Shen Jialu's old Shanghai flavor and endless stories.

Diet is a big deal for ordinary people. Three meals a day is closely related to health, mood and life. When you are full, you want to eat well, and when you eat well, you want to taste.

The old flavor of a place has endless stories, which are not only related to legends, food, local customs, but also related to regional history, cultural accumulation, our family and personal growth history.

It is along this track that Shen Jialu's "Shanghai Old Taste Sequel" frequently touches readers' memories and awakens the return of taste buds. We can know the taste of Shanghai through several stories.

Mid-Autumn Festival flavor in Jiangnan water town.

The reason why the old taste is nostalgic is that half of it comes from the thin fat in the body at that time, and half of it slowly precipitates over time. An English writer once said: The past times were all good. Beautiful imagination and small disappointment inadvertently cast a golden light on the past, so grandma's braised pork occupied the c position on the table.

When I grow up, I will eat the elegant rose sand, cream coconut milk and five kernels in the Xinghua Building, only to know that there is still a day behind the world, and the mottled crispy moon cakes in the south street shop are not comparable. The worse luck now, the better another time. As a "national memory", Wuren moon cake has been frequently vomited recently, which makes people very angry. Do you know how annoying it is to make a five-kernel moon cake? Collecting the best nuts and melons is a big project. In addition, the enjoyment of the tip of the tongue, step by step, surprise gifts, middle-aged and elderly fans never give up, but also a tribute to the craftsman spirit.

In recent years, the market competition has been fierce, and the flower heads of moon cakes have turned really fast, from crayfish to cheese bacon, from salted fresh to cream yellow, singing and dancing, and colorful clouds chasing the moon. But the emphasis is mostly on the stuffing, and the skin is not mentioned. In fact, stuffing and crust can only make colorful seasonal food. At present, most of the mooncake rookie's heart-filling comes from rare food. Whether it is more delicious to eat with the skin will not be known until you have eaten it. This year, I ate a handmade moon cake. The crust is crisp and the filling is soft. The combination of chestnuts with bean paste, mung beans and old fragrant yellow (bergamot) has beautiful shape, clear outline, elegant style and meaningful taste, which sincerely interprets the essence of moon cakes.

People in China like to commemorate a festival or season by chewing certain foods, which is a cultural instruction handed down from generation to generation by farming civilization. In the bright expectation of market prosperity, * * * consumption and stimulating domestic demand are still in line with the wishes of the broad masses, and we should have a spectrum in mind. In the crisp autumn, besides moon cakes, there are many flavors worth appreciating.

For example, when edamame, taro and salt water are cooked, they can best appreciate the fragrance and softness of seasonal vegetables. Soybeans are "flat-footed", and the fragrant glutinous rice is softer than many similar products. Sugar taro is not eaten by many people now. It used to be grandma's patent. Peel the taro until it is half cooked, return to the pot and cook until it is crisp but not rotten. Add brown sugar to taste and color, put it in a bowl and pour in a spoonful of osmanthus. The old grandmother solemnly showed it to her little grandson, and every wrinkle on her face was like singing a childhood song. Over time, this face will become a bronze relief in my little grandson's memory.

The orange is orange green, and the heron stays in the lotus pond. After Gordon Euryale comes out of the water, the fruit is bigger than pomegranate. In the afternoon, in the town, the old lady sitting on the porch by the river carefully peeled the pearl-like chicken head rice, bagged it for sale, and accidentally peeled it for herself. Some tourists are too expensive and choose cheaper dry goods. This is a standard "foreign dish". The elasticity, waxy quality and fragrance of fresh chicken head rice are irreplaceable by other ingredients. When fried with sweet bean shrimp, the red, white and green colors are pleasing to the eye and the taste is elegant. Eating once a year is enough.

Dried chicken head rice is not as good as fresh rice in aroma and taste, and can only be cooked with Gordon Euryale porridge, mung bean soup or Gordon Euryale cake. Euryale seed cake is also a kind of fine cake in Jiahu, but it is not easy to make at home. Not long ago, I ate a Gordon Euryale seed cake in Xingguo Hotel, stuffed with candied autumn pears, and slipped into a small dish of peach gum soup, which seemed to reproduce Penglai Wonderland.

After eating dried shrimps, boiled in oil, boiled in rotten oil, followed by lotus root, water chestnut and water chestnut in the pond. When I was a child, I couldn't eat seasonal fruits often. Father will take two old lotus roots home from the market, wash and peel them, slice them in a high bowl and watch them while eating. Spider-like filaments often wrap around my mouth. This is "broken wire". Raw lotus root slices are not very sweet, but the crispness is better than that of autumn pears, and the juice enters and exits through the teeth, which is quite interesting. The whole lotus root festival is filled with soaked glutinous rice, cooked and cut into thick pieces, like agate inlaid with white jade, poured with sweet-scented osmanthus sugar and oil, and you can sit down.

Lotus root has a good section, but it is sold in the market. Cut the section, you can see that most of them are nine holes. Jiukong is a pond lotus root, also called white lotus root. If it's eleven holes, it's a lotus root. There are also seven holes called safflower lotus root, which are particularly precious. Lotus root, pear and sugarcane are juiced together, which is a drink for clearing away heat and quenching thirst.

"Fresh product, first in the tomb" (Zheng). Hong Ling has sharp corners, and Suzhou people commonly call it "water passengers". "Miscellaneous Notes of Youyang" holds that there are water chestnuts with two horns, and water chestnuts with three horns and four horns, which are called "water chestnuts" by later generations. They are as fresh and lovely as lotus roots in ponds when eaten raw. After peeling off the diamond, the finger was dyed red, and it could not be thoroughly cleaned until the next day, but the little girl in the country enjoyed it.

Lotus root, water chestnut, water chestnut, etc. You can also invite sweet beans, water bamboo, black fungus and so on. If you want to join in and cook a fresh dish, it's not a big meal, but it's refreshing with rice wine.

Xin Qiji's poem "Sending Bad Crabs to Zhao" says: "The urgent thing in the world is only talent, and the country can ban alcohol. One water and one mountain for fifteen days can never be urged. " Mei Shi's "Live Crabs on February 10th" says: "Rice harvests crabs every year, so where does February come from? Full red paste is as fat as marrow, and the green shell of the storage plate is bigger than the cup. " After autumn, the water temperature in rivers and lakes is getting colder, and hairy crabs have finished their last molting.

There is no shortage of freshwater rivers in autumn in Jiangnan. Isn't it white fish, white shrimp, mandarin fish, crucian carp, perch, herring, silver carp, turtle and eel ... still fat?

When did the moon begin to appear? Ask heaven for wine. Besides moon cakes, we have many wonderful things to share. Now we should emphasize the relationship between man and nature, and understand and inherit Chinese civilization through seasonal cuisine.

Fried shad with ginger and purple vinegar

When eating in a restaurant, the menu is often not opened, and the waiter can't wait to ask: Would you like a fish, sir?

Fish is an indispensable food for Shanghainese. Let's win one favor: more than one year. But what fish to eat in the end is very particular. If you come to an East Star or Napoleon wrasse, you will inevitably be jumpy when you pay the bill. Eating braised snapper is shabby; Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish, sweet and sour, has long been disgusting. So buy a drink for friends who can eat. You would rather choose bamboo tube fish, flounder and (fish+fish) fish. If you have wild mandarin fish, take steamed or vinegar peppers. If the elders are invited to dinner in late spring and early summer, then a shad will come.

The shad is known as "the king of fish", and it is also called "the three delicacies of the Yangtze River" with swordfish and puffer fish. Herring is a migratory fish that lays eggs upstream. Because it enters the river regularly in early summer every year, it is punctual and trustworthy. When the ancients created characters, they added a word "time" to the right of the word fish. The foodies in the Yangtze River Delta have deep feelings for shad, and steaming shad is a fresh season in early summer. The most famous thing in Zhenjiang is the Yangtze River shad. The occurrence rate of shad in Subang cuisine is much lower than that of mandarin fish, whitebait and pond shad. If you want to eat shad, you should go to Zhenyang restaurant. There are also shad in Zhejiang, among which Fuchunjiang River is the fattest, but strangely, steamed shad is hard to eat in hotels like Louwailou in Hangzhou. Guangdong Pearl River shad is also a temporary choice, and Ganzhutan in Shunde is the best, but Pearl River shad is slightly inferior to Yangtze River shad.

This shad is very fragile. It is said that once the fisherman touches its scales, the goods will not move immediately, so Su Shi called it "a fish that cherishes scales". From the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Yangtze River shad became a tribute, and in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, shad had been listed as an important dish in the "Man-Han Banquet". After the shad came out of the water, it rotted in a few minutes. Local officials came up with a coup: seal shad in cooked lard and fly from a fast horse to the imperial city, which is similar to sending lychees to Queen Bo Guifei in Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty and smiling.

The shad are mainly produced in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is said that the shad from Hengjiang Dangtu to Caishiji tastes the best. Known as the treasure of Jiangnan, it was a tribute in ancient times. It is a rare and precious economic fish in China. Due to overfishing and the destruction of ecological environment, following the Chinese alligator, Chinese sturgeon, finless porpoise and mullet, the Yangtze River shad also suffered a population crisis.

Come to think of it, this biological crisis started quietly half a century ago. I remember eating it several times when I was a child. It was very noisy. My mother will lose no time in telling the story of a clever daughter-in-law who treats shad and shows filial piety to her parents-in-law. She strung the scales one by one with silk thread and oiled them, which was perfect. This kind of story is put today, and young people will soon vomit. But my mother's steamed shad is definitely the best in the world. The pure oil penetrates into the fish, so beautiful that even the transparent scales can be sent to the tip of the tongue for a few sips. Finally, the soup at the bottom of the basin refused to give up, and the bibimbap was eaten. The fish juice was fresh through every grain of rice, and the happiness was full.

However, it seems that there was no supply of shad in the food market at that time. It was brought from relatives and friends in Nanjing and Zhenjiang, and it was not a whole piece, only a section as wide as the palm of your hand. The silver scales kept flashing in the depths of childhood memories.

In the 1980s, catfish in the Yangtze River basically disappeared. Since 1993, Zhongyang Group, the world's largest rare fish breeding enterprise in the Yangtze River, has been committed to the breeding, release, protection and development of rare fish in the Yangtze River. By simulating the natural migration ecology in the whole process, the rare fish in the Yangtze River, such as shad, swordfish, sturgeon, mullet and four-gill bass, were successfully cultivated, so shad returned to the table.

The Yangtze River shad in China is very different from the Burmese shad used in general hotels. The Yangtze River shad has three unforgettable parts. The first layer of fish scales is crystal clear, melts in the mouth and is rich in collagen, which is good for nourishing the skin. The second layer is the gray fleshy layer under the fish scales, which is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and can lower cholesterol. The third layer is white fish, with delicate meat and rich protein.

It is said that steamed shad can best retain its original flavor, such as Taiwan carving steaming and ancient steaming. Personally, I prefer ancient steaming, which is based on the traditional soy sauce in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and highlights the tenderness of the Yangtze River shad by calling it salty. Taiwan Carved Steaming is to use the Taiwan Carved Wine of Xianheng Restaurant and add a little rice wine to brew good wine, which can not only keep the fresh and tender meat quality of the shad, but also promote the fatness of the shad to the extreme with the help of wine fragrance. Of course, smoking is also a good choice as far as the cooking equipment in hotels is concerned.

Lu Xun's favorite strip cake

Autumn is the harvest season, fresh rice, garden vegetables and fresh water, followed by fruits from the north and south ... Autumn is also the cake season. In rural areas, new grains are ground into powder and steamed with several cages of rice cakes to celebrate the bumper harvest. In the urban area, there are long queues in front of old brands such as Shen Dacheng, Wangjiasha and Qiaojiazha from morning till night, including red bean cakes, yellow muffins, striped cakes, pine balls, hairy balls, double stuffing balls, rose square cakes, etc ... There are also birthday peaches and muffins that are essential for old Shanghainese to celebrate their birthdays. When Shanghainese move to a new house, they must buy a lot of Ding Sheng cakes and distribute them to their neighbors. Ding Sheng cake has a thin waist and big ends, and it is shaped like a tenon used by carpenters to splice boards. "Definite victory" and "definite tenon" are homophonic, like a hammered tenon, with a beautiful vision of living and living in a new environment for a long time. Ding Sheng cakes are in pairs, beaming, and the light red image dyed by monascus powder hides shyly, but it is definitely the most eye-catching. Ding Sheng cake should be steamed soft before eating, the crust is still soft, and the bean paste filling is as fine as quicksand and sweet as the heart.

Of all the cakes, I like the top cake best. The dark red bean paste stuffing is squeezed moderately by glutinous rice skin, as if breaking out of cocoon. Fragments of sweet-scented osmanthus scattered on the surface often shine like gold in the sunset and taste like feet. This small fortune is easy for everyone in Shanghai to get. Contemporary literati recall Lu Xun, saying that when Lu Xun stayed up late to write a manuscript, the regular midnight snack was a cake. "Zhaifu bought it before ringing the bedtime bell and sent it to his room. He was better prepared on Saturday night. " This is what Xia Mianzun said in the article Lu Xun Weng Zaji.

Some people say that Lu Xun's love of sweets is a habit formed when studying abroad. In the book "Shanghai on the Tip of the Tongue", Zhi Jiansha thinks: "Lu Xun is not tired of eating a piece of cake every night like this, even if he needs a stomach foundation laid by his childhood. He is a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are occupied by sweet glutinous cakes. "

My hometown is also in Shaoxing, and I am also used to eating glutinous rice cakes from snacks. I always think that Lu Xun should prefer another kind of cake dough, which is the black cowpea cake produced in Shaoxing. Black cowpea cake is made of glutinous rice flour and cowpea as ingredients, added with a juice mashed by Vaccinium bracteatum leaves, kneaded into thick strips, steamed in a steamer, cooled and sliced. As far as appearance is concerned, she is black and has few bright spots. She is simply a girl who cooks with messy clothes, but she tastes good, has a unique local flavor and is particularly hungry. Put it in a bamboo rice basket and hang it by the window for a long time. Therefore, Shaoxing people travel far and visit relatives and friends, and black cowpea cake is a regular dry food appliance. Shaoxing also has a kind of baked sesame seed cake, which happened to be seen in the food store, and it has probably been listed as an intangible item!

Because of its relationship with Suzhou, you can still see the thinnest and most expensive 100-fruit honey cake in the Shanghai pastry group store. Wang revealed in the book "Gusu Edification" that honey cake is a famous product in Daoxiang Village. When Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, it was presented by Suzhou, and he was called a beauty because of his dry food. It was ordered to be customized by Daoxiang Village and presented to the palace. The next step is the routine that everyone is tired of listening to. With a stroke of the pen, the emperor ate the words "Taoxiang Village". "In the past, Daoxiang Village, Ye Shouhe, Zhao Tianlu and other stores took orders, delivered cakes to the door, and cut, weighed and packaged them on the spot."

The Double Ninth Festival is coming-Double Ninth Cake is on the scene. In recent years, traditional culture has returned. At this time, young people who bought Chongyang cakes at the entrance of the cake group shop lined up in a long line, buying a few boxes at a time and going home to honor their parents, which can be described as well-intentioned.

In ancient times, people had to climb mountains during the Double Ninth Festival. It is said that dogwood can be tied to their arms to avoid disaster. "I know where my brothers are climbing from a distance, and one person is missing from the dogwood." "Who knows next year? Look at the dogwood carefully when you are drunk. " These two poems by Wang Wei and Du Fu have become famous sentences that have been passed down through the ages. Literati in the Tang Dynasty had to go hand in hand when climbing mountains and inserting dogwoods, similar to today's autumn outing. In the Song Dynasty, eating cakes was added to this custom. Now Shanghai residents will also hold activities to climb the building on this day. Jinmao Tower and Oriental Pearl have become targets, which is the embodiment of urbanization in ancient customs.

There must be a small flag on the Chongyang cake. The small flag means that there is wind blowing, which means climbing, because the wind can only be clearly felt from high places. Without this flag, the folk significance of Chongyang cake will be greatly reduced. When I was a child, I played in a snack shop in Hutongkou. After the master dismantled the washing pot with a broom, he made a small flag out of its bamboo silk. I was amused at that time and volunteered to help him with it. I have experience in making kites, and I can handle it easily. After a busy morning, the master has been praising me. After that, he gave me two newly released Chongyang cakes. I ate a piece and took it home for my mother to eat. My mother is so happy!

Two years ago, when I went to Suzhou, I learned that China 3 on the Tip of the Tongue happened to be filmed in Huang Tianyuan, a famous shop in China. I asked my boss if he planted a small flag, but the answer was no. As soon as I heard this, I suggested that he mobilize his men to make a small flag and put it on the cake. In the episode "China 3 on the Tip of the Tongue" which was broadcast later, a colorful national flag was finally inserted on the Chongyang cake.