Zibo Snacks

The Zhoucun Sesame Seed Cake

The Zhoucun sesame seed cake is the most famous snack of Zhoucun district in the Zibo city. The kneaded dough is rubbed to increase its ductility. The sesame seeds on the cake have been through soaking, peeling, and frying. On a cake with a diameter of 11 cm, there are nearly 2,000 sesame seeds. It is said that the Zhoucun sesame seed cake was a tribute to the royal household, and in the movement to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, it was used as rewards to the Volunteer Army. The long history and delicate cooking method make the Zhoucun sesame seed cake a typical example of snacks of Zibo.

Zibo is located in the middle of Shandong. 2.700 years ago, it was the capital of the State of Qi.  Long history and convenient communication give birth to various styles of local snacks. The Zhoucun District is one of the cradles of the ancient Silk Road. 100 years ago, it was also one of the trading ports opened by the Qing government. Flourishing commerce and trade created an ideal environment for colorful food culture. Among the various snacks in Zibo city, Zhoucun sesame seed cake was the most famous one. In the Zhoucun District, there is a Zhoucun Sesame Seed Cake Museum which shows people the history of Zhoucun sesame seed cake. Making cakes on the spot attracts the attention of tourists from all over the country.

Zhoucun sesame seed cake is also called the “Zhoucun Crisp Sesame Seed Cake.” This cake has been recorded in the book “Important Arts for the People’s Welfare” a long time ago. The “Important Arts for the People’s Welfare” has recorded the soup cake, steamed cake, and Northern cake. The Northern cake is the sesame seed cake mentioned. The soup cake is a kind of noodle, and the steamed cake is a kind of steamed bun. About 2,000 years ago, the cooking method of the sesame seed cake was spread to the Central Plains from the Western Regions. So the sesame seed cake was called the Northern cake originally. A hundred years ago, Zhoucun sesame seed cake began to become popular.

Wang Chunhua, the inheritor of Zhoucun sesame seed cake, says that each step in making the Zhoucun sesame seed cake needs to meet very strict requirements. As to the secrets of the Zhoucun sesame seed cake, one could only know it by making it oneself. In the first step, you make a small dough and put it on the glass, and dip one’s fingers in the water. When you feel it is sticky, press the dough. And then put it on the glass before laminating clockwise. Spin it. Spread it out. The dough is very soft, so people should do it evenly. It could only be laminated that way. It is not very big. If one put too much strength, it would not be round. Wang Chunhua said, the workmanship of laminating the cake would be proficient only after one months’ practice, and the workmanship of pasting the cake on the stove which is 260 ℃ would be proficient after at least three months’ practice.

Zhoucun sesame seed cake is full of pore spaces. There are sesame seeds all over the surface. The brim is as thin as the center. That is to say, the Zhoucun sesame seed cake has four characteristics: thin, savory, brittle, crisp. It is said that it was mere chance that 100 years ago, Guo Yunlong, the sesame seed cake maker found that the plump parts of the sesame seed cake are thin, brittle and crisp. And when people add sesame seeds, it was savory and not greasy, so that the Zhoucun sesame seed cake of today came into being.

The Boshan Sesame Seed Cake

The people of Zibo don’t settle for Zhoucun sesame seed cake and stop the innovation of the forms of the sesame seed cake. Boshan District of Zibo is a famous industrial district in Shandong. Different from the Zhoucun sesame seed cake, the Boshan sesame seed cake is stuffed, and people there are very particular about the stuffing. The pork must be the freshest lean meat, with old ginger of Laiwu, scallion of Zhangqiu. After the dough is stuffed, some chopped green onion is spread on it to freshen the palate. The range used to bake the sesame seed cake is made from a vat, it is called vat-range by the local people. The elding used in the range is the local hard coke, which has no smoke and could be lighted very easily.

It is easy to bake the cake thoroughly, and the way to eat the baked cake is also particular. Sometimes, when the grown-ups entertain the children, they have interesting sayings about eating the cake. It is said that one bite makes a pitchfork, and one bite makes a crescent moon. The delicious and aromatic Boshan sesame seed cake with various kinds of stuffing is very tasty and crisp.

The Zichuan Sesame Seed Cake

And in Zichuan District, a place not far from Boshan, the people there offer another form of combination using dough and stuffing–the Zichuan sesame seed cake. The sesame seed cake made by the Tan family is the most famous in Zichuan. The sesame seed cake they make is very delicious. The cake has the same pork and scallion stuffing, and the same leavened dough as the Boshan sesame seed cake. Therefore, the differences are in the methods. The Zichuan stuffed cake is not put in the stove directly but is spread using a half-round container.

Zibo is a place known for its ceramics. The container is called the ceramic roaster. It could be said that it is a very ancient domestic tool for heating. Fill it with hot water, it becomes a thermos flask. Thermos flasks are commonly used by the Zibo people. It is very convenient and easy to spread the cake evenly using the smooth bottom of this thermos flask. And to bake the Zichuan sesame seed cake, one must use this hanging stove, so that the cake would be heated evenly. The elding must be the sawdust of pine so that the baked sesame seed cake would have the smell of colophony. The cake is thickly dotted with sesame seeds. 0.4 yuan of sesame seeds should be used to make one cake.

Inside the cake, the meat stuffing is mixed evenly with the dough. And there is the aroma of the meat, dough, that scallion, and the sawdust. The wild pepper powder should also be added. It turns out that the Zichuan sesame seed cake is also particular about the mouthfeel of the combination of stuffing and dough.

The Boshan Pancakes

It is well-known that Shandong people like to eat thin pancakes. The pancake with shallots is even more popular. There are all kinds of ways of eating pancakes in Zibo. However, if one wants to eat authentic pancakes, he has to go to the countryside, because only there he could find the freshest ingredients and the most authentic way of cooking.

The Boshan thin pancake made of millet flour only uses the soaked fresh millet. When making the pancake, one should first ferment the millet flour for eight hours. And then grind them into porridge using the grinding mill. After this step, the ingredients to make the pancake are ready. When making the pancake, one must use a griddle common in many farmer families. As the elding is the hay, the fire temperature is medium. And the first two pancakes are usually used to test the surface temperature of the griddle. If the dough is even, it is not very hot. If there are many pastes, it means that the dough is hot enough.

Watching these pieces of golden pancake shaping up easily in street vendors’ hands, people may feel that this handicraft is very easy to learn. But if they try doing it themselves, they will find that it seems that this seemingly plain pancake also needs exquisite craftsmanship to make. The golden pancake looks very delicious. A writer of 200 years ago, Pu Songling, wrote “A Rhapsody on the pancake” to praise the pancake of his hometown Zibo. He described the pancake-like this: It is as round as the full moon and as big as the Tongzheng.” A Tongzheng is an ancient bell-shaped percussion instrument. It is as thin as the paper made in the Shanxi River. It has the same color as the feathers of the yellow crane. The color of it is very beautiful.

The pancake is delicious and could go with many ingredients. The pancake rolling with vegetable-pancake made of Chinese chive and tofu is a traditional delicacy here. However, the Boshan people nowadays have another new favorite. The pork head meat of the Sun family in Boshan District is a small shop that is known far and wide, and there are many customers coming and going during the day and at night. The pancake with pork head meat is a new way of eating that appeared in recent years. Generally, the pork head meat in the pancake should be sliced into thin pieces. It is very greasy as there is a lot of fat. Slice it into thin pieces, and the taste will be better. Sun Miao has been making the pork head meat for about 20 years, and it is very famous all over Zibo. But 20 years ago, it was a luxury to eat the pork head meat for the people of Boshan. In recent years, the pancake with pork head meat has already become a favorite delicacy of many people. Pancakes are very palatable to eat in the morning. The mouthfeel of the pancake with pork head meat is nice. Zibo people invent various ways to eat pancakes.

The Boshan Dumplings

Another necessary food is the dumpling that everyone knows. The dumplings of the Boshan District, Zibo are different from others. The stuffing of it is made of black fungus, bamboo shoots, and pork. The dumpling wrapper is not pressed into the traditional round shape but looks like the wonton wrapper. One may feel it looks like the wonton, but it is not. The Boshan dumplings have three distinctive characteristics. First, it looks like the Jade Hare. Second, it looks like the shoe-shaped silver ingot. And third, these dumplings they made have double-fold eyelids, because local people describe the beauty of a girl as “Chong Yan Die Pi (double-fold eyelids).”

It is said that the Boshan dumplings with double-fold eyelids became the necessary food of the Boshan people during the Spring Festival 50 years ago. Arranging them as a circle symbolizes the whole family getting together. Arranging them into many rows symbolizes a plain sailing in the next year.

The Boshan Tofu Box

The third food popular during the Spring Festival is the Boshan tofu box, which also has an implied meaning. To make the tofu box, one should choose the fine tofu. Slice it into rectangular blocks and fry them in the wok with oil. Then one should cut open one side of the bean curd and hollow it out, and put stuff in it, which is called hiding the treasure in the box.

It is said that the origin of this unique tofu box is very accidental. At that time, a chef of Boshan worked as a family cooker in a restaurant in Beijing, owned by a man named Zhanggui. After he went back to his hometown, his boss came to visit him. It was almost midnight when he arrived, so there was nothing to serve him. And there was no time to cook something for him. So he improvised something with tofu by filling it with stuffing made of many different ingredients. Then he steamed the stuffed tofu for a little while before pouring fried spoon meat on it. In this way, the delicious Boshan Tofu Box was born.

When people eat it, opening one side of it is called “see the treasure opening the box.”

Summary

From Zhoucun to Boshan and Zichuan, the Zibo people have reinvented the handicraft of making sesame seed cakes in an impressive, distinctive way. The Zibo people not only are good at making sesame cakes, but are also not afraid of trying new things, and exploring new ideas.

During the Spring Festival, the shoe-shaped Boshan dumplings, and the Boshan tofu box reflect the best wishes of the Boshan people for their loved ones and friends. These two snacks are the epitome of the distinctive snacks of the Zibo city.