No chicken can leave Guangdong alive, and no fruit in Beijing is not made into dried fruit.

It is said that "after Laba Festival it is the New Year". After entering the twelfth lunar month, the atmosphere of the New Year becomes more intense, and the "New Year flavor" is also fully reflected in food.

Different regions have different natural climate types and different ingredients, which give rise to a variety of delicious foods.

Northerners prefer dumplings, while southerners love rice cakes; Northeasterners must eat canned yellow peaches, while Sichuan and Chongqing people cannot do without bacon and Chinese sausages...

The festive atmosphere is reflected in these delicious meals. In your mind, which foods give the Spring Festival a special meaning?

A variety of chickens

When it comes to delicious food, the food-loving Cantonese people are the first to come up with the idea. If we talk about the "flavor of the New Year" that is indispensable on the Cantonese people's table, it must be - chicken!

During the Chinese New Year, they will appear on the table in various flavors and forms, such as boiled chicken, salt-baked chicken, soy sauce chicken, ginger and scallion chicken, coconut chicken...

Even the chickens themselves probably didn’t expect that “I can be made into so many different things.” As expected, during the Chinese New Year, no chicken could leave Guangdong alive.

As for why chicken has become the center of attention on the Guangdong people’s dining table, it actually has something to do with Guangdong’s geographical location.

On the one hand, there are many forests in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, and chickens can perfectly adapt to this terrain feature, so it is very convenient to raise them.

On the other hand, compared with other livestock, chickens have more edible meat and are relatively low in cost. In an era when material conditions were not abundant, chicken can be said to have satisfied the appetite of Guangdong people very well.

The importance of chicken to Guangdong people is like that of rabbit to Sichuan people. Rabbit is definitely an unavoidable topic in Sichuan people’s New Year goods.

The rabbit is so cute, eat it!

Spicy rabbit head, cold rabbit, roasted rabbit legs... Although rabbits are cute, they are delicious.

Image source: pexels

Sichuan, as China's largest rabbit-raising province, initially raised rabbits to earn foreign exchange reserves. In 1989, the weakening of the international rabbit meat market led to a decrease in rabbit exports. In order to consume these rabbits, the Sichuan Provincial Animal Husbandry Department began to strengthen the promotion of the nutritional value of rabbit meat, and many rabbit meat products came into being.

Due to its low price and unique taste, rabbit meat quickly became popular among the public and became popular in Sichuan cuisine.

Beijingers’ passion for preserved fruits

In addition to meals, snacks are also an indispensable delicacy for the New Year. For Beijingers, a New Year without preserved fruits is a tasteless New Year. Whether it is dried apricots, dried peaches, or dried mangoes, any fresh fruit can be made into preserved fruits.

Preserved fruit is a ready-to-eat food made from fresh fruit using a series of processing techniques. The surface of the processed preserved fruit is dry and translucent, and the water content is less than 20%.

According to the sugar content, preserved fruits can be divided into two types: high sugar and low sugar. The sugar content of high sugar is more than 60%, and the sugar content of low sugar is between 40% and 60%. After air drying, preserved fruits not only have a longer shelf life, but also have a richer taste.

How a fresh fruit is turned into a delicious preserved fruit. This process utilizes the high osmotic pressure production technology of high-concentration sugar solution.

The process can help the fruit release free water, while ensuring that the surface and interior of the fruit absorb an appropriate amount of sugar to form a higher osmotic pressure. This operation can inhibit the growth and development of various microorganisms, thereby extending the shelf life of the preserved fruit.

Because different fruits have different textures and tissue structures, they need to be pre-processed before production. Before processing preserved apples, peaches, apricots and other preserved fruits, the raw materials should be fumigated with sulfur. The treated fruits can avoid color changes caused by oxidation and reduce the loss of vitamins during the drying process.

For some fruits with thick peels that affect the taste, the raw fruits need to be peeled manually or by machine before processing.

After that, merchants need to prepare sugar solution according to the sugar content of different fruits.

The moisture content of normal preserved fruit products is 17-19%, and the total sugar content is 68-72%. At this time, it is only necessary to control the proportion of sugar liquid to more than 60% of the total sugar content of the fruit, so that the taste and texture of the preserved fruit produced will be the best.

After a series of cooking, dehydration, drying, cooling and packaging, we can eat delicious preserved fruits. It should be noted that although preserved fruits are delicious, they have a high sugar content. For the sake of health, they need to be consumed in moderation.

Image source: pexels

As a dessert in Sichuan and Chongqing hotpot, glutinous rice cake is also a staple food on many people's New Year shopping lists. Its chewy and soft texture has captured the taste buds of many people. Although glutinous rice cake is delicious, do you know why it is so sticky?

Image source: Wikipedia

Whether it is ordinary rice or glutinous rice, starch is the most important substance in them. They are composed of polysaccharides connected head to tail by glucose. According to the different arrangement methods, starch can be divided into straight-chain starch and amylopectin.

The molecular structure of amylose is a winding line, while amylopectin has many branches. These two types of starch are commonly found in various foods. In ordinary rice, amylopectin accounts for about one-third, and the rest is amylose.

Beans mostly contain straight chain starch, which can reach 40%-60%, while glutinous rice is very unique. The starch it contains is almost entirely amylopectin. The spatial forms of amylopectin are staggered to form a three-dimensional grid shape. They have strong attraction to each other, so they are relatively sticky. This is also the main reason why we feel that glutinous rice cakes are sticky in our mouths.

Image source: Wikipedia

As a traditional festival of the Chinese people, the Spring Festival has entered the countdown stage. Have you prepared all the delicious dishes for the table?

Share with us in the comment section what your favorite New Year’s goods are!

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Editor/Xiao Xitushuo