With the arrival of summer, as a special product of South China, fiery red litchi is also full of streets and lanes. From Du Mu's famous sentence "The world of mortals rides a princess and laughs, no one knows it is litchi" to Su Dongpo's famous sentence "300 litchi a day, so I will grow up to be a Lingnan person", litchi enjoys numerous reputations, and its sweet litchi is deeply loved by people. Li Shizhen introduced litchi in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Eating litchi regularly can nourish the brain and strengthen the body, cure carbuncle and furuncle, stimulate appetite and strengthen the spleen. Drying can replenish vitality and is a tonic for the old, the weak and the sick.
Dog meat is also called "fragrant meat" or "broken sheep" in some areas of China. It is also called "Sanliu spicy meat" in Cantonese, because three plus six equals nine, and "nine" and "dog" are homophonic in Cantonese. Dog meat is not only high in protein, but also has obvious effects on enhancing human disease resistance, cell vitality and organ function. Eating dog meat can strengthen people's physique. Chinese medicine believes that dog meat has the function of warming and tonifying kidney yang, and is effective for patients with kidney yang deficiency, impotence and premature ejaculation.
For China, dog meat has been in the menu for a long time, which is also a kind of food culture. Li Shizhen, a great medical scientist in Ming Dynasty, recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that eating dog meat has the effects of "calming the five internal organs, intellectual fit, benefiting qi, tonifying kidney, nourishing stomach, warming waist and knees, strengthening tendons, nourishing five strains and seven injuries, nourishing blood vessels and strengthening lower energizer". Dog meat is regarded as a delicious food by many people, and it is also regarded as a nourishing medicine beneficial to health. In addition, dog meat tastes mellow, so it is favored by people. There is a custom of eating dog meat in winter all over China. There are many proverbs about dog meat, such as "Eat dog meat without bedding", "Dog meat rolls three times, the gods can't stand it", "Dog meat smells like Buddha jumps over the wall", "Dogs have no way to go on the summer solstice", "Fish give birth to dogs on the summer solstice, and there are several feasts every year" and so on. The charm of dog meat is evident!
How to eat litchi dog meat
Dog meat and litchi, two seemingly unrelated foods that are easy to get angry in TCM theory, were brought together on the hot summer solstice, and a "food festival" was born. Northerners "eat watermelons with stoves" in winter, while Yulin people "eat hot pot with bare arms" in summer. Yulin is known as "dog meat litchi summer solstice dish". The solstice in summer is an important festival in Yulin, and this time is also the golden season for fresh litchi to go on the market. In this early summer festival, at night, the dog meat stalls in the urban-rural fringe and streets are packed, full of people and extremely hot. People sit around the hot pot at the dining table, eating dog meat and tasting fresh litchi, or soaking litchi in wine and drinking litchi wine, chatting while eating, punching cards and guessing codes, and being in high spirits. Interested people will hold a banquet all night, which is called the "carnival" in Yulin. That kind of fun and carefree, that kind of incisively and vividly is unparalleled, which is also a "unique skill" of Yulin. People in Guangxi and even the whole country have eaten "famous food". Even on this day, people from surrounding Wuzhou, Guigang and Nanning also drove to attend this "feast" of Yulin people. The scene is spectacular.
It can be eaten raw or soaked in wine. Especially like Yulin people, litchi soaked in wine with dog meat is both fragrant and delicious, and the sweetness of litchi is even more irresistible.
The folk saying in Guangxi is that dog meat and lychee are not hot together in summer solstice, and there is a saying that "fish in winter solstice breeds dogs in summer solstice", while "eating dogs in summer solstice" means that as long as you eat dog meat in summer solstice, your body can resist the attack of wind and rain in the west, catch fewer colds and be healthy.
Although the summer solstice litchi dog meat festival is not a unique folk custom in Yulin, it is one of the most respected festivals in the local area. Yulin people entered the hottest day in summer, which lasted for several hours, concentrated consumption and was very lively. The whole city was immersed in a bouquet of wine and meat, which was called the "Carnival" in Yulin.
On this day, men and women, old and young, go into battle in unison and eat in chunks, even if they are in the heat of 30 degrees, they will never "retreat"! The mellow smell of dog meat and the sweetness of litchi make people seem to forget the origin of this festival, so the "Dog Meat Litchi Festival" has gradually evolved into a pure "food festival" for Yulin people. Walking on the streets of Yulin, you will find all kinds of shops and stalls with dog meat signs everywhere: Lingchuan dog meat, Huajiang dog meat, crispy dog meat, Daoxiang dog meat ... all kinds of special eating methods are dazzling. Eating dog meat is not a feature of Yulin, but at any time of the year, it is rare for the dog meat hot pot business of food stalls, restaurants and restaurants to flourish for a long time across the country. On the hot summer solstice, many diners sweat profusely at home or at dog meat stalls in the streets and lanes, taste lychees, drink rice wine and eat dog meat hotpot to celebrate the "Dog Litchi Festival".
Yulin's food culture has existed since ancient times and is an important branch of Cantonese cuisine. Yulin's food culture has become the norm, paying attention to the taste and nutrition of dishes, and at the same time paying great attention to innovation under tradition. For this reason, litchi dog meat is also an innovation under the tradition. There are some innovative methods of dog meat, such as traditional methods such as stewing and cutting white. Litchi can be eaten raw or soaked in spirits. Eat litchi with dog meat, which has the fragrance and taste of dog meat and the sweetness of litchi. "Smell dog meat, the gods jump over the wall", "Dog meat rolls three times, the gods can't stand it" and so on, which is enough to show that dog meat is a very attractive dish with its irresistible dietary temptation. Lingnan litchi, a famous fruit in Lingnan, is also a sought-after fruit in Yulin. The quatrains such as "spit 300 lychees, and grow up to be Lingnan people" and "Riding a princess in the world of mortals and laughing, no one knows it is litchi" also show that Lingnan lychee is the king of fruits and has an irreplaceable position. Dog meat and litchi are cooked once in a lifetime, not a dish at all, but together.