One: Introduction:

In the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Wang Zhihe, a son from Xianyuan County, Anhui Province, went to Beijing to take the exam and failed, and returned home without any financial problems. The Wang family originally made tofu in Hukou. Wang Zhihe also knew this craft, so he stayed in Beijing to make a living by grinding tofu. One day, when the tofu was unsaleable and there was a lot of it in stock, Wang was afraid that the tofu would go bad and lose all his money, so he cut the tofu into small pieces, mixed with salt and spices, placed it in a jar, and sealed its mouth, thinking that this would make it more delicious. Come out fermented bean curd. Unexpectedly, after a few days, the jar opened, the fermented bean curd could not be made, and the bean curd stank to the sky. Wang Sheng tried it and found it was delicious. So the stinky tofu was tested and sold, and it was well received by customers. From then on, the stinky tofu became popular. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, stinky tofu had become so popular that even Empress Dowager Cixi was addicted to eating it.

Two: Types of stinky tofu:

There are many types of stinky tofu, and there is no necessary connection between them, so it is meaningless to trace its original location!

Changsha Fire Palace’s stinky dried seeds are the most famous among Hunan snacks. Smelly stinky tofu is actually fried stinky tofu. Because of its unique taste, it can only be favored by a few people.

The Fire Palace on Pozi Street in Changsha used to be a temple to worship Zhu Rong, the God of Fire (Chu people have the custom of worshiping fire), with a history of four hundred years. After several wars and repairs, it finally became a place where vendors and goons gathered, selling all kinds of Hunan snacks, a bit like the Dong'an Market in old Beijing. With the passage of time, one street here now covers a variety of Hunan dishes and snacks, becoming a must-visit place during a trip to Changsha.

The stinky dried seeds of Fire Palace are made from high-quality soybeans and then soaked in brine containing winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, koji wine, and Liuyang tempeh. White hairs will appear on the surface and the color will turn gray. , when you first smell the stench, fry it slowly in a pan until the color turns black and the surface swells. Then you can fish it out. The aroma will be tempting. Add garlic juice, chili pepper, and sesame oil to make it fragrant, crispy, and crispy on the outside. Tender stinky tofu.

The Beijing-style flavor is naturally the well-known Wang Zhihe stinky tofu. However, the stinky tofu in Beijing and the stinky dried tofu in the south are completely two different foods. Beijing's stinky tofu is a kind of fermented bean curd. It is eaten with steamed buns and flatbreads. It is a great accompaniment to food, but it must not be eaten in a frying pan. It is said that in the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Wang Zhihe, a high school student from Xianyuan County, Anhui Province, came to Beijing to take the exam. Chunwei was defeated in the imperial examination, and he had no money and moved to his hometown. He was trapped in the "Anhui Guild Hall" in Mutton Alley on Yanshou Temple Street outside Qianmen. Fortunately, there is always a way out, and the skill of making tofu passed down from his family allowed him to barely make a living. It's summer, and too much tofu is made. If it can't be sold, it will become moldy and go bad. He was thinking hard and suddenly remembered the method of making bean curd from tofu in his hometown. So the remaining tofu was cut into small pieces, layered in a jar, and salted. Unexpectedly, when the autumn breeze came, Wang Juren remembered the jar of pickled tofu and hurriedly opened the jar lid, and a stench came to him. The tofu has turned into a blue-gray color, but when you taste it, it has a unique taste, with a strange fragrance in the "stink". I gave it to my neighbors to taste, and everyone praised it. As a result, Wang Zhihe's stinky tofu gradually spread among the people. Wang Juren was frustrated in the examination room and failed in many tests, but his stinky tofu business was booming day by day. He simply gave up school and started business and opened "Wang Zhihe Nan Sauce Garden". By the end of the Qing Dynasty, stinky tofu had been listed as one of the imperial side dishes and was loved by the Queen Mother of the West. Because the name of stinky tofu sounded inelegant, the emperor named it "Qingfang". Once this stinky tofu was "used", its value immediately increased a hundred times, and the business prospered. As a result, Wang Zhihe's stinky tofu became a must-have snack in the capital.

Hubei's stinky tofu is black, overflowing with odor, and the smell is very strong when dipped in the unique pickled pepper seasoning.

Anhui stinky tofu, commonly known as "Dadai Stinky", was created by Wang Zhihe during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Kangxi was so full of praise after tasting it that he specially wrote "Qingfang: Two words given to Wang Zhihe" Since then, it has become famous at home and abroad. It is three-thirds of the size of Shaoxing's Shouqianzhang and Huainan's Shouxianggan. It is a combination of gray, blue and black on the outside and as white as jade on the inside. It smells stinky and is fragrant when eaten. It has a unique flavor. Due to the complicated production process of Dadaixiu, this snack can only be eaten by tourists who come to Huangshan. There are many snacks in Huangshan City. You can eat it at any stall.

Zhejiang's stinky tofu is yellow. This "three-flavor stinky tofu" does not mean that it has three flavors, but because its origin is in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. The stinky tofu from Zhejiang, a specialty snack from Lu Xun Sanwei Bookstore, sounds very fresh and looks very special, although it also smells a little bit spicy. It has a slight odor, but it's not pungent at all. The fried tofu has a golden skin with a dense layer of pores, as if it was fried with a layer of egg. Sweet and spicy pepper sauce.

Jiangsu stinky tofu - when it comes to food in Shaoxing, it seems that it is always inseparable from the smelly moldy pickled tofu, the clear and clear Jianhu water, and the otherworldly beauty of Xishi. It forms a sharp contrast. As a Shaoxing native, I always follow Lu Xun and Xu Wenchang as an example for this point, explaining that what I eat is stinky tofu and moldy tofu, but what comes out is a good article with a beautiful heart.

Stinky tofu is a compulsory course in Shaoxing cuisine, but it is also the most difficult for most outsiders. It is soaked in amaranth stem juice. It can be steamed or fried. The fried one is more common because it is convenient to eat. , the steamed version has more of a home-cooked taste, and it’s actually endlessly delicious if you taste it carefully. Those who like to eat will be moved by the smell, while those who don't like to eat will avoid it for fear of not getting there. Among them, the masters don’t need to add any seasonings to taste, and what they want is the original “stinky” taste. Nowadays, there is also stinky tofu in Hangzhou, and occasionally it can relieve lovesickness, but it is always not as delicious as the one in the small alleys in Shaoxing. The smiling old people guard the warm stoves, and the narrow alleys smell of the peace of age.

Jiangxi stinky tofu - the stinky tofu of Jingdezhen Sanlu Temple is a traditional Chinese tofu dish and a typical folk dish. Every place has its own flavor. However, in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, when people talk about stinky tofu, they usually think of the stinky tofu from Sanlu Temple.

There are two types of stinky tofu. One is dried tofu, which smells like stinky tofu but tastes delicious and can withstand chewing and savoring for a long time. In addition, there is another kind called salt water stinky tofu, which is also available in the market. Those are square tofu cubes wrapped in cloth. If there are not enough sold on the same day, they are steamed in a basket, then cooled and soaked in a special salt water made from snow water left in winter. Some are soaked in the pickle juice of pickled mustard. It won't take long for the tofu to be dyed with a layer of gray-green color, and then be fished out after being flavored. Wash it with cold water and eat it.

The Sanlv Temple stinky tofu sold in the market should be covered with fresh lotus leaves and placed in a basket for sale. You can buy it for eating, tea, wine, porridge, rice, snacks, cooking, etc. This is different from the stinky tofu in Xuzhou Bayiji, Jiangsu Province, which is rolled in pancakes and green onions. It is also different from the stinky tofu in Changsha Fire Palace, Hunan Province, which is deep-fried in hot oil, with a hole poked in the middle and served with spicy soy sauce. What's more, it is different from the stinky tofu in Bijie, Guizhou. The stinky tofu is roasted over charcoal fire until crispy and served with minced Sichuan peppercorns and fine salt.

The production of Sanlv Temple stinky tofu is very exquisite. Not only the dried tofu is refined, but the brine ingredients are also very particular. It requires raw materials such as alum, chicken soup, fresh lotus leaves, coarse salt, and cooked sesame seeds. The brine ingredients of Hunan Changsha stinky tofu are made of tempeh, soda ash, alum, shiitake mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, salt, Maotai liquor, etc. The brine ingredients of Shanghai stinky dried tofu are made from old golden cauliflower, old bamboo shoots, wild amaranth stems, ginger, pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, etc. The stinky dried tofu in Yiyang, Hunan has the most special brine ingredients. It is fermented with pickled vegetable water, fresh fish and shrimp, and then added with winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and white wine.

There is no record of when the stinky tofu in Sanlu Temple in Jingdezhen began. Stinky tofu in my country began in the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, various exquisite soy products had gradually increased. Judging from the uniform Ming Dynasty architecture in Sanlu Temple Street and the fact that most of the tofu makers are from Qingyang County, Jiuhua Mountain, Anhui Province, it is speculated that Sanlu Temple stinky tofu may have originated in the late Ming Dynasty, or at the latest the late Qing Dynasty, which is about a hundred years ago. History. There are several tofu shops on "Ming Street" which is not very long from Sanlu Temple. Almost everyone in Jingdezhen who is around forty years old knows the reputation of Sanlu Temple’s stinky tofu. Older people can still tell that Yue Fei, the famous anti-gold general, lived in Sanlu Temple in 1133 and was famous for eating the stinky tofu. Tofu is his greatest hobby, and there is an inscription on it through the ages. Based on this, it can be inferred that the tofu business in Sanlv Temple was very prosperous at that time.

Guizhou stinky tofu - Guizhou people's stinky tofu is not fried but boiled, which is really strange.

Yunnan stinky tofu - Chenggong stinky tofu is a popular specialty soybean product in Yunnan. The product in Chenggong County, Kunming City has the best quality and a long history. According to legend, Chenggong stinky tofu began during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty and was first invented by Wang Zhong from Qibuchang Village in the county. After Emperor Kangxi tasted it, he admired its delicious taste and listed it as one of the "Yushanfang" side dishes, and named it "Qingfang Stinky Tofu".

Chenggong stinky tofu is made from high-quality soybeans. The production process is relatively complex. The soybeans go through ten processes including screening, shelling, soaking, grinding, filtering, boiling, dotting, shaping, cutting, and fermentation. Chenggong stinky tofu has a soft texture and a unique aroma. The ancestors praised it and said: "The taste is more than beautiful, so don't pass it on to jade food." It not only has high nutritional value, but also has good medicinal value. Ancient medical books record that stinky tofu can replenish qi in the cold, harmonize the spleen and stomach, relieve distension and pain, clear away heat and dissipate blood, and reduce turbid qi in the large intestine. Those who eat it regularly can enhance their physical fitness and tone their skin.

There are many ways to eat stinky tofu. There are two main ways. One is to steam the tofu, which means rinsing the stinky tofu with water, placing it in a bowl, and adding cooking oil (preferably chicken or duck fat), Add salt and chili noodles and steam them in a pot. It will be delicious and tender. One is to eat it by roasting it, that is, cut the stinky tofu into small cubes, place it on an oiled iron curtain, and slowly grill it over a chestnut charcoal fire, turning it back and forth until both sides are golden brown. In another small bowl, add sweet soy sauce or salty soy sauce, marinated fermented bean curd juice, pepper sesame oil, garlic paste, and chili noodles to mix with the noodle seasoning, then add minced coriander or mint, and eat as a dip; or dip it in salt. It can also be eaten after mixing MSG, Sichuan pepper noodles, pepper noodles and chili noodles into dry powder. Usually they are cooked and eaten at the same time.