Text/Wang Qin
The desire for delicious food stems from human instincts, but when it comes to food, everyone has different or even opposite choices, and there are reasons for eating meat and vegetarian food, fast food and slow food.
For thousands of years, no matter how far the footsteps go, in people's minds, only the taste of the hometown is familiar and stubborn, he is like a taste positioning system, one end locks thousands of miles away from the other, and the other end is forever tied to the hometown in the depths of memory. No matter how many years a person has been out and about, even if the accent has changed, he still has unlimited ideas about the food in his hometown.
Three meals a day
Chinese the habit of eating breakfast began in the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, and since then, most parts of China have implemented the breakfast, lunch and evening three-meal system, which is conducive to life and production. Although three meals a day has almost become a common human diet system, the same meals in China have changed into different rhythms of life and shaped different life feelings.
The traditional diet of Guchengying Village is three meals a day, and only in the early 1960s was the "three years of natural disasters" for a short period of time, two meals in the morning and afternoon. In general, a vegetarian dish is fried at noon, and the two meals in the morning and evening are mostly dishes as rice. The taste is both sour and sour, and vinegar is a must-have condiment.
Villagers mainly rely on self-produced grain and vegetables, the main food of the normal year is red and corn flour, supplemented by rice, millet, beans and other grains, white noodles are only outdated or entertained on the table, unless there are guests or festivals to cut meat.
Whenever there is a shortage of grain, people use the rice distributed by the production team to go to Taiyuan City to change the coarse noodles, and 1 kilogram of rice can be exchanged for more than 2 kilograms of coarse noodles. After the 1990s, the living standards of the villagers have been improving day by day, except for a small number of people who grow greenhouses and vegetables, most of the grain and vegetables are purchased from the market. A small number of people who became rich first, chicken, duck, fish, mountain treasures and seafood for a meal, ordinary people often buy cooked food such as heads, cakes, and hemp leaves, and cut some meat every three forks and five to improve their lives.
In those years, the villagers' lunch was mainly based on sorghum noodles (commonly known as red noodles), pinpoint (commonly known as plucked stocks) or river waterlogging, mixed with elm skin noodles or bean noodles, white noodles, accompanied by stir-fry, stewed vegetables, and blended. In the morning and evening, most of the meals are millet porridge, cornmeal boiled knots, not rotten, steamed nest nest, and hezi rice (commonly known as blended rice) as daily meals, and occasionally eat some pancakes (commonly known as rolling noodles and children), foreskin noodles (white noodles and red noodles are combined, rolled out with white bread and rolled out, cut into strips or oblique pieces), or steamed red noodles (steamed dumplings) is a good meal.
Almost every family in the village pickles pickles, which is the taste of salt. Some scholars have speculated that human history is moving forward with the smell of salt. Time is the best friend of food, and time is also the sworn enemy of food. Although we already have a variety of technological ways to preserve food, the ancient method of pickling, in addition to preserving freshness, has also unexpectedly allowed us to obtain a completely different and sometimes more mellow and delicious taste from fresh food. To this day, these foods, which were re-made by time, still affect people's daily diet. Pickled vegetables of whiterod, mustard greens, and cabbage can be used as a side dish for morning and evening meals, and some people use sauerkraut soup as vinegar. With the improvement of the villagers' living standards, most of the people's meals have changed from coarse to thin, with white noodles and rice as the main food, stir-fried vegetables, side dishes, etc. are also becoming more and more abundant, and it has become fashionable to eat coarse grains occasionally.
One side of the love affair
Staple foods usually provide human needs, and people's cooking skills are different, from the most ordinary bowl of noodles, a pot of rice, a steamed bun, to a variety of exquisite staple foods, all of which are the crystallization of Chinese hard work and experience. In the law of eating, flavor is more important than anything else. People never tie themselves to a tedious food list. With an understanding of food, people seek inspiration for transformation in their constant attempts.
The common meals in the ancient city of Ying village are varied and smooth. Whether it is white noodles, red noodles, corn noodles, soba noodles, bean noodles, sweet potato raw, skin noodles, can be eaten, of which noodles are the most distinctive.
White noodles can be divided into three categories: steamed noodles, grilled and fried: steamed noodles include hand-rolled noodles, knife-cut noodles, ramen noodles, pulled noodles, knife-edged noodles, sharpened, slippery tips, pinched knots, cat ears (commonly known as dumplings), dipping slices, slice soup, wakako rice, boiled dumplings, steamed dumplings, steamed dumplings, vegetarian cakes, flower rolls, buns, slightly plums, etc.; Barbecue categories include flapjacks, pancakes, fire-fired, scar cakes, pie cakes, oil pushes, dough cakes, scar stone cakes (commonly known as dry cakes), fat oil cakes, etc.; Fried products include twist flowers, fritters, oil cakes, oil twists and so on.
Coarse grains can also be divided into three categories: steaming, grilling, and frying: the steaming category includes plucking strands, river fishing, sharp tips, rubbing, boiling knots, not rotten only, fishing rice, porridge, dry porridge, nest head, hair cake, steamed horn, paste, cold cake, slippery rice, astringent rice, powder skin, enema, etc.; Barbecue categories include cakes, he'er, coarse noodles, oil tea, fried noodles, etc.; Fried products include oil cakes, rice dumplings and so on.
A food custom
Sunrise and sunset. People plant in spring, harvest in autumn, in summer, and in winter. In the four seasons of reincarnation, inheriting the wisdom of life of ancestors and arranging their own diets in this way has been internalized into Chinese unique genes. In the inheritance of food customs, the villagers attach great importance to the meals of traditional festivals, and eat different meals and foods on different festivals, forming a distinctive food custom
At the beginning of the first lunar month, when the New Year is over, you must eat "turned over pumpkin" in the early morning, and eat dumplings as the main food at noon. There is a saying in the northern region: "Eat dumplings on the first day of the New Year - all the same"
The tenth day of the first month of the first month is "ten days", paying attention to eating oil cakes, and there is a saying of "Tiancang steamed buns, ten dumpling cakes".
On the fifteenth lantern festival of the first month, in the past, almost every household in the ancient city camp had to roll the lantern and eat the lantern. Nowadays, although I don't roll myself, the custom of eating lanterns has been passed down from generation to generation.
The 20th and 25th of the first month are the small Tim Cang and the old Tim Cang Festival, respectively, and more steamed steamed buns.
February 2 is the day when the dragon raises its head (a spring dragon festival), eating more flapjacks, and the name day is "peeling the dragon's skin".
Qingming Famous Day Cold Food Festival, in the old days, there was no fireworks in January, and this bad habit was abolished.
The Jinyuan region refers to the first two days of the Qingming Dynasty as "one hundred and five", and there are two main customs on this day: one is to give graves to ancestors who have not died more than three years ago, commonly known as "Shangxin Tomb" (the paper burned is different from the old tomb, it is not a string of loose money); when paying homage to the dead, more hot pots are installed. The second is that Anmao only (toilets) and soil movements must be carried out on this day.
The Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the first month of May) is also known as the Duanyang Festival, wrapping rice dumplings and drinking Xionghuang wine.
August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and mooncakes are baked in many ovens for the moon god.
September 9 is the Chongyang Festival, eat more oil cakes and ascend.
On the winter solstice, there is a saying that "do not eat dumplings and freeze off your ears", so the villagers pay great attention to eating dumplings.
Lappa is the day when Shakyamuni attained enlightenment, which is the day when he does not eat meat and specializes in eating "Lapa Porridge".
The twenty-third day of the waxing moon, commonly known as "small year", is the day when the king returns to the heavenly palace, buys more hemp sugar and sugar syrup for offering, and then divides the food.
The 30th day of the waxing moon is the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, commonly known as the "end of the year", and eating oil cakes is a metaphor for "the high year".
Guchengying villagers have the traditional custom of serving bowls to lively places to eat, and when eating, everyone has a sea bowl, fills it with food, and brings it to the lively place on the street, while eating while nagging and gossiping, commonly known as "just the rice market".
A host of flavors
The smell of the mountains, the smell of the wind, the smell of the sun. Only then do we put the tip of our tongues down and on the heart, so that we can hardly tell which one is the taste and which is the feeling. Flavor snacks are loved by people, and the common ones in the ancient city camp are Lantern Festival, Rice Dumplings, Slightly Plum, Mash, Enemas and so on.
Like the whole world, Chinese characters use "sweet" to express feelings of joy and happiness. This is because the first taste that the tip of the human tongue can feel is sweetness, and this taste often comes from the same substance - sugar. When people taste the sweetness of life, they seem to be very good at appreciating bitterness.
Lantern: The Lantern has a series of processes such as filling, soaking rice, and rolling.
(1) Put the white sugar in a porcelain pot, with an appropriate amount of walnut kernels, hemp, preserved fruits, green and red silk, gems, rock sugar and other accessories; Then pour the appropriate amount of syrup into the heat, rub well by hand, pour in the iron type, take the rolling pin, the ruler and other rolling tightly, the wine point dry flour, to dry and cut into small cubes (each piece weighs about 2 yuan a 3 yuan) is for the Lantern filling.
(2) Select the best rice to soak for two days, fish out the controlled water mill and grind it, and use a fine copper wire basket to sift out the white strips of Lantern noodles.
(3) Put the Lantern Noodles (appropriate amount, gradually added) into the wicker basket, and then put the Lantern Filling into the Wicker Fence with water and then pour the stuffing into the pipe basket to roll back and forth, and then use a coarse sieve when the flour is not on it, then pour the water into the fence, and then pour into the basket; Repeat this five or six times, and the Lantern festival will be completed. When eating, it is boiled in water, paying attention to the "dew seven points", the color is white, soft and sweet. Fried in oil, the color is golden, the outside is burnt and the inside is soft.
Rice dumplings: There are also three processes to make rice dumplings: filling, crushing rice, and kneading.
(1) Stir the sugar, brown sugar, sesame seeds, roses, etc. into the filling and place in a container for use.
(2) Select good rice into the pot, put it on the fire to make a thin dry porridge, let it cool and set aside.
(3) Dig out with a small thick porridge, dip the flour and knead it into a pancake shape, then wrap the appropriate amount of sugar filling, knead it into a ball by hand and flatten it, that is, it becomes a rice dumpling, and fry it into a golden brown under the frying pan to serve. The surface of the rice is golden and hard, but the inside is soft and sweet, and it has the toughness of rice particles in the mouth, which has a unique flavor.
Mash: The raw materials for mash are rice and sweet wine koji, which can be eaten with sugar.
(1) First rinse the rice with cold water, soak it for 24 hours, and steam it on the cage and steam it over high heat.
(2) After the cage is left, it is cooled, mixed with sweet wine koji that is ground into a thin noodle, and mixed with 1 pair of sweet wine koji per 5 jinjiang rice.
(3) Put the rice mixed with sake koji in a container and seal it, and then place the container in a greenhouse of about 30C for fermentation, and after four or five days, it will be fermented and called mash. When boiling water, such as beating an egg, the soup is more nutritious, and the yellow and white are very beautiful. Mash color white as jade, fragrant smell, eat in the mouth sweet and slightly sour, with stomach, digestion, lungs, blood, muscles and other medical functions, most suitable for the elderly and frail people to eat.
Enema: The raw material of the enema (a bowl off) is noodles, which can be eaten cold and cold, and can be fried hot, and the price is low and simple, very popular. Making enemas is very simple, mix the soba noodles in a container with cold water, and then mix the cold water many times (do not mix too much water at once), stir the noodles into a paste by hand, put them into a plate, bowl and basket to steam, and then cool it. In the summer heat, the enema is cut (cut) into small pieces and poured with a juice made of eggs, tofu skin, golden needles, fungus, green onions, ginger, garlic and chili peppers, which is called cold food. When making enemas in winter, such as adding some pig blood and oleolin seeds (the residue of animal oil), the enemas made of enemas have a bite. When stir-frying, first pour oil in the frying pan, and then add garlic paste, enemas, vinegar sauce, garlic slices and stir-fry in turn, and then put some onion oil when the pan comes out. Because the soba noodles are white, smooth, soft, cold, smooth and delicious, and the appetite is greatly increased, it is called "enema."
A feast
Home, where life begins, a person's whole life is on the way home. Under the same roof, they build fires, cook, and use food to unite families and comfort their families. The bland pots and pans are filled with Chinese life, which reflects Chinese ethics. People grow, love, part, reunite. Home-cooked delicacies are also the tastes of life.
Marriage and funeral are major events in people's lives, and there are differences in food customs in the north and south.
The wedding is a red feast, and the breakfast is generally oil cake and lamb soup noodles; The funeral is a white feast, and the breakfast is mostly distilled rice (that is, distilled rice) and noodle soup; The lunch of the red and white feast is very similar, and the table is very different.
Traditional table noodles are divided into two categories: toppings and whole dishes. The toppings are lined with cabbage, vermicelli, tofu, enemas and other ordinary dishes as a cushion in a bowl, and a layer of meat shredded meat, meat pieces, meatballs and other meat dishes are placed on top; The whole dish table is the same in the plate and bowl, and does not need ordinary dishes. The table is usually served with 4 to 8 cold cuts, followed by 4 to 8 hot dishes, usually half of the meat. The poor use "four bowls" or "four bowls and one hot pot"; The average person uses "eight plates and eight bowls"; The richest ones stir-fry 4 to 8 plates of famous dishes, or serve whole chicken and duck. Where the table is always inseparable from the roast meat (stripe roast, square roast), stewed meat, balls, kelp meat, etc., the staple food is mostly flower rolls.
In the past, the red and white feasts in the ancient city camp were mostly "eight plates and eight bowls", and then changed to "ten major seats" After the 1980s, the toppings were extinct, and the feast became more and more abundant; After the 1990s, there are usually 8 to 10 cold cuts for the feast, 16 or 18 plates for stir-fry, and a soup. After 2000, the feast was even more abundant.
A bowl of soup
With a thousand pairs of hands, there are a thousand flavors. The wisdom of ancestors, the secrets of the family, the tips of the masters and apprentices, the understanding of the diners, and every moment of delicious food are all created with heart. The soup is similar to the mutton soup and miscellaneous cuttings elsewhere, because in ancient times people called the livestock slaughtered for sacrifice "sacrifice", so the lamb soup boiled after offering to the gods was called the soup. The method of boiling soup is to slaughter a sheep, boil the lamb with the washed heart, lungs, liver, intestines, stomach, head, hooves and other parts together, and cook it with the soup to make a slice of soup, the taste of which is intoxicating. It is said that when cooking the soup without salt flavor, when the lamb is cooked, it can cure diarrhea by boiling and drinking. The local drinking of soup is different from other places, mainly in June, and it is the hotter the weather, the more it is drunk, there are diseases to treat, no diseases to prevent diseases.
There is a saying about soup in the ancient city camp, according to the elderly people: in the past, wheat was planted in the area of the ancient city camp. Every day or two after the wheat harvest, there will be insect infestation. A pest called "grasshopper" appears in the field, which kills autumn crops. They will eat up the immature corn and millet. People have tried many ways to control insects to no avail. I had to pay tribute to the way of hoping to eliminate the insect plague. At the time of the offering, the best sheep soup is selected and the sheep soup is spilled on the field. Strange to say, a black soft bug will appear in a few days. As long as the bug has appeared, the "thrush" has disappeared. People gratefully called this beneficial insect "king refuses". Over time, this custom continued. Nowadays, whenever the wheat is harvested, people choose sheep, boil meat, boil soup, and share beautiful soup together. As for the name "soup", it is not known whether it is related to the sacrifice of "sheep", it is not known.
A thought
From ancient times to the present, people have carefully used every inch of land under their feet. The activity of obtaining food and extraordinary wisdom are everywhere, and people from different regions use their own wisdom to use nature moderately and skillfully to obtain simple and delicious food. The only people who have attached their attachment to the land and their admiration for heaven are the agrarian peoples. When they bury their heads in the fields and eat with their heads down, they never forget to look up at the sky, and the ancient city campers are like this...