Hangi is a special delicacy of the Maori people. Basically, you dig a hole in the ground, put the hot stones into the stove, and finally put the wrapped food into the stove. No other salt is added during the cooking process. Add any condiments and enjoy the original taste of your food.
This dish is very time-consuming to make, often taking three or four hours, so if you want to eat it at night, you have to make it at three or four in the afternoon.
Of course, this dish is suitable for making a large pot, and three or four people can handle dozens of people.
Atulu arranged for two women and two men to prepare the dish, and the others had to continue working.
Maori people have a very strict division of labor in cooking. This is also their tradition. For the dish Hangi, men dig holes and light the fire, and women prepare the food.
Wang Bo had only eaten hangi once, but had never seen it. He was curious and stood aside to watch.
These big men were very powerful, they were like human excavators. Hengchihengchi quickly dug the pit. The two of them took off their clothes to reveal their body fat. They were not afraid of the howling cold wind and worked shirtless.
After digging the pit, the two filled the pit with flammable newspapers, sprinkled wood chips and diesel fuel, and then used wooden strips to make a shelf on the surface of the pit. They placed wood on the shelf and piled stones on top of the wood.
These stones are smooth and thin pebbles, gray and black in color. Wang Bo picked up one of his hands to look at it, and then dipped his hand in ashes: "Hey, are these stones burned in firewood?"
A big man smiled and replied in not very fluent English: "Yes, Mayor, it has been burned and used before. It belongs to our family. It was not destroyed by the earthquake and can still be used."
Atulu came up and explained: "This is a cooked stone. I have made Hangi rice many times. It has the delicious food accumulated in the past and can be used as a starter."
Lao Wang suddenly realized that this thing should be regarded as the old soup of the Maori people. In his hometown, people cooked pig head meat and pig offal, and they used the old soup as an introduction.
After placing the stones, a big man passed through the reserved passage and lit the newspaper on the bottom floor. Because the pit was made of wood, it had good ventilation, and it burst into flames as soon as it was lit.
When the fire was lit, the two big men squatted beside it and opened their hands to warm themselves up. Lao Wang couldn't help but laugh. It turned out that they were not afraid of the cold.
A big man waved to him: "Mayor, come and warm yourself by the fire. We need to warm ourselves by the fire in winter."
Two women moved over two large black iron cages. They also came over to warm themselves over the fire, and then put vegetables and meat on them.
Wang Bo would not eat other people's meals in vain. He asked Bowen to drive back and bring all the beef and mutton left over from the refrigerator in the past two days. There were many people, so he brought more meat. The total number of beef and mutton was two More than a hundred kilograms.
These Maori people also know that the beef and mutton at Sunset Ranch are delicious. When they saw so much meat, they all clapped their hands happily and danced as if they were about to do it.
Place two layers of cabbage leaves under the cage, sprinkle a layer of fine salt on top, then put the beef, mutton, chicken and duck meat cut into strips and pieces on top, and sprinkle with salt, this time not fine salt but It's a salt block.
Just like that, sprinkle a layer of salt, put a layer of meat, and then put some vegetables such as potatoes, eggplants, beans, cucumbers, etc. These vegetables are wrapped in gauze and arranged in an orderly manner.
Seeing Wang Bo's curiosity, a woman grinned and said, "You don't need to wrap it in gauze. It will fall apart when cooked and will be difficult to eat. Wrapping it makes it easier to eat."
Lao Wang nodded suddenly, gave a thumbs up and praised: "Smart approach!"
In this way, the vegetables and meat were placed at intervals and piled up in a thick pile. The Maori people looked at it with smiles. They really love food.
Because of the use of diesel, the fire was raging and the firewood burned through quickly. The cobblestones burned red, showing the high temperature.
Wang Bo said: "Why not use coal? Smokeless carbon or the like, it is more likely to cause high temperatures."
A big Maori man scratched his head and said: "I haven't used it before, and my ancestors didn't use it either."
Wang Bo: “…”
When the stone is hot, the cooking begins. Two big Maori men used shovels to quickly shovel the rocks to the side, shovel out the firewood that was still burning inside, and carefully pile them together.
They move very quickly because these hot stones will be used to steam the meat in the cage later, so the hotter the stones, the faster they move, the better.
After shoveling the coal clean, the two big men put the stone back into the pit, placed the cage on the hot stone, covered it with a clean wet sheet, and finally sealed it with the hot charcoal dug out earlier.
Wang Bo nodded when he saw this. This is similar to the method of cooking beggar's chicken in some areas of China. He could also use this method to grill fish in his hometown when he was a child. The fish that was finally braised was tender and beautiful without any ash.
After covering the soil, the four Maori people went back to plant trees. They probably had food to enjoy. These guys worked very quickly and sang songs in Maori language.
Maori singing is like their own nation, bold and rough, with uncomplicated melodic changes, just like roaring. Anyway, it can be as refreshing as you like.
Atulu was also singing, or yelling, but he was very smart and saw that Wang Bo was confused and didn't understand, so he ran over and sang to him in English:
“We came from a distant ocean in a big ship, ho ho!
We walked onto this piece of land with bare feet, ho ho!
The birds sing here,
People exist here,
You ask me, ho ho!
What is the most important thing in the world
My answer must be,
That’s food, that’s food, that’s food, ho ho…”
Lao Wang glared: "How much do you love eating? To your ancestors, relationships are not important except for eating."
Maori like to eat, but they don't really know how to eat it, as can be seen from the nation's signature delicacy, hangi.
In addition to hangi for dinner, they also prepared five-spice sauce pork, stuffed pork belly, manuka tree honey-braised chicken, honey roasted potatoes, chili roasted potatoes and other dishes.
A group of people brought these dishes from home, one for each person, and then when night fell, everyone gathered around Hang Yi's fire pit to prepare to eat.
Wang Bo didn't bring any food. Although he did provide beef and mutton, he still felt a little guilty and asked Anderson to bring a lot of beer.
His boldness won the love and respect of these men. After getting the beer, they all came to him to toast, bottles colliding and hops flying.
At this time, someone looked at the sky and said, "Come on, Hang Yi!"
"Hang Yi! Hang Yi! Hang Yi!" A group of Maori people shouted excitedly.
Only then did Wang Bo know the origin of the name of the dish. It should be a modal particle expressing excitement.
When I shoveled off the soil and opened the lid, and finally lifted the sheets, a wave of heat and aroma hit my face, overwhelming the cold wind in an instant and whetting my appetite. (.)