Go on road trip, Qingyuan: Visit the wonders of Donghe River and Lianzhou Underground River, and taste Qingyuan cuisine and the Northeast Vera Banquet.

Speaking of Lianzhou, I believe many friends will think of the famous Lianzhou Underground River for the first time, because it is not only the tourist card of Lianzhou, but also the only national AAAAA-level tourist attraction in Qingyuan. It has the reputation of "Donghe Wonderland" and "Donghe Wonderland". Although it is only a cave, it is a unique cave because it has caves, rivers, bridges and waterfalls.

However, the beauty of Lianzhou is not just an underground river. It is a thousand-year-old county with a very long history and a particularly thick culture. It has always been a battleground for military strategists in history. Liu Yuxi, Han Yu, Yue Fei, General Fu Bo and others all left footprints here, and successively produced 138 Lianzhou Jinshi, some even officials to the prime minister, and some were extremely important officials. There are also stories about famous brothers (Chen Quan and Zhu Chen) and three generations of champions and Gongsun (Tang Yuan, Tang Jing and Tang Yan) who won the second-class imperial examination respectively. Moreover, Lianzhou is the fifth capital of Guangdong in modern times, so its position in history is extremely high, even higher than its superior city-Qingyuan.

A long history and rich culture have also spawned many specialties, such as Lianzhou white tea, honey, candied dates, Polygonatum sibiricum, Northeast Laba dog, Yaoan mushroom, Lianzhou flower sausage, stuffed snail, Northeast buffalo horn, yellow rice dumplings, hot and sour beans and so on. , are well-known Lianzhou specialty in China. Among these specialties, the northeast bacon is extremely famous, which left us the deepest impression. Why? Because in the process of self-driving in Qingyuan, when we passed through Dongbei Town, Lianzhou, there were a lot of bacon in front of almost every household. We tasted it many times and it was really delicious.

Northeast bacon is now a national geographical indication product, and the geographical feature of the northeast is that it belongs to the river bed valley, which is located between two mountains and two waters. Among them, the Dongtang River drilled from the canyon slowly flows to dongbei town, bringing mountain breeze to the town. In autumn and winter, the dry cold wind blows from Nanfengao and mixes with the steam emitted by the two rivers, just to let the bacon hanging on the ceiling slowly dry.

Because of the specific wind, temperature and humidity, the northeast town has formed a unique flavor of northeast bacon. Therefore, Dong Pei bacon is also called "dried bacon", and it is also called "the right time, the right place and the right people". In addition, due to the air-drying process, it can only be produced in the natural climate of autumn and winter, and the production time is about between the cold dew festival and the slight cold festival every year, which belongs to seasonal production. The bacon produced beyond this time range has no characteristics of air-dried bacon. Production time and production area are two indispensable conditions, and * * * together constitute the natural conditions for producing air-dried bacon.

There are many kinds of bacon in Northeast China, not only our common bacon and sausage, but also preserved chicken, preserved fish, preserved duck and preserved steak. And the meat is also very delicate. The variety of pork is Landrace Pig, which is a lean pig with high protein content. Chicken, duck, etc. They are all local native varieties, naturally stocked and have good meat quality; Feed includes local wild vegetables, rice bran or free foraging, supplemented by refined feed and peanut bran and other minerals.

According to local friends, Dongpu's bacon production has a long history, which can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, during the Ming Dynasty, two Dongguan immigrants came here, bringing traditional bacon making skills. Combined with the special environment in dongbei town, they wax the livestock raised by farmers, which is very popular among the villagers in dozens of miles in Fiona Fang.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the people in Northeast China lived a prosperous life and six animals flourished. At that time, pork was often surplus except for normal slaughter and sales. By chance, a local villager spread the leftover pork on the noodles with salt. The next day, he hung the pork salted all night with a rope. It was the solstice of winter, and it snowed for several days. The family took down the braised pork and cooked it, only to find that it tasted different, salty and delicious. Since then, the process of curing pork into bacon with salt has spread.

In view of the characteristics of Dong Pei bacon, in 2006, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine approved the protection of geographical indication products of Dong Pei bacon. In 2007, the local government also officially launched the pilot work of standardization demonstration sites in specialized towns. Establish a standard system covering the production, processing and operation of products in the township, with a standard coverage rate of 99%. Unify the technical threshold, establish a fair and just technical platform, promote the optimization and upgrading of Dong Pei bacon products, and gradually develop from small workshop production to enterprise and standardization.

Today, Dongpu Vera has not only become a famous specialty of Lianzhou, but also a food business card of Qingyuan. Dongpu Vera can be eaten in almost every Qingyuan restaurant, but the most authentic one is eaten locally in Dongpu Town, Lianzhou City.

Recently, when Yu Fan participated in a tourism activity in Qingyuan, he visited the famous Lianzhou Underground River, and also tasted the authentic Dong Pei bacon banquet in Dongbei Town, Lianzhou, where the underground river was located, including sausages, bacon, bacon chicken, bacon ribs and other delicacies, such as bacon platter, bacon rice, pork knuckle radish soup, fried heart with bacon (Lianzhou cabbage heart is another famous real estate brand in Lianzhou) and bacon.