The local food culture of Huili Ancient City

Huili’s food culture has a long history and is very local. The special geographical location and long history and culture have created Huili's unique food culture. Huili has also gained the reputation of "Little Chengdu" because of its various snacks and famous dishes. The real signature snack is the mutton noodles that can be found all over the streets. The cooking method and condiments used in Huili Mutton Noodles completely combine the spicy and fragrant Sichuan flavor with the original and bold style of local ethnic minorities.

Huili’s mutton is famous, and the rice noodles used are also special. It is thicker than the ordinary rice noodles in Kunming, and much rougher and bolder than the water-haired fine noodles commonly seen in Chengdu, Xichang and other places. Some people think that it is a little rough, hard and thick, and it is not easy to absorb the flavor, but mutton noodles must be blanched with this kind of coarse powder to have a unique flavor. The meat is thick and fat, the soup is thick and full of ingredients, it is as white as jade, soft yet strong. It lacks the graceful and delicate petty bourgeois sentiment of a prosperous city and has more of the rough persistence and enthusiasm of an ancient mountain city. There is a unique beauty of primitiveness and wildness.

Mutton powder is the first choice for breakfast for many smart people. It is eaten in a buffet style. It uses rich and colorful condiments to cover up its murderous aura, such as sea pepper and douban. , millet spicy, a brutal superposition of three spicy flavors, and then spread ginger rice, chopped green onion, and coriander all over the bowl, showing off the unruly personality. Baikuai is a rice-made convenience food originated in Yunnan. It is cheap, high-quality and can be eaten in various ways. Since its introduction to Huili in the Ming Dynasty, Baikuai has been continuously developed and improved by combining the cooking styles of the north and the south. Its cooking methods have greatly exceeded the simple limitations of the monotonous roasting and boiling methods of its origin.

Bait Kuai is fragrant, glutinous, soft and sweet, and can be blended with various flavors. It can be eaten in various ways. The most famous way is the famous chicken and fire shredded bait Kuai. The snow-white bait threads are passed through boiling water in a delicate copper hot pot. The rooster meat is carefully torn into thin shreds by hand. The best lean ham meat is also cut into thin shreds. Then a few slices of green vegetables are blanched. Red and white, beautifully piled on top of a bowl.

The secret of whether the chicken and shredded bait pieces are authentic or not lies in the last spoonful of broth. Observe its color: white with red inside; taste it: thick but not greasy. It has the smell of ham, fresh chicken, strong bone marrow, and a deep, thick, indescribable smell. Copper hot pot is one of the three treasures of Huili. Since ancient times, Huili folk have had the habit of cooking dishes with copper pots and utensils. Dishes cooked in copper pots have a special fragrance and are very delicious.

Huili folk custom is to cook copper hotpot in winter and spring. The eating method is similar to the Lianguozi in Sichuan cuisine. It mainly stews mixed vegetables. It is characterized by fresh soup and delicious meat. Soft and tasty, steamy and nutritious. The copper hot pot uses charcoal as fuel, stews pork ribs, lamb ribs, beef, beef offal, chicken, duck, etc. with soup, seasoned with pepper, ginger, green onions, etc., and then boils the seasonal vegetables after the soup is thick and the meat is tender. Sitting around and sharing food, the operation is simple, convenient and trouble-free. The sauce used is made of home-made watercress, chili oil, minced shallots, spicy millet and minced garlic, giving it a strong taste. You can also add in seasonal vegetables and boil them while eating. The soup will become more delicious as it stews. The utensils for making iron rakes are shaped like old-fashioned charcoal irons. Small black copper pots are placed on the charcoal stove. The stall owner skillfully turns the iron cakes in the pots with a small iron drill until both sides show a slight color. Brown. This kind of food must be eaten hot to be delicious. The sweet and sour fermentation of the rice milk matches the creamy texture of the eggs. When you bite into it, you will be filled with softness and fragrant glutinous rice. Together with the light burnt taste, your whole body will be filled with heat. It is enough Fight the early morning chill.

Thin bean flour and oil tea are also traditional foods in Huili. The lighter taste is especially suitable for the elderly and children. The thin soybean flour is made from local high-quality peas and is slowly fried over a slow fire, then finely ground and processed into powder, and the residue is filtered. When eating, stir evenly and boil with water to make it hot. To make camellia oleifera, first break the white rice into fine powder, put it into a pot and add water to stir it into a slurry, then heat it and simmer it until the rice paste is cooked and sticky to a spoon, then you can put it in a bowl.

Simmer the oil tea and thin soybean flour slowly over low heat. Fill the porcelain bowl with the golden rice milk, grab a handful of crispy rice noodles, and then spoon in a few spoons of pepper oil and sesame oil. , ginger juice, put it in front of you in a large pointed bowl, stir it gently with a spoon, it will be soft and thick, with a slight peppery taste on the tip of your tongue. Going to the West Street next to the Bell and Drum Tower to chew tube bones is a customary closing ceremony for Huili people to entertain guests for late-night snacks. Chengdu people pioneered the laoma hoof flower, but Huili people took a different approach and introduced the stewed tube bone. The pork ribs are stewed slowly in a large bowl over low heat. The soup looks greasy and the marrow is thick, the bones are crispy and the meat is flossy, the steam is flaming, and the texture is moist. The rugged bones like silver hooks and iron paintings reveal the charm of round jade beads, moistening teeth and white lips.

After thousands of years of continuous absorption, change, inheritance, and innovation, Huili’s food culture gradually spread to the surrounding areas, affecting the taste and cooking techniques of southern Sichuan and northern Yunnan. There are many kinds of home-cooked foods, which vary according to the season, products, and the economic situation of each household, but the preparation methods of these foods are similar.

⑴ Rice. People in both urban and rural areas like to make soup with eggs, sauerkraut, minced meat, fresh vegetables (including wild vegetables) and add it to rice. This is the best way to deal with the leftover cold rice. Features: hot, soup and vegetables.

⑵ There are many varieties of vegetables and rice, mainly including:

(1) Braised rice with greens and cabbages. Use greens and cabbages, add white oil, use half-cooked rice or glutinous rice, place the vegetables on the bottom layer The rice grains are simmered and eaten, which is similar to the vegetable rice in the southeastern provinces.

The characteristics are: oil, fragrance, heat, food and food.

(2) Potato and green bean stewed rice: Use potatoes and fresh green beans, cook them with white oil or raw bacon, add water to cover the half-cooked rice, and simmer over low heat. You must add ground Sichuan peppercorns and salt before serving. Stir and serve. Characteristics are: oily, fragrant and strong.

(3) When the green bean stewed rice bowl and beans are on the market in spring, choose beans and rice (beans include white shells and whole green beans), first put raw ham or bacon in the pot to cook and flavor. Finally, the surface is covered with half-cooked rice, add a small amount of water, and simmer over a slow fire. It is required that the meat and rice are not mushy, the grains are shiny, fragrant, and warm.

(4) The sauerkraut bait is faster than the edible bait. In the early period of the Republic of China, sugar water was often used to cook the bait and the grains were added (including market snacks). The salty bait was eaten at home, and sauerkraut (salted green vegetables, salted cabbage) and meat slices were often used. At the same time, cook in a pot. This is similar to Yunnan's boiled meat bait, which has the characteristics of clear soup and fresh taste.

(5) Green bean rice cake in spring. Boil green bean rice first, add brown sugar water, soak thoroughly and mix with glutinous rice noodles: knead and knead into a tube shape: then slice evenly with a knife (each piece contains beans inside) rice), then deep-fried and roasted in a pan. It can also be made by mixing the cooked green beans and rice with Chunjian (Chinese toon), kneading them into a fully salty tube shape (adding Sichuan peppercorns), slicing them, frying them, and roasting them (the same goes for green peas). It is required that the dough is not mushy, golden brown, fragrant and soft.

(6) Yellow flower cake: The tender stamens of Qingming vegetables that bloom everywhere in spring are kneaded finely by hand, then glutinous rice flour and sugar water are added, and they are kneaded into tube-shaped slices and baked. This product is characterized by its refreshing fragrance.

(7) Persimmon flower cake In autumn and winter, choose persimmons (commonly known as persimmon flowers), peel them, knead them thinly, add rice noodles or glutinous rice noodles, and make a steamed wotou (concave in the middle, hat-shaped) before eating. It can also be made into cakes and baked. The characteristic of this product is that it does not add sugar but has the flavor of persimmon sugar juice, which can satisfy your hunger.

(8) Tangyuan is a common food at home. It uses glutinous rice noodles as raw materials, and uses bean paste, peanuts, and sesame seeds mixed with lard or chicken fat and white sugar to make the filling. Then knead and wrap it in the noodles. , knead it evenly, put it in water and boil it. When the soup is cooked, it will float and it can be eaten. Tangyuan can be divided into large and small shapes. The big soupyuan, known as "Big Yuanbao", is mostly made into large soupyuan with only four pieces in each bowl in rural areas, while urban residents tend to make small ones (6 to 8 pieces in each bowl). There are also solid soup dumplings that are not filled with fillings. After they are cooked, they are put into a basin with soybean noodles and rolled. After evenly mixing, they are put into a bowl and added with sugar for consumption (commonly known as "beef twisting"). The small Jialao Zao is called "Little Tangyuan".

(9) Happy dumplings: The ingredients for dumplings are the same and the method is the same. The only requirement is that the fabric is not too wet and it is made by steaming.

(10) Dumplings Qing are made from rice flour, kneaded and steamed with fillings.

(11) For dry rice cakes, use rice or glutinous rice flour, gradually mix with water, and knead evenly until it is not dry and becomes fine particles. Put a little water in the steamer, add fine brown sugar and sprinkle it on the surface. , add another layer of rice noodles, sprinkle water and sugar noodles in the same way, (can be added to 4 to 5 layers), sprinkle candied fruit particles and sugar on the top layer and steam it. The cake is required to be firm and soft.

(12) Noodle soup (noodle soup) can be eaten in all seasons. There are two types: sweet water and mixed vegetables. Cut the sweet water noodles into half pieces, and prepare them with seasonings (sour, numbing, spicy), and the noodles must have good gluten and strong flavor. The cooking method of mixed vegetables varies greatly depending on the ingredients. Generally, only a few kinds of fresh vegetables are mixed together and cooked together. A few are particular about multi-choice. When melons, beans, and chicken seedlings are on the market in summer and autumn, ham and fresh meat are added to make soup. The dough must be kneaded hard and repeated many times. , cut into strips, and put the noodles into the pot. The noodles should be large, with good gluten, not thick soup, fresh, sweet and delicious.

(13) Rice jelly: Soak the rice and grind it into a slurry, cook it in a pot until it becomes a paste, add clear lime water, mix well and place it in a bowl. Available in both sweet and salty flavors. For sweet ones, choose tender ones that are diluted with sugar (commonly known as cold cakes), while for salty ones, you need to have strong muscles and not stick to your teeth.

(14) Rice cakes. Fresh corn kernels are grinded and fermented into a clear paste. Eggs can be added to stir-fry the rice cakes before baking. For steamed rice cakes, the young rice leaves are spread and steamed. The characteristic is that it has a strong fragrance of grains and does not stick to teeth or leaves. In addition, the same method is used to make cakes from raw materials such as buckwheat and sorghum.

(15) Soft Kangba (pot stall): Make a slurry with wheat flour, add sugar (sweet taste), add leek section, green onion section salt (salty taste), put a little oil and spread the pot noodles evenly. Slowly put it around to form a pot ring shape and bake over low heat. This is the most convenient food to satisfy hunger at home.

(16) Potato glutinous rice cake: first cook the potato, tear off the skin and press it into a paste, then add flour or glutinous rice flour and knead it, add pepper and salt seasoning, make it into a cake shape, and fry it Or baked, the cake must be foamy, magnetic, numb and fragrant.

(17) Porridge: People who know how to cook at home often cook porridge. The raw materials are different and there are many varieties, such as rice porridge, glutinous rice porridge, rice porridge, red potato porridge, etc. Glutinous rice porridge can be added with lily, saponin, tremella, bird's nest, etc. There are many varieties. Make it clear and thick, with no uncooked rice grains. The "Laba porridge" that every household must cook in the twelfth lunar month every year is a combination of rice, soy milk, diced bacon, green cabbage, red and white radish and more than eight kinds of raw materials. It is similar to the northwest provinces and should be a custom in the north. incoming.

(18) Double Ninth Cake A steamed cake during the Double Ninth Festival in September. The fermented dough is used to make a cake with a washed sand bun filling, a flat body and a seamed edge. The noodles are diluted with sugar and soybean noodles, giving it a unique flavor.

(19) Boiling medicinal roots during the Dragon Boat Festival. In addition to eating other items during the Dragon Boat Festival every May, every household has the habit of boiling medicinal roots.

The raw materials must include bacon bones, fresh pork trotters, etc. The simmering soup is boiled with a variety of local medicinal materials (burdock root, orchid root, adenophora, etc.), which has the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying. Huili customs are hospitable and attach great importance to etiquette. In the process of socializing with each other, there are many banquets. Banquets are held at annual temple fairs, guild celebrations, weddings and funerals, birthdays, birthdays, etc. Therefore, purchasing food has become an important part of cultural life. . In the Qing Dynasty, Huili could host a full banquet of Manchu and Han Dynasties (with many varieties and complex production techniques). During the Republic of China, most of the food culture was still preserved, and full-time chefs had superb skills, including cutting, stir-frying, steaming, deep-frying, and frying (roasted suckling pig). Feasts of different natures have different forms and contents: the following is a summary of the differences in the content of the dishes.

⑴ The arrangement of dishes. It turns out that the general configuration of dishes is first based on ingredients, and also varies according to different properties. The most commonly seen banquets are: first, plate rice: seven dishes and one soup (steamed, grilled, stir-fried); second, large group banquet : It is commonly known as the "Nine Bowls" and is used when there are many guests at weddings and funerals. The banquet is very scientific. The materials used vary slightly depending on the season. The most important thing is the use of pork, so as not to waste it. It is used for preparing banquets. Secondly, when purchasing, the process is simple, only steaming and stewing are used (frying and stir-frying are mostly used for breakfast). It is a good plan. All the dishes are served quickly when the banquet begins. The recipes are as follows:

Zuanwan (large bowl) Fake chicken glutinous rice (large bowl)

Crispy pork (large bowl) Roasted pork and bamboo shoots (large bowl)

Sweet Glutinous rice (small bowl), soup dumplings <; small bowl)

Steamed eggs (small bowl), chimney pork (small bowl)

Tuotuo pork (all fatty meat, named after Fujian Produce red rice flour as raw material to turn red)

(Small bowl) Note; small bowl is a medium bowl

There are changes in the small bowl of vegetable dishes on the table, such as using ham and green vegetable moss (small bowl) Bowl) shredded kelp (small bowl), there are various changes. Large bowls will remain the same. For wedding banquets, red egg slices are added to the noodles, and for funeral banquets, cabbage is added.

For everyone's dinner, only when the chef uses meat, set aside the breakfast dishes (liver and tripe), and then add the rest to the bowls. Frying, stewing, and steaming are all in order, and the preparation for everyone's dinner is complete (copper). Stewing pot, steamer), it plays a one-step role, and the banquet is organized and not messy at all.

Remarks: You can also use real chicken to make glutinous rice for the banquet, and you can also add it to the bowl. Sea cucumbers and other items, it depends on the host's situation.

The third is the five-pressed table finger arrangement of dried and fresh fruits

The fourth is the three-fold water banquet finger-shaped cold dish<. /p>

The fifth is thirteen plates, which means using thirteen plates

The sixth is ten large pieces and ten full-foot large plates to serve the dishes

The main dishes of these banquets, According to the ingredients: steam, stew, stir-fry, braise and other dishes, it can also be divided into two types: soup, soup, sweet and salty food. Here are some recipes:

Cuansi. It uses the local specialty "Cao Shan Zhen" Jue (dried) moss as the main ingredient, steams it with ham, fresh meat, shredded green bamboo shoots, etc., then turns the bowl over and adds shredded egg skin and fills it with green soup.

< p>Sea cucumber with hoof flower and sea cucumber cooked with hoof flower

Crisp sea cucumber is placed on the bottom of crispy yellow fried rice rice, and then topped with braised sea cucumber with sauce

Stewed with embroidered oil shark's fin The shark's fin is placed on the plate and looks like embroidered oil.

The fried squid with shredded chicken is stir-fried with shredded chicken, leeks, and squid. The squid must be dry and soft when moist, and the chicken must be fried with thinly sliced ??breast meat. The rear can be fresh and tender.

Dinged chicken is divided into spicy chicken diced (stir-fried with sea pepper), Gongbao chicken (fried with crispy peanuts on the bottom and fried with sea pepper), and rice diced chicken (chop the chicken into fine dices and stir-fry).

The fried pork belly and pork loin require strict knife skills (the belly should be hollow and flower-shaped, and the loin should be cut into flower shapes). This dish needs to be stir-fried over high heat to achieve both crispiness and tenderness. .

Chicken meat is minced with chicken breast meat, stir-fried with oil, and then added with diced ham. It is hot, fragrant and oily.

Mix the gold and silver brain flower with egg yolk juice and cook it in the pot until it becomes yellowish white.

Steamed chicken with rice flour

Mix rice noodles with raw materials and add oil and steam in a basket

Steamed pork with rice flour

Steamed rice noodles are small dishes (eating) (Used on time)

Vegetarian stew is a soup dish. It can be made with fish maw, bamboo fungus, mushrooms, and mushrooms, added with small meatball egg skins, etc., and can be used as a meal. Those who are particular about it can have three vegetarian dishes, but the contents are different.

Sweet soup is made from various fruits with rock sugar, jujube, etc., or spooned with white fungus, bird's nest, saponin rice, live indica rice, etc. Be particular about serving three kinds of sweet soup (different content)

Bean puree is made by boiling green beans and pressing them into cyanotic puree, and then burning them with a large amount of lard to achieve the requirements of sweetness, oiliness and hotness.

For roasting, choose meat (pork belly) and braise it in braise. Stir-fry it first, then add juice and water, then put it in a casserole and bake it over low heat. Then add rock sugar. The juice should be thickened until it becomes silky (commonly known as hanging) and steamed at the same time. There are small steamed buns mixed with juice and water to eat.

Note: Vegetarian stew is commonly known as salty and hot food.

Sweet soup is commonly known as sweet and hot food.

Eggplant cakes are made from fresh tomatoes, filled with minced meat, cut into pieces, and fried in oil.

Meat heart bean sprouts use mung bean sprouts as the raw material. First, use chopsticks to stuff the minced meat into the heart, and then fry it. This kind of dish is a skill that requires patience and a long time to complete.

Fried Chun Pancakes are made from Chun sprouts, leeks and minced meat in spring, wrapped in egg skin and fried.

Fried liver rolls are made of liver slices wrapped in net oil and peanuts, and fried.

Seasonal stir-fried dishes are made according to different seasons. For example, in spring, there are golden hook bean rice, white oil Qingyuan (peas), baked spring eggs, and in autumn, there are fried bamboo shoots, fried chicken, etc. It is also useful to stir-fry dried magnolia slices (bamboo shoots) with ham.

The recipes are varied and cannot be listed one by one. The firing methods vary depending on the materials and varieties. For example, suckling pig is roasted slowly using tools to ensure the meat is cooked, tender and the skin is yellow and crispy. There are also differences in seasoning when cooking fresh fish. For example, crispy-skinned fish should be deep-fried to make the skin crispy before being cooked, and fish pieces should also be deep-fried in oil. The skin must be translucent. Fresh fish must be souped with pickled cabbage to make it delicious. In addition, there are also cold foods, which are boiled with pig's trotters and pig skin into thick fat, placed on a plate, and cooled inside, which is called "frozen". Some fried fresh fish are placed under the plate and then poured with fat. After cooling, they become "fish jelly". They also use black goat meat as raw material to prepare a "whole sheep banquet". This refers to all kinds of dishes made with mutton, not the all-lamb banquets served by the Qing Dynasty palace. To make a whole sheep feast, you must choose fat and strong wethers. After slaughtering, the hair and skin are removed and processed. Most of them are steamed, stewed, stir-fried, fried and other methods. Among them, "Yang Ba Chuan" is an example, which is a piece of meat cut into pieces with skin and steamed. It is similar to a pork elbow and requires fat and oil. When eating a whole lamb banquet, the juices all over the table are often full of fat, which shows that the sheep are fat. There are also many changes in preparing soups. Hot pot is often used in autumn and winter. You can cook raw chicken nuggets or boiled tofu curds; you can cut raw meat slices, sashimi, and boil raw tripe (commonly known as alive); some add chrysanthemums. Silk is called "Chrysanthemum Hot Pot". It should also be mentioned that many people who believe in Buddhism are trying to prepare "vegetarian banquets" with the same name as meat and vegetables.

The several table names mentioned above must be explained to understand their meaning:

The five-pressure table means that the above-mentioned various main dishes are put on the table before they are served. of five fruit dishes. Generally there are rock sugar, dragon legs, honey money, fruits, etc.

Sandieshui refers to the cold dish pattern. If ham is used as the ingredient, cut it into slices of the same length, place them on the plate in two rows according to the distance between the knife edges, and then cover them with one row in the middle so that they overlap: the rows are like waterfalls overlapping water. The fruits (sugar cane pieces, sweet potato pieces, etc.) are also made in the same way.

Thirteen plates are the most exquisite banquet noodles, which refer to the dishes (roasted whites, stir-fried, etc.) that are served one after another in the middle and end of the banquet. Thirteen plates.

The top ten dishes are derived from Jiangnan cuisine in the 1930s. They all use full-foot large dishes, such as whole chicken, whole duck, etc., to show the richness of the dishes.

An important part of the feast is "desserts". Generally, snacks are given before the meal, and in luxurious cases, snacks are given during and after the meal. The snack content is 3 to 4 pieces of food (small steamed buns, steamed cakes, fried flower cakes, spring rolls, siu mei, etc. (Huili chefs usually use vegetable juice to mix the noodles with noodles, and they will turn green after steaming). Some are also given as a gift. Original soup dumplings, crystal dumplings (sesame heart seeds), etc.

The banquet is most particular about etiquette, and the variety reflects the appetite. The longevity banquet must be added with longevity peach (steamed noodles), or Eat noodles. During the full moon feast, red eggs are given, etc. The tableware should be placed in an orderly manner and should not be placed randomly. The mat paper should be used (the inner layer is made of earthen paper and the outer layer is made of glossy paper with different meanings). Under the chopsticks, wine and food should be served according to the directions so as not to interfere with the guests' dining, etc. There are also papers on the table for guests to carry snacks, candies, etc., commonly known as "candied bags" for banquets held in various provincial guild halls. During weddings, there are different forms of "Zunbao". For example, in the Northern Five Provinces Guild Hall, according to northern customs, big steamed buns (commonly called big buns, as big as a big bowl) are steamed and brought back as "Zanbao".

The banquet held by the council is polite and orderly, which fully reflects the high meaning of food culture (oriental civilization), and also shows the scientificity (reasonable combination of dishes) and artistry (various dishes).