My home is in Taicang, which is located in Suzhou. It is a small town that I like very much. It is very comfortable.

When it comes to specialties, there are a few that I have to mention.

A century-old specialty - Taicang meat floss

According to "Taicang Prefecture Chronicle": "The method of making meat floss was created by Ni De, using pig, chicken, fish and shrimp meat. De After his death, his wife succeeded him

It tastes very good and can be stored for a long time. People from far and near are competing to buy it, and others can't match it."

Ni De, courtesy name Hongshun, was originally from Zhitang, Changshu. He was good at cooking. He moved to Taicang in the 10th year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1884). Because of his first-class cooking skills, he is often invited to cook by wealthy families in Taicang. One of its specialties is the five-spice braised pork, which is sweet but not greasy and melts in your mouth, so it is very popular among diners.

According to legend, once Lu Zengyang, the number one scholar in Taicang, entertained guests at his home and asked Ni De to serve. Ni was momentarily distracted and overcooked the five-spice braised pork

. Ni De saw that the soup was boiled dry, the fat and thin were separated and not lumpy. Because the banquet was impatient for the food to be served, Ni De had an idea and simply removed the bones and skin of the meat in the pot, and then repeatedly stir-fried it. After a trial and error, he actually created a golden, bright and delicious dish. Fluffy

A new, fluffy food. The guests had never seen or heard of this dish, and it had a unique flavor. They all asked for the name of the dish. Ni De, quick to wit, blurted out: "This is meat floss."

After the creation of meat floss, it became very popular and there were endless customers. Ni Desui opened Ni Hongshun meat floss shop next to Zhaozhong Temple in Taicang in 1886. Later, because Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu praised the meat floss, Taicang meat floss became an official gift

and became famous all over the world. Since then, Taicang meat floss has won dozens of gold medals and gold cups in China, becoming a famous local specialty of Taicang

Taicang meat floss is easy to digest, has low cholesterol, is sweet and salty, and is salty and fresh. The taste is crispy and soft, cottony but not greasy, and the lingering fragrance is long, so it is suitable for all ages. Not only has it become one of the regular cold dishes at banquets, but it has also become a good product for travel and leisure.

Many varieties of fish floss, chicken floss, shrimp floss, etc. have been developed. It is available in soft packaging, boxes, cans, and high-end gift packaging. Therefore, Taicang meat floss has become a good gift for people to visit relatives and friends during the holidays.

One of the four famous garlics - Taicang white garlic

Taicang white garlic is as famous as Shanghai Jiading white garlic, Shandong Cangshan white garlic and Xinjiang white garlic, and is also known as the four major white garlics in my country. .

Taicang white garlic was first cultivated in the Qing Dynasty. It is characterized by plump and firm garlic heads, large and well-proportioned garlic cloves, white color, and spicy taste. It is especially spicy and strong, making it the best white garlic.

Taicang white garlic is a kind of Venetian garlic, which is a high-quality garlic. It contains an appropriate amount of vitamin C, phosphorus, iron and rich calcium

, as well as sugar and protein. But this essential condiment in the home also has a variety of medical effects. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica

" believes that white garlic can promote gastrointestinal secretion, help digestion, and is diaphoretic and diuretic. It has a sterilizing and disinfecting effect and can be used to prevent and treat epidemics. Colds, Japanese encephalitis and other diseases. When you go out, eating it can also prevent diarrhea. According to research conducted by the scientific research department, white garlic also has the effect of preventing and treating cancer.

The best freshness-Taicang lees oil

Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Recipe" of the Qing Dynasty said: "The lees oil comes out of Taicang, and the older it gets, the better it gets." "Taicang Prefecture Chronicle" said that bad oil "has both color and taste, which is unparalleled in other cities."

The founder of Caoyou was Li Wujiang during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. He opened a number of soy sauce workshops and shops in Taicang City

and he always liked to study food seasonings.

Once, he mixed various spices with wine paddles and put them into a vat for storage. A few months later, he opened the vat and found that this liquid condiment had the characteristics of sauce color, bad aroma, and delicious taste. After receiving it as a gift from his family, After trying it, relatives and friends unanimously reported that the taste was excellent

so Li Wujiang chose a spice combination to improve it, and created a recipe that can remove fishy smell, remove odor, enhance freshness and fragrance, and open the door

The new condiment for increasing stomach food - bad oil.

According to records, the bad oil is made from Lao Yicheng’s secret recipe. After each addition, an appropriate amount of bad oil base, namely bad oil foot, is added.

Some people say that the secret of bad oil lies in its foundation, which is the essence accumulated over a hundred years. Without it, there would be no old and sincere bad oil.

Taicang lees oil was officially brewed and sold in 1816. Its reputation gradually spread and became an official gift. Because the Empress Dowager Cixi loved eating bad oil, she often sent people to Taicang to purchase it. Therefore, the old Yicheng bad oil shop in Taicang once had a gold-lettered signboard saying "Jincheng bad oil".

Taicang residue oil won medals and certificates at the first, second and third local product exhibitions held in Jiangsu Province in 1914, 1921 and 1925.

Participated in 1916 He won a super prize and a gold medal at the Panama International Games.

For more than a hundred years, Taicang Caoyou has become increasingly famous, selling well at home and abroad, and is deeply loved by gourmets.

——Shuangfeng Yao Chicken

Taicang’s Shuangfeng Yao Chicken is a famous local traditional food. This famous dish comes from Shuangfeng, a famous historical and cultural town with a history of 1,600 years.

It can be seen from local records: According to legend, in the sixth year of Xianhe in Jin Dynasty (331), the monk Zhidaolin dug the ground to build a temple and obtained two stone turtles

which later turned into two phoenixes and flew away. It was named Shuangfeng and is still used today.

Shuangfeng ancient town is known for its "confucian customs and etiquette". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many gardens and temples, and literati often loved to go to Shuangfeng for sightseeing and sightseeing. Gather for a drink. According to legend, during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Bo, who was known as "the most romantic talent in the south of the Yangtze River"

Hu and the great calligrapher Zhu Zhishan came to Shuangfeng to visit Zhou Yu'an, the local celebrity and the owner of the Bajiao Kingdom. The special family

receives guests with Shuangfeng chicken cooked with a secret recipe handed down from their ancestors. Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan are both well-known gourmets with extremely delicious tastes. It is difficult for them to praise food in general. Unexpectedly, after they tasted Shuangfeng Yao Chicken, they were impressed by its tender and crispy meat, Overwhelmed by the fragrant marinade, not too hard and not sour, and not too strong but not too light, my appetite was whetted and I was full of praise. After eating, I still felt the lingering fragrance in my teeth and endless aftertaste. Because the impression left by the two phoenixes was so beautiful, Tang Bohu wrote a poem with his help, including

" The scenery of the ten scenic spots is like Jiankang, and the products are rich and famous." However, the Shuangfeng Yao Chicken, which has been a delicacy in Jiangnan food for 500 years, has only been used as a small town famous food and traditional cooked food and has not been spread. Fortunately, this is the ancestral secret recipe for cooking Yao chicken. ,

Traditional craftsmanship has been passed down from generation to generation. According to the recollections of local elders, in the early days of Shuangfeng, almost every family in large households and even ordinary farmers had a pot that had been passed down from generation to generation. During the twelfth lunar month of winter and during the New Year and festivals, they would kill their own chickens alive. , drain the blood and remove the hair

, wash the internal organs, cook until half-cooked, cool slightly, then put it into a pot with old soup, and then add the fennel according to the secret recipe

A variety of condiments such as incense and pepper are simmered over a slow fire. When the pot is removed, the chicken skin is bright, plump and plump, and the aroma is refreshing, making people salivate.

Due to the simplicity and lack of business acumen of the local people in Shuangfeng, they never thought of developing and promoting this tradition.

Famous food continues to grow day after day, year after year. It is a pity that it has remained silent in the countryside for 500 years, with only a few locals enjoying its delicacy.

After the 1980s, the spring breeze of reform and opening up finally woke up the ancient Shuangfeng Town, and local people of insight began to realize that Shuangfeng Yao Chicken was a traditional product that could be developed and had a promising future. So we collected folk formulas from many sources, learned about traditional craftsmanship from many sources, and compared them repeatedly to select the best among the best, and established a set of optimal formulas. Later, we introduced advanced technology and registered the trademark "

"Spring Phoenix", in this ancient place of two phoenixes, another "Spring Phoenix" flew out in the early 1990s.