Qishan Minced Noodles,Unique Hometown Taste
3 min read
Minced noodles have enjoyed a long history,among which the Qishan minced noodles are the most famous one. Many a story has been around as for the origin of Qishan minced noodles,and one of them goes as follows.
In ancient times,the Zhou people moved from Bin(now the Bin County and Xunyi County of Shaanxi Province)to Zhouyuan of Qi Area(now the Qishan County of Baoji City,Shaanxi Province),lived and bred by the side of Wei River and Beiyuan Area.Later,an evil dragon appeared by Wei River and started to make troubles with the people,bringing a three-year drought that subjected the civilians to torment.The Zhou people were reluctant to leave the homeland that had been cultivated after generations of hard work and then struck back,killing the dragon after seven days’fierce battle.The starving people celebrated the victory by slaughtering the dragon and sharing the dragon meat together with noodles,and really enjoyed the taste.As a consequence,at each anniversary in the following years,the local people would remember the victory by feasting on pork and noodles. This tradition was later adopted for other festivals and worship ceremonies.The minced noodles were spread gradually,and the cooking method was improved and developed for wider transmission.
There goes another story.lt is said that during the Emperor Jing times of Han Dynasty,a family from Jingdang Village of Qishan County got their son a wife who was bright and virtuous,not only skilled at the needle work but also good at cooking dishes.One day after her wedding,she would like to make some noodles for her husband’s family,and the noodles turned out to be smooth and soft and the taste was unexceptionally good thanks to the various seasoning sauces and nalatable soup.The whole tamily praised the noodles in union,especially his young hrother-in-law who since then often shouted or even cried to have her cook the noodles for eating.
The young brother-in-law was especially enthusiastic about reading,and alwavs forgot sleeping or dining for the sake of study.The woman saw the progress made bv her brother-in-law and the study became increasingly heavy as the time went by,so she often prepared the noodles to strengthen his body.As the brother-in- law worked even harder than ever,he finally took the scholarly honor at the official examination and ultimately became a local official.In Spring Festival,he invited his fellow officials to dinner at his home and these officials were extensively impressed by the noodles made by his sister-in-law.Since then,the”Sister-in-law Noodles” became well-known and spread everywhere,so many people began to follow the suit.
Since in Chinese the pronunciation of”sister-in-law”resembled that of”mince”, as time passed by,the”Sister-in-law Noodles” evolved into”Minced Noodles”and continued up to date around Oishan Area.Until now,the minced noodles are still deeply enjoyed by the local folks and patrons from various regions.
