Chaoshan fork sesame seed cake is a kind of pastry food with unique flavor. Chenghai Sunan fork sesame seed cake is the most famous one. It is white and moist, sweet but not greasy, and is made of the finest raw materials such as glutinous rice, sugar, lard and sesame. When cooking, first grind glutinous rice into powder, add sugar and lard, cook and steam, and then sprinkle sesame seeds evenly. Then, cut the steamed fork biscuits into round, square, prismatic and finger-sized strips or other shapes, and put them into boxes or ceramic bowls with diverse and beautiful shapes. When the fork sesame seed cake is fresh, its color is white, crystal clear as amber, smooth, fat but not greasy. Sprinkle a few drops of sherbet on the fork cake, which is sweet and fragrant. The more you eat it, the more fragrant it is. The sweeter it is, the more delicious it is.

In Chaoshan, there is a legend that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a big traitor in the Ming Dynasty who betrayed his master for glory and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty as an official. The rebel's mother is a person who understands the righteousness deeply and hates her rebellious son very much. One day, she was very angry when she heard that her son was going to take her to Beijing to enjoy happiness, so she loaded the rice, sugar and oil left over from home into a boat and wandered around with her second son. These two sons are very filial. In order to satisfy their mother, they often make snacks for their mother in different ways, and over time they invented fork cakes.

Chaoyang ginger potato soup

In late winter and early spring, there will be many stalls selling ginger and potatoes in the streets of Chaoyang. Here, ginger potatoes are not ordinary food, but a symbol of happiness and auspiciousness.

Chaoyang people like to eat ginger potatoes, and sweet ginger potatoes are essential when they are around the stove on New Year's Eve. On New Year's Day, when relatives and friends come to visit the New Year, the host will cook a bowl of ginger and potato soup to entertain them. According to custom, guests can quit other hospitality, but this bowl of ginger and potato soup must be finished. In the past, the bride usually ate a bowl of ginger and potato soup specially made by her husband's family the next morning. Chaoyang people are very particular about eating ginger and potatoes. Some of them are sliced and boiled in boiling water for a while. The ginger slices in the soup are slightly curly and smooth. Some are cut into potato pieces and cooked slowly with white sugar and lard, which tastes sweet and delicious. Some steamed ginger potatoes, mashed into mud, mixed with sugar and forks, made into the shape of peaches, apricots, persimmons and other five fruits, and steamed at any time.

Wei Yu's three unique skills

Crispy taro is one of Chaoshan snacks. The head is definitely fried mutton crisp. It selects top sweet potatoes, peels them, slices them, dries them, fries them in an oil pan, picks them up, filters them to remove oil stains, and then puts them into boiled white sugar. Take it out and let it cool, then evenly sprinkle with fried white sesame seeds and chopped coriander.

Taro paste is another skill. Taro paste is often used as the last course of a banquet, which means sweet at the beginning and sweet at the end. Making method of taro paste: "After steaming taro, grind it into paste, add red bean paste, white sugar, fried sesame seeds and diced white meat, cooked lotus seeds, a little orange juice or chopped Osmanthus Jelly, and then steam it, and it will become a hot, smokeless, sticky and smooth Chaoshan snack, fragrant and sweet, oily but not greasy. People always like to tell such a story about taro paste. It is said that Lin Zexu was ordered by Daoguang to ban smoking in Guangdong. Consuls of Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and other countries in Guangzhou invited them to eat ice cream at the banquet. Seeing this "foreign art" steaming, Lin Zexu dared not rashly enter. When foreigners saw his cautious appearance, they laughed rudely. Lin Zexu keeps a straight face. The next day, according to diplomatic etiquette, Lin Zexu gave a banquet in return. After several cold dishes, the taro paste was served. A consul thought it was a cold dish again, so he scooped up a spoonful and sent it to his mouth. The result was very hot, and I screamed.

Thirdly, this is a dish of taro with sand turned over, which was once the seasonal food of Mid-Autumn Festival. After peeling taro, cut it into finger-shaped pieces, fry it in oil pan and pick it up. After a while, put the taro block into the oil to remove the water vapor. Then add a proper amount of water to the white sugar and cook it in a pot. When the sugar water is as thick as glue, put the taro pieces in, mix well, pick them up and take them off the stove immediately. This becomes crispy boiled taro. There is also a rather heroic story about Fansha Taro: After Yuan soldiers invaded Chaozhou, in order to consolidate their rule, a joint household system was implemented, that is, three households were kept, and every three households had a Fan Yuan, so they could sleep in any household at will. What is even more unbearable is that those who married their daughter-in-law could only sleep with Yuan Bing the night before. People couldn't stand it, so they agreed to kill Fan Yuan on the night of August 15. As a result, overnight, Yuan Bing was beheaded and killed. People are still angry, but they regard taro as Fan Yuan's head, cut it into strips, fry it in oil, take it out, add sugar, and use it to worship Mother Moon and eat it.

fish ball

Fish balls, like meatballs, are one of the famous snacks in Chaoshan. According to legend, the custom of eating fish balls began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period: King Chu Ping likes to eat fish, and every meal without fish is tasteless. King Chu Ping is cruel by nature. Once he accidentally cut fish bones and fish bones, and he ordered the chef to be killed. One day, a new cook thought he would not be spared, so he ruthlessly chopped fish with the back of a knife to vent his anger. But this chop miraculously separated the fish from the fishbone. The new chef rubbed these boneless fish paste into balls for King Chu Ping to eat, and was praised by King Chu Ping, so the chef survived. Later, with the southward migration of King Chu Ping, this dietary custom spread to Chaozhou.

Chaoshan folk fish balls have always been handmade. Generally speaking, larger fish can make fish balls, but the best material should be the first big white eel with loose meat. After the eel is washed, put it on the anvil, cut off the head and tail, and strip off the stomach. Then scrape off the sparkling fish with a bull's ear knife, then shovel off the pottery bowl and pat them frequently with your hands. Therefore, making fish balls is also called "making fish balls". Flapping technique is the key to making fish balls. The flapping action should be even and powerful, and the number of times should be more. Generally, thousands to thousands of slaps will make fish balls brittle. After beating, add proper amount of refined salt and a little snow powder and mix well. Then grab a handful of fish sauce in your hand and squeeze it out of the small circle formed by your index finger and thumb. The surface of fish balls must be smooth to be considered a slap. Soak the extruded fish balls in clear water, then put them in a pot filled with water, cook them to 70 ~ 80 degrees Celsius with strong fire, and then turn to slow fire until the water boils, and then take them out.

All kinds of preserves

In Chaoshan snacks, there are all kinds of candied fruit, such as crisp leek candied fruit, crystal clear candied fruit without rice, sweet bean paste candied fruit and wild mouse candied fruit.

I often eat bean paste in July of the lunar calendar every year. At this time, the early rice is returned to the warehouse, the peanuts are dried, and the late seedlings are transplanted. The peasant housewife uses new rice and new peanuts to make "bean paste". First, mix rice flour with water and knead it into thin white skin, then mash it with fried peanuts and add salt, chopped green onion, sesame and shredded pork as stuffing. The shape of "bean paste" is made by skilled housewives at will. Some are like new moons, some are like gondolas, some are like jade rabbits and pomegranates ... They are usually very small in shape, only slightly larger than matchboxes.

Housewives in Chaoshan rural areas like to make rat songs before the Spring Festival, and make many at a time, because rat songs are not easy to deteriorate and can be eaten until the Lantern Festival. Rodent is a kind of weeds, also known as Saxifraga, Foxifraga, Miqu, Velvet Mother and so on. Its whole body is fluffy, its stems and leaves are tender, and occasionally there are a few small buds at the top. Compendium of Materia Medica contains: "There are many places in Yuan Ye." ... leaves are soft, several inches long and as white as the hair on a mouse's ear. The Chu people called it Miqu, and the north called it the mother of velvet. It can be used as medicine, and it is flat in nature and sweet in taste. It can resolve phlegm and relieve cough. Therefore, rat koji is actually a kind of medicinal food.

The custom of eating rat koji originated very early. "The Chronology of Jingchu's Age" contains: March 2 is the day, with rat qu vegetable juice as soup and honey and powder, which is called dragon's tongue and anaerobic. Volume 11 of Zhenghe Materia Medica quoted: "On March 3, take rat koji juice honey as powder to suppress its anger. "The name of the dragon tongue mouse qu is a kind of cake made of mouse qu rice flour. In the Tang Dynasty, Pi Rixiu wrote in "Bowing his head and raving wildly to show an elegant scholar as a reward": "At first, I deeply picked up the cow's lip liquid, and finely pinched the mouse's ear. "Compendium of Materia Medica" quoted Shao Guizi's "Urn Tianyu" as saying: "In the cold food in the north, velvet mother grass and powder food are often used. "It can be seen that the custom of making cakes with sage has existed since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and it has been passed down from generation to generation, and the Chaoshan custom is still there. However, in ancient times, eating rat koji in the north was between Qingming and cold food, while Chaoshan was around the Spring Festival, which was due to the climate.

Leek pulp is soft, smooth, fresh and fragrant. It tastes better when fried in a frying pan. Its preparation method is to pour boiling water into raw flour and stir it into skin, with leek, mushroom and shrimp skin as stuffing. Squeeze the filling into an oblate shape and steam for 15 minutes.

"Caibao Bacon" is the seasonal bacon in the area of Haifeng Meilong Market. In Meilong Market, the 20th day of the first month is the first festival in a year, and the residents in the market call it "opening day". On this day, every household in Daqing invited a big banquet. Firecrackers are ringing in the street, colorful archways are towering into the sky, and colorful flags cover the sky. Lion class, Quyi class, Opera class, Suona class and Bayin class performed in turn, which was very lively. At this time, women are busy in the house, rushing to produce a large number of "pickles". When the guests arrive, please invite them to sit down and eat vegetable bags. When guests come home, they will also use a small dish of pickled vegetables as a gift. The production process of "preserved vegetable steamed buns" is: pour a proper amount of boiling water into dry oil sticky rice flour, rub it into mud strips, and rub it into a round cake-shaped steamed bun. Put the "biscuit" in the center of the left hand, and hold a circular roller (the egg is very big and baked with soil) in the right hand to rotate 360 degrees on the "biscuit" to make a thin concave body. Then, the person in charge of serving dishes will wrap the dishes with local flavor in the concave to make them spindle-shaped, pinch them at the head and tail, and arrange them in the reeds in an orderly way. Above the homespun, put it in an iron pot and steam it over high fire. Mei Long's son sang: "Monkeys bite monkeys (an insect); White rice, cooking bag; A bowl of vegetables, a bowl to be served; Leave it in the back stove, and the begging cat will touch the glue and the juice will flow out ... "

Other snacks

There is an attractive snack in Chaoshan, called fried cake. Cut the steamed crust into small pieces with a length of 5cm, a width of 2cm and a thickness of about 1 cm, fry in a frying pan, add fish sauce and sweet noodle sauce, mix the crust until it turns red, then heat it, slowly fry it with lard until it turns red, add sugar and eggs, mix it with fresh oyster sauce, and pour it on the crust. Put the cut red meat, fresh shrimp meat and tender green cabbage into the other side of the pot and fry with lard. Add sand tea, Chili sauce, monosodium glutamate, fish sauce and chicken gizzard and stir well.

At the vernal equinox or in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people often make pancakes to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. When making pancakes, add salt to the dough to make a paste, and then fry it into a thin film crust in a pot. Use cooked shredded pork, shredded eggs, bean sprouts or mung beans and bamboo shoots as stuffing, fry them and wrap them in cake bags. When pancakes are fried in oil, they are spring cakes.

Fried dried bean curd is a specialty of Puning, especially in Liusha, Zhanlong, Junbu, Liaoyuan and Daba areas. Puning dried bean curd is made by grinding soybean milk and adding a little potato powder, gypsum and other raw materials to prepare and steam. It is square, white and yellow in color, and each piece weighs about 50 grams. Eating methods are divided into frying and frying, among which fried dried beans are the most popular. Fried dried beans are crispy outside and tender inside, which is called external silver. The taste is crisp outside and tender inside, with seasonings such as pepper and salt water, and the taste is unique. The poet Zhang Huayun once chanted for it:

Crispy meat is steaming and dipping in Chili.

Difficulty in swallowing, frequent turning over, and slight sweating in the stomach when swallowing.

And drink three cups of warm wine, but laugh vanity light.

Delicacies and seafood are everywhere, and the taste of hometown is the most affectionate.

Roasted oysters are also a famous snack in Chaoshan. Fresh oyster, sweet potato starch and raw onion are used as raw materials, pepper and fish sauce are used as auxiliary materials, and appropriate amount of water is added to mix evenly. Spread it in a flat pan and fry it into pancakes with red edges on both sides.

The method of roasting (frying) the tenant fish is as follows: first, clean the tenant fish, remove the internal organs, cut it into several sections, and put it into the slurry mixed with fresh eggs to stir evenly. Gently fry the fish pieces in the oil pan until golden brown. Filter the oil and put the fish on the plate. Then bake a pot of raw flour to cover the fish and sprinkle with pepper and onion beads. In this way, the unique "Yunnan-Chongqing brand" can be served.

The Lantern Festival in Hailufeng area also inherits the custom of drinking "light tea". Neighborhood invited tea to congratulate, speak well, wish each other good luck and prosperity, and coach the host's tea. The tea was delicious, fragrant and fresh, which fully reflected people's friendly and harmonious atmosphere and expressed their prayers and hopes for a better life in the future.

Some places of "Dengcha" are called "Yuanxiao Tea", which is usually arranged around the 13th day of the first month, and some have already started since the eighth day of the first month. On the 13th day of the first month, "tea boarding" is called "tea boarding", which embodies brightness and happiness. The 16th day of the first month is called "Lantern Tea", which indicates that it is safe and full from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. The production of "Dengcha" is based on various kinds of light teas (boiled water, chicken soup and pork bone soup are also acceptable), plus meat (lean pork and fresh fish), vegetables (spinach, chrysanthemum, celery, garlic and cabbage), beans and seasonings (salt powder, pepper, fennel, monosodium glutamate, bacon, etc.). Nowadays, "Dengcha" is characterized by more exquisite materials, diverse varieties, delicate fragrance, delicious taste and outstanding local flavor.

Dengcha is a kind of Haifeng salty tea. "Light" and "Ding" are homophonic, which means bright and festive. In addition, there are Mayou Tea, Shrimp Tea, Vegetable Tea, Rice Tea and Fried Rice Tea. For example, the general practice of "oil hemp tea" is: put tea leaves and sesame seeds in a pottery bowl, wet them with water, grind them with a "tea hammer", add a proper amount of salt powder, and rush them into boiling water, which is called "oil hemp tea". As the folk song goes: "salty tea is popular on Haifeng ground, and pottery bowls come to know a few households." I don't know how generous you are, but how generous you are. The more sesame seeds are put in tea, the more hospitable the host is.