People today like to call themselves "foodies", and their words are ridiculing and showing off. But becoming a qualified "foodie" is not easy. Throughout the ages, there have been countless literati who love to eat, but they rarely talk about their experiences.

Li Bai, as bold and bold as a poet, is only willing to write vague and shy words such as "a jade plate of precious delicacies worth ten thousand dollars". Only Su Shi was not shy about eating, and even thought it was interesting. When he's gentle, he chants "It's the time when the puffer fish is about to come"; when he's energetic, he shouts "I eat three hundred lychees a day".

Su Dongpo was not only a famous literati scholar, but also a famous gourmet. It is said that there are many famous dishes directly related to Su Dongpo, and even more dishes are named after him.

For example, "Dongpo elbow", "Dongpo tofu", "Dongpo jade grits", "Dongpo leg", "Dongpo bud", "Dongpo black carp", "Dongpo "Dongpo cake", "Dongpo crisp", "Dongpo bean curd", "Dongpo meat" and so on.

There is food in poetry, and there is poetry in food

Su Shi liked mutton soup. When eating mutton on the winter solstice, he wrote: "Qin cooks only mutton soup, Long delicacy." There is bear wax”.

One day, he even wrote "Ode to Pork": "Wash the pan cleanly, use less water, and the firewood will not smoke. Don't rush it when it is ripe. When the fire is enough, it will Beautiful.

The price of good pork in Huangzhou is as low as dirt. The rich don’t want to eat it, but the poor don’t know how to cook it. If you get enough in the morning, you won’t care.” , but there is inevitably a sense of loneliness in the poems of unrecognized talents.

At a gourmet party, Su Dongpo cooked his favorite bamboo shoots with pork. It tasted good, so he wrote a limerick in his own hand: "No bamboo is vulgar, no meat is vulgar." To make people thin, not vulgar but not thin, braised pork with bamboo shoots.” In the same way as the "Ode to Pork" mentioned above, there is also a hidden mystery.

Wild vegetables and sesame cakes

"In autumn, frost and dew fill the east garden, and the reeds bear children and mustards and give birth to grandchildren. I am full of hatred, and I don't know why I eat chickens and pigs." In his words It seems that these vegetables are more delicious than the chicken, duck and fish.

Fenghu was Su Dongpo’s favorite place for picnics. He compared the vines growing by the lake here to the water shields in West Lake, Hangzhou: “There are vines in Fenghu, which seem to be rivaling the water shield soup.”

Cake: "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet fillings in the middle"

Wild vegetables: "I often go around the wheat fields to ask for wild shepherds, and I am forced to cook mountain soup for the monks"

Rain and bamboo shoots: "The Yangtze River surrounds Guo to know the beauty of fish, and the mountains with good bamboos feel the fragrance of bamboo shoots."

Wine: "When will the bright moon come, ask the wine to the sky"",

"I can't finish the cup, and the half-drinking taste is especially long",

"I occasionally get the taste of wine, and I always hold the empty cup"

Su Dongpo ate an old woman. When people make ring cakes, they can't help but write a poem: "When rubbed with delicate hands, the color of jade becomes uniform, and when fried in green oil, it becomes tender and deep yellow. When spring comes at night, I know the importance of sleeping, and the gold wrapped around the arms of a beautiful woman is flattened. ”

With only 28 words, it outlines the thin, fresh and crispy characteristics of the ring cake, as well as the image of a beauty ring. Sure enough, a foodie can write poetry, and even the food has become literary.< /p>

Lychee

Zhi

“If you eat three hundred lychees a day, you may grow up to be a Lingnan native. "

After being demoted to Huizhou at the age of 59, Su Gong ushered in the lowest period of his official career. He shifted his energy to food, and soon he discovered that Huizhou was actually a very beautiful place: "Huizhou local food Not evil, the officials and the people treat each other very well. ”

The climate here is mild and the products are rich. He has cultivated a wide variety of vegetable gardens, including rattan vegetables that are as delicious as water shields and lychees that he can never tire of eating.

One day he His son Su Guo brought a plate of fresh lychees to his father. Su Dongpo liked it very much after tasting it. The lychees aroused his creative inspiration and he wrote, "Sigh of Lychees" "It is spring under Luofu Mountain, and the oranges and bayberry are new one after another." He eats three hundred lychees a day and grows up to be a Lingnan native. ”

Su Shi was also fond of drinking tea, and it is common to praise tea in his poems. “The two flags are new under the Baiyun Peak, and the greasy green is long and fresh in the spring of the Grain Rain” describes the tea garden scenery in the mountains outside Hangzhou.< /p>

"Always good tea is like a beautiful woman" and "I want to compare the West Lake to the West" in another poem were compiled into a famous couplet of teahouses and teahouses by Su Dongpo. There are many poems and manuscripts related to food, such as "Poetry on Vegetable Soup", "Poetry on Eating Pork", "Bean Porridge", "Whale Walk" and the famous "Ode on Lao Taoist"

Bite of the Tongue. "Dongpo Pork"

Dongpo Pork

Everyone in the world knows "Dongpo Pork", but they don't know that this delicacy came into being because of Su Gong's firm adherence to the mass line. Only then did he achieve the sublimation of his realm. Zhou Zizhi of the Song Dynasty said in "Zhupo Poems" that Su Dongpo liked to eat pork most. It is said that "Dongpo Pork" happened when he returned to Hangzhou for the second time. An interesting story. ?At that time, most of the West Lake was covered by weeds.

After he took office, he mobilized tens of thousands of migrant workers to clear the fields, dredge the lake port, and build a long embankment with the excavated mud. The bridge was built to unblock the lake water, restore the beauty of the West Lake, and store water for irrigation.

This long embankment has improved the environment, not only brought water benefits to the people, but also increased the number of people. The scenery of the West Lake later became the "Spring Dawn on Su Di", which was listed as the first of the ten scenic spots in the West Lake.

At that time, the people praised Su Dongpo for doing this good thing for the local area. It was said that he liked to eat braised pork. , during the Spring Festival, they all sent him pork to express their feelings.

Su Dongpo received so much pork and felt that it should be shared with the tens of thousands of migrant workers dredging the West Lake. So he asked his family to cut the meat into cubes and cook it using his cooking method. Along with the wine, it was distributed to each household according to the roster of migrant workers.

Everyone praised it, and anecdotes spread. Among the people who sought advice from Su Dongpo at that time, in addition to those who came to learn calligraphy and writing articles, there were also people who came to learn how to cook "Dongpo Pork".

On the Lunar New Year’s Eve, every household makes Dongpo Pork. It has become a custom to express nostalgia for glycosides. Now it has become a traditional famous dish in Hangzhou. Louwailou Restaurant imitated his method to cook this dish and served it to the world. They continuously improved it in practice and it has been passed down to this day.

Roast lamb, scorpion, and Hongzhi chicken

And his masterful style is fully reflected in his informality and innovation. For example, there was a local salt farm, and Su Dongpo invented the method of eating salt fan. The salt-baked chicken has crispy skin, rotten meat, fragrant bones and rich flavor.

The creation that makes him even more proud is the roasted lamb scorpion. Huizhou's commerce is backward and its markets are scattered. However, the butcher shop slaughters one sheep every day. Su Dongpo secretly asked the butcher to "leave me some beam bones." The beam bones are the sheep and scorpions we eat today.

Su Gong cooks the sheep and scorpions carefully. He cooks them first, then spreads a thin layer of wine and salt on them, and roasts them on the fire until they are slightly charred. The shreds of meat star on the lamb scorpion are crispy and tender, and the flavor is very good. It tastes like crab meat.

Today, sheep and scorpion hotpot is popular all over the country. In fact, a thousand years ago, Su Dongpo had discovered the delicacy of sheep and scorpion with his genius creativity. Whether it was voluntary or helpless, turning ordinary things into extraordinary things is the difference between genius and mediocrity.

The fried chicken he developed together with his wife Wang Chaoyun is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, golden in color, and is known as "Hongzhi Chicken". It predates KFC by more than 800 years and is our lovely "Eastern Chicken". Uncle Poe”.

Because of the local salt farm, in addition to frying and frying, he created a new cooking technique - salt baking. The salt-baked chicken he made has crispy skin, smooth meat, fragrant bones and rich flavor.

When Su Shi was in Guangdong, he made the famous Hongzhi chicken and delicious roasted lamb spine. After improving the Dongpo meat, Su Dongpo cooked it together with the Dongpo meat because the local area is rich in prunes. system.

It has become the braised pork with pickled vegetables that Guangdong is proud of, and also brought us the "sheep and scorpion" that has been spread all over the world. Su Shi can be said to have made a huge contribution to future generations of cuisine.

Dongpo’s way of maintaining health

Su Shi’s love for food stems from his passion for life. The way of food is the way of human survival. Be in good physical condition.

Therefore, Su Shi believed that diet was very important to people's health, so he formed his own set of "health preservation" theories from his daily life experience.

He also wrote a health prescription to a friend, saying that it was handed down from the Warring States Period, but "I believe it is effective." This anecdote is recorded in "Dongpo Zhilin".

It is said that Su Shi’s good friend Zhang E asked Mr. Dongpo for his tips on health care: "One is to be rich when you have nothing to do, the other is to go to bed early to be rich, the third is to walk leisurely to be a car, and the fourth is to be rich when you have nothing to do. It is said to be eaten at night as meat. ”

When you have nothing to do, you should treat yourself as noble.

When people live in this world, they should not pursue fame and fortune, should not be obsessed with officialdom and wealth, and should not regard honor and disgrace as gains and losses. Too heavy. The "Huangdi Neijing", written in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, puts forward the concept of health care: "Tranquility and nothingness, true energy will follow, the spirit will be guarded, and illness will always be safe."

Therefore, you should withdraw your spirit from material desires such as chasing fame and fortune outside the body, use it to maintain your own health, and regard fame and fortune as "noble".

Go to bed early to be rich

Refers to good daily habits, which are more valuable than gold, silver and jewelry. The ancients said that "sleeping and eating are the most important things for health" and "those who can sleep, can eat, can live longer."

" If you don't get enough sleep and are overworked, your energy and blood will be consumed over time, and your body will be damaged. and the five internal organs, leading to the occurrence of various diseases.

Walk at a leisurely pace to serve as a cart

It means that people should not covet ease and leisure, and should not work hard on their limbs, but should instead walk instead of riding a horse or riding a cart. Exercising more can move your muscles and bones, smooth your qi and blood, strengthen your body, and prolong your life.

The famous health expert Hua Tuo also advocated that the human body should move more. He said: "The human body wants to work, and if it shakes, the grain energy will disappear, the blood will flow, and diseases will not occur."

Eating meat at night

It means that people should eat when they are hungry and stop eating when they are not full, instead of being greedy for delicious food. To explain further, eat only when you are hungry.

Although it is a simple meal, its sweetness and taste are better than mountain delicacies; if you have to eat reluctantly when you are full, it will be difficult to swallow even if the delicious food is placed in front of you.

Eat only when you feel hungry and don’t eat too full. "Shou Shi Bao Yuan" advocates: "Eat only half full without any flavor, and do not drink more than three thirds of wine too often."

This is also the experience of the ancients on "eating in moderation". It is well-founded and effective. The shape is bad and the life is long.

Su Dongpo's four "longevity medicines" actually emphasized the importance of emotion, sleep, exercise, and diet in maintaining health and longevity. This view of health maintenance is still worth learning from even today.

History gave Su Shi a life of hardships, but Su Shi smiled and gave history a legend.

“Life is a delicious meal, maybe a banquet at Hongmen, maybe a dish for guests; maybe delicacies from mountains and seas, or whole grains of vegetables and roots; it may be poor and without food, but sometimes it may be a feast to the fullest. ”

“Every meal has a different taste, but most of life is dull. A true gourmet is not about the size or the delicacies. No matter how you taste, you can’t favor one thing over another.”

< p> "If you want to taste the food, you should taste it with your heart. If you taste it with your heart, even ordinary rice will be full of fragrance; if you don't pay attention, the delicious food will be bland and tasteless."

Like Su Shi , Be a person with heart, live with heart, every step we take is fun. Cherish the mood brought by every bite of food, each of us is a gourmet in life.