The first thing to taste is Cao Xian cake. Every snack here has an old story, which makes the word "food culture" look heavy.
Since it is a fairy grass, it is naturally related to immortals. According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, a Taoist named Mei Fu came to Qizhen Rock in Changxing Village, Taining County and lived in the rock to cultivate immortality. He often collects a weed and cooks it with rice. Later, people moved the weed he often ate to a family and named it "Cao Xian". For thousands of years, every summer, Cao Xian went public, and everyone rushed to buy it. First, wash Cao Xian, add some alkaline water, put it in a pot and boil it to make soup. After the weeding residue is filtered, the rice slurry is infiltrated into it and stirred evenly, and then put into a pot to cook together, stirring while cooking until it is green and paste. After cooling and solidification, it is cut into tofu-sized cubes with a knife, which is called "Cao Xian cake". Heat it when eating, some with ginger juice and sugar, and some with garlic paste, chopped green onion and sesame oil. Eat it while it's hot. It's soft, smooth and fragrant. After eating, the whole body is cool and the summer heat disappears completely. It is a cool snack in Taining in summer and autumn. Favorite fried skin, crisp but not hard, the most chewy.
When I was a child, our family made tofu, and the delicious thing in my memory was tofu. Tofu flower (commonly known as bean brain) can be eaten every morning, which is different from ordinary tofu. The swimming bean curd here is made by soaking soybeans, grinding them, filtering them, boiling them, adding a small amount of bittern to make the protein of tofu condense into "flowers", and then putting them in a wooden frame to remove the excess water. Tofu made by this method is more tender, less rough and more delicious than tofu made of gypsum. "Tofu in China is very delicious, ranking first in the world." This is the last "superfluous words" written by Qu Qiubai in prison. Qu Qiubai's admiration for tofu is related to his frequent eating of Fujian's swimming paste tofu in prison.
When you arrive at the farmhouse, this chicken pot is essential. Another feature of Taining local chicken pot is "Jinhu Wufeng Chicken". Farmers in Taining raised this kind of chicken as early as the Song Dynasty. It is a black-bone chicken with jute flake feathers. Small in size, a cluster of silky feathers towering like a princess hat has the characteristics of "three blacks" (skin, bones and meat are all black), so it is called "black chicken" because of its beautiful appearance. This kind of chicken is an organic food with high protein and low fat, and can be eaten as a medicated diet. Its meat is tender and delicious. Locals regard it as the best delicacy, and it is used as a gift for relatives and friends or for pregnant women to nourish qi and blood.
If the chicken stew is made of red mushrooms, you are really lucky. Russula is a kind of rare wild edible fungus that grows in the original natural forest. Russula is produced in July and August every year. It is clustered or scattered on the ground in mixed forest or broad-leaved mixed forest, and it is naturally purple. Sweet and delicious after cooking, fresh and sweet in taste, not astringent or slippery when chewed carefully. According to "Datian Township Records", the little russula beside the Golden Lake went to Beijing as a tribute every year during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Russula contains more than ten kinds of essential amino acids and trace elements. It has the effects of promoting blood production, enriching blood, relaxing muscles and tendons, activating collaterals, chasing wind, reducing swelling and removing dampness. It can also prevent liver cirrhosis, lower cholesterol and fight cancer.
Be sure to go to Kanluoji to be a vegetarian when you have time. Here, everything has restored the original taste of food, and the long-lost eggplant fragrance has been smelled again. The local people also accurately found the honey brewed by wild bees and chewed it with honey juice, leaving a fragrance on their teeth and cheeks.
Among the local folk snacks, there are Jasper Roll, Assorted Oil Cake, Champion Snack, Warm Mushroom Package, Wu Jian Japonica Rice Snack and Stuffed Steamed Bread. These snacks with strong Shan Ye flavor are an excellent excuse for us to come again.
The picture shows a warm steamed stuffed bun made of mouse grass. It's almost the Dragon Boat Festival at this time, so it's time to eat steamed stuffed bun with warm mushrooms. I miss it!