He is the last pure scholar in China, and the most influential gourmet in China after Yuan Mei.

The places he walked through all his life were linked with the symbolic geography of China cuisine.

1920-1935: Gaoyou? Hometown of food

Wang Zengqi's hometown is Gaoyou, Jiangsu, a small town between Huaihe River and Yangtze River, with Yangzhou in the south and Huai 'an in the north. After Qin Shihuang destroyed Chu, he happened to see a clean and bright highland passing through this area full of wetlands and swamps, so he set up a post office. The name of Gaoyou came from this.

In the eyes of southerners, it is rugged Jiangbei; In the eyes of northerners, there is a graceful Jiangnan; In the eyes of gourmets, this is the core area of Huaiyang cuisine.

Gaoyou's unique scenery and human feelings constitute Wang Zengqi's life background and personality traits. He has the chic of a northern man and the cleanliness and introversion of a Jiangnan scholar. As for diet, he likes greasy meat and can also taste vegetables. China's tolerant and pluralistic character in the history of food is vividly reflected in him.

Gourmet in my hometown is the first essay of Wang Zengqi's prose. Fried rice, coke crumbs, salted duck eggs, mushroom soup, all kinds of seafood, all kinds of waterfowl and Artemisia selengensis are all well-known foods in the south, but in his works, the characteristics and meticulous cooking of Huaiyang cuisine have penetrated into Wang Zengqi's lines.

Huaiyang has the most abundant morning tea, and Gaoyou people have steamed dumplings, steamed buns and Yangchun noodles. Steamed dumplings with shrimps are delicious, with thin skin and plenty of soup. Put a chopstick in a small dish, pour a circle of vinegar on it, lower your head and sip gently, and the skin soup cooked from the skin will fill your mouth immediately. Shrimp is not a sea shrimp with Cantonese shrimp dumplings, but a more delicious and Jiangnan-style river shrimp. You can find four or five shrimps in a shrimp dumpling, and it is especially tempting to mix them with pork stuffing.

Gaoyou Yangchun noodle is an alkaline water surface, which is different from dried noodles and handmade noodles. It is thin and hard. When cooking noodles, stir the noodles with cold water several times. The inner core is still half-baked and chewy.

Gaoyou people also like to have afternoon tea. Five meals a day is not surprising for the rich Jiangsu and Zhejiang plains and slow-paced towns. Small wonton with pure meat stuffing is delicious and slippery, soaked in the soup head with chicken soup, which is enough to cheer up people who have just woken up from lunch break and are sleepy.

Soft pocket is an essential dish for Wang Zengqi's family banquet, and it is also a major feature of Huai 'an near Gaoyou. The so-called soft bag is to use scalded eel meat, shred it, wrap it thick and fry it thoroughly, and clamp it with chopsticks, so that the soup obtained is beautiful. In addition, there are crispy eel fried, saddle bridge braised, braised Zhang Fei, roasted eel back with open fire, and roasted tiger tail with fire oil, all of which are Wang Zengqi's favorite foods in his early years.

Of course, as a Gaoyou person, salted duck eggs were not left by Wang Zengqi. He said salted duck eggs in his hometown? Soft protein, yolk red oil? If it's for entertaining guests, cut the shell in half and enjoy it yourself. It is best to break the empty warehouse and dig it with chopsticks. Between the lines, it is the leisure of the old literati.

1935-1937: Jiangyin? a walk to remember

1935, Wang Zengqi left his hometown for the first time and went to Jiangyin on the south bank of the Yangtze River to study in Nanjing Middle School.

This romantic city, which guards the rolling Yangtze River every day, is the hometown of Xu Xiake. Wang Zengqi later described Jiangyin as follows: Every day the river rises, so does the river in the city. After the tide receded, the river was calm again. Walking through Hongqiao and watching the river rise and fall, is there an unwarranted sadness?

From his description of Jiangyin Fruit Shop, we can get a glimpse of hazy poetry. There are several fruit shops in Jiangyin, the largest of which is the one directly opposite Shoushan Park. There are many fruits, big, full and fresh. As soon as I entered the door, I was greeted by a thick fruity smell. The most outstanding thing is the sweetness of bananas. This fragrance is not intermittent, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but it is so fragrant from morning till night, a lasting and eternal fragrance. Perfect fragrance, intoxicating. I have been to many places and walked into many fruit shops, but none of them has the rich fruit fragrance of this fruit shop. The smell of this fruit shop often reminds me and will never forget it. ?

Later, Wang Zengqi often told people about a snack called pink salt beans in Jiangyin. Send the soybean to half an inch, add salt and stir-fry until it is crisp, chew it in one bite, and turn it into a mouthful of fine powder, which tastes as delicious as fennel beans in Kong Yiji. Wang Zengqi recalled his middle school career: it was a special taste to sit in the study room, drinking water, eating beans and reading Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji's words. I studied in Jiangyin Nanjing Middle School for two years, and this is how I spent my Sunday. ?

1937-1946: Kunming? War-torn years

1937, Japanese invasion. Wang Zengqi, who had not finished high school, had to bid farewell to Jiangyin and study in Huai 'an, Yangzhou and Yancheng. Finally, he came to Kunming from Shanghai via Hongkong and Vietnam, and was admitted to China Literature Department of National Southwest Associated University as his first choice. After graduation, I stayed in Kunming as a middle school Chinese teacher.

Many years later, Wang Zengqi wrote in an article entitled "New School Building" that a writer and professor who once taught at National Southwest Associated University gave lectures in the United States. The American asked him, why did National Southwest Associated University cultivate so many talents after eight years of poor equipment and poor life for professors and students? There are more talents in Peking University, Tsinghua and Nankai than in the past 30 years. Why? The writer answered two words: freedom. ?

Kunming has brought great influence to Wang Zengqi in recent years. At that time, he just worked and formed a real world outlook. He said: I learned to eat spicy food in Kunming. I used to burn green peppers on the fire with several Guizhou classmates and drink them with salt water. ?

A frail young man who is used to eating sweets in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has made such a big change. It is conceivable that the taste of Yunnan influenced Wang Zengqi's diet view for the rest of his life.

In Yunnan cuisine, Wang Zengqi's favorite may be ham. What's the best? Money legs? That is, the part where the leg is sliced to the elbow, which is lean meat, surrounded by fat, and has a thin skin. Steamed chicken with cloud legs as an auxiliary material was praised by Wang Zengqi. The first way for China people to eat chicken? .

Wang Zengqi, who ranks first in the world with steamed chicken, as well as sugar-fried chestnuts, ham moon cakes and even the most common scrambled eggs in Kunming, are more delicious than other places.

Rice noodles and bait blocks are snacks made of rice noodles that imitate pasta in the southwest where it is difficult to grow wheat. Wang Zengqi admired them? White, slippery and soft? Compared with noodles and acne, it has a different taste.

As for dairy products in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Wang Zengqi also mentioned many times that there are milk skins called milk powder silk and milk tofu called milk cake. He studied with interest that these foods may have originated from the changes of Mongolian times? Mongolian dairy products are only used to match milk tea, while Yunnan dairy products are used as dishes. ? This vision of observing the origin and development of food in the historical and geographical background may lay the foundation for Wang Zengqi to become a gourmet in the future.

During the UN General Assembly, Wang Zengqi (middle)

1946-1948: Shanghai? The most unforgettable Jiangnan

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Zengqi returned to the mainland to look for a job. His first stops were Paris and Shanghai in the East.

Actually, Shanghai is not far from Gaoyou, Wang Zengqi's hometown. Regardless of local customs and eating habits, he stayed in Yunnan for nearly ten years and felt very used to it. Represented by Shanghai, many Jiangnan cuisines, including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and Wuxi, are also remembered by Wang Zengqi and regarded as classic cuisines.

For example, what is the first sentence of his article about eating elbows? Rock sugar elbow, braised elbow, Dongpo elbow, pot-cooked elbow, Sichuan watercress elbow, as long as it is an elbow. ?

In Wang Zengqi's eyes, there are Jiangnan cuisines in all seasons. In spring, you should eat the newly picked shepherd's purse Malantou Gouqi Tou, in early summer, you should eat fat pond fish, and in autumn, you should shoot wild ducks. It is best to cut into pieces and braise in soy sauce, and there are fresh pickled cabbage in winter, which is thin, tender, crisp and sweet.

Tofu mixed with tofu, praised by Wang Zengqi as the top grade of tofu, is a home-cooked dish that everyone in Jianghuai area can cook. Toona sinensis is slightly hot in water and its stem turns green. Rub salt and chop, mix in tofu and add sesame oil. ? One entrance, three springs. ?

Wang Zengqi and Shen Congwen (right)

1948: Beijing? A place suitable for life

1948, Wang Zengqi came to Beiping to reunite with his lovestruck fiancee. After being idle for half a year, he finally found a job and settled down. Beijing, the ancient capital, became the place where he settled for the rest of his life and the city where he stayed for the longest time in his life.

Wang Zengqi's feelings for Beijing are complicated. Too many stories happened here in his life. Although he often despises the delicious food here, he said that the salted duck eggs in Beijing? Protein is like a lime, but the yolk is yellow? . However, the various flavors of Beijing are probably one of the reasons why Wang Zengqi settled here.

Are you online? The Beijing barbecue on the scorpion table is one of the most beautiful oily meats written by Wang Zengqi. This nomadic people from the north eat it by taking a disk nailed with iron bars and burning large pieces of firewood, pine trees or fruit trees under it. Cut the beef and mutton into thin slices and spread them evenly with long chopsticks for roasting. Wang Zengqi said this kind of food? Eating meat while drinking white wine is a bit arrogant. The room is full of barbecues, and this atmosphere can greatly increase people's appetite. ?

All kinds of vegetables in Beijing also have their own characteristics, such as crisp and sweet radish, lentils suitable for cold salad, frying and braising in soy sauce, chestnuts with thin shells and addictive bean juice, all of which are delicious under Wang Zengqi's pen.

Wang Zengqi also likes the way Beijing people drink tea. Compared with tea houses in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces? Take it? No, Beijingers, rich or poor, have to get up early to have tea. Have a comfortable day after drinking tea? . Wang Zengqi said that he couldn't get used to the scented tea in Beijing, but he couldn't forget the scented tea he drank at Mr. Lao She's house.

Wang Zengqi's family portrait

1958-196 1 year: Zhangjiakou? Fun in the valley

1958, Wang Zengqi was classified as a rightist and sent to work in the Shalingzi Agricultural Science Research Institute in Zhangjiakou. This is one of the low points in his life, but in the photos left today, his smile is the brightest during this time.

Is this an old China scholar? Poverty is immune? A typical portrayal of.

Potatoes are the food that Wang Zengqi ate the most at this stage and wrote the most later. He also drew a potato atlas at the local potato research station, but the draft was destroyed. Cultural Revolution? Medium.

Wang Zengqi certainly won't let go of the mushrooms named after Zhangjiakou. He picked white mushrooms himself and went back to Beijing to make soup. The children drank it and said it was fresher than chicken soup.

Zhangjiakou is close to Shanxi, and there are also naked oats noodles with Shanxi flavor. Wang Zengqi praised the best noodles in the area? Thinner than white flour, still white? .

In addition, Zhangjiakou is also adjacent to Inner Mongolia. Mongolian milk tea, hand-grabbed meat, steamed meat and shredded sheep tail are all flavors mentioned by Wang Zengqi on various occasions. ? The spun sheep's tail is covered with a brittle shell and has been bitten. It seems that there is nothing in it. A bag of clean water melted the sheep tail oil. This thing is only suitable for Buddha to eat, but people can't eat it because it's so delicious! ?

1987: America? Another vision

1987 10 at the invitation of angel and Nie Hualing, Wang Zengqi went to the United States to participate in international writing activities, which lasted more than three months.

Nie Hualing and her husband Paul? angel

In his letter to his wife during his stay in America, he spent half his time talking about cooking and eating. He personally wrapped jiaozi and made fish-flavored shredded pork for American students. Making cabbage meatball soup, mixing celery, cooking dried silk and cooking beef for overseas Chinese friends won favorable comments; Taste Chinese tea eggs, mixed lentils, potato chips, peanuts and Luzhou Daqu with American writers.

After returning from the United States, Wang Zengqi's enthusiasm for cooking continued to rise, and many of them were original and delicious, such as Chinese hamburger and fried dough sticks. Hook your forefinger: Fried dough sticks are particularly brittle and can really move ten miles when chewed.

Broaden your horizons and combine Chinese and western cultures. If Wang Zengqi was a gluttonous person when he was young, then after he came back from America, he became a delicious practitioner who could really write lyrics and go into the kitchen.

Wang Zengqi loved cooking in his later years.

1989: Fujian? Son-in-law of Shanhai Zhiwei

Before liberation, when Wang Zengqi was teaching in Kunming, he met Shi, who also taught in Kunming and later became a reporter of Xinhua News Agency.

The two young people soon fell in love and became lifelong companions. Shi is a native of Changle, Fujian, and his father is an overseas Chinese leader in Nanyang. Although Wang Zengqi didn't have the opportunity to accompany his wife back to her hometown in a special era, he stayed with her all his life and is still influenced by Fujian's eating habits.

1989 Wang Zengqi visited Fujian for the first time. Fujian son-in-law finally came to his wife's hometown when he was nearly seventy years old. He knows the mountains and seas there like the back of his hand.

Faced with all kinds of delicious food, the old man can't help but move his index finger: delicious fried oysters, fresh soup with stone tongue, delicious mud clams; In short, there is nothing in the mountain that he doesn't eat. He wrote it? I eat granola without any seasoning, and I peel it off and eat it in my mouth. I don't eat much. I just taste everything with a few pieces. Eating mud clams makes your appetite big. A large plate of mud clams made me eat a small part by myself, and the shells in front of me piled up into a hill, which I haven't finished yet. Eating mud clams and drinking hot yellow wine is a rare life. Raise a glass to thank the host and say, this is seafood!

Wang Zengqi and his wife Shi used to be Xinhua News Agency reporters.

1992: Sichuan? Make up the last lesson of China's cooking.

Sichuan cuisine is one of the important sources of Chinese cuisine, but Wang Zengqi has never been to Sichuan personally. When I wrote Sichuan food in my early years, I ate it in Kunming, Shanghai and Beijing. He himself said: the Sichuan flavor of foreign Sichuan cuisine has faded, otherwise the locals can't stand it.

Until 1992, 72-year-old Wang Zengqi finally came to Sichuan. In his later Miscellanies of Sichuan, he described in detail the northern hot springs in Chengdu, Meishan, Leshan, Hongchunping and Chongqing, as well as Dazu Sichuan cuisine. Finish the last lesson of food geography in China.

Sichuan food is still spicy. ? It is Wang Zengqi's most concentrated understanding of Sichuan style. He described the red pepper dumplings in Sichuan as follows: Chop the lean meat and fill it with salt, ginger and onion. There is a layer of red Chili oil floating in the bowl, and glutinous rice balls are eaten in the mouth. It's all waxy, spicy and particularly tasty. ?

Wang Zengqi's 76-year-old family portrait

1997: Go to another world and taste more delicious food.

1997 May 16, Wang Zengqi said to his daughter: Give me a cup of green and bright Longjing! ? He died before Longjing was served. He left behind 6,543,800+5,000 words of works depicting delicious food, as well as a grand and subtle understanding of China's food culture pedigree.

For Wang Zengqi, the meaning of diet is the mutual gift between the writer and the land; For latecomers, diet is a door to insight into the evolution of time and space.

As the old man said: I advise you not to be too narrow-minded Try everything! ?