A Comprehensive List Of Hangzhou Specialty Snacks. How Many Of These Delicacies Have You Tried?

Pianerchuan: The simple philosophy of the first side of Hangzhou

first time seeing Katakawa People may be deceived by its "pureness".

There are no fancy toppings, just pickled vegetables, bamboo shoot slices and lean meat slices, lying calmly on the local wheat noodles.

But it is this inadvertent combination that hides the wisdom of Hangzhou people in eating noodles.

The pickled cabbage is made from Daedou vegetables, which have a rich salty and fresh flavor. The bamboo shoots used for bamboo shoot slices must be fresh from the spring and winter seasons. After being cut into thin slices, they are crisp and tender with a hint of sweetness. The lean meat slices have been made with rice wine and corn starch in advance, making them smooth and tender.

Chewy noodles are the kind of flat alkaline noodles that are cooked until they are about 70 or 80% cooked. They need to be taken out. The remaining temperature after being taken out allows the noodle core to continue to mature, so that it will taste chewy.

The soup looks clear, but it is actually made from pork bones and old hens. It is then mixed with the salty taste of pickled vegetables and the fragrance of bamboo shoots. Once you take a sip, your eyebrows will fall off.

People who have lived in Hangzhou for a long time will prefer to add a piece of lard residue when eating Pian'erchuan food. The crispy lard residue is soaked in the soup and presents a semi-soft and semi-hard state. Only in this way can it be called authentic.

Dingsheng cake: a tender memory between sweet and salty

In the old streets and alleys of Hangzhou, you can always see making Dingsheng cake stall.

Dingsheng cake with traditional characteristics is sweet and filled with bean paste. Japonica rice flour and glutinous rice flour are mixed according to a certain proportion, added with water and kneaded into a fine powder, and then sifted into a specially made printing plate with the help of a sieve.

A groove is dug out in the middle of the printing plate with a pattern on the bottom. Home-made red bean paste is added spoon by spoon, then covered and compacted with rice flour, and finally placed in a steamer and steamed for seven or eight minutes.

The steamed Dingsheng cake has a pink and tender appearance. When you take a bite, the soft cake body will melt on the tip of your tongue. The sweetness of the bean paste is mixed with the aroma of sugar osmanthus. The taste is sweet but will not make people feel greasy.

There are still cases where the salty taste is present, and the fillings are changed into diced bamboo shoots, minced meat and dried tofu. It has the characteristics of salty flavor and is suitable for eating, which is more suitable for those who do not like sweet food.

The older generation of people in Hangzhou say that the name Dingsheng cake was passed down through the Southern Song Dynasty, and it contains the meaning of success. Therefore, if there are children in the family who are going to school or before taking exams, they will always buy a few pieces in order to get a lucky draw.

Southern dumplings: the secret of the soup in the jelly

The one called Southern Dabao, its full name is Southern Mizong Dabao, is within the breakfast category in Hangzhou, and it is undoubtedly the king of queues.

The most classic is the meat buns. The fillings are pork belly and pork forelegs, with a ratio of fat to lean of 30-70. After mincing the meat into minced meat, the most critical step is to add broth and skin jelly made from pig skin.

At room temperature, the skin jelly is in a solid state. Once it is placed on the steamer for steaming, it will turn into soup when exposed to heat. This creates the "juicy" effect when you take a bite.

The dough is fermented with the help of traditional old dough. This operation needs to be folded repeatedly during kneading to promote the dough to generate sufficient gluten, so that the steamed dough will be soft and elastic, and can produce a rebound effect when pinched by hand.

Bite it slightly to make a small opening, first take a sip of the extremely delicious soup, and then eat the skin and filling together. The taste is salty and rich, and your mouth is full of aroma.

Not only meat buns are popular, but also oil buns (lard and bean paste buns) are popular. The bean paste is mixed with diced suet. After steaming, the fat will melt, making the bean paste more moist and sweet.

Hinoki wrapped with green onions: the smoke of fireworks pressed out by the iron plate

Chinese cypress wrapped in green onion The name sounds elegant, but it actually hides the "little temper" of Hangzhou people.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a saying among the people that the public was full of hatred for Qin Hui and his wife, so they wrapped fried dough sticks and green onions in spring cakes, placed them on an iron plate and pressed them to bake, which has the meaning of "roasting Qin Hui".

Even though the method may seem simple, there are actually quite a few things to pay attention to: the spring pancake needs to be as thin as a cicada's wing, spread out round and will not break; the fried dough sticks must be freshly fried, hot and crispy; the shallots must be local chives, cut into long and segmented pieces, with more white part, so that the fragrance will be more abundant.

When pressing and baking on the iron plate, use a spatula to press repeatedly until both sides of the spring cake are golden and the edges are slightly crispy.

Spread on the sweet noodle sauce and hot sauce, fold it in half, and take a bite while it's hot. The crispiness of the spring pancake, the toughness of the fried dough sticks, the spiciness of the shallots, and the salty and sweet taste of the sauce are mixed together to create an extremely rich texture.

Nowadays, some of the stalls still add a piece of ham sausage, but old Hangzhou people believe that if other things are added, it will no longer be the same taste in their memories.

Youdun'er: Childhood in the sound of sizzling sounds

It's winter in Hangzhou, and when I heard the "sizzling" sound coming from the roadside, I knew I had already encountered a Youduner stall.

There is a semi-circular snack with a special iron spoon. Use it to scoop a spoonful of thin batter as the base, then put shredded radish, maybe shredded pumpkin, or minced meat with pickled vegetables, then cover it with a layer of batter, and finally put the whole spoon into the oil pan for frying.

The batter expands rapidly in the high temperature, and its outer shell gradually turns golden brown, but the fillings inside still remain fresh and tender.

The oil dumplings just taken out of the pot were so hot that they couldn't hold their hands, but everyone couldn't wait, blowing on them and taking small bites.

The outer shell is very crispy and makes a "click" sound when you bite into it. The shredded radish wrapped inside is particularly sweet and juicy, with a hint of peppery spiciness, which just eliminates the greasy taste caused by deep-frying.

Usually, the aunt who sells youduner will prepare a small dish of sweet sauce for dipping. The sour and sweet taste is another unique flavor.

Stalls like this are becoming increasingly rare. Once you encounter one, there will always be someone who buys several at once, claiming to restore the "taste of childhood" at once.

Beef Vermicelli: A Tender Trap with Curry Flavor

Xinfeng Snacks Beef vermicelli is the taste that many Hangzhou people have grown up eating.

The vermicelli is made from sweet potato flour, which is not rotten after being cooked for a long time and is round and smooth.

Soul is a fan of this soup. The soup base is made from beef bones. A small amount of brown sugar and curry powder are added to create a complex taste with a subtle curry flavor, which is also sweet and salty.

The beef placed there is marinated cooked beef and cut into small dices. These small diced beef and chopped green onions are sprinkled on the area above the vermicelli. You must take a sip of the soup before you start eating. The mellow taste will open your taste buds in a very short time.

The vermicelli is full of soup and becomes plump and crystal clear. When you suck it into your mouth with a chopstick, it becomes smooth and soft.

Many people are keen to add a spoonful of vinegar and chili oil to the vermicelli. The hot and sour taste can bring out the sweetness of the soup.

What is intriguing is that the fans owned by this shop are often given a different way of "eating twice": first they eat all the fans, and then they hold the bowl and swallow the remaining soup in one go. According to old customers, "the soup is more valuable than the fans."

Butter cake: sweet dream at the foot of Mount Wu

At the foot of Wushan Mountain, you can often smell the sweet smell of oil, which is the Wushan Butter Cake signaling to people.

It looks like a stack of upside-down bowls. Its outer shell is made of thousand-layer puff pastry. Each layer is as thin as paper and the layers are clearly distinguishable.

During production, flour and lard must be repeatedly folded and rolled to form such a crispy structure.

The fried butter cakes are sprinkled with a thick layer of powdered sugar while they are still hot. The powder is as fine as snow and will fall down with just a touch.

When you take a bite, the crispy and layered skin will burst into pieces in your mouth. The sweetness of the powdered sugar and the aroma of lard gradually melt away on the tip of your tongue. The texture is crispy and the taste is sweet but not cloying.

After an afternoon of shopping, I felt extremely tired, so I bought a butter cake, paired it with a cup of fragrant tea, sat on a street bench, ate slowly, and watched the people coming and going, and my inner mood became cheerful.

The older generation would break up the butter cake and soak it in lotus root starch to eat, saying it had a unique flavor.

Three must-eat dishes in Hangzhou

After talking about snacks, let’s talk about the restaurants and signature dishes that you must eat when you come to Hangzhou.

The first one is Fuyuanju The crispy large intestine is a restaurant highly recommended by old Hangzhou people.

The intestines are treated extremely clean, and there is no odor at all. First marinated and then deep-fried, the outside is as crispy as potato chips, but the inside remains soft and chewy.

After dipping the special sauce on the food and taking a bite, the aroma of the braised food, the aroma of the oil, and the aroma of the sauce will instantly burst and spread in your mouth. Those who don't like to eat pig intestines can eat more than half a bowl after coming here.

The second one is the yellow croaker rice cake sold by Ye Ma Teahouse. The rice cake is very elastic and chewy. The yellow croaker is fried just right. Its skin is tender and tender, and the meat is extremely delicate. The soup has a unique taste of salty and sweet. If you mix it with rice, you can eat three bowls.

The particularly large braised chicken feet are from the third alley. They are packed in a nostalgic stainless steel container, with the meat and ribs included. The marinade tastes sweet, and the meat is soft, glutinous and crispy. It can fall off the bone with just a sip. It is a taste that many Hangzhou people remember from their childhood.

Hangzhou’s food, just like this city, may seem warm and ordinary at first glance, but it will leave you with endless aftertaste after tasting it carefully.

From the sizzling butter cakes on the street to the finely made butter cakes with an old traditional name, every bite is the kind of taste that records time.

The next time you go to Hangzhou, don’t just focus on admiring the West Lake. Go into those alleys and follow the locals to queue up to buy cypress wrapped with green onions, or find a time-honored shop to order a bowl of Pianerchuan. This is the right way to start Hangzhou.