Changde City is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Hunan Province and a sub-central city of Hunan Province. It has the title of "International Wetland City". Below is a collection of Changde food and proverbs that I collected. I hope you like them.
Changde has been known as the "land of plenty" since ancient times. The unique food resources make Changde's food unique in terms of preparation methods. Whether it is stewed, stir-fried, braised, deep-fried, braised, or steamed, roasted, drunk, broiled, or steamed, it can all reflect the strong Changde characteristics. Food proverbs, folk songs and folk songs that accompany it are everywhere. It originates from life, reveals life, is easy to understand and easy to remember, and is widely circulated on both sides of the Yuanli River.
"The drums of the steaming bowl are rattling, and I don't want to be the prince's consort in the court." This proverb fully reflects the characteristics of Changde cuisine. In the eyes of Changde people, there is no banquet without a steaming bowl stove. Whether it is the severe winter when dripping water turns into ice, or the scorching sun in midsummer, Changde people have a rattling and steaming hot pot on their dining tables. Changde cuisine, which advocates hot pot, pays attention to the word "hot", so Changde has a proverb of "one hot and three delicacies" and "thousands of tofu stews and ten thousand fish stews". Spicy is another characteristic of Changde cuisine, so ginger, garlic and chili are indispensable as seasonings. However, these are too pungent and will make people uncomfortable if they eat too much. As the saying goes, "Ginger is spicy in the mouth, garlic is spicy in the heart, and chili pepper is too spicy to be cooked." The proverb "sound" came into being.
"In the first month, mud, in February, mugwort, in March and April, they are used as firewood." Artemisia is a wild vegetable that people in Changde love to eat. During the first lunar month, its young shoots are in the soil and are delicious to eat, so it is called Artemisia. Once it is unearthed after this period, it is no longer Artemisia. There are many other proverbs like this that reflect the best harvesting and growing seasons of Changde's dietary resources, such as "Spring catfish, summer carp, autumn crucian carp, and winter bream", "Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer without a doctor's prescription", "Thirty-year-old radish" , roots grow on the first day of the lunar month," "Three months of vegetables are like horse grass," especially the folk proverbs of "three years for peaches and five years for tangerines, and loquats until one's eyes roll", which may remind many people of their childhood memories. , watching the adults planting fruit trees one after another, hoping that they will bear delicious fruits tomorrow.
"The fish jumps when eating, and the pig cries when eating." Legend has it that the mouth of the braised carp cooked by a master chef with excellent cooking skills was still squirming when it was brought to the table. Its taste is indescribably fresh and tender. Different materials give people different tastes, and different parts of the same material give people different feelings. "Fish head and meat tail, flying rabbit", "fish skin, egg edges, minced tofu, etc." The soup in the bay is delicious", "Only fish larvae, mandarin fish flowers, crucian carp head does not spit out residue", these proverbs tell this truth.
The proverb "When buying meat, you need fat, and when you eat meat, you need leanness." This proverb expresses the dilemma of the poor people who want fat meat for oil production, but also want lean meat for cooking. It's really a bit bearish. It means that both the palm and the fish want to have both. Under the influence of Changde's food atmosphere, Changde people have formed their own food views on how to eat and what to eat. "If there is fish in the house, eat more grain" and "Ginger in the morning and radish in the evening". This is the self-sufficiency of the lakeside water town. A portrayal of the life of small farmers, these folk proverbs make the image of Changde gourmets as smart, elegant and free and easy come to life on the page.
"Boiling sugar and beating tofu, each is his own master." Like this food proverb, there are many food proverbs in Changde that use eating as a metaphor, such as: "Everyone has his or her own preference for radish, salt, and vegetables." Wrapping water chestnuts, everyone wants to get ahead", "Killing pigs and sheep, the cook tastes it first", "You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry", "Tofu falls into the ashes, you can't pat it, you can't hit it", "It tastes like a small bet" , "Sit on the ground and eat in the sky", "People are coaxing the land, and the land is coaxing the belly", "Fish in the river and eat in the river", "Eat less and enjoy more", "Broad beans are blooming, wild watermelons are blooming, and cowhide lanterns are not bad either (all are black-hearted)", " There is no banquet without wine, there is no color, the road is deserted and there are few people,” and so on. These proverbs provide reasoning, exhortation, and revelation. Changde people's understanding of life can be seen from their diet.
"Beat and scum push daddy, and laugh during the New Year and festivals." Changde’s food folk songs and ballads are also very interesting.
In the East Peak area of ??Shimen County, the mountains are high and the roads are dangerous. People here call smoking cigarettes and drinking cigarettes. The mountain smoke is covered with white flowers. When you want to drink, you peel off a few tobacco leaves and roll a trumpet. They jokingly call it Orchid smoke. Roast a few potatoes in the fire pit and you'll make the day. Some people's houses are ventilated on all sides, and people move around with the wind when warming themselves by the fire. Although they are poor, they are cheerful and optimistic by nature. The song "Living on the top of a high mountain, drinking orchid smoke, eating potato fruits, and roasting them over the fire" is a portrayal of their life and character. "A married man should marry a man with a beard, and there is beeswax in his beard. The mouth he kissed in June last year will still smell good in this hot weather this year." This love song spread in Shimen and Sangzhi areas is also related to eating. "The lotus falls, the lotus falls, and the pancake is fried under the lotus. The pancake is fried until both sides are yellow, and it is used as lard and sugar." The scene of pancake frying is so romantic and poetic in this folk song.
"The wine from Deshan, the sugar from Zoushi, and the deep-fried dough sticks from Hea are all lined up." In addition to Deshan's wine, Zoushi's osmanthus candy and He'a's fried dough sticks have all declined, but this folk proverb can strongly evoke people's memories of the past. There is also a proverb that praises local products such as "The poplar board is thousands of feet long, the mouth is dry, and the peppers that are pruning the plum are beating the drum." The dryness of Hekou here refers to oil. We can see how famous Hekou oil is from the fact that Hekou oil has become a major industry of the listed company Jinjian Rice Industry.
Expansion
Changde City is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Hunan Province and a sub-central city in Hunan Province. It has the title of "International Wetland City".
In the Qin Dynasty, Changde belonged to Qianzhong County, and the county government was located in Linyuan County. [1] In the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu took the meaning of "stopping the war to become a force, and Gaoping to be a mausoleum", and changed the central Guizhou County to Wuling County, which was subordinate to the Jingzhou Governor's Department. In 1988, Changde District was abolished and Changde City under provincial jurisdiction was established. Changde is one of the core cities in the ecological economic circle around Dongting Lake and one of the 35 Changde-Zhuzhou-Tanzhou urban agglomerations. Changde has a mid-subtropical humid monsoon climate. Its famous scenic spots include Peach Blossom Spring, Jiashan Temple, Huping Mountain, Liuye Lake, etc.