Taste of Dingzhou

Dingzhou people love to eat pork and are good at cooking it. They have thousands of ways to eat pork. Fry, stir-fry, cook, deep-fry? That's how outsiders eat it. In Dingzhou, this regular way of eating it is too out of place in Dingzhou.

How do Dingzhou people eat pork?

Cut the lean pork into small pieces, mix in the seasonings, add yam starch and boiling water, stir it into a large pot of thick paste, not too dry, not too wet, and then pour it into a thick paste that is as thick as an arm. Put it in a cloth bag, tie the mouth of the cloth bag tightly, and then throw it into a big pot to cook. The white cloth bag is stained with the soup and turns into a light brown color. It is tumbling up and down in the pot, like a dragon playing in the water. , cook for half an hour, the thick paste will be set by the heat, and become hard. Take it out of the cloth bag, oh! It's a big meat sausage as thick as an arm. It's steaming hot, and the aroma is wafting all over the room. It's so satisfying to look at, and so tempting to smell. Cut a piece off and throw it into your mouth. It's delicious! crisp! tough! You can't stop eating one piece.

This thing is best eaten right after it comes out of the pot. Before it cools down, you can eat a big piece of it, which is a great enjoyment in the cold and windy winter. There are several meat restaurants in Dingzhou, and there are also mobile carts selling meat on the streets. You can buy it whenever you want to eat, but the taste is different. The authentic stew is smoked with pine and cypress sawdust for a while after it is cooked. . When it's time to take it out of the pot, there is a strong aroma of meat wafting outside the stew shop, including the aroma of stew, the aroma of hand-braised intestines, the aroma of various cooked pork, and the aroma of pine and cypress wood. Different aromas are intertwined in Dingding. over the state. If the smells were colored, you would definitely see them flying around happily, playfully flying into the noses of everyone on the street.

Since when did Dingzhou people start to like this taste?

In the small Dingzhou, the ancient city is dilapidated, the economy is backward, and the pace of life is slow. In the smell of meat day after day, we look back. When the time came to 1093, Song Zhezong finally survived the death of his grandmother Gao and began to rule personally. Zhezong, who had worshiped his father since childhood, took action like a thunderbolt without the suppression of his grandmother. He supported the new party, restored Wang Anshi's new law, and found a delicate balance between the new party and the old party, which made a magical difference between the old and new parties. harmonious situation.

But at this time, there was always a nasty voice in his ears that opposed the New Deal that he was proud of. This person was still his teacher - the famous writer Su Shi, who could not be beaten or scolded, annoying. Very. He thought: You Su Shi, why do you always go against me? One day I will deal with you!

Su Shi was not stupid after staying in front of the Holy Spirit for so long. His advice received no response and was ignored. He knew that if he didn't move away, his head might not be saved. So he quickly asked for transfer. This just played into Zhezong's plan. Zhezong couldn't help but kicked Su Shi to the northern military defense town. You can play with the Liao people. I am out of sight and out of mind.

So Su Shi packed up his bags and came to Dingzhou with his family. Who knew that he would just catch up with the great famine in Dingzhou. Now he really didn’t have time to care about the old and new parties. He had to save the people first. Common people.

On the one hand, Su Shi wrote a memorial to the emperor asking for money to relieve the people, and on the other hand, he personally led people to bring food and meat to each village to help the victims. He had never experienced a famine, but he still felt that people in a famine still had the need to eat meat to supplement nutrition, so wherever he went, he cooked porridge and meat for the victims. After a long time, he felt that it was beyond his capabilities. Where could he find so much meat? Woolen cloth? Even if the bureaucrats and squires have meat at home, they will not do good deeds for you, Su Shi.

Su Shi also had the idea of ??not giving meat to the victims, but he killed the idea as soon as it came up. Su Shi, who was addicted to meat, could not understand that some people could not eat meat.

Since you have to eat it, let’s reduce the amount of meat. You can’t let everyone eat the meat. It’s always okay to drink some broth. He ordered people to put a little minced meat in the broth, and then put it in Use local prism noodles and boil them into chunks, then cut them into pieces and distribute them to the victims.

There was only a little bit of minced meat in the large pot of ribbed noodles, but the smell of the meat was strong and fragrant. The victims ate deliciously, and no one complained to him. Su Shi was surprised and had to admire himself, so he promoted this dish vigorously. A method of disaster relief.

Who would have thought that after the disaster, the people in Dingzhou were not tired of eating it, and still couldn't forget the taste, so every household started cooking this kind of food. Due to the simple preparation method, the taste of each household is different. Later, every household had its own secret recipe, and some even started small businesses, and the preparation method was passed down from generation to generation. Later, the locals called this food "stewed rice".

The name was decided and the taste was passed down. Since that year, the faint aroma of stewed rice has always been floating on the streets of Dingzhou until now.

If you come to Dingzhou, in addition to visiting Dingzhou Kaiyuan Tower and Confucian Temple Gongyuan, don’t forget to taste Dingzhou’s most popular braised rice.

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