Original: Fu Tao nine points full
As a food editorial office rooted in Beijing, we are always full of infinite yearning for Suzhou.
Because in every small talk, Suzhou can appear in various forms, and do not argue, laugh at all kinds of Internet celebrity food battle:
- Eh I bought durian flavored dough dough do you want to taste?
- No, no, I asked my friend to bring the cake dumplings from Suzhou Mingyue Lou, do you want to come to one?
- Yes!
- Last year, I ate a fresh meat mooncake with pickled tuk tuk, crayfish and sauerkraut fish, what new tricks do you say will be done in the baotou district this year?
- There are many tricks, but if you want to say that the best food, it must be freshly baked on the street side of Suzhou...
- I agree.
- This year I must be determined to buy a bottle of bald butter, last year I watched "Flavor of the World" and starved to death...
- Bald butter is something that Suzhou people can do, delicate and elegant, so rich things are actually made by Suzhou people without the temperament of upstarts...
- Because people are already rich.
So this summer, the Futao Editorial Department, which has been eager to move suzhou, finally set off for Suzhou, and found a Suzhou guide, bringing you a super honest Suzhou food guide, taking you to see how Suzhou food should be eaten in the eyes of Suzhou locals.
A day in Suzhou starts with a bowl of Su-style noodles.
Lu Wenfu, a famous writer and "Suzhou Food Culture Publicity Ambassador", wrote when writing "Gourmet": "Zhu Ziye (gourmet) every day when he wakes up, he will go to Zhu Hongxing to eat head soup noodles. ”
Tongdexing
Why do Suzhou people like to eat noodles in the morning?
Far away, this stems from the ancient northerners who went south many times to avoid war and brought the habit of eating noodles to Suzhou; closer, it is because of the tea house culture, or eating bowl noodles in the morning is a simple version of the tea house - Suzhou in the Ming and Qing Dynasties has two characteristics, one is rich in production, and the other is a commercial and trade distribution center, so it brings together a large number of retired literati doctors and merchants, who like to order a pot of tea in their spare time and order two small snacks such as roasted wheat and raw fried. Finally, eat a bowl of small ravioli, or a pastry, and talk about the past and current events.
But the main essential reason is still: delicious.
And when it comes to a busy morning, it is to eat a bowl of noodles: eat noodles quickly, and if you are slow, the noodles will fall. Hot steaming up, staple food (noodles), main dish (toppings), soup in a bowl, 5 minutes to finish, a wipe of the mouth with friends next to chat with today's rice price salt prices and news interesting things, quick.
On the other hand, these are classes that go north and south and have a solid family, so they are very particular about eating and drinking. This has caused Suzhou noodles to have requirements for soup, noodles and toppings, which are indispensable.
So how to order a bowl of Su-style noodles?
First of all, teach you a few terms: hard noodles / soft noodles, wide soup / tight soup / mixed noodles, no green / heavy green, cross the bridge / bottom pouring.
Small wide surface
Fine noodles
The first two are well explained, "no green" and "heavy green" refer to the number of garlic leaves in the noodles, while "crossing the bridge" and "bottom pouring" refers to whether the toppings are presented alone or buried directly in the noodle soup.
Bridge
Delicious sautéed meat noodles with toppings buried in the noodle soup
As for the order, I recommend starting with the basic stewed noodles. The so-called stewed meat requires the use of Taihu lake rib pork belly to cook first and then soak the process for up to one day. Take a sip and simmer the soup slowly with stick bones, native chicken, and eel bones for at least 4 hours; after eating a mouthful of structured noodles, wait until the stew is soaked by the boiling hot noodle soup to the brink of melting and maintaining the prototype, eat a bite of the stewed meat, the shape is scattered, the skin and fat are scattered, leaving only a little lean meat and meat overflowing.
At the same time, in the base soup of Su-style red soup noodles, a semi-dry soup juice is received when a spoonful of braised meat is placed, which is called "juice". Therefore, whether a bowl of soup is good or not has a lot to do with stewed meat.
Finally, I would like to answer a question: is the internet celebrity noodle delicious or not?
Three shrimp noodles of Wan Taixing
The answer is delicious. Taking three shrimp noodles as an example, such a bowl of noodles needs to be made at a specific time (river shrimp only has two months of seeds in early summer), with very expensive ingredients (live and jumping river shrimp with seeds), and to make it several times more than usual time (using the hand as a knife, peeling off the shrimp brain, scraping off the shrimp seeds, and then squeezing out the shrimp).
After serving, it is also necessary to stir at a speed of ten times per second to ensure that each noodle is stained with shrimp seeds; when eating, it is necessary to wrap the shrimp and shrimp brain with the noodles and put them in the mouth, so laborious, can this noodle not be delicious? It's a foul.
But it is difficult to eat well, taking me personally as an example, this summer I ate more than a dozen bowls of three shrimp noodles, and there are very few delicious noodle restaurants.
One is that this bowl of noodles is very expensive, but most of the noodle restaurants that make this bowl of noodles are still ordinary in the environment, and the service is urgent; the second is that this bowl of noodles is very testing the power of mixing, and it is difficult for us ordinary diners to mix well; third, because almost every noodle restaurant is making this bowl of noodles, three shrimp noodles have formed an industrialization - shrimp, shrimp seeds and shrimp brains, many times can be sold alone, easy to cut corners.
So I suggest that if you really want to eat three shrimp noodles, you can go to several five-star hotel noodle restaurants in Suzhou to eat (yes, we also have noodle restaurants in the hotel), the service is powerful, the air conditioning is enough, you can also add a dessert after eating, the price is not much expensive.
Moreover, if you like to eat three shrimp, you can go directly to the Su bang restaurant.
After eating the noodles, it's time to start the formal Su bang cuisine journey.
Many friends have such an experience: "come and come, must try" mentality, to Suzhou's famous long-established street eunuchs on several famous shops, according to the public comments of the signature dish recommendation, order a few squirrel mandarin fish, stir-fried shrimp, crab powder tofu and other dishes, and then come to a conclusion that the Su bang dish is too sweet.
So what exactly is Su bang dish?
In short, since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the private chef of the merchant and literati doctor, under the premise of abundant ingredients, has been thinking about it day and night to make it with an extremely exquisite and detached dish from the masses. This brings two problems: one is that some Of the Su Bang dishes are no longer in line with the aesthetics of modern people, and the other is that it is very difficult to make a good Su Bang dish.
Where is the su bang dish delicious?
The first is to pay attention to the ingredients, pay attention to the seasons, and do not eat from time to time.
According to the Ming Dynasty Wang Jun's "Gu Su Zhi", as early as the Ming Dynasty, the ingredients in Suzhou City reached the frequency of "five days and more products", in Mandarin, that is, changing seasonal ingredients every five days.
This habit has been maintained until now, forming a very rich seasonal system - when it comes to vegetables, eating "seven heads and one brain" in the spring.
Eat all kinds of melons and fruits in summer.
Eight immortals in autumn.
In winter, there are cabbage spinach and cabbage; when it comes to fish, Suzhou people have a fish eating schedule.
When it comes to hairy crabs, there is also the saying of "nine females and ten males", that is to say, female crabs are eaten in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, and male crabs are eaten in the tenth month of the lunar calendar.
The most exaggerated thing is that not only vegetables, Suzhou people eat pork differently throughout the year. In the spring, she eats the most beautiful colored cherry meat;
Summer heat, eat lotus leaf tamales that open the taste buds;
Autumn wind rises, eat button meat;
In winter, the southern cold is bone-chilling, and you can eat the strongest sauce.
Secondly, the Su Bang cuisine has an orderly inheritance and becomes a banquet, some dishes have the elegance of the literati, and some dishes are extremely luxurious.
Bacon yellow eel
For example, the three shrimps of qingfeng that I just talked about - the river shrimp has a low aroma, and you can't eat the vigorous shrimp aroma when mixed into the noodles. Stir-fry directly into a plate, drop a drop of balsamic vinegar, the freshness, sweetness and taste of the shrimp in the mouth like an explosion.
For example, a vicious old dish, fried crab mackerel. The catfish is a distant relative of the puffer fish, the skin is smooth and tender, the back is thorny, the fish meat is delicate and elastic, and the liver is delicious. The mackerel is sliced and stir-fried with the liver with lard, crab paste, crab powder and crab meat, and it is heart-warming just to listen to the production process.
Catfish
There is also crispy crispy duck that explodes in the mouth;
Early red orange cheese chicken with fruity flesh flavor;
Fish maw, fresh shellfish, shrimp, hoof tendons and chicken slices are fried together, and the flavor growth and loss are all white shishi plates calculated by seconds;
Hundreds of yuan a pound of pond fish sliced (a fish out of two pieces of meat), plus Taicang bad oil fried together bad soup slices, etc...
These are the essence of Su bang dishes, as long as you see these dishes on the menu, please get started as soon as possible.
Is the Su Bang dish too sweet?
The standard answer is: Su bang cuisine is salty and sweet flavor, the sweet dish is sweet, and the sweet dish will not be put in the sugar.
Take the most famous squirrel mandarin fish as an example, this dish is sour and sweet, it must be put sugar, and the degree of this sugar is the most difficult to master.
The standard squirrel mandarin fish needs to select about two pounds of fresh mandarin fish, and then flower knife, pickle, shoot powder, oil pour, pour juice in one go, produce a mouth wide open, tail upright, fish root explosion, the shape is like a squirrel. The most crucial point of this dish is to smear a little fine salt on the fish - with the salt taste, not only is the freshness more complex, but also the entrance is first sour and then sweet and a little salty, so that the mouth will not feel sweet, but a sweet.
And there is also a famous dish of melon ginger mandarin fish shredded in the Su bang dish. The mandarin fish is tightly beaten into shreds and stir-fried with shredded melon and tender ginger, and served on a hot plate, the meat is like a first-class grouper. This dish is not sweet, the back is fresh and refreshing.
After eating Su-style noodles and Su bang dishes, then you enter the advanced stage of Suzhou cuisine - visiting the vegetable market, eating snacks, and driving the farm.
The best way to get to know the life of a city is to visit the vegetable market there, which hides the background of the city.
Suzhou's vegetable markets have their own characteristics, my personal recommendation is the Fengmen Vegetable Market, the first is because it is the most complete vegetable market in Suzhou's agricultural and sideline products, and the second is because it is not only very easy to visit, but also very delicious.
Straight dried radish, Taicang meat floss, Huzhou dried bamboo shoots, home-brewed shrimp seed soy sauce can be seen everywhere.
You can also see a variety of seasonal vegetables:
Fresh, slightly purple amaranth, large eggplant, water spirit of the white put all over the valley full of pits; live jumping river shrimp, male shrimp 65 pounds, seed shrimp 75 pounds; buy two tomatoes, to the next fishery stall with a tap to rinse, break into two, strong tomato aroma, slight sand taste, sweet and sour, pick tomatoes to follow the principle of "I am ugly but I am delicious".
If there is a city background in the market, then the memory of the city is mostly circulated among snacks. There is no doorway here, according to our recommended snack bar to eat one by one, all of which are well-known local tastes.
For example, the green poplar wontons on Linton Road. Shrimp wontons are large and full, chicken soup is made at the bottom, sprinkled with egg shreds, a handful of green onions, rolling hot and served.
For example, Suzhou's signature snack dumb raw frying, the daily queue does have his reason, large, soup foot, half hair noodles. There is no word "bun" in Suzhou dialect, it is always called steamed buns. Raw fried is raw fried steamed buns.
Dumb raw fried
There are also shiny brine geese;
Cross Street Brine Goose
Fresh meat dumplings with melted fat in glutinous rice;
Completely crunchy, flatbread full of lard aroma;
Rich in inner ingredients, sprinkle a handful of salted soybean milk with lard residue;
A thousand pieces of buns intertwined with the aroma of beans and meat with vermicelli...
As for souvenirs, they are also ready: red bean muffin cake, rose lard cake, five-color generous cake, date mud cake. The aroma of lard, the aroma of glutinous rice, the aroma of bean paste jujube mud pine nuts, sweet, soft and sticky, has a kind of gentleness that belongs to Jiangnan.
If you're not coming to Suzhou for the first time, or want to try something different, then you must eat around Suzhou, where there are many culinary treasures hidden.
Leaving aside the fresh meat of Wujiang in the south, small roasted wheat and braised lamb; steamed vegetables and mushroom oil in the north; Aozao noodles in Kunshan; crab tofu in Zhangjiagang; and Jiangxian in Taicang, dozens of kinds of delicacies are not to be mentioned, just suzhou.
In the west, there are three white lakes in Taihu Lake: white fish, white shrimp, and silver fish.
Taihu Three White Platter
White fish meat is delicate, fat and fat, salted for more than an hour to improve freshness, steamed out of the oven, which is the best fish head, the gum between the fish mouth, under the wine first-class; white shrimp, almost transparent, small, but the flesh elastic teeth, boiled in salt water, a sip of a shrimp; silver fish is more common, the origin is all over the Yangtze River and several large freshwater lakes. This little thumb-sized fish has a hint of fresh flavor, and direct scrambled eggs or fried with powder can force this fragrance out.
Yangcheng Lake in the east is a paradise for shrimp and crabs.
A simple noodle drag June yellow, crab meat is fresh and sweet, crab yellow into liquid, add flour, green onion, ginger, edamame together to fry, crab flavor soaked into the batter, let people not know which is the batter, which is crab yellow, only know not to let go of any bite.
A pot of salted crayfish, does not require any dipping sauce, white cheeks are tight, and come with fresh sweetness.
The taste of Suzhou is not all ancient and early, but more from the seemingly bland daily life.
Young people dressed in trendy brands drink hand-brewed Gem Summer Coffee:
You will also eat the chicken feet of Lili Ancient Town soaked in marinade:
Or pork belly sausage with a smoky smell:
In a random restaurant, I ate a shrimp shrimp, tender meat, umami soy sauce shrimp, asked about the hostess, she will proudly say that her husband (boss) will personally go to the market every morning to pick shrimp, rain or shine.
In the state-run long-established brand, the country's famous cooking masters often sit in the corner of the cashier and put on a cup of Biluochun, which seems to be firm and determined, but in fact, looking at the six roads, asking guests for their opinions from time to time.
Seriously, adhering to tradition and embracing modernity, these daily details are the essence of Suzhou life: no matter how the world changes, I just take it seriously, nitpick, and live every day tirelessly.
Suzhou has no Internet celebrities, and the more delicious they have, they have become Internet celebrities.
What is the best Suzhou food in your heart?
Let's talk in the comments!