My friend brought me a copy of The Best in the World the other day, saying that I would like it.
When reading the first few articles, be sure to read them before, but I can't remember when and where I read them. This feeling is like meeting an acquaintance who knows the root of the matter, and then turning it out is like catching up with the past.
The author is Chen Xiaoqing, the director of China on the Tip of the Tongue. A talented and serious gourmet. His description of food is appropriate and nuanced, and you have to feel that some people are born with a keen sense of taste and can eat. And he took the other two. He can write and shoot. This book is not only about food, but also full of human fireworks and feelings.
He is also from Anhui, and I have read many familiar contents in books.
The first is sauce. "The juice in the jar, we call it bean paste. Just out of the pot, open the door curtain and put a spoonful of soy sauce in the middle, which is hot and fragrant. " After reading this, what comes to mind is the scene of putting soy sauce on steamed bread when I was a child. I haven't eaten for years. Haitian soy sauce on the market is slightly sweet and mild, like a sensible child who knows how to satisfy the tastes of the public. And when I was a child, I ate soy beans, and every family had the taste of every family. Salty and spicy, spicy and spicy.
At that time, I was full of curiosity when I saw adults drying soy sauce beans. Can so many molds eat beans? I really don't want to touch it. But when you put them in the jar, put all kinds of materials, put watermelon instead of water, cover them with white cloth and dry them for so many days, you can put some in the pot and stir fry them. The rich and mellow fragrance can easily capture people's hearts.
Followed by noodles. People in Chen Xiaoqing like noodles very much, while people in the north are generally used to eating noodles. His hometown is Lingbi, Anhui, which is neither south nor north. I also met the same interesting thing as him. In the north, I am called a southerner, and in the south, I am also called a northerner. He quoted a poem written by a man in his book, which is said to have drugged more than 80% of Anhui people.
Some people say that she is from the south, while others say that she is from the north. The south and the north sat hand in hand on the bank of Huaihe River, and I was really drugged.
Seeing his infatuation with the street also aroused my feelings for the street. Grandma's noodles are called noodles. My experience with noodles is that you can't eat authentic noodles outside that place. At most, the soup tastes the same. The board is like a rough northern man, oily and salty, which can be matched with braised chicken feet, braised chicken head, braised bean skin and tea eggs. It is thick and chewy. With a big bowl of enamel, it tastes authentic. After eating, the lips often swell, like a layer of oil.
I think of a noodle restaurant in the west gate of high school. The store is so small that tall people have to bow their heads to get in. There are rows of small tables in it, little Mazar. As soon as school is over, people are full. I remember that at that time, his family had two bowls of 5 1, and the heads of chickens and feet of chickens were fifty cents. Now that place is probably demolished, this little fly house will either expand its storefront or disappear. When I go back, I want to find an authentic noodle restaurant near the school and add two chicken feet.
Chen Xiaoqing writes about taste, but he often writes a current event and an acquaintance at the end of the article, which makes people smile.
When his friend was writing "Baita Temple Toilet Community", he imagined that Baita Temple would develop in this way and become a representative place of food culture hundreds of years later. At the end of the article, Chen Xiaoqing quipped that it would take hundreds of years. Maybe 20 years later, the Beijing municipal government will decide to rebuild a hot pot street. Dismantle it first, then find it inappropriate, and then restore it with photos-anyway, we have a good system and a lot of money.
When he wrote about going to a Hunan restaurant with good taste but poor service attitude, he said that it was rude to have such delicious food. He told this truth to the old six who read the library, and the old six began the ultimate thinking: according to this theory, is the best restaurant difficult ... to be opened by the city management?
What he wrote about eating hot pot is very interesting. Not only in taste, but also in the relationship between people. Eating at his place is not only eating, but also caring.
"If you like a person, you might as well find a hot pot restaurant with a bottom two hours in advance and get fired early. Imagine Pixian watercress, onion, ginger, garlic cloves, tsaoko, clove, pepper and pepper are constantly fully blended and simmered, waiting for that person to eat ... Of course, that person must be a person who really likes to eat, and the purpose of your meal, so that you can enjoy a caring life while enjoying the food.
This passage is enough to make people imagine a scene. He sat in front of the glug hot pot, looked at the rolling soup base, and wondered how the flavors of the bottom materials were intertwined, secretly hoping that the man could come over and help each other in front of the hot pot.
He doesn't like those meals that are for profit.
"I really admire the scenes of those people in officialdom, shopping malls and vanity fair. Despite the disharmony between face and heart, I still want to sit at the table happily for the benefit. At this time, eating is no longer a procedure for eating, but a social etiquette. "
He likes small restaurants hidden in the corner and scattered everywhere. The food described in the book is really attractive. The description of family and friendship is humorous and interesting, and it is also worth experiencing.
"The table is in the yard, and the lamppost next to it is covered with small advertisements for renting houses. The banner of Chuangwen is wrapped around the branches of Sophora japonica, and residents who are drying clothes pass by from time to time ... I like to eat in this environment, the breeze blows, and occasionally a few autumn leaves fall. The air is filled with the smell of sour bamboo shoots, which is a charming human fireworks atmosphere. "
I like this "best in the world". When I looked at it, I couldn't help laughing.
Recently, I read Teacher Chen's "The Best in the World", and I felt some feelings, so I started writing again.
From my freshman year, I went back to my hometown every winter and summer vacation or National Day holiday. Now I graduated from college, worked in Guangzhou, and went home to accompany my parents for a short time. Therefore, whenever Mr. Chen mentions the delicious food in his hometown, the taste of childhood, and the "treasure hunt" with his son in the streets, he will inevitably miss home. And these "homesickness" are materialized, that is, hot tofu balls made by my mother, drenched with sesame oil produced by a small factory in my hometown, which is called a fragrance ~
Besides tofu jiaozi, there is also a summer dish, which is also my favorite. In my memory, every summer vacation, my mother will find my favorite tender pumpkin, round and blue, which is not yet mature, cut into small squares and fry it in an iron pot with green peppers. I can eat two bowls of rice as soon as this dish is served. This is the highest honor for me to eat a bowl of rice forever.
Teacher Chen said that he didn't remember what his parents liked to eat, but their parents always knew what we liked to eat. This is a bit poked. Come to think of it, does my mother like fish best? Does my father like beef best? What is specific and how to do it can only be learned from grandparents and grandparents.
It is repeatedly mentioned in the book that people's taste preferences will be formed when they are young and deeply rooted. Just like Mr. Chen is an Anhui native who has lived in Beijing for more than 20 years, all he cares about is the radish, soup and dried bean curd in his hometown. For myself, I have lived for more than 20 years and eaten some delicious food. However, apart from hot pot, what I miss in my heart is definitely hometown food. Now there are Hunan restaurants and Sichuan restaurants everywhere, but it's really not easy to eat hubei cuisine. One day, I was greedy and couldn't help calling my mother to say that I missed the lotus root soup at home. My mother suddenly realized that lotus root soup would be frozen and packaged into ice packs, and then it would be delivered to me by SF Express. ...
Several friends around me are from Hunan. Eating with them, about Cantonese food, Japanese food or seafood, is definitely not cool enough. To really make them eat well, it must be spicy and "heavy". It's right to think about it. From small to large, almost every dish will put green pepper, red pepper or millet pepper. When I came to Guangdong, how did the freshness and delicacy of Cantonese cuisine impress their fiery stomachs?
Let's talk about people again. Teacher Chen is very likable and humorous. He never thinks about what to eat or how to order after him. He is simply a good friend for dinner. Like Lu Xun, Teacher Chen also said the concept of "cannibalism". "The most important thing about a meal is not what to eat, where to eat, but who to eat with." If you think about it carefully, it is the essence of eating. Teacher Chen has a group of friends to eat together. Their dinner is called "dinner for the elderly". I'm thinking, do you want to organize a "girl's heart never dies, gossip never dies" dinner. Ha, it seems that the name is a bit long. The temptation to throw a cup of taro milk tea is sincerely collected from everyone.
I racked my brains to find a richer meal. I remember when I was in primary school, my grandmother cooked braised prawns, edamame, preserved eggs mixed with tofu and fried lotus roots. In the evening, grandpa set a small table outside the door, and all the dishes were crowded on this small table. The whole family sat around, enjoying the cool while eating. This is the smell of childhood and summer.
There is also a kind of "farewell meal", which is called "farewell meal" in universities. When I think of classes, departments and clubs, I really can't remember what we ate in those nights. I only remember that I was obviously not drunk, but my mood was either extremely excited or extremely sad, and a member began to cry. Then the tears of this meal are inevitable, and there are never enough tissues in the bag. The story of "I'll never see you again" began at the dinner, which is a salty taste of youth.
Some time ago, I watched a food documentary called Journey to the Unknown, which was about Vietnamese food. Just in September, I took my annual leave and went to Vietnam with my friends. I ate the same paragraph of the presidential package in the film, and I also ate a lot of Vietnamese powder and spring rolls. The most unforgettable meal was that we walked around B&B and found several barbecue shops with good business, all of which were local people. Sure enough, there is no English menu, and the boss and waiter don't know much English. It's okay. Just bite the bullet. If there is a map, click on it. If there is no map, there is no direct blind spot. After ordering, we waited for our delicious food with great expectation.
Vietnamese restaurants are very interesting. Unlike us, everyone likes to sit facing the road, sitting on the same side and facing the road. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, watch motorcycles come and go, and talk about some irrelevant topics, two words-cozy. When the food was served, we began to open our mouths. I didn't expect every one to be delicious. Some things don't know what they are from the beginning to the stomach. Haha, I'm curious too. After eating half full, a Vietnamese father and daughter passing by greeted us warmly and smiled. This scene has been stuck in this meal and has become the unique taste of my trip to Vietnam in my memory.
To taste the experience of reading in the world 3. Quoting a sentence from "master copywriter" Wong Kar-wai as the title is a tribute to the general director of China on the Tip of the Tongue.
This Chen Xiaoqing is that Chen Xiaoqing, not that Chen Xiaoqing.
When I signed the book, I said "thank you" to Mr. Chen. He probably just gave me a polite "thank you". He thanked me for coming and supporting me, but I thanked him for shooting a documentary about a nation like Tongtou and sharing a real Chen Xiaoqing.
There are not many people on the scene. Perhaps in Guangzhou, the capital of food, everyone is a gourmet, and there is no need for outsiders to tell the code of food interpretation. Of course, most people are book eaters.
The name of teacher Chen's lecture is Everyone is a Gourmet. In fact, this sentence looks different in Guangdong Province, which is an insult to other provinces, but now the fact is that other provinces have never risen to the level of gourmets outside Guangdong Province.
First of all, about eating this big thing
It is true that the most delicious food must be the taste of mother. Anthony became a gourmet in A Night with Anthony, and he couldn't escape the delicious food in Dalian. But this smell will only come to mind after leaving home. I always feel tired eating at home. There will be many delicious dishes in the world. I always miss a bowl of porridge, a meal and the time to eat with my family in the later days. In fact, we are all from eat drink man woman, and we can't escape the war with our stomachs.
The three ultimate propositions of eating "what to eat, where to eat, and who to eat with" are particularly important.
Everyone has his own taste bud map, and even if he goes to the ends of the earth, he still eats what he likes.
Finding a restaurant that suits your taste is like winning the lottery.
There is a saying in Cantonese that "love is all water", which is limited to first love. After the family life of daily necessities, I don't look for food everywhere.
Second, eat alone.
Since the emergence of another species in the world-single dog, there has been a "one-person" eating method in the gourmet rivers and lakes. Many food apps even print the words "Lonely people have to eat enough". Liu Tong, the best-selling author, conveyed a kind of warmth to single dog in the whole book "Your Loneliness, Although Defeated":
Maybe you are still eating alone/watching movies alone/sleeping alone/taking the subway alone.
But you can eat alone/watch movies alone/sleep alone/take the subway alone.
Many people leave another person/lose themselves/you spend all by yourself.
A person should also eat well and often tell his father. Eating at home can't be fooled. Mom doesn't have time to cook. She should eat something good. After graduation, I worked in Guangzhou and lived alone. Besides eating with colleagues at work, I often cook by myself on weekends. It's not delicious, but it tastes like home. Stewed eggplant with potatoes, stewed potatoes with beans and sauerkraut, yes, I can only stew them in disorder. We northeastern people have made this stew to the extreme.
Have a good meal and tell it to all people who are single or alone.