Wuzhou, Guangxi, known as the "water street market", many residents in the early days used boats as rooms, so the service industry for boat people came into being. In the 1980s, at nightfall, men, women and children in Wuzhou stepped on the dinghys moored on the banks of the Xijiang River, sparkling with the breeze and the bright moon, squeaking and tasting bowl after bowl of hot, fragrant boat porridge.
Nowadays, the unforgettable taste of Wuzhou people has long been on the shore, wafting in the streets and alleys, and the boats by the river may be difficult to find, but the boat porridge has become an irreplaceable symbol in the hearts of Wuzhou people.
In Wuzhou, whether it is a star hotel with an elegant environment, a tea house, or a food stall or a food stall in the streets and alleys; whether it is early in the morning or staying up late at night, you can find a place to taste the best of porridge - boat porridge. Friends or relatives from other places visitIng Wuzhou, it is inevitable to be recommended, especially after eating and drinking a lot, a bowl of fragrant boat porridge clears the stomach and warms the body and mind.
The reason why the boat boy porridge can become the best in porridge is largely because of its rich ingredients. Among all kinds of porridge, boat porridge is the most used material, including char siu shreds, egg shreds, pork belly shreds, west belly shreds (i.e. fried pork skin), dried squid shreds, shiitake mushroom shreds, fried vermicelli, fried fritters... Up to more than ten kinds, above the famous eight treasure porridge in the north. Many delicious dishes are gathered in one bowl, so how can people not love it.
In addition, the boat boy porridge should be delicious, and the porridge bottom is also very critical. Cook porridge using sticky new rice, soaked two or three hours in advance, put a little salt and oil when washing rice, and add enough water at one time when cooking porridge, so that the white porridge cooked is smooth enough and has a good taste.
A restaurant master on Zhongshan Road in Wuzhou City revealed that only one grade of morning tea, its restaurant needs about 7 kilograms of rice per day to boil porridge, according to the proportion of about 15 kilograms of water added to each kilogram of rice, the bottom of the porridge boiled every day is more than 100 kilograms, most of which are used to make boat porridge, which shows the popularity of boat porridge.
After the bottom of the porridge is boiled, it is directly poured into the bowl of various materials laid in advance, and the boiling white porridge stimulates the aroma of various ingredients, and the ingredients show a unique taste in the decomposition of heat, and the taste of porridge is sublimated again.
This seemingly ordinary, but so exquisite porridge is exactly the delicacy used to greet guests from afar, the dust washing feast of homecoming wanderers, and the indelible taste of life in the memory of Wuzhou people.
Boat porridge, so the name is conceivable, refers to the porridge sold on the boat, is created by the former water residents of the Pearl River Delta - The People of the River, because it is like an egg floating on the saturated salt solution, floating on the river and sea for many years, so it is named Yanmin. Small fishermen's families who make a living by fishing are called "Yanjia", they do not have large boats, they cannot sail far, and they can only fish in the coastal waters. Nor do they have a place in the fishing port. At low tide, they put down their cages and nets, catch some fish and shrimp, and their lives change with the tide, and they can only watch the sky to eat.
In order to save food, the people mixed taro and peanut porridge in the rice, and sometimes added some salvaged conch to flavor it. The people who have lived in the rivers and seas for a long time have a bowl of hot porridge in the winter, which is undoubtedly a little comfort in the hard life.
By chance, the city residents ate the porridge sold by the women of the Yan family, and they felt that the taste was delicious, so the reputation of the porridge of the Yan family was not lost. In order to do a big porridge business, the clever women of the Yan family removed the original taro, kept the fried and crispy peanuts, replaced the snail meat with fresh anchovies, and sprinkled with fritter flakes and green onions when eating, and the boat porridge completed the first gorgeous turn. Since then, every night, rows of small boats that have ended their daytime salvage work have docked on the shore, with a yellow flag planted at the stern and a large "porridge" written on it, and diners are endless.
Many businessmen have taken a fancy to the market for boat porridge, so they invest in changing small boats for large boats, and large boats for "flower boats", with the passage of time, the "flower boats" with geisha to entertain guests have long disappeared, and only the boat porridge that carries the memories of generations has been handed down.
In fact, the boat porridge is famous in the mouth of the Xijiang River in Guangzhou, Guangzhou people call the boat "boat boy", the original boat boy porridge is sold on the boat, specially supplied to the water's edge and tourists on the boat porridge. It is said to have first appeared during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, mainly concentrated in the Liwan area of Guangzhou.
However, before becoming famous, the boat boy porridge was only called fillet porridge. According to the "Guangzhou Republic of China Daily" on May 13, 1616, "The fish porridge boat in Liwan is also one of the scenery embellished ... In total, there are no less than twenty or thirty such dinghies. "It wasn't until the mid-1940s that the boat porridge jumped out of the molar of the fillet porridge and became a character of its own. In this way, the boat porridge also has a small history of 100 years.
Before the fall of Guangzhou during the War of Resistance Against Japan, due to the particularity of the region, The Boat Boy Porridge also fled with a large number of citizens and the Yan family to Wuzhou, the land of "Sanjiang Zonghui" and "Two Guangdong Throat". Wuzhou three facing the river, there are many boats, some boat owners are influenced and inspired by this, there are also similar examples, began to sell porridge business. And on the basis of the original to improve, with fresh shrimp, fish fillets, green onions, egg shredded, sea stings, peanut kernels, floating skin, fritters as raw materials, boiled to produce more local characteristics of Wuzhou boat porridge.
It is said that when the boat porridge moved to land, some boat owners hoisted the small boat with a length of about 1 meter at the stall, as a symbol of the boat porridge, the boat porridge gradually became the favorite of the Wuzhou people. For a long time, the vast old town of Hedong, the streets and streets boiled porridge, and the alleys smelled fragrant. In a certain sense, the "east porridge moving west" under specific historical conditions has inadvertently achieved another gorgeous turn of boat porridge.
Nowadays, time has passed, and the scene with the imprint of the times like the old boat porridge is difficult to find. However, in the Qilou City of Wuzhou, a sculpture called "Boat Boy Porridge" freezes the picture of a female boatman selling porridge on the boat, and also imprints this history of boat boy porridge in Wuzhou.
Source: "Cultural Tourism Edition" of China-ASEAN Expo
Text: Qin Yingmin
Editor: Chen Hui