Mapo tofu, a famous home-cooked dish
When the steaming hot mapo tofu is served
When you look into the eye, you will be red, white and green
White is tofu
Red is chili pepper
Green is garlic seedlings
Swallow in one bite of tender tofu
Spicy and fresh aromas bloom between the mouths
The pungent taste spreads quickly throughout the body
On Qinghua Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu, a simple and elegant Chinese-style building stands quietly in the bustling and lively city center. People from the south to the north flock to taste the authentic Sichuan fragrance for themselves.
Chen Ma Po Tofu (people have become accustomed to calling it Mapo Tofu) was founded in the first year of the Tongzhi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1862), originally named "Chen Xingsheng Restaurant" in the north of Chengdu, originally known as "Chen Xingsheng Restaurant", and later because the hotel owner's wife had a slight hemp on her face, the regular customers called her "Chen Ma Po".
At that time, the Wanfu Bridge was a cross-river, and there were often peddlers and pawns on the bridge, and coolies under carts and cars stopped and pointed. Patrons of the "Chen Xingsheng Rice Shop" are mainly porters who pick up oil, they often buy some tofu and beef, and then scoop some vegetable oil from the oil basket and ask the boss lady to process it on their behalf.
Over time, Chen has developed a unique set of cooking techniques for cooking tofu. The tofu she cooks is full of color and flavor, which is deeply loved by the local people, and the tofu cooked by Chen is famous.
According to the "Chengdu General Survey", Chen Mapo tofu was cited as a famous food in Chengdu in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and the "Jincheng Bamboo Branch Words" praised:
Ma Po Chen clan is still famous, and tofu is the most exquisite
The curtain on the side of Wanfu Bridge is moving, and Mr. Hegu Chun is drunk
Today, the tofu dish making technique (Chen Ma Po tofu making technique) has been included in the list of representative projects of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan Province.
Chen Ma Po tofu, after hundreds of years of inheritance and development, has captured the stomachs of countless diners at home and abroad with the characteristics of "spicy and crispy, fresh and tender and scalding", and has become one of the well-known golden signs in Chinese cuisine.
Chen Ma Po tofu is fired in accordance with the eight-character motto: hemp, spicy, crisp, fragrant, fresh, tender, whole, hot.
▲ Hemp: Refers to the tofu in the pot, to sprinkle an appropriate amount of minced peppercorns. Peppercorns are best used with Hanyuan peppercorns, which have a pure hemp taste and are refreshing.
▲ Spicy: The use of high-quality Da Hong Pao oil pepper to make watercress, chopped finely cooked, with a small amount of cooked oil, sea pepper to cook tofu, spicy and fragrant.
▲ Crisp: refers to the fried meat, golden color, red crispy plate, one by one, one grain, crispy in the mouth, stained teeth on the melting.
▲ Incense: Mapo tofu that has just been served, all kinds of aromas. The sauce aroma of watercress and tempeh, the spicy flavor of chili, the meat aroma of beef, the garlic flavor of green garlic, and the hemp aroma of peppercorns are mixed together to make people's appetites increase.
▲ Fresh: The raw materials of Mapo tofu are fresh, fresh and emerald green, red and white, fresh color and taste, impeccable.
▲ Tender: tofu under the pot, fried to get the method, white as jade, there are horns and horns, a twist is broken, so use a small spoon to scoop food.
▲ Whole: refers to the tofu can not be fried at will during the production process, to maintain the integrity of the tofu.
▲ Hot: The characteristics of tofu maintain the temperature of the whole dish after the pot is cooked, and it is not easy to cool. Every time I chopsticks, I eat the taste of freshly baked.
The eight characters are full of the vivid color and fragrance of Mapo tofu. When it is served, the snow-white tofu is tender and dripping, wrapped in a circle of translucent bright red red oil, red and white, and the color and taste are fresh.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, since Sichuan was the rear area, people from all walks of life from all over the country came to Chengdu to taste and recognize mapo tofu. After the war, people brought mapo tofu to all parts of China, which was the first time that Chen Ma Po Chuan Restaurant went out of Chengdu on a large scale and went out of Sichuan, and was recognized by people all over the country.
After liberation, Chen Mapo tofu spread to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and was later spread to Japan and developed greatly in Japan.
Nowadays, in order to let people taste the traditional Mapo tofu, Chen Ma Po Chuan Restaurant has introduced its own Mapo tofu seasoning to the market, which has been welcomed by many consumers.
Based on the continuous efforts of the successive inheritors of Chen Ma Po tofu making technology, Chen Ma Po Sichuan Restaurant has been prosperous for more than 140 years, and has become famous at home and abroad, and has won the praise of Chinese and foreign gourmets.
A plate of Mapo tofu skillfully combines the tenderness of tofu with the fiery heat of peppercorns, so that the eight wonderful kinds of hemp, spicy, crisp, fragrant, fresh, tender, whole and hot bloom in the taste buds.
More than 150 years ago, it was an affordable meal cooked by Ma Po Chen's original technique for coolies; more than 150 years later, it is still the deepest attachment on the tip of the tongue of Chengdu people...