Because the most beautiful thing is the taste of hometown, and the hardest thing to let go of is nostalgia.
In fact, many places have their own set of "food". Yancheng has the "Eight Big Bowls", Sichuan also has the "Nine Big Bowls", and we also have the "Eight Big Bowls" in Zhuxi, Hubei.
Although they are all called "Eight Bowls", in fact, there are many differences.
Today let’s talk about Yancheng.
Which eight dishes are the "Eight Big Bowls of Yancheng" are like all legends.
What is rare is that it is also the first country in the country to officially approve and register a collective trademark for a series of local specialties dishes protected by law.
Nowadays, living conditions are getting better and better. There are no longer just eight bowls at banquets. However, no matter what changes, the dishes in the eight bowls are still necessary for Yancheng people’s banquets. Although they may not have all eight, they must still occupy a few
Split seats.
The "eight bowls" are: pork skin chowder, meatballs, puffed cake, braised pork, big chicken and small chicken, mussels and radish vermicelli, shrimp soup, and braised fish.
The first bowl of pork and skin chowder also has a domineering name - no feast is complete without fat, and it is also known as "the first dish in Jiangbei".
It looks ordinary, but it is actually a whole piece of sun-dried meat fried into golden brown, soaked in water until soft before cooking, and cut into cubes.
It is usually served with green vegetables, pork cubes and quail eggs to make a soup.
Among them, the headline-grabbing one is "Big Chicken Holding Little Chicken". This dish is actually just a local chicken from the farm. There are many local eggs nestled in the original chicken soup, symbolizing family reunion and perfect happiness; later, shredded chicken was used instead of the whole chicken.
, using vermicelli instead of eggs, another name, it’s vermicelli roasted with shredded chicken!
As a foodie, Yi Zhoujun couldn't help but try his favorite among the "eight bowls" - the rising cake. The highlight is the eggs. After mixing multiple eggs with chopsticks, add a little salt; heat the pan with oil, then pour in
Beat the eggs and add green onion and ginger when the eggs are not yet formed; when the eggs rise, use low heat and turn the eggs constantly with a spatula. When the eggs rise to a certain thickness before the color changes, the magical cake will rise.
alright.
Because I love eggs so much, I went crazy when I saw this dish. The eggs are rich in aroma and the leeks are refreshing and delicious.
Add more leeks to remove the greasiness, and combine yellow and green to make it nutritious and delicious.
Yancheng Eight Big Bowls are dishes created during the 1960s and 1970s when material (ingredients) were scarce.
However, when fish maw and tendons became dominant, the meat skin (fat) withdrew; when sea cucumbers and fresh razor clams became abundant, mussels gave way; when crabs were served, shrimp soup disappeared; when braised beef with vegetables became a home-cooked dish, braised beef in soy sauce became a common dish.
Meat is no longer on the table; when steamed seabass has become the most important fish, there is not much braised fish; when whole chickens can fill the sea bowl, there is no need to fill up the eggs; when long fish (sliced ??eel) and roasted cakes fill the table
In Taiwan, the traditional rising cake no longer exists.
Only meatballs, traditional meatballs (glutinous rice meatballs) are also suppressed by pure meatballs.
Times are progressing and food is developing.
If a restaurant only serves the so-called eight announced bowls, it may have a temporary reputation, but it will not work in the long run.
Only innovation and development can carry forward.
Yancheng's "Eight Big Bowls" were an indispensable dish for rural weddings and birthdays in the 1950s and 1960s.
Thinking about the past and looking at the present, the eight bowls are full of nostalgia. They will have a unique flavor in your mouth and endless aftertaste.
In Yancheng today, the eight bowls are no longer the eight bowls, and there are all kinds of tricks.
Society is developing, times are progressing, and the lives of people in Yancheng cannot be described by eight bowls.
The eight big bowls are not the taste of hometown, which young people cannot appreciate.
Although I am a native of Wuxi, I still have a deep memory of Yancheng’s “Eight Bowls”.
In the late 1960s, as an educated youth, I jumped in and went to Xixiang, Yancheng.
Not long after we arrived, our landlord's son got married.
For the first time, I experienced Yancheng’s “Eight Bowls”.
At that time, although the rural areas of northern Jiangsu were poor and backward, marrying a wife was a major event in life, so the landlord spent all his money and held an "eight bowls" banquet to entertain the villagers and us educated youths.
At that time, the "eight bowls" of northern Jiangsu were definitely comparable to the delicacies of the mountains and seas today.
Since then, I have eaten "Eight Big Bowls" several times in Northern Jiangsu.
Later, after I left Yancheng, I had not eaten Yancheng's "Eight Big Bowls" for more than 30 years.
Until last year, we organized dozens of educated youths to return to their second hometown of Yancheng. Under the warm hospitality of the town government, they once again tasted Yancheng's "Eight Bowls".
Of course, the current Badawan is an improved version of Badawan, and there are actually more than Badawan.
But the main dishes left a deep impression on me.
Let’s talk about the first dish, “Wanbi Soup”. In Northern Jiangsu, no feast is complete without fat, so Wanbao is definitely the first dish.
The main dish is oily pork skin, plus quail eggs, pork cubes, and green vegetables.
Now the improved version also adds fresh shrimps, fresh scallops, etc.
Now it tastes "fresh" in one word!
When eating wonton, you mainly want to taste its broth.
Yancheng cuisine actually inherits the essence of Huaiyang cuisine and is very strict about the production of soup stock.
The dishes are also oily but not greasy, melt in your mouth, and are light yet delicious.
Second dish: braised meatballs.