▲ The variety of Shaxian snacks soothed the stomachs and hearts of many people in China.
Late at night, I was a little hungry on my way home. In the dark, the signs of Shaxian snacks are particularly eye-catching. I got into some humble shops, scooped up a spoonful of chopped green onion wonton and ate it hot in my stomach. ...
In the shouts of the boss's wife, students who stay up late to write papers, workers who work overtime, or small bosses with bags under their arms all put down their fatigue of running around here and filled their empty stomachs and hearts.
▲ The storefront of Shaxian snack is very simple, but the signboard is particularly eye-catching, attracting many "foodies" into the store.
Shaxian: From the city to the gourmet paradise As the name implies, the birthplace of Shaxian snacks is Shaxian, a small town in central Fujian, sandwiched between the famous Wuyishan and Daiyun Mountain. The mountains are undulating and there are many strange peaks. Only Shaxi, a tributary of Minjiang River, runs through it. The river is wide and the water flow is gentle, which is very suitable for shipping. You can enter the Minjiang River from the waterway and go straight to the seaport.
Mountains and rivers make Shaxian special-it is surrounded by mountains, but it can become the main road to communicate inland and coastal areas. If we open the map, we will also find that Shaxian County is just at the midpoint between Guangdong and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, which constitutes a special "crossroads" connecting North-South trade and land and sea transportation.
▲ Shaxian County, located in the middle of Fujian Province, is an important distribution center for people and goods in ancient Fujian.
In ancient times, when the traffic was inconvenient, businessmen came here over mountains and mountains, and had no strength to move on, so they had to rest by the sand stream where people came and went. A commodity market spontaneously formed and a small city was built.
Where there are people, there will be the birth of food. Merchants who migrated from east to west and from north to south brought prosperity and the taste of hometown they missed. Southerners yearn for rice and rice noodles, while northerners always think of noodles and jiaozi. What's more, people in different places have different preferences for chickens, ducks, geese, fish, shrimps, crabs, pigs, cattle and sheep.
More importantly, Shaxian County, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers, is rich in delicacies and seafood, and the sea goods from Fuzhou Port are continuously brought in. From the point of view of eating goods, it has the superior conditions of "land and water go hand in hand, both mountains and seas".
▲ Fresh catches are often shipped from Fuzhou port to other areas, and there are sea goods in Shaxian County. Photo courtesy/creativity
All kinds of ingredients, tastes and food culture are concentrated in this small town, and finally more than 240 kinds of snacks are blended, covering four series of rice, noodles, beans and meat, which can be said to be a paradise for eating goods.
How rich are the snacks in Shaxian? Since the beginning of the year, Shaxian people have eaten rice cakes, gingko, Ciba, noodles, dried noodles and spring rolls in the Spring Festival, Qingming rice cakes in the Qingming period, rice cakes in the long summer, zongzi, pepper and sesame cakes and lotus leaf cakes in the Dragon Boat Festival, white sugar cakes in the Qixi Festival, and dried salted duck and taro buns in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and more in the winter solstice.
Shaxian locals all say: "Shaxian may not be fun, but when it comes to delicious food, it won't be repeated for a month!" If you ask "What is the best hometown snack" on the local street, maybe ten people can give 10 completely different answers.
▲ 1998, people gathered in Shaxian snack street to taste all kinds of authentic food. Source/network
The rise of Shaxian snacks: follow the people who have left their homes to the whole country. In China, which is famous for its "eating", there are many areas with superior conditions than Shaxian. For example, Yangzhou, Chengdu and Guangzhou have been competing for the C position of the food capital for many years. Frying, stewing and frying are not bad, but Shaxian snacks are the first to win.
At first, Shaxian people were forced to make snacks. In the 1990s, young people in Shaxian began to wander around the city. As they have just arrived in other places and have no friends, they have to start cooking to make money.
▲ There are many kinds of snacks in Shaxian, most of which are simple and easy to use. Young people generally learn from the master and can open a shop when they get started. Tuyuan/Shaxian Propaganda
Interestingly, at that time, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai gathered migrants from all over the country, and the taste of the three religions and nine streams was very complicated. Many people are not used to local food and have no time to cook by themselves, so they have to look for food in the street. They met Shaxian snacks for the first time in an obscure store.
Northerners love noodles, while southerners eat wonton. People in Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi like to drink soup and water, and everyone likes to eat jiaozi. Some people have a strong taste and like thick oil red sauce, while others have a light taste, preferring clear soup to be light. Shaxian snack combines the north and south food styles, and people have all the tastes they want to eat, so they won't get tired of eating it several times. So more and more people call their friends: Eat Shaxian.