have you ever eaten delicious food, braised in brown sauce, steamed, fried or stewed? Have you ever eaten food fried with earth? Yes, you are not mistaken, it is fried with soil, no kidding.

In my hometown, there is such a kind of food fried from the soil, which is called "Fried Qi".

Having said that, I have to talk about my hometown first. Have you ever read the song "Birds in a Stream" written by the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei?

when people are idle, osmanthus flowers fall, and the night is quiet and the mountains are empty. When the moon comes out, it surprises the mountain birds, and when it sounds in the spring stream.

Yes, such a quiet and beautiful place described in the poem is located in my hometown-Yuanqu County, Shanxi Province.

Yuanqu County, also known as "Shun Township", is the hometown of Shun Di, next to the Yellow River and a distant county under Zhongtiao Mountain, which belongs to Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. Needless to say, the Yellow River has a long history; According to the data, the age of Zhongtiaoshan Mountain is similar to that of the earth, and its basement can be traced back to Archaean and Proterozoic geological age, which is more than 3 billion years ago. Geographically, Zhongtiaoshan Mountain is in the prime location of the origin of China civilization, and it is rich in copper resources. The first reading article in the national college entrance examination in 25 is about hometown. The archaeological discovery of Yuanqu "Century Shu Ape" is the earliest fossil of higher primates in the world, about 45 million years ago. In addition, there is the only primeval forest in North China-Lishan primeval forest in my hometown, which is known as the "Gene Bank of North China Animal and Plant Species".

Although there are many praiseworthy things in my hometown, they are all too grand and far away for the general public. In contrast, the food closely related to life is the most real and grounded, so it is undoubtedly necessary to say that it is fried.

Stir-fried Qi is a unique handmade pasta in Yuanqu, hometown. For example, Mailisu is granular in size, like a snack scattered among the people. It is brown in color, crisp in taste, invigorating the spleen and nourishing the stomach, mellow and delicious, delicious and durable. It is said that it has a cultural history of 5, years. According to legend, it was left by Shun Di in ancient times who traveled in Yuanqu Lishan to fry Qiwa.

when it comes to its uniqueness, the reason is that it is fried in soil. Of course, the soil mentioned here is definitely not ordinary soil, not the roadside. The soil that can be seen everywhere in the fields is a pollution-free Guanyin soil unique to my hometown. Because of its white color, it is commonly known as "white clay" and its soil quality is extremely dense. It is said that this kind of soil comes from Taihang Mountain, but I haven't verified it. As for whether it is right or not, I can't judge whether it is Taihang Mountain in the north of my hometown. I think it should be true.

in my hometown, every household will make this, and the materials needed are also home-cooked ingredients, and the method is not complicated.

raw materials and taste:

main raw materials: flour, eggs, pepper leaves, sesame seeds, edible oil, edible salt/sugar and clay.

traditional flavors: egg flavor, sesame flavor and spiced flavor (crisp taste of eggs, crisp taste of sesame and spiced flavor); Of course, you can also make different tastes by changing accessories according to your own preferences.

Production process:

1. White clay should be prepared in advance, which is in the form of a block, and it should be crushed and sieved to remove impurities;

2. Prepare the dough. When making white flour, add salt, sesame seeds, cooking oil, eggs, pepper leaves, etc., knead it like steamed bread noodles, and mix it with warm water (the practice in my hometown is to salt it in warm water and mix it with warm salt water, so that the salinity of dough will be uniform, and northerners are salty, which is generally salty);

3. After the dough is cooked, use a stick to make a cake with moderate thickness, cut it into long pieces, cut it into small pieces, and finally rub it into a round shape (of course, the shape and size can be changed according to your own preferences, because the round shape is easy to fry, and it is mostly round in my hometown);

4. soil burning process. The soil and noodles are ready, so it's time to burn the soil. In the yard, set up a large iron pot, pour clay into it, and burn it until it boils (firewood is usually used to make this in my hometown, and the incense comes from it). This process is the same as boiling water. The boiling soil bubbles like the boiling water. It feels amazing, isn't it a little unimaginable that the soil can still boil?

5. frying process. Pour the prepared small dough into the boiling soil, and after a while, stir it slowly with a shovel until it is cooked (analogy to cooking);

6. Finally, sift it out with a sieve, wipe the white clay attached to it with a clean rag and eat it.

In my memory, when I was a child, that is, in the early 199s, I used to do this at home. Needless to say, during the Chinese New Year, there was not much material, and these homemade foods were particularly popular. Every time we do this at home, we don't go out to play, just wait for our mother to do it well. After doing it well, our mother will share a little with her neighbors. I went out to play by myself, and my pockets were full of it. I shared it with my friends and everyone ate it together. I was very happy when I bit my teeth and made a rattling sound.

Because of its durability and easy storage, Fried Qi is most suitable for going out. Another important point is that it can cure the acclimatization by bringing water and soil from hometown. People in hometown will take a little when they go out, eat a little every day, and then change their stomachs safely. Some time ago, the popular TV series "Biography of Female Doctor and Ming Fei" didn't also talk about Guanyin soil, which was white and could cure diarrhea. At that time, I thought of this soil in my hometown when I watched it. I think it's also because of this kind of soil that Chao Qi treated the acclimatization.

I remember that when I went to Shanghai to study in university in 28, my mother prepared something for me. In fact, before I left my hometown, I didn't think it was very special at all, because it was very common in my hometown. When I brought it to my classmates from all corners of the country, they were all surprised. They didn't know there was anything fried from the soil to eat, and then they realized how special this kind of food was in their hometown. Later, when I graduated from work, I brought it to my colleagues, which was the same surprise. I remember a colleague from Datong, Shanxi, who said he never knew this. Some high school students studying in the province also said that they were surprised to bring food to their classmates, and many of their classmates were also from Shanxi, but they were all from other parts of Shanxi, so it can be seen that Chao Qi is unique. I once asked my mother who invented this, but my mother didn't know. Generally speaking, it was my ancestors.

Everything has two sides, and Chao Qi has not been spared. It is unique because it is fried with clay, but it is also limited. Many friends outside my hometown are not willing to eat it because it is made from soil, and because of regional differences, this specialty in my hometown has never opened its market.

With the continuous development of my hometown and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, people in my hometown are reluctant to do it now, and with the strong impact of modern rich materials, fried chicken is not as prosperous as before. Although it can be bought in many shops in the county now, it is also made by a small number of people. I wonder if it will decline until it disappears after some years. It is said that Chao Qi has been included in the first batch of traditional handicraft projects in the county-level intangible cultural heritage list and is protected by the government. This is a good thing, but does it also reflect its crisis?

As a native of Yuanqu Opera, his strength is extremely small. In fact, it seems unnecessary for him to occupy the market like this traditional food, but he just doesn't want it to be buried in time. Therefore, he wrote this article in a way he is good at to let more people know that there is such a traditional and special food in the food culture.