The title of this article was originally "Scenery of Hometown", which wanted to make people feel more literary, but there are still some differences between hometown and hometown. My hometown is the place where I was born, and now it is basically gone; My hometown corresponds to my current "new home", and I often go back there, which is inextricably linked both physically and mentally. Everyone should be filial to their parents, and their parents are there, and their hometown is there. In fact, going back to my hometown not only pays filial piety, but also gains something, that is, I can taste the hometown dishes cooked by my mother!
I recently read Mr. Wang Zengqi's article "The Taste of China People", which impressed him with his knowledge and knowledge, almost exhausted Chinese food, and made my tongue violently addicted. I am a humble person. I have been living in Changzhou except my hometown Yangzhou and Nanjing, where I studied, so I am ignorant and can't write the words that make people salivate like Wang Lao. Although I have been to Xi 'an to see my parents-in-law, and I have been to Shenzhen to see my sister and sister-in-law, they are all short-term, just like passing by a beautiful woman with a fragrant smell on the subway, far from the feeling of getting along with my wife for a long time.
as the saying goes, it is quite historical materialism to cultivate one side with water and soil. Man is a part of the environment, and geography, climate and eating habits have branded man's body and spirit. Physically, northerners are magnificent, bold, capable and good at hunting; Southerners are small and thin, suitable for farming and business. Even in southern Jiangsu, Changzhou people are different from Suzhou people. Changzhou people are similar to Yangzhou people, and they all have a little so-called "foolishness", which is reflected in their diet. Like Yangzhou people, Changzhou people's tastes are mainly Huaiyang cuisine, but Changzhou people are more innovative, and they have introduced other cuisines such as Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine and Hunan cuisine on the basis of Huaiyang cuisine, thus becoming a wonderful flower in the food garden of southern Jiangsu and even the whole East China. Changzhou, like Yangzhou, has been slaughtered by aliens several times in history because of its tenacious resistance. At the end of Song Dynasty and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, there were only 18 families left in Changzhou. Suzhou people, on the other hand, have soft bones, and they open the door when they encounter foreign invasion, so their cultural relics are well protected. The difference between Changzhou people and Suzhou people is the difference between Wu people and Vietnamese people. Think that Gou Jian, as the head of a country, actually tasted the excrement of the king of an enemy country after being captured, which is something that Yangzhou people and Changzhou people can't do. Changzhou and Yangzhou are quite related. The Han Gou in Yangzhou was originally excavated by Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, to attack Korean military facilities. Now, the Dawang Temple in Yangzhou still provides a statue of him, and the locals respect him as the God of Wealth, which attracts pilgrims from all directions to worship every year on the fifth day of the first month. Nowadays, there is a "Gao Xiaosheng Literature Research Association" in Yangzhou and a "Wang Zengqi Literature Research Association" in Changzhou. It is appreciate each other to study these two influential contemporary writers separately.
Don't digress too far, but get to the point. It should be noted that the taste of Yangzhou people written in this article is also the taste of Changzhou people. One of the biggest characteristics of the tastes of these two places is that they are light, even though they are sweet and sour, they are only faint, just a little bit, like dragonflies, and never plunge into the water like cormorants.
Yangzhou people pay the most attention to the word "fresh" in their tastes. The local people use local materials, and the fish are fresh, and they are still alive and kicking on the chopping block; The meat is fresh, and there is still the residual temperature of the pig on the hand; The vegetables are fresh, and the smell of earth is still stuck on the roots; The melon is fresh, and there are still residual flowers on the navel; Water bamboo is fresh, and the green leaves are still stained with dew; The snail is fresh with a layer of moss on it. Fresh ingredients, coupled with the chef's careful cooking, make every dish delicious and pleasant. For example, after eating the noodles under crucian carp soup and "fussing" a few times, all the noodles have been swallowed, and then drinking the slightly hot soup, the fresh feeling is really cool! Even if the snail is fried unremarkably, Yangzhou people can do it with relish. Stir-fry snail meat with leek, and leek can play a fresh-keeping role. After eating, pour the soup into the rice bowl, especially for the next meal. Why? Xianya!
besides being fresh, Yangzhou people's tastes are a little sweet. In early spring, the green Malan is born on the earth, and the fresh leaves of Lycium barbarum appear in the bushes on the river bank. The locals picked Malantou and Lycium barbarum leaves, blanched them with boiling water first, then fished them out, squeezed out the excess water, added appropriate amount of salt and sugar, and poured some sesame oil to mix them. They were sweet and fragrant, and they took the rice congee. That feeling was really beautiful! The snacks made by Yangzhou people are also sweet, such as Dajingguo, Xiaojingguo, Taosu, Jingangqi, and all kinds of steamed buns, no matter whether they are meat buns, vegetable buns or three-dimensional buns, they all have a sweet smell. This kind of sweetness is not extravagant at all, unlike the dim sum in Suzhou and Wuxi, which is so sweet that people can't open their eyes in midsummer when all the curtains are opened. Yangzhou people's mouths are also quite sweet. When they are treated with courtesy, they will always say thank you sweetly. When they see their elders, they will always say hello with a big smile. When they see their colleagues' achievements, they will also sincerely send congratulations.
Yangzhou people don't eat sour. Only the bean paste made by indigenous method is a little sour. In midsummer, housewives cooked the soybeans, wrapped them in flour and placed them in the shade. A few days later, a layer of green mold was born on the bean dough, and then it was poured into a pottery jar, and an appropriate amount of brine was added and it was exploded in the sun. Two weeks later, a jar of sour and sweet soil sauce was made. Soil sauce often attracts flies, and sometimes the prevention is not in place, and slender white maggots will turn in the sauce jar, but this will not affect the taste at all. Put cucumber and eggplant in a pottery jar, and a week later, they will be made into sauce, which is sweet and sour, crisp and refreshing, and they will not let go even if they are slapped. Bai Yang's talk about China's "sauce jar culture" may be inspired by Yangzhou people's sauce and sauce products, but in any case, in the hot summer, vegetables have faded, and it is not lonely to have all kinds of sauce products to taste.
Yangzhou people are very hard-working. A kind of aquatic plant called arrowhead mushroom grows in the local paddy field, and its rhizome develops into an oval block, which is arrowhead mushroom. Cigu mushroom is sweet and bitter, and it is a kind of vegetable that Yangzhou people often eat in the dead of winter. When you walk into the food market, you will see peasant women with their heads wrapped in blue cloth shouting loudly: "Buy mushrooms, sell mushrooms, fresh mushrooms!" " Buy mushrooms, peel them at home, cut them into pieces, white, and feel slightly damp when you touch them; Cut two pieces of dried tofu into strips; Wash three green onions and cut them into several sections. Add authentic rapeseed oil into the wok, and after it boils and makes a choking smell, add the dried bean curd, stir-fry for two to three minutes, then add the arrowhead slices, and turn them from time to time to avoid sticking to the wok. After four to five minutes, add the onion segments, and add some soy sauce, salt and sugar. Pour in the right amount of water, and it will drown the arrowhead when it boils. After five or six minutes of medium fire, a fresh aroma of arrowhead mushrooms filled the whole kitchen. Put the dishes on the plate, put a few green onions on it to break the color, and a delicious dish can be served! A kind of white radish produced in Yangzhou is also a bit bitter. It is said that stewing ribs soup with this ingredient has a nourishing effect, so Yangzhou people like it very much. Yangzhou people can endure hardships, not only in the dishes, but also in the process of life struggle. In the past, due to the limited terrain, villagers were often hit by floods, which caused them to be displaced. They left their homes, or went to Shanghai to make a living, or went to Anhui to make a living. With the skill of "three knives", they not only supported themselves, but also started a career. Nowadays, "Lu Qin Foot Bath" is open to Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and even Hongkong and Taiwan Province. A little girl who has done this ancient craft to such a great extent is undoubtedly inseparable from her ability to endure hardships.
People in Yangzhou eat spicy food now. Add one or two pieces of pepper when braising crucian carp, which has a special flavor; The taste of 13 sweet lobster is also spicy, and Yangzhou people eat it with relish. Yangzhou people can't compare with Sichuan people in eating spicy food. The former eats spicy food like a beautiful woman blowing a bamboo flute and singing "Yang Liuan, the wind is blowing and the moon is waning", while the latter is like a Kansai man holding a bamboo board and singing "river of no return, a romantic figure through the ages". Nowadays, girls in Yangzhou are becoming "hot" gradually. According to statistics, the divorce rate in Yangzhou has doubled since the Millennium. There are many reasons, but the awakening of feminist consciousness is an important factor. In the past, that kind of male chauvinism has no market in Yangzhou. This is a kind of social progress.
Our economy is developing and our society is progressing, but people use a lot of pesticides in pursuit of crop yield, and now there are all kinds of pesticides left in the soil. These toxic agricultural products are served on the table, which makes people wonder whether they are eating vegetables or eating poison. I guess my hometown is not much better.