Taking friends from other places to eat Chongqing hot pot is the most enthusiastic thing in Chongqing.
Not only can you fulfill the friendship of the landlord, but also give your friends a sense of knowledge about Chongqing hot pot, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
This time, with friends from the north (Inner Mongolia), I went to eat jiugongge old hot pot for the first time.
Speaking of the Nine Palace Grid, this friend of Youpin was very excited.
Before he came to Chongqing, he had also heard of the Jiugong Ge hot pot, and he had always believed that it was in one pot, incorporating 9 different flavors, which would make people very satisfied.
Hearing this, you know that it is time for the popular science of Chongqing hot pot knowledge.
As soon as the jiugongge old hot pot was on the table, the friend was completely confused, how could this pot be like this? Below is a semi-solidified, semi-liquid hot pot pot bottom, and then on the upper floor is an iron shelf of nine square grids.
"These nine squares are added separately?" Isn't it directly divided into 9 parts, each part a taste? ”
"Of course not, the role of the Nine Palace Grid is not what you think, let me talk about it slowly."
To talk about the Nine Palace Grid hot pot, we have to talk about its predecessors first - water eight pieces.
What is Eight Blocks of Water? In fact, there is not much difference from today's hot pot, the key difference is that the pot used to cook ingredients needs to be divided into 8 parts, so it is called water eight pieces.
What the water eight blocks look like, Chongqing Youpin has not seen, nor can it be determined, but it can be imagined that it should take the center of the circle as the core point, and then separate multiple fan-shaped areas.
It may be because the mold for making eight pieces of water is too complicated, so later there was a nine-square grid, that is, two horizontal and two vertical, forming a "well" character.
Because the baffle of the nine-square grid is an extra part and is separate from the pot itself, it is obviously unreliable to rely on it to distinguish the 9 flavors.
So, what was the original purpose of the Nine House Grid?
In fact, it is also very simple, the emergence of the nine palace grid in Chongqing hot pot is also to solve the practical problem - you can share the table when eating alone.
Because the pot is divided into 9 areas, so everyone can keep their own area, their own dishes are cooked in this area, even strangers, they can eat the same pot together, will not disturb each other.
However, because the mold and pot of the Nine Palace Grid are separated, it is inevitable that there will be fish that slip through the net, and your own dishes are likely to "slip" to other people at the same table.
This way of sharing the table is also to reduce the cost of everyone eating hot pot, to put it bluntly, it will be cheaper. Therefore, the nine-square grid has become a form of hot pot that everyone likes very much.
With the development of the times, sharing tables and eating hot pot has not met the needs of the moment, but this form has been retained. At the same time, everyone has also found a new magic use in the hot pot form of the nine palace grid.
When you boil the hot pot, if you look at it a little, you will find that the 9 areas that are distinguished have different boiling states, that is, using this feature, we can put different dishes into different areas.
The most boiling middle part is naturally used for rapid shabu-shabu, including duck intestines, hairy belly, kelp seedlings and other easily cooked ingredients.
The 4 cross grids scattered out, the boiling state is second, which is more suitable for short-term cooking, just like beef, old meat slices, shrimp slip and the like.
The 4 corners at the farthest edge, basically do not boil, suitable for cooking for a long time, like duck blood, brain flowers should be placed here.
Compared with the Chongqing hot pot without a divided area, the Jiugong grid hot pot appears to be more regular and will not become a pot of chaotic stew.
In addition, according to the fathers, the Nine Palace Grid hot pot has a strong sense of age and ritual, so it can continue forever.
When you usually eat hot pot, will you consider choosing the Nine Palace Grid?