Archives around ｜ Jiang Lan： Historical Taste Buds of Xiaohebang Sichuan Cuisine (I)

Zigong cuisine is spicy and ubiquitous.

Jiang Lan/Wen

Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zigong, the salt capital, has become a rich place in Sichuan with its rich well salt. Salt merchants are extravagant, especially for delicious food. The so-called "salt skull" or "salt grandfather" cuisine has gradually sprung up in Sichuan cuisine.

Among them, there are also many celebrities, such as Mr. Yang Ziyi, a talented man from Ziliujing in the late Qing Dynasty. Apart from his famous poems and couplets, he added luster to Zigong cuisine with his exquisite food appreciation, production and innovation.

In addition, Li Qiongfu, a big salt merchant in Ziliujing, studied in Japan in the early 20th century, and besides gluttony, he also wrote a special book "Qiongfu Recipe", which was self-satisfied and widely presented. Today, we can witness the entrance of "Grandpa Yanba" cuisine.

Generally speaking, Zigong cuisine is known as Xiaohebang Sichuan cuisine among Sichuan cuisine factions. Its history embodies a style of going to extremes, a kind of urgency that can’t wait, a kind of courage that refuses stereotypes and dares to be original, supplemented by a strong taste sprint, which suddenly rises, but never falls.

Affectionate and realistic, the extreme of Zigong cuisine

In recent years, restaurants with the title of Zigong cuisine have begun to set up halls in various places, and foreigners have a strong interest in these restaurants with the title of salt-helped cuisine, salt-merchants cuisine and Xiaohe-helped Sichuan cuisine.

The dishes from Zigong, the ancient salt capital, are easy to make people think that they are salty. After careful consideration, it smacks of heresy, which reminds people of the turbulent rivers and lakes and the autumn lights in the night rain.

Silver city story

People who have never been to Zigong will never forget Zigong cuisine as long as they have read the famous novel "The Old Site" or "The Story of Silver City" by the writer Li Rui.

Li Rui’s ancestral home is in Da ‘an District, Zigong. Therefore, the "Silver City Story" carefully carved the custom of pushing brine cows for food in Zigong saltworks, so that readers can experience the details of fireside beef and beef soup pot in a thrilling process.

When it comes to Zigong cuisine, you can’t help but mention cows and saltworks customs.

In fact, these, like the salty taste of deep wells, are not the essence of the problem. Diet is a concrete reflection of people’s physical desires. Therefore, due to the attraction of salt stove profits, it constitutes a complex local geo-culture.

Jiangxi people’s tenacity, Qin people’s dryness, Xiajiang people’s stubbornness, Fujian people’s interests, and local people’s slipperiness, coupled with the Hakka people’s fortitude and honest and frank, so the blackness permeated by those rolling black bittern is not just a black heart.

To be black as brine, show the weight of black in the dark under the cut; Thick is not just playing dumb, it should be as thick as bamboo cooked with medicine, and it should be so thick that it can be invincible, so that it can be undefended.

As Mr. Li Zongwu said, whenever I talk about these things, I "deeply understand the principle of melodramatic things here". This "melodramatic principle" is very suitable for Zigong cuisine. That is, local dishes reflect an extreme style.

The top of all kinds of flavors, spicy and full of local conditions

In the folk flavor of Sichuan people’s "good spicy flavor", before the introduction of pepper, the spicy "authentic" was cornus, which was used for a long time, and it was called "Sanxiang" together with ginger and pepper.

Sichuan people do not have the tradition of eating "tree pepper", and there is no "tree pepper" that grows along the coast in the local area. After the early or middle Qing dynasty, the things that further implemented these styles were Chaotian sea pepper and tender ginger.

Zigong chaotian pepper is the first in Sichuan.

The spiciness of pepper in Zigong is far more than that in other parts of Sichuan.

In the early years, with a large number of Weiyuan people entering the salt field from Gaodong and Leigongtan to work, Chaotian sea pepper produced in Xindianzi of Weiyuan entered artesian well and Gongjing.

Chaotian sea pepper, also known as seven-star sea pepper, is often named after a handful of seven.

There is a unique reddish-brown soil in China, which is not only thin and alkaline, but also rich in potassium, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, iron and other elements, which has created a deep and persistent distinctive style of sea pepper.

There is a feature of Zigong Chaotian pepper that is unknown to outsiders, that is, the appearance of sea pepper is not long or sharp, but the tail is concave into a small pit, which is the most powerful.

Later, it was widely transplanted in Rongxian, Daan, Fushun and other areas with similar land conditions, and its spicy power was slightly weakened, but it was enough for local people to feast.

It’s just that those foreigners who don’t know the little place are suffering. As soon as they eat Zigong food, they shout that it’s delicious, and the more they eat it, the more fragrant it is, but the spicy power goes deep into the viscera, and even they are temporarily deaf.

North China canteen, full but not arrogant spirit.

In the 1920s, catering in Zigong was divided into two categories: banquet and wine and food.

Bao Xiye worships "Zhan Wang", mainly engaged in all kinds of banquet and banquet business; The wine and food industry worships "Leizu" and deals in all kinds of stir-fried dishes, cold dishes, soup dishes, rice, pasta and snacks.

The Huanhou Palace, which was completed in 1875, has always accepted the incense of the tugu industry. By the time of the Anti-Japanese War, local restaurants had been more integrated, operating five major cuisines: Sichuan, Beijing, Shandong, Guangdong and Jiangsu.

North China canteen, the most sentimental old shop in Zigong

At that time, the famous restaurants were Tiandeyuan, Minjiang, Jinguyuan, Lumingchun, Huabei Dining Hall, Shu Jiang Chun, Diaohuanglou and so on, especially Huabei Dining Hall.

The predecessor of North China Dining Hall was Xinjin Cuisine Club, and the owner Lin Guofu was a generation of strange people. He left his hometown and came to Zigong during the Anti-Japanese War, relying on his flexible mind and smooth handling. Later, he asked fellow villagers to raise funds to set up Xinjin Cuisine Club in Sansheng, operating small sales, home-cooked meals and contracting banquets.

In 1939, after the restaurant was bombed by a Japanese plane, it had to be moved to Dengganba and renamed North China Dining Hall.

Zigong’s nearly lost famous dish casserole fish head

They are unique in fish cooking technology, and have introduced some famous dishes such as casserole fish head, roasted middle section, grilled water wings, fish tail, crispy fish, sweet and sour carp fillet, etc., especially the casserole fish head is famous far and wide, which has attracted frequent visits from big salt merchants, which is actually equivalent to invisible advertisements made by salt merchants. These famous dishes were gradually integrated into the authentic Sichuan cuisine series.

It is said that Lin Guofu’s dining hall in North China was once forced to eat by scoundrels. Some people ordered seven casserole fish heads in one breath, saying that the taste was not good. However, Lin Guofu changed his smile for seven times in a row and kept asking the guests to "tolerate more", which made the strong eaters content and retreat.

This kind of magnanimity is very popular, and I’m afraid this ancient style has become a masterpiece now. Now, the North China canteen is still open, but I don’t know if those unique fish seats can still be made.

The last chef in North China canteen

Eating frogs has been a local habit for many years.

The beautiful word "from the sheep to the big" originally means "gan". The structure of "beauty" is a combination of "sheep" and "big". Obviously, it expresses the ancient people’s feelings about "sheep being big" in China.

It is worth noting that this feeling does not come from the fat body shape of the sheep, but is limited to the feeling of the taste of the sheep. This can be proved by the fact that the original meaning of beauty is "sweetness".

And what is "Gan"? Those who are "sweet" have "one from the mouth". In other words, eating food with your mouth or tasting food with your mouth can produce "sweetness".

From this sense of taste, the word "gan" in Chinese characters has the meaning of pleasure, joy and quickness at the same time. But Zigong locals are not so elegant, they just say, taste it! Bashi!

In recent years, Mark Corlan, an American, published a world-renowned masterpiece "Salt", in which he mentioned the diet of Zigong salt merchants, saying that the wealthy salt merchants were particularly particular about eating at that time: "In China, the weirder the raw materials, the more mysterious the cooking methods, the more valuable they are. Frog in soup is one of the specialties of Zigong salt merchants. Put a few sticks on a pot of salt water, put a live frog in the pot, and the frog will desperately grab these sticks and seal the pot. When the can was opened again six months later, the frog was dead. After air drying, they were cured successfully, because they were all stained with salt water. Then steam the cooked food. Salt merchants also like to eat fried frog bellies. Unfortunately, although it may be delicious, it is unacceptable, because it is said that it takes 1000 frogs to make a fried frog belly. "

This statement comes from the "Qiongfu Recipe" by salt merchant Li Qiongfu.

But I have lived in Zigong for more than 30 years, and I know that local people have a bad habit of eating frogs. One is to soak them like pickles, or smoke them. Of course, the most popular thing is to stir-fry frogs with sea pepper and shredded ginger. Many people can eat two Jin at a time, which is a famous local dish.

All kinds of delicious food can not be separated from salt.

Eat goose’s feet and catch up with the tyrant’s "punishment of branding"

In the book "Qiongfu Recipe", there is also a famous dish called "Meat Bamboo Shoots", which is Li Qiongfu’s specialty.

Its practice is: kill the fat pig in summer, gut it, take out the internal organs, and then bury the pig in the soil. A few days later, I saw pork rotting and moths rolling. At this time, take out all the moths, or fry them, or cook soup to eat.

Li Qiongfu only called this dish "bamboo shoots" when he invited guests, but he didn’t explain what it was made of. The guests ate with relish and tutted. After the meal, the eater shouted nausea and vomited on the spot.

Salt merchants are strange to eat, and there is no wonder about it, which is also listed in detail in Qiongfu Recipe.

Such as eating pig blood bubbles. The way to do this is to tie the hooves of the live big fat pig down, use a bamboo tube to hold the boiled glutinous rice porridge, pry open the pig’s mouth and pour it down hard, then kill the pig, cut open the belly, remove the blood bubbles scalded in the pig’s mouth, esophagus and stomach, and cook it with exquisite seasoning.

Braised water wings

As for salt merchants, Li Yongzhi, nicknamed "Ten Yan Wang", ate goose’s feet, and then chased after the tyrant’s "punishment of branding": a piece of land was enclosed in a small house, covered with chaff shells and lit a fire, which was a kind of small fire that could burn for a long time. Many live geese were put in, and the geese ran around on the chaff ground, and their feet were burned, quacked and thirsty, so they were fed vinegar in the famous Taiyuan well. Wait until there are many blood bubbles on the goose web, that is, cut off the goose web and cook it into a dish.

Obviously, these eating methods are already very cruel and subordinate to the enduring "violent aesthetics" in feudal times, and should be abandoned. But in turn, it responds to the point I made at the beginning: this is all caused by the taste bud style of pursuing extremism. (On, to be continued)