Dunhuang snacks have a history of thousands of years and are still widely eaten today. Among them, longevity alkaline noodles, paoer oil cake, mutton juice, red willow pimples, and donkey meat yellow noodles are particularly popular among locals and tourists.

Longevity Alkali Noodles

Longevity Alkali Noodles, also called Saozi Noodles, are a famous snack in Dunhuang. Speaking of its origin, there is a story.

A long time ago, in the area where Mogao Town is now located on the East Side, there was a poor family, two couples and one son. They lived by guarding a few pieces of thin fields in front of and behind the house, working at sunrise and working at sundown. And rest.

One evening, after finishing his work in the fields, the old man was preparing to go home. He heard someone shouting in the distance. He hurriedly looked for the sound and saw an exhausted woman under a sycamore tree. , sitting on the ground by the tree, very surprised, and asked the girl where she came from. The girl opened her chapped lips and told the story intermittently:

It turned out that she was a southern businessman, passing through Dunhuang, driving a camel with her father, carrying goods, and encountered bandits and robbery. In the chaos, the father and daughter She was separated, and in order to escape for her life, she ran as fast as she could. She kept running until here. It was getting dark and there was no one around. She was timid, thirsty and hungry. She couldn't run anymore, so she called out loudly.

When the old man heard about it, he felt compassion. Who doesn't have to do something in his life? When he saw the lonely girl, he decided to take him home. While comforting him, he helped the girl back home.

My wife and son were very surprised to live a long life. When he asked about the reason, the old man told his wife and son in a few words: The house of a girl is in chaos. Just stay at our house for now, my wife and Changshou fully agree.

The girl is from the south. She is petite and well-mannered, and is deeply liked by her elders. The son is dull and kind-hearted. When he meets the girl, he is shy and happy.

In a blink of an eye, the old man’s birthday was coming soon. The girl thought, they have not repaid me for their kindness in taking me in. But looking around, she really didn’t know what to do.

When she was helping to work in the fields a few days ago, she saw the leaf alkalinity flowing out of the sycamore tree, and she wondered if she could put some in it when making dough.

She didn’t tell anyone. When she was kneading the dough the next day, she mixed a little bit into it. The result was that the dough was a little yellow, and it was more flexible and stronger than before. She suddenly became happy. I did it several times over and over again, and the effect was very good.

I decided to use this to celebrate the old man’s birthday.

In a blink of an eye, the old man’s birthday came. That morning, she got up early, swept the courtyard, mixed the dough with leaf base, and kneaded it repeatedly. I turned to the vegetable field and picked fresh eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and the small mushrooms I usually pick, and together with the big meat, I made a delicious squid soup. Roll out the dough thinly, roll it evenly, and cut it well.

A few more side dishes were prepared.

When the steaming, bright and yellow noodles were served on the kang table, the old couple and their son were very happy and praised them while eating. Praising her for her good craftsmanship, bright mind, and longevity, she ate two large bowls at once.

I have lived in front of the sycamore tree all my life, how could I not think of it.

This matter was spread by word of mouth among the neighbors, and everyone rushed to learn from it, and it became a trend for a while.

The girl and Longevity fell in love during labor, and soon their parents got married for them.

To thank the longevity wife for making the noodles, they called it longevity alkaline noodles.

Paoer Oil Cake

Paoer Oil Cake is its current name. In the earliest times, it was called mallet or mallet cake. There is a record in the existing Dunhuang documents, p3231, in the official records of Pingkang Township.

Later, it was also called sugar oil cake.

Dunhuang has a long history, with a history of more than 1,200 years. It is a traditional snack. At that time, from officials and businessmen to common people, it was an indispensable delicacy for every important banquet or New Year's Day.

In the past, the ingredients used were relatively simple, just flour and sugar, and then fried and eaten immediately. It is best to eat it while it is hot, which is more fragrant.

In the 1980s, the pastry masters from the catering department of Dunhuang Hotel made many improvements in materials and production techniques based on crude oil cake making through going out to study and exchange. In terms of ingredients, I added peach kernels, sesame seeds, roses, and lard, and repeated experiments to create a paoer oil cake with a soft surface, shaped like bubbles, and densely packed pearl bubbles.

At this point, Paoer Oil Cake has taken up all the color, flavor and flavor. It is also loved by tourists for its sweet and soft texture, which melts in your mouth and has a long aftertaste.

It is small and delicate, like Xiaojia Jasper, sweet yet dignified, round and golden in color. It has a unique taste when mixed with other dishes.

If you are in a bad mood, you will feel happy immediately after eating it.

There is a saying that goes, a beautiful woman pleases the eyes, a good lady pleases the heart.

Paoer oil cake is more like a sweet and warm little cotton-padded jacket, a little caring and a little birdy.

Mutton Juice

Speaking of mutton juicy, Zhengjia Restaurant has to be mentioned.

Since ancient times, Dunhuang has been a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral area. Eating mutton has a long history. It is also recorded in the Dunhuang posthumous documents, but they always eat hand-caught mutton and stewed mutton.

Lamb can not only be used as a meal, but also as a snack.

Master Zheng Zhaolan, a famous Dunhuang chef in the 1950s, has the most say on this.

He opened Zhengjia Restaurant Fushengyuan. He thought about it alone, studied it carefully, and tried it over and over again. He made mutton slices, meatballs, salad, fragrant soup, and finally added green onion and coriander. The taste was simply incredible. explain. That prosperous place, that lively place, the whole place is bustling with people.

The situation at that time was that every morning, before dawn, the mutton pot in Zheng's restaurant was already filled with steam. New and old customers came in twos and threes, saying hello and joking to each other, old friends had arranged to come together, young people came running quickly, and students with better living conditions also came here in a hurry to have a drink with their schoolbags on their backs. With the steaming hot mutton mixed with the juice, I went to school full of energy.

Zhengjia Restaurant is a time-honored restaurant in Dunhuang. From the selection of mutton, the frying of meatballs, the eggs used for making Gaza, and the control of raw materials, every process is done well. The soup is delicious and affordable, and you will be satisfied after eating a bowl. Those who work go to work, those who go for a walk, everyone has their own place.

Old people say that if they don’t eat for a few days, they always feel like they are missing something.

This snack carefully created by a generation of masters is very popular among the general public, with regular customers and new customers increasing. Until the public-private partnership became public, he still worked meticulously.

People come out early in the morning and greet each other with: "Go to Zheng's restaurant for a drink?"

Good luck.

Nowadays, we can eat so many authentic mutton juices, thanks to Master Zheng. There is an old saying: The ancestors planted trees, and the descendants enjoy the shade. That's right.

Nowadays, although Master Zheng has been gone for many years, the mutton juice he created is deeply loved by people.

Digging red willow knots

Dunhuang is located at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor. There has been no coal since ancient times. In order to keep warm and cook, every family must go to the Gobi Desert to dig up red willow roots every year. , commonly known as "shaozi". Used to solve the problem of living fuel.

The firewood collectors often bring their own flour, knead the dough with water on site, and use the red willow branches at hand to stir up troubles and form "little fishes", which are known as "plucking lumps".

Speaking of plucking red willow knots, there is another interesting story.

One year in the late autumn of the 1950s, when the weather was about to get cold, two brothers in the family were worried about providing firewood for the winter. After discussing with their widowed mother, they drove a donkey cart and went to Beihu to dig wood. Shaozi.

Everyone was in poor condition at that time, so they took the steamed buns, salted leeks and water prepared by their mother and set off on the road.

Along the way, the two brothers chatted endlessly. Because they were young and were afraid of tiring the little donkey, they walked more than when they took the car.

They thought that when they returned, they would have a cart full of firewood, and the newly shaved wood would be wet and heavy, which would be enough for a little donkey to bear.

Let it take as much leisure as possible on the way there.

The two brothers have not yet married, and their mother is also worried. Now that the eldest brother is a big man, when can he find a wife?

But the boss is not in a hurry. This really corresponds to the sentence. The Yellow Emperor is not in a hurry and the eunuch is.

It may be that the two brothers have good intentions and God will help.

Just as they were approaching Beihu, another donkey cart came on the road. The man driving the cart was in his 40s with a dark and red face. Sitting in the cart was a girl, about 20 years old. She has delicate features and beautiful eyes, and her long black hair is braided into thick braids. She looks very good.

They are both firewood collectors, and it was fate that they met in this wilderness.

They greeted each other, and the man introduced that this was his daughter Yingzi.

They also introduced themselves.

The brothers wondered, going to the lake to collect firewood was all the work of men, so why bring a girl as beautiful as a flower? There are few people here, and they heard that there are wolves.

Worry is nothing but worry, and in a flash I feel happy. If she doesn’t come, how can we meet her?

When we arrived at Beihu, we settled down and simply ate the steamed buns we brought with us, and spent the whole night speechless.

The next day, they started digging.

It is a laborious job. The tamarisk trees in the desert grow up under conditions of lack of water. Their branches are very flexible and strong, and they cannot be plowed down without much effort.

The two brothers were young and strong, and by the time the sun was shining, they had already done a lot of digging.

Looking at Yingzi’s father, he had just dug a little bit. Yingzi was only on the side, coming and going to collect the tips.

Seeing this situation, the elder brother whispered to his younger brother: Let's dig up quickly and help them when it's enough. Otherwise, don't scare the girl in this uninhabited place.

When it was time to eat, Zaohua’s advantages were fully highlighted. She quickly set up the fire, folded the red willow branches, and wrapped the noodles. After a while, the "little fish" came out of the pot one by one. The brothers worked hard and were hungry. After they were taken out of the pot, they mixed them with oily spicy seeds, salted leeks, and old vinegar, and ate them happily.

He always praised Yingzi for his quick hands and feet and good food and drinks.

Yingzi just pursed her lips and smiled, but she was secretly happy in her heart. How can these two people eat so well?

The father secretly looked at his brother. He was in good health, had a down-to-earth face, and was down-to-earth in his work, so he went about the household chores, and his brother told him everything.

Isn’t this a God-given opportunity? In a place with many tamarisk trees, a pair of young people fell in love with each other. What a great thing.

Soon after returning, they became a happy family under the help of the old man.

Donkey meat yellow noodles

Dunhuang people have a special liking for donkey meat yellow noodles.

In fact, it is a Dunhuang folk delicacy that existed in the Tang Dynasty. It has the effects of nourishing qi, nourishing blood, health and benefiting the mind.

A folk proverb in Dunhuang goes like this: "Dragon meat in the sky, donkey meat on the ground." This shows its position in the hearts of local people.

In the 1970s and 1980s, when Dunhuang was developed into a tourist city, donkey meat became the top choice for Chinese and foreign tourists and became a famous Chinese snack.

The famous Shandong donkey-hide gelatin is made from donkey skin. Its blood-enriching effect is irreplaceable and is well known to the world.

Moreover, donkey meat is cool in nature. If you have internal heat, or in the hot summer and autumn, eating it will make your whole body feel comfortable.

Dunhuang’s donkey meat noodle restaurants are very popular among locals and tourists, and many have opened.

Among them, "Daji Donkey Meat Yellow Noodles" and "Shunzhang Donkey Meat Yellow Noodles" have the longest history.

Especially in recent years, tourism in Dunhuang has continued to heat up. A visit to Dunhuang without a meal of donkey meat and yellow noodles is really a fly in the ointment.

Among the people, donkey meat is generally eaten as a non-staple food, and yellow noodles are eaten as a staple food, along with mashed garlic and condiments. Braised for a long time, it has a deep flavor and a soft texture, making it suitable for people of all ages.

Its nourishing function is also increasingly praised by people. If you have any concerns, why not come and taste it yourself.