Many snacks in Chaoshan are not only loved by local people, but also popular in other places. Eight Chaoshan snacks have been awarded the title of "Chinese Famous Snacks" at the National Excellent Snacks Variety Evaluation Meeting-"Chinese Famous Snacks Recognition Meeting". Why are Chaoshan snacks so attractive? What are its characteristics? First, she was born in poverty and nature. Almost all of her works were created by the people and have been circulated among the people. This is determined by the fact that Chaoshan is located in the "corner of the country at the end of the province" in history, far from the national political center, and the commercial society was formed late and the social wealth was not high. A few Chaoshan snacks came by hand: Xitianxiang Oyster Baked, Goose Goose, Elder Sister's Pig's Foot Rice, and Mother's Palace Zongqiu. Which name is not simple and straightforward, and the local flavor is tangy. Looking at Chaoshan snacks, there are roughly three channels for their formation. 1. Tribute to the gods. The coastal climate in Chaoshan is hot and humid, which makes people easy to get sick. In addition, the risk of offshore operation is high, the labor and harvest are disproportionate, and there are many accidental factors. When people can't predict their own fate, they often pin their hopes on the blessing of the gods. In addition, in the era of material scarcity, people can also give themselves a reason to improve their lives with the activities of worshipping God. Therefore, the old Chaoshan folk custom has the characteristics of many seasons and many gods. Many Chaoshan snacks were originally offerings of worship, such as "Caitouguo" (meaning "colored head") and "Sweet Guo" in the Spring Festival, "Mianxian" (meaning "longevity") in Mazusheng (birthday), "Zongqiu" in the Dragon Boat Festival, "moon cake" in the Mid-Autumn Festival, etc. As the saying goes, "When the season is ripe, it is ripe. 2. Supplement snacks for dinner. Unlike Cantonese dim sum, these Chaoshan snacks are refreshments for the leisure class to pass the time, but snacks for the coolies in rural towns to satisfy their hunger. Hipsters are used to eating porridge, for one thing, there was not enough food earlier, and for another, the climate was natural. People who do rough work eat several bowls of porridge in the morning, and they can't stand a burst of sweat. Before dinner, they are hungry. At this time, it's like finding a savior to meet a food stall bearer who walks across the street. He can supplement his physical strength with a few cents to meet his temporary needs. At that time, there were grass cake (bean jelly), bean curd and various sweet soups to cool off the heat in summer. You don't need a spoon to eat hay. Pick up a shallow bowl, spin your mouth around the bowl and wipe your mouth with a cloth. Cool! In winter, there are hot beef ball soup, leeks and water chestnuts. Beef balls were originally Hakka snacks. After Shantou's opening, mountain products went abroad, and foreign goods entered the mountains. The Handi area in Shantou used to be the anchorage point for Hakka cargo ships. In the evening, there are Hakkas rowing boats to sell beef ball soup for the boss of the cargo ship as a snack. Later, beef balls were developed by Chaoshan people, and kway teow was added to the soup to become beef ball kway teow. Later, fish balls, shrimp balls, cuttlefish balls, pork balls and so on were cloned to create Chaoshan "meatball series". The "Xinxing Street Beef Ball" in "Chinese Famous Snacks" is made by Shantou people. Nowadays, when it comes to beef balls, everyone thinks it's Chao. In fact, it is the product of hipsters' utilitarianism, and the intelligence of hipsters is vividly displayed in a small ball. 3. Homemade Snacks The most delicious snacks are all kinds of home-made snacks made by Chaoshan clever wives to relieve their children's cravings. Such as pumpkin, autumn melon and tomato. In the old days, before the season came, children clamored for "cakes", and the daughter-in-law at home had to find some ways to send these greedy children away. Every household in Chaoshan rural area has plenty of sweet potato powder. Picking fruits and vegetables from their own fields, mixing them together and frying them in oil will become a snack with unique flavor. When I was young, I ate the "cold porridge" made by my grandmother with sweet potato powder mixed with cold porridge overnight. It was really unique. There is a snack called "Zhutou Zongzi", which is said to be an unintentional work of Chenghai people. In the early years, there was a custom of having a big pig race at the Lantern Festival in Chenghai rural areas. Every family had to slaughter pigs to worship their ancestors. One family sacrificed their ancestors, and the remaining pig heads could not be eaten for a while, so they chopped the pig's head meat, added seasoning and made it into "pig's head dumplings", which was particularly delicious. So it spread and became a flavor snack. Chaoshan snacks entered the market as commodities in the twenties and thirties of last century, which was the heyday of Shantou's commercial economy. At that time, small parks were crowded with shops, restaurants and hotels. As a kind of food, Chaoshan snacks could naturally find their place here, such as the time-honored Aixi dry noodles, fragrant snacks, Xitianxiang oyster sauce, and Laoma Palace dumplings, all of which entered the small parks at that time. Nowadays, when many overseas hipsters arrive in Shantou, the first thing they do is to go straight to the small park and have a delicious Chaoshan snack at the old snack bar, but they feel homesick. Chaoshan snacks are rooted in the people, and they are not attached to the official culture and the scholar-bureaucrat culture. Since their birth, they have been spread among the people with a natural posture and in line with the natural laws of natural selection. Therefore, we can now taste so many local snacks. Second, the materials are simple and the taste is unique. Cantonese dim sum is good at foreign flavor, such as cream buns, egg tarts and barbecued pork buns. Shanghai snacks are famous for seafood, such as crab roe soup packets and spring rolls with minced fish, while northern snacks are mainly pasta. Chaoshan snacks are nothing without rice. A word "Guo" in Chaoshan dialect summarizes the main raw materials of Chaoshan snacks. In Chaoshan dictionary, "Guo" is explained in this way, a kind of fruit with rice flour as skin and stuffing. The leek bun is called "no rice bun" because the skin is sweet potato powder and the stuffing is vegetables, which shows the position of rice in snacks. Earlier, the ancestors of Chaoshan moved south from the Central Plains to Chaoshan. According to the custom of ancestral home, pasta was used as fruit for ancestor worship, and wheat was not produced in the south, so rice could only be used as fruit. This is the origin of "Guo". Later, the raw materials and practices of sacrificial food were constantly innovated and developed, and people called all the sacrificial packages "Guo". Hipsters are really superb in using rice as snacks. It can be a kind of raw material that is both skin and stuffing-"rice wrapped in rice". If there is a snack called "Taoguo", glutinous rice flour is used as skin and glutinous rice is used as stuffing, which is not only boring, but also very fragrant and delicious. Chaoshan is rich in sweet potatoes, and this flat and cheap crop is also widely used in snacks. Sweet potato powder can be used as the skin of snacks, such as "crystal ball" with sweet and salty stuffing and "leek cake". It can also be mixed with fruits and steamed into "Ma Ling potato cake", "taro cake" and "horseshoe cake". It can also be made into "cake baked sweet potato", "sweet potato soup" and so on. Although sweet potato comes from humble origins, it is a big family in Chaoshan snacks. Different from Shanghai and other coastal areas, Chaoshan snacks use less seafood, and rare seafood such as lobster, shark's fin and crab. One of the reasons is that the climate in Chaoshan is hot and it is difficult to store seafood. In addition, it is also caused by its civilian characteristics. Oysters are abundant in all coastal areas, but only Chaoshan is the one who makes oysters into snacks-"Oyster Baked". Its practice is also very simple, that is, sweet potato powder and oyster are mixed together and fried into cakes, and duck eggs are poured on them, but the taste is extremely unique, crisp outside and soft inside, fragrant and tender, and it has become a famous snack. Looking at Chaoshan snacks, vegetarian food is the main food, but fish is rare. Its selection is simple, and most of them are based on common crops-rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables, but they have won people's favor with their unique pastoral flavor, and they are deeply loved by people from all walks of life because of their low price.