1

Autumn for Suzhou people begins with the arrival of chicken head rice.

?Chicken head rice?, that is a favorite name of Suzhou people. It is shaped like a chicken head, so it is called this. It has a familiar name, called "Gorgon Rice", but Suzhou people still like to call it "Chicken Head Rice". Speaking it in the sweet and glutinous Suzhou dialect makes people salivate and swallow, as if they are tasting chicken heads. The aroma of rice.

Chicken head rice is seasonal. It will only mature slowly after a summer of steaming, and the beauty buried deep in the water will slowly take the shape of a chicken head.

The cultivation of chicken head rice is basically the same as that of lotus, in the pond. The leaves of Chicken Head Rice are also called "Chicken Head Pan". They are as green as jasper and shaped like a canopy. The leaves have bulges and wrinkles, and they look rough and have thorns. This "disk" is really not small. It can be nearly four feet in diameter and has raised edges all around. It is a "disk" in the true sense.

In Suzhou in the autumn, the most beautiful scenery in the streets and alleys is the groups of three or five, standing in a pile, peeling chicken heads and rice with their hands. Find a shady place, next to a tree or under the eaves, move a small stool, put on an "iron nail", and chat while peeling chicken heads and rice, mouth and fingers constantly. The peeled chicken head rice is placed in a snow-white porcelain bowl, like dots of jade beads, ivory white, translucent and shiny. Someone asked: What is the price of a pound of tin? ?The sister-in-law stopped what she was doing, raised a finger on her left hand, and slapped her right hand outward. The person who asked understood and nodded: "Just a pound, my little girl will be happy and buy it to have a taste." ?Open a plastic bag, pour chicken head rice into the bowl, pick up a small scale, put it on a pound of star flowers, the scale rod is tilted. ?I will give you two more pills. Today is the first business. Two pills cost a piece of money. ?The stall owner is cheerful. ?I know, I know, thank you. ?Guests are satisfied.

When it was almost noon, I looked up at the sky. I saw blue sky and white clouds, and the scorching sun was rising high. Although it has passed the beginning of autumn in terms of solar terms, it is not yet autumn in the true sense. Change to another place and continue peeling the jade-like chicken head rice.

The cicada on the tree cries loudly. Maybe it knows that its life will not last long. Unfortunately, it has been lurking underground for three to five years, and can only live for two or three months after being unearthed. A cicada fell to the ground with a thud and landed at the feet of a sister-in-law. My sister-in-law glanced at this dark water chestnut-colored cicada with slightly spread wings, and said lightly: Autumn is really coming soon. ?Having said it all, his hands did not stop.

2

There is Huangtiandang outside Fengmen in the east of Suzhou City. It was called "Huangtiandang" in ancient times. Speaking of allusions, I have to say that Qian Liu, who is familiar to us Suzhou people, was in Tang Qianning In three years, Dong Chang was pacified and he fought against Huang Tiandang.

The waters in Suzhou City are said to be "three horizontal and four straight". The rivers and streets are adjacent and the water and land run parallel, so it is called "Water Town". There are hundreds of lakes in Suzhou. Chicken-head rice can be grown wherever there are ponds and fields. Huangtiandang is the largest lake on the east side, where chicken-head rice and lotus roots are mainly grown. So Huang Tiandang's "Nandang Chicken Head" is the best. Later, Huang Tiandang’s chicken head rice disappeared. Suzhou’s chicken head rice was mainly produced in Fengmenwai Xietang and Chefang.

Chicken head rice is mainly peeled manually. Nowadays, it is also processed by machines, but after all, it is not as perfect as manual work. There are certain things to pay attention to when eating chicken head rice. In the words of the old Suzhou artist Mr. Gu Duhuang: "You must pick it in the morning, peel the meat out in the morning, and eat it in the afternoon. Only then can you enjoy the fragrance of chicken head rice." ?

In the Suzhou market in autumn, every morning there are farmers carrying burdens selling chicken heads that are larger than a pear. Once, I curiously asked my old uncle: "Old uncle, how many seeds are there in a chicken head?" The old man wiped the sweat on his face with a towel: "Sister, there are seventy or eighty seeds in a large chicken head. I want to buy a few and peel them off." ?So, I squatted next to his basket and picked them out one by one. Three were enough for me to peel all morning.

When I got home, I peeled off the chicken head, and dark yellow fruits jumped out, each one more than one centimeter in diameter. I put the water in the water to wash off the outer layer of thin plastic skin, which is called "seed coat", and then placed it in a container. I sat at the table and peeled it off.

At that time, the child was still young. She knelt down on a chair by the table and kept turning over the chicken head fruits with her little hands. The round and smooth fruits escaped from her hands and she played with them for a while. Then they clamored for chicken head rice.

There is another point about roasting chicken head rice. I heard Mr. Shu said that after the water boils, put in fresh chicken head rice, count with your mouth, and turn off the heat after forty seconds, like this Chicken head rice has a refreshing fragrance, and it tastes chewy and glutinous. Put it into a bowl, add a little sugar, and sprinkle a few dried osmanthus flowers to bring out the delicious flavor. Eat it while it's hot when it's ready to eat. The taste will change when it's cold.

Watching my daughter eat with big mouthfuls, I told her about the hard work of the farmer uncle: These chicken head rice must be cut early in the morning. The farmer uncle was wearing a water jacket and standing in the water just after dawn. Wear gloves and touch carefully under the water, but be careful to be careful of thorns. When you touch the chicken head, use a bamboo knife to cut it off. It should be light and flexible so as not to damage the fruit handle. You have to move your feet carefully in the water, not to trample the root system of the chicken head, because the chicken head rice has to be harvested from the beginning of autumn until October. ?My daughter stuck out her tongue, and then counted the pieces one by one to eat. I smiled and said nothing. Maybe she had already responded to the farmer uncle's hard work in her heart.

三

I really got to know chicken head rice in the early 1980s. My boyfriend needed nutrition to improve his immunity due to liver disease. Because it was winter, there was no fresh food, so he I bought "gorgon fruit" at the pharmacy. Gorgon fruit has the effect of strengthening the kidney and tonifying the spleen. It is sweet, astringent and flat in nature and returns to the spleen and kidney meridians. The fruit has a light brown color and is rounder and larger than a soybean. It is hard to the touch. It needs to be soaked in water for several hours before being boiled, otherwise it cannot be chewed at all.

He found a magazine, pointed at it and read: Gorgon fruit, with leaves as big as lotus, is commonly known as chicken head and looks like a chicken head. The ones coming out of Wujiang Duhui are thin and green in color and plump in flavor, while the ones coming out of Changzhou Chefang are yellow in color and can be divided into Japonica and Glutinous. ? ("Gusu Zhi" of the Ming Dynasty) He told me that the kind I bought here is called "Bei Gorgon", and the chicken head rice we have in Suzhou is "South Gorgon". It turns out that this Gorgon is similar to "Southern Orange and Northern Orange", which is related to the soil and water in which it grows.

As for Suzhou people, fresh gordon is sweet, glutinous, and has mild medicinal properties. However, you should not eat too much for fear of causing constipation and intestinal discomfort. There is a limit to everything, even if you are greedy. Have some control.

In the autumn of the following year, I really tasted Suzhou’s unique chicken head rice. One bite tastes delicious, and the second bite leaves a fragrance on your lips and teeth. Since then, I have been looking forward to the arrival of autumn every year, so that I can fill my mouth and enjoy the delicious food in the world.

Suzhou people pay attention to "not eating from time to time". Their diet is linked to the season, and they eat the best food in the season. Suzhou people also like to eat and know how to eat. The stems of chicken head rice are also a kind of food. The first time I ate this stem was at a relative's house in Wujiang. I was served this dish and it tasted delicious. It had the flavor of lotus root but didn't taste like lotus root. The taste is soft and slightly salty. The thin white ones were cut with a diagonal knife, about thicker than the pen barrel, with seven or eight holes like lotus roots inside. A plate of fried white jade-like food was quickly wiped out. Relatives told us that this is called "chicken head rice stick", and the top and bottom are the same thickness. Before cooking, peel off the purple-red skin, cut it a few times, and fry it in an oil pan.

In the following autumns, I often looked for this "chicken head rice stick" in the market. It was rarely available. Maybe I lived a little far away from the pond where chicken head rice was produced.

Some foods require the word "fate". If there is no chance, you can't force it. You can eat enough chicken head rice in autumn.

Last year, I bought a few kilograms of chicken head rice and went to a classmate’s house hundreds of kilometers away to let him try our Suzhou gentle chicken head rice. Store in the refrigerator and enjoy this treat all year round.