There is a saying that the test of a Beijinger is really indigenous, give him a bowl of soybean juice, if you can drink it with the charcoal ring and spicy pickles even if qualified, if you can drink it with a white mouth, that is several generations of the old Beijing undoubtedly. However, this test has been a bit dysfunctional nowadays, from the 70s onwards, including me, a lot of people's acceptance of bean juice has been getting lower and lower.
In fact, I think a better representation of Beijing people's tastes is another kind of food, without test, almost everyone loves. It can be used as a dip, can be used as a mix, can be used as a condiment, simply everything is suitable, it occupies an irreplaceable position in the hearts of Beijingers. That's right, it's the sesame paste that can be used to "dip the world".
Just like many Beijing snacks, foreigners can't understand what's so great about the slippery, even a little "mushy" sesame sauce. A lot of foreign snacks have come to Beijing, but also have been captured by it, Shaanxi cold skin to pour sesame sauce, Sichuan spicy hot pot to pour sesame sauce, the local people see simply to collapse. However, Beijingers do not accept all kinds of refutation about sesame sauce, it is omnipotent, ubiquitous, no reason to say.
The Beijinger's three meals a day can be wrapped up in sesame sauce. A bowl of hot noodle tea must be drizzled with a spoonful of sesame sauce, a circle of sucking drink; to the midday, a bowl of cold noodles in sesame sauce, over the cold water of the noodles wrapped in sesame sauce, completely eaten and can not stop; evening call friends to the shabu-shabu, pick up a chopstick in the water a few times, a head of the bottom of the bowl of sesame sauce, just like the old she said, "That is the essence of the combination of animals and plants! " Look, the days of sesame sauce, how happy!
Today we will explore the matter of sesame sauce in depth. Sesame is an imported product, the Han Dynasty by Zhang Jian from the western region of Hu brought back, then was used for oil extraction, due to the high oil yield has been the main oil crops. Although when the sesame sauce appeared can not be tested, but I believe it will not be too long before the emergence of sesame oil.
In the Song Dynasty, Jinhua's local cookbook "Wu's Chinese Feed Record" recorded in the "water slippery noodles" square appeared in the sesame sauce: "very white flour kneaded and searched into a dose, a catty for dozens of pieces, placed in the water, waiting for its surface hair very satisfied, one by one piece of the pulling, under the soup to cook. It is good if it is drawn broadly and thinly. Hemp greasy, almond greasy, salted dried bamboo shoots, soy sauce melon, bad eggplant, ginger, pickled leeks, cucumber threads for finely chopped head. Or add fried meat, especially good." Look at the aroma ah, which refers to the "hemp greasy" that is sesame sauce.
Yuan Mei's "with the garden food list" refers to the production of noodle tea, there is also hemp sauce: "boil coarse tea juice, fried noodles into, add sesame paste can also be added, add buttermilk can also be added, micro-added a pinch of salt. No milk is added to the soufflé, milk skin can also be." Sesame sauce three words finally into the celebrity recipes.
Sesame sauce in the life of the Beijing people left such a deep imprint, and perhaps the material scarcity of the era of "poor people's happiness" related. Starting from 1954, sesame sauce was planned and managed by the food department, limited to one or two per person per month. As the daily life is difficult to see the oil, go to the state-run food store "play hemp sauce", and then on the way home while holding the bottle licked into the collective memories of the children of that era.
At that time, there was a popular story that adults sent their children to the store to play sesame sauce, and came back to find that the portion was not enough, so they went to the store to theorize and asked for a new weighing, and the clerk said, "You'd better weigh your child first, because the short sesame sauce went into the child's stomach.
Sesame paste also has an interesting story with the writer Mr. Lao She. One summer, the demand for sesame sauce in Beijing exceeded the supply, and the limited amount was simply not enough to eat. Mr. Lao She, as a people's representative, proposed to the Beijing Municipal Government to solve the problem of the supply of sesame sauce. He said, "Beijingers love to eat cucumber in summer, and they can't live without sesame sauce!" Soon, sesame paste was again available in Beijing's food stores, and the supply was increased by one tael per household. Mr. Lao She really knows Beijing people, and knows that sesame sauce is the "life" of Beijing people in the hot summer.
There are a lot of fun things to do with sesame sauce. In those days, the bottles used to contain the sesame sauce were different, and the mouths of the bottles were of different sizes. The salesman first put the bottle on the scale, plus the weight of the bottle, and then according to the quantitative, the scale to a certain position. For example, if the quantity is three taels, the scale is usually set to a little more than three taels. Then she picks up the big spoon that holds the store's sesame sauce, which is always filled with sesame paste. The very sticky sesame paste flows down from the large spoon, forming a thin light coffee-colored line that slowly flows into the customer's bottle of sesame paste. As the scale slowly rises, the salesman has to keep turning the spoon in order to control the flow of the sesame paste and to cut off the flow at any time. This is a tricky job; if you don't do it right, you'll fall on the scale or give too much. In the end, the salesman will use the Beijing dialect to say, "Look, three taels more, not short of you."
Li, who has been working at the state-run Zhaofu Street subfood store for more than 30 years, still retains this skill, and the old store is one of the few remaining subfood stores in Beijing where you can "make sesame sauce. He recalled, "Before 1992, you needed a ticket to buy sesame sauce, and at that time, one person per household was given two taels, so if there were eight people in the family, it would be more than a catty a month. It was not a year-round supply, but only from May 1 to November 11, when the weather got hot, Beijingers were good at noodles with sesame sauce! This is a product of the planned economy, sesame sauce can make up for people's lack of taste, Beijingers love to eat sesame sauce this habit was raised from that era. You have to be accurate to make a spoonful of sesame sauce, and it takes three years of apprenticeship in a sub-food store to practice this skill."
Sesame sauce has a variety of classifications, there are pure sesame sauce, there are also added other ingredients, the proportion of additions are also different, Beijing people's favorite or "two eight sauce". Because sesame seeds fried aroma although enough, but the aftertaste will be bitter, generally with 20% of the peanut butter, with sweet and balanced, it became a delicate taste of the "two eight sauce". Good sesame sauce, texture like pea butter as dense and pure, warm and transparent, full of flavor.
Sesame sauce for cold noodle toppings, shabu-shabu and tripe dipping sauces need to be creeking, creeking sesame sauce is a technical job, it must be creeking to the right consistency. If it's too thin, the noodles won't hold up and become soupy; if it's too thick, the noodles won't mix well and will be lumped together.
Gourmet Mr. Meng Chunming described in detail the process of making cold noodles with sesame sauce, which is a summer delicacy for Beijingers. "Take the right amount of sesame sauce, add salt, little by little in the sesame sauce, add cold water, slowly stirring, so that the sesame sauce and water are fully integrated, this time can not be in a hurry, too fast and too fast, it will not be the water sauce melting, very poor appearance, can not be used. Some people use sesame oil instead of water creek sesame sauce, I thought it is not desirable, because the sesame sauce originally contains a lot of grease, to oil creek sauce, too greasy."
After creeking sesame sauce, and then prepare a small bowl of triple oil, that is, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil mixture, the ratio of 4:1:1, first soy sauce vinegar into the bowl, cut into a little minced scallions, sesame oil hot fried a little pepper, remove the pepper, hot sesame oil poured into the soy sauce vinegar can be.
The noodle code does not have to be as much as the fried noodles, there are two or three enough, the standard is raw cucumber shredded, cooked green beans, cooked cowpea segments. Of course, you can't go wrong with a garlic clove. If you have a toon on hand, sesame sauce is a good accompaniment. Wash and mince fresh toon, add salt to a bowl, soak in boiling water to bring out the flavor, and cover with a lid to keep the flavor from escaping. This thing with sesame sauce, triple oil mixed with noodles, or used alone, is a good choice for eating noodles in summer.
"Fish out a bowl of cool through the heart of the noodles, add sesame sauce, triple oil, noodle yards in moderation, mix well, and from time to time, take a bite of garlic cloves, beautiful! Magnificent way of eating is not cut cucumber, simply grab a whole cucumber in the hand, bite a cucumber, eat a mouthful of noodles, a clove of garlic, hey, at this time is the land and water delicacies are not change!" Listening to whether there is a finger, mouth watering?
As for the shabu shabu, the bowl of sesame sauce seasoning is simply the soul, I do not know who invented it, it is a perfect match. Yet it's not just an ordinary bowl of sesame sauce, it's a complex concoction. Seasoning is one of shabu-shabu's signature skills, and the reason why it's so secretive, and why there are so many different flavors, is that famous shabu-shabu restaurants over the centuries have followed the principle of "family history, not publicity".
Master Chen Lixin, a national non-hereditary member of the Dong Lai Shun shabu-shabu technique, once graciously introduced the traditional method of blending the seven seasonings: "When the seven seasonings are served in a bowl, the first thing you put into the bowl is wine, shrimp oil, soy sauce, and chive blossoms, and then you mix them well, put in soy sauce for the tofu and sesame sauce, and then you mix them with a spoon, and then finally you put in chili oil, according to the guest's request. This blend of seasonings, mixing evenly, and, because the liquid first, after the solid, mixing without staining the bowl. Clockwise stirring, on the one hand, the stirred seasoning does not scatter and does not diarrhea, and on the other hand, it means a smooth hundred." The order told you, as for the amount of that "can only imagine not to say", or you go home and try it yourself?
Below we will count the food related to sesame paste in Beijing, if there is anything missing, you can remind me ah!
Noodle Tea
A bowl of wuzi noodles, topped with sesame sauce and sprinkled with pretzels, is salty and flavorful. When you drink it, the old man said, like drinking matcha tea, turn the bowl, sucked in, of course, if you use a spoon to drink it is not wrong, I always feel that every time I drink the waiter did not give enough sesame sauce.
Bean Paste Soup
One of the traditional breakfasts for Beijingers, it can also be a bean noodle ball with bean paste, which is called "two sorts of things", and the essence of this soup is to put sesame paste and cilantro, which makes a difference immediately.
Sesame Sauce Sugar Rolls
Brown sugar sweet, sesame sauce wantonly overbearing, this flavor, which Beijing children do not love, after eating the mouth on the hands are sticky brown sugar and sesame sauce, completely disregard the image.
Sesame sauce burrito
Just out of the oven hot burrito with sesame flavor, crispy in the soft, cut and add the soy sauce beef, gravy plus sesame sauce, that is a happy!
Sugar Roast
Brown sugar, sesame sauce and cinnamon are put into the flour, which makes it tender and fragrant when it comes out of the oven, which is good for old Beijing!
Maize Sugar Cake
The only way to make a good Maize Sugar Cake is to put in a lot of maize sauce and a lot of sugar! The only way to make them good is to put in a lot of sugar, and the best way to make them good is to have a crispy outer crust with sesame sauce running down the inside.
Sweetened Sesame Sauce on Steamed Buns
How many of you are like me and learned this killer way of eating from I Love My Home and Peace? Hot bumpy steamed buns just out of the pot, break the steamed buns, smear sesame sauce, and put some sugar, with a hand, a big bite, not to mention how happy!
Maize Wafers
Taoxiangcun Maize Wafers perennial hoarding products, Maize flavor thick not off the dregs, was y convinced by it!
Sesame Pork Ribs
Call for Yili's Sesame Pork Ribs, a food that tastes sweet, salty and savory, sesame-flavored, not too hard and not too soft, and can be eaten while playing real mahjong tiles!
Qianlong Cabbage
Beijing people created a dish, cabbage wrapped in sesame sauce sprinkled with sugar, it is not too much to say that it is "the best kind of cabbage". But I don't like its name, why everything is related to the emperor? Also made up a story of a private visit, feel the emperor is not easy to slip out of a trip light around eating, so how to meet Xia Yuhe?
Maize Mixed Everything ......
In Beijing, almost all the cold dishes can be mixed with maize sauce, in addition to mixing cabbage, but also can be mixed with eggplant puree, mixed with cucumber, mixed with spinach, mixed with cowpeas, mixed with oatmeal.... ...I've even tried a fruit salad with hemp sauce, in short, hemp sauce can be mixed with everything.
With so many possibilities of jaggery above, you will find that in this city where jaggery is everywhere and is wrapped in layers of jaggery, it is with jaggery that food that is otherwise really average, shines through.
Even once poor, strapped for cash, people also strive to develop a kind of refinement in the limited ingredients, a kind of attention, although later "sesame sauce sugar dipped steamed buns" is not something rare, but the dietary memories and culture has survived, affecting the Beijing stomach for generations.