Chaoshan is one of the famous snack areas. Many snacks are not only loved by local people, but also popular in other places. Eight kinds of Chaoshan snacks were awarded the title of "Chinese Famous Snacks" at the National Excellent Snacks Variety Appraisal Meeting-"Chinese Famous Snacks Commendation Conference". Why are Chaoshan snacks so attractive? What are its characteristics?
First, it is natural to be born in poverty.
China's countless local snacks or snacks are either born out of the palace or made by the people. Chaoshan snacks, almost all of which are folk original, have been circulated among the people. This is determined by the fact that Chaoshan is located in the "corner of the country at the end of the province" in history, far from the national political center, the commercial society formed late and the social wealth was not high. Here are some Chaoshan snacks in hand: Xitianxiang Oyster Roast, Goose Goose, Elder Sister's Pig's Foot Rice, and Mother's Gong Zongqiu. Which name is not simple and straightforward, and the local flavor is tangy.
Chaoshan snacks are rooted in the people. They are not attached to officialdom culture and scholar-bureaucrat culture. Since their birth, they have spread among the people in a natural manner, which conforms to the natural law of natural selection. Therefore, we can taste so many local snacks now.
Second, the materials are simple and the taste is unique.
Guangdong dim sum is famous for its foreign flavor, such as cream buns, egg tarts and barbecued pork buns. Shanghai snacks are famous for seafood, such as crab roe soup packets and minced fish spring rolls. Northern snacks are mainly pasta. Chaoshan snacks are nothing without rice. A word "Guo" in Chaoshan dialect summarizes the main raw materials of Chaoshan snacks. In Chaoshan Dictionary, the word "fruit" is interpreted as a kind of fruit with rice flour as the skin and stuffing. The leek skin is sweet potato powder and the stuffing is vegetables, commonly known as "no crispy rice", which shows the position of rice in snacks. Earlier, the ancestors of Chaoshan moved south from the Central Plains to Chaoshan. According to the custom of ancestral home, pasta is a fruit for ancestor worship, and wheat is not produced in the south, so rice can only be used as fruit. This is the origin of "country". Later, the raw materials and practices of sacrificial food continued to innovate and develop, and people called all sacrificial bags "pots". It's amazing that hipsters use rice as a snack. It can be a kind of raw material that is both skin and stuffing-"Bao Fan". If there is a snack called "Guo Tao", it is not only boring, but also delicious with glutinous rice flour as the skin and glutinous rice as the stuffing.
Chaoshan is rich in sweet potatoes, which are flat and cheap crops and are also widely used in snacks. Sweet potato powder can be used as the skin of snacks, such as "crystal ball" and "leek cake" with sweet and salty stuffing. It can also be mixed with fruits and steamed into "Maling potato cake", "taro cake" and "horseshoe cake". It can also be made into "cake baked sweet potato" and "sweet potato soup". Although sweet potato comes from humble origins, it is a big family in Chaoshan snacks.
Different from Shanghai and other coastal areas, Chaoshan snacks use less seafood, such as lobster, shark's fin and crab. One of the reasons is that the Chaoshan climate is hot and seafood is difficult to store. In addition, it is also caused by its civilian characteristics. Coastal areas are rich in oysters, but only Chaoshan-"roasted oysters" makes oysters into delicious snacks. Its practice is also very simple, that is, the sweet potato powder and oysters are mixed and fried into cakes, and duck eggs are poured on them, but the taste is extremely unique, crisp outside and tender inside, and it has become a famous snack.
Look at Chaoshan snacks, mainly vegetarian, with few fish. Its material selection is simple, and most of them are common crops-rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables, but it has won people's favor with its unique pastoral flavor and is deeply loved by people from all walks of life because of its low price.
Third, it is delicious and interesting.
Since Chaoshan snacks are not "good to eat" but "delicious", people should pay attention to their formal beauty while paying attention to food. Tangyuan is tied into sachets, peaches are like jasper, crystal ball and so on, and the appearance is also elegant and interesting.
Form can't be eaten, but form can stimulate people's appetite. hipsters have long understood the truth of "delicious".
Fourth, pay attention to health and pursue fashion.
Chaoshan snacks advocate nature and pay attention to health. People don't have to worry about eating too much fat and calories while satisfying their food addiction. As mentioned above, the ingredients of Chaoshan snacks are mainly vegetarian, and fish is rarely seen. Some snacks are also added with Chinese herbal medicines and become medicinal diets. Such as mousetraps, shops, etc. They are all snacks made of herbs, which are very in line with today's diet fashion. Not only that, the cooking method of Chaoshan snacks is also very scientific, more light and less spicy, more cooking and less frying. Hipsters also invented a way of cooking with oil, which is the most special way I have ever seen. The method is to boil peanut oil with warm fire, then put the steamed snacks into it and cook it with slow fire until it is completely heated inside and outside. The snacks served on the plate taste like peanut oil, but they are not as dry as fried, which is really a must.
As the Chaoshan proverb says, "eat seasonal fruits" means that you should eat seasonal food. Seasonal food not only tastes delicious, but also can achieve the purpose of health preservation. For example, eating rat koji fruit and cauliflower fruit in the Spring Festival, eating bitter orange fruit in the Dragon Boat Festival and eating Pu Guo Zi in Tomb-Sweeping Day are not only delicious, but also can clear away heat and fire, thus achieving the purpose of "preventing diseases in season".
In recent years, Chaoshan snacks have been reformed and innovated in raw materials and shapes to meet the fashion demand. Add more kinds of fruits and vegetables to the raw materials, such as spinach, Euryale ferox, pumpkin pie, etc. The shape is getting smaller and smaller, so that people can taste more kinds of food without changing their food intake.