In the middle of summer, in an old shop selling yupi dumplings in Nanguan, Xun County, Henan Province, Wang Gaifeng, 50 years old, is pressing dumplings next to a huge solid wood bird bed, this bowl of dumpling noodles she has been making for more than ten years, because of the unique ingredients, the taste is cold and refreshing, in this hot weather, very popular with nearby diners.
Wonton noodles are available in many places, but elm bark wontons are rare, according to Aunt Wang, this kind of wonton noodles are made of elm bark noodles, millet noodles and buckwheat noodles, elm skin noodles are made of the white bark in the elm bark, and after grinding into noodles, you can increase the toughness of the bird strips. It is reasonable to say that few people now go to the elm tree to find ingredients, but as a traditional farmhouse cuisine, Aunt Wang's family has adhered to this craft for so many years.
The wooden bed for making dumpling noodles is estimated to be more than two hundred pounds, and Aunt Wang said that this is new, and that it has been used for many years and months before, and it has been broken "retired". There is a round hole in the bed of the bird, and you can put a dough agent at a time, and it is exactly a bowl when pressed out.
Aunt Wang put the dough into the round hole, and then lifted the wooden stick to press down hard, under the bed supported a large iron pot, the pot of water splashed, the pressed out of the bird strip fell into the pot, generally three or five minutes can be cooked.
The strips of birds tumble in boiling water, and they are not easy to stick to each other, in order to make them fully cooked and taste better, Aunt Wang in the middle also ordered half a scoop of cold water to go in. Yupi dumplings are not complicated to make, but you can only make one bowl at a time, which is a more troublesome place, the fire under this pot is not extinguished for a day, guests can do as they please, and the taste in the mouth is also the freshest.
Yupi dumplings fished out of the hot pot, to pass the cold water twice, which is very similar to the countryside to eat fishing noodles, in the hot summer, people's appetite is generally not good, always want to eat some cool and slippery food, so there is this seasonal practice.
Before serving the elm skin dumplings, Aunt Wang should first get some bean sprouts in the bowl to "base", the bean sprouts are also blanched in water ice in cold water, the basin is covered with a white cloth, when eating depends on the customer's preferences, some people do not have to add this side dish if they are not used to bean sprouts.
On the case next to the bird bed, there are various seasonings, and the stone mortar is mashed garlic juice with a small ground sesame oil, and the paste shallots fried in vegetable oil, plus a bowl of chopped chopped vegetables.
This bowl of refreshing yupi dumplings, in The stall of Aunt Wang, sells for five yuan a bowl, if from the complexity of the production, the price of this bowl of noodles is indeed very real, because there are not many restaurants that still make this kind of noodles, so many people come to taste, in the non-festival and non-holiday days, she also uses fifty or sixty pounds of flour a day.
Yupi bird as a "rare" snack, eat to the mouth smooth tendons, delicious and unique, now only the elderly people, only have a special impression of this food, the ingredients on the tree to make delicious, is the wisdom of the older generation, those years and months to eat this may be out of helplessness, now everyone tastes these, mostly for the sake of taste. Photographic record| Zhang Chunguang (picture and text local original, plagiarism must be investigated)