Chinanews.com, Nanjing, April 4th, title: Xiaoqingtuan’s counterattack in the north drift: from "first spring" to "net celebrity" on the tip of the tongue
Author Yang Yanci
To Qingming, wormwood fragrant.
Pick a few fresh wormwood and grind out the juice, mix it with glutinous rice flour to form a dough, and wrap it with red bean paste.
A soft and waxy green group does not need an open flame, but it makes the diners full of fragrance.
This is the most traditional "qingming taste" in the hearts of Jiangnan people.
Nowadays, under the new retail wave, Qingming cuisine is no longer limited to ancestor worship, but "wraps" seasonal flavors and emerging IP into tradition.
Regional specialties are entering thousands of households in the posture of the Internet celebrity food served by the whole people.
"The Youth League was originally a kind of food used to worship ancestors in the south of the Yangtze River. It is a kind of cold food." According to Yu Xuerong, executive chairman of the Jiangsu Catering Industry Association, the Youth League has undergone a very obvious "transformation" in recent years.
The picture shows the youth groups of various flavors.
Photo by Yang Yanci
Yu Xuerong said that in accordance with the four seasons' diet, spring loves sweetness.
In the past, Qingtuan often used bean paste fillings and eight-treasure fillings.
With the popularity of "wild" eating in spring, shepherd's purse, malantou and other wild vegetables have begun to be "stuffed".
The Youth League gradually changed from ancestor-memorial food to spring food that the whole people tasted.
Yu Xuerong also observed an interesting phenomenon: in the past two years, with the "out of the circle" of tastes and the help of new retail, the Jiangnan Youth League has been "heading north" all the way.
"Every time the Youth League goes public, there is always a long line at the door of the time-honored brand. With the convenience of logistics and takeaway, consumers now no longer need to line up to get the'first spring' immediately." Yu Xuerong said .
The picture shows young consumers buying youth leagues.
Photo by Yang Yanci
Data from the food delivery platform confirms this phenomenon.
According to data from "Hungry?", since March of this year, youth group takeaway orders in northern cities have increased nearly three times year-on-year, which is significantly higher than that in southern cities.
Shanghai, Suzhou and Nanjing are still the most popular cities in the Youth League.
But in the northern cities, the youth league enthusiasts in Beijing, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian and Jinan are exploding.
The collision of traditional food and trend elements makes the "extension" of the Jiangnan Youth League not only reflected in the depth of the region, but also achieved breakthroughs in the age group.
White peach flavor, cheese filling, cherry blossom rind... Among young people, the "fun" of flavor gives the youth group a "social attribute".
Youth League is no longer an old-fashioned dessert, but has become a "fashionable food" social networking platform.
The picture shows young consumers buying youth leagues.
Photo by Yang Yanci
What's interesting is that the new retailer tested the water by combining traditional youth groups with net red milk tea, snail noodles and other delicacies that are beloved by young people, opening the "new track" of youth groups.
"After the popularity of milk tea Qingtuan last year, we found that consumers' acceptance of innovative flavors is very high."
Zhang Qian, Purchasing Director of Hema 3R, introduced: "The colleagues in charge of the research and development of explosive products visited many snack streets and proposed hundreds of Qingtuan plans for the food on the social platform. The snail noodles finally stood out with the taste and professional sensory tests above. ."
Why eat "green" for Qingming Festival?
According to Meng Xiangren, deputy dean of the School of Tourism and Culinary Studies of Yangzhou University, in the development of history, the Qingming Festival incorporates the custom of prohibiting fire and cold food during the Cold Food Festival.
According to legend, the Cold Food Festival is a festival set up in the Spring and Autumn Period to commemorate the loyal and righteous minister of the Jin Dynasty Jie Zitui. On this day, people are not allowed to use fire, but are only allowed to eat cold food and drink cold water.
"Yingtuan meets this characteristic. It can be placed for a long time without an open flame or heating." Meng Xiangren said that tea buns, black rice balls, and wormwood rice are all Jiangnan Qingming delicacies with cold food characteristics.
Meng Xiangren believes that in the past, the regional characteristics of food were very obvious.
For example, the Guangdong area likes to worship the ancestors with roast suckling pig; in Jiangnan, Qingming cold food is more popular.
However, with the empowerment of new retail, gourmet foods continue to break through regional characteristics, and traditional delicacies are given interesting connotations and spread more widely.
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