But when you saw the picture, you must have realized, oh, this is the ground loop? Even, you are still a little big disappointment, this is not just a common vegetable I have eaten? What's so great about it?
What makes you so curious and so disappointed is the beauty of the ground loop.
Actually, I didn't know it was called ground loop until I just asked the lady of the hour, and before that, I only knew it was called luscious, and we call it luscious here. I don't know if that's the right word. I wanted to write "Ruth", but I was afraid that people would think I was writing about the heroine of "Titanic".
We call this vegetable Lu Si, its scientific name is called the ring, another "pagoda vegetable, screw vegetable, manna child, ground gourd, the bullock, grass stone silkworm" and so on. I think these names are very graphic, a little doubt that we here called "Lu Si" is not because the first introduced the wrong name, think this name is like a bird name (cormorant) or a person's name (Lu Si). But I can't prove it, but it's a convention, and everyone calls it that.
My mother planted a ground loop in the flower bed on the top floor. It is bought to eat the rest of a small handful of ground loop, mother buried them in the soil, I did not expect them to grow tenaciously, from a few seedlings into a lush plant, the leaves are green, more and more growth, occupying the edges of the terrace, until the winter withered down in the roots of the knot a lot of ground loop.
When I went back to my hometown, I was with my mother on the top floor to collect the drying clothes. My mother asked me if I wanted Luce, I said no, hard to wash very much. Mother said this is not like buying, it is very good to wash. Mother said while looking for a hoe, go to the flowerbed to dig the ground loop. The ground ring plant has dried up, lying in the ground. A hoe down, revealing the white body of the ground ring, such as a fat silkworm, such as a white screw, but also as a horizontal pagoda. Pick them up, and received water, wash them clean.
The two ends of the ground ring is pointed, the center is composed of one after another screw ring, ring and ring junction with the soil attached, need to use a clean toothbrush repeatedly brush to brush off the soil.
The cleaned rings are crystal clear, as white as lilies, as crystalline as rakkyo, as tender as snowdrops, and taste sweet and crunchy. But it's not tasty raw, it's better fried.
When frying, first put the cleaned ground loop in the water to boil for a while, fish out and drain, accompanied by cattle dry bar and dried chili together to fry. After frying, the ground ring is noodle and fragrant, is a refreshing dish.
In the past, when my mother didn't plant the ground loop, we would always buy it in the vegetable market before the New Year. However, the market sells the ground ring is not much, mostly some village old man, with a basket or bag loaded to sell, as if their own family planted can not eat or do not want to eat before digging to sell the appearance, unlike other vegetables, each stall have, and therefore, the price is not cheap, twenty or thirty dollars a catty. The new year's eve dinner, in addition to the big fish and meat, there is a plate of clean fried ground ring, is also very popular.
A flower and a tree, a meal and a vegetable, the gift of life is so beautiful, live, and can enjoy these gifts, is a very happy thing.