BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- After the announcement of the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists, Liuzhou snail powder has undoubtedly become the "top stream" among them.
Infographic: People use mobile phones to take pictures of snail powder display. Photo by Zhu Liurong
Many netizens discussed on social media how addictive they were to snail powder.
Screenshot of Weibo
However, few people probably understand that Liuzhou snail powder actually originated from the street night market in the 70s and 80s of the last century.
So, snail powder, which is only a few decades old, is associated with the national intangible cultural heritage?
This also starts with the eating habits of Liuzhou people.
In the Recipes of the Liuzhou people, snails and rice noodles are the favorites of the locals.
Combining rice noodles and snails to make snail powder is a major creation of Liuzhou folk.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Liuzhou's night market gradually prospered, and many diners consciously or unconsciously asked for spicy snail soup to add to their rice noodles when eating rice noodles.
Over time, the stall owners began to try to cook rice noodles with snail soup. Liuzhou snail powder was also born.
But to say that Liuzhou snail powder is completely new does not seem accurate. Because no matter which of the elements, it is very local to Liuzhou.
Taking the snail in the snail powder as an example, the local media in Liuzhou has published an article introducing that a long time ago, Liuzhou people had a special hobby of snails, plus the suburban ponds in Liuzhou City were full of puddles, and snails were the most easily obtained food for Liuzhou people at that time. Many residents catch snails to cook or sell to subsidize their families.
Compared with the snails in Liuzhou, the processing method of sour shoots in the snail powder is more worth mentioning. In the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue", pickled sour shoots require the use of "ancestral tricks".
Screenshot of "China on the Tip of the Tongue".
Feng Enyuan, chairman of the supervisory board of the China Cuisine Association and head of the evaluation team of the traditional food skills of the intangible cultural heritage project, told the media that Shaxian snacks, snail lion powder, peppery soup and Sichuan cuisine like everyone is familiar with have been widely accepted by the people in this society because they have a rich history and culture, and they have met the needs of the people's lives through the progress of the times.
In fact, in 2008, the handmade technique of Liuzhou snail powder was approved by the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and was selected into the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list at the autonomous region level.
In Liuzhou snail powder, there is both traditional inheritance and contemporary value.
More than a decade ago, Liuzhou City encouraged merchants to open stores in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but many ingredients can only be transported by air, which greatly increases the operating costs of powder shops, and the mode of cooking dine-in is difficult to meet the needs of more diners for authentic Liuzhou snail powder.
Infographic: Snail powder simulation model. Photo by Zhu Liurong
How to make delicious food with local characteristics go further?
As a city that has long been dominated by automobile, steel and machinery manufacturing, "industrial thinking" has provided Liuzhou with new ideas.
In 2014, the first bagged snail powder enterprise was born. Since then, Liuzhou has successively introduced a series of snail powder production standards and development plans.
Gradually, snail powder not only went out of Liuzhou, but also developed from a roadside stall to an industry of nearly 10 billion yuan, and even went abroad.
Infographic: Workers packing snail powder. Photo by Lin Xin
During the epidemic last year, the sales of fast food products, including Liuzhou snail powder, surged, and many netizens rushed to ship on social media, and related topics were once on the hot search.
Data map: On February 10, 2020, the snail powder enterprise in Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province, resumed work, and the enterprise measured the temperature of workers at the gate, workshop and canteen three times a day to prevent workers from cross-infection with disease. China News Service reporter Wang Yizhao took a photo
Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province, held a press conference on June 10, saying that from January to April this year, the export volume of prepackaged Liuzhou snail powder was about 7 million yuan, an increase of 4.1 times over the same period in 2020.
Before this year's intangible cultural heritage, the production technology of Liuzhou snail powder was included in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Wang Chenyang, director of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said at the press conference that this review, according to the outstanding characteristics of the dietary intangible cultural heritage projects, set up a separate review panel, mainly to play the guiding role of the list of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects, to guide all sectors of society to pay more attention to the cultural significance, social function and contemporary value contained in the dietary intangible cultural heritage projects on the basis of paying attention to a certain kind of food and a certain dish production technology.
Data chart: A vocational school in Liuzhou City launched a snail powder cake. Photo by Lin Xin
The reporter noted that the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center has published the steps of making snail powder on its website:
1. Pork bones, large ingredients, sand ginger, dried dates, goji berries, shiitake mushrooms and water to boil the soup and set aside;
2. Cut the bamboo into pieces after frying;
3. Pour the oil of the fried bamboo into a bowl filled with chili powder while it is hot to make chili oil and set aside;
4. Stir-fry the dried sour shoots in a dry pot (without oil) with chili oil and salt, add bone broth, tofu bamboo, snail soup and boil;
5. Boil the rice noodles in the water and cook them into a bowl, add the appropriate amount of oil and water, drizzle with bone broth and sprinkle with chopped capers, coriander, shallots, spicy and delicious snail powder.
Are you ready to participate in this intangible cultural heritage project? (End)
References: "Behind the "Pop" of Snail Powder", "Exploring the Origin of Liuzhou Snail Powder Series Report", "The Past Life of Snail Powder", "Snail Powder, Shaxian Snacks, etc. Into the Intangible Cultural Heritage Why is "Street Food" so popular? 》
Source: China News Network