In the streets of Yantai, a port city, you will see such a stall: a small stove, a frying pan, several small dining tables and a few small mazars are all the possessions of this stall; The pot or barrel is filled with powder blocks made of sweet potato starch or mung bean starch, and there are several homemade seasonings on the small table, which is all the raw materials of this snack. When the breeze blows, the pot creaks and the air is filled with thick fragrance. This is Yantai's famous snack-Yantai braised pork.
As a kind of local snacks, the exact age of Yantai braised pork has not been verified. A more common legend is that 100 years ago, there was a brother named Duan in Yantai Street who processed fans. Once, the brothers just processed the raw materials of vermicelli into powder embryo, which happened to be rainy and rainy, and the processed semi-finished products would turn sour and waste. In desperation, the two brothers cut the powder embryo into pieces, fried it in a pot, and then added garlic and other seasonings to invite their neighbors to eat. I didn't expect it to be very popular. So the brothers in the store stopped being fans and simply changed to snacks in Zhajiang Noodles. People have names, and so do dishes. Later someone asked what this snack was called. Because this way of eating was created by the Mens brothers, and there are frying and stewing processes in the processing, a folk wise man said, let's call it braised pork. Yantai braised pork got its name from this.
Yantai braised pork comes from the folk and is deeply loved by Yantai people because of its unique flavor. However, due to simple raw materials and simple methods, it has been difficult to be elegant. Since the 1990s, shrewd businessmen have taken a fancy to the business opportunities of Yantai braised pot, and incorporated and reformed it. Yantai braised pot has become a famous dish at the banquet. But the raw materials are definitely not expensive, so there are three fresh braised pork, seafood braised pork and so on. Among them, shrimp, sea sausage (Yantai seafood specialty) and swan egg (a high-grade shellfish) are added to the stew, which is of course better than the original. Because of the addition of precious seafood, the price is naturally high, but it is getting farther and farther away from the public.
After transformation, Yantai stew is very popular in hotels and restaurants, but Yantai stew in the streets is still the favorite of Yantai people. Many Yantai people who went to other places as adults, whenever they think of their hometown, they will think of Yantai stew, which is unique to the streets and lanes, and think of eating stew with a small wire fork.