Qinhuai snacks became famous in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Wu's "Scholars" has such a description:
Push a cup for a change. After lunch, Du ordered snacks, that is, lard dumpling bait, duck steamed stuffed bun, goose oil crisp and soft crispy, which were served plate by plate. Everyone ate it. It was rain-fed Lu 'an Maojian tea, each with a bowl.
Qinhuai is one of the producing areas and birthplaces of China Four Seasons Tea. With the emergence of various seasonal customs in history, Qinhuai's traditional seasonal cakes and tea leaves are updated from time to time, and various tea shops and vendors' snacks are lined up, forming a dining area with the oldest history and unique traditional characteristics in Southeast China.
Qinhuai's cakes have always been famous for their fine craftsmanship, beautiful shape, exquisite selection of materials, moderate oil and sugar and unique flavor. Since the Qing Dynasty, there are almost all kinds of cakes in Qinhuai, but the main flavor is Su Yang, followed by Muslim, Beijing, Nanjing, Guangdong and Western.
Suyang-style cakes have the flavor of Suzhou and Yangzhou cakes, while Suzhou-style cakes absorb the essence of Yangzhou cakes and represent the pastry making skills in Jiangnan area, so they are also called "South School" cakes.
There are many kinds of cakes in South China, and cakes and cakes occupy an important position. The cake is characterized by filling with sugar. Pine nuts, melon seeds, peach kernels, candied fruit, sesame seeds and sheep fat are widely used in material selection, supplemented by natural spices such as osmanthus flowers and roses. The finished product has sweet, soft, fat, waxy, loose, crisp, fragrant and crisp flavor characteristics.
The "Little Suzhou" and "Daoxiang Village" in Confucius Temple are all famous shops that operate Soviet-style cakes, and Yangzhou cakes are mostly operated in Qinhuai teahouse and restaurant.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, China people have the custom of eating moon cakes. The moon cakes in Qinhuai have a long-standing reputation and are famous for their exquisiteness and diversity.
Most of the moon cakes in Qinhuai are from Confucius Temple, and each store number is Guangbang, Subang and Tubang to attract customers. Their shapes, materials and production methods are different, but saccharin can't be used.
In terms of management style, the "three gangs" also have their own styles. Qinhuai Guangbang moon cakes mainly include ham, bacon, jujube paste and hibiscus flowers. Subang moon cake is characterized by crisp and sweet, sweet but not greasy; Qinhuai local moon cakes mainly include minced meat, five kernels and plain salt and pepper, and later, jujube paste, bean paste, sausage, ham and other varieties were added.
Crispy twist is a popular snack in Qinhuai area, with a long history and wide spread. Almost all of them are sold along the Qinhuai River or in the streets and alleys.
In the Song Dynasty, Gu Tao recorded seven wonders in Qing Louis:
There are seven unique skills in Jinling Scholar-bureaucrat's lair: physiognomy hall, wonton soup inkstone, cakes reflecting characters, rice wiping table, wet noodles knotting, vinegar persuading people, and cold chewing disturbing ten miles.
Limulus amebocyte lysate is chopped pickles, smooth and bright, which can show people's face; Chaos soup can be injected with ink; Pancakes are thin, tough and transparent, which can reflect the words on the back; Rice grains are oily and do not stick to the table; Noodles are soft and tough, and can be continuously "perforated and banded"; The mellow vinegar can replace wine, and the crispy twist of prickly heat can "disturb the people for ten miles", which shows how attractive its unique crispy taste is.
Qinhuai's sugar products can be said to be the symbol of China's traditional tea sugar spot. Sugar goods, also known as "South Sugar", have a long history and can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. China's sugar products have always been famous for their exquisite materials, fine technology and delicious taste. There are mainly two kinds of sugar stalls in Qinhuai, one is ten-view sugar goods; The second is to sing and sell pear toffee.
There are many varieties of Shijing sugar, the most common ones are diamond peanut crisp, sesame peanut candy, sliced peanut candy, peanut candy, Dong candy, sesame candy, rubber candy, crisp candy, maltose and various zongzi candy.
The pear paste sugar in Qinhuai Confucius Temple has a long reputation. Pear cream candy is square, semi-liquid, ready-made and sold. The stall owner is usually two people, one playing the accordion and the other singing pear cream sugar minor. This unique way of management has made pear paste sugar famous all over the world and passed down from generation to generation.
Every year on the fifteenth day of the first month, southerners have the custom of eating Yuanxiao. Since the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival in Qinhuai has been famous all over the country. There are not only Yuanxiao stalls everywhere, but also many Yuanxiao shops. Lantern Festival is rich in color and variety, and its meals are also varied, including cooking, frying and frying.
Qinhuai's salty food industry is unique, and there are countless salty food stalls. The most common salty foods are spiced eggs, fried salted eggs, beef offal soup, mutton soup, chicken and duck blood sausage soup, etc. Later, these special snacks developed into the "Eight Musts of Qinhuai" and became more famous.
Spiced eggs and old marinated bean curd are very particular. The tofu made by shelling and pasting is the best, and the paste should be just right. If it is too thick, it will be astringent. If it is too light, the bean curd will collapse and lack toughness after frying.
Fresh is the most important raw material for stewed tea eggs, and the most important thing is to use "firstborn eggs". After the eggs are cooked and shelled, scratch them a few times to make the taste thorough. Add the ingredients to the pot and cook with slow fire.
Beef offal soup and mutton soup in Qinhuai have a unique flavor, and are mostly supplied in winter, with good quality and low price. There are livers, hearts and bellies of cattle in beef offal soup, and lamb chops and radish balls in mutton soup. Eating these two foods in winter can relieve hunger and enhance the ability to resist the cold. Qinhuai people especially like to eat.
Qinhuai's chicken and duck blood sausage soup is very famous. Cut the whole piece of chicken and duck blood into half a centimeter square, stew the duck's intestine, heart and liver with the soup, then chop it up and mix in the chicken and duck blood clots. After cooking, the soup is crystal clear, tender and crisp.
In Qinhuai braised dishes, there is a famous duck gizzard, which has the reputation of "the immortal cooks". Nanjing is rich in Nanjing salted duck and salted duck, so there are a lot of duck gizzards.
The making of duck gizzards is not complicated. Cut and cleaned fresh duck gizzards are marinated in a jar for one day and night, and then taken out of the jar. Then they are strung into 10 pieces with fine hemp rope, exposed to the sun for three or four days, and crushed by hand one by one every day until the bottom plate of duck gizzards is blue, clean and bright-colored, and then collected indoors to dry.
The quality of duck gizzards is the best around the twelfth lunar month, which can be preserved for more than half a year without changing its true taste.
Besides general curing, there are many kinds of duck gizzards. Among the pickled and braised dishes shops in Qinhuai, orchid duck gizzards, phoenix duck gizzards and pineapple duck gizzards are the best and attractive.
The production method of Qinhuai duck gizzards is to draw a sheet pattern on the back of selected high-quality duck gizzards with a knife, and then marinate them with old bittern prepared with various seasonings. Chicken-tailed duck gizzards must be added with spices such as Sichuan pepper and spicy taste.
The finished product has the flavor of Sichuan cuisine, and then it is shaped, air-dried and smeared with sesame oil. The appearance is very similar to orchids and wind tails, and it is black and shiny, with a fragrant smell. Slice when eating, steam in a bowl 15 to 20 minutes, or cut after cooking. Delicious and meaningful, it is a good accompaniment.
Pineapple duck gizzards are smoked and roasted. Draw a cross pattern on the back of high-quality fresh gizzards with a knife, dip it in the adjusted marinade, hook it with a hook, smoke and bake it again, and repeat it several times.
Duck gizzards are shrunk, shaped like pineapples, wrapped in marinade, like large crystal grapes, salty and sweet, and full of flavor.
The roasted seeds and nuts in Qinhuai are also unique traditional foods with various colors, including spiced beans, cinnamon beans, fried broad beans and flavor beans. Peanut is divided into five flavors, salt and pepper, rose, sugar coating and so on; There are black melon seeds, white melon seeds and sunflower seeds.
The roasted seeds and nuts in the Confucius Temple in Qinhuai have become a kind of tea that people can't live without in their leisure time. Every Spring Festival or festive day, Qinhuai people will come here to buy.