Jiangsu Huai 'an Chinese New Year custom

A small town in northern Jiangsu, the hometown of the great Zhou Enlai-before November 8, 221, these were the most striking labels of Huai 'an. After UNESCO announced that Huai 'an was elected as the "Global Creative City Network-Food Capital" on November 8, Huai 'an became the fifth city in China to be selected as the "World Food Capital".

Before the official announcement, the story of Huai 'an people and food has a long history.

sumptuous Chinese New Year dining table

"In response to the call of celebrating the New Year on the spot this year, I may not go back to Huai 'an, but the dining table for the New Year will not change." For Ou Yan, who has worked and lived in Suzhou for many years, it is the best comfort for Huai 'an wanderers to cook a table of Huai 'an cuisine for the New Year, and it is also the beginning of the taste of the year.

In Ou Yan's memory, every year's New Year is opened by a bowl of solid glutinous rice balls dipped in black sesame and white sugar. The glutinous rice balls were made by my mother the night before. Everyone has an even number of glutinous rice balls in his bowl. If you can't eat them, the rest must be even. What most haunts Ou Yan is the sesame candy mixed with ground black sesame seeds and white sugar. "Delicious, My Sweetie, I always eat two more dumplings to eat sesame candy.".

Zuo Bin, a 48-year-old native of Jiangpu, Huai 'an, is the director of the trade union of Huai 'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital, but in Huai 'an, he also has a more widely known identity-the moderator of Huaiyang Food Edition in An Lan, Huai 'an. As a veteran food lover and the earliest food blogger in Huai 'an, Zuo Bin shared every New Year's Eve dinner with his family in Huai 'an, except for three New Year's Eve dinners in his military career.

Zuo Bin introduced that the New Year's Eve dinner of old Jiangpu family with 6-8 family members usually consists of ten dishes, which means perfection. Among the ten dishes, there will be two meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes and four cold dishes (pork, sausage, beef, cucumber, radish, etc.), four cooked dishes (usually there will be pork balls with green vegetables, roast chicken with day lily, fried tripe with bean sprouts, roast beef, etc., or fried spring rolls will be used instead of one of them), a family photo (braised chop suey) and a fish (braised fish) every year. Two cold dishes and four stir-fried dishes (fried long fish, fried kidney flowers, fried seasonal vegetables, etc.) will be added to the big family dinner with more than 1 people. Among them, meatballs, family photos and fish every year are essential dishes for every family reunion dinner.

Huaiyang cuisine, which started in the Spring and Autumn Period and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is the benchmark cuisine of the "First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" in New China. There are more than 1,3 kinds of classic dishes of Huaiyang cuisine, and 298 cooking techniques have been selected into the provincial intangible cultural heritage list, which is the largest number of districts and cities in China. Huaiyang Cuisine is also an important part of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office's "Chinese Food Prosperity Plan". Huai 'an has built the largest museum of themed cuisines in China-China Huaiyang Cuisine Culture Museum.

Ou Yan was not surprised to learn that her hometown was selected as the "Global Creative City Network-Food Capital". Since she left her hometown at the age of 24, she realized that many foods in her hometown could not be found outside. When talking about Huai 'an, many people's reactions were "The restaurant is delicious". Ou Yan used "just right" to describe Huai 'an cuisine: "Not spicy, not sweet, not salty or light". So that Ou Yan's "Huai 'an stomach" can't adapt to any heavy taste, especially spicy, no matter where she goes.

Counting the holiday foods of Huai 'an people, Ou Yan thinks that the biggest feature is that the ingredients are fresh and diverse, and the meat and vegetables are well matched. "Our Spring Festival table usually has braised fish, shrimp, bean curd soup, fried shredded pork with chrysanthemum, braised pork balls (stewed lion's head), fried spring rolls (stuffed with leeks and pork), fried lotus root clips and so on."

Huai' an is located at the geographical dividing line between the north and the south of China, with four rivers running through the city and five lakes embedded. Its water area accounts for 1/4 of the city area, and it is known as "a city floating on the water". The unique green ecological environment has created high-quality and rich ingredients such as lobster, hairy crab, Euryale ferox and Typha latifolia.

Huaiyang cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and Guangdong cuisine are also called the four major cuisines in China. Huaiyang cuisine is formed in Yangzhou, Huai 'an and Zhenjiang. "Huai" refers to Huai 'an, Jiangsu, and "Yang" refers to Yangzhou, Jiangsu. Huaiyang cuisine pays attention to swordsmanship, with exquisite swordsmanship and light taste. The main dishes are braised lion's head, soft-pocketed long fish, Wensi tofu, crystal yaorou, shrimp seed Pu Cai and Wenlou baozi.

In ancient times, Huai 'an was the border between the north and the south, and there were many famous officials and families here, so it was also the gathering place of famous chefs all over the world. Huaiyang cuisine is light in taste, mainly because of the taste of the edible material itself.

In the ancient city of Huai 'an, on the eve of the Spring Festival, there is a traditional custom of exchanging steamed bread, jambalaya and crystal preserved beans between relatives and friends and neighbors, which is called "scattering". As soon as they enter the twelfth lunar month every year, the urban and rural people in Huai 'an find out the big plaques and dustpans that have been put on hold for many days, and set out to make jambalaya and crystal preserved beans. So far, this traditional folk custom continues. These two ordinary side dishes are the testimony of Huai 'an people, the birthplace of Huaiyang cuisine and good at cooking, who are keen on food in the era of insufficient material supply. In order to make family members, relatives and friends who come to visit during the Spring Festival eat well, housewives will make delicious jambalaya and crystal preserved beans with cheap and good ingredients grown at home and bought in the market.

today, Huai' an still follows the traditional custom that relatives and friends treat each other for "New Year's Wine" during the Spring Festival. Today, your family invites you, tomorrow, his family brings you, and the day after tomorrow, my family will return to East.

Zuo Bin introduced that Huai 'an people pay attention to family ties and etiquette. Usually, around the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, close relatives and best friends begin to agree on the time to get together with each other. Basically, every Huai 'an family will have a meeting table during the Spring Festival. Ou Yan, born in the 199s, likes the family dinners that you come and visit during the Spring Festival. Relatives and friends usually choose to treat guests at home. If anyone has a happy event, they will go to a restaurant to invite a few tables. It is a pleasure in the Spring Festival to gather people to enjoy food as a courtesy.

Inheriting the beauty of cooking

In the eyes of international friends, Zhang Shenglai, a professor at Jiangsu Food and Drug Technician College, is a master with good craftsmanship, humor and love for Huaiyang traditional culture. In the eyes of students, John Zhang is a professional teacher who is very "international", deeply loved and charming. In 212, he was sent to Australia and New Zealand by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council for a 21-day "Huaiyang Food, Culture China" tour; In 215, he won the third prize in the International Young Chef Cooking Competition; In 219, he won the Chinese Golden Chef Award. In the same year, he was invited by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to go to the Jordanian royal family to carry out food promotion activities such as "Walking New Year's Eve".

As the inheritor of Huaiyang cuisine, John Zhang has served as the director of the cooking training center and the professional leader of the Food and Drug Vocational and Technical College, and spared no effort to work overtime to ensure that teachers and students can teach and learn comfortably in the beautiful training center, so that they can be deeply influenced by Huaiyang cuisine culture in the professional workplace atmosphere.

Huai' an is a famous food city in China. The output value of the food industry in the city has exceeded 1 billion yuan, and it has 129 national geographical indication certification trademarks, ranking among the top cities in China. By the end of 22, there are more than 4, restaurants in the city, with more than 25, employees, and the annual sales of catering is 21 billion yuan.

At the same time, cooking education in Huai 'an is relatively developed, with 1 colleges and universities offering cooking majors, training more than 1, senior chefs, and 12 national "culinary masters". The city has more than 3 cooking master studios and non-legacy food studios.

Cheng Ping, deputy secretary-general of Huai 'an Cuisine Association, introduced that Huai 'an Cuisine Association, established in 22, adheres to the principle of "inheriting, developing, pioneering and innovating", promotes the cooking culture of Huaiyang cuisine, carries out skill exchange, develops and improves cooking skills, studies cooking science, publicizes cooking knowledge, trains cooking talents and management talents, and unites the catering industry and cooking workers, in order to promote and develop the cooking career of Huaiyang cuisine and Huai 'an region.

Since 22, Huai 'an has actively promoted and protected Huaiyang cuisine by holding food festivals, cooking competitions and other activities. The characteristics of Huai 'an cuisine are not only the freshness, crispness and tenderness of southern cuisine, but also the saltiness, color and richness of northern cuisine, forming its own flavor with moderate sweetness and salty taste. Because Huaiyang cuisine takes fresh products as raw materials, it pursues lightness in seasoning, which can highlight the original taste of raw materials. According to the cooking program of "taking fire as a discipline" put forward by the ancients, the tripod has become exquisite and delicate, and the different characteristics of dishes such as freshness, fragrance, crispness, crispness, tenderness, waxy, fine and rotten are reflected through the adjustment of pyrotechnics. Strict material selection and fine production; Pay attention to pyrotechnics and be good at stewing; Pay attention to knife work, elegant shape; Moderately salty and sweet, pay attention to the original taste; Take soup as the most important, and have both strong alcohol and alcohol.

"Good food is both national and global. Only by going to the world and integrating into the world can the classics last forever after years of baptism. " John Zhang said, "After becoming the' food capital of the world', Huai 'an will better inherit and carry forward the food culture of Huaiyang cuisine on a global scale, promote the transformation and upgrading of Huaiyang cuisine industry to characteristics and internationalization, and dig deep into the food elements of literature, film and television works, promote the closer and deeper combination of food and tourism, culture and creativity, better carry forward Huaiyang cuisine culture, and let more diners know and taste Huaiyang cuisine."