It's no exaggeration to say that I'm a foodie, because my eyes light up at the sight of delicious food, hehe, so I'm round and I can't slim down. People say I'm rich, whatever, as long as I'm healthy and happy, and my figure is good or bad, let it be.
when it comes to specialty snacks, I can't help but mention my hometown, a small county town in western Hunan, with a small place, simple folk customs and strong humanistic atmosphere. The market not far from the pier is very lively, often crowded, and the narrow streets are crowded with vendors. I like to go to the market with my mother best, because this day is more lively than usual and the goods are much richer than usual.
People here are ingenious and can come up with many ingenious recipes and make many amazing foods. The most famous is the local sour radish. Don't underestimate this humble snack. It has a unique taste and is very popular. Now it is even exported. Many people bought them for relatives and friends, and everyone praised them after tasting them.
Let me introduce a brief production method. The locally produced red radish is big and round. Choose a medium-sized radish, wash it, cut it into pieces, and put it in a jar and soak it in acid for ten days and a half months. Of course, this sour water is specially made, and crystal sugar has to be put in it. It tastes sour and sweet and crisp. I remember when my elder sister got married, my family bought a lot of these radishes to entertain guests, and they were all swept away. (article reading network: www.sanwen.net)
glutinous rice lotus root is a sweet food, and farmers there like to plant lotus roots in summer. There are many ways to eat lotus root. The familiar ways are fried lotus root slices, stewed pork ribs with lotus root and white sugar cold salad. We also have a way to eat it here, that is, cut the lotus root into pieces, clean it, put glutinous rice in the gap inside, and then fry it in an oil pan. The fried lotus root tastes good, fragrant and sweet, and it is very delicious.
When I was a child, my favorite breakfast snack was golden glutinous rice Zanba. The vendor cut the glutinous rice into triangles and fried it in an oil pan to make it golden yellow, and the whole street could smell the thick aroma. Fifty cents a piece, it's still hot in your hand, so you can't wait to take a bite, and it's very satisfying at the same time. Look at the golden crispy outside of this Zanba, the glutinous rice inside is sweet and soft, and the fragrance is always memorable in your mouth. Well, to tell you the truth, it's absolutely delicious.
children are greedy and want to eat when they get to the market, hehe. It's no wonder that I'm dazzled by so many delicious foods, and the greedy insects in my stomach are jumping around and restless. Jumping up and down for a long time, you are hungry. Let's have a bowl of rice tofu. Soft rice tofu and special Chili sauce, strong spicy taste stimulates the taste buds, and the appetite is wide open, and often a bowl is not enough.
You know, our Chili sauce is also a special food, and my mother is an expert at making Chili sauce. She will choose the best dried red pepper, wash it, dry it in the sun, heat it in oil, put it in a pot and fry it crispy, and keep the heat well, otherwise it will burn. The fried peppers are fished out and mashed with a wooden hammer in a pottery bowl, and garlic and ginger are added, so that the spicy sauce is particularly fragrant. Mashed Chili powder is put in a glass bottle and topped with some sesame oil. If it is preserved for a long time, it is a good seasoning when you want to eat it. The taste of cold salad depends on this Chili sauce.
During the Qingming Festival, people who visit graves will also make a special food for sacrifice. What is it? Artemisia, glutinous rice, of course. Speaking of this glutinous rice, because the process is troublesome and a special ingredient is needed, it can't be eaten at ordinary times, so it is a seasonal snack. In April and May, Artemisia annua can be seen everywhere in the fields, with a green color and a special smell of Artemisia annua. Pick up the basket, and you can pick up a basket in half an hour. After returning home, wash Artemisia herb, rub off the bitter water with salt water, add some salt, cook it with glutinous rice and chopped bacon. Wow, the cooked rice is shiny green, which is full of color, flavor and beauty. And it will give off a unique fragrance, because the ingredients inside are Artemisia, glutinous rice and bacon. Think about it, these three flavors are mixed, and I believe there are not many people in the world who don't like this delicious food.
During the Chinese New Year, northerners like to cook Laba porridge, while our southern town likes to make glutinous rice cakes. I live in menstruation in the mountains, and their family lives in a wooden diaojiao building, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, so it is very comfortable. During the Chinese New Year, there was a bumper harvest of glutinous rice in the field. To celebrate the good weather this year, everyone would cook the good glutinous rice, put it in a homemade stone mortar, and send more than a dozen strong laborers to mash the glutinous rice in turn. This is a hard work, and it takes a few hundred kilograms of glutinous rice to be mashed into a glutinous rice cake from early morning until dark.
I've had the privilege of seeing the process of smashing rice cake, and the scene is very spectacular. The man stripped off his coat, sweat streamed down his back, and the muscles on his arms swelled rhythmically, and the heat rose in the white fog in winter, like a statue of Hercules, which was more original and unrestrained than those bodybuilding coaches. Unfortunately, there was no camera at that time, otherwise some good photos could be taken.
The glutinous rice is pounded and made into round Ciba by hand. I tried to weigh it, and the average Ciba is four kilos. Of course, there is the biggest one. This kind of Ciba is bigger than ordinary Ciba, the size of a washbasin, with a hole in the middle. After drying, put it on the wall with a rope and cut it into pieces when you want to eat it. In addition to white rice, mung beans can also be added to make mung bean. Or add dried Artemisia annua to make Artemisia annua Ciba, which is very delicious. When eating, you can add lard to the cabbage and cook it, adding some salt; Those who like sweets can put sugar. You can also fry it in oil. The easiest way is to bake it directly on a charcoal fire and wrap it with pickles or sugar. The baking process is very interesting. Put it on a charcoal fire with a poker, and wait until it bulges in the middle and becomes a chubby fat man. At this time, it can be taken down and filled with various ingredients. It is delicious.
The round Ciba symbolizes good weather, abundant crops, good luck, delicious food and simple cooking, so this custom has been handed down. It is made of glutinous rice because it tastes good. Every year, menstruation sends dozens of Jin of Ciba to our family. When you don't eat it, just soak it in a basin with cold water, which can be preserved for a long time.
Leaving the familiar homeland, the familiar people, and the snacks and the big hometown flavor food, I suddenly realized that everything in my hometown is so kind and beautiful, so intriguing. Occasionally I met my hometown in my dream, and this feeling was as sweet as before, as if I had become that greedy little girl again.