In the northern region of China, whenever there is a major festival and a personal birthday, the family always has to eat dumplings, especially during the Spring Festival and the winter solstice, which is almost a must-have food for every household, and even in the hearts of some people, not eating dumplings is not a festival, and eating dumplings during the festival has become a symbolic ritual.
China has a vast territory, and the practice and title of dumplings in each place are also different, for example, in the south, steamed dumplings or chaos are the main practices, while in the northern regions, dumplings or soup dumplings are. However, in the same area, each place also has its own characteristics and practices, which seem to be full of flowers, and the most abundant and famous dumplings in Zibo are Boshan's time-honored stone toad dumplings.
Stone toad dumplings are a long-established traditional snack in the Boshan area of Zibo, Shandong Province, which has a history of more than 90 years. There are two versions of the origin of the history of stone toad dumplings.
The first version is: At that time in the early 1930s of the Republic of China, there was a local in Boshan called Shi Yupu founded, when the social turmoil, external and internal troubles, the bottom of the peasant life is also difficult, Shi Yupu is also in order to make a small business, to deal with wine and vegetables of small restaurants to start, slowly added the staple food dumplings, his family dumplings thin skin, fillings are also more meat, and delicious.
By the early 1940s, the Shi family's dumplings have been word of mouth, popular in Boshan, and more and more people go to the name, the business is more and more prosperous, as the saying goes, "peers are wrongdoers" Shi family's prosperity naturally caused other restaurants, snack shops of red eyes and jealousy, so I hope that the Shi family will soon collapse, but also gave Shi Yupu a nickname called "stone toad", in the local language is the toad jumped on the hammer, toss can not be long. But the result of their doing so has made the stone toad dumplings more famous, spread farther, and the restaurant business is more prosperous than before.
In the early 1980s, Professor Chen Congzhou, a famous garden artist in China, tasted the stone toad dumplings of the Shi family and wrote down the comment of "Boshan flavor pushing first".
The second version is: It is said that the stone toad dumplings are also famous because of a person with the surname Shi, his name is Shi Guangwen, Shi Guangwen was a big filial piety known in Boshan at that time, he was loyal, honest and kind, and opened a shop specializing in dumplings for life, because the dumplings made for people were genuine, and the honest children were not deceived. Therefore, the business is booming, because Shi Guangwen is relatively short, and still hunchbacked, looking like a toad from a distance, he lives and runs a business by the river, so people give him a nickname called "stone toad". As people loved the dumplings he made, the title also changed from people to dumplings to "stone toad" dumplings, which became an alias for dumplings.
The reason why stone toad dumplings are accepted and loved by most people is because the filling selection is exquisite, and it can be adapted to the taste habits of different people and mix a variety of filling flavors to meet different groups of people. For example, the selection of meat filling must be fat and lean about 3:7 pork belly, and the production is also fast, and the meat filling should be chopped quickly and at one time, and there can be no pause in the middle.
The production of dumpling skins not only requires thinness, but also cuts the skin into trapezoidal shapes to facilitate subsequent packaging. When wrapping, one hand supports the finished dough, the trapezoidal dough is wide-headed upwards, the narrow head is facing down, the filling is placed on the small head, rolled up from the bottom up and pinched the dumpling edge, and then the dumplings are circled from the back to the front, and the two ends are pinched to form a "diamond horn" shape.
This production method ensures that the dumpling skin is thinly filled and there is no hard edge, supplemented by vinegar, garlic and other condiments, and a bite of juice is rich and flavorful, with a unique flavor and a full mouth.
The reason why the old stone toad dumplings are remembered and prosperous is because it is carefully selected and carefully made, and its main feature is its skin and filling, the skin of the stone toad dumplings is not only thin and uniform, the thin skin of the dumplings after the pot appears crystal clear, and the filling inside can be seen through the skin, very clear, and people have a great appetite.
The filling is not only abundant but also rich, so it also reflects the rich and delicious taste, fat and not greasy. The old stone toad dumplings are now the signature of Shandong Boshan Hotel Co., Ltd., and I hope that in the hands of our generation, the "stone toad" can be carried forward even more.
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