Yangzhou people's interesting prose

The title of this article was originally "The Taste of Hometown" to make people feel more literary, but there are still some differences between hometown and hometown. My hometown is the place where I was born, and now it is basically gone; My hometown corresponds to my "new home" now, and I often go back there, which is inextricably linked both physically and mentally. Everyone should be filial to their parents. Parents are here and hometown is here. In fact, going back to my hometown is not only filial piety, but also harvest, that is, I can taste the hometown dishes cooked by my mother!

Recently, I read Mr. Wang Zengqi's "Taste of China People", and I was deeply impressed by his extensive knowledge, which almost exhausted China cuisine and made my tongue violently addicted. I am a humble person. I have always lived in Changzhou, except my hometown Yangzhou and Nanjing, where I studied, so I am ignorant and can't write coveted words. Although I have been to Xi 'an to see my parents-in-law, I have also been to Shenzhen to see my sister and sister-in-law, but they are all short-term, just like passing a fragrant beauty on the subway, far from feeling that I have been with my wife for a long time.

As the saying goes, one side of the soil and water supports one side, which is quite materialistic. Man is a part of the environment, and geography, climate and eating habits have branded his body and spirit. Physically, northerners are magnificent, heroic, capable and good at hunting; Southerners are small and thin, suitable for farming and business. Even in southern Jiangsu, Changzhou people are different from Suzhou people. Changzhou people are similar to Yangzhou people, and both have a little so-called "stupidity", which is reflected in their diet. Like Yangzhou people, Changzhou people's taste is mainly Huaiyang cuisine, but Changzhou people are more innovative. On the basis of Huaiyang cuisine, they have introduced other cuisines, such as Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine and Hunan cuisine, which has become a wonderful flower in the food garden of southern Jiangsu and even the whole eastern China. Changzhou, like Yangzhou, has been slaughtered by aliens several times in history because of its tenacious resistance. At the end of Song Dynasty and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, there were only 18 in Changzhou. Suzhou people, on the other hand, are soft-boned, and open the door when they encounter foreign invasion, so cultural relics are well protected. The difference between Changzhou people and Suzhou people is the difference between Wu people and Vietnamese people Unexpectedly, Gou Jian, as the head of a country, actually tasted the excrement of an enemy king after being captured, which Yangzhou people and Changzhou people could not do. Changzhou and Yangzhou are quite related. The Hangou in Yangzhou was originally excavated by Fu Cha, the king of Wu, to attack North Korean military facilities. Now, the statue of him is still enshrined in the King Temple in Yangzhou, and the local people respect him as the God of Wealth. Every year on the fifth day of the first month of the first month, pilgrims from all directions come to worship. Now there is "Gao Xiaosheng Literature Research Association" in Yangzhou and "Wang Zengqi Literature Research Association" in Changzhou. It is mutual appreciation to study these two influential contemporary writers separately.

Don't digress too far, but get to the point. It should be noted that the flavor of Yangzhou people written in this article is also the flavor of Changzhou people. One of the biggest characteristics of the tastes of these two places is that they are light, even if they are sweet and sour, they are only faint, just a little bit, like dragonflies, and never plunge into the water like cormorants.

Yangzhou people pay the most attention to the word "fresh" in taste. The local people use local materials, the fish is fresh, and they are still alive and kicking on the chopping block; The meat is fresh, and there is still the residual temperature of the pig on the hand; The vegetables are fresh, and the roots still smell of earth; Melon is fresh, and there are residual flowers on the navel; The water bamboo is fresh and the green leaves are still stained with dew; This snail is fresh and covered with moss. Fresh ingredients, coupled with the chef's careful cooking, make every dish delicious and pleasant. For example, after eating the noodles under the crucian carp soup, I "made a fuss" a few times, all the noodles have been swallowed, and then drinking the slightly hot soup, the fresh feeling is really cool! Even if fried snails are bland, Yangzhou people can do it with relish. Stir-fried snail meat with leek, which can keep fresh. Pour the soup into the rice bowl after eating, especially the next meal. Why? Ya Xian!

Yangzhou people's taste is a little sweet except fresh. In early spring, green Malan was born on the earth, and fresh leaves of Lycium barbarum appeared in the bushes on the river bank. The locals picked Malantou and Lycium barbarum leaves, blanched them with boiling water first, then fished them out, squeezed out excess water, added appropriate amount of salt and sugar, and poured some sesame oil and mixed well. They were sweet and fragrant, so they took the rice porridge. That feeling is really beautiful! The snacks made by Yangzhou people are also sweet. Dajingguo, Guo Xiaojing, Taosu and Qi Jingang, and all kinds of steamed buns, whether meat steamed buns, vegetable steamed buns or three-dimensional steamed buns, all have a sweet taste. This sweetness is not extravagant at all, unlike the dim sum in Suzhou and Wuxi. It is so sweet that people can't open their eyes when all the curtains are opened in midsummer. Yangzhou people have sweet mouths, too. When they are treated with courtesy, they always say thank you sweetly. When they see their elders, they always say hello with a big smile on their faces. When they see their colleagues' achievements, they will also sincerely send congratulations.

People in Yangzhou don't eat sour very much. Only the bean paste made by indigenous method is a little sour. In midsummer, housewives cook soybeans, wrap them in flour and put them in the shade. After a few days, a layer of green mold was born on the bean flour, and then it was poured into a clay pot, and an appropriate amount of brine was added, which exploded in the sun. Two weeks later, a can of sour and sweet earth sauce was ready. Soil sauce often attracts flies, and sometimes the prevention is not in place, and slender white maggots will rummage around in the sauce jar, but this will not affect the taste at all. Put the cucumber and eggplant in a clay pot, and make a sauce a week later. It's sweet and sour and refreshing, and you won't let go after a slap. Bai Yang said that China's "sauce jar culture" may be inspired by Yangzhou people's sauces and sauce products, but in any case, in the hot summer, the dishes are wilted, and it is not lonely to taste all kinds of sauce products.

Yangzhou people are very hardworking. There is an aquatic plant called arrowhead mushroom growing in the local paddy field, and its rhizome develops into an oval block, which is arrowhead mushroom. Sagittarius sagittarius is a kind of vegetable that Yangzhou people often eat in the dead of winter. When you walk into the food market, you will see the peasant woman with blue cloth on her head shouting, "Buy mushrooms, sell mushrooms, fresh mushrooms!" " "Buy mushrooms, peel at home, cut into pieces, white, and feel slightly wet; Cut two pieces of dried bean curd into strips; Wash three green onions and cut them into several sections. Add authentic rapeseed oil to the wok. When it boils and gives off a choking smell, add dried bean curd, stir-fry for two to three minutes, and then add arrowhead slices, turning them from time to time to avoid sticking to the wok. After four to five minutes, add onion segments and add some soy sauce, salt and sugar. Pour in the right amount of water, and the arrow will be submerged when the water boils. Five or six minutes after the middle fire, a fresh fragrance of arrowhead filled the whole kitchen. Put the dish on the plate, put a few green onions on it to break the color, and a delicious dish can be served! A white radish produced in Yangzhou is also a bit bitter. It is said that stewing ribs soup with this ingredient has a nourishing effect, so Yangzhou people like it very much. Yangzhou people can endure hardships, not only in dishes, but also in the process of life struggle. In the past, due to the limited terrain, villagers were often hit by floods, which led to their displacement. They left their homes, or went to Shanghai to make a living, or went to Anhui to make a living. With the skill of "three knives", they not only supported themselves, but also started a career. Nowadays, "Lu Qin Foot Bath" has spread to Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and even Hong Kong and Taiwan. A little girl's ability to endure hardships is undoubtedly inseparable from her ability to do this ancient craft to such an extent.

Now people in Yangzhou also eat spicy food. Add one or two pieces of pepper when stewing crucian carp, which has a special flavor; 13 the taste of sweet lobster is also spicy, and Yangzhou people eat it with relish. People in Yangzhou eat less spicy food than people in Sichuan. The former eats spicy food like a beautiful woman playing a bamboo flute and singing "Yang Liuan, the wind rises and the moon sets", while the latter sings "The River of No Return, a romantic figure through the ages" like a Kansai man holding a bamboo board. Nowadays, girls in Yangzhou are becoming "hot" gradually. According to statistics, the divorce rate in Yangzhou has doubled since the Millennium. There are many reasons, but the awakening of female consciousness is an important factor. There was no market for male chauvinism in Yangzhou. This is a kind of social progress.

Our economy is developing and society is progressing, but people use a lot of pesticides in pursuit of crop yield, and now there are still all kinds of pesticides left in the soil. These toxic agricultural products are served on the table, which makes people wonder whether they are eating vegetables or eating poison. I guess my hometown is not much better.