The contemporary Cantonese dim sum system can be traced back to the late Ming Dynasty in the 17th century, and now there are many palatial large-scale "tea houses" in Guangzhou, specializing in the morning, afternoon and evening "tea market" business, while the more affordable "Erli Pavilion" is all over the streets.
Drinking a cup of fragrant tea, placing three or five exquisite dim sum, drinking alone or sitting with several people, enjoying a morning of leisure, has become a comfortable way of life for countless Guangzhou people
Cantonese-style refreshments are famous for their delicacy, pattern, compactness and freshness, which can be described as the crown of domestic dim sum.
Guangzhou people like to drink morning tea, afternoon tea and night tea, in addition to tea tasting, but also eat snacks. Cantonese dim sum is based on Lingnan snacks and develops a wide range of court pastries and Western-style pastries from all over the north, including the six ancient capitals. The variety exceeds 1,000, which is the highest among the types of dim sum in the country. It is characterized by exquisite materials, a wide variety, fine production, and both salty and sweet.
Chicken cake, chicken cake is one of the four famous cakes in Guangdong
Image from the web
Among the cakes are the famous chicken cakes, which are one of the four famous cakes in Guangdong, originally named "Xiaofeng Cake", which was created by a female worker named Xiaofeng in Wu Ziyuan, a rich family in Xiguan, Guangzhou during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty.
Xiao Feng is Wu Ziyuan's maid and a native of Shunde. It is said that in the early autumn of the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1855), the host Wu Ziyuan received foreign guests, and happened that the chef was not there, so he ordered Xiaofeng to make a Cantonese snack for the guests to eat, and the family did not prepare ingredients for a while, so they went to Chengzhu Lou to rub the huizhou plum vegetables stored for many years together with the wuren cake filling (then the straight moon cake season), plus the fat pork marinated with sugar, plus fine salt, spices, etc., wrapped in the crust, kneaded into a ball shape, slightly flattened, put into the stove and baked with slow fire until crisp, and took out the hospitality. After tasting, guests deeply feel that sweet, fragrant, crisp, sweet and salty, salty and sweet, the taste is unique, so they appreciate it and ask what the name of this cake is. Since this cake is made by Xiao Feng, the owner casually says that it is "Xiao Feng Cake".
Half a century later, it became famous, and the new name was "chicken cake"
In that year, the Chengzhu Tea House located in Nanhua Middle Road, Guangzhou, due to the slow sale of mid-autumn mooncakes, the cake maker was in a hurry to make the raw materials for making mooncakes according to the method of xiaofeng cakes, and boldly mixed the rotten mooncakes with pork and vegetable hearts as fillings, and then mixed with southern milk, garlic, pepper, five-spice powder and salt to produce a new variety of sweet and salty, sweet and salty, "Chengzhu Xiaofeng Cake", which was favored by customers because of its peculiar and crispy taste. The shape of the small phoenix cake resembles a chick, so it is also called chicken cake. Subsequently, it was further improved to refine and improve the packaging, made into cans or boxes, and exported to Southeast Asia.
The petite body of the chicken cake, the oval shape of the goose egg face slightly like a beautiful woman, is particularly special in the almost all-round cake bait group. Thin skin and less filling, it is relatively crunchy to eat; Thick-skinned and stuffed, resembling a chicken that is looking down at food under the pen of the chinese painting master Qi Baishi, the outside is crisp and soft on the inside, and it is very chewy. Take a bite, only listen to the "clucking" sound, the incense rushes out, and then bite a few bites, as if detonating a spice library, the compound aroma bursts from the filling, so thick that it cannot be dissolved, until it enters the deep chewing stage, and gradually distinguishes the spice of garlic, the fresh aroma of southern milk, the oil aroma of sesame seeds, the sweet aroma of fat meat...
The biggest feature of chicken cakes is intriguing. Although it is delicious, do not be greedy every time, too much is easy to get tired.
Tips: There have been news reports that many Chinese return from visiting relatives in China to their home countries with them Chinese specialty foods. Some people carry hot pot spices through the United States Customs when confiscated, the reason given by the customs is that there is "chicken powder" (monosodium glutamate, Chinese called chicken essence), which is an animal product, can not be brought into the country, must be confiscated. Haha, if you consider chicken cake, be prepared to explain it to the staff when you pass the level.