On February 16th, the first festival of the Qingdao New Year ——the 2016 Radish ·Sweet Dumplings ·Sugarcoated Haws Fair made a grand opening in the Hai Yun An. Nearly 30 intangible cultural heritages from all over China made their appearance one after another. Besides radish, sweet dumplings, sugarcoated haws, the famous snacks from other places of China gathered together and compete with each other. Various unique skills presented by folk craftsmen glutted the eyes of the Qingdao citizens and tourists.
Wait in a long queue to buy sugarcoated haws and radish
For this fair, 7 exhibition and sales areas have been set up, including radish, sweet dumplings, sugarcoated haws, South Korean commodities, production promotion and interactive recreation and experience and there are over 500 stalls. Gao Family sesame sugarcoated haws, a “time-honored shop” for sugarcoated haws fair, had a very good business. Its classical sesame sugarcoated haws and potherb mustard made on site were very popular. Gao Shixiang, the responsible person for Gao Family sesame sugarcoated haws said happily: “We have totally over 80 staffs busy working in the back kitchen. Altogether we have 7 stalls and 20 varieties of sugarcoated haws.”
Besides sugarcoated haws, the delicious and inexpensive radish is a hot sale in the fair. At the crossroad of Jiahe Road and Xuanhua Road, there is the largest radish stall and the regular guest for the fair——8 farmers who transported 14 tons of radish from Weifang to the main venue of Hai Yun An for selling on site. Because of too many visitors, they cannot even have a moment for resting.
The most hilarious street is definitely the Chinese Famous Snack Street on Jiahe Road with a total length of over 300 meters. Many distinctive delicacies including the Changsha smelly bean curd, Wuhan seafood tofu and hot noodles with sesame paste, oyster omelet, Qingfeng steamed bun and deep-fired dough sticks. The whole street is filled with crowed people. The visitors can only move forward very slowly.
The “Eight Diagrams Pan” can fill up with 150kgs oil for one time
The most prominent performance for the fair is absolutely the “Eight Diagrams Pan”. This large pan raised on the stall named “China Taiwan Smelly Bean Curd” has a diameter of 2.5m and resembles the “Eight Diagrams”. 150kgs peanut oil can be poured into the pan for one time and 500kgs smelly bean curd can be fried one day. Master Wang, the chef, is from Jiangsu Province. He said that his team has been to many places for these years with this large pan. This year it is their first time coming to Qingdao. “Compared with the smelly bean curd fried in small pans, the smelly bean curd fried in this Eight Diagrams pan is more uniform in color and has a better mouth feel.”
Foreign “chefs” made their appearance for the fist time
“Hello, come and taste our Arabian delicious food.” “Hi, welcome to taste original British food.” Besides Qingdao natives and visitors from other places of China, quite a few “foreign chefs” appear in the 2016 Radish ·Sweet Dumplings ·Sugar-coated Haws Fair. Sai Fu from Arabia and Wavas from Pakistan, who have come to Qingdao for over a year and engaged in dining in the West Coast Zone of Qingdao, can speak Chinese fluently and join the fair for the first time. Interestingly, they not only brought the delicious food from their hometown like yogurt, chicken wrapped in panda leaves, but also specifically made sugarcoated haws. But they look like jelly and taste sweet. Each time there is any customer approaching their stall; these two young men always went up with enthusiasm and chat with them fluently in Chinese. On Jiahe Road, Mr Tong, a participant in the fair, brought a snack named “British fish potato chips” and his business partner is a British lady. Two Indians cry their wares for selling Indian charpati and the business is prosperous.
The debut show by the only mending blacksmith in the city
Mend pots, mend pans, mend vats, travel from the east to the west, the mended cap is definitely leakage proof. In the intangible cultural heritage demonstration area located on the Haiyun Square, Chen Dalei from Qingdao was invited for the first time, he is the third generation of mending blacksmith and can clearly remember the crying words of his ancestors when they wandered about the streets. He joins the fair with his 13-year-old son. Chen Dalei is very proud. “My hometown is Dayang town in the west coast. I am the only child in my family and have learned the technique of mending vats from my father. Now my only child is capable of this skill.” Chen Dalei demonstrated on site the technique of making cooper alloy nail with three hammer smashes. This tail with a diameter of about 5mm can be used to mend various utensils. All the utensils can be mended without any leakage ranging from big dark-red enameled pottery to small tea bowl.
Chen Dalei unveiled the secret that the diamond bit of the mending blacksmith must be used properly. The bit cannot exceed the 2/3 of the utensil width and the nail claw cannot be over one half of the width. Essentially speaking, the utensils cannot be pierced through and it is a definitely a test for the blacksmith’s technique. Chen Dalei, who mastered this mending craftsmanship at the age of 14, did other jobs before. Two years ago, he picked up this technique and opened a shop in the antique city on the 15th Avenue in Shibei District. Currently, he is the only mending blacksmith in the city.
