hometown food
I lived in my grandmother's house in Nanhai for several years, and my grandmother's Cantonese food left me unforgettable memories. Now when I think of Guangdong, I think of my grandparents and mouth-watering Guangdong hometown dishes. So as soon as the winter vacation is over, I am anxious to go back to Nanhai, Guangdong with my parents to make up vegetables and peppers.
My grandparents came back like a hungry ghost. How many handfuls of raw rice can they eat? Without saying anything, I was very happy to go to the most lively Cantonese food city in Guangdong to help.
Guangdong is an authentic winter, suitable for eating spicy hot pot. Everyone sat around a table, which not only satisfied my thirst for food, but also satisfied my love for hometown celebrations. It's cold outside, dark and sparsely populated, but the restaurant is full of people and steaming. People like me who like to sip get excited as soon as they enter this eating environment. Look, the waitress is wearing a headscarf and carrying a bowl of dishes to welcome guests. The flame under the hot pot is red and straight, and the hot air on the hot pot is white and straight; And the smell of the whole store rushed into my nose, making my blood vessels swell. Popular, hot, fragrant, mixed with the hometown dialect "drink a little more" floated to my ear, making me a hungry and delicious ghost.
Cantonese pay attention to nutrition, but we Cantonese eat not only nutrition, but also atmosphere. Every dish is red pepper, which is festive and beautiful. It's so spicy that you shed tears and sweat, undress, speak from the bottom of your heart, and call friends, so that the distinctive personality of dare to love and hate can be vividly displayed at the dinner table. But I dare not eat too much pepper here.
There is a hot pot in the middle of our table, beside which are typical Cantonese dishes such as steamed black bean peppers, steamed fish heads with Chili sauce, and big fish and meat specially ordered for me. Pepper is timely and delicious. My hometown told me that spicy meat is purest when I don't eat it in the first month.
Among them, there are delicious Baiyun pig hands.
According to legend, there is a temple on Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou, and a monk likes to eat meat. One day, the elders in the temple went out and cooked pig's hands in a one-tile pot. Who is it?
Knowing that the elder had already come back, the monk quickly threw the pig's hand into a nearby stream for fear of punishment. The next day, a woodcutter passed by and picked it up.
Pig hands go home and add some sweet and sour. Found it delicious. It will be eaten by pig hands in the future. Method spread, known as Baiyun pig hand.
Soon, all the dishes were served, the hot pot was opened and the wine was served. Our relatives and friends gathered around a table and formally began to eat. "Come on, let's drink to Fengzi's return from his busy study life and the annual reunion!" The fog in the hot pot covered the fog in my eyes. This is a long-lost hometown meal. I know that when I go back to school, I can't eat my hometown food and miss my hometown people, I will recall the meal I once ate under the Guangdong sky for a long time, and I will cry because of the fragrance.
Other information:
Guangzhou: Guangzhou people love to eat and know how to eat, which is famous all over the world. It is exaggerated that people in Guangzhou eat everything except four-legged tables, so many kinds of materials, such as sparrows, partridges, pangolins, bats, seals, rats, cats, dogs, snakes, monkeys, turtles, etc. 1000, can become delicacies on the table, even.
Guangzhou is located in the subtropical zone, with a wide variety of tropical and subtropical fruits, and fresh fruits are on the market all year round, so it has the reputation of "the hometown of fruits". There are more than 500 kinds of fruits in Guangzhou, among which litchi, banana, papaya and pineapple are the most widely distributed, with the largest output and the best quality, and are known as the four famous fruits in Lingnan.
Guangzhou's cuisine has a long history and enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. Cantonese cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines in China, has become the most popular cuisine at home and abroad because of its unlimited materials, heavy quality and taste, fresh taste and endless changes. It consists of Guangzhou cuisine, Chaoshan cuisine and Dongjiang cuisine, with Guangzhou cuisine as the main body, which has the characteristics of rich selection of materials, fine production, light taste, great seasonal changes and emphasis on nutrition science. The scale of catering industry in Guangzhou is second to none in China.
2.
When it comes to Chongqing cuisine and Chengdu cuisine, mainlanders may not understand it. Aren't they all Sichuan dishes? In fact, the big ones look similar, and the varieties of dishes are similar. But in the eyes of the people in this province, it is very different. Chongqing's food is like Chongqing's geography, like mountains and rivers, and there is a tendency to devour everything. Chengdu cuisine, like the gurgling stream in front of the bamboo grove yard, has the beauty of a small jasper. This connotation makes Chengdu chefs and Chongqing chefs very different even if they cook the same dish.
Sichuan cuisine Sichuan cuisine is softer than the first gold medal of Sichuan cuisine, with moderate sugar, vinegar, pepper and noodle sauce, and the overall feeling is more palatable. Sichuan-style pork in Chongqing is a little crispy, but the seasoning is much tougher, and the overall feeling is more pleasant. However, this smell is generally not felt by outsiders.
Chongqing people like to be lively, and there is a lawless straightforward culture in it. Eating is unconventional, and chefs don't like to cook according to recipes, so they often indulge in all kinds of new dishes. These new dishes are generally created by Jianghu chefs without formal training.
Chengdu people like elegance in life, and there is a flowing petty bourgeoisie culture in it. Pay attention to the authenticity of the guests, and the chef dare not neglect them. A Chengdu chef is very particular about meat selection, slicing, ingredients and cooking time. Every restaurant wants to claim that its chef is a formal graduate of Sichuan University. Chengdu cuisine is more elegant, more refined and more refined.
If I invite a well-dressed friend, I will treat him to Chengdu cuisine. More tasteful If I invite my well-dressed friend, I invite him to have a special celebration. More delicious.
3.
Innovation of Chongqing Cuisine
Chongqing people unconditionally support innovative dishes. Since 1980s, a large number of Jianghu dishes have appeared in front of Chongqing people. Some of them have not withstood the test of Chongqing people and gradually disappeared. However, those who have withstood the test generally have to spread to Chengdu first, and then to the north and south of the river. For example, there are more than ten kinds of famous dishes in Chongqing.
Chongqing hotpot. Jianghu dishes with a long history are said to have been invented by Yangtze River stalkers, fishermen and porters. There are many kinds of hot pots, the most famous of which is Maodu hot pot, and then there are eel hot pot, seafood hot pot, fish head hot pot, mutton hot pot, dog meat hot pot, Yuanyang hot pot and so on.
Jiangjin fish with Chinese sauerkraut. Starting from the roadside food store in Zhu, Jiang Jinfu Town, Chongqing, it served the drivers coming and going, and then the drivers spread all over Chongqing. 1988 became popular. I am good at this dish.
Geleshan spicy chicken comes from Geleshan Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing. A roadside shop named Lin Zhongle was first introduced. 1990 became popular. Diners' pleasure is to search for crispy diced chicken as big as soybeans in a large pot of peppers. The shop is located in Geleshan, a forest park in Chongqing, near the famous official residence of Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing (it is said that Chongqing is not considered without going to the forest park, but the place is closed), and tourists and diners form the current spicy chicken street. I am good at this dish.
Beer duck. From a roadside food store 7 kilometers away from Nan 'an District, Chongqing. It is said that the inventor was inspired by Guizhou. 1992 became popular. The practice is to stew a duck with a bottle of beer, which is spicy and delicious. At its peak, the store used thousands of ducks a day, but now it is going downhill.
Spring chicken in Nanshan Town, Nan 'an District, Chongqing. 1993 became popular. The method adopted is to slaughter live chickens quickly and then burn them fiercely, and the time from slaughter to cooking should not exceed 5 minutes. This dish comes from Nanshan and is known as the "Corolla of Mountain City". So a spring chicken street was formed to hold the Spring Chicken Festival.
From Taian Valley, Taian Town, Tongnan County, Chongqing. 1994 became popular. It is also spread and popular by drivers. But this dish is more skillful and not easy to fake, so it is not as popular as other dishes. My wife is good at this dish.
Hotpot fish in Lianglu Town, Jiangbei District, Chongqing. At first, it was also aimed at drivers' friends. 1996 became popular. Hotpot fish is also very fierce. Fish is about 10 Jin. Cut the fat fish that is about to spill oil into palm-sized pieces. Burn a large wok like a pot and iron. After cooking, serve it in a big footbath, which is red and hot. A circle of people gathered around this big basin, fishing for fish with beer bottles. Cook some vegetables and tofu after eating, which is especially crisp and tidy.
Boiled fish. In fact, the predecessor of boiled fish is hot pot fish. After the hot pot fish spread, many restaurants in the city began to imitate it, but the kitchens of these restaurants could not produce a large iron pot, and the fire burned like iron. In addition, it is not convenient for diners to eat 10 Jin of fish. So make a small pot, a small fire, and a small fish. It is called boiled fish. But personally, I don't feel as happy as hot pot fish like wide soup, fierce fire and fat fish.
Spicy crab. This dish should have been invented by a restaurant in Chongqing. Because Jianghu restaurants don't involve high-end things like crabs. However, the spicy crab is still like Chun Xue in Chongqing, and it is not successful in the Jianghu. 1996 became popular.
Bullfrog with pickled peppers. 1996 became popular. First the bullfrog, then the pickled cuttlefish. And derived a variety of pickled pepper series. This dish was also handed down from the restaurant.
Stewed duck with sour radish. With very sour pickled radish, specially brewed, not in other provinces. It usually takes half a year to soak, and the longer the better. There are many varieties of this dish, such as sour cowpea stew, pickled mountain pepper stew, mutton stew, chicken stew and so on. 1996 became popular.
Crucian carp in the postal kiosk. From Youting Town, Dazu County, Chongqing. 1997 became popular. There are many seasonings, and the way to eat is exquisite.
Wujiang fish in Fuling area of Chongqing. Wujiang River runs through Fuling and Qianjiang in Chongqing, with many tributaries, which can produce all kinds of wild fresh fish. The practice of Wujiang fish is to pay attention to the freshness of fish, but they are generally farmed in cities, so cities generally use catfish (sticky fish) to make Wujiang fish. 1998 became popular.
Mao comes from Ciqikou Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing, a small town that preserves the ancient pier culture in Chongqing. Boil beef omasum, blood slices (eel) and duck blood tofu together. It was also spread by poor dockers. It's quite hot in recent years.
The above are some typical and popular innovative dishes. In addition, there are Laifeng Fish, Qiuxi Catfish, Chengkou Roasted Bacon, Qianjiang Sour Soup Fish (also available in Guizhou), Nanchuan Bamboo Shoot Meat, Wulong Mountain Scenic Resort Mushroom Roasted Pheasant, Bandit Chicken and so on.
Generally, after an innovative dish comes out, drivers and friends in the first few stores circulate first, then people are crowded and then swept the city like a gust of wind. You know, you have to taste it according to your impatience.
These dishes in Chongqing have some common characteristics, that is, they are generally made by Jianghu chefs, and the raw materials and production are more popular. Unlike the Zhangcha duck in Chengdu, which needs to be steamed and smoked several times, most people can't afford it and can't do it. The cooking methods of Chongqing cuisine are generally big oil, strong ingredients (some dishes have more peppers than vegetables), fire, cauldron and big basin, and now we pay attention to killing and cooking. In the way of eating, it is also rude. For example, spring chicken, chicken head, chicken neck and chicken liver are mixed into a big pot, and sometimes chicken feathers can be seen, which is more in line with Chongqing people's lawless psychology and rude and straightforward personality.
4.
Improvement of Chengdu Cuisine
Chengdu cuisine is far from innovation. It seems that Feng Fish Head is the most famous and popular dish in China, but it is actually an improvement of fish head hot pot. Therefore, there are very few popular dishes in Chengdu, and Chongqing cuisine often maintains a leading position. For example, boiled fish is popular in Beijing now, and even the small northeast restaurant downstairs has grandly launched their boiled fish. People think that boiled fish is as lethal as a strong flu.
However, Chengdu cuisine has been excavating Sichuan cuisine, an ancient treasure house, and constantly summing up and perfecting it. From material selection, cooking, service and management, all-round continuous improvement. This improvement is not the improvement of a chef's personal consciousness, but the continuous improvement based on the continuous accumulation of national consciousness.
Since the Han Dynasty, diners in Chengdu began to pay attention to the artistic conception, experience and perfection of diet. Li Bai (Jiangyou people, Jiangyou is 0/50 kilometers away from Chengdu/Kloc-and rarely travels to Chengdu) has a feeling of being in the city when he drinks the bright moon alone, which Chongqing people who like to drink heavily in the street will not have. Dongpo pork invented by Su Shi (Meishan, 80km south of Chengdu) needs to be simmered for three hours, and Chongqing people who like to eat it raw will not have the patience.
If you want to eat authentic Sichuan-style cooking, the restaurants in Chengdu are not too bad, and they are all consistent, and the cleanliness is one order of magnitude higher than that in Chongqing. But in Chongqing, there will be many tricks. Stir-fried pork, some restaurants in Chongqing put dried tofu, some put lettuce heads, and some put cabbage. Anyway, the chef can put whatever he likes. As for the choice of seasonings, it is even more varied. And the restaurants in Chengdu are all green garlic seedlings. If there are no green garlic seedlings, he will tell you that Sichuan pork can't be fried. This will surprise Chongqing people.
Chengdu people carefully summarize the frying method of each side dish. A chef in Chengdu can sum up a method of frying Sichuan-style pork. He can write 10,000 words, teach you for 30 days, and then pass it on from master to master. A Chongqing chef summed up the method of Sichuan-style fried pork, that is, three words: meat, pepper, watercress and everything else. You eat a dried spinach in a casual street shop in Chengdu. It's crisp and refreshing, with a long aftertaste. And leaving Chengdu and traveling all over the country, I can't eat such good cooking. Chengdu people say it is difficult to stir-fry green vegetables, but no one in Chongqing agrees, because they don't learn as much as Chengdu people. Beijing's cooking is not worth mentioning.
When I was still studying in Chengdu, I had to walk twice a week to eat boiled water in a small restaurant. The gables in the small restaurant are not big and there are not many people. A shy girl from western Sichuan was standing in the counter, and then she came up gently and asked her what she wanted. I usually want a rice, a bowl of rice, a bowl of bean curd, and a dish of pickles. Then the girl gently brings you food, and then gently walks away. Boiled in white, the meat and sprouts are carefully selected, not to mention the steaming temperature. Zhenzi rice (a method of steamed rice in Chengdu, which puts rice in wooden barrels and has a special flavor) is always warm and soft. And I enjoy myself quietly, and the feeling of leisure is very much drinking with a person like the moon. Similarly, eating in Chongqing, the pungent tension is like eating in prison.
I don't like crispy rice and sliced meat very much. Put the crispy rice and sliced meat together. What's to eat? But I am in Anren Town, Chengdu (that is, Liu's hometown, 60 kilometers away from Chengdu), where the crispy rice slices made by small restaurants are really perfect. The restaurants there are very small, and the storefronts of western Sichuan wooden houses next to the ancient bluestone slabs are very clean. The shopkeeper put the prepared raw materials on a big table, as fresh as if they were still growing in the field an hour ago. What do you want to eat? If you don't have a menu, just look at this case and choose. When they make crispy rice slices, they will carefully select Magnolia slices and mushrooms (mainly relying on these two things to taste) to make fresh soup. The cooking temperature of crispy rice and sliced meat is just right. After pouring the soup oil, after the roaring fire, the rest is the aroma of the house. On a rainy night, after riding for 60 kilometers, we enjoyed delicious crispy rice slices. This is really great and unforgettable. After that, I rode my bike three times in a row. It's a pity that such a famous dish tastes like chewing wax outside Chengdu. Because no one studies the hardness of rice crust, the tenderness of meat slices and the delicacy of soup oil as carefully as Chengdu people do. Even the way of serving plays a key role in the quality of crispy rice slices.
Therefore, compared with Chongqing people, Chengdu people are really a heaven and an underground. Every dish, Chengdu people should carefully summarize, what ingredients to choose, what pot to use, what fire to burn, how to set the plate, how to serve, how to set the table and so on. All these have been carefully and thoughtfully examined. On the other hand, no matter what dishes Chongqing people cook, they always bring you a big pot, and the waiter's thumb is soaked in the soup. Although generous, the hidden carelessness can be imagined.
In fact, the basis of Chengdu cuisine Excellence is summary. Therefore, the advantages of Chengdu cuisine are reflected in some home-cooked side dishes and snacks. Speaking of snacks in Chengdu, Chengdu people have really come to this after decades of improvement and summary. For example, the pork intestines powder in Qingshiqiao, the couple's lung slices in Tudor Street/Bell jiaozi, the dragon wonton soup in Chunxi Road and Mapo tofu were all improved after several generations of patient summary. Xue Tao's dried bean curd method of Jiuyanqiao is said to have been handed down by dissatisfied female poets in the Tang Dynasty, which is very suitable for vinegar girls who like to gnash their teeth. There are many kinds of snacks handed down from generation to generation in Chengdu. If you want to eat once, it is estimated that it will take 1 month. Chongqing snacks, on the other hand, are much inferior, that is, those things, which were brought by foreigners during the Anti-Japanese War, such as Lingtangyuan and Hangzhou steamed buns, are not as good as before and are gradually disappearing. Because the traditional method has been lost by the Chongqing people who took over. Chongqing people have no patience to sum up these experiences. It is said that Zhu, who created the fish with pickled vegetables, although his business has been booming for several years, is still guarding three old tile houses on his roadside, expecting customers who are not passionate to visit.