The hometown of rice noodles: Guilin rice noodle culture

Guilin rice noodles is a famous snack in China with a history of more than 300 years. Its production method is very unique, and the finished product is full of color, fragrance and taste, which is a must for Guilin snacks. In Guilin, no matter in the morning or at night, when you cross the streets, the fragrance of rice noodles will come face to face. Both locals and foreigners who work and travel in Guilin will be entangled in rice noodles and have an appetite that can't stop. There is hardly a day in Guilin when men, women and children don't eat rice noodles. Guilin rice noodles are the best in Guilin culture. Do you know the history and production of Guilin rice noodles? If you don't understand, just follow my steps to understand!

First, Lingqu and rice noodles

After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he launched a war to unify South China (Baiyue). In the mountainous south, transportation is extremely difficult, and the grain and grass in the rear can't be supplied to the front normally, so Qin Jun has to levy grain on the spot. However, most people in Qin Jun are northerners, who usually live on wheat flour. They are in southern operations. Because they didn't like rice, many soldiers were not acclimatized, vomiting and diarrhea, which made Qin Jun's combat effectiveness seriously decline for a time and directly affected the success or failure of the joint war. Therefore, solving the problem of eating has become a top priority for some time.

How to turn rice into wheat flour for Qin Jun soldiers to accept, Shi Lu gave the task to the chefs in the Qin army to complete. According to the production principle of Lamian Noodles in Northwest China, the chef first swells the rice, grinds it into rice slurry, drains the water and kneads it into dough. Then steam the dough, and finally pull out the vermicelli and throw it directly into the boiling water pot for cooking. After eating, the soldiers immediately recovered their physical strength, and the war increased greatly, eventually unifying the south. Anxian (the predecessor of Guilin) was built in the sixth year of Ding Yuan in Han Dynasty. A large number of northern immigrants moved into Guilin, including descendants of historical celebrities such as Zhuge Liang, Han Xin, Tao Yuanming, Zhou Dunyi, Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhu Yuanzhang. These northern immigrants came to Guilin and called rice noodles "rice noodles", which has continued to this day.

So Guilin rice noodles have been around since the Qin Dynasty. In other words, Guilin people have been eating rice noodles for more than 2200 years.

Second, the production technology of ancient Guilin rice noodles

The production technology of rice noodles, popcorn and other foods all comes from the brewing technology of the Qin Dynasty.

The earliest rice in Xing 'an appeared in the Neolithic Age more than 6000 years ago. The invention of rice flour is inseparable from the technology of brewing rice wine. Duihuajiu (Rongjiang Sanhuajiu) is a Xiaoqu-flavored rice wine brewed by craftsmen who built a spirit canal in Qin Dynasty by the process of "brewing spring wine with benzene koji".

The prevalence of liquor culture in Qin Dynasty promoted the development of food processing industry, and many winemakers followed Qin Jun south to Lingnan. Bring advanced brewing technology to Lingqu. Qin people leave a lot of raw materials every time they brew a pile of flower wine, and the process of processing these raw materials gradually evolves into the process of making rice noodles. Every time you finish brewing wine, there are leftovers. Craftsmen directly cook these leftover raw materials (called "feed") with seasonings before eating, which is more delicious than eating pure rice, and the use of feed has also become greater. Qi Yaomin's book introduced in the article "Christine" that "when rice is soaked with balm and warm water, the rice paste is not enough, and then it becomes thick". That is to say, after soaking the rice paste in a seasoning called fragrant paste and warm water for a period of time, rub the rice balls with your hands to prevent caking, and then put the rice paste into the jar later.

So, how to treat rice slurry into rice flour? At first, the tools used by Qin people were horns. Cut a horn, about the size of a spoon, and punch four or five holes just enough for leek leaves to pass through. Then take two pieces of newly woven white silk, punch holes according to the size of the horn pieces, sew the horn pieces into a circular funnel, put the prepared rice flour slurry in a silk bag, put the slurry bag on a boiling pot, let the powder slurry leak into boiling water from the small holes of the horn pieces, and take it out after cooking, and it becomes pancake-shaped rice flour. If it is powder cutting, put a copper basin on the boiling water pot, scoop the prepared rice slurry into the copper basin, pour it into boiling water and cook it, and then take it out to become powder cutting. Horn slices are the first main tool for making rice noodles.

After the winemaker invented rice noodles, it attracted the attention of migrant workers in Qin Jun who built Lingqu. Migrant workers used to be unaccustomed to rough Redmi, but now they have rice noodles, which add attractive varieties to their very monotonous recipes. In addition, for the convenience of carrying, they invented a method to make dried rice noodles: dry the re-steamed rice, mash it and sieve it, steam it with red dates and mash it into juice, and mix it with dried rice noodles. Using the same processing technology, they also processed glutinous rice into rice noodles, fried "fried oranges" and "fried dumplings" and other foods. The folk popcorn processing method in Xing 'an still follows the manual processing method in Qin Dynasty. Because the use of popcorn is not extensive, people have not noticed its processing method, so the processing method of popcorn has remained unchanged for thousands of years and has been passed down from ancient times to the present. Rice noodles are different. With the increasing demand for it, people are constantly making a fuss about how to process rice noodles in batches. For example, since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the processing of rice noodles has evolved from manual processing to simple wooden tools, and then to modern semi-mechanized and mechanized mass production, which basically met the needs of different people in different periods.