Having enough enthusiasm for appreciating food and being good at appreciating food are the basic qualities necessary for "eating food". According to this standard, Jin Yong is undoubtedly a "foodie". Moreover, he is also a "foodie" closely related to Su cuisine.
Jin Yong's hometown is in Haining, Zhejiang, which is very close to Suzhou. When I was young, I studied at Soochow University (the predecessor of Suzhou University) (1947, I resigned from Southeast Daily and studied international law at Soochow University Law School). His grandmother is from Suzhou, so Jin Yong certainly knows Suzhou, so Wu Nong's soft language and Suzhou cuisine are common in his works. In Jin Yong's novels, it is Eight Dragons that directly writes about Suzhou and Jiangsu cuisine. When Duan Yu first arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, it was in Yanziwu, Gusu that he heard the beautiful Suzhou dialect and ate delicious Suzhou food. Although for Suzhou people, Ah Jun and A Bi cooked only a few home-cooked snacks.
In Jin Yong's works, there are many "foodies". The first "foodie" was Hong Qigong. Hong Qigong, a foodie, became a foodie. In his later years, he successfully became a first-class gourmet and chef. Huang Rong bribed Hong Qigong's menu with Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, emphasizing lightness and delicacy, and used all kinds of seafood and mushrooms, bamboo shoots, meat, vegetables and bean products. Who listens to the Jade Emperor's Plum Blossom Fragrance, Good Soup and Moonlit Night on the Twenty-four Bridges all left a deep impression on readers. On the one hand, their exquisite craftsmanship and unexpected selection of ingredients are staggering, on the other hand, the names of the dishes are also very artistic. Think about it, Master Jin always has a lot of dinners, tastes all over the world, synthesizes the strengths of each family, creates new tricks, and makes people salivate. ...
In Jin Yong's works, the first heroine who can cook is Huang Rong. In the sixth episode of Legend of the Condor Heroes, Miss Huang made her first attempt: stabbing the cock's stomach with Emei steel, washing and peeling off its internal organs without plucking, wrapping the chicken with water and a lump of mud, and roasting it with a fire. Roast for a while, the mud is sweet and fragrant, until the wet mud is dry, peeled and dried, chicken feathers fall off with the mud, and the chicken is white and tender. Familiar with Suzhou cuisine, you will know at a glance: beggar chicken, a famous Suzhou dish.
When it comes to eating places, Jin Yong is not careless at all. What to eat on any occasion, how to eat, from the wasteland of Saibei to the misty and rainy south of the Yangtze River, the lively and colorful food in the Jianghu world nourishes every warrior's body and mind, and it is amazing to present it to readers after thousands of years.
It is common for people in Jianghu to go in and out of inns and restaurants and stay in hotels. Besides Jianghu diet, restaurants and restaurants are often involved in Jin Yong's novels. Songhelou is one of them.
Songhelou, over 200 years old, is very old and famous. When Song Crane Tower is mentioned, four words will immediately pop up in Suzhou's mind: dry uplift home. In other words, as early as the Qianlong period, Songhe Tower was there. To be exact, the opening year of Song Crane Tower was twenty-two years of Qianlong (1757). Song crane tower appears as a story scene in Jin Yong's martial arts novels;
Duan Yu strolled about, suddenly smelling a fragrance, but caramel and soy sauce mixed with the taste of cooked meat. He didn't eat for most of the day, and he was very hungry after rowing for several hours. Now he followed the scent and turned a corner. I saw the boss's restaurant standing on the street, and the golden signboard said "Songhelou". The signboard has been blackened for years, but the three golden characters are flashing, the wine and meat are pouring out of the restaurant, and the chef's knife and spoon sound and the waiter's shouts are one. ...
Qiao Feng and Duan Yu met in a restaurant named "Songhelou", as mentioned in "Eight Dragons".
It may be that Songhe Tower is famous, and Jin Yong has heard about it for a long time. Song Crane Tower is mentioned many times in "Eight Dragons". But at that time, Jin Yong had not been to Songhe Tower. It was not until 2007 that 84-year-old Jin Yong first set foot on Songhe Tower in Suzhou. While tasting Subang cuisine, he realized that he had made a "common sense mistake" when writing "Dragon Eight Branches": he mistakenly installed Suzhou Songhe Tower in Wuxi.
The Song Crane Tower was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The background of Tianlong Babu was in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Song Crane Tower in that story was located in Wuxi. In novels, it is also common to use flowers instead of trees. It is not an exaggeration to put the names of things that appear in later generations in the former dynasty. For example, in "Eight Dragons", Duan Yu drinks "Biluochun" at the Swallow House in Suzhou, which appeared 600 years later. Yanziwu is a fictional place name, needless to say. Biluochun, formerly known as "scary fragrance", has been the treasure of tea since ancient times, and it has been said that it has a history of 1300 years. In the thirty-eighth year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1699), Emperor Kangxi visited Taihu Lake in the south, and the governor gave this tea. Emperor Kangxi thought the name was too vulgar, so he changed "scary fragrance" to "Biluochun". Duan Yu should drink "scary incense". At that time, there would never be the title of "Biluochun". Arjun and A Bi made "Biluochun" for Duan Yu, and the name of tea was later explained in the book. In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Lu Guanying was a thief in Taihu Lake, and he mentioned that Jintou 'ao was the castellan of Mo Lifeng. Mori Peak, the main peak of Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake, is the origin of Biluochun tea. This shows that Jin Yong is erudite and rigorous, and he is meticulous in novel creation. In the TV series Water Margin, Wang Po called his tea "Biluochun", which was a big mistake of the director.
Jin Yong's trip to Song Crane Tower left a deep impression on Suzhou people present. The old man praised the vegetarian steamed stuffed bun for its delicious taste, and couldn't wait to order another one, so he ate the next one, which was really a "foodie".