1, hot pot soup base

The soup base is the background of hot pot. It is said that the earliest beef hot pot in Shantou area, the practice of soup base is to add sand tea sauce directly into the pot, which has a strong taste and is gradually simplified later. At present, the bottom soup of Chaoshan hot pot pays attention to the word "Qing". Although there is a heavy medicated diet pot, the clear soup pot is always the most respected, so this soup base will test the freshness and original flavor of all kinds of rinse materials. The mainstream Chaoshan beef hotpot has clear water and beef bone soup at the bottom. Sometimes put a few white radishes in the bottom of the clear water pot, add a few beef ribs to the beef bone soup, and sometimes there are beef balls, white radishes and corn. Every pot of beef bone soup comes out, full of natural fragrance and fresh fragrance of beef bones. The reason why white radish and corn are put is that they can not only absorb oil to relieve boredom, but also extract fresh meat and increase the flavor of meat. Serve at the bottom of the pot. After the pot is boiled, first scoop a bowl of clear soup, add some celery powder to the bowl and drink it while it is hot.

2. Beef

Outside the local area, it is difficult to eat authentic Chaoshan beef pot. The reason is that the protagonist-Chaoshan beef is very particular about the word "fresh-cut". Chaoshan people have high requirements for beef. They want to eat beef and beef balls slaughtered that day, and they also want to eat them. They can't mix minced pork or powder. In addition, the storage time of beef slices will also affect the taste and taste.

Most of the cattle in Chaoshan hot pot come from mountain cattle in Guizhou, Sichuan. It takes about 2-year-old cattle to make hot pot, usually local yellow cattle. The meat suitable for hot pot accounts for only about 35%, which is precious. The second piece of beef can be made into beef balls, beef tendon balls and beef patties, and the rest can be made into beef brisket, so the whole body will not be wasted anyway.

Many exquisite stores will also identify the gender of cattle. Bull's meat is tough and suitable for making meatballs, while beef and pickled beef are soft and more suitable for making hot pot. Many hot pot restaurants in Shantou are near slaughterhouses and even have their own cattle farms, in order to ensure that they can provide diners with freshly slaughtered beef.

In addition to fresh meat, knife work is also indispensable. Master must cut beef by hand, never use a machine. This is a technical job. If it is not cut properly, the beef will taste rough and even difficult to bite.

Step 3 break down all parts of beef

Chaoshan Hotpot Restaurant has dozens of different parts of beef and offal to choose from, and the local people's names for different parts of beef are also very distinctive, which often confuses foreign diners: neck kernel, hanging dragon, spoon kernel, spoon handle, five-toed ... Different parts and tastes are different, so it can be called Chaoshan version of "skillful cow".

4. Additional dishes outside the main dish

To eat Chaoshan beef hotpot, it is best to rinse the beef from fat to thin first, and then serve it with side dishes. Unlike Chongqing hot pot, Chaoshan locals don't rinse too many side dishes, but two or three are common, so that they don't pretend to be masters.

Fried rotten skin

Chaoshan people don't often eat beef hotpot. After the golden crispy fried yuba is cooked, it will fully absorb the mellow taste of the soup base and taste delicious.

Chaoshan kway teow

It looks like rice noodles and is a common local food. Rinse the pot, pour some soup into the bowl, add celery powder and cooked kway teow soup to eat; You can also put some meat and pour some sand tea sauce.

Don't forget white radish and corn. After a long time of cooking, they are very delicious.

5, dipping sauce

How can a hearty beef hotpot be without dipping sauce?

barbecue sauce

Chaoshan is the birthplace of sand tea sauce, which is made of fish, dried seaweed, peanuts, white sesame, shredded coconut, onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, mustard, clove, pepper, dried tangerine peel and vanilla. The taste is salty, sweet and spicy, which complements the taste of beef and makes beef taste a little sea. People who like spicy food will also add a little Chaoshan Chili sauce.

Puning bean paste

Chaoshan people sometimes choose to dip in Puning bean paste when eating seafood, and now it is also used to dip in beef. Many locals will ferment fresh soybeans themselves to make this salty and slightly sweet dip.

In addition, some shops will provide fried garlic oil as sauce.

Beef is hot, so many shops have prepared homemade herbal tea, and the formula is mostly the local traditional secret recipe: black beans, rehmannia root and rehmannia root, so herbal tea beef hot pot is also a good choice.

If you go to Chaoshan to eat hot pot, you must not go to the scenic spot. The taste is indescribable and expensive. Just go to some ordinary shops on the roadside to eat. I don't know which hot pot is delicious. Ask the locals.