Guangxi Guilin rice noodles, a famous snack in China, has a history of more than 300 years. Its production method and technique are very unique, and the finished product is complete in color, aroma and taste. It is a unique snack in Guilin. In Guilin, no matter it is morning or night, when you walk through the streets and alleys, waves of rice noodles will hit you. Whether they are locals or outsiders working or traveling in Guilin, they will be entangled in the rice noodles one after another, creating an unstoppable appetite. There is almost no man, woman, or child in Guilin who does not eat rice noodles for a day. Guilin rice noodles are the leader in Guilin culture. Do you know the history and production of Guilin rice noodles? If you don’t understand, just follow my steps and find out!
1. Lingqu and Rice Noodles
After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he then launched a war to unify southern China (Baiyue). In the mountainous south, transportation was extremely difficult. The grain and grass from the rear could not be supplied to the front line normally, so the Qin army had to collect grain on the spot. However, most of the Qin army were from the north and usually relied on wheat flour as their staple food. When they went to the south to fight, they were not used to eating rice, which caused many soldiers to be acclimatized and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. The combat effectiveness of the Qin army was seriously reduced for a time, which directly affected the unification of the country. The success or failure of the war. So solving the food problem became a top priority for a while.
How to transform rice into wheat noodles so that the soldiers of the Qin army can accept it? Shi Lu gave the task to the cooks in the Qin army to complete. According to the principle of making Northwest Ramen, the cook first swells the rice, grinds it into rice pulp, drains the water, and kneads it into a dough. Then the dough is steamed, and finally the vermicelli is pulled out and placed directly into a pot of boiling water to cook. The soldiers regained their strength immediately after eating it, and the fighting increased greatly, and finally the south was unified. Shi'an County (the predecessor of Guilin City) was founded in the sixth year of Yuanding of the Han Dynasty. A large number of northern immigrants moved to Guilin, including descendants of many historical celebrities such as Zhuge Liang, Han Xin, Tao Yuanming, Zhou Dunyi, Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhu Yuanzhang, etc. These northern immigrants came to Guilin , called rice noodles "rice noodles", and this name has continued to this day.
Therefore, Guilin rice noodles have been around since the Qin Dynasty. In other words, Guilin people have been eating rice noodles for more than 2,200 years.
2. The production technology of ancient Guilin rice noodles
The production technology of rice noodles, rice flowers and other foods is derived from the brewing technology of the Qin Dynasty.
The earliest rice in Xing'an appeared in the Neolithic Age more than 6,000 years ago. The invention of rice noodles is inseparable from the technology of brewing rice wine. Duihuajiu (Rongjiang Sanhuajiu) is a Xiaoqu-flavored rice wine brewed by the craftsmen who built the Lingqu Canal using the Qin Dynasty's "benqu method for brewing spring wine" technology.
The prevalence of wine culture in the Qin Dynasty led to the development of the food processing industry. Many wine-making craftsmen followed the Qin army southward to Lingnan. Bring advanced brewing technology to Lingqu. The Qin people always left a lot of raw materials when brewing Duihua wine, and the process of processing these raw materials gradually evolved into the process of making rice noodles. Every time after brewing wine, there are leftovers. Craftsmen heat these remaining raw materials (called "feed") with seasonings and boil them until soft before eating. It is more delicious than eating pure rice, and the use of feed becomes larger. got up. The Qi Min Yaoshu "Food Rice" chapter introduces, "Use fragrant paste and warm water, soak for a while, use your hands to move the lumps, stop for a while, and then strengthen." That is to say, use a kind of seasoning called fragrant paste. Add warm water to soak the rice balls for a period of time, then knead the rice balls with your hands to prevent them from forming clumps. After leaving them for a while, put the rice paste into the jar, and it will become the rice paste for making rice noodles.
So, how to process rice milk into rice flour? The first tools used by the Qin people were ox horns. Cut a piece of horn, about the size of a spoon, and make four or five holes just big enough to accommodate the leek leaves. Then take two pieces of newly woven white silk, make holes according to the size of the horn piece, and sew the horn piece together to make a round funnel. Put the prepared rice flour slurry in a silk bag, hold the slurry bag on top of the boiling water pot, and let the slurry form into vermicelli shape and leak into the boiling water through the holes of the horn slices. After cooking, take it out and turn it into a dish. Pancake-shaped rice noodles. If you want to make cut noodles, put a copper basin on the boiling water pot, scoop the prepared rice milk into the copper basin and form it into pieces, then pour it into the boiling water and cook it, then take it out and make it into cut noodles. Beef horn slices were the first main tool used to make rice noodles.
After rice noodles were invented by brewing craftsmen, they attracted attention among the migrant workers of the Qin Army who built the Ling Canal. The migrant workers were not used to eating rough red rice. Now that rice noodles are available, they can A tempting new addition to a very dull recipe. In addition, in order to make it easier to carry around, a method was also invented to make dry rice noodles from rice noodles: dry the re-distilled rice, mash it and sieve it finely, steam and pound red dates into juice, mix it into the dry rice powder, and make japonica rice and dried dates. Rice noodles, using the same processing technology, they also process glutinous rice into rice noodles, fried "Luan Zhi", "Juzhuang" and other foods. The folk processing method of rice crackers in Xing'an still follows the manual processing method of the Qin Dynasty. Because rice crackers are not widely used, people do not pay attention to its processing methods. Therefore, the processing method of rice crackers has not changed for thousands of years and has been followed since ancient times. . Rice noodles are different. As people's demand for it increases day by day, people are constantly making fuss about how to batch process rice noodles. For example, since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the processing of rice noodles has evolved from manual processing to making with simple wooden tools. Then it developed to modern semi-mechanized and mechanized mass production, which basically met the needs of different groups of people at different times.