Modern rice dumplings have a different taste

Author like Gangnam (Yunyang Shizi)

I overheard a Chinese friend say that the World Tourism Magazine, officially published by the World Tourism Organization, introduced in detail the world's most distinctive restaurants and snacks, including articles introducing Yunnan restaurants. Hearing her say this, I immediately thought of "modern rice dumplings". So I couldn't wait to ask: Is there any introduction to modern rice in the magazine? Do you know, modern rice dumplings, but we Kunming people on the basis of foreign pretzels, absorb the length of Western-style pastry cake, through hard practice, innovative, with a strong hometown ethnic flavor of pancake pastry, is a kind of hand layer by layer torn to eat the pastry small pancake, with the outer crisp soft, salty and sweet milk aroma, pine wool smell overflowing characteristics, is Kunming's unique local cuisine, and other pasta pastries can sit on an equal footing, no inferiority. After listening to my introduction, my friend said with great regret that she had carefully searched for a guide to the word Yunnan in the magazine, except for a recommendation: "Nanlaisheng" article of Kunming Cafe in Yunnan, China, there was no introduction to the special snacks of other Yunnan restaurants, not even a single word.

The word "modern", which originated in Buddhism as the Brahmanical text of the Modern Gadzu, is the name of a young woman of the Shudra caste (slave class). It is recorded in both the Pali classics of the Lengyan Sutra and the Modern Women's Sutra of the Buddha in the fourteenth volume of the Taisho Collection. In the late 1820s, because modern and English modern transliterations were pronounced similarly, the meaning was fashionable, modern, new, fashionable, different from the past and other meanings. It must be noted that modern chinese is not a transliteration of the English word modern, but a coincidence of two languages that belong to homophone consent. The term "粑粑" originates from the dialect brought by the ancient Sichuan Ba people when they immigrated to Yunnan. In the Sichuan dialect, words with Ba characters abound, such as: Bashi, Ba Jie, Fork Ba, Ba Shuang, Cang, Tang Er (a kind of glutinous snack) and so on. After that, after a long period of running-in, the Ba dialect gradually merged into the Dialect of Yunnan, so it is not surprising that "cake" is called "粑粑". As the Kunming food industry tycoon said: "modern" is taken to see, and "canon" is used to eat, combining the two to respond to the old saying of "beautiful color can be eaten".

I remember that the first time I ate modern rice dumplings, it seemed that when I was just in the first grade of elementary school, my mother gave me a reward for becoming a primary school student. At that time, people were very small, and listening to my second brother, this kind of rice dumplings were fried and baked with flour and sugar, milk, and butter, just like making pretzels, just by flattening a flower roll, and then roasting on both sides of the pot until browned, you can eat it. From the appearance of the shape, the pretzels are large, and the modern rice dumplings are small. Distinguished from the taste, one has a pretzel flavor and the other has a milk flavor. At that time, I was still a little puzzled, the same kind of pasta pastry, why one is called a rice cake, and the other is called a cake. Only to know that modern rice dumplings and pretzels are eaten in the same way, layer by layer, circle by circle, slowly torn to eat.

It is said that the founder of the pretzel cake was an Italian monk in the Middle Ages, and it had long been spread to the Central Plains of China with foreign monks, but it was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that the pretzel began to circulate in Yunnan. The English name of this kind of cake is transliterated as "pretzels", which belongs to the category of pasta snack crispers. Unlike other traditional flat cakes baked on the fire, the appearance of pretzels is very similar to the pantou paws of ethnic minority men in Yunnan, wrapped around layer by layer. The pan-fried pretzels have a golden brown surface and a fragrant pretzel flavor in each layer. Starting from the outermost layer, tearing off a small section and eating it into the mouth, crispy and delicious, very chewy, a faint hemp salty taste, vividly stimulating the tip of the tongue, stimulating the continuous secretion of saliva. Usually, when the third layer is eaten, the taste of the cake becomes very loose and soft.

So, how did the pretzels, which were already in line with the tastes of Kunming people, turn into modern rice dumplings and become another noodle snack? This stems from a true and beautiful story.

At the end of the 1940s, there was a woman named Yang Fengzhi, who was outstanding in appearance, and her old man was still a boss. One day, Yang Fengzhi went up the mountain with her old man to hunt, and when it rained heavily on the way, they came to a mountain herdsman's house to hide from the rain, hoping to wait for the rain to stop before continuing to hunt. The people in the mountains are generally very simple, and the owner of the herdsman's family is the same, very politely bringing out milk to ask the two to warm up first, and holding out flour for Yang Fengzhi to eat first. Yang Fengzhi is a capable person, she rolled up her sleeves to prepare the noodles, but accidentally touched the milk on the board on the flour, only to see her hesitate for three seconds, randomly mistake the mistake, by overturning the milk in the flour, and then add a little sugar and a little salt to stir well and become a dough, and then roll the reconciled noodles into thin slices, learn the method of making pretzels, smeared a layer of lard on the dough, rolled into strips, cut into small sections, and then pulled the dough knots straight and twisted into a cake and stood awake for use. Next, she added the fragrant masson pine hairs into the wind oven, poured oil into the pot and heated it to 80% heat, Yang Feng sesame sharply put the soup on the board into the pot, and slowly fried it until it was golden brown. wow! This small rice dumpling, which is made of mistakes, is tender on the outside and tender on the inside, and the aroma is fragrant, and everyone praises it while tasting: the taste is very beautiful. After returning home, Yang Fengzhi did not stop doing two, and opened a shop in Kunming Fengyi Street, specializing in this salty cream cookie, and named it "Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop". Because of the pancakes she makes, including raw materials that are not mixed with a little foreign substance, the appearance is fashionable and small, and the yellow is refreshing and fragrant, which is quite delicious. Some people borrow the story of the Buddhist modern garden girl to call it the modern rice dumplings of Kunming, and since then, the modern rice dumplings have become a special pastry snack native to Kunming and exude the taste of mountain peoples.

The above stories come from some accounts of Kunming cultural people in the past. It goes without saying that the Kunming literati at that time not only agreed that Modern Cangcang was a Kunming confectionery brand innovated by Yang Fengzhi, a Kunming native, but also believed that she was a promoter of innovation and improvement of innovative products in the Kunming catering industry. However, once upon a time, in addition to the Kunming people have a little impression of this modern rice dumpling with a bit of foreign flavor, others, such as this pastry brand that is completely independently innovated by Kunming people, have become quite unfamiliar.

It wasn't until the 70s of the last century that I really had the taste buds that distinguished between delicious food and bad taste. I remember that whenever it was my turn to take a vacation on Sunday, I occasionally went to the White Tower Road Machinery Hall, on the one hand, to play with my classmates, on the other hand, to thank the families of my classmates for the help they gave me in my most difficult student years, and of course, I was very blessed to grab their outstretched warm hands. Even though decades have passed, I still remember the classmates who helped me, their names and the faces of their parents. I have always believed that as an independent person, it is very important to receive external assistance. Just like I assumed that I didn't get help from external forces, I'm sure I couldn't be the person I am today. I am not a numb person, and what still beats in my chest is a grateful heart.

In the mid-summer of 1971, as in the past, although the allowance of the army was very low, it still bought one or two salty cream candies and a few pretzels, but I did not expect to be hit by the classmates surnamed Huang who could box, and he meant that whoever still chewed pretzels now would eat modern sorghum. Other students also came to make up, the final meaning of the tongue: as long as the Kunming people must know, or have eaten modern rice dumplings. The most wonderful speech came from the student surnamed Chen, who later became the director of a certain department, and the content of his words was: Don't underestimate the modern rice dumplings that emit a creamy sweet fragrance, just because a small piece of butter is added, it has a strong Western atmosphere, which evokes the Kunming people's association with Western foods such as bread, cakes, coffee, and the history of the rear area of the 30s Anti-Japanese War. The classmate surnamed Huang interjected with a fist: Indeed, modern rice dumplings have a close relationship with the arrival of the French and Americans. Listening to their words, my head was very large, even dazed, and I couldn't remember which classmate told me another legend about the origin of modern rice.

In the 1930s, a pasta chef named Mordenko in Kunming opened a "Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop" in Fengyi Street, specializing in pretzels. Modenko has twin daughters, the older sister is called Mo Meizhen and the younger sister is called Mo Lizhen. They are both the pearls of Mordenko's palm and the palm pot sellers of the wheat cake shop on Fengyi Street. In 1938, the "Southwest United University" came to Kunming, because the campus site is close to the Fengyi Street area, many students from all over the country like to go to the "Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop" to buy cakes to eat. But somehow, after a period of time, the number of students who came to buy cakes decreased, and Mordenko inquired that it turned out to be pretzels sold by the bakery the day before, and the next day it became quite hard. When Meizhen and Lizhen learned of this situation, they immediately began to discuss an improvement plan. The sisters carried their father to Jinbi Road, tasted all the Western-style pastries on this street, and felt that Western-style pastries, in addition to the milky aroma, even if they were put on for two or three days, the taste was still very soft. So they decided to take advantage of the opportunity that Kunming could easily buy butter, milk powder and other raw materials, first of all, the shape of the pretzel cake was small, and changed the well water and noodles to milk and noodles, and then replaced the pretzel with white sugar, and then smeared butter in the pan, cut and sold, and shouted to the onlookers: "Exclusive American butter pancakes, fragrant and soft, come and buy, come and taste, taste first and buy later, not delicious, no money!" While shouting, Mei Zhen also picked up small pancakes from the basket, pulled them up from the noodles, and tore them off one by one for the onlookers to taste. The improved pancakes, milky, wheat and butter aromas are full of fragrance, salty and sweet are suitable and soft, and the business of the Fengyi wheat cake shop is booming again. What's even crazier is that some students from other places even directly nicknamed Mo Meizhen "Meizhen". "Mei Zhen, come on a cane!" "Mei Zhen, Cang!" What is even more wonderful is that at that time, the American Flying Tigers had a station not far from Fengyi Street, and the American soldiers who had eaten butter pancakes mistakenly misheard "Mo Zhen" for "modern" in English, and also shouted in English with the Kunming dialect: "Modern, Modern". Shouting: "Modern rice dumplings", it has become a fashionable and fashionable famous pastry name in Kunming.

I didn't expect that there was such a moving story in the modern rice dumplings, and I didn't expect that in the mid-1980s, when I was looking for information about Kunming folklore in the provincial library by Cuihu Lake, I accidentally read Mr. Wang Zengqi's novel "Japanese Rules" describing the life of southwest United masters and students. After completing the rent formalities, I ran to the tea room in Cuihu Park and read it calmly. In Wang Lao's novel, there is a description, I excerpted it and copied it in the notebook, the novel wrote: "There is a family to make a kind of cake, in fact, there is nothing unusual, but it is a hair cake with a little white sugar, but it is baked with pine hair (pine leaves of masson pine), with a little fragrance, so it has characteristics." Female students of the United Nations University love to eat this kind of cake. Kunming people (at that time) called female college students 'modern', so this kind of cake was called modern rake rake. And it became the official name. "I didn't expect that the origin of the name of modern rice dumplings should be such a saying, and there is such a wonderful and fashionable story."

No one knows when the "Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop" was relocated to the Kunhua Girls' High School on Suijing Road. Speaking of Appeasement Road, perhaps today's young people no longer know where this road is, but as Kunming people, they should always know Renmin Middle Road, right? The Middle Renmin Road, formerly known as "Changchun Road", was built in the Ming Dynasty and is a very lively commercial street, which runs from Beijing Road in the east to Zhengyi Road in the west, with a total length of 1.2 kilometers. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Changchun Road was divided into five sections, namely ChangchunFang, Shupipo, Dadongmen Zhengjie, Xianhepu, and Suijing Road. It was not until the Republic of China period that these five independent streets were merged into one, collectively known as "Changchun Road". In 1990, due to the needs of fanatical urban expansion and expansion planning, the government carried out a surgical transformation of Changchun Road, so that the one at the end of the good end best represented the spring of Kunming, the unique climate of Kunming, and the changchun road with enduring history was replaced overnight with the middle Renmin Road, which was of little significance. On this brand-new people's road that has been transformed, it is strange that the people are no longer bustling and bustling, but they still remain in the hearts of the old Kunming people.

When it comes to the relocation time and reasons for the relocation of the Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop, I personally speculate that the time should be at the time of the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the evacuation of most of the southwest university students. From the perspective of the market, with the trend of people going empty, the business of modern rice dumplings has inevitably suffered a heavy blow. If you want to carry forward the modern brand, you must re-choose a new store with a large population flow. For modern rice dumplings, the main target customer is female students, and it is a rather wise choice to relocate the Fengyi wheat cake shop to Suijing Road and be adjacent to Kunhua Girls' High School. Kunhua Girls' Middle School, as the name suggests, is naturally the place with the most female students, and the girls in the girls' middle school are in the cardamom age, although they are dressed simply, blue shirts and black dresses, they are young and young, smiling and smiling, and the style is stylish and modern. And modern rice is the most popular among girls.

I clearly remember that the old Kunming people's understanding of modern rice dumplings generally began on Changchun Road. And many people grew up eating modern rice. I remember when I was in middle school, I and my classmate Surnamed Liu, who later worked in the customs, rode a bicycle and ran to the Fengyi Wheat Cake Shop next to the Changchun Road Girls' High School to buy modern rice cakes, of course, I also wanted to see the modern style of the girls. Because the queue to buy the rice was very long, so the two of us made a basket and said that the bell was about to ring, so let's buy it first. Looking back now, the practice at that time was just a small episode in life, an experience, but this experience is actually prepared for our memories today, because whenever we recall the beauty of the student era, there are no regrets, although we bear what we should not bear at our age, but it is good to be able to recall things.

With the renovation and expansion of the old city of Changchun Road, the Fengyi wheat cake shop has also disappeared with Changchun Road, and the modern rice cake in old Kunming has also unconsciously faded out of the Kunming pastry food market. Modern rice dumplings are the snacks of Kunming people, but it contains the most authentic memories and long history of old Kunming, with the style and foreign atmosphere of Yunnan ethnic minorities. Along a circle of golden yellow modern rice rolls, it was gently torn open, tearing open a frame of Kunming history, chewing a mouthful of fresh taste accompanied by milk and horsetail pine hair, as if full of the flow of time, the mind constantly decomposed, life salty sweet cold and warm taste of the experience.

Modern rice dumplings are the most classic traditional pastries in Kunming, have you eaten them, how? It tastes pretty good!

——Jiangnan (Yunyang Shizi) revised on Monday, February 15, 2021