The "Pig Trotter Noodles" that ranked first on the "Crazy" food list actually "doesn't exist"?

The popularity of "Kuaishou" has made a kind of food popular: pig's trotter noodles .

The villain Gao Qiqiang in the play repeatedly asked for "pig's trotter noodles", which aroused the interest of many fans who watched the play in pig's trotter noodles and they wanted to try it as soon as possible.

Pig's trotters are not a rare food, and noodles are a common home-cooked staple food. I guess the creators of the series originally wanted to use this to describe that Gao Qiqiang was born in a very poor family, but later became rich, but he never forgot his origins and did not abandon this kind of common people's food.

However, many Guangdong food lovers felt something was wrong the more they watched the drama: there is no "pig's trotter noodles" in Guangdong at all!

01

Is there really such thing as “pig’s trotter noodles”?

Pig's feet are pig's trotters, which can be paired with noodles or rice noodles. It is a street-style snack that is quite common in the Lingnan region. However, in the place where the story of "The Storm" takes place, it is difficult to find a bowl of "pig's feet noodles" - because there, it is not called this name at all .

The famous travel gourmet, Landlord Lu, has explained its name to me in detail: Chaoshan has Longjiang pig's trotter rice, and western Guangdong has pig's trotter vermicelli. "The Storm" was filmed in Jiangmen, where there is pig's trotter noodles . Pork trotter, pig's trotter, noodles, vermicelli, after all, the difference is just one word. But, there is no...

If you look through the menus of local restaurants in Jiangmen, you will find that it is indeed not easy to find "pig's trotter noodles". There are only "pig's hand noodles" and "pig's trotter rice". If you meet the older generation, they will often tell you that pig's hand and pig's trotter are two different things: pig's hand refers to the front hoof of the pig, and pig's trotter refers to the back hoof of the pig .

Back to "Kuang Biao", let's still call it "pig's trotter noodles" according to the description in the play - after all, it is the noodles eaten by the "big boss" Gao Qiqiang.

As mentioned before, pig's trotter noodles are a kind of common food that cannot be served in a formal restaurant. In big cities where beef brisket noodles and beef brisket rice noodles are everywhere, it may not have a chance to appear on the stage.

A friend who has lived in Hong Kong for many years and loves noodles once complained to me that he had never found pork trotter noodles in Hong Kong - perhaps because you need to spit out the bones when eating pork trotters, which is not decent enough for white-collar workers in big cities.

Although a properly cooked pig's trotter must be soft and tender , and the meat and bones can be separated by just a bite, without chewing. However, there are many tendons in the trotter, and it is difficult to be completely soft and tender. It is inevitable to use your hands to help you eat it, and it is indeed difficult to maintain a dignified eating posture.

I did have pig's trotter noodles once in Beihai, Guangxi. It was the off-season for tourism, so not many restaurants were open. When I was looking for breakfast, the only option was a pig's trotter noodle restaurant.

This is a small shop that looks very much like an old state-owned food store: wooden tables and benches, white walls stained with oil, the dining area and the operation room are separated only by frosted glass, with a small window on the glass, where customers can pick up noodles by themselves. There are two toppings in the store: beef brisket and pig's feet; two staple foods: noodles and noodles, a total of four combinations. There is no ordering, just shout loudly to the boss. When it is ready, the boss will shout it back to you at the window. Then you can pick up the noodles by yourself, there is no service, and the price is very cheap, pig's feet noodles are 12 or 13 yuan, beef brisket noodles are 15 or 16 yuan. From eastern Fujian to Taiwan, there is pig's feet vermicelli, which must be made with very thin noodles and stewed pig's feet.

It is said that some people believe that eating pig's trotter noodles can "get rid of bad luck". In many places, there is a custom of eating longevity noodles on birthdays, and noodles symbolize longevity. Pig's trotters can kick away bad luck. Speaking of which, since pig's trotters can kick away bad luck, why don't we have beef trotter noodles or sheep trotter noodles? Maybe it's because pig's trotters are of moderate size and have more meat.

02

Why are noodles in the south chewier?

Northerners eat noodles, and most of the noodles they cook are white. The pork trotter noodles in "The Storm" look quite white. However, perhaps this is the effect of shooting lighting and picture color grading, because in the south, yellow noodles are more common.

Because alkali is added. The addition of alkaline salt makes the noodles more durable and also increases the unique aroma and taste. After adding alkali, the noodles appear yellow because the flour contains phenolic compounds - flavonoids . It is usually colorless, but it will turn yellow when it encounters alkali. Kneading the dough will also have a great impact on the taste of the noodles.

The key to this process is to transform dry starch particles into sticky dough and evenly distribute water in the dough, making it stretchable and able to be rolled thin, yet strong enough not to break easily. In this way, it can be turned into a pleasant and chewy noodle during subsequent processing and cooking. The good taste of Lanzhou beef noodles is closely related to the kneading process.

Repeated kneading can squeeze out the air in the dough and form a more evenly arranged gluten network inside the dough. Guangdong's bamboo noodles are also known for their chewy taste. But the chewiness of bamboo noodles comes from tens of thousands of times of beating. Bamboo noodles are divided into egg noodles and whole egg noodles. Egg noodles are made with eggs and a small amount of alkaline water, while whole egg noodles are made entirely with eggs without adding a drop of water. Eggs not only add nutrition to the noodles, making them more beautiful and golden, but the oil in them can also make the dough more delicate and soft, and the protein can make the dough more viscous and firm, while preventing starch particles from entering the noodle soup during the cooking process. The process of making bamboo noodles requires repeated beating. It is this beating process that makes the protein network in the dough more solid. It tastes more chewy.

03

How to divide a bowl of noodles?

Even if eggs are added to bamboo noodles, eggs are only a supporting role. The core of the noodles is still carbohydrates, which mainly provide calories for the human body. In terms of nutrition, the nutrition of the noodles is probably richer and more comprehensive . This inevitably reminds me of another detail repeatedly mentioned in the plot of "The Storm": Gao Qiqiang was very poor in the early days, had little money, and had to take care of his younger brother and sister. So, if you buy a bowl of pig's trotter noodles, the sister will eat the pig's trotter, the brother will eat the noodles, and Gao Qiqiang can only drink the noodle soup. In a bowl of pig's trotter noodles, the pig's trotter provides rich protein and fat, the noodles mainly provide carbohydrates, and most of the noodle soup is water. Leave the most nutritious part to the younger sister, leave the calories to the younger brother, and only leave some soup for yourself to feel the taste of the pig's trotter-Gao Qiqiang was also a sincere and kind person when he was poor.

Author: FOODHACK Yuzi, Master of Food Science from University of New South Wales, Scientific Advisor of A Bite of China