Every time I watch China on the Tip of the Tongue, I always have an impulse to jump on the screen and sweep away all those delicious foods.

whether it's a gluttonous feast or a street snack, after observing their production process and seeing the raw materials, ingredients, processing methods and introductions, my saliva will always come out unconsciously. Any ordinary snack has become a rare delicacy in the world under the vivid explanation of the commentator and the dynamic sense of the video. It seems that if you really eat a bowl of mala Tang, you can float to heaven, and if you drink a bowl of Hu Spicy Soup, you will be happy.

Although these snacks are everywhere, they are not from our hometown after all. There is also a snack in our hometown. Although it is unremarkable, thousands of people in Qian Qian rely on it to get rich. No matter where they are, it will always be rooted in our taste buds, which is the flavor of our dreams. If a food represents a place, it is a well-deserved spokesperson for our hometown.

Having said that, it's time to introduce the bright and fragrant old tofu!

Xiajin County, my hometown, is located in the northwest plain of Shandong Province, with Dezhou in the north, Liaocheng and Linqing in the south, Jinan in the east and Hebei Province across the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the west. It is a national high-quality cotton production base. The mass production and export of cotton not only enriched the local people, but also the processing and use of cottonseed oil enriched the diet of the local people. A bowl of delicious old tofu is inseparable from it.

Old bean curd is made from selected soybeans with full grains. The first step in making old bean curd is grinding beans.

Many bean curd shops soak beans in advance the day before in grinding bean curd, and strictly control the soaking time and quantity of beans. However, compared with this tedious method, in recent years, people have adopted a new method, that is, directly crushing beans into bean powder on the machine. The bean powder is more delicate than ground beans, and the made soybean milk tastes better. At the same time, it also reduces waste and greatly saves manpower and material resources. It must be said that it is an improvement in processing methods.

step two, boil soybean milk.

The predecessor of old tofu is soybean milk. After grinding good beans noodles, put the bean noodles into a container, add a proper amount of cold water, stir evenly, remove the impurities in the bean noodles that are not evenly ground, ensure that there are no bumps in the bean noodles, add hot water, and boil, so that the soybean milk is cooked.

step 3: order tofu.

the third and most critical step is to order tofu. After the soybean milk is boiled, pour it into an open basin, air it for more than ten minutes to a specified temperature, and then add the internal fat (similar to gypsum), which is a catalyst for turning soybean milk into tofu. The ratio of internal fat to soybean milk is about 25g per catty of soybean milk. After the internal fat is melted with warm water, it is poured into a sealed bucket with soybean milk. The internal fat is dissolved in soybean milk, and the soybean milk becomes tofu after about 15 minutes.

step 4: prepare the marinade.

a bowl of hot, fragrant old tofu is naturally inseparable from a good marinade. Generally, the marinades are: star anise, fennel, pepper, fragrant leaves, angelica dahurica, galangal, cardamom, etc. The marinade of old tofu is added to the old soup every day, and the raw materials in the marinade are fried to enhance the fragrance, so as to maximize the aroma of each ingredient. After the marinade is mixed, the whole production of old tofu is completed.

Look, the tofu is pure and flawless, even better than snowflakes. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the cleanest food in the world. The halogen seeds are fragrant and mellow, with the fragrance of medicinal materials and the unique mellow taste of sauce bone soup, which makes people memorable. Not to mention those seemingly insignificant bits of cottonseed oil, it is more like a stroke of genius. It not only has its own strong fragrance, but also maximizes the fragrance of tofu and the mellow flavor of halogen. Without it, it really can't be regarded as a complete old tofu!

The standard for Xiajin people to drink old tofu is a portion of tofu with an egg, and a few drops of cottonseed oil, coriander or leek to add flavor and freshness. Friends who like spicy food can also add some peppers according to their own tastes. Of course, some intimate stores will also prepare cottonseed oil and spicy oil in advance for customers to choose. An authentic old tofu, after drinking it, will always leave a fragrance on your lips and teeth, which makes people memorable and has to sigh the charm of food.

Old tofu is not only delicious, but also very affordable. A group of three friends and I went to dinner, drank tofu and ate eggs, which cost less than 11 yuan. Today, when prices are flying and eating a meal is often tens of hundreds, this price can be regarded as a clean stream. Moreover, if you tell your friends to eat and drink tofu, they won't feel neglected, because every wandering wanderer misses the taste of his hometown very much, and it will be a pity if he doesn't eat it when he comes back. Every once in a while, someone in my circle of friends will say with emotion, "I want to drink Xiajin's old tofu!" " Every wanderer who comes home can't wait to drink old tofu, and take photos and upload them to a circle of friends. There are pictures and truths, which attract a group of food lovers to envy.

over the years, I have drunk old tofu in many places, but I always feel that there is something missing from the old tofu in other places compared with my hometown. I used to drink old tofu when I was in school in Jinan. The old tofu was added with leek mud and little halogen, which always felt too sticky. After drinking old tofu in Shanghai, I felt it was too light; Old tofu in Beijing is also used to adding pickles to tofu. I always think that real old tofu should not be like this. And I don't know if it's because of my taste or something. I always feel that these kinds of old tofu are too weak, and the real authentic old tofu should not be like this. Compared with others, I still think that only the old tofu in my hometown is the most authentic in color, taste and ingredients.

Just as we always miss the taste of our mother, old tofu is the most common snack in our hometown of Qian Qian, and it is also the flavor of our hometown that we remember deeply, and it is the flavor of our hometown that we will feel warm no matter where we are or when we think about it. As long as I think of it, no matter where I am, my heart is with my hometown. Therefore, we drink not only old tofu, but also a complex.

in our opinion, it is a habit and tradition to drink a bowl of old tofu every time we go home, and this tradition and habit hides our love and yearning for our hometown and the deep homesickness that we can't shake away.

Whether it is cold or hot, old tofu, as one of the most popular foods, has accompanied Xiajin people year after year and brought countless warm memories to Xiajin people from generation to generation. May this evergreen tree in Xiajin catering industry stay young forever, shine brilliantly in the years to come, and be known and understood by more and more people.

I also hope that friends from all over the country can come to this warm town and taste the most authentic and delicious old tofu. I believe Xiajin's old tofu will not let you down!