Netizens jokingly listed Su Shi's "masterpieces" on Weibo, including Dongpo pork elbow, Dongpo pork, Dongpo soup, Dongpo siomai... which attracted a lot of knowing laughter. There is probably no literary giant like Dongpo who has been regarded as the "inventor" of so many kinds of delicacies after his death. In fact, you might as well borrow the name of Dongpo for the same dreamy and elegant food, and call it "Dongpo Fried Peony".

Pulling off the petals of flowers and frying them piece by piece as a spring delicacy sounds like a fictional detail in a novel, but Su Dongpo did have two poems about this. practice. One is "Looking at Peonies in the Rain": "If I can't bear the dirt and mud, the cows will be fried and the pistils will fall off." The other is "Looking at Peonies in the Rain on Mingqing": "The flowers will not grow old in the spring tomorrow, so I won't be able to bear the crispy fried pistils." . ”

Of course, according to ancient records, layman Dongpo was not the first to fry peonies. There is an article about "fried peonies" in Zhu Mu's "Ancient and Modern Shi Wen Lei Ju" of the Song Dynasty, which quoted an anecdote: During the Meng and Shu Dynasties, Li Hao, Minister of the Ministry of War, would divide several peony branches among his friends to promote peace and prosperity. As a gift, he said: "When the flowers wither, fry them and eat them without discarding the beautiful flowers." Such is his elegance and preciousness. ("Fu Zhai Man Lu")

According to it, during the Five Dynasties in Western Shu, when the peonies were in full bloom, Li Hao, Minister of the Ministry of War, not only sent many flowers to each of his friends, but also At the same time, he presented high-quality cow butter and asked: "When the peonies are about to wither, fry them in butter and eat them. Don't let such a gorgeous flower suffer the fate of being abandoned!" In this way, during the Five Dynasties, The method of frying peony flower slices has already appeared, and even if Li Hao is not the inventor, he is an active advocate.

In any case, Su Dongpo mentioned "fried peony" twice in his poem, which shows that he was quite fond of this wonderful fried food. It is worth noting that Wu Zeng, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, cited Qiu Jun's "Peony's Honor and Disgrace" in his book "Neng Gai Zhai Man Lu". One of the items in "Huatun Difficulties" is "fried wheat rice", that is to say, the After the peony flower slices are fried in butter and turned into snacks, they are used like pickles to go with whole-grain rice. In the opinion of the author of "The Honor and Disgrace of Peony", such an approach is as disastrous to peony as wearing flowers on one's head when going to the toilet, or sitting around in front of flowers fighting over tea and drinking alcohol. Since this argument appears, it is obvious that fried peony did exist in the Song Dynasty and was a popular delicacy among elegant people. Therefore, Dongpo's poem is not a fabrication. He and his colleagues really fried the slightly withered flower pieces and tasted them.

The "Shan Jia Qing Gong" written by Lin Hong of the Song Dynasty also mentioned that in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Empress Dowager Wu liked to "wrap peony petals" with micro flour and knead them until crispy. The book also introduces a "Gardenia Jian", which is to blanch large gardenia slices with hot water, dry them until they are slightly dry, wrap them in a thin batter made with licorice water, and fry them in oil. It is said that It tastes "fragrant and lovely".

In fact, by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, fried flower slices were a very popular snack and were not uncommon. Wang Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty specifically mentioned in his article "Yanshan Garden" that "five magnolias were planted on the left and right in front of the "Yanshan Hall". When they bloom, they look like snow-capped mountains and Qiongdao. They are picked and fried" - directly from the front of the study The fresh blooming petals are picked from the magnolia tree and sent to the kitchen to be fried immediately. The finished product is "crispy and fragrant". According to the famous cookbook "Tiao Ding Ji" from the Qing Dynasty, the specific method of frying magnolia petals is "doughing, frying, and adding sugar." After coating in dough and frying, it is also sprinkled with powdered sugar. Similarly, peony petals can also be "dried in flour and fried", and there are also fried hostas and fried lotus flowers.

According to literature records, everything from gardenias to magnolias can be fried in vegetable oil - vegetable oil. But in the Song Dynasty, fried peony slices relied on "beef crispy". The so-called beef cake is to let the boiled milk cool down, peel off the layer of milk skin condensed on the surface, and fry it into oil. There must be some reason for using such fat oil to fry blooming peonies.

Presumably, the taste and texture of beef fried snacks should be close to today's butter fried snacks. Perhaps, someone can restore the "Beef Crispy Fried Peony Slices" according to the ancient method of the Song Dynasty, and then name it "Dongpo Fried Peony", so that gourmets can not only eat it all over the world, but also travel through the past and present.