When it comes to Beijing's cuisine, I believe that many people will think of a variety of old Beijing snacks. Indeed, Beijing's various snacks can be said to have become a food business card of Beijing, many tourists and friends go to Beijing, must be to taste a variety of old Beijing snacks.
The types of Beijing snacks can be said to be diverse, including a variety of pastries, such as fried cakes, and a variety of snacks that can be eaten as dishes, such as popcorns, brine and so on. An important reason why Beijing has so many different kinds of snacks with different flavors is because of Beijing's status as the capital.
Since the Ming Dynasty, Beijing has been the capital of China for hundreds of years. As the capital, it is natural that there are people from all over the country who continue to enter and leave the city every day, and after a long time, more people have come, and naturally the food culture from all over the world has also been brought to Beijing, and the excellent and popular locals have been left behind. In this context, it is not surprising that Beijing has a large number of snacks with different styles and tastes.
The snack we want to introduce today is a kind of pastry in old Beijing, according to today's words, it should be regarded as a dessert, it is Aiwowo. Aiwowo can also be regarded as a very old qualification in the Beijing snack industry, and it is also loved by many Beijingers to this day. Let's introduce why this snack of Aiwowo can get so many people's love, and where is its special style?
<h1>First, the history of Aiwowo</h1>
As a city with a very long history, Beijing's cuisine is naturally also historical. According to the available literature, as early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there were already records of this delicacy such as Aiwowo. The person who recorded this delicacy was a eunuch named Liu Ruoyu in the imperial palace at that time, who described this snack in a book called "Zhi Zhongzhi".
He said that this snack is a kind of cold cake made of sticky rice with sesame seeds, because the filling is wrapped in glutinous rice, so it is called "nest". In the later famous "Golden Plum Words", the snack of Aiwowo was also mentioned, which shows that Aiwowo already had a certain popularity among the people at that time.
Another theory is that the Beijing snack recorded in the former Ming Dynasty is not the Aiwowo that we are common to later. Aiwowo is actually a traditional Uyghur snack, which was brought to Beijing from the Xinjiang region by the Qianlong Emperor's concubine Xiangfei during the Qianlong period, and since then, Aiwowo has really taken root in Beijing and become a common snack we use today.
It is said that when Princess Xiangfei was summoned to the palace, she already had a husband in Xinjiang, and because she missed her husband, she had no appetite even in the face of the mountain treasures and seafood prepared by the imperial dining room. The Qianlong Emperor had no choice but to order people in Xinjiang to find someone to bring traditional Uyghur food. When Princess Xiang's husband heard the news, he hurried to Beijing.
In order to let Xiangfei know the news that he had come to Beijing, he specially made a kind of pastry that Xiangfei had originally loved to eat, which only he could make, and no one else could make. When sending the pastry into the palace, the eunuch guarding the palace door asked him what the name of the pastry was, because the husband of the concubine was named Amat, so he had a clever move, saying that the pastry was called "Awowo", so that he could smoothly send the pastry into the palace.
When Xiangfei saw this kind of pastry, she knew that her husband, who had been thinking about it day and night, had come to Beijing, and she was overjoyed and ate a lot at once. The Qianlong Emperor was also very happy to see it, so he ordered all large and small restaurants in Beijing to make this kind of pastry, so Aiwowo suddenly became popular in Beijing.
This statement cannot be said to be completely unreasonable, because in today's Beijing city, the merchants who sell Aiwowo are basically halal merchants, and Aiwowo is basically a halal food, and perhaps Aiwowo is really brought into Beijing by Xiangfei.
<h1>Second, the development of Aiwowo</h1>
After hundreds of years of development, Aiwowo has developed many different methods today, and the most traditional method is to use glutinous rice and rice to make noodles, and to make stuffing with sugar, sesame seeds, hawthorn cakes and other materials. And aiwowo to do delicious, the most important thing is this noodle, and the most important thing about this noodle is jiang rice.
To make jiang rice delicious, in fact, it is not difficult to say, we can also make it at home, but it takes a long time. To make delicious rice, the first thing is to soak the rice in water, it is best to soak it for more than 4 hours, and after soaking it, it is then put into the pot to dry steam. After steaming, the rice is mixed with flour to make the dough of Aiwowo.
In addition, there are also the use of yam, grapes and other different ingredients to make Aiwowo, the taste is not much different from the traditional Aiwowo, but in the taste of each flavor, you may wish to try it, maybe there will be a new experience.
<h1>Third, the value of Aiwowo</h1>
Glutinous rice, an important raw material for making Aiwowo, is an ingredient rich in nutritional value. It is rich in protein, vitamins and various trace elements, and eating glutinous rice can be a good supplement to the nutrients our body needs. From the perspective of Traditional Chinese medicine, the consumption of glutinous rice can tonify the qi, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and also stop sweating. For people who usually have symptoms such as frequent urination and sweating, eating glutinous rice is a good way to eat.
However, due to the fact that glutinous rice is relatively sticky, so the elderly, children and other people with poor digestive ability should eat cautiously, and for people with diabetes and other diseases, glutinous rice can not be eaten more, it is likely to aggravate its own symptoms, need special attention.
<h1>IV. Conclusion</h1>
Ai wo wo is a very storyful cuisine. On the one hand, its source is a very beautiful story, the story of Xiangfei has dyed a touch of legend and love for this snack of Aiwowo, and when people enjoy this snack, when they think of this story, they should also feel more sweet in their mouths and hearts. On the other hand, Aiwowo also has cultural significance, and today's old Beijing New Year's Day, there must be aiwowo food on the table, taking a good color head, which is also a manifestation of the cultural heritage of Aiwowo.
As a kind of Beijing snack, Aiwowo has its unique flavor and culture, and everyone must try this flavor snack when traveling to Beijing in the future.
bibliography:
"Zhi Zhongzhi"
History of the Ming Palace