I remember an article telling such a story. A China student and a foreign student watched the science and education channel together, reported the crater near Cayman Islands, and found a kind of white blind shrimp, which can withstand the high temperature of 45 degrees. The foreign student sighed, "Wow, this life is really tenacious!" China students regret to say: "This shrimp is definitely not cooked in boiling water, so it can only be fried." Of course, whether this story is humorous or funny, it shows the lofty position of eating in the minds of China people.

since ancient times, China has advocated that food is the most important thing for the people, and literature naturally plays the media role of food culture. A history of literature is also a history of food culture. Literature and food complement each other, and the latitude and longitude are orderly, which gives birth to Mr. Zhang Jiawei's new work-Is this book delicious?

1. Literature meets food, which exudes classic charm

Zhang Jiawei's "Can I Eat This Book", standing at the intersection of literature and food, has a unique way, with a brand-new meaning, from the point of view of eating, from the literary classics, through the collision of text vision and food taste, in terms of food details, it takes us to re-understand the author and works from a brand-new angle, at the same time. 3 writers, 3 works, in the interweaving of words and food, let us appreciate the life and world taste revealed from various special foods.

Literature and food are often a chance encounter, and the author writes about food for different reasons. Zhang Jiawei's book not only retells countless delicious foods, but also includes osmanthus lotus wine and bad shad in Jin Ping Mei, as well as pickled fish and bacon, bad fish ham and cloud cake in The Scholars. There are hot sesame cakes with fried mutton and old Beijing instant-boiled mutton in Camel Xiangzi, as well as mutton tongue labels and honey fried lychees in Old Stories of Wulin. There are steamed edamame and dried plum rice in Scream, and snake bone eggplant soup in Chess King. The Japanese food in Norwegian Forest is stained with Xijing and boiled with thick eggs, and the western food in The Count of Monte Cristo is arles sausage and Marseille fish soup ... Literature can show you as many flavors as there are in life, and it is stronger and more mellow. These foods are rhythmic, with the fragrance of color, smell and fragrance, but also carry the author's feelings.

second, literature and food collide, shining classic light

China's food culture has a long history and is profound. After the accumulation of historical years, it has already exceeded its own significance. China recorded food and food theory from Zuo Zhuan and The Analects of Confucius. "The Analects of Confucius and the Rural Party" has become the essence of China's food culture. Eating is a big deal. Especially in the Analects of Confucius, the word "Zheng" appeared 41 times, and "food" also appeared 41 times, 3 of which were said as "eating". Laozi's philosophy of "governing a big country is like cooking a little fresh food" and "a sage's stomach is not for the purpose" bases all his ideas on "having enough to eat" and raises eating to the same level as governing the country.

When it comes to "eating" in literary works, it means not only eating with a full stomach, but also a possession, a mentality, a trend, a lifestyle and a basic attitude towards the outside world. When we carefully interpret the delicacies described in the three famous literary works, A Dream of Red Mansions, Jin Ping Mei and The Scholars, we will find that "eating" is never simple, and people's hearts, culture, money and rights are hidden behind it, which should be the same in ancient and modern times.

A Dream of Red Mansions describes the social life in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in which the food and drink life of the aristocratic family in Jiafu is vividly portrayed. According to research, there are 36 kinds of snacks, drinks and staple foods, 58 kinds of dishes, and more than 18 kinds of total foods, forming a complete and unique set of "red chamber recipes". The food in A Dream of Red Mansions is the highest in ancient and modern times, and those ladies and gentlemen eat too much. Eating crab roast venison, pay attention to the literati's elegance, spring and snow. Eating is just a prop. Playing piano, chess, painting, calligraphy, poetry and hops are their life, while appreciating flowers and reciting poems and having an affair are the highlights.

Among the diets in Jin Ping Mei, cooked geese, roast ducks, hooves, spareribs and fresh fish are the most frequent. They are purely common ways to eat, and they are grounded and have no sense of separation. At least you will feel hungry when reading them. There are more than 2 kinds of famous foods (staple food, dishes, snacks, dried and fresh fruits, etc.). There are 19 kinds of tea, 734 tea characters and 234 tea drinking scenes. There are 24 kinds of wine, 225 characters of wine and 247 drinking scenes. In contrast, there are only 15 descriptions of men and women in the novel. "Full and lust", that's true.

Eating in The Scholars is different from the heroic and bloody in The Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin. It is also different from the wealth and elegance of A Dream of Red Mansions. Most of them are common ingredients and eating methods in life, full of human fireworks. In this fireworks, "eating" has done everything in life, and the world is cold. This is a far cry from the noble family in A Dream of Red Mansions, which eats culture and tastes. In the eating of The Scholars, the poor only want to be full, while the expensive eat ostentation and extravagance. In The Scholars, an official and gentleman's "right-to-right" wedding, in which the rich diet and various famous places make modern people marvel. Zhang Ailing, a talented woman in the Republic of China, once said: "The old lady of Xiangfu (Li Hongzhang) family, watching The Scholars is just to eat!"

Of course, the banquet in Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo is even more luxurious than the banquet in China. Fish and seafood are produced in the Aegean Sea, Asia Minor and the Cape of Good Hope respectively. Fluttershy mackerel comes from the Volga River in St. Petersburg, and blue eel comes from Lake Fusale in Naples ... and they are all fresh. In that era of underdeveloped transportation, it is hard to imagine that these ingredients can be gathered together, just like the World Seafood Expo. Dumas' low-key luxury pushed his romantic style to a new height.

Third, the fusion of literature and food inspired the classic connotation.

Historically, the catering industry in China had a great prosperity in the "Kanggan heyday" of the Qing Dynasty. The development of water transport has provided convenience for merchants who sell from the north to the south. The blending of North and South cultures has formed different schools of food culture with different flavors and characteristics. Beijing cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Fujian cuisine and Anhui cuisine are dazzling and systematic; Suzhou-style, Guangdong-style, Fujian-style, Chaozhou-style, Huizhou-style and Beijing-style cakes compete for beauty, which has pushed China's food culture to a new peak. Implanting delicious food into literature adds a lot of color and fragrance to the prosperity of literature. In addition to contributing to the promotion of the plot, it also satisfies the readers' spiritual enjoyment of food. Food enjoyment has become a kind of elegance, a kind of cultivation and a way of life.

In addition, in China's writing, there are the most Chinese characters about cooking, such as steaming, boiling, frying, boiling, rolling, labeling, rinsing, and boiling ... There are also a series of Chinese characters beside the fire characters: frying, frying, cooking, burning, exploding, frying, etc. These words are similar to eating, frying, frying, etc. After all, since ancient times, the love of food has flowed in our blood and solidified in all aspects of our lives. Literature comes from life, and it is natural for food to enter the writer's works.

Diet culture is one of the most basic and core cultures in human culture, and it is also the foundation of Chinese civilization. Literature and food are twin sisters, and the writer's obsession with food is not the temptation of taste, but the emotion of knowing all kinds of things in the world. The fusion of food and literature can not only taste the original taste of life, but also promote the ultimate ideal of literati writing-truth, goodness and beauty.

This is a book that is appreciated by the refined and popular, and I look forward to meeting you perfectly. Is this book delicious? Delicious!