一、泰山与泰安
1. Mount Tai and Taian City
As a Chinese, you may not know Taian, but you definitely hear of Mount Tai. In the program “Chinese attractions that foreigners are interested in “, Mount Tai ranks the second place after the Great Wall.
Mount Tai is located in the territory of Taian City, Shandong province. It is the world’s natural and cultural heritage, one of the ten famous mountains of China, the World Geopark and the national 5A tourist attractions. The name of Taian derives from the sentence: “The country is prosperous and the people are at peace”. Taian is the National Health City, the National Historical and Cultural City, the National Forest City, and has won the Chinese Habitat Environment Award.
By the way, the earliest Taian Railway Station was probably built by the Germans and then renamed the Taishan Railway Station; and the station at Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is the Taian station. Therefore, the outsiders to Taian must pay attention: Taishan Station and Taian Station are not the same place.
作为一名中国人，你可能不知道泰安，但你一定知道泰山。在“外国人感兴趣的中国景点”一项中,泰山仅次于长城，排名屈居第二。
泰山就位于山东省泰安市境内，为世界自然与文化遗产，中华十大名山，世界地质公园，国家5A级旅游景区。泰安因泰山而得名，“泰山安则四海皆安”，寓国泰民安之意。为国家卫生城市，国家历史文化名城，国家森林城市，荣膺中国人居环境奖。
顺便说一下，最早的泰安火车站大概是德国人所建，后改名为泰山站；而京沪高铁在这里设置的站点为泰安站。所以，外地人来泰安一定要注意，泰山站与泰安站不是一个地方，高铁站为泰安站。
二、泰山煎饼
2. Taishan Pancake
Located in the North Temperate Zone, Taian has a semi-moist warm temperate continental monsoon climate, characterized by four distinct seasons, rain and heat in the same quarter, cold and dry over the same period, adequate lighting, and concentrated rainfall. Sunshine, air temperature and precipitation of Taian City are very beneficial to the growth and development of crops and forest fruits. The main crops are wheat, corn, vegetables, silkworms, fruit trees and peanuts.
Growing a lot of corn, Taian has its food product: Taishan Pancake. With a history of over 1000 years, Taishan Pancak, made of corn, millet as raw material, is a famous traditional food product which is thin, crisp, ans shelf-stable. Pancake roll stuffed with scallions is a local cuisine.
Growing up by eating pancakes, I have a special feeling for pancakes. In Shandong the people of Linyi also eat pancakes, but Linyi pancakes are not the same as Tai’an pancakes. It looks like that Linyi pancakes are thick and wet, and Tai’an pancakes are thin and dry.
When I was a child, my father and other miners went to visit West Lake, bringing some pancakes with them, and the people of the South were unable to understand: “Look, they are eating paper.”
Although pancakes look like paper, if you are the first time to eat pancakes, your tooth will suffer. I had studied for four years in a secondary school in Weifang City, where people don’t eat pancakes. When I came back home to eat pancakes, I found it a hard thing.
泰安市属于温带大陆性半湿润季风气候区，四季分明，寒暑适宜，光温同步，雨热同季。日照、气温、降水等对农作物和林果生长发育十分有利，主要作物有小麦、玉米、、蔬菜、桑蚕、果树、花生为主。
由于大量种植玉米，也就有了美食产品——泰山煎饼。
泰安有着一千多年摊制煎饼的历史。泰安煎饼，以玉米、小米为原料，磨成糊状鏊摊而成，薄如纸，脆如酥，少水份，耐贮存，是久富盛名的泰安传统食品。泰安民谣说得好：”吃煎饼，卷大葱，香喷喷，赛油饼”。
当年黄巢起义转战泰山山脉时，我们当地百姓就用煎饼犒劳士兵。解放战争期间，沂蒙山人民推着小车，装上吃的煎饼和棉衣就上了前线。陈毅元帅曾经很形象地形容:“淮海战役是沂蒙老区人民用小推车推出来的。”
从小吃着煎饼长大，所以对煎饼有着一种特殊的感情，至今还隔三串五地买上几斤煎饼吃。我们当地的煎饼还是以玉米为主，在山东还有临沂也是吃煎饼，但临沂煎饼与泰安煎饼不太一样，好像临沂煎饼厚而湿，泰安煎饼薄而干。
我小时候，父亲与矿友们去西湖游览，带了点煎饼去，南方人大为不解：“看，他们在吃纸。”
别看煎饼类似纸，可若是头一次吃会累的你的牙有点痛。我在潍坊市上了四年中专，那里不吃煎饼，全是面食：馒头、面饼等，再回到家里吃煎饼时，就觉得费劲了。
三、泰山煎饼的制作
3. Process of Making Pancakes
a. Select the corn particle to remove the bad;
b. Put corn in a bucket with water, usually for a night;
c. Use stone mill to grind the corn into thick paste;
d. Put the corn paste for a period of time to let it ferment, the degree of fermentation can determine the sweet and sour of the pancake；
e. Wipe the griddle with soybean, put the corn paste on the heated griddle with a spoon;
f. Extend the paste evenly on the griddle, slowly making circles to make it mature;
g. Lift the pancake
h. Stack and store.
The freshly made pancakes are the best to eat, and if they are stuffed with salted fish or shallots or sauces, that’s more delicious.
The pancakes are delicious, but making them is the most laborious.
Burn up and smoked, the maker suffers a lot, even in summer. It would cost at least three or four hours to finish a big pot of corn paste. I still remember when I was a child, my mother got up to make pancakes with the first cockcrew. Mother did not have the breakfast until she finished the work.
Now, even the pancake production is also mechanized, which is no longer so tiring. However people always feel that the hand-made pancakes are good to eat. It is said that on the top of Mt.Tai, a piece of pancake, stuffed with a shallot and a bit of sauce, is worth several yuan, or is it 10 yuan? And I’m not sure.
The pancakes bear the culture, and the memories of my childhood, where I can find happiness and the sweat and hardship of my mother.
When I pick up the pancakes, as if I am chewing the hard times, I seem to see my mother keeping making pancakes in smoke, backhunched……
（一）挑选玉米粒子，把不好的去掉；
（二）把玉米放到桶里用水泡，一般是泡一晚上；
（三）泡好的玉米用磨磨成糊糊；
（四）把玉米糊糊放置一段时间让其发酵，发酵的程度可决定煎饼的酸甜；
（五）用豆油擦一遍鏊子，把糊糊舀到烧好的鏊子上面。
（六）用竹制小耙子把糊糊均匀地摊在鏊子上，慢慢在上面转圈，使它定型，成熟。
（七）用小耙子粘一下鏊子边，把煎饼揭起来；
（八）叠好，存放。
刚摊好的煎饼最好吃，也吃的多，如是卷上咸鱼或者大葱、酱等，那就更可口了。
煎饼好吃，可这摊煎饼的活最辛苦。火烤烟熏，冬天还好，夏天就更遭罪了，而且摊完那一大盆子的糊糊至少要三、四个小时。我还记得小时候，母亲听到第一声鸡叫就起床摊煎饼，一直摊到我们吃完早饭，母亲才完工，洗洗脸吃饭。
现在，连煎饼的制作也都机械化了，不再那么劳累，可人们总觉得还是摊的煎饼好吃。据说，在泰山顶上，一块薄煎饼，卷上一根葱，蘸上点酱，要好几块钱，是不是到了10元了，我就不清楚了。
煎饼承载着文化，也藏着我小时候的回忆，煎饼里有着幸福，也有着母亲的汗水和艰辛。
每每拿起煎饼，我就仿佛在咀嚼着那段岁月，仿佛看到母亲弓着腰，在烟熏火燎中，不停地用耙子摊煎饼的身影……
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