One buddy is about to take a vacation and go out to work. One of his students invited him to drink oil tea, and I accompanied the last seat. Please is the irrigation of Yang oil tea, which is rare in Nanning, I am also the first time to meet in Nanning, the heart is happy to blossom.
Tea is a traditional food custom in the mountainous areas of western Guizhou and northern Guizhou, and Guangxi is most famous for its oil tea in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County, Longsheng Autonomous County and Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County in Guilin. There is also a method of classification according to ethnic groups, each ethnic group plays oil tea has its own characteristics, Nanning oil tea shops are mostly in the name of the store, intentionally adding "Yaojia oil tea", "Miaozhai oil tea", "Dongxiang oil tea" and other titles. Although there are small differences in Datong, in general, it is to use a thick pig iron pot, under a large oil in the pan to fry the old camellia that has been brewed in water beforehand. The frying method is to use a handful of "D" shaped wooden sticks, stir-fry the tea leaves in the pot, constantly pound, after the taste is played, pour in water and boil, roll for a while, and the pot is oil tea. After decanting the tea, continue to stir-fry and pound the tea leaves, then add water to boil out the flavor and keep repeating until the taste is light. When drinking oil tea, peanuts, fried rice, steamed bread and green onions, coriander are generally added, often accompanied by some buns, fritters, sticks, sweet potatoes, taro, rice noodles and other snacks to eat, even oil tea with rice to send a meal.
Two oil tea masters sat in the lobby facing the door and played oil tea
"Oil + tea" is the most basic element of oil tea, but the materials used in different places are still slightly different. For example, the most popular Gongcheng Yaojia oil tea in the Nanning market has a taste of the importance of ingredients that is not lower than tea, that is, old ginger. Add the oil tea from the old ginger, the ginger flavor is strong, and the tightly blocked nostrils can be flushed out. Most of the local oil tea, ginger is an indispensable taste, the impression of the average person, oil tea is a combination of "oil + ginger + tea", the impression of oil tea, with a strong spicy ginger flavor. However, the Dong people in Sanjiang County do not put ginger when they play oil tea. Therefore, I said that the most basic elements of oil tea are oil and tea leaves, and with these two flavors, you can synthesize oil tea. With the addition of ginger, it is at least the 2.0 version.
This pot of oil tea has been beaten
I have tasted almost all the oil tea in Guangxi, and I have drunk too much to know that there are many complicated subtle differences in the base flavor of "oil + tea" synthesis. My personal favorite flavor type is the kind of Gongcheng oil tea with old ginger. The thick taste of old camellia and the spicy taste of ginger, under the blend of oil and salt, synthesize a new flavor. The ginger spicy taste that is deeply contained in it, once it rushes into the throat, churns in the stomach, and the pores are forced to sweat, it is called a refreshing, addictive. Legend has it that camellia oleifera has the effect of driving away wind and cold and removing moisture, which is probably from ginger. Ginger flavor has also become most people's impression of the taste of oil tea, almost think that oil tea has a ginger flavor in it. But some people have drunk Sanjiang oil tea many times, but they can't drink it, and there is no ginger in it.
To fill the Yang oil tea, you must first add a few small ingredients on the right side to the bowl, and then pour into the boiling oil tea
The local popularity of camellia oleifera in Guangxi cities today is the result of a market operation. Although everywhere has sworn that camellia oleifera has a history of thousands of years, I firmly believe that even in the alpine mountains, camellia oleifera is only a small heritage in the countryside. When I was working in Guilin in the early 1990s, there was not a single oil tea shop in the city. The first time I tasted oil tea, it was in the home of a colleague from Gongcheng, he was used to drinking it in his hometown since he was a child, and when he entered the city, he also put a set of guys to play oil tea. Many people who went to work in the city, like him, could not help but "think of oil tea" and first introduced oil tea into their own homes. In the eyes of the businessmen with brains, they saw the business opportunities, and with the gradual development of the urban catering industry, the content was continuously enriched, and the oil tea was introduced into the urban market. At the very least, this can attract some guests who have the habit of drinking oil tea, and these guests will bring other customers, and the footprint of oil tea into the city is like this.
The difference between the ingredients used in Guanyang Oil Tea is that mung beans must be used
Camellia oleifera is a very irritating food, just like someone will drink tea will be addictive, drinking oil tea will also be addictive, and the market for oil tea shops is gradually expanding. The expansion of the market will inevitably be gradually subdivided and the target customers will be trapped. Oil tea in each place often has some unique characteristics. Sanjiang oil tea does not put ginger, and Guanyang oil tea should add mung beans and red beans. Therefore, in general, the basic taste of "oil + tea" is unique in the style of each place, and the nuances in it can only be distinguished by people who are accustomed to drinking. Since there is a difference, we emphasize this difference, attract the people of this place, form their own reputation, and even divide into different genres by region. For example, Gongcheng oil tea, the taste is strong and pure, Gongcheng people themselves are also very serious, and strive to create a brand of oil tea, now the most popular in the market is Gongcheng oil tea, people who do not understand also think that oil tea is Gongcheng oil tea.
The main ingredients of Guanyang oil tea are printed on the tissue box
The difference between Guanyang oil tea and other places is also reflected in the procedure and content. The first dish of Guanyang oil tea is first boiled sugar tea, with mustard grass and soil brown sugar out of the brown sugar ginger water, Guanyang commonly known as sweet tea, tea water is actually related to oil tea. Put two peeled cooked quail eggs in each bowl and give each guest a portion first. This is followed by tea, which is boiling hot and fried fried rice and mung beans. Guanyang oil tea lack of fried rice is to lose its taste, fried rice is very important, so Guanyang oil tea is also called rice flower tea. Then, use a tea pot (a tea making tool with a tea mouth) to fry the tea leaves, add ginger and mung beans, mash with a small wooden hammer, put lard and salt, add water to boil, use a wooden hammer to continuously pound the ingredients in the pot, and then put in the greens to cook, the oil tea is initially beaten, can be directly put into the bowl, or you can use a filter to separate the tea and pour it into a large basin for use. However, mung beans, peas, tender pumpkins, cauliflower, potato chips and even meat slices, ribs, etc., are often put into the tea pot and continue to cook, with snacks. The residue is then filled with oil and salt, pounded with special wooden tools, and continue to cook a few dishes. The rice noodles or noodles are first cooked in cold boiled water for later, and before drinking, put into the oil tea bowl, add fried rice, peanuts, green onions, sour peppers, etc., and rush into the boiling hot tea soup, which is immediately moist and fragrant, and can be entertained. The oil tea that comes out of this way is both salty and sweet, crispy, and after drinking it, it is full of sweetness. Oil tea in other places always can't get rid of the natural bitter taste of tea, and it is generally mixed with spicy ginger flavor, but Guanyang oil tea can hardly smell bitter. People say that the yang oil tea has a sweet taste after drinking, and when I drink it, it is sweet in the mouth, and it does not need to be aftertaste to feel sweet. Take a sip of the sour pepper in the tea, swallow a large mouthful of oil tea, and a warm and sweet stream of heat rushes into the stomach and intestines, and the whole body is warm. There are often fried peanuts and pickles on the table, which can be improved when drinking oil tea.
The first course is sweet tea
In oil tea shops, generally either come up with a large pot of oil tea, shared by the guests, pay attention to the point of the stove, while burning while drinking; or according to the bowl of people on the ground, after drinking need to add, like eating Cantonese cuisine can be added at any time. But some guests did not even drink a few sips of the first bowl, and it was like two Cantonese people drinking soup before dinner, each doing as they pleased, how much they liked to drink, and after this procedure, they served food. Drinking oil tea, in addition to the bowl of oil tea juice, often also has several small ingredients, added to oil tea, enriching its taste and texture. No matter where the oil tea is, almost at the same time with green onions, coriander, peanuts, fried rice, hemp egg fruit, steamed bread (the latter two are rice fried fruit, strips of small snacks), with a large pot of oil tea on the table, by the guests according to their own preferences to add, first into the bowl, and then the hot tea down to brew. However, the Guanyang oil tea we drank this evening was brewed with ingredients such as green onions, coriander, fried rice and peanuts, bowl after bowl, supported by a tray, and sent to the box. Instead of handing the whole bowl to the guest, the oil tea in the bowl is poured into the guest's tea bowl, and the empty bowl is taken away and the next one is filled. If the guest drinks and wants to, he will say hello and pour another bowl. In addition, no place to drink oil tea has no empty mouth to drink, but also with a little snack, while drinking and eating, in order to reflect a kind of comfort and leisure. Rice dumplings, small biscuits are common, the unique Sanjiang oil tea, always equipped with a bowl of sticky rice, drinking oil tea people while drinking glutinous rice into a ping-pong ball sized ball, drink a few sips of oil tea, eat a bite of sticky rice balls.
Oil tea is also a unique feature of Guanyang with rice noodles or noodles
How the taste of oil tea is good or bad, in fact, most people don't know much. Moreover, since the drinking method and taste of oil tea are different in different places, no one can take the taste of one place as a standard to judge the quality of oil tea in another place. But we know that once produced on an industrialized assembly line, what kind of food will be out of shape. The taste of oil tea has a saying, "one pot of 'clip' (dialect harmonic, meaning astringent, numb mouth, the feeling when the tea leaves are put too much) when making tea), two pots of bitter, three pots of good oil tea." The first two pots of oil tea, the bitter taste of the tea has not been exhausted, the delicious taste of the ingredients has not yet come out, although it can be drunk, but after the third pot, the tea flavor really comes out, and it is really refreshing to drink. In the past, when drinking oil tea, I sat around the edge of the fire and drank one by one, so I could distinguish such a clear level. Now that the store is full of brains, who can still think about how many dishes to drink?
Pork bone broth
Therefore, in the oil tea shop, you can't evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the taste of oil tea, because there is no standard, only different characteristics. Moreover, after the market is large, it will often go to hell, and the oil and tea water supplied in batches will certainly not have the good taste of drinking in a pot and pan at home. There are even rumors that there is a kind of oil tea essence, and when boiled water is a strong oil tea. Technically, it's not impossible. Now in some places, the oil tea is concentrated into a paste, made into fast food packaging, promoted outward, and really decent, I have drunk. Playing oil tea should really be "only ask about cultivation, not about harvest", just the program is right, as for the taste of the difference, it is God's determination, not human control. The same chef with the same ingredients, absolutely can not beat two pots of exactly the same oil tea. But once at dinner, we had five or six tables of people, and some buddies pulled me to taste oil tea from table to table, and it was the same taste. There is a good thing buddy, once counted a famous oil tea shop in Nanning, a night to get one hundred and two three pots of oil tea. If it is all manual, the amount of engineering is very unusual.
White cut chicken
Oil tea is essentially just a drink, no matter how much guests drink, it is also a small business, and the profit will not be greater than selling milk tea. Therefore, the oil tea thing, as soon as it entered the store, quickly evolved into a prop, a sheep's head sign hanging in order to sell dog meat. The real business of the oil tea shop is in catering, selling meals and drinks. Invite people to drink oil tea, drink one or two bowls per person, and then drink wine and eat vegetables, push the plate to change the cup. What Gongcheng oil tea, Sanjiang oil tea, everything is empty. Oil tea in the oil tea shop, always just a bearish protagonist. The taste of oil tea is not easy to judge, and no one asks for a clear distinction. But whether the meal is good or not is too easy to judge. Therefore, whether the business of an oil tea shop is good or not is not whether the oil tea is good or not, but how the food is, is it distinctive? Is it tasty? Only the good impression left by the meal is the magic weapon to attract guests to turn back. At this point in the meal, the shopkeepers are quite honest, playing the sign of which place, trying to tap the special delicacies of that place, and trying to make a good table. No matter which place you play the signboard, the dishes of Guangxi Oil Tea Shop are basically based on the taste of northern Guizhou, which is close to the cuisine of southwest China, rather than the Cantonese cuisine style that also occupies half of the country, sour, spicy and salty, very appetizing. At least, I personally prefer this taste, who wants to invite me to drink oil tea, you know that there is a good meal.
Dry pot earthy bacon flavor, that is, lettuce fried bacon
We drink Guanyang oil tea this evening, Guanyang County is located in the northeastmost part of Guangxi, and Hunan border, the accent, taste has been very different from the urban area of Guilin City, closer to Shonan, the taste is much heavier, more spicy, more salty, the plate is larger. This evening's dish is not a special dish that can represent Guanyang, but a "ten bowls" that can represent the characteristics and level of Guanyang's diet, and none of them are on it. However, the taste of cooking is full of Yang flavor, and several dishes are also hard dishes.
Beer fish
Pork bone broth, a very delicious and affordable home-cooked soup dish. I don't know if guibei people especially like pig big bone stew soup, more than ten years ago, the Huxin restaurant in Nanning People's Park was wrapped up by two chefs from the resource county brothers and opened a Guibei flavor restaurant for many years, the first signature dish of which is big bone stew soup. When people make a meal, they directly say, "Drink bone soup in the park", and when they come to this restaurant, there is no one who does not order a pot of bone soup. The bone soup we drank this evening was exactly the same as the one in the park restaurant. The stewed milky white soup has a slight ginger wine flavor, and its taste is so fresh that it is sweet, and it is not inferior to the old fire soup in Guangdong. In addition to drinking soup, gnawing on bones is even more enjoyable. The selected bones, deliberately left a lot of meat, after a long stew, it is very crisp, bite a light pull, then leave the bone, chewed carefully, the meat is fragrant, not woody, not greasy, very enjoyable.
Vinegar blood duck
White cut chicken, guibei area and there is no tradition of eating white cut chicken, they eat chicken is generally stewed, fried or braised, and later white cut chicken is also popular, but always too cooked, can not reflect the kind of hot just the crisp taste. However, their chicken is of good quality, I don't know if it is transported from Guanyang, the meat is tight, and the chew has a strong and pure chicken flavor. Later, although there was not much left, I still made a bag, went back to the pot and fried again, and ate a bowl of rice.
Stir-fried pork intestines with capers
Dry pot earthen bacon flavor, in fact, is lettuce fried bacon, very Shonan characteristics, bacon is also smoked, there is a pyrotechnic aroma. Fat skinny with thin skin slices, stir-fried with lettuce and rice pepper, into the mouth first a "fragrant" word, indescribable fragrance, grease incense, fireworks flavor mixed kneading, bursting. The taste level is very rich, the fat meat is almost not chewed, the lean meat has some strong feeling, but it is not chai, the fat and lean meat are all under the belly, the tough skin of the meat, but also have to be patient to continue to chew, the more chewed the more you feel the taste. Lettuce is oozing with bacon oil, and when eaten, it is slippery, but the taste seems to be more plump than meat.
Brown sugar
Beer fish, originally derived from Yangshuo in Guilin, but made a significant difference, put a lot of tomatoes and red peppers, left a lot of juice, the fish are covered up. It tastes sour, spicy, salty and delicious, but the crispy texture of the scaly fish skin layer cannot be tasted, which is one of the symbols of Yangshuo beer fish.
Vinegar blood duck is the most common way to eat duck in northern Guizhou. Guibei is close to Yongzhou, Hunan, Yongzhou blood duck is famous throughout the country, and vinegar blood ducks in guibei counties should originate from this. This dish, the key point of the duck blood with vinegar or sour jar water stirred well, fried duck sprinkled, not only to exhaust the fishy taste of duck meat, but also formed a sour, spicy and salty strong taste, eat to enjoy the rich meat aroma, but not greasy, appetizing.
Net stir-fried Guilin vegetable hearts
Stir-fried pork intestines with capers are home-cooked dishes that can be found in both urban and rural areas of Guilin. Guilin's capers, is made of brine and peppers, and Sichuan kimchi is similar, eating sour and crisp, is an excellent supporting role for many meat dishes, with pigs and cows in the water, that is everyone is not afraid of mouth. Take capers and carob side dishes, generally with pickled sour peppers, forming a sour and spicy salty and umami taste, full of stimulation of people's appetite, under the rice and wine are very suitable. Unfortunately, this night's pig intestines first passed the water, which is very chewy, but there is no crisp taste.
Brown sugar rice dumplings, which are a kind of rice dim sum in the south, are refined or beaten with rice, added with various ingredients and fillings, and kneaded into various shapes. This brown sugar cane is cut into strips and fried, and then dipped in brown syrup, which is fragrant and sweet to eat, a little sticky, and very popular.
Vegetarian stir-fried lotus slices
In addition, I also ordered fried lotus slices, Guilin vegetable hearts, cucumbers, sour and spicy tofu dried vegetables, mixed with meat, and eaten together, so as not to spoil the appetite. Guilin vegetable hearts and Nanning produce slightly different, eating without slag, many Nanning people eat, feel strange. If the stubble heart after the frost is very sweet, the Nanning people who have not tasted it will be shocked again.
The dishes eaten this evening are actually not unusual, but Guibei has a strong taste, a large portion, a heavy taste, and a sharp, spicy, salty and fresh taste, which is very stimulating. The last time I drank Guanyang oil tea was in Guanyang County, it has been almost twenty years, and the taste of oil tea in my brain is the taste of Gongcheng. Now when I try Guanyang oil tea again, I actually feel very fresh. However, the heavy taste of the Guibei Shonan style in the dish is too familiar to me, and I really eat it.