Hot pot with a long history is the original way of Chinese food. In the Western Jin Dynasty, Zuo Si described Chengdu hot pot in "Sandu Fu" as "Jin Lei sitting in the middle, delicacy smoke four Chen. Shang with clear Lin, fresh with purple scales"; visible hot pot in China, at least 1700 years of history.

Hot pot with a long history is the original way of Chinese food.

In the Western Jin Dynasty, Zuo Si described Chengdu hot pot in "Sandu Fu" as "Jin Lei sitting in the middle, delicacy smoke four Chen. Shang with clear Lin, fresh with purple scales"; visible hot pot in China, at least 1700 years of history.

 

 

The picture shows "spicy hot pot. (Online information)

East, west, north and south, each place has its own characteristics of hot pot, but the overall is divided into north and south. The northern hot pot is characterized by rinsing meat, which shows the heroic spirit of "eating meat with a big mouth". The southern hot pot emphasizes variety and taste, showing the fineness of "color, flavor and shape.

Sichuan's "malatang" and Guangdong's "edge stove" both belong to the southern hot pot, but the flavor is very different. Sichuan hot pot is hot and spicy, "heavy makeup", Guangdong hot pot is light and elegant, "no powder".

In the light and elegant Guangdong hot pot, Chaoshan area of Shantou beef hot pot is unique, especially "plain".

Mr. Hui Liang, an old leader of the former army, told me that a Chaoshan beef hot pot restaurant located in Xinghua Qiaotou, the old urban area of Shantou, is not in a superior geographical location, but there are diners gathering together every day, and thousands of people are waiting from morning to night. It's really hard to get a seat, "because it's authentic and authentic."

 

The picture shows the hot market surface of "XINHUAWUJI beef shop. Photo by Yang Yingsen

Admiration came to this hot pot restaurant with the sign of "XINHUAWUJI beef". It was really full of diners, and the shopkeepers and waiters were overwhelmed and busy.

Sit around the table and the waiter will serve the stove and pot. Different from Sichuan hotpot, which pays attention to the bottom of the pot, the bottom of Chaoshan beef hotpot is clear white water with at most a few pieces of white radish. "The bottom of the pan can highlight the original flavor of beef." Wu Zonglin, the owner and chairman of XINHUAWUJI Catering Co., Ltd., said to me, "If you want beef to be more original, you can replace clean water with beef bone soup."

The waiter brought a dish of dip. The dip of northern hot pot rinse meat, the strong fragrance of sesame oil and sesame paste, the spicy sweet of leek flower and raw garlic paste, the dip of Sichuan hot pot, the spicy of chili and the hemp of pepper, "heavy taste". The dip of Chaoshan beef hot pot is the modified sand tea sauce of Nanyang satay sauce and the local Puning bean sauce of Chaoshan, which is "light in taste".

Wu Zonglin told me, "The taste of the dip is light, which is also to highlight the original taste of beef."

The picture shows "Chaoshan beef hot pot banquet". Photo by Yang Yingsen

Raw oysters, raw shrimp, sliced chicken, white burned shrimp ...... Cantonese "eat" like "raw", "white" "original ecology", Chaoshan beef hot pot also inherited the Cantonese "raw", "eat white" eating habits, beef hot pot "protagonist" is beef, can not let the bottom of the pot "dominate", also can not let the beef because of dipping and "change flavor".

"However, Chaoshan beef hotpot is characterized by beef." Wu Zonglin said that Chaoshan people like to eat beef, but Chaoshan does not raise cattle. The beef used in the "XINHUAWUJI beef" hot pot is selected from hundreds of beef cattle breeds in the country, and the local yellow cattle raised in Yun, Gui and Sichuan are free-range. Cattle fed by mountain grass "taste much better than those fed by feed."

The waiter brought a plate of beef and said to me, "This is the raw beef that has just been slaughtered."

"Authentic Chaoshan beef hotpot does not need frozen beef in the refrigerator or frozen beef rolls sold in supermarkets." Wu Zonglin told me, "The beef used in the hotpot in my shop must be live beef cattle with a 36-month growth period. It is transported to Shantou to be fed for two or three days and then slaughtered. From the slaughterhouse to the hotpot shop, the time must be controlled within 60 minutes, and it takes no more than one and a half hours from the slaughtering of live cattle to the table. This kind of beef can ensure freshness and the original taste."

The picture shows that the masters are cutting meat by hand. Photo by Yang Yingsen

Just because Chaoshan beef hotpot does not need frozen beef, it cannot be sliced by a frozen meat machine like Beipai shabu hotpot, but can only be cut by hand, which requires a high level of knife work for cooks. Wu Zonglin said, "the quality of the knife, too thick and too thin, all affect the taste of beef, and the taste of beef in different parts is also different".

As a result, I was in the kitchen of "XINHUAWUJI beef" and saw with my own eyes the "cook Ding" "solving the cow" on the spot ".

The "butchers" skillfully split the parts of the newly slaughtered beef cattle. A chef surnamed Zhou told me that only about 37% of the meat of a cow is suitable for hot pot rinse, and the hind leg meat is only used to make beef balls.

After the split, the chefs cut the slices. Some chefs cut thin, and the thin meat tastes fresh and tender. Some chefs cut thick, and the thick meat tastes very satisfying. In Chaozhou dialect, it is called "full throat." Chef Chen said to me, "For the same piece of beef and beef from the same part, the chef's knife method is different, and the customer's taste will be different."

 

The picture shows the employees are making Chaoshan beef balls. Photo by Yang Yingsen

A sales manager surnamed Chen told me, "We have to slaughter 7. eight cows every day, and more than a dozen during the peak holidays. In addition to supplying our diners, a considerable part of them also wholesale takeout, which is often in short supply." According to her, the "XINHUAWUJI beef balls" they have produced have been sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, and have been well received in the "Dianping. Shantou-Food Taste List" XINHUAWUJI Beef Hot Pot ", with more than 100,000 people paying attention and comments. An Anhui Xiaoyu lady who has been engaged in medical device business in Shantou for more than ten years said to me, "I will abandon my old business and join the sales team of' XINHUAWUJI Beef."

Mr. Wu Peikun, Secretary General of Chaoshan chamber of Commerce in Xi'an, told me after tasting the beef hot pot that the taste of XINHUAWUJI beef is very pure, with clear tender meat soup and exquisite knife work, which can be called "color, fragrance, taste and shape. In recent years, Chaoshan beef hot pot has also been opened in Xi 'an area, which has a great influence and has become a brand effect. He hopes to introduce "XINHUAWUJI beef hot pot" to Xi 'an in the next step. He also enthusiastically wrote "XINHUAWUJI beef hot pot" with "the most delicious" calligraphy.

 

The picture shows the well-known calligrapher Wu Peikun (left) giving Wu Zonglin a calligraphy gift. Photo by Yang Yingsen

Wu Zonglin also told me that Mr. Haibo, an old overseas Chinese from the Fujian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, has made several special trips to negotiate cooperation with him, and is preparing to sell his beef ball products to Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau and other countries and regions. Preparing to expand the production and processing plant.

In this "XINHUAWUJI beef" hotpot restaurant, when I look at the cow and rinse beef, I seem to feel a kind of culture contained in Chaoshan beef hotpot, that is, advocating true color, stressing delicacy, flavor and fragrance, and perfection.

Advocating true colors, stressing refinement, taste to fragrance, and perfection, Chaoshan beef hot pot, which has only a hundred years of history and is light and simple and elegant, has gone out of Chaoshan in recent years, and has become popular in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Xi'an, Dalian and other big cities. It is comparable to Sichuan hot pot and Beijing hot pot. It is said that in less than a year, more than 2500 Chaoshan beef hotpot restaurants have been opened in Shanghai; nearly 1,000 in Beijing since the second half of last year; and nearly 500 in Xi'an.

 

The picture shows the staff is packing takeaway beef balls. Photo by Yang Yingsen