Bitter melon is determined by its genes.
Bitter melons and vegetables are often grown in mountains and wild swamps or even in front of and behind your home. They are orderly throughout the four seasons and evergreen in eight sections. Generally, people will not have the problem of "finding them hard but not finding them". Bitter melon is a representative of this type of food. Bitter melon is lumpy and ugly in appearance, but green and transparent. Although it tastes bitter, it never imparts its bitterness to other foods. It is praised by gourmets as "a gentleman's dish". In addition, it is also commonly known as the "King of Fruits and Vegetables" among the people, and is also known as the "Crown of Bitterness". As a delicious appetizer during the summer when anorexia occurs, bitter melon goes well with the spleen and stomach of the Chinese people, and they are sincerely supported and regarded as confidants.
Bitter melon is also known as grape, brocade lychee, cold melon, red sheep, etc. There are more than 40 varieties in the world. Because of the peculiar wrinkles on the surface of the fruit, the fruit contains bitter melon, which has a special bitter taste and is named after it. Two years ago, I went to Jiangsu to visit relatives and stayed in a plantation outside Nanjing for a few days. Bitter melon appeared in front of me in a rich and gorgeous way that I had never seen before. That experience gave me a deep appreciation for biodiversity.
Bitter melon can also be used to make a variety of dishes, such as bitter melon with money, beef with bitter melon, bitter melon stuffed with shrimp glue, braised yellow croaker with bitter melon, etc. Guangzhou uses bitter melon as one of the raw materials for making herbal tea in summer. In Hunan, I saw candied food bitter melon flowers made into bamboo, chrysanthemum, plum, azalea and other patterns, and I was very surprised. It is said that the Zhuang people in Guangxi also have a famous dish called stir-fried bitter melon with ants, but I have never had the opportunity to see it. What impressed me the most was the bitter melon porridge I had in Nanjing. It was made with diced bitter melon, japonica rice, and rock sugar. It was extremely delicious.
By the way, Nanjing’s bitter melon porridge is fragrant and refreshing, rich in content and bright in color - green bitter melon slices, red diced meat, dark brown patterned preserved eggs and golden dried sea rice. , lined with the white background of rice grains, really looks like a colorful pointillism painting. In addition, there is a drink called freshly squeezed bitter melon juice in Hubei and other places. Freshly squeezed bitter melon juice is not bitter, and it is even more delicious for people like me who are looking for "bitterness". In the past two years, I was shocked to realize the golden and jade beauty of bitter melon - my understanding of bitter melon has also moved from its practicality of cooling and relieving fire to the "high" level of history, culture, aesthetics and appreciation of bitter melon. So I gradually learned that the culture of bitter melon has a long history.
Bitter melon is native to eastern India. It was introduced to Europe in the 17th century and was mostly cultivated as an ornamental plant. It was introduced into my country around the early Ming Dynasty. In the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1405), Zheng He, the eunuch of Sanbao, built 62 large ships according to the imperial decree. They set out from Nanjing and sailed to the Southeast Asia seven times, as far as the east coast of Africa. He spread Chinese culture and exchanged Chinese and foreign products, and the country's prestige was far-reaching. According to the Ming Dynasty Fei Xin's "Xingcha Shenglan", the Sanbao eunuchs brought many vegetables, vegetables, fish and the like, and also brought back many rare species that most people had never heard of at the time, such as bird's nests, shark's fins, and Javanese fruits. --Durian, etc.; In addition, "There is a first-class melon with a skin like a lychee and as big as a melon. When it is not cut open, it smells like rotten garlic; when it is cut open, it looks like a sac and tastes like butter, which is sweet and delicious." This "first-class melon" is the bitter melon we eat daily today. The bitter melon brought back by Zheng He added a unique dish to Chinese food culture.
There is a report that Suzhou, as the outlet for Zheng He’s voyages to the West, once had a daily wholesale volume of 20 tons of bitter melon. For hundreds of years, Suzhou served as a gathering place for merchants, a resting place under the forest for bureaucrats, a Cangchunwu for bourgeois to hide their treasures in their golden houses, and a playground for tycoons to spend their money. Suzhou cuisine emerged at the historic moment, and was closely related to Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yangzhou. Each gang fights against each other. As a kingdom of gourmets, the exquisite Suzhou people have always paid attention to their diet. Suzhou cuisine is sweet in taste, but bitter melon is so popular, which shows the popularity of bitter food.
The "Complete Book of Agriculture" written by Xu Guangqi in the Ming Dynasty in 1639 also mentioned that southerners like to eat bitter melon. Bitter melon has a bitter, cold and non-toxic nature. It has the effects of removing pathogenic heat, relieving fatigue, clearing the mind and improving eyesight, replenishing qi and strengthening yang. There are records in historical materials that it can treat diabetes. It was introduced soon after it was introduced in the 15th century. Popular in China. In the following hundreds of years, bitter melon began to migrate to the north of the Yangtze River Basin in my country, where it was mainly cultivated in summer. However, the history of cultivating bitter melon in North China is not long.
India, Japan and Southeast Asia have a relatively long history of cultivating bitter melon, and Japan has the most research results on bitter melon. Tracing back to its roots, Japan’s bitter melon comes from China. Now, especially in the relatively independent Okinawa Islands of Japan (belonging to the "Ryukyu Islands" and known as the "Oriental Hawaii"), bitter melon has become an indispensable fruit and vegetable for the locals. In fact, in terms of diet, many crops, vegetables and fruits in Okinawa (such as bitter melon, yam, sweet potato, sugar cane, winter melon) were introduced from China within the past few hundred years.
The stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of bitter melon are all unique and can be cultivated as an ornamental plant. However, due to its high nutritional value and medicinal value, it is generally cultivated as a vegetable. In recent years, bitter melon has become a three-dimensional cultivation variety that beautifies the courtyard, exerting its ornamental and edible value. However, the bitter melon that really opened my eyes was the pickled product I saw in a small southern town.
As soon as the mud-sealed urn mouth is opened, the aroma will hit your face. The bitter melon inside is tender and buttery, and tastes delicious whether served cold or stir-fried. Some people often eat half a jar and leave half a jar. The remaining half of the jar is tied with lotus leaves to seal it. Later, it is taken out and steamed with minced ginger and chives, which makes it more fragrant in the mouth.
In the past year or two, I have also been surprised to see that some residents of old Beijing also process it into pickles, pickled vegetables, etc. together with eggplants and cucumbers, or dehydrate it into dried melons for long-term storage to cope with the off-season vegetables in winter and spring. It seems that the cheap and high-quality bitter melon has become the most beloved food of the common people, just like Chinese cabbage.
If Kudingcha, with its quiet and long-lasting bitterness, can be compared to an urban girl with a petty bourgeoisie atmosphere, the extensive and strong bitterness of tartary buckwheat is exactly like a steaming tea with a red face and strong arms exposed. The farmer’s wife who is busy in the kitchen, then the bitter melon, with its sweet and delicious taste, reminds us tenderly of the housewife next door who is tossed around in the ordinary livelihood and daily necessities.
All of the above, as well as the story of the migration of bitter foods from north to south, let us feel the charm of bitter foods that have endured through the vicissitudes of time and dynasties. Maybe this is the arrangement of nature. Sweetness is a baby's first memory of taste, filled with tranquility and serenity, while bitterness represents the ups and downs of a person's life, containing trauma and reflection. The bitter feeling is passed down from mouth to mouth, and it will find you thousands of miles away, and through the prompts of your taste buds, it will help you fill the taste of life.