Food in Guangdong, taste in Chaoshan. As an important branch of Cantonese cuisine, there are many traditional dishes that are very unique, such as bergamot ribs. Are you familiar with this dish, which is more common in the Haojiang and Chaoyang areas?
This is the bergamot ribs. Huang Junqing, a young folklore researcher, often runs in the three cities of Chaoshan And today, he also ate bergamot ribs for the first time.
▲ Huang Junqing, a young folklore researcher
Huang Junqing carefully tasted this bergamot ribs, and found that this seemingly inconspicuous ball of small meat actually contained Qiankun, "In addition to pork, there are horseshoes, shrimp, and some seafood flavors to mobilize the umami taste of meat, and the horseshoe will also appear more refreshing."
It seems that this is not a simple handmade dish, and we also found Sister Zhu of Haojiang Aotou to show us the process of making bergamot ribs.
▲ Zhu Ruifen, a catering operator in Aotou, Haojiang District
Sister Zhu told us: "The Bergamot ribs are to buy fresh ribs first, chop them into section by section, almost 6 centimeters in length, we have to remove its meat, cut it like this, these meats are picked out but we have to leave a little meat, leaving a little meat in the mouth can be chewed, like you can tear some meat out of the bone." ”
A rib is removed from the head and tail of the remaining middle part, and after the meat is removed, the bones are marinated in the secret soup, so that the bones themselves become parts that can be tasted.
Sister Zhu said: "The meat is dismantled and chopped, chopped like minced meat, just add shrimp, add horseshoe, shiitake mushrooms, red pepper grains, ginger rice, green onions, plus square shark fins, the purpose of adding square fish is to be fresh and sweet, there is the umami taste of fish, it will be sweet, made into a grain dipped in flour fried to eat, Haojiang on the table traditional dishes." ”
The ingredients are chopped up and kneaded into balls that look a bit like a "lion's head." However, there is not much record of the history of bergamot ribs. According to the hypothesis and inference of Chen Kunda, a researcher of Chaochao cuisine, this dish should have been developed and improved under the influence of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine "lion's head".
▲ Chaoshi cuisine researcher Chen Kunda
"Because four or five hundred years ago, Dahaobu was very prosperous, so it attracted people from all over the world to come here to do business." In this way, some of the chefs from all over the world are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and now many of our dishes are with some elements of Huaiyang cuisine in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, such as the bergamot ribs that are very popular in Dahao's 'food table' dish," Chen Kunda said.
Nowadays, bergamot ribs are mostly found in the Haojiang and Chaoyang areas, and there are not many people who know it, but in the recipe books published by the chaoshi master Zhu Biaochu in the last century, this traditional dish is included, and its method is more complicated in terms of ingredients and proportions, such as adding fat meat and lean meat, which is also closer to the ingredients of lion's head.
As for the origin of the practice of Haojiang Bergamot ribs, Huang Junqing also has his own inference: "Some of the sacrificial activities in our Chaoshan countryside are mainly pork. Sometimes it is to worship the whole pig, so how to deal with the pig in the case of the clan to eat the table? How to change the dishes and tastes, while taking care of the elderly and children. Bergamot ribs like this, I feel that his flesh is chopped up, is able to take care of some old people whose teeth are not too good. ”
In the Chaoshan region, it is not uncommon to process the gastronomic snacks derived from the sacrificial dishes, such as pork head meat processed into pork head dumplings, meat ribs, etc., and the bergamot ribs reflect the exquisite craftsmanship and whimsy of the Chaozhou cuisine.
Huang Junqing said: "Many of our stir-fry dishes are very ordinary ingredients, but the chef's handiwork is added inside. His ideas, his whimsical ideas, then turned the ordinary into magic, and became another dish that was different from ordinary pork in terms of shape and taste. Then this should be said that on the one hand, some sacrifices have been digested, and the second one also gives diners another taste to the townspeople from the taste, and also enriches a color and variety in the whole table. ”
Speaking of gourmet snacks derived from sacrificial dishes, there are still many similar varieties of dishes in the Haojiang area, such as red braised goose, braised sea cucumber, egg roll, etc., which are table dishes left in folk activities, and are also the crystallization of the wisdom of generations of chefs, the mysteries of which are worth our study and excavation.
Source: Shantou TV "Minsheng Archives", "Shantou Olive Station" client