"The pot helmet of the hometown is always so good for the stomach."
People who have traveled to Shaanxi will definitely have heard of the Eight Monsters of Shaanxi, one of which is "open-eye pot helmet like a pot lid", which is intended to show that the local pot helmet is huge. Pot helmet, is a relatively homely pasta, mostly found in the central and northwest regions. It resembles a helmet, hence the name pot helmet. There is also a folk tale about its naming.
During the Qin Dynasty, there was a kind of pasta called dun cake, and just by listening to the name, you can know that this cake is thick and porcelain. It is also true that each mound weighs almost five to six pounds, which is undoubtedly the best choice for marching soldiers to fight, so almost every soldier at that time had a ration of mound cake. Due to its large size, the pier cake was inconvenient to carry, but this was not difficult for the Experienced Qin Army. They drilled the mounds out of the holes, threaded them with cowhide ropes, tied them, and carried one in front of each side of their bodies as they walked.
Inadvertently planting willows, the mound cake not only met the needs of the army's food, but also unexpectedly played a role in military defense. This natural "protective vest" has become a magic weapon for winning many battles. Over time, with the use of armor, the mound cake is also called the pot helmet.
With the passage of time, the war effect of the pot helmet is dissolved, and as food, its original taste has been returned. When it comes to it, almost all provinces have it, and in terms of form and taste, they are also different. It can be said that the pot helmet world is showing us a magnificent picture of "a hundred flowers blooming, a hundred schools of thought contending".
Like martial arts, the pot helmet also has the division of the sect. Like in the Guanzhong region, people have their own set of exclusive methodologies for pot helmets. Lao Shaan makes a pot helmet and will make the noodles quite hard, which may be the embodiment of his personality traits. The noodles are very solid, and it is difficult for people with physical strength to knead, so teachers and masters often choose to tame them with wooden bars. When the dough is finished, press it into a round cake, place it flat in a pan, and then slowly bake on the fire. Before long, the pot helmet will come out of the pot, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Savor it, and there is a sense of sweetness. In addition to taste, the most important characteristic of the pot helmet is to be durable, and eating for ten days and eight days is absolutely not a problem.
The way it is eaten is also very diverse, and to some extent all steamed buns can be replaced by it. Lamb soaking pot helmet, pot helmet soaked in soup is full of soft aroma. The effect of the pot helmet sandwiching the bacon meat is no less than that of any ordinary white steamed bun. In the rich way of eating, the most primitive and most resistant, but also have to be dry chewing, breaking a pot helmet, with an enamel jar of boiled water, that trace of sweetness is simply the taste of the world. As for the reason, of course, it is the effect of saliva amylase that we have learned in junior high school biology. This way of eating is slightly rough, but it is precisely because of this that it reflects the simple folk customs of the northwest.
In the country of Heaven, the craftsmanship of pot helmet making is relatively delicate. Its size is small, the shape is round, and in texture, it is more similar to the gold silk mille-feuille cake. In the territory of Shudi, the most famous nature is the military tun pot helmet in western Sichuan. Juntun was once a place for the cultivation and adjustment of the Shu army during the Three Kingdoms period, so it is not surprising that the pot helmet, as one of the dry food, can appear here. It seems that in order to inspire the hearts of the army, the pot helmet is generally called the pot kui here, which contains the meaning of winning the championship in one fell swoop.
If the Shaanxi pot helmet is mainly "dry and fragrant", then the pot kui of Juntun is synonymous with "crisp and crisp". Juntun Pot Kui must choose a half-hair noodle with good ductility, supplemented by warm water, in order to get the flexible texture of the inside. The meat filling should be made finely, and the fat and lean ratio should also be even and appropriate, and then filled with lard and smeared on the dough. Fry the prepared dough in oil until golden brown, then bake them in the oven.
Most of the juntun pot leaders who received the newly out of the pot did not say a word and could not wait to bite down. Only to see the body of the cake fluttering straight down the slag, the degree of crispness can be seen. Inside, it is soft, and the fresh aroma of minced meat plus the role of spices such as peppercorns makes the whole mouth in the peak experience all the time. With the change of people's tastes, Juntun Pot Kui has also kept pace with the times, deducing more flavors, such as pepper and salt, mixed sugar, each of which is unique.
If the above two kinds of pot helmets are still a little strange, then the Hubei public security pot helmets, which are most widely distributed in the country, must have been tasted by diners. Whether it is a chain storefront or a street snack, there is no shortage of traces of it. I have eaten many stalls called "public security authentic pot helmets", but what puzzled me for a while was why the practices and shapes I ate every time were not the same, there were shoe boards, diamonds, and in the filling, it covered many ingredients, plum vegetables, lard, beef, which are the most frequent. Later, I chatted with several bosses with questions, and they agreed that just delicious, the so-called authentic, is the taste of authentic, as for the way to achieve, that is another matter.
One of the important reasons why the public security pot helmet can appear as a snack is that its production process is not long, and it will soon satisfy the taste buds of diners. There is an oven made of iron barrels, and with a desk-sized board, you can make it. Usually, two people cooperate, one person is responsible for kneading, rolling the dough and putting the filling, and the other is guarded by the fireside to complete the baking. Therefore, many couples who come out to do small business will choose this business as a starting point, after all, the threshold is not high, and they can also present a delicacy for customers, why not enjoy it?
The public security pot helmet emphasizes incense, thinness and crispness, two long pieces of dough skin through baking, emitting a unique wheat aroma, coupled with some merchants will brush some secret sauce on the dough, the taste will definitely lead people to eat one bite after another. It is worth mentioning that the stuffing inside is "very restless", some are safely in its place, and some escape to the dough, which gives the pot helmet an outstanding layering. So after eating one, the aftertaste can last a long time.
Of course, the pot helmet is not only salty, and the sweet pot helmet is not in the minority. In Xinyang, Henan, there are jujube pot helmets. The ripe dates are pureed, stuffed into the dough and cooked in a pot. After the pot is out of the pot, the helmet is brushed with some syrup and drizzled with a little green and red silk, which is even more perfect. The jujube fragrance blends with the wheat fragrance, the soft and sweet inside, the tough skin, this jujube pot helmet, is simply an indispensable staple food in the local New Year's Festival.
There are brown sugar pot helmets in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, and when you first eat them, you feel that the brown sugar pot helmets that have just come out are the ancient form of Hong Kong Maxim's mooncakes. The crust is crispy and has a charming aroma of raw wheat. After breaking open, you can see that the brown sugar that has not yet cooled inside is in a liquid state, it goes down along the body of the pot helmet, and if you are not careful, it may flow to your hands. So pay extra attention when eating, and if you want to enjoy its sweetness, you have to maintain a little awe.
Eating too much pure sweet may be boring, if only it could be paired with other flavors. In the famous "Beijing Eight Pieces" in the dim sum shop in old Beijing, there is a sweet and sour hawthorn pot helmet. The thoroughly cooked hawthorn is washed and seeded, then added cooking oil and sugar to the pan and sautéed to make a paste paste. After that, add some nuts and mix them into the filling. The crispy crust wraps around the filling, bakes it, and sticks it with a red poke, making it an excellent souvenir for relatives and friends. Its skin is crispy, the filling is sticky, and the contrast in taste is fully revealed. When I first came to Beijing, I had a good bite, but after a long time, I eventually produced a little "aesthetic fatigue".
There are countless pot helmets in the country, in Gansu, there are Jingning pot helmets and Xihe pot helmets evolved from the "Qiang Cake" of the Han Wu Emperor period; in Anhui, there are Bozhou pot helmets from Cao Cao's hometown; Nanchong pot helmets with "northern Sichuan cold powder", Shaanxi white water pot helmets with centuries of history, and Ruzhou pot helmets with pig's head meat inside... These colorful pot helmets are an important part of the world of pasta. Of course, it is also a projection of our various taste preferences, some people love sweet, some people love salty, some people like crisp, and some people love softness.
Although there are many types of pot helmets, I believe that the question of which pot helmet is strong in the country actually has an answer in everyone's heart: pot helmets, like other foods, are always the most appetizing in their hometown.