Zhao Chunqiong making Ai Cang (Photo: Zhang Dan)
As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Wanling Ancient Town in Rongchang District, Chongqing Was a famous water transport wharf and material distribution center, providing accommodation and rich food for merchants traveling from south to north. Over the years, the goods sold in the old street stores have been constantly changing and updating, and the only thing that has never changed is Ai Cang. In the hearts of the locals, Ai Tang is not only a delicacy, but also a childhood memory hidden in people's hearts that cannot be forgotten.
In Wanling Ancient Town, almost every household will make mugwort, but due to the lack of food, and the main raw material for making mugwort, wormwood, is only available in winter and spring, so people often only make it during the New Year's Festival. Whenever the elders of the family are seen picking wormwood in the field, the hungry worms in the children's stomachs are hooked out early, full of anticipation of the delicious dish on the dinner table.
On November 9th, in the early morning, the ancient town of Wanling in Rongchang District was quiet and soft, and in the quiet alleys, except for the sporadic pedestrians, laughter and laughter came from the house from time to time. The reporter slowly approached a shop, the shop hung outside the sign of "Zhao's Ye Ercang", and when he took a closer look, the Ai Shu placed in the food cabinet and on the table was bubbling with some heat, adding a touch of human fireworks to this old street full of quaint atmosphere.
"Today I want to do more Ai Chen, last time the tourist in Kunming ordered 4 boxes on WeChat." "Okay, then I'll grab my bag and try to send it to him before noon." In the shop, Zhao Chunqiong, 75 years old this year, while talking to her son Bai Caidong, wrapped the wormwood ball with rice dumplings, and the movement was very skillful.
The reporter learned in the interview that "Zhao's Ye Ercang" has been operating for three generations so far. Zhao Chunqiong learned to make mugwort with her mother since she was a child, and conducted research in practice and accumulated rich experience. "Zhao's Ye Ercang" has also become the loudest among the large and small snack bars in the ancient town, selling thousands of them a day when the business is good, and the supply is in short supply.
The small mugwort looks simple, the production process is not simple, to make a delicious mugwort, it is inseparable from a good skill.
"It usually takes two days to make muscats to complete the entire production process." Zhao Chunqiong introduced that on the first day, it is necessary to soak glutinous rice and rice, and then grind the pulp to control drying; the next day, the wormwood is washed, cooked and drained, pour in the boiled brown sugar and glutinous rice flour and stir evenly and knead into wormwood balls, and finally the wormwood balls are wrapped in washed rice dumpling leaves and steamed in a pot.
In Zhao Chunqiong's view, to make a sweet but not greasy, soft and non-sticky moxa, from the selection of glutinous rice, picking wormwood, to kneading dough, steaming, each step is very important. "The ratio of glutinous rice and rice should be appropriate, and the wormwood will be soft and tough; cleaning wormwood is the most time-consuming and laborious, and it must be cleaned up of weeds and old stems; kneading the dough must be kneaded evenly, until the stem of the wormwood cannot be seen, the taste will be delicate; the filling should be reasonable, in order to add icing on the cake to the mugwort..." Speaking of years of experience in the production of wormwood, Zhao Chunqiong instantly opened the conversation box, and his eyes were always glowing.
There are three flavors of Zhao's leaf rice: sweet, salty, and salty and sweet. Sweet leaf rice, also known as mugwort, that is, steamed with rice dumplings wrapped in wormwood balls; salty leaf dumplings are white noodles mixed with glutinous rice and rice, which are wrapped with meat foam, kimchi, dried cowpeas and stir-fried fillings, because of their white and shiny appearance, as if they are cooked piglets, so they are also called piglets; salty and sweet leaf dumplings are wrapped in wormwood balls, the skin is sweet, and the inside is fragrant. Each flavor has its own advantages, containing unique flavors that cater to the different tastes of different customers.
"There used to be no refrigerator, and everyone made pork into bacon, so we used to make bacon-flavored mugwort." Zhao Chunqiong introduced. With the change of the times, people's needs have changed, various flavors of mugwort have emerged, and various stores have also adopted machines to knead dough to improve work efficiency. Most importantly, every winter and spring wormwood growing season, Zhao Chunqiong will pick a lot of fresh wormwood, cook and dry it and put it in the refrigerator for storage, so that everyone can taste delicious wormwood all year round.
Today, although Zhao Chunqiong, who is over seventy years old, is still helping in the shop, the business has been handed over to her son Bai Caidong to take care of. Bai Caidong not only inherited his mother's Ai Shu making craft, but also sold Mu Zi on the Internet, so that wanderers in distant places could taste the taste of their hometown and remember the happy times of childhood.