The scraps that ordinary people used to buy to satisfy their cravings have now become a "flag" of local snacks in our province.
Every day at 1:30 pm, Lu ShuiXiang opened in the Rende Road restaurant will be a little empty. At this time, she has to do things, will be the evening and the next day to use rabbit head, duck head, duck palm brine down. "It takes about three hours to brine them. These are available in almost every restaurant, and many customers come just for the 'three heads and one palm'." On the afternoon of December 14, she looked at the stainless steel brine pot in the duck head brine situation, while telling reporters. As soon as the lid of the pot was opened, a strong aroma of brine came to the nose. "Do duck head, rabbit head is concerned about the ingredients, in which to use good fennel, orange peel, pepper, cinnamon, yellow wine and other accessories, with 'old soup' long time simmering, fish head practice is a little different, usually chopped pepper or braised." Lv Shui Xiang said.
Lv Shuixiang's small restaurant called "rice incense stall", has a history of 10 years. "The evening is the most lively time, more often than not, a day to sell hundreds of duck head." Lv Shui Xiang said, some guests even drove from Shanghai to come to the end of the year, in the field workers back to their hometowns in Quzhou is often not big hotel crowded.
Although the weather is a bit chilly, Lu Shui Xiang is still the same as usual, brining these special snacks, waiting for the arrival of guests. The mist coming out of the stainless steel pot bypassed the signboard in front of the store and brought the aroma to the street. "The old soup I use here has been used for 10 years, every time the soup is less, add some yellow wine down, but never changed the recipe. As long as it attracts customers, this special flavor I won't change it." Lv Shui Xiang said.
There are more than 7,000 catering units in Quzhou. Walking through the streets of Qu City, there are many small restaurants and stalls that are similar to the scene of Lv Shui Xiang's store. There is a stove in front of the door, with a big iron pot on top, floating red chili peppers, thick old soup in the pot, rabbit head, duck head, duck paws and other rows in the pot, a burst of unique strong flavor floating in the street.
Originally unknown "three heads and a palm", how step by step, and famous in all directions? Its origin is not glorious, but because of the people's livelihood is born.
Starting in the 1950s, there was a freezing factory in Shuangshuiqiao, Qu City, specializing in killing rabbits. Residents will be 3 cents a catty of rabbit head to buy home to burn and eat, eat rabbit head and dry the bones 7 cents a catty to take to sell, sell the bones of the money and go to buy rabbit head to eat. As a result, Quzhou's rabbit head eating culture flourished. "'Three heads and one palm' is a unique element and symbol of Quzhou. The Quzhou people's habit of loving to eat 'three heads and one palm' was formed from then. There were brined rabbit heads first, and then there were brined products of duck heads and duck palms." Mao Xianlong, deputy general manager of One Grain Zhi Foods Ltd, said.
With the improvement of people's living standards, the eighties and nineties of the last century, Qu City, the streets and alleys on the stalls, small restaurants gradually increased, the original residents to buy home to burn the "scraps" began to become the main brand of the evening meal.
From the end of the 90s, "three heads and a palm" blossomed in Quzhou, really "fire" up. On summer nights, the popularity of the stalls in Quzhou is always higher than that of the big hotels and restaurants. Point a few small dishes, and then a few rabbit head, drinking cold beer, customers to these places, in order to enjoy tasting "three heads and a palm" brings a feeling of sound.
As more and more Quzhou people traveled around the world, Quzhou's "Three Heads and a Palm" was brought to take root outside. In addition to the stressful life of modern city dwellers, a spicy wind gradually emerged in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and the "three heads and a palm" took advantage of this spicy wind and became popular in cities of all sizes. Especially in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places where Quzhou people are more numerous, restaurants with Quzhou signboards abound. Walking in the streets of Hangzhou, not paying attention will come across Quzhou people opened a small restaurant, area is not large, but because of the "three heads and a palm" supply, so it is often crowded with customers.
Neither the nobility of local cuisine, nor the fashion of Western catering, Quzhou "three heads and a palm" but has its own side of the world. Today, "Quzhou rabbit head" has been "Jinhua ham", "Jiaxing Wu Fang Zhai dumplings" and other famous products on a par, included in the "Zhejiang Top Ten Snacks ".
"Ugly duckling" beautiful turn
On the basis of trying to retain the original flavor, the city's catering establishments and production enterprises on the "three heads and a palm" to do a full of innovative articles.
Once upon a time, "three heads and a palm" is just an "ugly duckling" on the table of ordinary people's homes, with the development of the catering industry, now Quzhou's "three heads and a palm" is not only a new quality. With the development of the catering industry, Quzhou's "three heads and one palm" has not only made a new leap in terms of internal quality, but also become more elegant. Originally difficult to get into the hall of elegance of the snacks not only became a banquet guests of the specialties, but also become people visiting friends and relatives to take the gift.
The Oriental Hotel is patronized by many guests from outside Quzhou. Mr. Zhang, the hotel's executive chef, said: "In the Oriental Hotel, 'three heads and a palm' is mainly customers from abroad to order more. In order to publicize Quzhou's special snacks, we combined the rabbit head, duck head and duck palm in 'Three Heads and One Palm' into a special dish called 'Nankong Special Marinated Three Pieces'."
At the same time, some visionary, brand-conscious restaurants and food companies began to do their own brands and develop packaged products.
Born in 1989, "One Grain of Zhi", the 1990s began to burn "three heads and a palm". Since 2003, it has been vacuum-packed to make it easier for customers to carry. Since 2008, Yiruzhi has established its own production base and started to produce "Three Heads and a Palm" single product packaging, gift packaging and other products. "Now 'three heads and a palm' production of about 15 tons per month, than the start-up doubled several times, in addition to sales of products across the country, but also out of the country, into Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other countries market." Mao Xianlong said, the company's scale is still expanding, from a single "three heads and a palm" products to a variety of brine products. In this year's Zhejiang Provincial Agricultural Fair, Quzhou a grain of Zhi Food Co., Ltd. in the opening of the day before the merchants, two hours of sales reached more than 3,000 yuan, just to replenish the goods on several occasions, visible Quzhou, "three heads and a palm," the popularity of the degree.
Zhang Guoliang, who started from a stall on Xinqiao Street, not only has a restaurant today, but also has his sights set on a packaged product that can go into a supermarket. "Last year, we registered a trademark, began to produce rabbit head, duck head and other food products, and now the products in Jinhua and Quzhou local supermarkets have sales." Zhang Guoliang said.
Fountainhead, which originally focused on chicken products, solved the problem of bad packaging of fish heads, and last year began to combine "three heads and one palm" into the "Pin head on palm" brand, which sells hundreds of gift boxes in specialty stores every week. "Our rabbit head, duck head and duck palm continue the traditional brining process in Quzhou, and we have added 28 flavors of food and medicine herbs unique to Fountainhead." Zheng Huiwen, manager of the company's standardization department, said the "three heads and one palm" are usually sold in dipping soup, and the company's production process has made the packaged products closer to the freshly made ones in terms of taste. Fountainhead plans to open specialty stores in Quzhou major attractions in the future, and gradually to the development of foreign attractions.