Although the streets in winter are always cold and howling, everyone has a "goose-legged aunt" in their memory.
The so-called winter to go on the street for a walk, easy to get fat, however, fat on the body, warm in the heart.
Proper "happy fat" beauty.
In the past, Li Bai, when he spit out his embroidery, was half of the Tang Dynasty;
Today, you and I, with a big mouth, can be the whole winter.
Those street food with a great sense of winter happiness——
This winter, have you eaten?
Roasted sweet potatoes
On the cold way home after work, the fiery red "hand warmer" that can be bought for only a few dollars, with it, although it is a long winter night in front of you, you can warm spring flowers in your heart.
At a temple fair in Ditan Park in Beijing in 1985, several foreigners were tasting hot roasted sweet potatoes.
Source: China National Geographic, Issue 07, 2012.
Photo by Wang Wenbo.
Overflowing from the tin stove (big iron bucket) on the side of the street, the fragrance wafts like spring cherry blossoms, slowly burrowing into your nose, but it can capture your lonely and cold winter heart in a second like summer thunder
The four seasons rotate, whenever the year is cold
"Potato" heroes of the world,
It has to be this "soil fat circle"!
Roasted sweet potato, white potato and sweet potato are its most mainstream names, but when it comes to Shanghai, it is called baked potato, and when it comes to Shandong and Northeast China, it is called roasted sweet potato, and Hubei calls it roasted red potato (sháo);
If Shandong people order "sweet potatoes" in Hubei, most of the people served are jicama (cold potatoes).
In 1986, in Xi'an, outside the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, vendors roasted sweet potatoes in **.
2021, Beijing, "Roasted sweet potato" on Guozijian Street.
There are no less than ten or twenty different names for it all over the country, and the name of sweet potatoes in various places can be described as "you have me, I have you";
But just put them in those stoves on the side of the street—
It will unify into the same alluring aroma
The same warm touch like earth
The same lava-like syrup
It spills out of the cracks in the sweet potato pulp!
Don't look at sweet potatoes as inconspicuous
But it has affected my China.
Fujian is its "hometown" in China
When I first arrived, I saved countless Fujian people
And then even more so the population of the whole of China
An order of magnitude increase.
It is native to the Americas, came to Fujian during the Ming Dynasty, and has spread all over the north and south of the river for only more than 200 years, becoming the most common and cheap food, but it has strongly rewritten the trajectory of China's population development.
In 1593, the great drought in Fujian caused a famine, and Chen Zhenlong, a Fujian merchant, introduced sweet potatoes into China and handed them over to Jin Xuezeng, the governor of Fujian
Later, the Fujian people thanked Jin Xuezeng for promoting sweet potatoes and relieving famine, calling them "golden potatoes";
Swipe left to see more.
Before the introduction of sweet potatoes to China, the Chinese mouth did not fluctuate much;Until the introduction of high-yield crops in the Americas represented by sweet potatoes, the ability of land to store population has been greatly improved, and it is one of the important behind-the-scenes drivers of China's rapid population growth since the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Source: China National Geographic, Issue 07, 2012.
Later, even Hokkien dialect was called "sweet potato dialect", and local opera was called "sweet potato opera";Then the sweet potato went from Fujian to Guangzhou, and the Cantonese people knew that it was a foreign product, so they called it "sweet potato".
Chen Zhenlong's family's sweet potato inheritance roadmap——
It was introduced into China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, took root in Fujian, Guangdong and other southeastern provinces, and then spread to the southwest and the Yangtze River basin. In about 200 years, it conquered the north and south of the Great River, inside and outside the Great Wall.
Source: China National Geographic, Issue 07, 2012.
In the early Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the population of Fujian was reduced by more than half due to famine, but only 200 years after the arrival of sweet potatoes, Fujian's population explodedEight, nine times,The country's population has also reached an unprecedented number400 million!
Nowadays, from the north and south of the river, from Hainan in the south, to the seashore in the east, to Heilongjiang in the north, and to Tibet in the west, sweet potatoes can be grownSmall to the streets and alleys,Roasted sweet potatoes are still the most sincere opening words of winter.
It's like a warm sun on the street in winter, Ling Han is warm alone, and only the dark fragrance comes;It was also like a sweet potato-shaped ark that sailed into southeast China, saving one person in ten steps, hiding merit and fame.
Stir-fried chestnuts in sugar
The taste of winter should be the hot roasted sweet potatoes in the big stove, followed by the chestnuts rolling in the hot black sand of the big iron pot.
The long-handled shovel keeps stirring, plus the "sand bath" of black iron sand and the stickiness of the starch syrup, the chestnuts are evenly heated, and the chestnut shells are bright red and oily, and the bright yellow meat is exposed in the cracks, and the color and fragrance are lively, just as Mr. Lao She described, even"Firewood and smoke are incense".
In Beijing in 1924, fried chestnuts with sugar were made on the street.
However, if the chestnuts are not opened, then the chestnuts that have just come out of the pot must not be in a hurry to eatIt's really going to explode!
Chestnuts that have just come out of the pot are comparable to a cannon, and the word "bursting chestnut" is definitely "famous" (bursting chestnut: refers to hitting the head with a prominent knuckle).
Chestnut is native to our countryIn addition to chestnut, there are about 12 species of chestnut, cone, Japanese chestnut, European chestnut, and American chestnut.
Chinese chestnuts are divided into two major strains: northern chestnut and southern chestnut.
Northern chestnuts are mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of Yanshan, Taihang Mountains and neighboring areas in North China, the skin is dark in color, the flesh is glutinous, the fragrance is strong, and it is suitable for making fried chestnuts with sugar
Southern chestnut is mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with high starch content and japonica flesh, which is suitable for stir-frying, also known as vegetable chestnut.
The northern chestnut should be cooked and processed, and the southern chestnut can be eaten raw instead of fruit. So,The sweet aroma of chestnuts fried in sugar in winter is basically due to the northern chestnuts.
One of the representative varieties of southern chestnuts, Wangmo chestnut (top) from southwest Guizhou, and one of the representative varieties of northern chestnut, Qianxi chestnut from Tangshan, Hebei.
Among them, the Liangxiang chestnut (i.e. Fangshan chestnut) in Fangshan District, Beijing is particularly famous, and because it was concentrated in Tianjin export in the past, it is also called "Tianjin Liangxiang chestnut".
There are also the Ming chestnut that moved west from Hebei, the tiger claw chestnut from Huairou in Beijing, the big oil chestnut from Tancheng in Shandong, and the big chestnut from Zhen'an, Shaanxi, all of which have their own merits.
A sweet aroma of fried chestnuts.
In Yanbian, Jilin, the Spring Festival is approaching, and the citizens are rushing to buy New Year's goods.
It is common in the streets and alleys of the north and south, who opened the sugar-fried chestnuts?
Legend has it that as early as the Chu and Han dynasties, Yu Ji would fry sugar chestnuts to celebrate after Xiang Yu's victory;
However, the earliest written record of fried chestnuts is in the Song DynastyThe Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You believedThe best thing to soothe hunger in the middle of the night in winter is fried chestnutsEven if your teeth are loose in your later years, it is difficult to give up this favor.
Chestnuts and persimmons are both representative of autumn and winter, and often appear together. Gao Xiang, one of the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" in the Qing Dynasty, once painted "Chestnut Persimmon Picture", taking the homonym of persimmon and things, chestnuts and profits, and asking for a good color of "all things auspicious".
Source: "Naturalist" Issue 10, 2020.
Sugar gourd
This string of fiery red has been out of China.
Recently,The popularity of Chinese sugar gourds has overtaken fried rice cakes in South Korea.
According to CCTV financial reports, the number of online searches for sugar gourds in South Korea once skyrocketed compared with the same period last year15 timesSales have also increased by more than 10 times in just a few monthsOn the ** platform, the production, eating and broadcasting of sugar gourds have also been ...... nearly 10 million times
Source: CCTV Finance.
In addition to South Korea, as early as 2017, Chinese sugar gourds landed at the New Year's Market in St. Petersburg, Russia, and became unexpectedly popular, selling more than 10,000 pieces in 8 days, and was rated as "the most popular foreign snack in the New Year" by Russians who love sweets.
When I looked back at the country, I found that the sugar gourd was overwhelming a lot of small barbecuesIt should be the most "wild" string in the Northeast
Pig's trotters with rock sugar. Rock sugar hairy crab.
Rock sugar cucumbers, rock sugar apples, and even rock sugar peppers, we are still mentally prepared, but when we see rock sugar shrimp crawlers, fritters and crabs, we will still be shocked.
In the Northeast, everything can be sugar gourd
Silkworm pupa, broccoli, spicy strips, and even steamed buns and crispy noodles ......All can be sweetly frozen, between the crunch of the lips and teeth, providing the unique satisfaction you need for winter.
In addition, there is also a "Northeast Limited" version of a sugar gourd with a height of "one meter eight", and some netizens said: I am afraid that the next step is not to rock sugar hawthorn trees.
In Beijing in 1924, super-long sugar gourds appeared in the New Year's market, like tree branches.
The sugar gourd first appeared in the south of the Yangtze River, but eventually found its way in the north, especially in Beijing, where it almost became a city symbol.
In the work "Selling Cloth Heads" by cross talk actors Guo Degang and Yu Qian, the "rock sugar gourd" in Beijing's northern city is tactful and melodious, and Tianjin is called "Dun'er!".It can be scary.
In Beijing, sugar gourd is also called rock sugar gourd;Tianjin is called Sugar Dumpling;In Shandong, Qingdao calls it a sugar ball, and Jinan calls it a sour dip;Taiwan's sugar gourd is called black pear paste, which is a layer of red syrup wrapped in pickled pearsKeelung uses strawberries to make sugar gourds, which are wrapped in a syrup made of white sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar, and maltose.
The "leader" in the winter sugar gourd industry - strawberry sugar gourd.
Today's strawberry sugar gourd, because of its more expensive ** and rare taste in winter, has gradually become the sugar gourd world"A Symbol of Status";
But there are also those who believe that everything except the hawthorn's is not "authentic".
It's time to test the teeth.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial physician used to boil the begonia ball (hawthorn) with brown sugar to appetize the concubine;Therefore, only the sugar gourd made of hawthorn can be described as "noble".
On the streets of Beijing in the 1870s, children who bought sugar gourds (hand-colored old **).
Later, the hawthorn sugar gourd spread to the folk, the common people like to eat with bamboo sticks, and gradually the size of the two fruits strung together, the small one is on the top, the big one is on the bottom, it is very similar to the gourd, and because the gourd is homophonic with "Fulu", meaning auspicious wishes, "sugar gourd" spread like this.
Malatang
In 2008, Tianjin Yang Liuqing, "mobile" Malatang.
Especially after the snow in winter, the outdoor Malatang has a more "inner taste" than the indoors.
From a distance, a tricycle is steaming, full of ingredients ready to go, scattering a numb aroma, and it seems to be steaming auspicious clouds between the ice and snow, it is not a tricycle, but one"Gluttonous Cat Catcher".
As soon as the evening rush hour arrives, the number of diners increases sharply, and people who have just gotten off work gather in circles from all directions, just like a hundred rivers from the east to the sea.
All kinds of people take out their favorites from the dazzling array of ingredients, and after the stall owner is bothered, they either eat it in their hands, or eat it with their heads buried in their waists, and the heavy taste will be dipped in a dry dish, and everyone eats very seriously;The white qi around him and the white qi around his mouth lingered endlessly, like a divine power to protect his body.
Malatang first originated in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, and there was a ballad of eating Malatang at that time:
In the 80s, the street stood at the foot of the electric pole and skewered the strings. A casserole, a few dishes, a plate of dry dishes for everyone to dip.
In 2005, the streets of Chengdu were spicy.
The spicinessness of the Sichuan-Chongqing region is still the whole country.
Together with several special chefs, the scholars collected the recipes of 12 provinces and cities including Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Shanghai, and Beijing as samples, and made detailed statistics on the spicy condiments (including chili peppers, Sichuan peppers, etc.) added to each dish in the recipes, and made changes to the taste and spiciness of their different forms of dishes, so as to calculate the spicy index of each regional dish.
Source: China National Geographic, Issue 02, 2014.
There is a "puzzle of the century" that plagues the people of the whole country -
What is the difference between spicy tang and steamed vegetables?
Steamed vegetables. The guess is as follows:
If you have more reasonable answers, please speak in the comment area).
For example, steamed vegetables need to be served with rice, but Malatang does not;For example, the soup with steamed vegetables is not suitable for drinking, while many spicy soups are deliciousAnother example is that spicy tang is often served by one person, while steamed dishes can be enjoyed by one or more people.
Secondly, although there are many differences between Mao Cai and Malatang, they are actually very close "close relatives", and they have a common ancestor with Chuanchuan Xiang and Bowl ChickenChafing dish.
(Tao Ding, which appeared in the New Era era more than 10,000 years ago, may have been.)It is the prototype of hot pot).
The four-legged double-layered square pottery tripod of the New Era era is considered to be a "small hot pot" from more than 4,000 years ago.
Source: Nanjing Museum.
However, although many cooked foods are homologous, it is obvious that Malatang alone is the same"North-South Differences",It's really not unpleasant.
In Sichuan, when it comes to spicy hot, people will think about hot pot, steamed vegetables, skewers, and bowl chickens one by one, and even as the birthplace of Malatang, they will ask what is "Malatang"?Isn't that just a steamed dish?
In short, the impression of "Malatang" in the minds of Sichuan people is roughly toRed oilAs a base color——
But in the Northeast, the background color of Malatang has become mainly sesame sauceMilky whiteinterspersed with red oil flowers.
Sichuan spicy hot ** is"Pepper"., to the northeast becomes"Sesame sauce"., it seems that the difference is very small, but in fact it is a world of difference.
Many Sichuan people can't accept the milky soup base at allBut whether it is the sesame sauce version or the sesame pepper version, Northeast people can easily fall in love with it. It can only be said that in the field of winter food, God really favors the Great Northeast too much.
Hu spicy soup
In the winter of the Central Plains, a bowl of spicy soup in the morning will make you energetic all day.
Q: How much do Henan people love Hu spicy soup?
Answer: Morning can't be without it anyway.
Can spicy soup be served with bread?The picture shows tons and tons of spicy soup.
When it comes to the word "Hu spicy soup", the vast majority of Henan people will have a reflexive appetite, and in almost all Henan cities and towns, there will be a stall-like Hu spicy soup restaurant, which is often busy early in the morning and boils a big pot of soup.
The soup is mutton bone or beef bone soup, and there are often fried fresh fat mutton, beef, gluten, daylily, batter, enoki mushroom, flour skin, and of course, more than 20 kinds of ingredients such as minced green onions, ginger, pepper, pepper, fennel, etc., which are mixed together and boiled into a thick pot.
The picture shows some of the ingredients needed for Hu spicy soup.
There are also differences in the recipe of Hu spicy soup in different regions and genres, and some wanderers who work and live in other places all the year round will stuff a few packets of Hu spicy soup in their suitcases to satisfy their cravings when they are homesick. For them, Hu spicy soup is the hometown in their memory, and it is also an indelible family affection.
Source: "Chinese Heritage" 2019 Issue 01.
The Central Plains is located in Kyushu, and it is also particular about food"Medium".The word, not too sweet, not too salty, not too spicy, not too sour, adhere to the harmony of the five flavors, moderate in texture, peaceful and palatable without irritation. But Henan people prefer this "heavy" breakfast - Hu spicy soup.
The Central Plains has four distinct seasons, dry and cold in winter, hot and humid in summer, Hu spicy soup can not only warm the stomach, drive away cold, but also dispel dampness and detoxify, and the therapeutic value of food therapy is significant, so it is accepted and loved by the people all over Henan.
After drinking a bowl of belly, I only felt a warm current radiating from my chest and abdomen to the end of my skin pores, and I sweated freely!This special spicy is spicy out of the cold hidden in the body, and even more spicy out of the nostalgia of Henan people.
Night markets are still a feature of the ancient city of Kaifeng, and there are more than a dozen in the city alone. "Tokyo Menghualu" records the prosperity of the night economy in Bianliang, Kyoto, Northern Song Dynasty: the night market did not reopen until the third watch, and then the fifth watch.
Source: China National Geographic Supplement, Issue 12, 2020.
Photo by Ma Kwok Wai.
Winter street food "ceiling",
It's too much, and it's too much to discuss.
For example, the "C position" of the roadside stall in Guangzhou is occupied by beef offal all year round;Hokkien people can find a winter home in the ginger duck of "one pot and one stew", as well as mutton steamed buns in Xi'an, fried liver in Beijing, sauce bones in Harbin, steamed pot chicken in Changchun, roasted wheat in Shenyang, and Li Hongzhang's hodgepodge ...... in HefeiThose winter delicacies that burn the winter and warm the heart, I really can't talk about it for three days and three nights.
Winter night market in Haikou.
When I opened the door and walked to the street, I actually opened the refrigerator door and walked into the winter, and in front of me was a super-large refrigerator called "Shenzhou Dadi", which had everything delicious.
Here, I also look forward to you saying itOnly for you - the warmest winter delicacy!
References]1] "Sweet Potato: The Potato of Life that Rewrites History", China National Geographic, 2012, 07.
2] "Fried Dark Yellow with Chestnuts on a Plate", Chinese Heritage, Issue 02, 2018.
3] "Cooking Tea and Simmering Chestnuts to Celebrate the New Autumn" Museum, Issue 10, 2020.
4] "Fried Chestnuts - Accompanied by Sugar Sand, Through the Past and the Present", Museum, 2011, Issue 03.
5] "Chinese sugar gourd suddenly exploded in South Korea!".More popular than fried rice cakes!The search volume skyrocketed by 1459%, setting off a wave of entrepreneurship ......China Food News November 15, 2023.
6] "Who is the Chinese stall food no."1. National Geographic of China, June 9, 2020.
7] "Hu Spicy Soup, Spicy Out of Henan People's Homesickness", Health Care Guide, No. 12, 2014.
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