Photo by Wen And Media Reporter Feng Biheng
Not long ago, the Changshu Rong Media Center "Changshu Viewpoint" WeChat public account released an introduction to the city's famous specialty ice hyacinth, which attracted many citizens to leave messages. Many people said that the ice gourd eaten at many banquets now is not authentic, and the ice gourd tasted in that year should be as thin as a cicada wing, and the entrance will melt. A netizen left a message saying that when he was a child, he learned the production technology of ice hyacinth, and now this craft has not been lost, and he can still make the taste of that year. In this regard, this reporter found the master of the message, 68-year-old Wang Jianguo, and asked him to restore the taste in his memory.
Master Wang Jianguo is currently working at the Huiyuan Hotel. Knowing that the reporter was coming for an interview, he had prepared the filling for making ice gourd the day before. I saw small white balls lining up the entire plate, which was a plate of oil that had been processed and pickled with sugar. Due to the hasty agreement, the plate oil marinade time is too short, which makes him a little worried about the success rate of the production. "The moisture may not be clean enough, and it may explode." Wang Jianguo said that taking into account the tastes of modern people, this time he adjusted the ratio of plate oil and sugar in the filling, reducing the amount of sugar and reducing the sweetness of ice gourd.
While talking, he went back to the kitchen, took out the eggs and flour, quickly mixed a bowl of egg whites, and then poured most of the oil into a large pot. After heating for a moment, he inserted a wooden chopstick into it, which was meant to measure the oil temperature. Estimating that the temperature was almost over, he took out eight or nine balls of filling, sprinkled a handful of flour, kneaded well and shake off the excess flour, then put the balls in the egg whites and rolled them, and then fried the balls in a frying pan. I saw that the white balls in the oil pot began to change color, and in a short while, an ice gourd that was as colored as amber came out. Although the "gourd handle" was not made in a hurry that day, the shell of this ice gourd was so thin that it had a sense of crystal clarity, and after picking it up, you could see that there was liquid shaking inside. After a few moments, Ji Meihua, a special guest of this newspaper, immediately tasted it. Ji Meihua's father is a chef, and when she was a child, she loved to eat ice gourds made by her father. After decades, the crispy feeling of the first bite reminds her of that year: "Although there is no small tail, the shell is so crisp, the taste is very fragrant, that is, when I was a child, I did not feel so sweet." 」 ”
Hearing the recognition of The Old Changshu, Wang Jianguo was very happy. Over the years, he rarely made this dessert, and every time it was an old friend or an old guest, he showed such a hand, and every time he got a full house. Last year, an old Changshu who lived in Beijing returned to his hometown, and he was invited to help make ice gourds. At the end of the tasting, guests must meet the ice hyalis maker. As soon as Wang Jianguo walked into the box, the whole table stood up and applauded, and at that moment he was a little excited.
Speaking of this ice gourd, Wang Jianguo learned to make it when he was a teenager. At the end of the 1970s, from Dongzhangji Town to Wushiji Town, Kaihe, Master Wang's village had many families relocating and building houses for this purpose. When building a new house, professional masters were invited to work at home, and the owner had to pack food. In addition, the villagers who have good relations will come to the door to help, and the owner will invite everyone to dinner in order to express gratitude. Therefore, every family that builds a house must ask the chef to cook rice. Wang Jianguo's grandfather was a famous local chef, and during that time, he had to come to the door to provide services before and after he was busy, and there was a shortage of people to lay hands on. At that time, 17-year-old Wang Jianguo followed Grandpa Gan's side to help, and began to learn cooking skills as soon as he came and went, becoming a young chef. In the process, he began to learn to make ice gourds with Grandpa Gan.
At that time, most of the rural banquets would choose ice hyacinth as the final dessert. This dish, which is difficult to say, is not simple, is a dish of kung fu. First of all, the filling of the ice hyacinth should be prepared a few days in advance, and the chef must first buy a large piece of plate oil, remove the skin, tendons, etc., leaving only the white as snow plate oil, and then add sugar in a one-to-one ratio for marinating. Usually the teacher will marinate the plate oil for many days to ensure that the moisture in it is removed, so that when the ice gourd is fried in the pan, there will be no case where the plate oil filling expands due to moisture and eventually breaks the shell. On the day of the banquet, the chef sprinkled a little flour on the outside of the sugar plate oil rolled into a round ball, kneaded it, removed the excess flour, and then put the ball into the beaten egg white, wrapped it in a thin layer of egg white, and immediately fried it. Usually a pot of oil can only fry one part of the ice gourd, because once the ice gourd breaks the shell, the sugar plate oil flows into the oil pan, the oil color will turn black, the color of the ice gourd will be impure, and the oil must be changed again. When Wang Jianguo first made ice gourd, he got started quickly, but the success rate was not high, and if he was not careful, he would blow the shell through and let the juice stain the oil pot. But he was a young man who loved to study at that time, he carefully studied the techniques of the masters, tried them when he had the opportunity, and finally increased the success rate of production to 100%, and he was able to make ice hyacinths alone at the banquet.
However, with the passage of time, people's tastes began to change, and ice gourds with heavy oil and heavy sugar were no longer the taste sought after by the public. And in the 1980s, there was a period of tight pork supply, the need to supply with tickets, the public to buy plate oil is even more difficult, ice gourd gradually withdrew from the jianghu. Not only that, with the exchange and integration of various regions, other cuisines have sprung up, constantly attracting the public to taste, and changshu local cuisine has lost its luster. Wang Jianguo is smart and loves to study, he went south to Guangdong to learn the cooking method of Cantonese cuisine, brewed coffee and Western food in the restaurant next to the airport, and also learned to make Sichuan cuisine, etc., served as a chef in many restaurants, and constantly improved himself according to market demand, but he never gave up the study of Su bang cuisine, and did not forget the ice gourd, a dessert that is not served for many years.
In recent years, he has found that many old and regular cooks often mention the delicacies of the past, and the ice gourd has been read a lot, and many guests have reflected that the ice gourd eaten at the country wine banquet is not authentic, and it feels thick and has the taste of freezing and then returning to the pot. After a conversation, he agreed on a whim to make it for a guest, so that he would do it several times a year, which made him think a lot about the return of the ice gourd to the table of the chang acquaintances. In his view, many guests are reminiscing about this taste with nostalgic feelings, and young and middle-aged people do not accept the too sweet taste of ice hyacinth, and the excessive sugar content is not in line with the concept of modern people pursuing healthy eating. The low popularity of the dish has also made young chefs less interested in learning this dessert, and Wang Jianguo has not yet found a successor who can pass on the craft of ice gourd. "It is best to slowly figure out a new way of proportioning, so that the proportion of plate oil and sugar is more appropriate, more suitable for the taste of modern people, so that the ice gourd can have more vitality." Wang Jianguo said.