What dishes does Lanzhou's "eight bowls" refer to?

bad meat in Lanzhou

bad meat is a special traditional dish, which is fat but not greasy, red as fire, and the more you chew it, the more delicious it is. Although bad meat is found in many places, bad meat in Lanzhou has its own taste of the old Lanzhou people.

It is said that people in Lanzhou eat bad meat in the New Year from the Ming Dynasty. King Ming Su and his family came to Lanzhou from Jiangsu. People in Jiangsu like to eat steamed meat with wine during the New Year, but there is no rice around Lanzhou, so naturally there is no wine. Therefore, in order to enjoy the taste of hometown, and more importantly, to express my thoughts about my hometown in the south during the Spring Festival, I made steamed meat with Lanzhou wine based on local materials. Over time, the bad meat in Lanzhou has been shaped into a combination of pork belly and tofu milk with the same effect as wine brewing.

Steamed crispy meat

Steamed in a steamer until the meat is soft, Huang Liang in color, salty and slightly spicy. Meat is fat but not greasy, tender but not creamy, which is one of the indispensable delicacies on the dinner table of Lanzhou people on holidays. Crispy meat is first fried at high temperature, and the crispy shell is wrapped with fresh and tender pork, with attractive color. After this process, it is steamed in a cage, and after retaining the attractive color, a soft glutinous rice is added.

Sweet and sour with sand

"Meat with sand" is cooked with pork or beef, bean paste, sugar, egg white, rose sugar, starch, lard, etc. After several processes, it tastes crisp outside and tender inside, and the meat is rotten and soft, sweet and delicious, which makes people drool. When cooking, heat the oil in the pan, put the sliced meat strips with sand into the oil pan and fry them into golden brown. The taste is tender and crisp. Then pour in the prepared sweet and sour juice, and a delicious sweet and sour sand will be served.

Steamed meatballs

Generally, meatballs are wrapped with minced meat, coriander and other ingredients (fish, beef and mutton are also useful) in dough, then the oil is boiled, the wrapped meatballs are fried in an oil pan for a period of time, and then they are taken out with a strainer and placed in a dry place to be cooled before being eaten. Steamed meatballs depend on the heat, not too bad, although they need to be melted in the mouth and chewed. The meatballs are fried to keep the delicious meat, and then steamed, and the taste is soft and waxy.

Braised pork elbow

Pork elbow is thick in skin, full of tendons, heavy in gum, and rich in lean meat. It is often cooked with skin, fat but not greasy. As an old Lanzhou native, it must be one of the delicacies on holidays. It is recorded in the Book of Songs that every Lunar New Year, the people drink "spring wine" and eat "big meals" to "bless" each other and make decorations to welcome the New Year. Eating elbows on New Year's Eve indicates that the fat pig arches and sends blessings home are auspicious.

braised pork with plum vegetables

braised pork with plum vegetables is generally fat but not greasy. It is characterized by bright red sauce, thick and delicious soup, smooth and mellow braised pork, soft and rotten food, and crisp plum vegetables, which are attractive in taste. Fresh plum vegetables are made by many processes, such as drying in the sun, selecting and salting. They are golden in color, fragrant, sweet and refreshing, not cold, not dry, not wet or hot, and have the effects of enhancing digestion, clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, resolving stagnation, invigorating stomach, reducing blood fat and lowering blood pressure.

Steamed spareribs

Steamed spareribs, the soup is delicious, the color is beautiful, the meat is less tender, but not too greasy. In addition to protein, fat and vitamins, ribs also contain a lot of calcium phosphate, collagen and bone mucin, which can provide calcium for children and the elderly. It can be said that ribs have high nutritional value and are suitable for all ages.

Eight-treasure rice

As one of the "Eight Bowls in Lanzhou", Lanzhou people used to call it "sweet rice", which is soft, waxy and sweet. Lanzhou people's sweet rice is made by steaming glutinous rice, honey, red dates, lotus seeds and candied fruit together, supplemented by white sugar and dried fruit. Nowadays, most families have no time to make their own sweet rice, but sweet rice is still an indispensable dish on the dinner table of Lanzhou people on holidays.