Beijing, an ancient city with great historical and cultural heritage, the Forbidden City with red walls and green tiles, the ingenious Yuanmingyuan and even the quiet alleys, each brick and tile of which seems to have its own story to tell.
It as a capital city roughly began in the "Jin Zhongdu" period, before the Spring and Autumn Warring States period Beijing was the capital of the Yan Kingdom, known as "Ji" in history, and later known as the Capital of the Liao Dynasty, but officially regarded as the political, economic and cultural center of a dynasty was in Jin, and after the Jin Dynasty it successively became the capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
In the past 800 years of history, Beijing has developed a unique gastronomic culture under the mutual influence of different ethnic groups such as Manchu, Mongolian and Han. Although there are certain differences in the food culture of different historical periods, the dish that the author wants to introduce today, Aiwowo, is a halal pastry that is popular in court banquets and popular in folk streets and alleys.
(This exquisitely appointed Aiwowo is often used as a signboard for old Beijing restaurants))
Liu Ruoyu, an internal supervisor during the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, once recorded in his book "Zhi Zhongzhi": "Take glutinous rice with hemp sugar as a cold cake, and pills and stuffing as a nest." The text mentions that Aiwowo is a kind of dough made of glutinous rice flour and flour mixed to make a dough, hemp sugar, walnut kernels. Sesame seeds, melon seeds and other ingredients are a pastry wrapped in fillings.
The most attractive thing about Aiwowo is its snow-white skin, which is often decorated with hawthorns, and the red and white are full of joy and elegance. When cooking, the flour is first put into the steamer basket, steamed on high heat and rolled into a fine powder, then the steamed flour, sugar, sesame seeds and crushed walnuts are stirred together, a ball of rice is placed on the flour and kneaded, pressed into the skin and wrapped on the mixed filling, and finally the ball is lightly pressed to the top of the circle to form a small pit and then decorated with a small piece of cut hawthorn cake, and a sweet and soft ai wo wo wo is formed. This delicious ai wo wo stands out among all kinds of famous snacks and is listed as the thirteen best old Beijing snacks, which is not only the childhood memory of many old Beijingers but also the special food that many foreign tourists must punch in.
Snack platter
A. The History of Aiwowo
A theory about the history of Aiwowo is that it existed in ancient times, and this folk cuisine was recorded in the novel "Jin Ping Mei" in the Ming Dynasty, but originally Aiwowo was just an ordinary folk snack, so why did it have such a large audience? It turned out that the concubines who had lived in the deep palace for a long time in the Ming Dynasty would inevitably feel bored when they faced the delicacies and jade food for a long time, and the palace ladies in the Chuxiu Palace would inevitably feel bored when they saw the Hui chefs in the imperial dining room eating the halal food of their hometown characteristics, and the queen liked it very much when she tasted it, and praised it. Since then, Aiwowo has been crowned with the word "Royal" and spread to the people that their value has soared (Aiwowo was also known as "Yu'aiwowo" in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. ）
Another theory is that during the Qianlong period, the Huibu Da, Xiao and Zhuo rebelled, the Qing army went to suppress it, and cooperated with the suppression of many meritorious Huo Zhuo family members to discuss merits and rewards, and Tur, who was awarded the title of first-class Taiji, sent his sister Iprahhan to the palace, and she was known to all generations as a "fragrant concubine".
Xiangfei - film and television drama image
Whether it is a contemporary film and television work or a historical record, pregnant with a different fragrance, the young and beautiful Xiangfei Niangniang has been fascinated by the Qianlong Emperor since entering the palace, but Xiangfei is not cold to this nine-five-year-old, it turned out that xiangfei had her own sweetheart before entering the palace, and was forced to enter the palace every day after tea and dinner, Qianlong anxiously found a delicacy from the south and the north of the sea for her to taste, and Xiangfei's earlier Ruyi Langjun also came to the capital because she could not stop missing her lover, and after hearing the news that Xiangfei refused to eat, Buy through the inner prison personally made a plate of ancestral rice dumplings sent into the palace, named Fudi Eight Treasures Jujube Dumplings, but also wanted to express their love for each other, so he used his own name Ai Mai to extract the first word, called Ai Wo Wo, indicating that he had always put Xiangfei in his heart, a simple pastry but carried the strong love of the two youths, Xiangfei tasted and found that it was his lover's craftsmanship that ate a lot, Qianlong was also very happy, and ordered people to come in every day.
2. The nutritional value of Aiwowo
(High temperature steamed river rice is very easy to form a ball) The main production material of AiWowo is jiang rice, jiang rice belongs to a kind of glutinous rice, it is rich in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, etc., with the effect of tonifying qi, strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach and stopping sweating, as a warm and strong food, glutinous rice rich in phosphorus can promote starch and fat metabolism, provide heat, restore physical strength; in addition, the astringent effect of glutinous rice is obvious, traditional Chinese medicine generally believes that glutinous rice has the effect of astringency and antiperspiration, It has special effects in the treatment of frequent urination, sweating, dizziness and dizziness.
Jiang Mi
Iii. The development of Aywowo
As a traditional pastry with a long history, no matter how it is produced, it will eventually become really popular in the folk streets and alleys, so basically large and small Beijing old restaurants will have a platter of Beijing pastries, Ai Wo Wo, Pea Yellow, Kidney Bean Roll, etc. Nowadays, most of the shops that make and sell old Beijing cakes have the figure of Ai Wo Wo, the time-honored Huguo Temple snacks, the century-old Jinfang Snack Bar, the White Rice Cake on the side of Niu Street meet the memories of old Beijingers in many ways, at the same time, Thanks to the advancement of modern preservation technology, this kind of cake that is not easy to slack off and is easy to break can also appear on the table of every household across the country. In fact, compared to the preservation treatment of Ai Wo Wo, foreign friends can also make at home, ai Wo Wo production is easy to take materials, easy to operate, the key skills that need to be paid attention to is steaming jiang rice, how to steam the river rice well, steaming has a chewy head, need the maker to patiently figure out, the soaking of the river rice, steaming and stirring, crushing, each step has its own doorway.
(Many new concept restaurants have also launched a combination of traditional and new elements of yam coconut love nest)
With the development of the dessert market, pastry has had a huge impact on China's traditional pastry industry, so new varieties of yam Aiwowo and so on have also entered the market, new products wrapped in yam mud and coconut paste have met the needs of more people, and dark red hawthorn has also become a bright red goji berry, not only in the taste has a certain change but also a single taste has a variety of choices.
IV. Conclusion
In the more than four hundred years since the emergence of Ai Wo Wo recorded in the historical records of Ke Kao, Ai Wo Wo has walked from the countryside to the deep palace, and then returned to the street from the deep palace, a song "Hundred sticky river rice into the pot steaming, assorted stuffing powder noodles." Like tangyuan not to be boiled, halal call like Aiwowo" folk song is still fluttering in the old Beijing horizontal seven vertical eight hutongs, its shape is also changing with the direction of the food wind, from the initial development of spring and summer cuisine to the table can be seen all year round, a small river rice dumplings carry not only the memories of generations of people but also the long history of the mark.
(Aiwowo's filling is rich in bean paste, yam, walnut kernels, melon seeds, etc., and the picture shows the most traditional bean paste stuffing Aiwowo)
Our tasting of food does not simply explore its taste, the traditional delicacy is more about the unique charm it has in it than the variety of food at present.
/ Some of the images originate from the Internet and are deleted if there is an infringement contact
Mr. Wen by Zhuo Jie