Original subtitles

China

The variety of the nature and geography

allows the Chinese live in different regions

to enjoy their own plentiful staple foods

From the south to the north

All sorts of exquisite staple food

Not only provides

the energy we need

it also affects the way of Chinese

sense the circle of seasons

Brings Chinese

A rich, healthy and interesting life

The story of Staple food

The Ding village in Shan-Xi (A province in North-West)

is the oldest village in China

The local housewives are good at making flour-food

The villagers call any types of milled grain

"Mian" (Flour)

Milling has over 10 thousand years of history

Once an oldest mill

was unearthed near the village

Nowadays

A same model mill is still being used

It mills grain into flour

Afterward sifting the flour to get rid of dirt

And now it's ready to be used for flour-food

Shan-Xi is an inland where more mountains and few rivers

The poor amount of types of vegetable

doesn't give many choices to the housewives

blending flavors in cooking non-staple foods

In order to bring their families appetite

They have been working hard on

new ideas of flour-food

One type of flour; hundred ways of cooking

Turning them into delicious dishes

These sorts of exquisite flour-food

make us much appreciate the delicacy of their hands,

their clever ideas and sagacious imagination

When the housewives

are busy with making exquisite foods

for a birthday banquet

This "Yaodong" (Cave house) in the Loess Plateau

is full of the smell of flour

Shui-De folk, Lao-Wang

has just steamed a bunch of "Yellow bun"

After processed by Lao-Wang, these old broomcorn

will be sweet and tasty

[Counting]

Start from lunar November

Every three days

He cycles 1.5 hours

To the city for selling

58 year-old

I still want to make the best out of it

Hello? I just arrived at Deng-Jiang building

Shui-De County is located at the Wolds area in Sha-Xi province

Nowadays Shui-De

Grains and wheat are the main foods on the dining table

Sha-Bei folks have varied them into different dishes

Yellow Buns

Yellow Buns

Sha-Bei's Yellow Buns

Yellow Buns

They are from my village

The best in Shui-De!

I make the best (Yellow Buns)

Yellow Buns

One Yuan (Here stands for RMB)

No problem

I've been selling Yellow Buns for 7, 8 years

At the beginning it was "Buy 10 get 1 free"

only made 50cents profit each

They were good

Sold out right away; sold out right away

All the feedbacks were positive

Shiu-De abounds with broomcorn

Yellow Buns are made of broomcorn

broomcorn is also called "Shu" (millet). It's the main

drought-enduring farm product in the Loess Plateau

Over 8000 years ago

Broomcorn started to grow along the Huanghe River basin

The texture of steamed broomcorn isn't good

But in the past, this local good

was the most common staple food in Shui-Bei

Two types of broomcorn: Soft and Hard

Lao-Wang combines both types

The ratio of hard to soft is 7:3

Grinding after soaking overnight in clean water

It also need a narrow sift before using

Lao-Wang believes

The broomcorn ground by machines

is never as good as the broomcorn milled by their own mill

The roomcorn after stirring brings out

its natural refreshing smell

This is the secret method

which Lao-Wang is very proud of

After kneading the broomcorn dough

Need to leave it to ferment overnight

Lao-Wang learnt from his past experience

Cover it with quilt can bring out the best result

Lao-Wang has his home built in a yaodong

That's the oldest form of housing

In the Loess Plateau in China

It can be traced back to 4000 years ago

A farmer works his whole life in fields

His biggest wish is

Repair and build a few more yaodong

Own a yaodong, has a wife

That's how a family forms

Lao-Wang and his wife

Make 700 Yellow Buns every time

Milling, kneading, fermenting

Take 3 days from start to finish

They started working from 3 o'clock in the morning

until 9 o'clock later at night

Hard work exchanges for money

No-one gives money to lazy people

[Counting]

Lao-Wang's steamed buns are genuine

So is he

One Yuan each, no bargains

120 Yuan

It's not easy to make them

Hey! We've worked hard for this

Yellow Buns

Yellow Buns

The coldest two months in a year

15000 Yellow Buns can be sold

Minus the cost

One winter

His net income is about 8000 Yuan

Lao-Wang brought up his son and daughter here

Now

His children already their home in the city

Their relations with the fields are ended

However, Lao-Wang refuses to leave

Living in the grotto he built

Eating the food he grows

Lao-Wang feels satisfied and reliable

Thousands of years

Chinese gets energy from grains

The satisfaction that

is given by carbohydrate

Brought to you by millions of farmers, folks like Lao-Wang,

whom work hard on farming, indeed.

Autumn

The vast northern China

Ripe wheat

decides the color of the earth

Wheat

Introduced to the Central Plains through the He-Xi Route (West of the Huanghe River)

Because of its rich nutrition

and 4000 years of localization

The total of its planting fields has became the most extensive

in the Northern China

This superior plant originally from West Asia

Nowadays it's the most important staple food in China

After wheat flour has its fermentation

Then bake it in tandoori oven

This type of pita

contains little water, good for keeping

It's Uighur families' (living in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region)

daily staple food

Ku-Che in Xinjiang

The locals celebrate the Corban Festival

by enjoying delicious foods

"Nang" (Pita)

is Uighur folks' favorite staple food

"Nang" is a word

from old Persian

has over 2000 years of history

"Mantou" (steamed bun)

At the beginning

It was called "Chubing" as well as "Zhengbing" (both means steamed bun)

The most popular staple food in the Central Plains

Chinese' forefathers

got the idea from the theory of boiling food

that makes China

the earliest country cook with steam

Grains in China

After all it's still a concept in its variation phase

About 2000 years ago

The order of grains was

Rice, millet, panicle millet, wheat, and beans

Nowadays

The top 3 of grains production in China

has changed to Rice, wheat and sweet corns

No matter how it changes

Rice will always be

The head of grains

"Di-Men", a word from the dialect of Tong

It means "the source of spring water"

The Di-Men village located at the source of the Cheng-Shu River

Mostly cloudy and rainy

Mrs. Ng

is taking rice from her family's granary

In this humid environment

Granary is the major factor

for storing rice

It's constructed with stilt base and tiled roof

raised high above water

prevents fire, rats, and other bugs

The oldest granary there

is over 300 years old

The kind of grain stores in Mrs. Ng's granary

is unhusked rice

so that the fresh texture of the rice

will last longer

The rice taken out today

will be a present

given to another family in the village

At Di-Men

Woman who just had childbirth

One month after the baby was born

Her husband's family will return the presents they received on the couple's wedding day

back to her family

That's the last of the celebration of the forming of a new family

Now it's finished

The women from the same clan bring the family presents, too.

They also put eggs on top of the new rice

means a new life is born

Sincerely blessing the baby

Rice noodles is the major rice food

in Li-Ping in Gui-Zhou Province

can find it everywhere at the local markets

The locals' favorite is

this noodles soup

Smooth rice noodles

Served in spicy meat soup

can be serve as staple food in any meal

Grinding the soaked new rice into rice paste

It's Mrs. Yang's first step of making rice noodles

Ladling out rice milk

Pouring in steamer

Rice paste will be place above boiling water, steaming in high flame until finished

Let it cool down on bamboo

Collect and store

This is a typical rice noodles workshop in southern China

The rice noodles is as white as snow

still warm

Its unique rice fragrance

fill the air in the steamy room

Mrs. Yang and her husband have a tacit understanding

Every step every move

They have done it thousands of times

Plowing in spring, weeding in summer, cropping in autumn and storing in winter

Now

More than 65% of Chinese eat rice

China has the longest history

of growing rice in paddy fields

7000 years ago

Paddy rice started growing along the Changjiang River drainage basin

Paddy rice

From bunches of green rice seedlings

Grow into golden paddy rice

Depends on the eating tradition in each region

Come up with various ways of making rice food

with different flavors, as well.

Similar to the making method of Li-Ping rice noodles

There's a type of rice food that Guang-Zhou folks love so much

"Hofen" (Flat rice noodles)

Originated from the town of Shahe in Guangzhou 150 years ago

therefore this type of noodles also called "Shahe fen"

Sha-Ho Fen is transparent and even thinner

The texture is softer and smoother, as well.

Eating Shahe fen as staple food

Cantonese's favorite is

Dry-fried hefen with beef

This dish is a major test for chefs

in Cantonese cooking

An important factor in the making of this dish is "wok hei" (The flavour, tastes, and "essence" imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying)

Must be done over a high flame and the stirring must be done quickly

Evenly stirring

Yet noodles can't break into pieces

To those northern folks whom used to wheat noodles

This just a type of noodles that made of rice

Over 1000 years ago

The agricultural distribution is divided

by Huai-He River as the line: "South rice, North wheat"

Cause southern folks love eating rice

and northern folks can't live without wheat food

Sian, few thousand kilometers away

There's a restaurant in the old town area

A long queue becomes regular

The reason that makes the straight-forward Guan-Zhoug folks

waiting patiently

it can only be the "Chinese hamburger" (Cilp-bun with meat)

in Sian

Bun is the most common staple food

and "Chinese hamburger"

is the most classic way to eat bun

"Chinese hamburger"

is a brilliant combination of two kinds of food

White Bun and stewed meat

The White Buns in Sian

are baked with fire

Added in over 30 types of seasoning

the slow-cooked meat

Soft and rich

The plain flavor of the White bun

makes the taste of the meat even more outstanding

Sian folk Cao-Si

started a band with his friends

a band that does rap music in Sian dialect

He's a professor, the lyrics writer

as well as the lead singer in the band

In this song

He wrote about the food for common people in Shann-Xi

List a bunch of

different kinds of delicious food

"Spinach noodles are nutritious; and the richness is a plus"

" ¡¥Belt noodles' are think; as it's a challenge to your throat"

"The noodles come in soup; wipe the juice off your face afterward"

"Qishan Sao-Zi noodles have a lot of meat; its history is long"

"Garlic dipped noodles are hot; your tongue might be on fire"

"Za Jiang noodles are spicy; a little bit already driven you crazy"

"Order a bowl of noodle soup"

Historically Sian was once

the most bustling and flourishing city in the world

13 dynasties had its capital built here

The whole world gathered together here

Brought different delicious food from everywhere

Until today

Here is still the staple food paradise to the Chinese

Soaked bread was inspired by pita

A type of Sian staple foods

You need to tear the pita into pieces

according to your own size preference

To Sian folks

This little help

is satisfying and enjoyable

In Xi-Bei

The perfect combination of staple food and soup

In addition to Pita soaked in lamb or beef soup

Lan-Zhou hand-pulled noodles with beef is definitely on the list

The mornings in Lan-Zhou

starts with a bowl of beef noodles soup

Here where the Huanghe River across

There are over 1000 Muslim hand-pulled noodles restaurants

Everyday

Over a million bowls of beef noodles soup are eaten

The flexible texture and piping hot are the main factors

that Lan-Zhou hand-pulled noodles is being appreciated

A century ago

A Muslim, called Ma-Bao-Zi, pour the soup

that cooked beef and lamp livers into a pot

and then this hot-pot noodles' gone very popular

The clearness and turbidity of the beef soup

are 2 of the keys to justify the genuineness of

the beef noodles soup

The best beef noodles soup should have

Clear and smooth soup

Clean and clear daikon

Sharp red chili oil

Fresh green vegetable

Bright yellow noodles

Five features

Ma-Bao-Zi creatively added in

"Fenghui water" when he was making dough (Fenghui is the ash of a type of plant called Fengfeng and the ash contains potassium carbonate)

that makes the dough more elastic

All the steps operate manually

Ma-Wen-Bin is the 4th generation of

the Lan-Zhou hand-pulled noodles restaurant

He has been working in the restaurant over 40 years

To have the noodles come out in different sizes

(Wide, Medium, Thin, Extra thin)

Arms have to be strong

as well as the strength control that has to be strong yet with gentleness

Same wheat

Grind into same flour

Nevertheless it can be made into different noodles

show different characters

About the texture of noodles

The north and the south have different requirements

very different, indeed.

Guang-Zhou folks like this type of thin noodles

Its texture is completely different from Lan-Zhou hand-pulled noodles

Crispy and elastic

Full of flexibility

In Guangdong, a province in South China

Although paddy rice has up to 3 times of harvest in a year

to the Cantonese, that doesn't stop their love for noodles

Very local

They use duck eggs for the dough

After making dough in the traditional way

Now is down to the critical factor ¡V the strength of scrunching the dough

Scrunching the dough with bamboo

Taking adventage of the gravity from bouncing

Making sure the dough will be Scrunched evenly

The thin paste is now ready

for making noodles and wonton pastes

The bamboo-scrunched noodles

have an unique flexibility

Served in the soup base that been simmering for 3 hours

which made of pork bones, flounders, shrimp roe and such

The delicious wontons noodles with shrimp eggs

becomes Lingnan folks' favorite

The noodles that made in this traditional way

Guang-Zhou folks named it "Jook-Sing noodles"

This old-style method of scrunching dough

has been used for generations

Making dough

Cantonese use bamboos

Folks live in the Central Plains use sticks

Rolling dough

is a life skill that the Central China girls

have to master it while growing up

"Morning noodles; Afternoon banquet"

is the tradition in Ding Village when throwing a birthday banquet

Preparing a banquet for her husband's 70th birthday

Mrs. Wei got up early in the morning

to make the noodles for the banquet

Chinese named this type of noodles "Changshou noodles" (Long-Life noodles)

Why do they eat noodles on their birthdays?

How did the noodles become

the symbol of birthday blessing to the Chinese?

One of the explanations is

because of the shape of the noodles: long(Chang) and thin(Shou)

"Chang shou" is a homonym for "Long Life"

Then without a doubt, the noodles has became

the most popular staple food on birthday

since Chinese are fond of lucky words

At the birthday banquet at Ding Village

The thing that needs all the villagers

to do it together and it's about to start

Before eating the noodles

Pick out the longest noodle

Put it in the birthday man's bowl

Wait until him to finish this bowl of noodles

that symbol the long life wishes from the villagers

Then the birthday banquet is complete

Qishan folks, in Shann-Xi, also eat noodles for birthdays

Qishan folks gather together

whenever there's an elder's birthday

Hire an opera troupe to perform Qingiang opera ( a type of Chinese opera)

At this occasion

A bowl of tasty sour and hot Qishan Sao-Zi noodles

is the best supporting role to the front stage and backstage

It's something can't be missing

Open-air banquet is very particular about the Qishan Sao-Zi noodles

When the day has just started

as well as the noodles open-air banquet

According to the local history records

Qishan Sao-Zi noodles originated from 3000 years ago

Only eat the noodles, leave the soup

is a local eating manner that established by usage

Shann-Xi folks call the topping that made of stir-fried diced meat

"Sao Zi"

The making of Qishan Sao-Zi is even more particular

The diced meat need to be thin and even

Stirring until translucent

Then add in vinegar and chili

Slowly stirring in low flame

Quality Sao-Zi is suppose to be

Color: bright red and rich

Taste, outstanding sour and spicy

A ladle of Sao-Zi in chili oil

Bright and shinny Hot but not dry

are exactly the pith of Qishan Sao-Zi noodles

The ingredients for Sao-Zi need "five colors"

Jelly ear fungus and tofu represent "Black & White"

Eggs represent wealth

Carrots represent lucky days

Scallions represent new life

Red, Yellow, Green, White and Black

These five colors represent

the wonderful blessings that the Qishan folks have for their lives

In the past few thousand years

Making Sao-Zi soup base has became Qishan folks'

regular work every day

Qishan Sao-Zi noodles have turned

into a remarkable artwork

Qishan Sao-Zi noodles is staple food as well as side dish

This kind mixture of staple food and side dish

is common in Chinese' daily meals

Jia-Xing folks start their days

By eating

hot "Zongzi" (rice dumplings, a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in reed leaves)

Jia-Xing is located at the Lake Tai Basin

It's often called the barn of the world

Nowadays

the fast-paced production and life style

have turned this kind of food

which is

seasonal and usually for festival

into a type of daily staple foods

The Dragon boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar

Commemorating the death of Qu-Yuan

A famous poet who committed to suicide 2300 years ago

Every family in southern China needs to

Soak glutinous rice, wash reed leaves and wrapp rice with it

Mr. Lau

All the way came from Szechwan to Jia-Xing to work as

Zongzi artificer

Wraps 3000 zongzi every day

He wraps apx. 7 zongzi every minute

Every zongzi

Takes less than 10 seconds

In this standardized workshop

A zongzi

Total of 36 processes

Every working day

More than one million of zingzi are produced

This kind of old-style staple food

appears in a different modern look

Nevertheless the attraction of hand-making

is still wrapped inside it

These young artificers whom came from the rest of China

are using their warm hands

protecting the vitality of traditional food

From farming culture to industry culture

The improvement of the techniques

Set zongzi free from its limitation:

Regions and seasons

However, to Chinese

Accordance with the natural

Making the appropriate foods with their own hands

means continuing the traditional life style

to some extent

When the last paddy rice is grown

Then it's time for Ning-Bo folks to make "Nian Gao" (Year cake, a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine)

To this 5-year-old girl Nian-nian

The most interesting game

is making nian-gao with her great grandmother

That's pretty

Yeah it's pretty

Jing-Tou Village, mostly surrounded by sea

"Gu" is the most common surname in the village

Because of the marriage

Mrs. Gu moved there over half of a century

Brought up 4 children

as well as a bunch of grandchildren

Now she's taking care of

the 4th generation of the family

Generations of the family have lived here the whole life

Mr. Gu, 78 years old

Making nian-gao is a tradition in Ning-Bo

to celebrate Chinese New Year

Ning-Bo water-ground nian gao

Use the last ripe rice of the year

After soaking

Milling

Steaming

Pushing and pounding

The elements of rice will be recombined

The texture also will be improved

After pushing and pounding

Next the dough will be kneading on a broad

A simplest

nian-gao rod is now made

Ning-Bo families

used to make nearly 50 pounds of nian-gao before CNY

Keeping them in cold water

Can be eaten from lunar Dec to the beginning of a new year

When farming

Ning-Bo folks eat nian-gao as a substitute for rice

It's timesaving

Cook vegetables with nian-gao

Not only it's a filling staple food

It's also a tasty dish

Portunid crab

brings this plain-flavor rice food

into another level of deliciousness

Inside of the Gu's steamy kitchen

The scent of rice goes in every corner

Towards the end of the year

All of their children

came back to the village from Ning-Bo as promised

Their grandchildren are already grown up

have their own families

One family, four generations

Day like this ¡V gathering together -

Only happens 2~3 times a year

These grandparents are very happy

In this rather plentiful dinner

Sure there's one thing can't be miss

the kids' favorite: Nian Gao

Their children are already grown up

making nian-gao is getting less and less

Nevertheless this old couple still follows

the old traditional method of making nian-gao

Here

Making nian-gao is a big deal

Every year this time

Neighbors helps neighbors

The locals also called nian-gao "Tuan Zi" (rice dumplings in the sense of small balls)

has the symbolism of being together

Grandma put in the mugwort she preserved in spring

mix into the steamed dough

Pushes and turn-over

The dark-green mugwort juice

mixed with the rice smell

Pounding it into soft green nian-gao

The freshly made nian-gao is warm, moist, soft and sticky

Sprinkle the golden pine pollen powder

which has light and last-long fresh smell of grass

You just can't stop eating it!

When Ning ning grow up

Perhaps she won't remember the making method of nian-gao

But the soft yet flexible texture

that carries the taste of the family

probably will stay in her memory forever

After the short family gathering

Thd kids bring

the nian-gao that made by their grandparents

back to the city

Chinese New Year to Chinese

It's a holiday belongs to families

The CNY in 2012

Bai-Bo is spending the holiday with his family in Beijing

He grew up in Shan-Xi

But he chose to stay in Beijing after graduated from university

He invited his parents, sister and his wife's parents

come to Beijing to spend the holiday together

Over the last 10 years

This is the first time

The foods I used to eat when I was little

The memories stay with me forever

I call tell what the food is from the first bite

I think among the foods my mom cooks

the most delicious one is braised noodles

The taste is too good to explain

It's actually very simple as well as the cooking

I still think it's delicious

because it's made by my mom

Bai-Bo has a pair of twin girls whom 5-year old

Their nicknames are "Lucky" and "Happy"

Working as a photographer

He goes on business trip very often

Lucky, Happy and his wife are living with her family

In a year

Only in Chinese New Year

Days like this

The girls can spend time with their father

What is you guys' favorite food?

"Shui Jiao" (Dumplings in soup base)

Why is that?

Vegetarian

I ate eight, and you?

You ate eight, too?

Then why are you fat and you are thin?

Why?

Put the fillings on the center of the dough skin

Crimp it into crescent

Then it become

A simple and good-looking "jiao-zi" (Dumpling)

"jiao-zi" symbols "Happy together at midnight"

No matter it's a good or bad year

The whole family gathers together eating dumplings in CNY eve

It's the end-of-year banquet

that nothing can replace

Ever since we were little

We were educated in the traditional family culture

For example, when I was a kid

The most memorable thing

is my grandmother

She always sealed the dumplings

into different looking ones

Looking at the dumplings in the boiling water

Boiling like¡K" Gulu Gulu "

Looked lively

Symbols the gathering of a family

When plenty of handmade food

become the foods made on production lines in workshops

Chinese

The people that

value the concept of family the most in the world

still making food in their own home

Year after year

Repeating the same old story

When you guys grow up

It's your turn to make dumplings for us

Just you two, agree?

Chinese' traditional concept of family

is passed down through generations

the thing they passed down to me

I will also pass it down to my children

Like these dumplings

I believe the memory of dumplings is like a seed

Growing inside of their little souls

no matter where they go, how far they go

It will always remind them of

their parents

the things we can make for them

Foods and stuff, etc

To Chinese

This is the kind of memory passes down

through generations

The memory of foods

To Bai-Bo and his family

This moment

is the happiest time of a year

Actually, in a night like this

the food is not the most important thing

Right now, inside of their hearts

Nothing can compare with

Being together with their own families

This is all they wish for

This is Chinese

This is Chinese tradition

This is the story about Chinese staple foods

**Thank you for watching**