When it comes to Yunnan, the first thing many people think of is Dali, Yunnan. When it comes to Yunnan’s specialty food, it’s nothing more than rose cakes.
But today I want to tell you about a craft in Shiping Ancient City in Yunnan - tofu. This is different from the tofu you see. The tofu in Shiping Ancient City has their own unique craftsmanship.
When you walk into Shiping Ancient City, you can smell the fragrance. In fact, it is the fragrance of tofu.
For thousands of years, the love for tofu has become a genetic gene and has been passed down from generation to generation in the Shiping people.
Crush fresh tofu, add seasonings and roll into balls, then stew in clear soup.
The taste is delicate and smooth, and it melts in your mouth, and you can't even smack out the dregs! People who haven't returned home for a long time can come back to have an authentic tofu feast. What they eat is no longer just simple tofu, but also sustenance.
It is full of deep emotions! It is square and trembles when clamped on the chopsticks. After entering the mouth, it immediately entangles with the tongue and teeth tenaciously. It stays chewed for a long time and becomes more and more fragrant the more you chew it. It is not like the ordinary tofu that I used to eat.
The tongue becomes mud when flattened.
The most authentic thing is grilled tofu. The streets and alleys of Shiping are full of grilled tofu. There are all kinds of tofu and small wines. There is always one suitable for you! The most interesting thing is the business method: grill a bunch of them on the iron rack, and the diners gather around.
Sit around and eat whatever you want. The stall owner sitting in the back is guarding a pile of corn kernels or soybean kernels. If anyone eats the same, the stall owner will put one kernel aside to keep count. Just check it when you check out.
In Shiping, you can have a deep experience of "three Jinshi in five steps, two Hanlin in the opposite door". Most people have a patio, a handful of soybeans and a ladle of well water, which is the world-famous Yunnan Shiping tofu. It is so simple, but it hides a secret
, the secret lies in the well water.
Soybeans are available everywhere, but well water that can be used to make tofu is a special gift from God to Shiping.
More than 600 years ago, a girl made a small mistake and mixed well water with soy milk. She was surprised to find that the taste was a hundred times better than tofu made with brine.
The groundwater in Shiping contains a substance similar to gypsum. After the soy milk is poured into the well water, it will slowly solidify and turn into tofu.
Therefore, Shiping’s tofu can be made into tofu without “pointing”. Someone once used planes to transport Shiping’s well water to other places for testing, but after all the troubles, it still ended in failure.
Every fifth day, the newly awakened ancient city will be filled with smoke and a faint fragrance of beans. After selecting beans, grinding bean paste, removing bean shells, soaking bean paste, grinding beans, blanching, filtering, boiling soy milk, ordering tofu,
There are fourteen steps of filtering water, wrapping tofu, pressing tofu, applying salt, and scoring the tofu.
The production process of Shiping tofu still retains the traditional craftsmanship. There are no precise standards for each step, and it all relies on the experience of the masters passed down from generation to generation.
Especially when ordering tofu, the mixing ratio of fresh well water and old well water is different according to the thickness of each barrel of soy milk. How much well water is needed as coagulant in each barrel of soy milk also depends on the master's experience and knowledge of the formation of tofu.
Observation, every step of success comes from the inheritance of experience hundreds of years ago, and every tofu workshop is a living cultural heritage.
Spreading salt is the most aesthetic process in the process of making tofu. Once the tofu is squeezed and pressed, it is carried to the salt-spreading master. The salt-spreading master grabs a handful of salt and sprinkles it on the tofu and spreads it evenly. The whole process is like a dance.
, the master’s movements are very rhythmic.
The tofu is like a piece of cloth rolling up and down in the hands of the master. It is soft and elastic and will never break.
Finally, cut the tofu into eight pieces and leave the workshop to start a food tour across the country.
Shiping people often say that "eating meat is not as good as eating tofu." Shiping people can use them to make more than 200 dishes, creating a veritable tofu feast.
There are many exquisite dishes at the tofu banquet, but the best ones are the ones that are simply cooked.
Compared with the sumptuous tofu feast, the essence of Shiping tofu is even more vivid in the roasted tofu stalls that can be seen everywhere in the streets.
From morning to night, there is an endless stream of customers at the tofu stall. Shiping people eat breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and supper at the tofu stall.
Whenever Shiping people living outside feel homesick, their taste buds will naturally smell the aroma of various tofus. At this time, homesickness is like a small piece of tofu.
If this is your first time eating Shiping tofu, the people next to you will definitely remind you not to use chopsticks and that you must tear it with your hands to eat it authentically.