China has a vast territory and abundant resources, and there are many cuisines, including "Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Hunan cuisine and Anhui cuisine". Food is not only divided into "pie", but also "north-south pie". The popular "mutton soup" in the north has a low sense of existence in the south. There are many reasons for this. Climatically speaking, southerners don't need mutton to keep out the cold, and the "smell" of mutton is not enjoyable.
There are four schools of mutton soup in the north, namely, Henan Lingbao mutton soup, Jiangsu Suzhou mutton soup, Shandong Shanxian mutton soup and Hebei Pingquan mutton soup. The oldest one is Henan Lingbao mutton soup. In order to unify the six countries, the Qin Dynasty defeated the allied forces of the six countries in Hanguguan. Hanguguan is located in lingbao city, Henan Province. In order to comfort the soldiers, King Xiang of Qin sent eight hundred miles of fat sheep from Qinchuan to the front, and Qin Jun cooked mutton soup with the cooker "Xi" at that time. When the fire boiled, the soup was thick and rotten, and Qin Jun couldn't stop eating it, so mutton soup had the earliest name "Tang Tang".
Although Henan Lingbao mutton soup has the oldest qualifications, the best mutton soup in China still depends on Shandong. Shanxian mutton soup is the shoulder of Shandong and even the whole country. Shanxian mutton soup, known as "the first soup in China", is an intangible cultural heritage and an old brand in Shandong. Founded in 1807, it was jointly founded by Xu, Dou and Zhou Sanjia, hence the name "Sanyichun" mutton restaurant. Shanxian mutton soup has also been included in China's famous cookbooks. Only Shanxian mutton soup is included in China, which shows the uniqueness of Shanxian mutton soup. In other places, Shanxian mutton soup must be charged separately, which shows its popularity.
As the saying goes, "Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there are delicious foods, there must be rankings and doubts." In addition to Shanxian mutton soup, which ranks first, Shandong's "mutton soup rivers and lakes" can be described as "surging" with many schools. According to the region, Shandong mutton soup can be divided into "ten schools", namely Juxian mutton soup, Linqu Wujing whole mutton soup, Tengzhou mutton soup, Linqing mutton soup, Zaozhuang Daobei mutton soup, Qingzhou Miao Zi whole mutton soup, Laiwu mutton soup, Laizhou Zhu Qiao mutton soup and Dezhou mutton sausage soup.
In Shandong, the "ten schools" of mutton soup industry are mainly divided into "two schools" although their eating methods and practices are different and they are not convinced by each other.
The first genre is "thick soup" represented by Shanxian mutton soup. The thick soup mutton soup looks "white as milk", and the color is not mixed with milk or additives. The milky thick soup is actually "boiled". It takes dozens of processes and more than ten hours to get the "milky white" effect. Note that it is "slow work and fine work". A bowl of Shanxian mutton soup, which is "white as milk, mixed with water and fertilizer, pure in texture, fresh but not smelly, fragrant but not greasy, rotten but not sticky", and a few baked wheat cakes made my mouth water.
Generally speaking, thick soup and clear soup are rich and fragrant. I don't know which one you like. It's a good choice for me. I definitely choose a bowl with plenty of meat.