Hakka cuisine: Prosperity is gone, see the truth.
Hakka cuisine is famous for "no chicken is not clear, no meat is not fresh, no duck is not fragrant, and no soup is not strong". Eating Hakka food can make people taste its fresh and natural local flavor and ancient Hakka culture.
Hakka culture has a long history and is well known. Whether listening to the grand modern symphony or tasting Hakka dishes with strong ancient meanings, people can always feel the spirit and customs of Hakka culture.
Hakka cuisine Hakka people
The formation of Hakka cuisine flavor is inseparable from the formation of Hakka, so to say Hakka cuisine, we must first say Hakka. The so-called Hakkas are not a nation. According to historical records, Hakka ancestors were Han Chinese who moved southward on a large scale to avoid wars and natural disasters in the ancient Central Plains. After going through difficulties and obstacles, they moved in groups and villages in an organized way, and finally chose to live in the border area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi.
In order to distinguish themselves from the local aborigines, they call themselves Hakka, a word "Hakka", which shows their mentality of refusing to fully integrate into the local culture. Some immigrants live in a wide area, and the proportion of Hakkas and anti-Hakkas is relatively large, so the living customs are not easily assimilated by the locals, but assimilated by the local living customs, including those of many people who moved here from different regions. Therefore, the Hakka language still retains some ancient rhymes of the Central Plains, which is called "Hakka dialect". "Food is the most important thing for the people". Hakka dishes naturally retain the traditional customs and habits of the Central Plains Hakka people. The ancient Central Plains civilization has been passed down from generation to generation in diet, which can be seen from the cooking skills of Hakka dishes.
For example, the Hakka famous dish "Dongjiang meatballs" tastes soft and elastic. When making, it uses the method of "pounding treasure", mashing beef into sauce and cooking meatballs. The history of this method can be traced back to more than 2000 years ago. There are eight treasures listed in the Notes to the Book of Rites, and the fifth treasure is called "Daozhen"-"Take the meat of cows, sheep, elk, deer and ostriches and arm them (read chess pieces, side of the spine). If everything is like a cow, hit it opposite, remove its bait (tendon), cook it, remove its trembling and rub its meat. "
Of course, Hakkas not only inherited the tradition of their ancestral home, but also absorbed the dietary characteristics of many migratory places, and were better at integrating with the aborigines in the settlements and kneading into the strengths of many cuisines in the north and south. Open the menu of Hakka dishes, wuyue sweet and sour dishes, Bashu Huguang spicy dishes, Fujian and Guangdong sauerkraut. With the changes of the times, Hakka cuisine has been rich in development, but it is still simple and elegant. Today, the catering industry is increasingly pursuing simplicity, and Hakka cuisine is a wonderful flower.
Taste: salty, fat and fragrant.
The characteristics of Hakka cuisine can be summarized as "salty, fat and fragrant". The formation of these three characteristics is closely related to the living environment and living standards of Hakka ancestors. Cai Lin, a beautiful Hakka woman in Taiwan Province, once wrote that many Hakkas live in remote mountainous areas and live in poverty after moving south, so it is wise to add a lot of salt to non-staple food to reduce the consumption of non-staple food. In addition, salt is indispensable for heavy physical labor at high temperatures. This is the reason why the first characteristic is "salty"; In order to feel full on an empty stomach during heavy work, it is necessary to eat fatty food, which is the cause of the second characteristic "fat"; In order to adapt to the life of "escape" and vagrancy, Hakka people have cooked a lot of dry food, such as vegetables, meat and cakes. When these dry and easy-to-preserve foods are extracted, spicy spices are essential, which forms the third characteristic "fragrance".
From the characteristics of Hakka cuisine, it is not difficult to realize the spirit of Hakka people's strong ability to adapt to the environment, diligence, intelligence and frugality. Take rice, one of the staple foods of the early Hakkas, as an example. Rice is usually the raw material for blending wine. There are three ways to make rice into rice, namely, fishing rice, boring rice and steaming rice. Among them, the most popular is fishing for rice. Most people eat porridge all the year round, and the porridge cooked "blows away a layer of waves and drinks a lane". Rice soup can also be used to feed pigs and wash clothes, which is economical and practical. Today, well-managed Hakkas no longer need to drink this gruel with more than one meter of water, but their daily diet is still superficial and not luxurious.
Focus on welfare and health care.
When you taste Hakka food, you will feel the rich Shan Ye flavor and distinctive rural characteristics. Hakka dishes are mainly meat, with less aquatic products, and pay attention to wild, home and coarse seeds, that is, pollution-free "green food"; Pay attention to thick knives and large pieces, pay attention to firepower, be good at stewing, roasting, boiling and washing, especially casserole dishes, to avoid destroying food nutrition and fiber; Cooking pays attention to the original flavor, with little or no heavy seasoning, generally seasoned with raw onion and cooked garlic, which is light and delicious and conducive to digestion; Diet pays attention to harmonious collocation, regulates yin and yang with medicinal materials, and increases or decreases food varieties according to seasons, which is similar to the modern term "dietotherapy". All these reflect that in thousands of years of life practice, Hakka people pay attention to the use of scientific principles hidden in nature and are diligent in exploring ways of health preservation. For example, "steamed chicken with water", choose the chicken with Cordyceps granules raised at home or in the mountains, steam the whole chicken in a pot with water, tear it by hand or cut it into six pieces to eat while it is hot, which is very fresh and sweet. The data show that the amino acid content of this kind of chicken raised by indigenous method is 10 times higher than that raised by concentrated feed. Another example is "Five Fingers Peach Soup", which is made from a wild tree root and ribs with five fingers on the mountain. The taste of coconut milk is very attractive. It not only tastes delicious, but also has the effects of calming the liver, improving eyesight, nourishing yin and reducing fire. In the cold winter, Xiamen people who are used to tonic in winter may wish to go to Hakka restaurant to try braised dog meat pot. Dog meat is hot and delicious, and a pot of authentic Hakka rice wine can't be sweet or warm in your mouth.