Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional stories - Yiwu's annual flavor composition

Yiwu's annual flavor composition

For thousands of years, people in China have always regarded the Chinese New Year as a major event. Before the Spring Festival, we should make a lot of preparations and buy a lot of things, such as food, use, clothing, clothing, play, supply, dry, fresh, raw and cooked, which are collectively called "new year's goods".

"Food is the most important thing for the people", and the status of new year's goods is very high in a year, which even determines the happiness index during the New Year. In most people's minds, new year's goods are not just food, but a continuation of tradition. Old nostalgic classics emerge one by one, and the taste of old times in memory reappears in the rivers and lakes.

Wu branch mantou

Traditional Wudian steamed bread is the staple food of Yiwu people in traditional festivals such as Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, and it is also a necessary food for guests to marry, have a baby full moon and have a birthday. As a famous snack with a history of 100 years in Yiwu, Wudian steamed bread has become a unique "delicious" culture in the local area.

There are many ways to eat steamed bread in Wudian. Dip steamed bread in brown sugar and melt the brown sugar bit by bit. The two are combined into one, and a bite is sweet. Or put the steamed bread in the pot, add a little oil and bake it with warm fire, and then sprinkle a little salt. The steamed bread out of the pot is crisp and golden, and the aroma is fragrant; Or stir-fry the steamed bread, dig a small hole in the steamed bread with chopsticks, then put a good piece of meat in it, add some dried bamboo shoots, gently put them in your mouth, and bite them down, you will feel very fragrant, and the entrance of braised pork is full of oil, which is from My Sweetie. Nowadays, fried meat with steamed bread has become an indispensable classic dish in traditional Yiwu banquets. At weddings, funerals and weddings, people will fry meat with steamed bread. No matter how many delicacies you serve at the banquet, the host of the banquet will lose face in front of relatives and friends.

Fermenting Polygonum multiflorum flower and flour to make white koji; Make steamed bread with white koji and glutinous rice wine, knead dough with steamed bread to make rings, swim cages, steam cages, come out of cages, spray red letters (Fulu Xi Shou) or paste red seals. The production technology of Wudian steamed bread is very particular, from dough mixing, kneading, molding, fermentation to steaming, each process is interlocking to ensure its quality. An authentic Wudian steamed bread can be distinguished from gloss, taste and height. Compared with ordinary steamed bread on the market, the production process of Wudian steamed bread is much more complicated. It takes at least three days to bake a pot of steamed bread, which is time-consuming. In the peak season of sales, steamed bread makers have to get up early and get greedy every day, sometimes only three or four hours of rest a day. At present, most steamed buns on the market are simple and convenient, and can be made in a few hours.

Near the end of the year, Yiwu people from Lanxi, Pujiang, Hangzhou and other surrounding counties and cities often come to Wudian to order steamed bread. In the eyes of the elderly Yiwu people, only the steamed bread made by Wudian is the authentic Wudian steamed bread, which is the taste in memory.

Kongcun Baitang

White sugar, which is dense, full and instant in the mouth, was once a necessary gift for friends and relatives in Yiwu during the Spring Festival. However, with the loss of sugar production skills, this traditional new year's goods is slowly fading out of people's sight.

The white sugar in Yiwu population refers not to white sugar or soft sugar, but to white maltose. As early as the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Danxi's "Herbal Supplement" Volume 20 clearly recorded the production of Yiwu sugar. Yiwu has always had the custom of using white sugar with tea on holidays, which was one of the few snacks in that era. Until the early days of reform and opening up, most of the sugar sold by Jinhua came from Confucius Village in Yiwu. At its peak, nearly 100 people in Kongcun sold white sugar in the urban and rural areas of Yiwu and Jinhua, which made them famous for a while.

Kong Cun sugar, once in full swing, has declined rapidly in the past decade. At present, Li is the only local who makes sugar in Kongcun. Seven years ago, Li took over the sugar factory from his father. With the help of his wife and two villagers, he could produce about 100 kg of sugar every day. Kongcun white sugar is famous for its genuine products, and its production process is complicated, which requires barley germination, glutinous rice soaking, cooking, fermentation, squeezing, boiling, beating and cutting sugar. It takes a long time and labor intensity. It takes nearly 20 working hours to make a cup of sugar (50 kg). 2013165438+10. In October, the sugar-making skills of Kongfu Village were selected into the fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Jinhua along with the hoop barrels of Yongkang and the straw sandals of Pan 'an.

Nearly half a month before the Spring Festival is Li's busiest time of the year. I can only sleep for two or three hours a day when I am busy. Li's sugar is 25 yuan per kilogram. Although the price sounds expensive, people pay great attention to food safety now. In addition, Li successfully declared the municipal intangible cultural heritage project for Kongcun Sugar Industry the year before last, and more and more customers came here to buy sugar. Yiwu sugar, as a traditional new year's goods, is showing new vitality.