Where does Longpeng red tofu come from?

In Zhuang township, the blood of domestic animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese is regarded as a delicacy and is favored by people.

Yizhou people have not called blood by its name since ancient times, but called it "red", such as cow red, pig red, chicken red, duck red and so on. There is also a folklore: "Red can twist dust". People engaged in dust operations must eat it often to help "wring out" the dust in their stomachs. "This ancestral diet has increased people's interest in animal blood and doubled its value.

Yizhou people eat animal blood in various ways. The most common is "red tofu". When killing pigs and cattle, put a small amount of water in the basin, add a little salt, and put the blood of slaughtered pigs and sheep into the water and mix well. Because there is salt in the water, the blood will soon coagulate. Divide the blood clots into palm-sized blood clots with a knife, and put in trachoma water "Dan" (to borrow the Chinese character of Yizhou dialect, that is, blanching). The blood clots will become tofu-shaped soft pieces, and then divide them into small pieces with a knife. Add a little vinegar and pork floss with pepper, tomato, onion, garlic and celery, stir-fry in the pot for a while, only cook for a while. Such blood clots are smooth, soft and delicious; If you fry for too long, the blood clot will be "old", hard and rough, and it will taste bad. You should fry it just right. It can also be used as a "hot pot" dish in winter. Just holding it with chopsticks, scalding it in the soup pot a few times and dipping it in hot and sour salt dish juice. Hot and sour, tender and smooth, appetizing, and the taste is ten times better than tofu. Because it looks like tofu, Yizhou people call it red tofu, in addition to cow red and pig red.

The most common and favorite blood product of Zhuang family members is holding a dragon ("holding" is Zhuang language, translated as bóng). In rural areas, no matter which company kills pigs, it is necessary to hold them down: add cooked glutinous rice, onion, garlic and shredded ginger into pig blood, mix well, pour them into the small intestine of pigs with a funnel (called "irrigation tube" in Yizhou), and tie both ends with grass. Then you get a "snake" more than an inch long and cook it in a soup pot, which can be cut into three or four inches. Long Peng is not a dish on the table, but a snack for the elderly and children to play with. The dealer has an unwritten rule. No matter which family kills pigs, it is necessary to fill the dragons, divide the cooked dragons into small pieces for the old people and children who come to play at home and distribute them to the homes of neighbors, relatives and friends. Anyone who doesn't want to give the dragon to relatives, friends and neighbors is regarded as a "Levi" ghost (Yizhou dialect is a miser) and doesn't understand the world. A short article "Dragon Leaping and Tiger Leaping", however, is in Zhuang's hometown, which contains the simplicity and affection of Zhuang's family.

More interestingly, the Zhuang family members in the mountainous areas of Longtou, Lalang and Baitu (now Hechi) all like to eat "water dragons". It's not glutinous rice that makes pig blood, it's thin rice slurry. Pour it into the pig's small intestine, cut it into a long strip, and tie both ends with grass. After cooking, it is not a dragon with a heart of stone, but a "plasma drink" packaged like a hose. When eating, you must be very careful, bite one end tightly, hold the "hose" firmly with one hand, carefully untie the grass knot at your mouth with the other hand, and suck up the plasma in the tube at one breath. Otherwise, plasma will splash on your face and clothes, which will be extremely embarrassing and cause laughter. This kind of "water pipe" tastes delicious in Buron, but it is not available in other villages. It may be inconvenient to carry, and it is easy to make a fool of yourself if you eat carelessly.

Among the strong families in Yizhou, there are also habits of eating pig blood. The most common thing is that when the pig's hair is shaved and laparotomy is carried out, people directly scoop steaming blood from the pig's heart with antimony ladle and drink it while it is hot. They say it's delicious and sweet. People who haven't eaten are shocked. This is almost a "barbaric" way to eat pig blood. The more civilized way to eat pig blood is to put water in the basin without adding salt. After the blood is put into the water, stir it with chopsticks to prevent it from coagulating until the plasma surface is covered with foam. Others put pig lung, trachea, tongue, kidney, oil residue and a small amount of meat floss in a pot, stir-fry until cooked, add shredded ginger, garlic white, hemp seed and peanut oil, stir-fry until all are cooked, put them in a bowl, scoop the blood into the bowl with a ladle, and mix well to serve. The food is cooked, the blood is raw, and the mouth of the eater is bright red, which is daunting. People who ate at that time were amazed and ate with relish.

For thousands of years, the blood of various animals has formed an indissoluble bond with the Zhuang people in Yizhou, which constitutes a unique "food culture of Zhuang nationality".