Tubular Oil Tea

Tubular Oil Tea

　　   Tubular Oil Tea is a Shaanxi snack. Mix flour and blended flour with cold water to form a thick paste, then slowly pour it into a pot of boiling water while stirring. Add almonds, sesame seeds, soy sauce, salt, pepper, monosodium glutamate, and other seasonings. Cook over low heat while continuously stirring for about twenty minutes until it turns a soy-sauce yellow color, indicating it's done. Then pour it into a thermos bottle, ready to be served anytime, fragrant and delicious.

　　   Preparation Method

　　　　      First, soak the almonds in cold water, then boil them for twenty minutes. Soak them again in cold water to remove the bitterness, rub off the skins, drain, and set aside. Toast the sesame seeds, then grind them into crumbs. Stir-fry the flour over low heat until it turns yellow, then remove from heat and let it cool. Add an appropriate amount of salt and blended flour, mix well, and stir-fry for about twenty minutes. When serving, cook the toasted flour into a paste of suitable thickness (about 2000 grams of water for 500 grams of toasted flour). Place the almonds in the bowl first, then pour in the oil and steam-cook it before transferring it into a small earthenware jar for fermentation. By around the Beginning of Winter, it will be ready to produce vinegar. When making vinegar, every household pays homage to the Vinegar Goddess. It is said that a farmer’s wife originally invented vinegar-making, and at the start of winter, she would teach the technique to all households before passing away and being revered as the Vinegar Goddess. After the first batch of vinegar is made, every household prepares a bowl of noodle soup as an offering before eating. In recent years, new techniques have been applied to the four major processes—kneading the starter culture, boiling the vinegar, fermenting the ingredients, and extracting the vinegar—making Xifu Winter Vinegar even more fragrant.

　　   Shaanxi Snack

　　　　      Late at night, in the alleys of towns, if you see a faint light approaching slowly, it is likely the vendor selling tubular oil tea. Most vendors are elderly men who wear a felt hat in winter or carry a palm-leaf fan on their belt in summer, calling out loudly, their voices piercing the sky. The so-called oil tea is made by mixing flour, seasoning flour, and cold water into a thick paste, which is then slowly poured into boiling water while stirring to achieve a smooth consistency without lumps. Almonds, sesame seeds, and long-grain rice are added, and the mixture is stirred over low heat. Then soy sauce, salt, pepper, and monosodium glutamate are added, and the mixture is stirred over low heat. The key lies entirely in the stirring—the goal is to stir until the color turns yellow, the oil tea thickens, and the surface shows crack-like patterns. The so-called “tubular” refers to a large kettle with a handle and a long spout. To keep it warm, it is wrapped in a cotton cover, like a kettle wearing clothes. Especially in winter, its bulky shape is amusing—when placed down, the old man looks like a standing kettle, and the kettle like a squatting old man. At night, for those returning from the theater, dancing, or romantic dates, tubular oil tea becomes the perfect late-night snack. However, despite the old man’s cries of “Hot oil tea, scald-your-mouth oil tea!” by the time it’s poured into your bowl, it has often gone cold.