There is a saying that the bread was introduced to China from Persia.
Because "bread" is a Transliteration of persian meaning bread.
That is to say, the food of naan, first in Persia, refers to bread for daily consumption.
To this day, Iranians still feed on this pasta as a staple food and call it Naan.
What was the bread of the Persians like in ancient times? How does it taste? We don't know.
But in today's Iran, there are many types of naans.
Depending on the cooking method, Iranian grilled bread can be divided into four more common types:
Lavash, mostly round, thin and crispy, uses unfermented noodles and is often baked at home. Low moisture for long-term preservation. (A bit like our Chinese spring cake)
Barbari: Long strips of oval, thick, usually sprinkled with sesame seeds. In the late Qajar dynasty, some Berbers began to make such roasted buns in Tehran and spread them. The unique flavor of this naan is that it is mixed with a little water and baking soda when it is noodles. It is often baked in an open oven in a naan shop.
Sangak: Often roasted on hot gravel, using whole wheat flour, mostly long strips or irregular triangles, darker in color.
Taftoon: Crispy dough cakes, which use unfermented noodles and are baked with milk, yogurt and eggs, often baked in a tubular oven. (Similar to Shandong's baked cakes, but with a lot more holes.) ）
All four of these types of bread are stuffless, and in addition to this, the Iranians also make many kinds of meat stuffed bread, as well as a variety of super bread of amazing scale.
For example, how tall is one person
Buy a big stack.
This also fully reflects that from ancient Persia to iran today, people's loyalty and love for naans have reached an incomparable level.
So when did this Persian bread appear? When did it become a Chinese bun?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > the origin of the naan</h1>
Some believe that the history of the bun dates back to the late Stone Age. The cultivation of crops such as wheat and the application of fermentation technology have promoted the birth of naan.
Persia is located in the West Asia region where the earliest agricultural civilization was introduced, and the geographical environment and climatic reasons led to the earliest appearance and domestication of wheat, and gradually became a high-yielding crop and occupied the position of staple food.
In terms of cooking techniques, Persia has a desert, semi-desert climate, and cooking in a natural environment with extreme water scarcity is naturally an unimaginable luxury. However, sand baked by the sun is a natural way of heating. Inspired by this, people in the original primitive society dug pits in the ground and put food and burned charcoal into it, which was a more advanced way of grilling than directly grilling on a fire. Therefore, the pit came into being. This is why people in West and Central Asia prefer grilled food, while Orientals are better at steaming.
What did the earliest Persian bread look like? We don't know. But our archaeologists have found the naan that was introduced to China.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > crusade</h1>
Buns unearthed in Astana
In 1972, archaeologists found a 19.5 cm diameter naan in the tomb of Astanatang, which was round in shape and fragmented into 12 pieces when excavated, the earth was yellow, and it had been dehydrated and dried. The raw material is wheat flour, which is baked in a pit, with a thin center, thick edges, and a pattern on the central poke, which looks exactly like the bread that Uighur families in Xinjiang eat every day.
Small bread and fancy dim sum excavated from the tomb of Astanatang more than 1,000 years ago
In the same year, archaeologists found a small naan more than 1,000 years ago in the tomb of Astanatang, which is very petite, only 3.9 cm in diameter, made of white noodles, with dried nuts on the surface, and is quite well preserved.
In the 1980s, Xinjiang archaeologists found various forms of naan in tombs in Hami Wubao more than 3,000 years ago, Zahuluk in Zhimu County more than 2,800 years ago, Subeshi in Shanshan County 2,500 years ago, and Shanpu in Luopu County more than 1,800 years ago. It can be seen that the earliest naan is now more than 3,000 years away.
The newly introduced Chinese bun has not yet been given a definite name, and people call it "Hu Cake", which is the same surname as pepper, carrot, walnut, courgette, flax, etc. Because in ancient times, people put things from the West with a "Hu" character in front of them. There is also a record in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty about "The Ling Emperor is good at hu cake, and the beijing masters all eat hu cake", which shows that the inference that the bun originated in Persia and was later introduced to China also has a certain credibility.
In short, after the introduction of China, the naan was unanimously loved by the government and the public, and edible naan once became a trend. In the classical "Qi Ming Zhi Shu" and "FuLe Wisdom", both the records of the craftsmanship of the bread are no different from today's cooking skills.
Because the "bread" cake has the characteristics of being light and easy to carry, suitable for both dry and wet, "bread" has become a common item for home travel, and the ancient Xinjiang book "Fule Wisdom" records that "to supply soldiers ... Naan, salt and food must be abundant." The ancient book lists the "bread" separately, which shows its importance, and today our border guards patrol and still carry bread with them.
Bai Juyi, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, also made a poem specifically for The Bread - "Sending Hu Cake and Yang Wanzhou", in which he described it like this: "Flax cakes are like learning kyoto, the crispy oil is fragrant out of the new oven, sent to the hungry Ambassador Yang, taste and see to supplement Xingwu." It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty, naan was not only a staple food, but also had the attribute of a social gift.
Today, "naan" has gone beyond the simple food category and become a beautiful business card in Xinjiang, rising to a cultural symbol, and the excavation of "naan" culture has also come into being. With the progress of the times and the development of tourism, "naan" has been carried forward by us, and a variety of "naan" cakes have come into being, such as western buns, rose sauce buns, geji buns, zaker buns, Hillman buns, katrama buns and so on.
In July 2021, a short message titled "Xinjiang Millions of Naans Rushing to Aid Henan" burst the circle of friends. Because, in the minds of the people of Xinjiang, the old people in Xinjiang often say that "rice is a sage, and bread is a god." The starry night to help the disaster area of the love bun represents not the disaster relief materials, but the blood thicker than the water compatriotism.