Chongqing, one of the four major furnaces, although the urban area is surrounded by mountains, but the heat is surrounded by mountains, cool winds can not come in, this kind of slow heat dissipation geographical environment, resulting in the average temperature of Chongqing in the summer reached 35 °, the highest time even more than 40 °. In the hot summer, for the cold delicacy, Chongqing people never give up, whether it is ice powder, cold shrimp, cold cake, cold skin or ice soup balls, as long as it is related to the cold, all of them are the delicious taste of summer entrance.
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In addition, there is a kind of "cool" related food, whether it is a roadside stall or a family dinner table can be eaten, and the price is also very cheap. There is even a riddle to guess it: "Ice scrapes and leaky fish wear, crystal clear teeth have residual cold." The flavor is thick and light according to the king's wishes, just cool and not sour. "You know what? Yes, the answer is cool powder!
Cold powder is a very suitable snack for summer consumption, not only tender and refreshing, but also crystal clear and particularly beautiful. Cold food in summer has the function of avoiding heat and quenching thirst, and mixing hot pepper food in winter has the effect of dispelling cold and warming the stomach.
The earliest historical record of cool powder appears in the Tokyo Dream Hualu, written by Meng Yuanlao in the Northern Song Dynasty. The book describes a dish called "Fine Cord Cold Powder" in the Bieliang area, which is considered to be the prototype of modern cold powder. But who invented this thing, in fact, there are different statements in many places.
What is more widely spread in Guangdong is that during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, a person named "Da Wei" invented "cold powder cake". "Da Wei Wei" opened a herbal tea shop in Xiguan, and often sold a medicine called cold powder grass, and taught people to use cold powder grass to boil powder kudzu to cure dry throat and sore throat and thirst in summer. Later, because children do not like to drink medicine, so he used cold powder grass and kudzu powder to cook, then freeze into cakes, and then mix sugar glue when eating, taking its name as "cold powder cake". Sure enough, children are very fond of eating this cold flour cake, which can not only cure diseases and health care, but also eat as desserts, which is the best of both worlds.
The area of Chongqing, Sichuan, is widely spread, and it is said that there was cool powder as early as the Shu and Han Dynasties, but it began to flourish during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There is a farmer Xie Tianlu in Nanchong Jiangcunba, Sichuan Province, who sells Dandan cold powder in a tent at the middle ferry port of Jialing River, and his cold powder is finely made, from grinding powder to seasoning and flavoring, which is very famous, called Xie Liang powder. Later, Chen Hongshun carefully studied the Xie family's cold powder production process, took its strengths and improved it, he selected fresh white peas with small grinding fine grinding, very particular about stirring heat, the cold powder made is fine and tender, the tendon strength is soft, clear and transparent, fine and continuous, seasoning flavor, more ingenious. Soon, Chen Liang powder was named in the area of northern Sichuan, and "northern Sichuan cool powder" did not go away. To this day, some cool powder shops in Nanchong City and Chengdu-Chongqing are still using "Sichuan North Cool Powder" as their signboard, and the business is booming and hot.
Interesting facts about cold powder: According to records, residents in Chengde have been eating cold powder for more than 300 years. In the 10th year of Xianfeng, the British and French coalition troops shelled Dagukou, and the Xianfeng Emperor fled in a hurry and came to the Chengde Mountain Resort. One day, the Xianfeng Emperor was chilling by the lake, and heard someone outside the palace shouting: "Sour, salty, spicy, spicy, fragrant, to relieve the cold of the summer race, if you want to eat a bowl, it is like entering heaven." Xian Feng learned from the eunuch that he was selling cold powder and wanted to try it. So I changed into civilian clothes and left the palace, only to see a group of people selling cold powder eating properly, so they also asked for a bowl. After eating it, I just thought it was cool and delicious, and the taste was excellent, so I added another bowl. When he turned around and left after eating, the seller of cold powder said, "Guest, you haven't given me money yet!" But the emperor never carried silver on his body, so the Xianfeng Emperor had to take off his horse coat and ask him to go to the gate of the summer resort the next day to exchange silver. The next day, after selling cold powder, the Xianfeng Emperor rewarded him with more than three hundred taels of silver and left him in the palace to teach him the art of making cold powder.
There are many kinds of cold powder, generally with pea flour, mung bean powder, potato flour or rice flour, etc., diluted with appropriate water into a paste, cooked and condensed into pieces, that is, "cool powder".
Depending on the raw materials used, the classification of cool powder is naturally different. The more common ones on the market are mung bean cold powder made of mung bean in Zunyi, Guizhou, sweet potato cold powder made of sweet potato starch in Suining, Sichuan, Hunyuan cold powder made of potato starch in Datong, Hunyuan cold powder made of potato starch in Datong, soba noodle cold powder made of buckwheat noodles in Anshun, Shandong Anshun with stone cauliflower, Qingdao cold powder made of stone cauliflower in Shandong, and acorn cold powder made of acorns in Zheng, southwest Shaanxi.
In Chongqing, pea-made Chuanbei cool powder, sad cold powder and Wushan jadeite cold powder made of stinky yellow wattle are the most popular.
Cold powder is a kind of food, the main raw materials are cold powder grass, rice, sweet potatoes and peas, etc., to soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil and food, the sauce after mixing well, the cold powder, not only will not lose the original cool and smooth taste, but also increase the rich and stimulating aroma, so that the tip of the tongue at the same time experience the cool and sour taste, for the summer flavor food. However, due to different raw materials, the practice of cold powder is also slightly different.
Taking Chuanbei Liang Powder and Wushan Jade Cool Powder as an example, since the prosperity of Chuanbei Liang Powder in the late Qing Dynasty, it has been famous for its unique red, spicy, mellow, fresh and refreshing Sichuan flavor style, which has been passed down to this day. Folk proverb cloud: "Northern Sichuan is cool and fragrant, and it does not hurt to eat it three times a day."
The production of Chuanbei cool powder includes four levels, eight parts, and twenty-four processes. Chuanbei cool powder using the freshest white peas ground into a fine powder, for the stirring of the heat is very demanding, the cold powder is fine and tender, the tendon is soft, clear and transparent, fine and continuous, seasoning flavor, more ingenious.
Chuanbei cool powder is tender and soft, delicious and smooth, spicy and sharp. When eating northern Sichuan cold powder, cut the cold powder into thin slices, or use the thick strips of chopsticks swirled in the ethnic group, put it in a bowl, add refined salt, garlic paste, spicy noodles, monosodium glutamate and soy sauce, etc., and then drizzle with bright red chili oil, that is, eat.
Wushan emerald cool powder won the title of "Chinese Famous Snack" as early as 2010. This kind of cool powder made of "stinky yellow wattle leaves" looks green like emerald, crystal clear, smells of fragrance and far away, tastes elegant and smooth, and is cool and frozen. Hence the name Emerald Cool Powder.
According to legend, during the three gorges treatment of water, Dayu was trapped by demons and evil deeds, and the people were extremely hot, hungry, sick, and miserable. The twenty-third daughter of the Heavenly Emperor and the Queen Mother, Yao Ji, the goddess of Wushan, taught the Heavenly Book to Dayu to dredge the Three Gorges, punish demons, and enlighten the people, collect strange leaves in the mountains - stinky yellow thorn leaves, take juice to make cool powder, crystal clear, and drink and eat, the water control team and the people's spirits are greatly invigorated, and quickly dredge the Three Gorges.
The production of Wushan emerald cool powder will be a little more complicated, the freshly picked "stinky yellow wattle" leaves are washed with cold water, and then drizzled on the leaves with boiling water, and stirred quickly for about 5 minutes, and the leaves are all "dissolved" into dark green sap. Then use a sieve to filter out the debris, the filtered juice is again passed with gauze to ensure that there are no impurities in it, and then the brine made of pure grass and wood ash is used to point the brine and gently stir well. Finally, pour into the container to cool, and then put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours, and the Wushan emerald cold powder will be ready.
Wushan emerald cool powder color is emerald green, refreshing and pleasant, powder skin is smooth, fresh and sour. When eating Wushan jadeite cold powder, you can cut the jadeite cold powder into suitable small strips, add shredded carrots, cucumber shreds, chili pepper shreds, small tomatoes, etc., and you can also add salt, chicken essence, garlic paste, vinegar and soy sauce according to your own taste, and then drizzle with bright red chili oil to eat.
There are three most common ways to eat cold powder: one is cold mixing, the other is fried powder, and the third is fried powder.
In the market we eat most of the cold powder is strip-like, because the cut cold powder is not an ordinary knife, but a special round iron spoon, the spoon has a lot of small holes, with this special tool circle circle on the cold powder, you can appear strip shape. Mix with garlic paste, ginger, green onion, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, chili pepper and other spices, stir evenly and eat. Of course, there is also a simplest way to mix cold powder, which is to directly add sugar, honey or condensed milk, and mix well before eating.
Frying cold powder is actually very simple, that is, you must be careful when frying, otherwise it is easy to break. Cut the cold powder into small pieces and set aside, cut the shallots, ginger, garlic and other seasonings into the bowl for later, put more oil in the pan, fry the cold powder on both sides into a golden brown with a low heat, and shake the pan from time to time in the middle, so as not to stick to the bottom, and then pour in the prepared seasonings, stir-fry evenly, smell the aroma and you can come out of the pan.
Stir-fried cold powder is actually a characteristic flavor snack in Kaifeng, Henan, using local sweet potatoes produced in Kaifeng, the cold powder made can withstand many stir-frying, and can be melted in the mouth. Stir-fried cold powder is made with cold powder as the main ingredient, accompanied by bean paste, green onion, ginger, garlic, and stir-fried in sesame oil. The entrance is hot and tender, the cool powder is smooth and tender, and it is known as "cold powder tube stir-frying".
In Chongqing, whether it is a roadside stall or a family dinner table, the most common way to eat cold powder is mainly cold mixing. The two most commonly eaten cold powders are sad cold powder and yellow cold powder.
The origin of sad cold powder is said to have three versions: one is the guangdong Hakka family who live in Luodai Town, Huguang filled Sichuan, because they miss their hometown and make cold powder, because they miss their hometown and are sad, so they get their name; the second is that a Hakka woman is very capable, when the family members are going to sleep, she is still grinding beans to make cold powder, because she feels desolate, so she shed tears, mixed with the cold powder made of tears, so it is named; the third is that the cool powder is bald, and the people who eat the cold powder will be spicy tears, and everyone who eats the cold powder will be spicy tears, and everyone is tearful, and others still think that they have encountered something sad, so it is called "Sad cold powder".
There are two kinds of sad cold powder, one of which is based on peas, and the beige cold powder made of it has a gentle taste. The second is to use rice as the main ingredient, and the white cold powder made is smooth and smooth. The spices of sad cold powder are onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, monosodium glutamate, peppercorns, chili oil, Pixian watercress, old soy sauce, etc., such a bowl of sad cold powder seasonings is about ten kinds. Moreover, the authentic sad cold powder is served with a large bamboo dustpan when it is served, and the shape is very special.
Yellow cold powder is made from peas. The cold powder made of peas is yellowish in color, smells with pea aroma, although the appearance looks relatively rough, but the taste is still q smooth, and then mixed with more than a dozen condiments, the sauce is rich, the oil is spicy, and the bite makes you fall in love with it instantly.
Buying a bowl of cold powder on the streets of Chongqing is no more than ten yuan, not only because the price is cheap, but also because the people of Chongqing are good at this bite. In the hot summer, cool powder is definitely a great product to cool off. Whether it is used to replace lunch, or when you are bored with shopping, or when you are tired after work, come to a bowl of cold powder to cool your mouth, sour and spicy.