This article is reprinted from the public account 24 Seasons Private Enjoy Home (ID: fanmei-1), written by Xiaolou.
In China, when it comes to places worth visiting for food, Chaoshan is definitely the first place in all the selection lists.
Chen Xiaoqing said it is "an isolated island of Chinese food. People who have never been to Shantou cannot call themselves gourmets."
▲ Chen Xiaoqing in the program "Round Table School"
Cai Lam even practices it. In "Cai Lam Shopping", he takes two beauties from Shantou Seafood Market to the streets and alleys, which makes people unable to resist Fish Rice , glutinous rice pig intestines, various kinds of glutinous rice, white porridge with more than a hundred side dishes salivating;
▲ "Cai Lam Shopping at the Vegetable Bar"
With its great reputation, is Chaoshan really so delicious?
Once an isolated island of gourmet food, today's gourmet capital
"Chaozhou, with the sea to the south and mountains to the north" , Chaoshan, formerly known as Chaozhou, mainly refers to the three brothers of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang.
Although Chaoshan is located in the "provincial corner" and is very remote, there is a catastrophic ethnic disaster every few hundred years. Some people say that Chaoshan people are "Oriental Jews".
Like the Jews, Chaoshan people are born with a strong sense of clan. They still retain their traditional culture and eating habits. They are unique among the Cantonese people who know how to eat, know how to eat, and love to eat.
▲ Because of the war, the ancestors of the Central Plains migrated all the way south, until they reached the Chaoshan area . They stopped when there was really no place to run. As a result, the unlucky Chaoshan people suffered two massacres by the Yuan and Qing armies when they reached the southernmost part. In addition, they resisted pirates and Japanese aggressors, and they were in trouble. Picture source @大口吃吃List.
The specialty snacks in Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang are basically the same. The difference lies in the slightly different ingredients and sauces used in .
For example, rice rolls, Chaozhou people use shacha sauce+peanut butter, while Shantou people prefer fish sauce and soy sauce, and Jieyang people use boiled marinade; such as beef rice noodles, Chaozhou people make soup. It is more flavorful, and the meat used by Shantou people is more delicious; there are also glutinous rice intestines and salt water rice cakes that are very popular in Chaozhou, but they are actually not common in Shantou.
If you have to choose a place to visit, most people will choose Chaozhou.
▲ Chaozhou Ancient City
The charm of Chaozhou lies not only in the preservation of its traditional food culture, but also in the Archway Street in the city center, which is a must-see for tourists, as it was a hundred years ago.
▲ Chaozhou has a prosperous literary style and is known as the "Seaside Zou Lu". Chaozhou has a large number of famous sages and steles. To highlight their achievements, monuments have emerged one after another. According to historical records, there are as many as 103 monuments in Chaozhou City alone. Picture source @Feekr
You can see rickshaw pullers wearing vests everywhere in Archway Street. It is a good choice to follow them around for a while.
From the street to the end of the alley, Archway Street is actually only 2,000 meters long, but it contains most of the Chaozhou specialty snacks.
▲ Hu Rongquan Duck Mother Twist , Picture source @Feekr
Hu Rongquan’s Duck Mother Twist, The shiny white glutinous rice dumplings are placed on the sweet soup, like a mother duck floating up and down on the water. It is the most representative snack here.
There are two large glutinous rice balls wrapped in red bean paste and mung bean paste in one bowl, as well as quail eggs, white fungus, lotus seeds, lily, ginkgo, mung beans and other ingredients. This bowl will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth.
On this road Shun Xingji sesame tea, Lao Bin oyster bake, Amu salt water cake, Hesheng sugar scallion pancake, pig intestine glutinous rice, Shibaqu Laoer fish dumplings, Qicongsong licorice fruit ... …These old shops represent the Chaoshan sentiment that locals can’t let go of.
▲ Cai Bo Glutinous Rice and Pig Intestines
In addition to Archway Street, Jiadi Lane, Xima Road, and Xiashuimen Street are also like living in an old movie. The arcades and former residences of the Ming and Qing Dynasties tell the story of the distant history.
▲ Jia Di Lane, photo source @Ctrip Travel
▲ West Road, photo source @Feekr
Although countless people praise it as a "city of food", Chaoshan is still independent from the world, and retains the original fireworks of the small town. .
Maybe he is used to ups and downs and has learned to be calm at the peaks and valleys.
How to pretend to know how to eat in Chaoshan?
Although it is known as the capital of gourmet food, there may be a century-old restaurant every few hundred meters, but there are barriers to entry when exploring Chaoshan.
Chaoshan people have a natural sense of superiority in eating: People north of Chaoshan don’t know how to eat at all.
The most indispensable thing here is the boss with his legs crossed, smoking a cigarette and shaking a cattail leaf fan. If local gourmets weren't patronizing the restaurant, they would often be greeted with indifferent faces.
▲ Amu Xianshui Cake on Archway Street
So it is easy to step into a trap if you go to Chaoshan alone. The boss is a ghost, has a straight face and still hides the good stuff.
Without the guidance of local people, it is unreliable to learn Chaoshan dialect and to deceive the boss. Which village do you want to learn from? The dialect of is different in every village.
▲ Chaoshan store, photo source @Feekr
If you want to make this trip worthwhile, you must first be prepared and understand the tastes of Chaoshan people.
The Chaoshan area is a natural vegetable garden and bathing beach. The vegetable fields are evergreen all year round, and fruits and vegetables are on the market in turn all year round. ; water canals are crisscrossed, and fish, shrimp, and mushrooms are a constant stream. The rich products make Chaoshan people have extremely demanding requirements for "umami".
▲ Chaoshan people are fond of fresh food in two ways: one is to grasp the freshness and richness of the ingredients, such as oysters in late autumn and the beginning of winter, and Chaoshan cream crabs in the north wind season. Ordering the wrong order will immediately be underestimated; the other is to use fermentation to make Umami ability. Perishable seafood and abundant soybeans cannot be wasted. For the sake of freshness, there is no harm in being a little fishy.
Chaoshan people’s favorite condiments reflect their pursuit of salty, fishy and fresh flavors: The soul of rice rolls Dried radish , the king of salty and fishy fish sauce, Chaoshan version of miso puning bean paste.
These three items are not only the daily condiments in Chaoshan people’s homes, but also the heroes behind the success of many Chaoshan delicacies.
understands the main theme of Chaoshan cuisine. Next, you must eat at least these to make the boss think you are a "Jiaojiren".
NO.1 A bowl of white porridge with salty ingredients , eaten from morning to midnight
▲ White porridge with mixed salty ingredients, photo source @Feekr
White porridge with mixed salty ingredients is the most daily staple food of Chaoshan people. Chaoshan people call porridge rice; they call side dishes miscellaneous salt.
Miscellaneous salty products are usually pickled products, including dried radish, olives and other vegetables; there are also river delicacies such as crickets, red meat, shrimps, snails, mussels, and clams; and even milk.
▲ There are many kinds of miscellaneous salts, at least more than a hundred. Some people even compare miscellaneous salts to three thousand beauties in the harem.
For Chaoshan people, white porridge is the staple food. This love continues until noon, evening and even " cold " at noon, evening and even midnight snack time.
"Draining" was originally popular in Hong Kong, which refers to eating cold cuts and cooked food at Chaoshan food stalls.
The meaning of "beat" is similar to "beating". Hong Kong people invented a word specifically for Chaoshan food stalls, which shows the status of Chaoshan's late-night canteens in the hearts of Hong Kong people.
▲ There are four main types of dishes in food stalls: first, pre-cooked seafood, such as thin-shelled rice and fish rice (a basket of cooked and cooled fish); second, brine, such as braised goose , Braised pork, braised pig's feet and pig intestines, etc.; third, pickled products, such as pickled shrimps, pickled crabs, blood clams, etc.; fourth, cooked food, with rows of small casseroles filled with cooked eggplant, tofu, etc. Just heat it up on the stove and serve.
The most classic delicacy at food stalls: fish rice, which is not actually rice.
Catch fresh sea fish and cook it with a little salt and water. When dried, it tastes like a meal, so it is called fish rice.
Put aside the skewers, fried chicken, and beer. Only a bowl of stomach-churning white porridge with fish rice can soothe the lonely hearts of Chaoshan people late at night.
▲ White porridge with fish rice is one of Chaoshan people’s favorite late-night snacks. Picture source @Chaozhou player
NO.2 Chaoshan people’s night talk around the stove
In Chaoshan, eating beef pot at noon is a joke.
The way to eat beef in Shantou is that it is not frozen for acidification. After slaughtering in the afternoon, it is immediately transported to the store for cutting and serving. The most stringent requirement is that the beef must be twitching before it is delivered to the table.
Only when the fresh beef arrives will diners come into the store one after another. Sitting around the hot pot, chatting and laughing, the night for Chaoshan people is perfect.
▲ Chaoshan beef hot pot, picture source @Chaozhou player
Don’t think that Chaoshan people only require fresh beef to eat beef. To be called a local Chaoshan gourmet, must be familiar with all parts of beef.
Chaoshan people’s understanding of cattle is as precise as a scalpel: “Muscle tissue and fat require different degrees of heating. The handle of the spoon must be thinly sliced into large pieces, with a strip of fat stuck in the middle; the three-flowered toe must be cut crosswise with tendons. , it is qualified only if it is cut into the texture of leaves; tender meat should be cut thickly, otherwise it will become old after being rinsed; lobster tail is a particularly rare part, and it is difficult to order it in restaurants..."
▲ Chaoshan beef must be cut by hand, it seems Chef Dong Laishun insists on cutting the mutton. Only by cutting the beef freshly can Chaoshan people know that the beef is absolutely fresh. Picture source @Feekr
In their eyes, the freshest beef must be cooked with clear soup and little water. Want soup base? I'll give you a few pieces of radish and corn at most.
Different parts of beef need to be boiled for different times. Generally, it needs to be eaten in about 6 to 12 seconds.
Dip the beef into the store's exclusive Shacha sauce, and the beef becomes rich, sweet and not greasy. The "tenderness" of the beef perfectly matches the "sweetness" of the Shacha sauce.
▲ Beef with sand tea sauce, picture source @Chaozhou player
NO.3 Seventy-two changes of Tan
▲ Old Chaoshan people have an adventurous spirit and live a wandering life all year round. Tan is easy to carry and can accompany you As time goes by, the food culture of "kueh" is brewed. Picture source watermark
Tan is the most complicated food in Chaoshan. It is indispensable in everything from weddings and funerals to daily life.
Most glutinous rice flour, rice flour, sweet potato flour and some wild grass are added to make the dough skin, and local crops are used as the stuffing. It can be steamed or fried in a basket.
The production of the outer skin and the matching of the filling reflect the imagination of Chaoshan people. The different combinations are complex and the taste is unique.
▲ 水覃, picture source @ authentic scenery
▲ 红丝覃, there is a Chaoshan folk song that sings "Chaozhou people still eat rice cakes, oil rice cakes, sweet rice cakes, pomegranate rice cakes, noodle rice cakes, fermented rice cakes, deep-fried rice cakes, soft rice cakes Beef cake, peach cake with round turnip head and stuck shell." Picture source @新快报
It was once only eaten during sacrifices and festivals. actually reflects the Chaoshan people's longing for their ancestors.
The ancestors of Chaoshan moved to the Chaoshan area from the Central Plains in the early days. The ancestors wanted to use pasta as tribute. However, wheat did not grow in the south, so they used rice as tribute. This is how "kueh" came into being.
NO.4 The best braised food is in Chaoshan
▲ Chaoshan braised goose
If you go to a Chaoshan home as a guest, he won’t say "Chop a plate of goose meat, please Lu (cut a plate of goose meat, please)" , then friendship may be possible It’s also come to an end.
The Chenghai lion-head goose used in Chaoshan braised goose is the "king of gooses in the world". It is ranked second, and no goose dares to be ranked first.
▲ garlic vinegar, standard for Chaoshan braised goose. Picture source @diners
To prepare the lion’s head goose, which is meaty and generous, you need a pot of high-quality brine. More than thirteen kinds of medicinal materials are used in the brine, including common galangal, star anise, bay leaf, etc., which is the most popular among Cantonese people who love dietary supplements.
Stew the goose quietly in a pot of good brine for two hours. The braised goose proposed by is like a beauty taking a bath.The marinade is completely sealed in the goose meat, and the appearance is bright and lustrous. Four words: beautiful and delicious.
▲ There is no authentic version of brine, but deliciousness is king: the brine in Shantou City is salty, the brine in Chaozhou is sweet, and the brine in Chenghai is moderately sweet and salty. Source: @dinerpreparation
If you still can’t learn how to pretend to eat, follow the regular customers in front and shout: “Get the same one!” Make sure the boss doesn’t cheat you while rolling his eyes.
Every Chaoshan person has a private food map
Many people were attracted by "A Bite of China", read the same recommendations on the Internet, ate at one Internet celebrity restaurant, and then left disappointed.
Chaoshan people are secretly happy that the most delicious thing about is probably the small shop that has been quietly open for decades in front of my house!
▲ Chaoshan’s dilapidated licorice fruit snack stall, every Chaoshan person has a secret food map in his heart. This map may have been inherited from the leadership of my grandfather and father.
For example, the Minquan Rice Roll Shop in Shantou must be the most noisy in the morning. Many old Shantou people start their morning with an authentic Teochew-style rice roll.
▲ Minquan Rice Roll Shop, Picture Source @九行七香
Different from the Cantonese Braw Sausage with a single taste, the Teochew Style Rice Roll has a richer connotation: minced beef, minced pork, minced preserved vegetables, diced mushrooms, Lettuce, shrimps, sausages, and shredded bamboo shoots can be stuffed. Wrap these in the steamed rice paste wrapper into a pig intestine shape, sprinkle with dried radish, and drizzle with sauce, and the deliciousness is complete.
A real Shantou gourmet will personally stand in front of the rice roll machine to supervise. Only experienced locals can figure out what to put in the top steamer to prevent it from drying out, what ingredients to put in, and how much to put in.
▲ Steamed Steamed Rice Roll
Another must-eat when visiting Shantou is Plaza’s old brand tofu pudding.
Walking along the Shantou seaside promenade , I saw a crowded shop on Gongyuan Road. It was "Square's Old Bean Curd Sweet Soup" which has been open for half a century.
▲ Plaza’s old-brand sweet bean curd soup. In Chaoshan dialect, bean curd means tofu, and tofu refers to the pieces of tofu that are usually eaten. But this tofu is also very different from what outsiders think.
Foreigners who are used to the usually tender tofu curd often cannot accept the glutinous, sticky and sweet taste of Shantou tofu curd.
But Shantou people love this taste. When paired with powdered sugar and sesame seeds, the original beany taste is slightly masked by the sweetness.
Serve it while it's hot and before the sugar melts. The bean flavor is rich and the sweetness is moderate. Chaoshan people think this is the Chinese version of pudding!
▲ Square Douhua
It’s not like the tofu pudding that you have to go to a store to eat. If you ask a Chaoshan person where the best beef hot pot is, and he still has some dignity, the correct answer should be "his own home."
There is no secret to making Chaoshan beef pot. Any induction cooker or pan can be used as a container.
▲ induction cooker hot pot, picture source @Chaozhou player
The most important thing is fresh beef, fresh beef, fresh beef.
Go to the vegetable market, pick a piece of your favorite part, ask the boss to cut it the way you like, and boil it when you get home. The taste will definitely be no less than that of a hot pot restaurant outside.
▲ Chaoshan Vegetable Market, photo source @小肖 creative travel
If you really want a local recommendation, there is Fuhecheng Laohu Beef Hot Pot.
borrows its name from Fuhecheng, but the boss’s knife skills and material selection are really good. The snowflake beef is as thin as paper, the hanging dragon is evenly fat and thin, and the five-flowered toes are so thick that they look pink... But there is one thing, learn how the locals order in a disciplined manner, so that you will not be annoyed by others and affect your mood.
▲ Fuhecheng Laohu Beef Hot Pot, photo source @Dianping.com
If you really don’t know anyone and are afraid of being bullied by the boss, then go to Fuhecheng Beef Hot Pot.
In Shantou alone, there are 19 stores in Fuhecheng. At the very least, can be recognized by the locals and can be used continuously, which means that Fuhecheng is the kind of chain store that will not step into pitfalls.
Many people know Chaoshan, probably because of the delicious food. Many people come to Chaoshan just to eat.
For Chaoshan people, food and are things they are proud of, and they are not commonplace for outsiders.
If you have a plane ticket, would you like to go to Chaoshan with me?
