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Bangbangji, a dish that makes people’s index fingers move. Hanyang, an ancient town with lingering charm. Now, whether it is "Shancheng Bangbangji", "Chengdu Bangbangji" or "Leshan Bangbangji", it will be indicated that this dish originated in Hanyang Town on the Minjiang River in Qingshen County a hundred years ago.
Standing a hundred years later, we reread history and feel a kind of historical chance and coincidence. Hanyang is to Bangbangji or Bangbangji is to Hanyang, and the relationship between them has long been inseparable.
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Sichuan cuisine "Bangbangji"
Named after the stick hitting the food.
When it comes to "bangbangji", many people know that it is one of the eight major cuisines in China — — A century-old famous dish in Sichuan cuisine. However, little is known about how "stick" and "chicken", two seemingly unrelated things, are related.
Looking through the historical materials, it is not difficult to know that before the appearance of bangbangji, there was a precedent in the cooking history of China to link bangbangji with food.
As early as more than 1,400 years ago, an agronomist named Jia Sixie wrote a famous book. In this comprehensive agricultural book named Qi Min Yao Shu, a delicious food made of wooden sticks was recorded in detail — — White breast. The method of preserved white meat is to choose lean meat of cattle, sheep, roe deer, not fat, cut it into pieces, soak it in cold water until the blood is clear, then put salt water and pepper powder into water to soak the meat, soak it for two nights and take it out to dry. When the meat is half dry and half wet, gently hit it with a wooden stick to make the meat firm.
As for the practice of "white breast", until the Tang Dynasty, some people relayed Jia Sixie’s records word for word when writing books. Today, this once-popular snack "Bai Fu" has faded out of people’s taste in the years, but its practice of hitting food with a stick always makes people involuntarily think of the delicious food that followed, which is also related to sticks — — "great chicken"
How did the great chicken get its name? Is it the same as white preserved fruit, which needs to hit the food gently with a stick before it is cooked, so it has something to do with "stick"? If both of them use the workflow of beating the food with a stick before cooking, then is it the same as the intention of white breast to make the meat firm?
At present, Shancheng Bangbangji, Leshan Bangbangji and Chengdu Bangbangji … … Many bangbangji with local names have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Where is the birthplace of bangbangji? What is the reason for this place’s great chicken to be famous?
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This dish originated from the green god Hanyang.
A small town thriving on water.
In many books on Sichuan cuisine, whenever we mention "Shancheng Bangbangji", "Chengdu Bangbangji" or "Leshan Bangbangji", it will be noted that this dish originated from Hanyang Town on the Minjiang River in Qingshen County before the Ming and Qing Dynasties. As for why Bangbangji originated in a little-known town and why it became famous, there is no historical data to explain it exactly.
Out of Qingshen County, walk south along the Minjiang River. After about 20 kilometers, the river gradually narrows, and a small town with a rich and quaint style appears in front of you. As far as you can see, it is full of gray tiles and old closed wooden houses. Perhaps it is because the weather is too cold, there are few pedestrians on the road, and the town is a little lonely and depressed.
When I got off the bus and walked a few steps forward, I saw three or five elderly people in a teahouse by the road, and I vaguely heard a catchy folk proverb — — "Poor green spirit, rich Hanyang, want to play a Liujiachang … …” As far as the first six words are concerned, a series of questions inevitably come to mind: why does a small town want to be richer than the county? Why does it have such amazing confidence and pressure on Qingshen County? It turned out that this Hanyang town was originally an arc-shaped flat dam along the Minjiang River, and later it became a market town because of water, and it was beautiful for a long time in history because of a Millennium water pier in the town.
In the era of "it is difficult to get through the Shu Road, and it is difficult to get into the sky", the land traffic in Sichuan is blocked, and the Minjiang River waterway has naturally become an important mode of transportation to travel inside and outside Sichuan. When the merchant ships traveling between Chengdu and Leshan arrive at Pingba, they just catch up with the dusk and the night. In addition, Pingba has to pass through a steep gorge area of 3 kilometers to the south of Leshan. The walls in the gorge are towering, the rocks are numerous, and the rivers are circuitous. All merchant ships are shocked by its mystery. Pingba has an open terrain, which is convenient for boats to dock. It just caters to the needs of merchants and ships wandering on the Minjiang River water shipping line to find a place to rest and relieve the fatigue and burnout of a day’s travel.
Day after day, year after year, merchants’ ships docked at Pingba, which turned the ordinary Pingba into an important transit point on the waterway transportation trunk line between Chengdu and Leshan, and gradually evolved into a cargo distribution center for waterway transportation between Chengdu and Leshan. Shuttle boat Ge, raising sails and lowering sails, raising oars and collecting oars, people come and go, bustling, really lively.
By the Han Dynasty, Pingba had its own name. A family named Yiyang opened a shop in the dock near the river. Since then, the family’s business has flourished and the population has been strong, gradually forming a market town. Pingba became a market town because of the Yang surname in Han Dynasty, so it was slowly called Hanyang Town.
In the story of the old people, Hanyang is prosperous and rich. It is not difficult to see that in the impression of the older generation, Hanyang is not only a small town, but also a land of wealth.
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Eating peanuts grows up and tastes delicious.
Hanyang chicken is as famous as "Yayu"
The old people said that Hanyang was born of water, and everything in Hanyang was born of water. There are three local products in Hanyang, which can be summarized by two folk proverbs — — "Hanyang peanuts Hanyang chicken, Hanyang Jiangtuan flies."
Hanyang is the export of Pingqiang Small Three Gorges, which is known as the "fish nest" and the hometown of Jiangtuan, a rare species. Jiangtuan is a good fish with tender meat and delicious taste. It is a pity that the Jiangtuan is becoming increasingly rare and endangered, and the scene of Jiangtuan being exported by air has long since disappeared.
However, Hanyang peanuts and Hanyang chickens have always been there. Hanyang is a delta region formed by the alluvial of Minjiang River, with soft soil, which is most suitable for planting peanuts. Peanuts planted in Hanyang Town are not only large in size, high in yield, but also delicious. When harvesting peanuts, there are always some residual peanuts scattered in the soil, and worms will grow after a period of time. At this time, Hanyang people always put their chickens into the ground and peck at peanuts and insects in the soil. Hanyang chicken is open in the wild, eating fresh peanuts, etc., and it is more shiny and bright, and its meat is more delicious. It is also this unique feeding method that makes Hanyang Chicken quite famous, thus leaving the good name of "Hanyang Chicken with Jia Rotten Yayu".
The raw materials used in Bangbangji are carefully selected from these Hanyang chickens. In a restaurant featuring bangbangji in Hanyang Town, juniper and cypress are slowly cleaning the tools for making bangbangji in the kitchen. As early as the forties and fifties of last century, his grandmother had been cooking a great chicken in the town, and she had been familiar with it since she was a child.
Juniper said that the most critical link in making a great chicken is to choose the ingredients. The meat of Hanyang chicken is tender and plump, which is the main reason why Hanyang bangbang chicken is the most popular. Among the many Hanyang chickens, the local cock over seven or eight months old is the best raw material.
The production method of bangbangji is very particular and has no skill. Slaughter the rooster, remove its hair, viscera and wash it. Wrap the legs and wings with hemp rope, punch holes with bamboo sticks where the meat is thick, put it in a boiling water pot and cook it slowly for a quarter of an hour with slow fire, and add half a scoop of cold water. When the water boils again, turn the chicken over and cook for about 10 minutes, then add half a scoop of cold water. When the water is boiled, turn it over, pierce the chicken with a small bamboo thorn, pick it up when there are no blood beads, soak it in cold boiled water for 1 hour, and take it out to dry. Slaughter the head of the chicken, neck, wings, chest and back in different parts, cut the head of the chicken into two pieces, and gently tap the back of the knife with a special wooden stick to cut the rest. When eating, mix red pepper, sesame powder, pepper powder, sesame oil, Tricholoma, soy sauce, sugar, chopped green onion, monosodium glutamate, etc. into juice, and then dip it in.
It is Hanyang Bangbangji, a special dish, that attracts tourists from both inside and outside the province. Most of them come from Chengdu, Leshan, Ya ‘an and other surrounding areas, but many of them come from Beijing and even foreign countries.
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Chicken sold at the water pier
Eating with relish and leaving with love.
"Bangbang" and "Chicken" seem to have nothing to do with each other, but they are closely linked because of the cooking technology of this delicious food. So, for what purpose, do you have to beat chicken with a stick? How is it different from the practice of beating the white breast with a stick?
Lei Guangqian, director of the Party and Government Office of Hanyang Town, explained the ins and outs of Hanyang Bangbang Chicken.
As early as when the land traffic was underdeveloped, the traffic in Sichuan mainly depended on water transportation, and Minjiang River was an important waterway in Sichuan. From Chengdu to Leshan, Hanyang Town has always been an important transit point. Every day, ships come and go in an endless stream, and boatmen and pedestrians are bustling. Because of the large flow of people, there are some people with more economic minds who have set up a way in Hanyang’s water wharf — — Selling snacks to passing ships and pedestrians.
What are you selling? Of course, it is a local specialty of Hanyang, and the cost is low. As a result, vendors began to sell chicken to ships, and each person could sell several chickens every day. Chicken is slaughtered into small pieces and put in a bowl. The bowl is filled with seasoning juice and soaked with chicken. Every time a guest eats a piece, a piece is recorded. After eating, the money is calculated according to the number of pieces of chicken eaten. Since the price is calculated by the block, it is necessary for vendors to cut the chicken evenly. In order to cut the chicken pieces evenly, the vendors came up with a way, that is, aim the knife edge at the chicken body position, and then hit the back of the knife with a special stick. Later, Hanyang chicken nuggets were also called "great chicken".
For those pedestrians who are tired of traveling by boat, Hanyang chicken, which grew up eating peanuts on Hanyang Dam, is tender and delicious, and it is spicy and spicy, so they all love it and leave it. However, things born of water, without water, are doomed to be unsustainable. After the completion of the highway from Chengdu to Leshan, the water shipping in Chengle gradually became depressed, and the reputation of Hanyang as a "great chicken" gradually cooled down.
Today, in Chengdu, Leshan, Chongqing and other places, Bangbangji presents a prosperous scene of "blowing open the petals of ten thousand pear trees". In order to make it taste better, caterers constantly transform it, and the pricing method is no longer priced by pieces, but by the number of shredded chicken. It is no longer necessary to beat the back of the knife with a stick and cut it into pieces, but there are still some restaurants that, in pursuit of the unique taste of hand-torn chicken, pat the chicken loose with a wooden stick after cooking it. Although this beating has changed the original way, it is still called "stick chicken".
