There are many areas in the country that love to eat pasta, and each has its own characteristics.
Shandong eats noodles, pay attention to evaporated noodles "steamed bread", in the New Year's Festival, Shandong people steamed steamed steam
In Shaanxi, in addition to all kinds of hard noodles and half-hair noodles, they are all kinds of boiled noodles with oil or brine and cheeky "noodles".
"Donkey hoof noodles" are not prominent among many noodles in Shaanxi, and if they have to be classified, they should be regarded as a kind of cheek noodles from the toppings. It's just that the "donkey hoof" is really gentle, which makes people very curious at the same time, but also makes people look at the bowl of noodles in front of them a little confused.
Donkey hoof noodles just served
The emerald green in this bowl is leeks, the bright red is spicy seeds in oil, and the sauce is meaty cheeks... What about donkey hooves? Isn't noodles just a bowl of ordinary sliced noodles?
If you have this question, mix it up a few times and purr a bowl of noodles. A mouth full of oil and spicy, in the end, could not find the answer.
To find the answer, you have to pick up the noodles from the bowl, follow the noodle tip and look from the side, and you can find that the noodles are like long legs with pointed donkey hooves. If the noodle tip is on the leek, the slight bend in the middle is more similar.
It's just that this scene is really difficult to grasp, and it must be coordinated by the two people to illuminate clearly. We tossed and turned for half a day, and did not take a picture that was more interesting intuitively in the physical object, and finally had to give up.
Speaking of which, this name should belong to the elegant taste of the predecessors, although full of imagination, but it is indeed too gentle and difficult to find.
There are several theories about the origin of "donkey hoof noodles", one of the most gastronomic legends:
It is said that during the Tang Wu zhou period, Wu Zetian went to inspect the construction of Qianling, and on the way back to the city, he encountered heavy rain, so he temporarily went to a peasant house in Qianxian County to avoid the rain. The Empress came in a hurry, and the hostess cut such a bowl of noodles with the best ingredients in the house for hospitality. Wu Zetian was very happy to eat it, so he asked someone to ask for the name of this noodle.
Who expected that at this time, a donkey in the farmer's family, I don't know whether to smell the incense or see the excitement of the living people, just happened to put the donkey hooves on the trough, the hostess saw the situation and shouted "donkey hooves". The messenger mistakenly took this as the name of the face, and returned to Wu Zetian with the "donkey hoof noodle", and this kind of noodle had such a name.
The second origin story is more earthy. It is said that in the past, the agricultural work in the rural areas of Qianxian County was heavy, and it was often too late to roll out the noodles at night, so this kind of "lazy" method was gradually produced. The method of making noodles is simple, time-consuming, and gluten-making, and the taste is good. Because the noodles are shaped like donkey hooves, the texture of the tendons has the stubbornness of "donkey", so it is called donkey hoof noodles.
The third origin story is what I saw in the Victory Donkey Hoof Noodle Restaurant in Qianxian County.
It is said that donkey hoof noodles originated in the Qianzhou area in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, the "dry belt" area in Weibei was plagued by disasters for many years, the harvest was very small, and most of the people relied on miscellaneous grains as their main food.
In order to improve their lives, the farmers of the Qianzhou generation occasionally got fine wheat noodles, and they would rub it into a round strip with a large amount of miscellaneous grains and then cut it directly into the pot. Because this kind of noodles resembles the hooves of donkeys (small gardens) after cooking, it has the common name of "donkey hoof noodles".
Regardless of the above three legends, it can be confirmed that the practice of donkey hoof noodles has a long history and originated from farmers in the Qianzhou area. It is a food with local characteristics.
Meat mixed with vegetables
Speaking of which, we went to taste donkey hoof noodles because of a netizen from Qianxian County, who left a message in the discussion about Qianxian snacks in the early years.
He said that he lived in the neighborhood opposite the Victory Donkey Hoof Noodle Restaurant, and his family did not often take him with him when he was a child. He said that the boss is diligent and enthusiastic, and his mother also said that this shop will be ok in the future, the noodles are delicious, and the boss is capable.
In fact, this was originally a small episode of doing food homework before the trip, and I didn't even pay attention to the name of the store. Unexpectedly, just out of the door of the long-distance passenger transport, we saw this shop, which is really fateful. Because the place where we live is a little far from the Qianxian tofu brain shop introduced by netizens, we first tasted the noodles and meat mixed vegetables of this house.
Mixed donkey hoof noodles
It didn't matter, we almost had to give up other delicacies and eat more of this noodle.
To be sure, apart from the noodle type, this noodle is not the most brilliant of the cheek noodles we have eaten on this trip. But delicious is really delicious, the balance of oil spicy seeds, sauce and cheeks is just right, the aroma of the aroma, the spicy spicy. Value for money is not low.
A large bowl of noodles and a small portion of meat mix for women like us can eat two people.
Meat mixed vegetables are actually cold dishes that we often say in northeast China, and the taste is more Shaanxi characteristics. And the material is very affordable. The top is a variety of vegetables, the bottom is pure pork ears, beef slices and other meat ingredients, and at the end of the meal we can't eat a little.
For us idle donkey friends, going out to travel is to see different scenery and eat food that locals like to eat. Therefore, this victory donkey hoof noodle restaurant that has been opened in the local area for more than 20 years is definitely the food of the local people in Qianxian County. If you still have a stomach in Qianxian county one day, you may wish to give it a try.
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Resources:
Su Yuhai, Cheng Peng, Shaanxi Cuisine, Northwest University Press, 2018.09