Huaimao pickles The inheritor of Huaimao pickles making skills Cao Baozhong (right) introduces the Huaimao sweet noodle sauce making skills to two international students in China. Photo by Li Yusu
China News Service Baoding July 15th (Li Yusu and Lu Zihao) Dingxing Leisure Food Town is located in Baoding City, Hebei Province. When entering this small town in southern Beijing, the first words of many people must be: It smells so good. ! Relying on industry advantages and exploring food culture, we have integrated and developed well-known domestic and foreign enterprises such as Xizhilang, Ximai Oats, Wuhejiao , Ma Dajie, Huaimao, etc. to create a unique snack food town. .
In order to tell Chinese stories well and show the beauty of humanity, nature and industry in small towns with Chinese characteristics, recently, the "Cultural Tourism See Hebei" organized by China News Service Hebei Branch and Hebei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism - The "Special Town You Don't Know" media tour event entered Dingxing Snack Food Town.
Wuhejiao series liquor is made from five kinds of grains: red sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat and corn. Photographed by Li Yusu
Jiangxiang
Baoding has three treasures: iron ball, noodle sauce, and spring, and the three treasures are all in Huaimao. For Baoding people, "Huaimao" is not only a condiment, but also a cultural symbol of their hometown.
When you walk into Huaimao Sauce Garden, you will be greeted by the strong fragrance of sauce. Huaimao Sauce Garden was founded in the 10th year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1671) and has a history of 351 years. Its two famous products - sweet noodle sauce and pickles are famous in ancient and modern times for their high-quality raw materials, exquisite craftsmanship and rich sauce aroma. . In 2006, "Huaimao" was recognized as a "Chinese Time-honored Brand" by the Ministry of Commerce. In 2007, "Huaimao Pickle Making Technique" was selected into the provincial intangible cultural heritage list of Hebei Province.
According to Cao Baozhong, the inheritor of Huaimao pickle making skills, the ancient method of producing sweet noodle sauce requires kneading the dough, cutting it into dough, steaming the dough, molding the dough, making sauce with salt water, sun exposure and night dew, grinding the sauce, etc. In the link, modern technology maintains the original fermentation principle, uses modern production methods, adopts pure Aspergillus inoculation, fully automated mechanical koji making, and fermentation controls the temperature in spring, summer and autumn. Not only food safety is guaranteed, but also food safety is guaranteed. The sauce aroma is more mellow and rich, and the taste is better.
“It is not difficult to know but difficult to practice.” After learning about all the processes of producing sweet noodle sauce in ancient times, Xie Min, a Bangladeshi international student who visited together, sighed. He said that when he first saw it, he thought it was very simple to make sweet noodle sauce, but in fact it is not simple because every process is very complicated. This is the traditional Chinese culture.
"Sister Ma" crispy candy. Photographed by Li Yusu
Wine aroma
"Pour the wine into the palm of your hand, rub it a few times, and then smell the aroma of the wine in the wine." In the Wuhejiao exhibition hall, Zhang Guanjie of the Administration Department showed the tools they use to identify pure grain wine and alcoholic wine. An exclusive secret recipe, he also added that the specifics vary according to each person's physical constitution and olfactory sensitivity.
According to reports, Baoding Wuhejiao series liquor uses five types of high-quality grains: red sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat, and corn. It uses Wuhequan’s natural and unique groundwater, pure wheat koji, and pure grain solid mud pool fermentation. It is carefully brewed and is rated as one of the "Five Golden Flowers" of Hebei famous wines. In 2015, Wuhejiao Liquor won the gold medal at the Belgium-Brussels International Spirits Grand Prix.
Liquor brewing technology is the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation, and Wuhejiao has always adhered to the traditional brewing technology. In the interview, Zhang Guanjie said that while continuously enriching the product line, after years of research and practice, Wuhejiao combined modern microbial technology to cultivate organic high-quality pit mud. After being put into production, the high-quality wine rate increased by more than 5%.
Sugar Fragrance
As soon as you walk into Hebei Ma Dajie Food Co., Ltd., people can smell the sweet smell in the air, and can't help but want to hum: "Sweet honey, you smile so sweetly..." and then leave. Entering Sister Ma's Candy Culture Exhibition Hall, almost every corner here is filled with "memories" from childhood: halva, wine-filled chocolate, nougat , toffee, jelly, etc.
When seeing Sister Ma's most classic "halva" product, Lin Jingmei, an Indonesian international student at Hebei Normal University, said excitedly, "Our country also has the same flavor as this, and there is also a mint flavor."
With the development of the candy market, As consumers' concept of candy changes, Sister Ma, who used to rely on "a piece of candy to make a breakthrough", has also begun to transform.
Ma Yan, general manager of Hebei Ma Dajie Food Co., Ltd., said that the company’s two current transformations are more towards people’s daily consumption. “In 2013, we started to produce baking and pastry products. In 2019, we started to produce fresh food products. Soy products. Sales of soy products in 2020 reached 30 million, and sales in 2021 reached 62 million. "
According to reports, the food industry has now become the first industry in Dingxing County, especially in 2010. Since it was put into production, the food industry of Dingxing has made great progress and is now one of the 107 key industrial clusters in Hebei Province. Well-known domestic enterprises such as Guangdong Xizhilang, Guangxi Ximai, Hainan Yeguo and so on gather here. Due to its strong snack food industry foundation, Dingxing County was rated as a "famous snack food industry county in Hebei Province" in 2017.
"In the next step, we will focus on the goal of doubling our county's food industry in five years without relaxing our focus. We will continue to work hard on strengthening, replenishing, and extending the chain, strengthen the attraction of enterprises, continue to improve the industrial chain, and continue to promote our The county snack food industry is developing with high quality," said Peng Zhicheng, deputy director of the Commerce Bureau of Dingxing County, Baoding, Hebei Province. (End)
