Text: Wei Shuihua Zou Tienyi

Header photo: Pixabay

The peoples of East and South Asia have a lot of historical ****iness.

For example, both have a history of not eating beef.

While the reasons for not eating beef vary, whether it's Japan's ban on meat stemming from imperial power or India's religious origins of the cow as a deity, it's essentially the same attribution as the Chinese for not eating plowing oxen as a means of production.

Yes, the Chinese don't believe in gods or imperial power in their bones, which is why the ancient Chinese decree banning beef explains the reasoning clearly and transparently from the start.

The flip side of the coin is that something as delicious as beef was never really cut off in a country as food-loving as China. While slaughtering old, sick and disabled cattle has always been a legitimate business, in a time when there was no traceability system for ingredients, there was no way to prove the origin of beef after it became cooked on the plate. The "Water Margin" in the green man "two pounds of beef, a pot of good wine", quite representative of the ancient Chinese people wandering on the edge of the imperial law of the bottom of the real life.

Likewise, for a long time in ancient China, wheat products were not regarded as good for the hall.

Shuang Ci, a scholar of the Western Jin Dynasty, wrote a piece called "Cake Fugu," which lists many noodle dishes, saying: in spring, when it's not too cold or too hot, it's good to eat "man-tou" (steamed buns); in summer, when it's very hot, it's good to eat "thin strong" (probably cold noodle skin); and in fall, when it's cooled down, it's best to eat "qi jiang," which is a kind of "hot" noodle skin. In the fall, when it cools down, it is best to eat "Qi ulcer" (flour cake); in the winter, when it is freezing cold, it is best to eat "soup cake" (noodle sheet). The best noodle dish is "jungwan" (soup dumplings), which is good all year round.

Some of these noodle dishes came from faraway places, while others were developed spontaneously from the lower strata of society, but in any case, they had nothing to do with the great traditions.

So the encounter between beef and noodles naturally carries a recklessness that originated in the jianghu, and it unites the clamor of the marketplace with the smoke and fire of the earth. In the genealogy of Chinese cuisine, if the swordfish, anchovies, lake crabs and other freshwater fish, on behalf of the elite class of the tongue aesthetic, is the literati praise of the elegant food; then beef noodles, is the civilian class of the most exuberant vitality, the most reflective of the regional scenery of the spring grass.

No:1?One

From a macro point of view, beef noodle is not a native Chinese food, today we eat beef noodle, roughly there are two major streams of western food eastward, and the sea imported.

Unlike the Chinese, who are accustomed to separate meals at formal banquets. Much of the Central Asian diet consists of staples and side dishes packed together: a variety of grilled meats, sauces and vegetables are served on naan-lined plates, or sautéed saffron, onions, chicken and long-grain rice are served in bowls....... What would seem to the Chinese to be a poorly sold, mixed bag of fish and what could only serve as a proletariat's sustenance is the upper echelons of Islamic society. of Islamic society.

From the Han Dynasty onwards, these Western ways of eating, as well as wheat, which is native to Central Asia, began to be introduced to the Central Plains one after another and influenced the diets of people in the central and western regions from the bottom up. The pasta culture of the Yellow River basin and the custom of using cattle and sheep as the main meat in the Central Plains gradually took shape.

The court of the Eastern Han Dynasty already had a "soup officer" who specialized in making soup cakes. Cao Pi, the Emperor of Wei, once suspected that He Yan, whose face was as white as jade, had applied powder on his face. So, Emperor Wen summoned He Yan to the palace and rewarded him with a bowl of soup cake. Only after watching He Yan sweat profusely as he ate, and his face turned from white to red to white, did he believe that He Yan was really white.

This kind of western food eastward, in the Tang Dynasty reached its peak. Li Shimin's reputation as the "Heavenly Khan" and the Tang Dynasty's inclusive and open national policy brought a large number of Central Asians, including the poet Li Bai, to Changan, the centerpiece of the Tang Empire, via the Hexi Corridor, and after a stopover in Tianshui and Lanzhou.

These Central Asians brought with them a diet of beef and mutton boiled in white water, as well as a wide variety of noodle dishes. Soon, the Chinese, who were creative with their food, modified the Central Asian way of eating pasta and noodles cooked in beef and mutton broths, resulting in long, thin, more flavorful strips of pasta - what became known as noodles.

In the Northern Song dynasty's Gao Cheng's "The Chronicle of Things," it is mentioned, "In the Wei and Jin dynasties, the world still ate soup cakes, and today's Suo cakes are also." Suo, which means strip in Chinese, is probably the earliest documented noodle.

Coincidentally, almost contemporaneously, on the way for wheat to spread further west, the Italians invented Anclle Hair (angel hair), the thin Italian pasta we later ate.

With the same strips of wheat and the same easy-to-flavor characteristics, it's clear that people who love food often share a strikingly similar aesthetic.

No:2?II

After the Ming Dynasty, the crop distribution of rice in the south and wheat in the north had been fully formed, and the structure of "rice in the south and noodles in the north" became more and more solidified. At the same time, with the circulation of noodles in the country, the word "noodles" is increasingly becoming a synonym for noodles, rather than its original meaning, wheat flour.

For the South, which was rich in literati, noodles were reduced to a mood of embellishment rather than a prop to fill the stomach, so the side dishes of noodles also endeavored to rely on aquatic products and fresh vegetables that did not fill the stomach. Li Yu described with interest his dried fish, shrimp, fresh bamboo shoots, sesame seeds, pepper, etc. to do the "eight treasures of the noodles", Yuan Mei has also talked about his chicken soup, eel, shrimp juice and mushroom juice to do a little noodle.

The Central Plains and the Hexi Corridor still retain the custom of using beef and mutton soup with noodles to fill the stomach. The difference is that when lamb noodles, represented by Henan chow mein, were popular, beef noodles existed only in the unknown dark side of the country because the state explicitly banned the slaughter of plowing cows, as well as in the Muslim diet represented by the Hui people.

In 1840, the British opened the gates of the Qing Dynasty with the Opium War; ten years later, the Americans opened the gates of Japan with the Black Ship incident. For the first time, the peoples of East Asia discovered that beef, which had been regarded as taboo for millennia, was actually a nutrient for the Europeans to strengthen their bodies.

But the national character, once again, the two countries in the history of beef noodles on the parting of the ways: the Japanese people to implement a total westernization, the Meiji Emperor took the lead in eating beef, drinking milk, to enhance physical fitness. The subsequent century-long process also resulted in the breeding of Wagyu beef, which is extremely high in intermuscular fat. Also influenced by Chinese noodles, Japanese ramen based on bone broth was invented.

But the Chinese, with their philosophy of "taking the best and removing the dross," were shy about eating beef. More than half a century after the Opium War, signs for beef noodles in clear soup appeared on the streets of Lanzhou.

This was probably the first time in the thousands of years since the Chinese secretly ate beef that the name of the beef noodle dish was publicly displayed in the downtown area in a dignified manner.

No:3?three

The Han Chinese have never been a nation of latecomers, and beef noodles are a prime example.

Since the first bowl of beef noodles in Lanzhou became a famous snack that was passed down by word of mouth and celebrated in articles written by the elite class of literati, represented by Tang Lusun, local beef noodles have been made in various places based on local cooking techniques and dietary tastes.

What's more interesting is that these distinctive beef noodles, for a variety of reasons, have been "sold domestically and exported" to our neighbors and the world.

In the 1940s, when the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam was overthrown, the people began to consume beef in the imperial capital Hue out of rebellion against the feudal dynasty. Immigrants from China's Guangxi and Guizhou regions brought with them the art of making beef noodles and vermicelli, and the combination of the two led to the invention of Bun bo Hue, which the Vietnamese consider to be their national specialty.

In the 1970s, Chongqing expatriate Li Beiqi opened a chain of beef noodle restaurants in California under the name "Beef Noodle King," by far the most successful Chinese food chain in the U.S. outside of Panda Express. And compared to the strange taste of the left Zongtang chicken, stir-fried minced pork, beef noodles are considered to be the most common in the United States can eat, one of the most authentic Chinese food. So much so that later, "California Mr. Lee Beef Noodle" actually have the courage to return to China, in the north and south of Guangzhou to open branches, can be called the flag of the chain of Chinese food.

In the late 70s, Japanese companies and Taiwanese companies joint venture, modeled on the Nissin company's instant noodles products, Taiwan beef noodles as the base flavor, adding Japanese ramen side dishes, created the "Master Kong" brand and its first generation of Netflix instant noodles - - Braised Beef Noodles. The brand name "Master Kong" and its first generation of instant noodles - Braised Beef Noodles - were created. In one fell swoop, it beat Nissin Tonkotsu noodles in the entire East Asia region, and also set the precedent for countless beef-flavored instant noodles later on.

The list goes on and on, but in short, Chinese beef noodles have become the most culturally inclusive and globally influential Chinese food, thanks to their locally adapted ingredients, convenient production process and rich, long-lasting flavors.

So what is the complete map of Chinese beef noodles?

Gansu: Lanzhou Beef Noodles

|The originator of beef noodles

Legend has it that the Lanzhou beef noodle production standard of "one clear, two white, three green, four red, five yellow" (noodle broth should be clear, radish should be white, cilantro should be green, chili pepper should be red, and noodle should be yellow) was invented by a scholar from Hebei named Chen Weijin. Invented by a Hebei scholar named Chen Weijing.

Chen Weijing's Hui apprentice, Ma Liuqi, brought the production standards to Lanzhou, where they were carried forward by his descendant, Ma Baoko.

In essence, the story of Lanzhou Ramen's rise to fame is the same as KFC's: Colonel Harlan Sanders, an Indiana native, traveled all the way to Salt Lake City to sell Kentucky fried chicken. For no other reason: Kentucky, as a Southern slaveholding state, does have a cultural tradition of eating fried chicken.

Lanzhou has similar qualities: since the Tang Dynasty, as a town on the Silk Road, Lanzhou has been a transit point for Western food; after the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Hui people lived in the city, so that the beef noodle has a national basis; the late Qing Dynasty Han Chinese literati summarized the "one-two-three-four-five" production standards, as if KFC summarized the fried chicken. The production standards, like a catalyst, the food from the scenery to the brand.

Till today, Lanzhou beef noodle is still the most distinctive and strong regional symbol of Chinese beef noodle. The geographic location of the Hexi Corridor dictates that both high-quality wheat flour from the Guanzhong Plain and high-quality beef from the Tibetan and frontier border areas are easily available here.

Peng ash soaking water to combine the noodles is the soul of Lanzhou beef noodles. When burned to ash, the grass is alkaline, curing the proteins within the flour and making the noodles stronger. Essentially, the ash serves the same purpose as the alkaline noodles eaten in the South and the baking soda added to baking.

Authentic Lanzhou beef noodles don't use thinly sliced meat, but rather diced beef, unlike most Qinghai Hualong beef noodles on the market. The meat is crispy but not limp, a great test of the chef's ability to cook the meat; if you want to add an extra bowl of meat, the beef slices will only make an appearance.

Because of its proximity to Guanzhong, the oil spices, similar to those in Shaanxi, are also indispensable in Lanzhou beef noodles, but unlike the spiciness of the Guanzhong Plain, the highest level of Lanzhou beef noodles oil spices is "only fragrant, not spicy," which may also preserve Central Asian culinary traditions from one side.

Sichuan: Neijiang Beef Noodles

|Heritage of Authentic Sichuan Flavor |

Historians generally agree that Taiwan's beef noodles have a relationship with Sichuan's beef noodles, but many Taiwanese went to Chengdu in search of "authentic beef noodles," but came back unsuccessful.

Taiwanese writer Lu Yaodong once wrote: "[In Chengdu] I went in search of authentic Sichuan beef noodles. After two hours of walking through the streets and alleys, I couldn't find anything. Finally ate two plates of husband and wife lung slices with a bowl of bell dumplings, carrying a catty Pixian bean paste back."

In fact, if you come to Neijiang, which is less than 200 kilometers away from Chengdu, you will find that the real Sichuan beef noodles are here.

Fine noodles with heavy alkali, wide soup with red oil and beef that melts in your mouth are some of the main features of Neijiang's beef noodles. Similar to Lanzhou's noodles, the noodles are made with more lye, and shopkeepers generally use a large pot of boiling water to throw in the long, thin noodles after they come to a boil, and then use long bamboo chopsticks to pull them apart and cook them for more than a minute to ensure that the noodles are al dente.

Beef bacon is also made from fresh beef from the market, which is roasted with each family's secret spices. The beef is cut into chunks, then blanched in hot oil and cooked with spices. After a long time, the beef is soft and tender, with a flavor that reaches the bones and makes you want to eat it.

When it comes out of the pot, with small onions, ginger and garlic water, soy sauce, pepper, monosodium glutamate, vinegar and other seasonings, the noodles are sinewy, the beef is soft and flavorful, and the oil is slightly charred with chili peppers, complemented by verdant leaves of green vegetables or cilantro - and the last secret: each bowl of noodle soup with a little lard, so that the noodles are more soft and the soup is more fragrant. It makes the noodles softer and the soup more flavorful.

Zhang Daqian, a native of Neijiang who moved to Taiwan in his later years, used to make beef noodles for his guests at his home, the Moyer House, in Taipei. Actor Guo Xiaozhuang, who tasted the old painter's handiwork, recalls, "Zhang Daqian made beef noodles very well, and he made beef in two kinds, one with braised beef noodles and one with stewed beef noodles." Guo Xiaozhuang, who usually ate very little to stay in shape, could not resist the temptation to eat three large bowls of beef noodles in one sitting.

Zhang Daqian, who once lived in Gansu and copied Dunhuang murals for four years, was afraid that his beef noodles in clear soup might have been stolen from a Gansu master at the time, while his braised beef noodles were supposed to be an authentic taste of his hometown.

Hubei: Xiangyang Beef Noodles

|Reflecting the melding of cultures |

Beef noodles are a product of the hedging of cultures, and in general the more culturally diverse and tolerant a place is, the better the beef noodles will be. The more diverse and tolerant the culture, the better the beef noodles will be.

This small city in the center of China is connected to Jianghan in the south, Hankou and Xinyang in the east, Zhongyuan and Luoyang in the north, and Chang'an and Hanzhong in the west, and has been a place of contention for soldiers since ancient times, which is precisely because of its geographic location, making Xiangyang's culture very inclusive and diverse.

Food, for example, is outside the framework of "southern rice and northern noodles" - Xiangyang people can either eat a bowl of noodles every day as their staple food, or they can eat white rice with vegetables.

The Xiangyang beef noodles are served in a fiery red broth, which is numb, spicy, fresh and fragrant, more so than the Neijiang beef noodles. A bowl of old marinade stewed with various spices is the essence of it. In addition to beef, there are beef intestines, tripe, beef liver, and all the side dishes, all of which are simmered in the brine for more than 45 minutes, until the butter overflows and the soup is mellow. Together with bean sprouts and cilantro, the taste is complete.

The standard way to eat Xiangyang beef noodles is to add a raw garlic and a bowl of yellow wine. Chewing a mouthful of garlic and drinking a mouthful of wine, a bowl of hot and spicy beef noodles can go down in your stomach.

Foreigners to Xiangyang, always with the determination to eat a bowl of beef noodles, but in the end often "accidentally" by the spicy tears, while glancing at the next table to eat fast girl, while looking at the front of the red hot hot beef noodles and yellow wine, willing to bow to the wind.

Anhui: Huainan Beef Soup

|Sweet and salty |

The most famous dish in Huainan is not the beef noodles, but the beef soup.

The history of beef eating in the region is quite similar to Xiangyang in Hubei province. As a place of constant warfare from the Three Kingdoms period, all the way up to the Republic of China's Northern Expeditionary War, counties were abolished, and the fusion of ethnic groups and foods became especially intense and frequent. And eating beef without regard for the law was a custom that spread through the area early on.

Being a place where north meets south, Huainan Beef Soup expresses the sweetness of the south and the saltiness of the north.

Generally, stores will provide two flavors of sweet soup and salty soup to choose from. The seasoning of salty soup is quite similar to that of Lanzhou beef noodle soup, which is made with spices and beef stewed in a clear broth that is refreshingly fresh and tasty, and the beef has to be fattened up a bit so that it can form layers of taste with its heaviness and the refreshing nature of the soup;

The sweet soup, however, does not have any salt added, and it is made with beef bones in a thick broth, and the next dab of sugar is used to emphasize the freshness and sweetness of the soup itself, which is another very southern practice.

The sweet soup is made from beef bones with no salt added.

The beef in the soup is very hand-torn, the fibers are visible, the bite of the texture is solid, and is by no means comparable to ordinary sliced beef, full of the rough tension of the Central Plains.

In fact, many places in the Huanghuai region, which is also part of the Central Plains yellow floodplain, have similar beef soups, such as Luoyang, Shangqiu and Suzhou. But the only place as far south as Huainan is where vermicelli and shredded bean skins are used as staples in the beef soup.

There's no doubt it has taken quite a southern beef noodle shape.

Hunan: Changde Beef Noodles

| Oily and fragrant Hunan flavor |

Changde, Hunan, is a famous rice noodle production area, and the noodles made from local Changde fragrant rice are slightly fermented and fragrant, round and slender, with a quality not inferior to Taiwan's Hsinchu rice noodles.

Shiang cuisine is heavy on oil, which may be too greasy for those with a light taste. But as an accompaniment to rice noodles, it tastes just right. Hunan people call the spices of rice and noodles "oil yards," describing them as oily and juicy.

The common street snack in Changde is to boil rice noodles in boiling water and add shredded meat, three kinds of fresh food, fried sauce, mushroom oil, hooves, pork ribs, diced chicken, eel and other oil yards. And the highest and most famous among them is none other than beef.

Changde Jin City is one of the most famous Hui people in the south of the settlement, it is said that the Yongzheng years there are northern Hui tribes to settle here. The Hui people eat good beef noodles, to the south of more rice and less noodles, they will be adapted to the local conditions of the rice noodles into the beef soup, which is the prototype of Changde beef noodles.

And then later, the Hui people to adapt to local conditions, selecting the local abundance of hawthorn, gardenias, lingzhi and other southern spices, and steak, beef tendons, beef together with the simmering of the old brine.

Boiling down the oil and water separation, eat, a spoonful of butter, a spoonful of old broth, and then according to the requirements of diners to add a variety of parts of the cow, and finally a brine soup in the brine soup soaked in brine eggs, a little cilantro peanuts, it is an authentic Changde breakfast.

Guangdong: Teochew Beef Noodles

|The Hakka people's unique preoccupations |

South of the South China Sea, since ancient times, is a place far away from the civilization of the Central Plains. That's why beef has a far more important place on the table of the southern Hakka people than in the north.

South of the mountainous areas, so the raising of yellow cattle, buffalo is very common, the Hakka people adapt to the local conditions to beef as a daily meat consumption, but also the development of the meat source authentic, into the flavor of unique, sophisticated technology, the process of old-fashioned "four Gong", as long as there is a Hakka people live in the place, you can always find beef meatballs, cattle soup, beef The Hakka people can always find beef meatballs, beef soup, beef stew, and other kinds of beef food.

Of course, this includes beef noodles.

Chiu Chow's beef noodles and beef kuey teow are made with neither clear nor red broth, but rather a cloudy soup made from beef bone broth, sacha sauce and white pepper, which is savory and slightly spicy, with the oily flavor of sesame and peanuts, the freshness of fish sauce and shrimp paste, and the sweetness of black bean sauce.

There are generally three main side dishes: freshly sliced hanger-on pork, scalded in boiling water until half-cooked, tender and smooth; beef brisket stewed down to a crisp, soft and flavorful; and shop-grown beef meatballs, which are Q-bomb and refreshing. If you are a familiar customer and have special requirements, the store can also provide special parts of beef such as chest oil and neck kernel.

In short, it's a good idea.

The south has more rice and less noodles, so the default would be to serve the beef with kueh teow. But in fact, Chaoshan crispy noodles are the best partner for beef noodles. The so-called "crispy noodles" are similar to Guangzhou's bamboo noodles, in which the dough is pressed by human hands until it is extremely firm, and then cut into long, hair-thin strands. The word "crispy" means "sinewy" in the Shantou dialect, which explains the texture.

Guizhou: Huaxi Beef Noodle

|A spoonful of sour soup that hits the soul |

If you were to summarize the food of the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau in terms of one flavor, sour would be the way to go.

The best feature of Huaxi Beef Noodle is, of course, the appetizing sourness.

The rice noodles are made of steam-coarse flour, so smooth that they slide down the esophagus without being chewed. The soup is made from beef with bones, milky white in color with a thick layer of butter, with chili peppers added for a reddish hue.

The beef isn't crunchy; instead, it's chewy, a strong counterpoint to the smoothness of the rice noodles.

The sour lotus flower white soaked in the soup is the soul of the whole bowl of beef noodles. Lotus white is the common name for cabbage in Guizhou - it looks like a lotus flower and is white in color. The so-called sour, is similar to the fermentation of Korean kimchi, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau's unique climate of constant temperature, humidity and heat, so that the local fermented vegetable production has a very different from the outside of the strong sour flavor, in order to prevent insects and bad, but also in the lotus white to add a lot of chili peppers.

This soup with a sour and spicy flavor, giving the beef soup a unique taste, the smooth rice noodles, beef tough, lotus white crispy, mutual cause and effect, rice noodle soup sour, spicy, with people can not stop the slight odor, can be compared to the snail soup in Guangxi.

The Huaxi beef noodle eaten outside the country is often a bowl full of red oil, and you can't find sour lotus white. Taste, only spicy flavor, no sour flavor. It's not even close, though it misses the mark by a mile.

Taiwan: Beef Noodles in the Family Village

|The texture of a masterpiece |

In Taiwan, there are all kinds of beef noodles, ranging from street snacks costing 20 bucks or so to thousand-dollar bowls of "head of the state beef noodles," and almost every one of them has a unique way of doing things. If you eat beef noodles for three meals a day, you'll be hard pressed to eat the same thing for half a month.

But in essence, in Taiwan before the liberation, beef was rarely eaten and noodles were not eaten because Taiwan produced rice locally and flour was not their staple food.

The emergence of beef noodle soup in Taiwan's dependents' villages carries the quality of a "masterpiece" - a bowl of noodles with flavors from all over the world, and the most deserved conclusion to the country's beef noodle geography.

Taiwanese scholars generally believe that the first generation to Taiwan, living in the family village of mainland immigrants, in accordance with the practice of Sichuan snacks in red beef soup, but also with reference to the Shandong people soup noodle with meat eating method, invented this Sichuan bean paste as the base flavor of the braised beef noodles. That's why, back in the day, many cooks in Taiwan's big hotels would brag that they had worked under Shandong-born warlord Sun Chuanfang and learned the art of beef stew.

After the 1970s, Taiwan opened up to beef imports, and beef from the United States, Australia and New Zealand quickly replaced local yellow beef and buffalo meat, which were hard-tasting and expensive. Especially the U.S. canned beef, open the lid can be poured on the beef noodles, taste, look quite good, giving Taiwan beef noodles quite a degree of industrialization of the basis for development.

Later California beef noodles and Vancouver beef noodles were all brought to the Western Hemisphere by Chinese expatriates inspired by Taiwan's beef noodle practice.

If the focus of Lanzhou beef noodles is on the noodles and the soup base, that bit of high-flying beef could be left out of the picture were it not for the name. Taiwan's beef noodles are the opposite: the texture of the noodles may be sloppy, but the mellow broth, cooked with beef bones and flavored with sauces, and the crispy, flavorful beef tendon meat almost make you forget about the mediocre noodles in the bowl.

Ma recalled eating beef noodles with his classmates in junior high school. The noodle bowls were large, the portions were generous, and "everyone ate the noodles as if they were buried in a basin to wash their faces."

Yes, no matter how little fresh and literary Taiwan's own culture develops, the bravado from the mainland's forefathers returns to everyone when they hold up their beef noodles. As Jiao Tong, a Taiwanese scholar, said, "Beef noodles were originally an accident of history, but now they have become Taipei's culinary nostalgia."

END

Bai Yansong said that when he came back from a long business trip abroad, he actually didn't go home first when he got off the plane, but went straight to his favorite beef noodle store.

"I ate a big bowl with soup and water and broke a sweat, and that's when I felt at home. The so-called patriotism turned out to be love for the bowl of beef noodles in front of the house."