Each place has its own characteristics, and these dishes often contain some auspicious meanings. For example, in Suzhou, there must be green vegetables (called happy food), bean sprouts (called ruyi food) and celery (diligent) on the table. There must be a carp about 1 kg in southern Hunan, called "Tuannian Fish", and a pig elbow about 3 kg, called "Tuannian Elbow". There are two fish on the dining table in central and southern Anhui, and a complete carp (mandarin fish in most areas) can only be seen but not eaten, indicating that it has been more than one year; The other is silver carp, which is edible and symbolizes the prosperity of children and grandchildren. There are more interesting dishes in Qimen, a mountainous area in southern Anhui. The first course is "Zhonghe", which is made of tofu, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, shrimp skin, fresh meat and so on, which means "harmony makes money". There is a bowl of "chicken claw beans" on the dining table in Hefei, which means "make a fortune by grasping money". The housekeeper wants to eat a chicken leg, which is called "grasping the money claw", which means making a fortune in the coming year. The head family in Anqing wants to eat a bowl of noodles before meals, which is called "money standard". Nanchang area must eat fried rice cakes, braised fish, fried rice noodles, eight-treasure rice, and boiled soup, which in turn means that there is an increase every year, there are fish every year, and the crops are abundant, and the eight treasures become wealth and prosperity every year. If braised fish is cooked for mandarin fish, it means "wealth is more than enough". In some places in Zhejiang, there must be fish balls, which means "reunion" and herring, which means "clean and tidy, and it is more than enough to eat". On New Year's Eve in Shaoxing, there is a bowl of "frozen meat" with a white head on the surface, which means "missing". Most vegetables need a whole fish, but this fish can't move chopsticks. Because the fish agreed, some places simply put a woodcarving fish on the dish, which really became a decoration. In addition, in most areas south of the Yangtze River, there must be a vegetarian dish on the dining table, which is called "eight-treasure dish", that is, "Sichuan cuisine", which consists of eight ingredients: shredded dried vegetables, shredded carrots, shredded thousand sheets, shredded mustard, shredded mushrooms, shredded ginger, shredded pickles and sesame seeds, meaning "handed down from generation to generation". Cantonese people must have lettuce in every household during the Chinese New Year, and they are also very particular about New Year's Eve. For example, corn soup is called happiness from now on, and vegetables when roasting mushrooms in the north are called Yushu hanging money and so on. Sichuanese attach importance to the fish and rooster that people must eat on New Year's Eve in order to get "surplus" and "luck". Rooster has "kidney (testis)", and "kidney" and "surplus" are homophonic for "surplus" in Sichuan dialect. Because of its delicious and moral, rice cakes have become a must-have item during the New Year. Master Yuan, a famous Hong Kong chef specially hired by China World Hotel, has his specialty: the rice cake is a lifelike carp, made of selected glutinous rice flour, sugar, coconut juice, vegetable oil and cooked noodles. That flawless appearance, even in a beautiful box, makes people reluctant to move. For the guests who have lived in Beijing for a long time, bacon caviar white cake is a rare exotic food. It is different from the traditional sweet and greasy taste of northern rice cakes. The cake is steamed with diced caviar, sausage and dried rice mixed with Thai sticky rice flour. It can be served with sweet noodle sauce, which is salty and delicious and memorable. Other series of Nanpai cakes, such as fried dumplings, smiles and coconut milk cakes, are fresher than the snacks we usually eat and can quickly arouse people's appetite during festivals. Master Yuan also specially introduced the authentic way to eat rice cakes: first cut into pieces of the same size, then wrapped in a thin layer of egg liquid and fried with low fire. The rice cake made in this way is crisp and tender outside, delicate and sweet after sprinkled with sugar, and attractive in color, even picky diners can't help but eat more. If it is salty rice cake, you can also change the white sugar into sweet noodle sauce, which is also delicious. Jiaozi is the staple food on New Year's Eve, which is very popular in the Central Plains, but now it has spread all over the south of the Yangtze River. Jiaozi's homonym "Jiao Zi" means to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new at the turn of the year, so jiaozi on New Year's Eve is of great significance. The production in jiaozi is different from other places. Sichuanese like spicy food, while Inner Mongolians eat vermicelli soup jiaozi. Shandong people love vegetarian stuffing jiaozi, and Beijingers pack jiaozi, which is affordable. Jiaozi is a stuffing with more meat and less vegetables, and imported "meatballs"; Tianjin people like to mix jiaozi, sesame oil, soy sauce, egg liquid is complete, eat a delicious water; Northeasters are ingenious, chopping meat, soaking it in good soup, and wrapping it up after the minced meat absorbs enough soup, which has a special flavor. The custom of eating jiaozi means reunion, good luck and welcoming the New Year. Jiaozi is shaped like an ingot, so it means "turning money into treasure"; There is stuffing in jiaozi, which means that auspicious things are wrapped in dumpling stuffing, in order to pin the hope of good luck in the new year. In order to increase the festive atmosphere and fun, people in the past dynasties came up with many tricks on the stuffing of jiaozi on New Year's Eve. For example, if you put money in jiaozi, whoever can get the money will be lucky and make a fortune the next year; Putting sugar in jiaozi means that people who eat sugar will live a sweet life in the coming year; Others wrapped peanuts and used peanuts (also called longevity fruit) to wish people a long and healthy life.
What are the ��three old things�� in Nanchang��s food scene?