Taizhou people live a relatively idle life. The most emblematic of the idle life of Taizhou people is that Taizhou people like to eat morning tea. Taizhou people have a wide variety of morning tea, extremely rich in variety, eating a decent morning tea, sometimes equivalent to eating a banquet. Taizhou is located in the Jianghuai Plain fishing rice town, is a must for the Grand Canal, merchants gathered. In addition, Taizhou was a gathering place for salt merchants in ancient times, and in ancient times, the salt and iron monopoly system was implemented, and salt merchants were very rich. Salt merchants have money, and the most important thing is to eat and drink. Therefore, the morning tea culture that has been studied can be described as the pinnacle of perfection, which is even better than Cantonese morning tea.
Now let's talk about the most common buns, Taizhou buns have various varieties, the most common are green vegetable buns, pickle buns, radish steamed buns, wild vegetable buns, sugar buns, pork buns, beef buns, three-ding buns, soup buns, crab yellow buns, crab yellow soup buns, small steamed buns and so on. I have also eaten Tianjin dog buns, maybe I am a southerner, compared with Taizhou buns, I think it is not as good as Taizhou buns. Taizhou's bun noodles are fluffy, in addition to different fillings, there is jelly and oil, bite is full of filling, let you smack your mouth, say nothing to put down.
Of course, following the customs of southerners, Taizhou bun filling also puts sugar in it, but Taizhou buns do not put as much sugar as the southern Jiangsu people, especially wuxi people. There is sugar in the bun, which makes the northerners in Taizhou unaccustomed, the northern buns do not put sugar, salty, Taizhou people are not used to the buns in the north, and the northerners are not used to the buns in Taizhou. Taizhou people live a petty bourgeois life, pay attention to the taste of life, and naturally like slightly sweeter food.
泰州泰州的特色包子是三丁包子，所谓三丁包子是指用笋丁、肉丁、鸡肉丁搅在一起，再添加各种调料做成的馅，制成的包子，个大面白馅料足，咬一口，馅香扑鼻，那是绝对的美味。 There is also the crab yellow bun, which is made of hairy crabs produced in Taizhou Lixia River, take its crab yellow, and make crab meat into a filling, the taste is quite chic. The most famous bun in Taizhou is the crab yellow soup bun, which cannot be eaten from other places. Crab yellow soup bun is first made of crab yellow jelly with a variety of special spices to make a filling, wrapped with a thin layer of kraft paper dough, steamed, a bun with a plate to serve, you can see through the thin as paper dough skin to see the flow of the filling in the bun swaying. The eaters need to take a small bite on the edge of this soup bun, slowly suck the soup from this small sip, and wait until you have sucked the soup inside, and then you eat this thin piece of paper, which can be said to be the best taste of the world.
There are also different varieties of grilled cakes in Taizhou in the morning, mainly including scallion oil baked cakes, polished shortbread, sugar baked cakes, radish shredded baked cakes, dragon and tiger dou baked cakes, mille-feuille baked cakes, cabbage baked cakes, wild vegetable baked cakes, meat pine baked cakes, oil residue baked cakes. The shortbread is crispy and delicious, and with a bite, the crispy dough falls straight down. Dragon Tiger Dou Baked Cake means that there is sugar and salt in the baked cake, which is sweet and salty. Mille-feuille cake means that there are many layers in the baked cake, each layer has a different taste, bite a bite of sweet, salty and crispy, a variety of tastes.
In the past, Taizhou used to make baked cakes using an earthen stove like a large vat, which burned wood or charcoal, and a master of the production was bare-chested, sprinkled with sesame seeds on the top of the dough cake with his hands, and then attached the damp baked cake to the back of the stove, and then shoveled down one by one with a shovel after baking, and put it into the bamboo flat to sell, this kind of baked cake is called the grass stove baked cake. Nowadays, the baked cakes are basically baked in an electric oven. Many old people in Taizhou especially miss the kind of earth-fired cakes made in the earth stove in the past, thinking that the burnt cakes are delicious enough. The most famous baked cake in Taizhou is the Huangqiao baked cake. The reason why it is famous is that the New Fourth Army, under the leadership of Chen Yi and Li Yu, fought a big battle with the Kuomintang stubborn enemies in the Huangqiao area of Taizhou, known in history as the Battle of Huangqiao, and won a great victory. At that time, the New Fourth Army was only concerned with fighting and had no time to cook. The people of Huangqiao made baked cakes and carried them to the battlefield with baskets to comfort the New Fourth Army, and since then Huangqiao baked cakes have become famous throughout the country. The main feature of the Yellow Bridge Baked Cake is that it is made of meat floss and has a fragrant entrance. Now The Huangqiao Baked Cake is made of a variety of different fillings, made into a variety of different flavors, made into a variety of small shapes, the size of mooncakes, and served in exquisite boxes for tourists who come to Taizhou to buy and sell.
Where burnt cakes are sold, there are often fritters for sale. Taizhou fritters are now required not to put alum, characterized by a large loose, often with soy milk, tofu brain together to sell, soy milk and light pulp, sweet pulp. I eat fritters with soy milk and tofu brain, and the taste is very good. Or tear the fritters into a small section of water, soak soy milk to drink, but also very flavorful. Shops selling fritters also sell hemp balls, which are made of glutinous rice flour, wrapped in sugar juice on the inside, wrapped in sesame seeds on the outside, squeezed with oil, crisp on the outside and sticky on the inside, and sweet in the mouth.
There are also many varieties of noodles in Taizhou, noodles from all over the country have to be sold in Taizhou, what Chongqing small noodles, Wuhan hot dry noodles, Zhenjiang pot cover noodles, Guangxi screw powder, Guangdong wonton noodles, etc., in Taizhou is everything. Taizhou noodles include sesame oil knife noodles, shrimp seed knife noodles, shrimp seed dried mix noodles, snow vegetable meat noodles, green pepper meat noodles, green vegetable meat noodles, dish meat noodles, big bone soup noodles, beef noodles of various styles, cold mix noodles, etc., which most reflect the characteristics of Taizhou are fish soup noodles. Taizhou fish noodle soup has a long history, far from talking about, in the 1970s, Taizhou Fuchun Hotel mainly sold fish noodle soup. I remember that the fish soup noodles sold by the Fuchun Hotel were triangular eight cents and two grain stamps, and the noodle sales in the morning market were crowded every day. The fish soup at Fuchun Hotel is fried in oil with eel cards, then boiled with water and spices, the fish soup is snow white and thick, put in the cooked noodles, sprinkled with green onions, that delicious ah! I really slapped it and refused to put down the bowl.
Now reflecting the characteristics of Taizhou fish soup noodles can be said to be most of the shops that sell breakfast noodles, fish soup is some made of eel card, some are made of native fish and fish meat rich in Taizhou, and some in order to make the fish soup more concentrated, also add bone broth made with large bones in the fish soup, and even add milk. In short, in order to retain customers and attract customers, each noodle shop has tried its best to show its strange tricks, and strive to make the fish soup noodles more refined and better, and make their own characteristics, after all, the diners are good for the fish soup noodles, the fish soup noodles are not authentic, and the heart is the clearest. Eat a bowl of fish noodle soup in the morning, which is both heart-warming and stomach-warming.
In addition to selling noodles, noodle shops generally also sell wontons, wontons have fresh meat wontons, wild vegetable ravioli, fish soup fresh meat ravioli, fish soup wild vegetable ravioli, as well as dumplings for sale, dumplings are distributed as northern dumplings, Taizhou dumplings, steamed, soup boiled, and different fillings, there are many varieties to choose from.
Taizhou morning tea is also sold. 烧卖又分为翡翠烧卖、糯米烧卖、三丁烧卖、虾仁烧卖、鲜肉烧卖等等，根据包裹的不同的馅，有不同的名称。 It is sold in dumplings wrapped in different fillings to make a three-dimensional flower shape, steamed in a steamer, and the taste is very unique after leaving the basket. Jadeite yakitori is wrapped in turquoise vegetables, revealing the dough skin showing an oily green, so it is called jadeite yakitori.
Similar to this are steamed dumplings, which are divided into steamer steamers and frying pans. And that thick little hair cake, sweet but not greasy, also delicious.
When it comes to Taizhou morning tea, the most famous ones should be boiled dry silk and boiled dry silk. Blanching dried shreds is to cut dried tofu into strips, pour sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar and other spices, mixed with coriander, ginger shredded, shrimp seeds, peanut rice, there is a plate to serve, the taste is smooth and tender, the flavor is excellent. Since ancient times, Taizhou has had this way of eating, which is described in the Qing Dynasty Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List".
Boiling dried silk is to cook dried silk with shrimp, meat, fish balls, meat balls, meat skin, shiitake mushrooms, fungus, vegetables, etc., cooked in chicken soup, put into a large bowl, steaming and serving on the table, called boiled dried silk.
Blanched dried silk and boiled dried silk both originated in Taizhou, because in the past Taizhou belonged to Yangzhou, there was a period of time by Yangzhou people to steal the limelight, called Yangzhou dry silk, as a Taizhou person I am not convinced, in this original Qingyuan, dry silk, Taizhou dry silk also!
In Taizhou, guests from other places are invited to dinner, and sometimes due to the tight time of guests, friends who are not on the table are invited to dinner the next day, and hospitable Taizhou people invite guests to eat morning tea the next morning. Eating morning tea is also very elaborate, often to the day before the morning private room. The number of seats in the private room is arranged according to the number of people around the large round table. Then each person brews a cup of good fragrant tea, according to the number of people, first put on four or eight small plates, namely fried eel shreds, steamed meat, ginger shredded, peanut rice, dried bamboo shoots, cucumbers, sausages, etc., and then a person a hot dried shred, a crab yellow soup bun, a steamed dumpling, a three-diced bun, and then a cage of fresh meat buns, a cage of vegetable buns, a cage of various kinds of grilled goods, a cage of pastries, etc., and finally each person comes to a bowl of fish soup noodles or fish soup wontons, which is caused by excitement, and some people even propose to have some wine to help.
There are many more morning teas in Taizhou, and what I write here is hanging up. In 2020, Taizhou in the 14th China Happiest City Survey and Selection Results co-sponsored by Xinhua News Agency's "Lookout Oriental Weekly" and Lookout Think Tank, Taizhou stood out from more than 100 cities and ranked fifth in the overall happiness of the "2000 China's Happiest Cities" list, which is indeed the expectation of the public.
Taizhou's morning tea reflects the characteristics of Taizhou people's slow life in water city, and reflects Taizhou's leisure culture. Taizhou morning tea, eat out of Taizhou's well-off, eat out of Taizhou's wealth.