The three dishes of wood whisker meat, alfalfa meat and wood chestnut meat are actually one dish in Jinan. Stir-fried wood-fired pork is a common dish in Jinan, and most of the original restaurant menus are written with "wood-bearded meat" or "alfalfa meat", and less "wood-wood meat". Although the names of the dishes are written inconsistently, the ingredients and methods are the same.
Jinan's stir-fried wood-fired pork is made of pork fat lean meat, eggs, fungus, bamboo shoots, and garlic; the seasonings are soy sauce, sweet noodle sauce, and peanut oil. First scramble the eggs into the bowl, the shredded meat is sautéed to six ripe, fly sweet noodle sauce and soy sauce, then add the magnolia slices, fungus, garlic and shredded meat together and stir-fry evenly, add the scrambled eggs, note that here must be the eggs and other raw materials mixed evenly, quickly stir-fried out of the spoon. This dish is characterized by tender meat, soft eggs, tender ingredients, beautiful color and strong sauce flavor.
The biggest difference between the fried wood-fired pork in old Jinan and the rest of the world is that the seasoning should be added to the sweet noodle sauce. The rich sauce flavor produced by frying the sweet noodle sauce in a small amount of hot oil makes the dish have a unique flavor, which is called "flying sweet sauce" in Jinan's catering industry. Flying sweet noodle sauce is the difficulty in the production of this dish, and it is very technical. Fly is not cooked, the dish has a raw sweet noodle sauce flavor; fly old, there is bitterness, the dish color becomes darker. The shredded meat, fungus, eggs of the dish are the main raw materials that remain unchanged, magnolia slices and garlic are ingredients that can be changed, and green and fragrant garlic and fresh bamboo shoot shreds are used in late autumn, winter and early spring; fragrant kidney bean shreds, cucumber shreds, canned bamboo shoot shreds, etc. in mid-summer and mid-autumn; shredded potatoes are the cheapest. However, with fresh bamboo shoots, it is better to blanch the water first.
Nowadays, some restaurants make wood-fired pork by placing scrambled eggs on top of the scrambled shredded meat. In this way, the eggs have no taste, especially without the special sauce flavor.
Since the ingredients and methods are exactly the same, why do three names appear in a dish?
"Wood whiskers": There is no word at all. Some people say: The fungus is the whisker of the wood, hence the name. It must be animals, plants do not have whiskers. In the old days, people's cultural level was generally low, the words wood and whisker were common, and the strokes were few and easy to write, so the name of wood whisker meat appeared.
"MuXi": It is written in the Cihai: "Muxi, also known as osmanthus ... Autumn blossoms... Yellow or yellowish-white is extremely aromatic. ”
In 1992, the Encyclopedia of Chinese Cuisine published by the China Encyclopedia Publishing House did not have alfalfa meat and wood whisker meat, only fried wood meat, and its main raw materials were shredded meat, eggs and fungus, and there was soy sauce in the seasoning. In 1992, the "Dictionary of Chinese Cooking" published by China Commercial Publishing House only has one dish, which is mainly made of clams, eggs and fungus, and there is no soy sauce in the seasoning.
Mr. Liang Shiqiu wrote in his "Yashe Talk About Eating" in "Yellow Cabbage": "Yellow cabbage refers to eggs, and northerners avoid saying the word egg because it is indecent, and I don't know why it is not elegant." Muxi', 'Hibiscus', 'Chicken' are all pronouns. ”
Alfalfa, cihai explains it this way: "Plant names. Leguminosae. Annual or perennial herb. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (126 BC), Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions to bring back alfalfa seeds from the Kingdom of Dawan... It is also used as a collective name for alfalfa and alfalfa of the genus Alfalfa. Alfalfa is known as the 'king of forage', with high yield and excellent grass quality, and livestock and poultry like to eat. ”
The wood tree is the osmanthus flower, and the scrambled eggs are very similar to the blooming osmanthus flowers, yellow and clear, and the fragrance is striking. I think the name of the dish of wood-fired meat comes from this. The writing of "樨" in Muxi is slightly more complicated, and at that time, I was afraid that some people did not know the word "樨". It is undeniable that the cultural level of employees in the old catering industry was low, and in the 1960s, some restaurants and cultural study classes began around 6 a.m. and ended before 8 p.m.
After the reform and opening up, Jinan's recipe books are all fried wood and pork, which shows that the name of this dish is recognized by people.
As for alfalfa, it was a common plant as a wild vegetable at that time, and it was often used as fodder by farmers in the old days, and people were more familiar with it. This is the reason for the appearance of alfalfa meat.
Nowadays, there are many alfalfa dishes in Jiaodong: alfalfa vermili, alfalfa shrimp, alfalfa silver fish, fried alfalfa crab yellow, fried alfalfa sea oysters, alfalfa prawns, etc., the raw materials are mainly eggs and clams or shrimp, silver fish, crab yellow, sea oysters, prawn slices, etc., without fungus. Only alfalfa soup has fungus. These alfalfa dishes mainly highlight the umami taste of the seafood itself, seasoned with a little salt, and never added soy sauce.
Text/Sun Yiwei
(Qilu Evening News, Qilu One Point)