Chatang
Encyclopedia
Chatang or seasoned flour mush is a traditional gruel
common to both Beijing cuisine
and Tianjin cuisine
, and often sold as a snack on the street. It is made from sorghum
flour and/or broomcorn millet and/or proso millet
flour and glutinous millet flour. The Chinese name is figurative, not literal, as there is neither any tea nor any soup in this dish.
The dish is prepared in two steps. First, flours of sorghum
and/or millet
are cooked in advance, often stir fried, and after the completion, the flour is ready to be served. When a customer orders the dish, hot water is poured into the bowl containing the flour(s) to create a paste-like mush, and it is served with white and/or brown sugar, and Sweet Osmanthus
sauce (桂花酱; pinyin: guìhuā jiàng). Interestingly, the Sweet Osmanthus plant is not native to northern China
.
Traditionally, the skill of the server was judged on several factors and one of them is regarding the resulting mush: the most skillful server would be able to create the mush so thick that when a chopstick is inserted into the mush it remains vertical, while at the same time the mush remains fluid. Other criteria for the servers' skills included the ability not to splash any hot water outside the bowl and spill out any flour, because traditionally all ingredients are placed in a bowl into which is poured boiling water from a special copper kettle with a long, dragon-shaped spout called 龙嘴大铜壶 (pinyin: lóngzuǐ dàtónghú; literally "dragon mouth large copper jug") and special skills were needed to handle this equipment. The ingredients are then stirred together and the chatang is eaten with a spoon.
Traditionally, chatang vendors were easily distinguished by the kettle they used. The kettle was extremely large, up to four feet tall with a diameter in excess of a foot, and was often made of copper. There are two kinds of kettles: those used by street vendors, and those found in restaurants and tea houses. The two differ in internal structure.
The kettles used by street vendors are double layered, with fuel in the inner layer in the center, and water in the outside layer similar to samovar
s. The advantage of such a structure is that it reduces the need to carry a stove to heat the water in the kettle, and it improves fuel efficiency since most heat is utilized, in contrast to the use of a separate kettle and stove. Furthermore, in the windy weather conditions of northern China, such a structure prevents the flame from being blown out by the wind if there are separate ordinary stovetop kettle and stove.
Despite the two varieties of kettles' identical external appearance, the complex structure of the kettles used by street vendors is not present for those used in restaurants and tea houses, for obvious reasons: since the stove is located inside, it is immune to the windy weather outside and stoves are necessary to cook other dishes, so there is no need to pay extra for a more expensive kettle with such a complex structure.
from Tianjin cuisine
, since the same kind of seasoned flour mush tastes identical. Traditionally, the styles of serving were clearly different when the hot water is poured from the kettle:
The way hot water was poured in Beijing cuisine
was that the server stood straight up, with legs apart at distance greater than the width of his shoulder, while the upper body leaned toward the bowl. In contrast, the way hot water was poured in Tianjin cuisine
was that the server was in a semi-squatting down position with body straight. Obviously, such a feat is rather dangerous, especially without any specialized training, and thus the special kettle has been phased out as modern technology enables the dish to be served like coffee, and the use of a kettle only survives in extremely rare occasions as a cultural heritage demonstration.
Seasoned proso millet
Seasoned proso millet
mush, or mian cha (面茶) in Chinese, is a special kind of seasoned flour mush (cha tang, 茶汤). Like the seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤), the Chinese literal translation of the name of this dish is also misleading, because it means noodle tea, but there is neither noodles nor tea in this dish.
The seasoned proso millet
mush (mian cha, 面茶) is unique in two ways. First, it only uses proso millet
flour instead of sorghum
and millet
flour. Second, instead of using Sweet Osmanthus sauce in regular seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤), sesame
tahini
was used, while the sugar in the regular seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤) is replaced by a mix of ground Sichuan pepper
corns and salt.
. Obviously, the dish is not a plant and there is not any product from the plant in this dish. In fact, when camellia oil
is taken uncooked, it is toxic.
The flour used to make seasoned oily flour mush (油茶; you cha) is the same as that used for seasoned flour mush (茶汤; cha tang); that is, it can be any of the sorghum
, millet
, or proso millet
. The flour is often stir fried (but sometimes fried) together with beef fat, and sometimes with beef bone marrow
added. After the preparation of the flour is completed, the dish is served the same way as other seasoned flour / proso millet
mush (cha tang, 茶汤 / mian cha, 面茶).
Gruel
Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked...
common to both Beijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine is a cooking style in Beijing, China. It is also known as Mandarin cuisine.-Background:Since Beijing has been the Chinese capital city for centuries, its cuisine has been influenced by culinary traditions from all over China, but the cuisine that has exerted the greatest influence...
and Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine is derived from the native cooking styles of the Tianjin region in China, and it is heavily influenced by Beijing cuisine, due to the proximity of the two megalopolises...
, and often sold as a snack on the street. It is made from sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
flour and/or broomcorn millet and/or proso millet
Proso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
flour and glutinous millet flour. The Chinese name is figurative, not literal, as there is neither any tea nor any soup in this dish.
The dish is prepared in two steps. First, flours of sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
and/or millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
are cooked in advance, often stir fried, and after the completion, the flour is ready to be served. When a customer orders the dish, hot water is poured into the bowl containing the flour(s) to create a paste-like mush, and it is served with white and/or brown sugar, and Sweet Osmanthus
Sweet Osmanthus
Osmanthus fragrans is a species of Osmanthus native to Asia, from the Himalaya east through southern China and to Taiwan and to southern Japan...
sauce (桂花酱; pinyin: guìhuā jiàng). Interestingly, the Sweet Osmanthus plant is not native to northern China
North China
thumb|250px|Northern [[People's Republic of China]] region.Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain....
.
Traditionally, the skill of the server was judged on several factors and one of them is regarding the resulting mush: the most skillful server would be able to create the mush so thick that when a chopstick is inserted into the mush it remains vertical, while at the same time the mush remains fluid. Other criteria for the servers' skills included the ability not to splash any hot water outside the bowl and spill out any flour, because traditionally all ingredients are placed in a bowl into which is poured boiling water from a special copper kettle with a long, dragon-shaped spout called 龙嘴大铜壶 (pinyin: lóngzuǐ dàtónghú; literally "dragon mouth large copper jug") and special skills were needed to handle this equipment. The ingredients are then stirred together and the chatang is eaten with a spoon.
Kettle
The kettles used by street vendors are double layered, with fuel in the inner layer in the center, and water in the outside layer similar to samovar
Samovar
A samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries,Kashmir and in the Middle-East...
s. The advantage of such a structure is that it reduces the need to carry a stove to heat the water in the kettle, and it improves fuel efficiency since most heat is utilized, in contrast to the use of a separate kettle and stove. Furthermore, in the windy weather conditions of northern China, such a structure prevents the flame from being blown out by the wind if there are separate ordinary stovetop kettle and stove.
Despite the two varieties of kettles' identical external appearance, the complex structure of the kettles used by street vendors is not present for those used in restaurants and tea houses, for obvious reasons: since the stove is located inside, it is immune to the windy weather outside and stoves are necessary to cook other dishes, so there is no need to pay extra for a more expensive kettle with such a complex structure.
Cultural representations
The different ways of serving seasoned flour mush have some cultural significance in distinguishing that of Beijing cuisineBeijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine is a cooking style in Beijing, China. It is also known as Mandarin cuisine.-Background:Since Beijing has been the Chinese capital city for centuries, its cuisine has been influenced by culinary traditions from all over China, but the cuisine that has exerted the greatest influence...
from Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine is derived from the native cooking styles of the Tianjin region in China, and it is heavily influenced by Beijing cuisine, due to the proximity of the two megalopolises...
, since the same kind of seasoned flour mush tastes identical. Traditionally, the styles of serving were clearly different when the hot water is poured from the kettle:
The way hot water was poured in Beijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine is a cooking style in Beijing, China. It is also known as Mandarin cuisine.-Background:Since Beijing has been the Chinese capital city for centuries, its cuisine has been influenced by culinary traditions from all over China, but the cuisine that has exerted the greatest influence...
was that the server stood straight up, with legs apart at distance greater than the width of his shoulder, while the upper body leaned toward the bowl. In contrast, the way hot water was poured in Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine
Tianjin cuisine is derived from the native cooking styles of the Tianjin region in China, and it is heavily influenced by Beijing cuisine, due to the proximity of the two megalopolises...
was that the server was in a semi-squatting down position with body straight. Obviously, such a feat is rather dangerous, especially without any specialized training, and thus the special kettle has been phased out as modern technology enables the dish to be served like coffee, and the use of a kettle only survives in extremely rare occasions as a cultural heritage demonstration.
Seasoned proso milletProso milletProso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
mush
Seasoned proso milletProso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
mush, or mian cha (面茶) in Chinese, is a special kind of seasoned flour mush (cha tang, 茶汤). Like the seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤), the Chinese literal translation of the name of this dish is also misleading, because it means noodle tea, but there is neither noodles nor tea in this dish.
The seasoned proso millet
Proso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
mush (mian cha, 面茶) is unique in two ways. First, it only uses proso millet
Proso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
flour instead of sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
and millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
flour. Second, instead of using Sweet Osmanthus sauce in regular seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤), sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
tahini
Tahini
Tahini or sesame paste , is a paste of ground sesame seeds used in cooking. North African, Greek and West Asian tahini is made of hulled, lightly roasted seeds. East Asian sesame paste is made of unhulled seeds. The Arabic word tahin simply means flour.Tahini is a major component of hummus and...
was used, while the sugar in the regular seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤) is replaced by a mix of ground Sichuan pepper
Sichuan Pepper
Sichuan pepper is the outer pod of the tiny fruit of a number of species in the genus Zanthoxylum , widely grown and consumed in Asia as a spice. Despite the name, it is not related to black pepper or to chili peppers...
corns and salt.
Seasoned oily flour mush
Seasoned oily flour mush, or you cha (油茶) in Chinese, is the non-vegetarian variety of the seasoned flour mush (cha tang, 茶汤). Like the seasoned flour mush, (cha tang, 茶汤), the Chinese literal translation of the name of this dish is also misleading, because you cha is also the Chinese name for the Tea-oil Camellia, the plant that is the source for camellia oilTea oil
Tea seed oil is an edible, pale amber-green fixed oil with a sweet, herbal aroma. It is cold-pressed mainly from the seeds of Camellia oleifera but also from Camellia sinensis or Camellia japonica....
. Obviously, the dish is not a plant and there is not any product from the plant in this dish. In fact, when camellia oil
Tea oil
Tea seed oil is an edible, pale amber-green fixed oil with a sweet, herbal aroma. It is cold-pressed mainly from the seeds of Camellia oleifera but also from Camellia sinensis or Camellia japonica....
is taken uncooked, it is toxic.
The flour used to make seasoned oily flour mush (油茶; you cha) is the same as that used for seasoned flour mush (茶汤; cha tang); that is, it can be any of the sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
, millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
, or proso millet
Proso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
. The flour is often stir fried (but sometimes fried) together with beef fat, and sometimes with beef bone marrow
Bone marrow
Bone marrow is the flexible tissue found in the interior of bones. In humans, bone marrow in large bones produces new blood cells. On average, bone marrow constitutes 4% of the total body mass of humans; in adults weighing 65 kg , bone marrow accounts for approximately 2.6 kg...
added. After the preparation of the flour is completed, the dish is served the same way as other seasoned flour / proso millet
Proso millet
Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...
mush (cha tang, 茶汤 / mian cha, 面茶).