- Country cuisine on the street
- Chinese culinary specialties
- The quintessence of Vietnamese ethnic cuisine
According to research documents on Chinese cuisine , dumplings are a cultural cuisine with a long historical dating back to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. It is an indispensable dish in families and restaurants; it is a dry food in the luggage of merchants, scholars and even poor workers.
Dumplings symbolize the desire for fertility, because the skin of the dumplings is made from baking powder with the meaning of continuous development. Therefore, dumplings are indispensable in offerings to heaven and earth, the Land God, groundbreaking ceremonies, opening ceremonies and folk festivals.
A Chinese dumpling shop in Bac Lieu ward with many different fillings.
On the other hand, dumplings also symbolize strength, faith and unity in defeating evil, and are considered a scapegoat to ward off bad luck. This meaning comes from a folk tale from the Three Kingdoms period. It is said that Zhuge Liang had hundreds of thousands of dumplings shaped like human heads made as an offering to the gods, in order to ward off the epidemic that was harming the soldiers.
The peach-shaped dumpling tower symbolizes longevity.
Over thousands of years of history, the dumpling has become a Chinese identity and imprint, converging the values of traditional culture. Therefore, films about culture, history, or Chinese travel experiences cannot fail to mention dumplings. That is the meaning of solidarity, with dozens, hundreds of dumplings forming a tower of dumplings in the ceremony to worship ancestors and thank the gods; Meaning prosperous, because the word "bao" is homophonous with the word "ho bao" (red envelope); showing abundance, when dumplings are very diverse and have many variations in fillings, such as mixed meat filling with minced pork mixed with cassava, Chinese sausage, duck eggs, char siu, black fungus..., or sweet dumplings with green bean filling, taro filling, chicken egg filling (cade) and also dumplings without filling, fried dumplings served with fried chicken or braised duck.
Dumplings eaten with braised duck represent abundance.
Compared to other types of dumplings, the Chaozhou dumplings in Ca Mau are mainly steamed dumplings that are seasoned to taste, with fatty and sweet meat fillings but not greasy, soft white dumpling skin that is easy to break without falling apart; especially the sweet dumplings, smooth skin, fragrant, with many typical fillings.
More than that, for the Chinese, this dish represents the bond and solidarity of the community. specifically, after the end of traditional cultural festivals or parties, people often give each other a pair of dumplings, which can be round dumplings symbolizing perfection, development, and fortune, or peach-shaped dumplings symbolizing longevity... This is also the reason to explain why Chinese dumplings are often printed with the word "Phuc".
The steamed buns offered to the Land God before the groundbreaking ceremony of the Chaozhou people of Ca Mau have the word Phuc printed on them (the plate of steamed buns is in the middle of the offering table).
One of the strategic orientations of Ca Mau province is to develop tourism, and exploiting the culinary dishes imbued with traditional culture of ethnic groups will contribute significantly to promoting this strength.
From traditional meat dumplings, you can create seafood dumplings with shrimp crab and meat fillings, which will become a dish with strong regional characteristics and will certainly create a unique identity when Ca Mau crab and shrimp have become specialties.
Lu Dung
Source: https://baocamau.vn/my-thuc-cua-nguoi-hoa-ca-mau-a40037.html
Comment (0)