Today, river snail rice noodles has become synonymous with Liuzhou, Guangxi. But when you are really in the flavor universe of Liuzhou, you will find that river snail rice noodles are not the only delicious food.
In Liuzhou, Qingming Qingming snails, which are more plump than geese, have brought the resounding Liuzhou business card – river snail rice noodles to the moment of appreciation; carefully crafted sour bamboo shoots, tender and juicy, are the finishing touch for all kinds of dishes; river fish are plump and tender. …
The smell of river snail rice noodles
A tour band from Liuzhou has a piece called “Liujiang”, and they sang in the song: “Sunshine opens the door to the mountain and the window opens to see the sun/There are buildings in the alley where ancient people live/On both sides of the river snail rice noodle road/The evening wind blows the river bed where you and I are sitting.” Liuzhou is not a tourist city, but because the river snail rice noodles became popular, many people came here just for a bowl of river snail rice noodles.
According to the data released by the Liuzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, in 2021, the sales revenue of the entire Liuzhou river snail rice noodles industry chain will reach 50.16 billion yuan, of which the sales revenue of bagged river snail rice noodles will exceed 15.1 billion yuan. Open a bag of river snail rice noodles, yuba, peanuts, sour bamboo shoots, sour beans, diced radish… Nearly 10 small packets of ingredients are almost the most abundant ingredients in convenience foods. But don’t mistakenly think that this is the whole picture of river snail rice noodles. When you eat river snail rice noodles in Liuzhou, there are more ingredients than you can imagine!
If the appetite is big enough, there are even more than 30 toppings. The snail meat can be added a whole spoonful, and the golden supporting roles such as sour bamboo shoots and yuba can be added as much as you want. Almost every river snail rice noodles shop in Liuzhou also sells braised pork trotters, braised pork feet and lungs, braised duck feet and duck gizzards and duck legs and duck intestines, braised eggs and chicken wings… all can be added.
Think twice when adding bean paste, because the bean paste that is full of soup will spurt spicy juice at the moment of biting, which is refreshing and stimulating, which will make your soul go out of your body. Fresh spinach, fungus, lettuce, put them in a bowl after blanching, and add vitamins to you. A bowl of river snail rice noodles, both meat and vegetables, is like eating a banquet. There are thousands of river snail rice noodles shops in Liuzhou, some of which are unforgettable because of the soft and glutinous taste of the braised pig’s feet, and some because the yuba is crispy enough to attract patrons. In this city, every ingredient has a chance to be a popular protagonist.
The reason why river snail rice noodles are delicious, in addition to the rich ingredients, the soup base is also very important. A good pot of soup base must have enough flavor. After the river snail rice noodles are served, the first thing Liuzhou people do is usually take a sip of soup. The stone snails and sour bamboo shoots are used as the base material, stir-fry with oil to get the fragrance, and then add the pork bones and chicken racks to cook. In spring, the snails are plump, and the soup base is more and more fresh and thick. After a few hours, you will get a pot of soup with fresh eyebrows, and the aroma can diffuse throughout the alley. As for the layer of red oil on the soup noodles, it is more spicy than ordinary chili oil, which also makes the delicious experience of drinking soup more hearty.
Liuzhou river snail rice noodles appeared later, but the habit of Liuzhou people can be traced back to the late Paleolithic period. In the same stratum at the Bailiandong site in the southern suburb of Liuzhou, snail shells and smashed stone tools have been excavated. It is very likely that ancient humans used this knocker to eat snails. In addition, a large number of snail shells and pottery pieces have also been excavated at the Dalongtan Liyuzui site around Bailian Cave. This seems to confirm that the eating habits of Liuzhou people who love snails have been passed down for tens of thousands of years.
The fans of river snail rice noodles love it madly, but those who don’t love it regard it as a hellish dark dish, not only do not want to touch it, but they will faint just by smelling it. Many netizens said: “After cooking river snail rice noodles at home, it smells like a fried toilet, and the smell dissipates for a few days after opening the window.” But Liuzhou people feel very wronged. Eating river snail rice noodles in Liuzhou is really not that smelly. The smell is because of sour bamboo shoots. Not fresh enough…Sour bamboo shoots are the soul of river snail rice noodles, because the stone snails used in the soup base of river snail rice noodles are sweet but slightly fishy, so add sour bamboo shoots to remove the fishy smell.
The fresh spring bamboo shoots are peeled and sliced, and placed in a tank with mountain spring water or well water for natural fermentation for about ten days. When it first came out of the altar, the taste was not strong, with a slight sourness, and it was crunchy and delicious to chew. The longer the fermentation, the stronger the smell. The local sour bamboo shoots in Liuzhou are often eaten when they are relatively “fresh”, and there is no chance of them becoming stinky. However, the bagged sour bamboo shoots may continue to ferment during long-distance transportation and continuous sealing, and the taste is hardly comparable to the local sour bamboo shoots in Liuzhou.
It is not easy to make a bowl of delicious river snail rice noodless. The freshly boiled snail soup base, fresh sour bamboo shoots, chili oil made from chopped peppers, and a dazzling number of ingredients, and finally, aged rice with a particularly strong taste. The narrow noodles can be sour, spicy and fresh, which makes people love it.
Fish, duck and beef offal are inseparable from sour bamboo shoots
Everyone remembers river snail rice noodless, but often overlooks other delicacies in Liuzhou. Come to Liuzhou, just eat a bowl of river snail rice noodless and leave, it is really not cost-effective.
Come to Liuzhou in spring, I recommend you to try the fish. The spring river fish is approaching the spawning period, the body fat and other nutrients accumulate, and the meat is smooth and tender. The same plate of fish, tasted in spring, is twice as delicious. Compared with other regions who prefer steamed and braised fish, Liuzhou people’s way of cooking fish is very creative and unique. After marinating the small fish in spring, you can make braised fish with soybeans. The fish is quickly fried until the surface is crispy, and it is stewed with the fried soybeans. The fish is firm and tender, and it also has the coke aroma of soybeans. It is an excellent appetizer.
But the most popular fish on the table in Liuzhou is tilapia. The tilapia fried on both sides until golden brown is boiled with sour bamboo shoots, tomato, and savory chili sauce. Another way of doing tilapia is the grilled fish on a midnight snack stand. The seasoning is also inseparable from sour bamboo shoots. Under the continuous heating of the fire, the fish meat covered with layers of sour bamboo shoots slowly emits an aroma, and the sourness can be felt with the nose alone.
“Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet”, and whether the duck is fat or not, can’t escape the “eyes” of Liuzhou people. Nourish the ducks for a winter, full of body and fat. Liuzhou people love to eat “roasted duck”, which is similar to the “roasted goose” of the neighbor next door. Because Liuzhou’s geographical environment and climate are more suitable for duck growth, roast duck here is more popular than roast goose.
The freshly baked roast duck skin is crispy and tender, and even the bones are very tasty. Duck chin can be made with salt and pepper, duck intestines can be made into marinated flavor with river snail rice noodless, duck blood is soaked in snail soup, and duck feet are the highlight of the table. There is a joke in Liuzhou: “9 out of 10 Liuzhou people’s supper is snail duck foot pot.” At first glance, the snail duck foot pot looks like a luxury version of river snail rice noodless. The Lipu taro, the taste-sucking tofu sticks, the sour bamboo shoots piled up into hills, and the crispy but not rotten duck feet with the skin, once served, no one looks good.
Liuzhou people eat beef offal, and they also eat very vigorously. In the big freezer of the beef grocery store, tripe, beef intestine, beef heart, beef liver, beef brain, beef egg, beef bone marrow, beef venetian… The market is still full. Just choose the parts you like, weigh them, and hand them over to the store for processing. When you are too lazy to cook, the locals will pack a portion of beef offal and go home.
The beef offal is quickly scalded in boiling water and then removed. It should be crispy and tender, and then rolled in the sauce, seasoned with sesame, peanuts, bean sprouts, and coriander. The sauce is appetizing, and the rest can also be used to mix rice noodles. Beef offal can also be eaten in raw hot pot. Several people sit around and it is lively. The bottom of the pot is a hot and sour pot with Liuzhou characteristics. After the ingredients are boiled in the pot, they are also dipped in sour soup chili sauce to make the hot and sour to the end!
There are more or less sour bamboo shoots in the daily diet of Liuzhou people. The role of sour bamboo shoots is equivalent to that of ginger, and it is the main ingredient to remove fishy smell.
Liuzhou people use sour bamboo shoots to fry fish and snails to remove the earthy smell of fresh fish; use sour bamboo shoots to stir-fry pork and beef to add extraordinary flavor to ordinary stir-fried dishes; use sour bamboo shoots to stir-fry large intestines and chicken gizzards to defeat magic with magic. Let the water taste thick and refreshing and appetizing; add a handful of sour bamboo shoots when frying vegetables, so that you can eat two more bowls of bibimbap.
Syrup in the city of hot and sour taste
In the strong flavor world of Liuzhou, which likes sour and spicy, there is also a gentleness that is unknown to outsiders. Liuzhou people are not fond of sweets, but they cannot do without syrup. Walking on the streets of Liuzhou, it seems that the people of Liuzhou, the old, the young, and the children, have white and tender skin, which makes people wonder if they are nourished by syrup?
Different from Cantonese-style syrup, it pays attention to the reconciliation of ingredients and the fine ratio. Liuzhou syrup is simple and simple, with the main character “running”. The famous river snail shop either has a syrup store next to it, or sells syrup itself. When the taste buds have experienced the wild baptism of river snail rice noodles, then a bowl of ice-cold srup is like a long drought.
Yaoji Douhua next to the time-honored Fengzhang river snail rice noodless opened in 1993 has been in bloom for more than ten years. After eating Fengzhang river snail rice noodless, going to Yaoji Douhua has become a tacit understanding among diners.
The tender and smooth bean curd is like condensed fat, mixed with brown sugar smoothie, one bowl, it is enjoyable and cool, and it can immediately extinguish the anger brought by river snail rice noodles. Yao Ji also has corn syrup, which is a traditional Liuzhou syrup. The peeled glutinous corn is boiled with water and then seasoned with sugar. The germ core retained in the middle still has tenacity, and the grains have two tastes of soft glutinous and Q-bomb. Chew slowly and have an endless aftertaste.
The brown sugar and mung bean paste of Jiaojie river snail rice noodles, whether you can eat it or not depends on luck, and it is often sold out soon after the opening of business. It looks dark because of the addition of brown sugar, don’t be “dissuaded” by its appearance, the actual taste is excellent. The mung bean paste was so densely cooked that it felt like massaging the tip of the tongue.
Jubao river snail rice noodles has more srup options: tangerine peel mung bean paste, lotus seed red bean paste, coconut milk sago, white fungus peanuts, corn syrup, Qingbuliang, sit at a low table by the roadside, finish river snail rice noodles and then drink srup, how in one go.
Cassava soup, suitable for both hot and cold, is rare in other places, but it is everywhere in Liuzhou. The taste of cassava soup is difficult to describe in words. It looks fibrous and indigestible, but the water has fully penetrated into the cassava, and it does not feel dry and hard to eat.
“Zhang Fei Cassava Soup” is one of the top-notch cassava soups in the industry. The store in Jinyu Lane is located in a busy market, and most people go there. If you want to avoid crowds, you can go to other branches. If you can have a bowl of tapioca soup every day, what milk tea would you want?
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