bed, spread a plastic sheet on the bed board, and a "desk" came out.
At that time, He Liang didn't even know what technique, he should have used his fingers to roll the noodles, but he directly put the noodles on his wrists, and the result was a mess.
But in the process of stealing and blindly trying, he slowly gained a deeper understanding of opposite sex.
At the beginning, he tried to make noodles, perhaps only because He Liang had an inexplicable fire of interest in his heart, and after seeing Liu Junqing's performance, He Liang was determined to make the noodles authentic.
Liu Lao is 1 meter 5 tall, but the length of the face can be much larger than his height. And the way he presented the case was different from everyone else's.
"Most people go to the case on the top of the case, put it on the table, and then a roll of noodles starts to roll. But after Liu Lao "snapped" up, the first buckle was directly thrown open, and the buckle was thrown open for more than three meters, and then he "snapped" the noodles, and the "bang" was on the case, and the two double-even strips were directly put on the case. ”
He Liang found from Elder Liu that there were too many doorways inside the noodles, and all kinds of deficiencies could be achieved to the extreme through the extension and clever use of skills.
"In the future, I will also be able to make more noodles than my height, and I will also do a very authentic job." This is the seed that was planted at that time. ”
Now he rolls the noodles, and when the strips are brightened, they can be 5 meters long.
And this seed was brought to the TV station by He Liang, brought into the live broadcast room, and even brought out of the country.
He Liang rolled a pound and a half of noodles, 13 buckles is 9162, each 5 meters long, if you pick it up one by one, you can reach the whole marathon. Therefore, He Liang often quipped that he could run a marathon in three minutes.
His journey to the inheritance of skills is not a marathon.
Over the past 36 years, He Liang has encountered countless difficulties in this marathon, but in the end, they have been solved one by one through experience, cognition and inspiration. He said that he had never wanted to give up the industry because of difficulties, on the contrary, the more difficulties he encountered, the more he could arouse his enthusiasm.
"Because every time you cross a hurdle, you make progress."
This series of interviews with intangible cultural heritage masters will invite He Liang, the inheritor of the longsu noodle making skills, to tell you the story behind the show he performed with Sabine, his adventures as a chef abroad, and his inheritance and plans for this intangible cultural heritage.
He Liang Image courtesy of the interviewee
Sohu Culture: When did you officially learn the art of making dragon noodles?
He Liang: When I was in the first year of high school, I went to vocational high school. In the first year of high school, in order to open our eyes, the school invited a teacher to roll noodles. Contact has been around since then. It was only in my junior year of high school that I began to be officially taught. Then when I was in college, liu Junqing, my predecessor, old artist, old chef, and national treasure-level pastry master, also privately taught me some unique secret skills, so I was very interested in the production of the opposite point, and I have been studying it for so many years.
Sohu Culture: Have you encountered any difficulties in making dragon noodles over the years?
He Liang: There are too many difficult things.
The hardest one was my participation in the annual finals of CCTV's "Challenge the Impossible" program.
That time there were two temperatures on and off the field. The field is particularly cold, walking the noodles can not be opened, but the field is particularly hot, the noodles "brush" instantly dropped the strength, because its temperature requirements are too high, my noodles are really beautiful.
At that time, Sabine gave me a noodle, and I didn't expect to light up 5 meters at the end. Because the temperature difference between the field and the field is so large, I can only judge by my own experience how far I want to walk in the face, and how much it will lose strength on the field. I kept trying to figure it out, because the case began to roll the noodles, 10 seconds before and after, maybe this side will be different after it comes out. Because it requires the gluten to be completely smooth, one after the tendon is continuous, but also to make it able to have ductility, so it is very careful about all aspects of temperature. And I also have to communicate with the host, to chat. When this side is in order, I still have to finish this paragraph of communication, just on the case, so this is also a very difficult to control. That noodle I think is the most difficult, the best effect, and the most amazing one.
"Challenging the Impossible" program scene He Liang (left) and Sabine (right)
The reason why many people turn over when performing is because of the stage experience and the comprehensive cognition of the opposite, it is not the same.
Sohu Culture: Dough making, kneading dough and rolling dough and other processes need to be repeated a lot when learning, do you feel bored? And how did you stick to it?
He Liang: I especially like cooking.
There are boring times, that is, practicing and practicing really can't get over this hurdle. But I am not the same person as others, the more difficult I encounter, the more I can be stimulated with enthusiasm, always want to overcome it.
I always want to encounter this kind of obstacle. Because every time you cross a hurdle, you're going to make a piece of progress. So in this regard, whether it is making pasta or other cooking, as long as it is linked to cooking, these things are taken for granted, and I hope to encounter difficulties.
For example, when I was abroad, there was no medium gluten flour, only high gluten flour and low gluten flour.
At this time, you can't take high gluten flour, and you can't take low gluten flour. Then I mixed two kinds of flour together, and then I finally pulled it out.
When I went abroad (the 90s), I didn't know that flour still had high gluten and low gluten, and at that time There was no concept of high gluten flour and low gluten flour in China. But in foreign countries, flour and flour can not be done after all. This one can't walk the noodles at all, and the one that walks the noodles will leak out. What's going on? Can't figure it out. Later, when I thought about it, this one was stronger and that was a little stronger, so I mixed the two flours together, slowly matched them, and finally came out.
Sohu Culture: Now you also have apprentices, are these apprentices different from when you were an apprentice?
He Liang: Mostly. My apprentices would all sharpen their heads to find things to learn, to find suffering. The current students, individual students are OK, that is, you have to mobilize his interest first, most of the students are not willing to do this kind of thing, he is hiding, can not do it or not. So today's students, take me a word: pie in the sky does not have an open mouth. When we were studying, we were desperate to steal everywhere, and now the student is you feeding him, and he doesn't learn.
But if we mobilize his interest, take him to some activities, take him to participate in some performances, so slowly, after the interest rises, he will also study it, he will go deeper, and he will also make this thing better.
Sohu Culture: Is there any big difference between machine-made noodles and handmade noodles?
He Liang: These are two different things.
The machine makes that is the noodles of the dragon's whiskers, which are machine-pressed. Our handmade dragon's whisker noodles can't be cooked. The kind of dragon's whisker noodles you said are machined and dried after the finished noodles, and it is suitable for cooking and eating. Our dragon's whisker noodles can't be boiled, and the next pot is all noodle soup. Because it is very thin, as thin as hair, it cannot be boiled, and it melts when it encounters hot water. Therefore, this dragon's whisker noodles can only be suitable for performance and fried to eat. We have a "snowflake dragon whisker noodles", that is, after this dragon whisker noodles are done, one by one, they are all scattered, and then put in a small colander of such a large place to go inside, and then take 20% of the hot oil temperature, that is to say, about 60 degrees of oil temperature, and slowly drain its water. At the end, a very crispy little pasta cake is presented, and the silk is particularly thin. No matter how good the machine is, it can't make our real dragon's whisker noodles.
Sohu Culture: Do you have any plans to pass on the skills of dragon noodles?
He Liang: I am now teaching the skills to students in school, and then there are some students in the society who like this skill, because it is still a Chinese skill, like foreign students I basically do not teach. This is one way. Another way is because I am now doing TV shows, and then doing short videos, vibrato, kuaishou, my short videos have a small 10 million fans, so when I live broadcast, I will also go live to some dragon noodle skills.
I don't think there is anything to keep in front of the Chinese people, so that everyone can understand and be interested. Whether it is a short video, or a fan of the TV media, many people are professional, they will ask some questions in the group or in the message behind the short video, I will give them answers, I think the full blossom is the best.
Of course, there are also a group of students who have been carefully trained by themselves, who often follow me out to perform. So I think one is to popularize it, let everyone feel that it is indeed a skill, a Chinese skill, something that foreigners can't do, and then make it general, popular, refined, and high-end, and then encourage students to innovate more.
We innovate and keep old,and constantly innovate on the basis of inheritance, so that the skills of this dragon's whisker noodles continue to be carried forward and developed, and always give everyone a bright feeling. For example, I taught students to blindly roll the dragon's whiskers, blindfolded to roll the dragon's whiskers, and the effect was very good after they were rolled out. You can sublimate the technique of making dragon's whisker noodles, and I think there is still a lot to be tapped here.
Written by | Crooked tree