Jiuzhai dried persimmon hide the sweetness of the landscape
If you’ve ever been to Jiuzhaigou, you must have seen a scene like this – on a hillside in late fall, golden persimmons hang on the branches like little lanterns, and under the trees sit a few old men slowly peeling persimmons in their hands next to bamboo plaques filled with sun-dried, glistening persimmon cakes. This is the proudest specialty of Jiuzhaigou people: JiuZhai Dried Persimmon.
What is jiuzhai dried persimmon?
Jiuzhai Persimmon Cake is not an ordinary dried persimmon. It is more like a piece of “concentrated fall” — persimmons peeled, after 30 days of sunshine and mountain winds, become soft and sweet, a bite can taste the honey-like gelatinous feeling, but with a hint of mountain freshness. Locals often say, “Eating a piece of persimmon cake is the same as drinking a mouthful of Jiuzhaigou’s spring water.”
Taste and Characteristics of jiuzhai dried persimmon:
1. Sweet but not snoozy: While ordinary persimmon cakes are sweet and greasy, Jiuzhai persimmon cakes are sweet and refreshing. The secret lies in the difference in temperature between day and night at high altitude, which allows the sugar to accumulate more evenly.
2. Soft and sticky silk: gently broken, the orange-red pulp can pull out amber-colored sugar, like eating natural fruit fudge.
3. Ten years not bad: Walled old people will use oil paper wrapped persimmon cakes, hidden in a wooden cabinet, the next year to open the same soft as before.
Last winter, I witnessed the village grandmother from the clay pot pulled out five years ago persimmon cake, break open when the sugar filaments are still crystal clear. She said, “This is the flavor of the good weather saved by the mountain gods.”
How to make jiuzhai dried persimmon:
Jiuzhaigou people make persimmon cakes as patiently as they raise their children:
– Picking persimmons: only pick the “oxheart persimmons” that are above 2,000 meters above sea level, smaller than a fist, but with thicker flesh. These persimmons are the unique Jiuzhaigou persimmons.
Jiuzhaigou persimmons are a specialty of Jiuzhaigou County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and a national geographical indication for agricultural products.
Jiuzhaigou persimmon production area is located in the southeastern part of Jiuzhaigou County, the production area is 1160m-1938m above sea level, the soil is mainly mountainous brown soil, pH value 7.0-7.8, high organic matter content, loose texture, deep, good permeability, the production area of the natural environmental conditions conducive to the growth of persimmons.
Jiuzhaigou persimmon fruit is large, flat round, orange-red.
The top of the fruit is flat and round, with short radial longitudinal grooves and flat shoulders. The fruit is small, with shallow pits and right-angled revolute sepals. Flesh deep orange-red, delicate, fiber long, less, sweet taste. Seeds small and few.
– Peeling: can not peel too deep, leaving a thin layer of flesh, only chewy in the sun.
– Sun persimmon: bamboo plaque should be set up in a ventilated attic, turned three times during the day, and collected into the house at night to prevent dew.
– Pinch shape: sun to the seventh day, while the persimmon is still soft, gently pinched into a flat circle, this step determines the persimmon cake will not flow heart.
The old Zhangtou of the cottage said, “The persimmon cakes made by machine are hard like stone, and we pinch them by hand to make them alive.”
Ingredients for jiuzhai dried persimmon
1. Niu Xin Persimmon: grown at an altitude of 2,000 meters above sea level, picked after the frost, and exposed to 100 more hours of sun than plain persimmons.
2. Mountain spring water: Before kneading the persimmons, dip them in a little water from the waterfall of the sacred spring, which the old people say retains the aura of the mountains.
3. Pine charcoal: Finally, it is lightly baked with charcoal to prevent moisture and add a hint of pine fragrance.
Last year there was a food factory wanted to mass production, used an electric oven and tap water, the result was made out of persimmon cakes sour. The factory manager shook his head and sighed: “The flavor will run away from the soil and water of Jiuzhaigou.”
Unique jiuzhai dried persimmon Culture:
In Jiuzhaigou, making persimmon cakes is an autumn ritual for the whole family:
– Children are responsible for picking up fallen persimmons, and stealing a few will be clapped by the amah, “Save some for your stomach, it will be sweeter when it’s ready to be sun-dried!”
– The men cut green bamboo to make the sunscreen plaques, and even when their fingers bleed from the bamboo thorns, they don’t stop.
– The most lively day is the day of squeezing persimmon cakes, neighbors visit each other to compare their skills, and whoever squeezes a round persimmon cake can exchange it for two extra pounds of bacon.
Wang, a tourist, said, “Last time I learned to make persimmon cakes, I broke the persimmons, but the host family laughed and said, ‘The broken persimmons will turn out to be good luck,’ and gave me a big bag of them.”
The correct way to eat jiuzhai dried persimmon:
Jiuzhaigou people teach you three tricks:
1. With Qiang tea: with the old shade tea in the walled village, the tea’s bitterness is just enough to solve the persimmon cake’s sweetness.
2. frozen to eat: winter persimmon cake in the window to freeze overnight, bite into a meeting with a smoothie taste.
3. boiled sweet soup: cut into pieces and silver ear and cook together, than add rock sugar is also moisturizing.
Last month, there is a netroots shake voice, the Jiuzhai persimmon cake sandwiched between goat cheese baked, the result was the local people “spit”: “You’re the Qingke Wine to Coke drink!”
Want to eat authentic jiuzhai dried persimmon? Remember these three points:
1. see frost: natural sun persimmon cake, white frost distribution is uneven, like sprinkled snow powder; too white may be sprinkled with flour. 2.
2. Smell: close to be able to smell the light fruit, with sulfur smoked pungent flavor.
3. ask price: this year the Walled City purchase price is 5 U.S. dollars per catty, lower than this price to be careful.
Ditch mouth stall Zhuo Ma told me: “Last year someone took Shaanxi persimmon cake pretending to be, was I recognized at once — our persimmon cake sunshine enough sunshine, even in the folds are through the bright.”
The disappearing jiuzhai dried persimmon:
Nowadays, most of the young people in the village go to work in the city, and fewer than 20 families still insist on making persimmon cakes. 68-year-old Mr. Zhaxi wakes up at 5:00 a.m. every day to dry persimmons, and says, “Tourists take away the persimmon cakes, but someone has to leave Jiuzhaigou’s autumn behind.”
Perhaps one day, when you tear open a piece of Jiuzhai persimmon cake at a cafe in the city, the wisps of sugar that keep tearing away are the sweet thread that connects you to the snowy mountain springs.
Besides Jiuzhai Persimmon Cake, Jiuzhaigou has many other Jiuzhaigou delicacies, click here (Jiuzhaigou Food:Tibetan & Traditional Food)
