Beancurd or tofu (豆腐) is the largest and most important soybean food in China. Generally, beancurd is made by grinding soybeans, filtering the resulting soymilk, adding a coagulant and pressing out the excess water. Northerners traditionally prefer a harder beancurd while southerners prefer a softer, more watery product. A large portion of the beancurd made in China is further processed.
One of the most common processed products is the dried beancurd (豆腐干). This is often smoked or stewed in flavorful sauces and sold on the streets.
Another common processed product is fermented beancurd (豆腐乳). This is made by taking very hard, small beancurd cubes, inoculating them with bacteria or mold and allowing them to ferment. These are sold in the markets in bottles or earthenware jars.
Beancurd jelly (豆腐脑) is a favorite of street vendors in the south. It is extremely soft. You will see the vendors scooping it out of large pots into bowls, adding sauces according to the customer’s specifications.
Bean paste (豆瓣酱) is called miso in Japan. Bean paste is made by combining steamed soybeans with a starch—usually wheat or rice. To purchase bean paste, you bring your own container to one of the state markets and ask them to fill it with the flavor of your choice.
Fermented soybeans (豆豉) are steamed, cooled soybeans. The beans are fermented for three weeks and then mixed with salt, alcohol and water. This mixture is sealed in an earthenware vessel and stored for six months. The final product is fried or braised with meat dishes for a wonderful flavor.
Notes：1）grind磨碎；2）coagulant混凝剂；3）ferment发酵；4）inoculate灌输；5）bacteria细菌；6）mold霉；霉菌；7）earthenware jar陶器罐子；8）specification规格，明细单
15.饺子的由来有什么传说吗？
What is the legendary story about dumplings?
Dumplings are very traditional food in China. Northern Chinese people call the dumplings jiao zi (饺子), while Southern Chinese people prefer to call them hun tun or won ton (馄饨). Dumplings may be stuffed with a variety of food, including pork, mutton, beef and fish.
There are several stories concerning the origin of dumplings. According to one version, the dumpling was invented by Zhang Zhongjing (张仲景), a well-known herbal medical doctor of the Eastern Han Dynasty who wrote the book Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases (《伤寒杂病论》).
Once Zhang retired from his government affairs service and returned to his hometown, he found that in winter many local people had painful chilblains on the ear. Zhang realized that his clinic was so small that it couldn’t accommodate the increasing number of chilblain patients, so he asked his brother to put up a tent and place a cauldron in the village square. When the winter solstice arrived, Zhang started to offer medicinal herbs to chilblain patients.
His medicine was called quhan jiao’er tang (祛寒娇耳汤， herbal soup to dispel the cold and protect the ears). It consisted of mutton, red spicy peppers, and other necessary medicinal herbs. Zhang soaked them completely in water and heated them in the cauldron over a fire until the water boiled. Zhang then took all the things out of the cauldron, mincing them into stuffing. His assistants rolled out dough into each small pancake. They put the stuffing in the centre of the pancakes and wrapped them in the shape of the ear. These tiny things were named jiao’er (娇耳) or“the ear protection,”and were then all dropped into the herb soup to cook. Zhang offered each patient a bowl of the soup and two jiao’er dumplings. The patients drank the soup and ate the dumplings and soon their whole body got so warm, including their ears.
For the following days, they continued eating dumplings and drinking soup, and their ear chilblains gradually disappeared. Zhang kept offering the soup and jiao’er dumplings until New Year’s Eve. On the New Year’s Day, local people all made dumplings as a symbol to celebrate New Year’s Day and to rejoice over their recovery from the chilblains. This event turned into a tradition that has lasted until today.
Notes：1）dumpling饺子；2）a variety of多种；3）treatise专著；4）febrile发热的；5）miscellaneous各种各样的；6）chilblain冻疮；7）accommodate给……方便；8）cauldron大锅；9）physically身体上的；10）celebrate庆祝；11）rejoice感到高兴
16.你知道窝窝头的传说吗？
Do you know the legendary story about wowotou?
Wowotou (窝窝头， steamed corn bread) is made with corn flour or corn and bean flour. Steamed corn bread has a solid body and a round, flat base that gradually becomes narrower toward the top. The centre of the base is curved inward, allowing steam to easily heat the bread.
There is an interesting anecdote about steamed corn bread. In 1900, a joint force of eight countries invaded China. Empress Dowager Ci Xi (慈禧太后) fled the capital to Xi’an with her palace attendants and staff before the foreign expeditionary force moved into Beijing.
On the way to Xi’an, the empress felt hungry and extremely fatigue. The eunuchs searched everywhere, hoping to find food for the empress. They found nothing but one cold steamed corn bread from a villager nearby.
The empress quickly devoured the corn and then felt full. When Empress Dowager Ci Xi returned to her palace, she had cooks in the imperial kitchen make the steamed corn bread for her. The cooks made the bread in the same way as the common people made it. However, the bread made in the imperial kitchen was small in size, consisting of refined corn, soybean flour, sugar and sweet osmanthus petals.