Roasted nuts are the most common food in Hohhot. Do you know how it was born?

Traveling around China and coming to Hohhot, during my few days in Hohhot, I found an interesting phenomenon, that is, bakers can be seen everywhere in Hohhot. Later, I learned that baking is a unique pastry food in Hohhot and looks like bread. Roasted nuts, like rice rolls in Guangzhou Breakfast, are one of the most mainstream breakfast foods in Hohhot. Many people may have eaten baking, but do you know where baking comes from?

The origin of roast son can be traced back to Qin Long in the Ming Dynasty for six years. Alatan Khan led his tribe to the present Hohhot area, and built a Guihua City according to the style of the Yuan Dynasty metropolis. However, because alatan Khan was old and sick at that time, Guihua City was built by his wife Sannianzi. Because a large number of workers and craftsmen were needed to build the city, it was a big problem for workers to eat at that time.

So SanNianZi handed over the task of workers' meals to the Hui people who came back from Ningxia, because the Hui people are good at making all kinds of delicious pastry food. However, because the Ming Dynasty did not allow grassland trade, all kinds of materials on the grassland were very scarce, and even the pots for cooking were not enough. In order to repay the kindness of Sannianzi, the returnees who are in charge of the workers' diet tried their best to provide delicious meals for the city-building workers. Without a pot, they took local materials, clamped the dough with two flat stones and baked it on the fire.

Surprisingly, the bread made in this way is not only soft and sweet, but also hungry, which is very popular among workers. Because it is roasted with fire, people call this kind of food "roasted", which is the origin of roasting.

There are two cities in the history of Hohhot, Guihua City and Suiyuan City. Guihua City was built in the Ming Dynasty, belonging to the old city, and Suiyuan City was built in the Qing Dynasty, belonging to the new city. The time between the two cities was 164, and it took three years to build the city. And the baked food is important throughout. This is the folk saying that Hohhot baked two cities and one fruit in three years. It can be said that Hohhot is a city built by chewing and baking goods, and because of this, Hohhot's baking goods are well-known and one of Hohhot's iconic foods.

Now all kinds of baked wheat cakes in Hohhot have different shapes and tastes, such as white baked wheat cakes, black baked wheat cakes, beef tongue, sugar triangle, oil swirl, red bean paste and so on. There are also various ways to eat roasted seeds and nuts. You can put in any food you can think of, such as tea eggs, wheat, fried skewers, pickles, chop suey and so on. The most classic way to eat roasted seeds and nuts is to add bean skin and pour red soup. Every bite is a childhood memory of Hohhot people.

On the last day when I left Hohhot for Xilin Gol, I went to the old city to buy a bag of baked goods with various flavors and took it with me on the train. I didn't want to eat anything else after eating one in the morning, so I bought a bag and ate it for four days before I finished eating it. For people who travel long distances, this is really a very good dry food.