Chapter 43 I'll cook a bowl of noodles for you, okay...

When it comes to diet, both the north and the south of the Yangtze River have their own housekeeping skills and treasure bags.Ningxia will not go to grab the fried eel with shrimp in Suzhou, and Shandong will not go to fight hot pot with Sichuan.But on the face of it, it is really the unification of China, which is more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people than the Chinese pinyin, and it reaches the stomach.From all corners of the country, from the north to the south, blue springs, university dormitories, train sleepers, whatever you want, every family has a bowl of noodles.Chopped eggs with tomatoes and scallions, boiled in water with sesame oil, mixed with oil and vinegar, deep-fried sauce and marinated, bridge toppings, wide soup free of greens, shrimp balls, and eggs, fried in oil and boiled, raw and cold silver shreds, a bowl of Chinese noodles , You can write a hundred encyclopedias.

Noodles were originally called soup cakes.The ancestor of Wushisan—the beautiful boy He Yan with snow-white skin, Cao Pi thought he was wearing powder, and treated him to hot soup and cakes on a hot day, hoping that he would sweat and scratch his makeup—this trick can also be promoted now, such as you If you want to see a certain girl's real face under make-up but don't have the opportunity to have breakfast with her "sleeping together for a hundred years", then you have to go swimming or eat hot noodle soup in summer. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were already "rubbing" and "pulling" noodles. In "Water Margin", Shandong heroes eat wine and meat, and occasionally ask the store to make cakes, or eat them directly; there is pork in it to make stewed noodles for boiling.It shows that the pattern is roughly set: grinding flour, kneading noodles, cooking, making noodles.The noodles are soft and easy to deal with. The needles in the cotton have bones and tendons. It is as light as rice, but it is easier to clean up than rice and tastes better.

Here in Jianghuai, there are not too many tricks on the noodles, and most of them use a clear soup with a strong flavor and gorgeous toppings.Zhu Ziqing wrote that chicken soup is used for Yangzhou noodles, but it must be disposed of cleanly and must not be oily.Suzhou people pay attention to eating noodle soup.In older noodle restaurants, the soup needs to be boiled in a big pot to bring out its strong umami taste, but if the noodles are added too much, the soup will become muddy, so old Suzhou people have to get up early to eat soup noodles.People in the south of the Yangtze River have their own terminology for eating noodles, wide soup and tight soup, free green and green, cross the bridge and press the bottom, and the patterns that can be changed in a bowl of noodles can directly list a math problem of permutation and combination.It is said that before Suzhou, all front restaurants used silver-thread noodles, whichever was thinner. Around the 1950s, it was changed to a section of small wide noodles, which became very popular, and then changed back to silver-thread noodles.Here in Wuxi, when we eat vegetables and shredded pork noodles in the countryside, we like to serve wide noodles. The soup is often thick and not clear, but it has the fragrance of the flour itself.

Speaking of the emphasis on soup, we have a kind of Ozao noodles here.According to Wu dialect, those who are in the Austrian stove are not clean.Aozao noodles are mostly red soup noodles.Duck (from Nanjing to Suzhou, I am used to eating duck) and fish to make soup, I guessed that Aozao means that the soup is thick, and it has been boiled for a long time, so that the soup is thick—people in Wu are used to calling things that have been boiled for a long time. , Aozao - the last thing out of the pot, just pour the noodles, the soup, duck, and fish must be extremely fresh and strong. Some of the toppings of Jiangnan noodles are directly stewed in the noodles, such as the stewed meat noodles in Suzhou and Hangzhou.Eaters who know how to cook can pinch and count. They want stewed meat noodles with some fat meat, which is half-melted by the noodle soup and noodles. You have me in you and you in me, so you turn over the noodles so that the stewed meat is raw sky.At that time, the noodles and meat were plump, sweet and delicious.Do not put some toppings on the same plate, which means drawing a clear line, which is the so-called "crossing the bridge", such as roast duck with skin, because it is afraid that the noodles will steal the taste.I asked the older generation what "crossing a bridge" means, and the answer was that toppings and noodles occupy two sides of the strait, and they were brought together by borrowing a pair of chopsticks. It is also necessary to "cross a bridge"-this is quite romantic, and noodles and toppings suddenly The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl have become.Thinking about it this way, the toppings of Yunnan Guoqiao rice noodles are indeed put on a separate plate, poured into the rice noodles and eaten after they are boiled. .I think this principle is a bit like Cantonese sashimi congee.

Here, some toppings are mentioned by the previous generation, and they salivate when they see the light.One is the crispy eel from Zhenjiang. When I was young, I ate food, and those who sold the crispy eel claimed to be Zhenjiang craftsman.Here in Suxi, I like to braise the eel into eel tubes, whichever is crispy.Tang Lusun wrote that when he ate eel noodles during the Republic of China, the waiter grated the eel and ate it directly with noodles.We didn't exaggerate when we ate it. We just ate the crispy eel that was softened by the soup and had a sweet and fragrant taste.The second is the fried eel with shrimp at Zhejiang Kuiyuan Restaurant, which is simply the bible of toppings for the older generation.It is said that the most authentic ones are eels fried in oil, shrimps fried in lard, and some sesame oil on the noodles, which is delicious and decent.So no matter how friends in Hangzhou persuade "Kui Yuan Guan is no longer what it used to be", every time I go to Hangzhou, after walking the West Lake, I must go to Kui Yuan Guan to eat a bowl of noodles, and at the end I want another bridge topping to take away, and I will go back to my residence to eat rice wine.My dad used to take a green leather train to Nanjing for a business trip and took me to see the Yangtze River Bridge.I heard in a small shop that there is a so-called long fish noodles. I wanted to eat it. When I served it on the table, I saw that it was fresh white and thick soup noodles stewed with wild eel.

Pickled cabbage shredded pork and bamboo shoots are a common configuration of Wuxi people. Pickled cabbage and bamboo shoots are fresh and thick, and the other is crisp. It is a very bookish combination.When there are no fresh bamboo shoots in the wrong season, pickled bamboo shoots can be used instead, and the taste will be profound.I was used to it since I was a kid, but when I grew up, I went to Hangzhou and found out that this is the legendary Pianerchuan—it’s like marrying a daughter-in-law for 20 years, and one day when I went out, someone suddenly pointed at me and shouted: "Ah! That’s Vivien Leigh!"

Yu Hua's "Brothers" with a Zhejiang background and Wang Zengqi's "Eight Thousand Years" with a Yangzhou background both specifically mentioned the "three fresh noodles".Our country is very large, and there are some "three treasures" and "four monsters" listed in various places, so the three delicacies are also specific.In the Guolu noodle restaurant next to the highway, shredded pork, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms can also be called "three delicacies"; in the health-preserving noodle restaurant next to the noble residence, there are also three delicacies made of shrimp, sea cucumber, and cuttlefish.But the strange thing is that there seem to be fewer four-fresh, five-fresh, and six-seven-eight-nine fresh noodles, probably a trinity, neither complicated nor simple, and it is easier to brew a taste through chemical reactions.

The north side of the Yellow River is not as bookish as the flowing water of the small bridges in the south of the Yangtze River, but has the breath of the Yellow River in the agricultural society.Down-to-earth, rich in taste, and vigorous in momentum, there is nothing better than a bowl of thick noodles to make people feel the wildness of the north.In terms of history, it has existed since ancient times. It is said that there are braised noodles, which are three dishes of garlic juice and a large bowl of pork stew. "The mutton is stewed over the surface of the water" is fate; if you eat "freshly pulled over the surface of the water, steamed big buns", it is a life-and-death friendship, strong.Beijingers pay attention to detail and thoughtfulness when eating braised noodles and fried noodles. The Heping mother in "I Love My Family" said: "It's not troublesome to make stewed noodles. Get some minced meat and beat two eggs, add some yellow fungus, mushrooms and green garlic, let the oil pass like this, make the gorgon like this, and it's out of the pan. Put some scallions and ginger, and sprinkle some sesame oil, and you’re all set!" Mr. Wang Dunhuang said that the stewed noodles in Beijing must be made from the broth of boiled pork and thickened with starch. , dried shrimps, yellow flowers, fungus, and pork belly slices are called braised noodles.The old Beijinger was a bit obsessed with thinking about Maer and Lu.Existing methods are kept improving, and we still do not forget to strive for development.For example, both Liang Shiqiu and Yan Jupeng had similar jokes: eating a certain stewed dish and stewed mutton, they suddenly felt lucky, ordered a takeaway, went home to cook stew, and were as proud as a navigator and discovered a new island: "And It's new!" Tang Lusun mentioned a "new method" for noodles with fried sauce, which is the so-called "don't use diced meat, but use dried shrimps and eggs"-you see, the Zanying family, the scholarly family, still thinking about chopstick noodles How to eat is safe, comfortable and delicious.I don’t eat much stewed noodles in Beijing, but every time I will be instructed how to eat without diarrhea, so that I can eat the noodles harmoniously and thoroughly in one bite.If you eat two points of noodle sauce and loose noodles with stewed noodles, you will be ridiculed.

When you come to the north of Shanxi and Shaanxi, you are considered to have entered the threshold of art.Northwest noodles are basically "the color is empty". Of course, they are also particular about how the skin is boiled and how the toppings are made, but the most important thing is to go deep into the soul and form of existence of the noodles.The noodles outside Shanshanbei can be said to be "noodles can be cooked like this", while the focus inside Shanshanbei is basically "noodles can also be made into this shape"? !Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles has become a domestic legend, and many restaurants use hand-pulled noodles as a performance item. Lanzhou beef noodles are the most authentic and the most vigorous.But Shanshanbei is far more than just ramen. You can dizzy people by cutting, pulling, pulling, cat ears, and pulling fish; Be like.

Shanxi sliced ​​noodles, pulled noodles, and pulled noodles are all good, partly because of the master's magical knife skills, all of them have the precision of the blood knife ancestor and Huang Rong's skillful hands, and partly because the texture of the noodles is unique in the world.The residents of Shanshan and Shanxi don’t stick to wheat flour, they call friends and friends from all rivers and rivers. The recipes of buckwheat, naked oats, and sorghum are combined, and the proportion of water and surface is matched, so that the flour can be raised or hidden, and the big ones can spit clouds and the small ones can be hidden. Hidden form, you can fly into the sky and transform into a dragon with just a breath.Therefore, whether it is thinly sliced, squeezed into cat ears, pulled, pulled, dialed, rubbed, cut, twisted, or picked, it is delicious and chewy, and has a variety of textures.For example, when I first ate mutton soup with oatmeal fish, oatmeal wowoo, etc., the taste was amazing, and I couldn't believe it was pasta for a while.

For a period of time during the winter, I often ate moshi from Xi'an, which is cat's ears.Homemade cat's ears are made by pressing your fingers. They can be fried or stewed, and they are extremely versatile.I have never tasted authentic fried lumps in Beijing. It tastes similar to moshi. I guess it changed its name after entering the capital.I just ate stir-fried pimples a few times, and the owner always stir-fries them with green vegetables. It tastes a bit like the tough version of "fried dumplings with vegetables" in the Wu dialect area.Shanxi people are known to be able to eat sour, and so is Shaanxi, so although there are beef and mutton chunks in most of the noodles, they can be mixed with sour soup, and they will not be greasy.If Xi’an noodles are also classified as noodles, it is one of the sharpest noodles I have ever seen: the noodles are smooth, with cucumber shreds, the ingredients are hot and sour, and the taste is sharp. It must be served with warm black rice porridge and cured meat sauce Can live with taste. I have eaten Qishan Xunzi noodles several times, but I have not compared them in the same restaurant. I don’t know if they are authentic, and I have not asked whether the noodles are related to King Wen of Zhou.Generally speaking, there is one serving of marinated meat, fungus, carrots, etc., one serving of soup, and one serving of noodles. When eaten, the three are combined into one.I told you not to put it too spicy, so it tastes sour and fragrant.Shanxi's meat scorpions are even skinny, plump and thin, and they are really fat. It is only natural that the people of Shaanxi have studied the meat scorpions: thousands of years ago, Lu Tijutsu forced Zhenguanxi's fat and thin scorpions to run around with gold and cartilage. When I went to Urumqi and Shihezi back then, I didn’t see any green leafy vegetables for a few days. My eyes were full of meat forests, mixed with some fruits, potatoes and carrots.Later, when I ate it, my eyes were burning. Every time I ate a large plate of chicken, I felt a little sinful when I saw the chicken. Instead, when I saw the chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes that had become swampy at the end, I felt that I saw a piece of ice muscle jade in the pile of macho meat. Skin, like Jia Baoyu feels refreshed when he sees a woman.Back in Shanghai, I chatted with the people in the Xinjiang store, and said that to make a tiaozi, you must rub some oil in the noodles to make the noodles white and tough. "Three Guns Surprise" made the oily noodles show their faces, but the oily noodles are really different: there is no soup like Jiangnan, no stewed and sauce like Beijing, just blindly oily and spicy noodles, as if shirtless men don't have The BMW silver gun only relies on internal training and external training.The inner qi is the traditional Northwest noodles that are well blended, cooked authentically, and scooped up to the right heat; the skin of the tendons and bones is oily spicy peppers, green onions, and chili noodles, and then a spoonful of oil is poured into it, and it will become a Buddha on the ground with a hissing sound. Ascending to the immortal, the taste overflows in a vast and domineering manner.I personally think that oil splash noodles are a bit like dry fried rice noodles: don't rely on other things, just rely on the duty of the noodles and oil.But fried rice noodles are not as tough as oily gluten, hot, spicy and generous, and lack such a strong and domineering aroma.Generally speaking, fried rice noodles are Wudang Tai Chi soft energy to overcome rigidity, and oil splash noodles are simple and unpretentious. During the period of the Republic of China, famous scholars all mentioned that a famous dish in Henan Province was changed from a smoke shop in Beijing. It was the so-called baked noodles with yellow river tile fish, and the toppings were probably the main side.The Yellow River carp has thick meat, and it is said in the book that the Yellow River carp soup is very fragrant.I have eaten this dish in a Henan restaurant in Shanghai. It may not be Yellow River tile fish, but carp, but it still has a lot of weight, thick enough, and does not lose the imperial atmosphere of the Middle Earth.It is said that the most authentic way to eat carp is to remove tendons and fall to death (worse than the third prince of the Dragon King who was killed by Nezha). We have not seen this procedure, and only ate the finished product: the fish is deep-fried and vinegared; the noodles are baked , into crispy dragon beard noodles, and then topped with fish noodles, it tastes sour and sweet.In addition, you can mix the fish soup with marinade and then pour it - it is more gorgeous than mixing noodles with chicken and potato marinade at the end of the big plate chicken.The Henan restaurant also often recommends buckwheat noodles to us. The noodles taste smooth and smooth, and can be served hot or cold.The Henan flavor restaurant near my home sells another kind of mutton stewed noodles in winter, which is different from the mutton noodles in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The noodles are extremely wide, like belt noodles and knife-cut noodles.If Jiangsu-Zhejiang mutton noodle soup can be used for drinking, the mutton noodle stew in Henan Restaurant can be lifted up with soup and noodles, and then swallowed. Southwest Sichuan and Guizhou are unparalleled in the world only in terms of the gorgeous and complex seasoning, so the noodles in the Southwest are also overwhelming, and the ingredients are much more complicated than the noodles themselves. It is like Grandma Liu lamented that "a single eggplant needs a dozen chickens to match".Sichuan dan dan noodles are said to be used to serve wives for supper.Looking at the historical records of black and white photos, the traditional dan dan noodle poles are not far from wonton pickers: a briquette stove, a copper pot, meat dumplings, noodles and soup are placed in different categories at one end, and bowls, chopsticks and buckets are at the other end.The wives and aunts are hungry and tired from playing mahjong, but they don't have a big appetite, so they order bowls of noodles to eat.So under the boiled soup, put on the best meat sausage, like rouge, and pass it on.When it comes to dan dan noodle soup, the most authentic soup is fish, chicken and other bones, but beef bones are not used, whichever is fresher.In the 1960s in Taiwan, it was once popular to take out dan dan noodles with pork sausages, which shows that it is not easy to make good meat sausages at home.I ate Dandan noodles several times in Sichuan, Shanghai, and Beijing. They were all small bowls, not a meal, but more like dim sum.However, only its small cup and small bowl can be seen that its simmered seeds and soup are made with care. Chongqing hot pot has been reposted all over the country, but what Chongqing really cannot copy is the spicy noodles.Spicy noodles, usually noodles, soup and seasonings are carved separately.The soup is bone soup, which is rich and mellow and does not need to be detailed; the noodles are also boiled with bone broth; the most terrifying thing is the seasoning. What I know is pepper powder, chili powder, monosodium glutamate, salt, crushed peanuts, lard, soy sauce , chopped green onion, minced mustard, the above are only necessary, and the small noodle stalls that catch up with the artist's cells can have several times more seasonings.After the noodles are cooked, put the seasonings in a bowl, first pour fresh soup to make it up, scoop in the noodles and green vegetables, and then have a spoonful of fresh soup.The rest is to mix, wait for the noodles, soup and colorful seasonings to go on and on and fight each other. In Ciqikou, an ancient town in Linjiang, Chongqing, I have seen bedding.The aunts worked hard with eagle claws, pulled the slices from the dough, and pulled them out of the pot to cook. It was spicy and ferocious. It was served with chicken offal and fresh soup sold all over the street in Ciqikou.We have pot lid noodles in Jiangsu, which is different from bedding noodles, but the pattern is different.The way we do it here is generally soy sauce and lard, plus condiments and red soup. "Heavy green" is also.The aroma is soft and thick, without losing the freshness. If you eat it in a hurry, you can feel that people melt into it. When I was a child, I always thought that fried Yi noodles were a special product in Guangdong. After being fried and then boiled, they are extraordinarily fragrant and tough. It is also reasonable to feel that the strength of Shandong is also reasonable.Most of the Yi noodles in Guangdong emphasize adding eggs when kneading the noodles for the sake of texture—Sichuan people make Chaoshou and Cantonese make wontons, and this procedure is unavoidable when kneading noodles.The best bowl of eggs and noodles I have ever eaten is in Dalian. A bowl of noodles mixed with scallion oil, dried shrimps and eggs. Although the noodles are not thick, they have a full and vigorous fragrance of noodles and eggs. When eating wonton noodles in Guangdong and Hainan, the grandmothers loudly emphasize that their noodles are "whole egg noodles" without any water.His enthusiasm is no less than that of a clerk who sells gold rings, blushing and emphasizing "completely real gold".Whole egg noodles are crispy, and Cantonese people pay special attention to soup, dried fish, shrimp shells and pork bones. Each family has its own ancestral treasure. Lo mein can be found all over the country.I have never eaten Shanxi Helao. When I heard its name, I thought it was lo mein at first, but later I heard that it is a homonym of "饸饹", so I was suspicious.The procedure of lo mein is not far behind in different places. They can’t escape the fact that the noodles are boiled, drained, and then served with soup. However, the sauce and toppings of lo mein are particular about each other.Here in Wuxi, Suzhou, I eat lo mein or mixed noodles in summer. The homemade order is soy sauce, sesame oil and a little scallion leaf. For extravagance, there are also fried shrimp and eggs and then added lard to set off.Of course, in terms of complexity, we still have to go back to the cold noodles in Chongqing, Sichuan: peanuts, soybeans, vegetable oil, bean sprouts, garlic, ginger, onion, sesame oil, pepper oil, chili soy sauce, vinegar and sugar.One of my French teachers lives in Shanghai, surrounded by Korean cold noodle restaurants, and she also classifies cold noodles as mixed noodles.Probably the cold noodles can't be cooked and drained, and the cold soup is added, right? When it comes to draining, Wuhan hot and dry noodles are a kind of magical existence.I ate it for the first time in Hubu Alley that year, and the meal was unforgettable. Later, whenever I saw Wuhan flavor restaurant, I always ordered a portion of bean curd.Some store owners have metaphysically studied the art of hot and dry noodles, saying that the best hot and dry noodles must be boiled first, then cold, then boiled, drained, ice and fire, wet and dry, making it tenacious - a bit like Cantonese deal with Baiyun trotters.The hot dry noodles are actually very ingenious: sesame oil, sesame paste, thick and fragrant, like a beauty with heavy makeup, it looks too frivolous with any small white face dish, I am used to adding a little bean or diced meat at most, and just put it on the chopsticks.Hot and dry noodles can best embody the four characters of "rarely confused" - fragrant and sticky, full of confusion.When it comes to hot and dry noodles, sesame paste is inseparable. Now it is suspected that Shaxian snacks that have opened a nationwide chain store. A bowl of fragrant noodles, which are crispy and delicious, turn stone into gold, all rely on the peanut butter that covers the head and face.However, many people say that Yibin burning noodles are also rich in oil and fragrant, but I have never tried it.However, the seasoning in Sichuan is mixed, so the taste should not be that of hot dry noodles. What is closely related to the people is instant noodles.When I was a child, I didn’t have the cold noodle bento in the convenience store today. It was nothing more than fried noodles like Master Kong.I used to love instant noodles when I was a child: lazy people chew instant noodles and drink soup, ordinary people count the time of instant noodles, cook more diligently and add an egg by hand. Back then, I was cracking eggs, peeling beans, stealing ham sausage, Touching shiitake mushrooms, washing vegetable leaves, and a bowl of instant noodles should be grand, and finally my mother named him "Master Zhang".After I grew up, I was tired of instant noodles for a while, especially when I was on a long-distance train, the car was full of Master Kong and the uniform smell of braised beef that made people tremble.But occasionally on a winter night, after a long chat with someone, a bird would fade out of his mouth after a long time of hunger, and he was too lazy to put on his clothes and go out. Suddenly, one of the two people who looked at each other in panic patted his thigh: "There are instant noodles!" has come. Finally, I asked my friends for the noodles they had eaten, and got the following feedback: Vietnamese Cold Noodles, Beijing Steamed Noodles, Yibin Burning Noodles, Henan Braised Noodles, Oily and Spicy Noodles, Qishan Noodles, Lanzhou Ramen, Mutton Noodles Stewed noodles with three delicacies skin belly noodles with mutton noodles Taihe plate noodles Xinjiang noodles Shanxi Helao sipping noodles fish flavor noodles sesame sauce noodles Dongtai fish soup noodles Korean cold seafood noodles Shaxian noodles South Fujian noodles noodle paste Sichuan cold noodles Northeast Hand-rolled noodles and dragon noodles water noodles Fujian fruit noodles noodles sliced ​​firecracker Yangchun noodles intestinal noodles noodles dipped in water noodles long fish noodles diced fried noodles fresh shrimp wonton noodles oyster noodles thread lentil stewed noodles cut gluten noodles Xiamen sand tea noodles sour Soup noodle casserole, noodle paste, Taizhou ginger noodle, mutton noodle, Dalian clam noodle, Yunnan stewed noodle, and this is only a drop in the bucket. If I were Guo Degang, I would be able to predict the future, so many years earlier, let Li Jing and He Yunwei slowly learn the basic skills. And don't give them lunch... There is no need to mention Japanese udon noodles, Italian macaroni and the like. With the size of China alone, noodle products are a bottomless pit.Changing the way to eat noodles for a lifetime, it is estimated that I can get a drop in the bucket.To understand Huaxia, the easiest way is to look at its noodles: Jiangnan shrimp and eel, Southwest seasoning, Shaxian peanut butter, Wuhan peanut butter, Beijing yellow fungus, mushrooms and green garlic, and Shaanxi beef and sour soup with radish.The sea is north and the sky is south, colorful.But its roots and shoots are white, mild, can be square or round, can be soft or rigid, can be wide or narrow, can be thin or thick, can be bold and dense, can be boiled or fried, can be cooked, generous and plain Gentle, bear all face. Carina Lau has a wonderful line in "The Secret Detective Ling Lingfa".No matter how unrepentant, frustrated, misunderstood, or looking for an affair, Zhou Xingchi always said: "Are you hungry? I will cook a bowl of noodles for you, okay?" Chinese-style family, life concept, and loving couple are everywhere , for thousands of years, in the end, it is just to return to such a plain and warm sentence: "I'll cook a bowl of noodles for you, okay?"