Shailan, also known as "tongue orchid" or "sailan".

Due to its production characteristics, "lan" is also written as "basket".

Not to talk about its various magical and wonderful legends and allusions, I will just introduce the current popular Yuanling.

Yuanling, an ancient county in Chu, Qin and central Guizhou, has been the seat of counties, prefectures, roads, roads, government offices and administrative offices for more than 2,000 years. It has always been known as the "Gateway to Western Hunan". It is rich in mountainous resources and is popular for raising pigs.

Shalan, a delicacy originating from love.

It is said that Qianzhong County in the Qin Dynasty has beautiful mountains and rivers, simple folk customs, men are like mountains, and women are like water. A Yuanjiang River passes by the city, carrying thousands of years of Yuanshui chants.

Dongting.

Taking advantage of the well-developed waterways, most of the men here make a living by sewage.

Once a local boatman goes on a long journey, which lasts for ten and a half months, his family will prepare enough food. Carrying pork is the most annoying thing in summer. The fat meat can be boiled for oil, but what to do with the lean meat? A smart boatman's wife thought

One method I came up with is to marinate the lean meat pieces with some salt and rice wine, then place them in a bamboo basket on the boat shed to dry in the sun. The color is brown and red, which is good-looking.

When eaten, cut into thin strips and stir-fried with various seasonings, it tastes sweet, like the fragrance of orchids in the mountains, salty and spicy, unique and intriguing.

When the boatmen came out of the row, the women handed over baskets filled with meat and kept telling them to remember to dry the baskets!

Sun-basket became the name of this special dish. Later intellectuals felt that sun-basket was too vulgar, so they changed it to "Shalan".

Later generations called it Shailan, or Sailan.

Shailan was improved by a private chef named Tian five hundred years ago in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and the ingredients were more complete and the taste was better.

Sun-dried orchid can be divided into raw and cooked. The so-called raw sun-dried orchid is baked with smokeless white charcoal. It should be upright without folding and turn into brownish red.

Ripe sun-dried orchid is fried in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Sun-fried pork is a unique traditional food in Yuanling County, Hunan Province, the hometown of traditional Chinese dragon boats. It is made from local lean black pig hind legs in western Hunan, cut into slices, marinated with various natural spices, and smoked with smokeless charcoal.

Baked.

It is actually one of the favorite delicacies of people in Huaihua, Xiangxi, Zhangjiajie, Changde and other places in Hunan.

Shailan originated more than 2,000 years ago and is inextricably linked to dragon boat racing.

It developed and matured during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, more than 500 years ago.

It was first introduced from Jiangxi to Chenzhou City (today's Yuanling County). It was very popular for a while and became a famous and unique traditional dish and table treasure in western Hunan.

After the improvement, Shailan has more complete ingredients and better taste. It tastes sweet and sweet, like the fragrance of orchids in the mountains, salty and spicy, making it unique and intriguing.