1
Every day I walk through the streets and alleys of this small city of Jianshi, and I can always meet a splash of color that makes my eyes light up. That is the color of the fruit and vegetables that farmers sell in the city.
Small onions, scallions, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, cabbage, oatmeal, longbeard, fungus, parsley, celery, yellow flowers, lotus root, leeks, mustard greens, cauliflower, purple kale, purple angular leaf, red snow, beetroot, winter melon, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, bitter gourd, groundnuts, broccoli, tomatoes, eggplants, wild rice, yam, coronation, lettuce, bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots, cow peas, beans, cowpeas, and so on. green beans, cowpeas, peas, soybeans, red beans, plum beans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, yams, sweet potatoes, chili peppers, peppercorns, ginger, garlic scapes, garlic shoots, garlic, carrots, white radish, green radish, young bush, shiitake, morel mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, flat mushrooms, wild fir mushrooms, cherries, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apricots, plums, peaches, pears, watermelon, loquats, pomegranates, kiwifruit, chestnuts Walnuts, dates, jujubes, August melons, grapes, persimmons ......
Green, green, red, orange, yellow, white, purple, brown ...... fruits and vegetables of various colors, sparse and dense, crowded, scattered, lively and fragrant. They follow the season, dotted with high-rise buildings, the streets of the traffic, immovably melted some kind of hard and cold, soothing some of the hustle and bustle and flamboyance.
The color of fruits and vegetables, the color of nature, the color of life. It is also the color of the human world.
Fruits and vegetables are placed by farmers in bamboo baskets, bamboo baskets, bamboo baskets, bamboo skips, or directly on the ground, stubbornly maintaining a kind of primitive vitality from the depths of the earth. They carry the morning dew, with a little soil, hidden hot feelings, hiding the secrets of the long ago, loose and quiet in the small town. Fruits and vegetables do not have to do anything, a small town dressed up in full vigor.
Throughout the year, fruits and vegetables grow vigorously in the mountains and fields, and then follow their masters to the strange city, waiting for a new master to bring them home. It's hard to turn a blind eye to those who pass by them. Especially like me from the countryside to the small town, just a basket of cabbage, a few bundles of small onions, in front of the eyes will appear a green vegetable garden; or a basket of loquats, a few pomegranate basket, the heart then flashed a cluster of fruit trees; or a bag of wild fir mushrooms, a few bunches of wild grapes, the mind will certainly leap out of a deep forest. In those moments, there is a reverent and almost mystical exchange between people and fruits and vegetables.
I look at those fruits and vegetables, clearly feel that some of the fresh beauty gradually surrounded me, some gentle comfort is approaching me, some subtle tranquility has already warmed me ...... in a trance, the fruits and vegetables in front of me, the fruits and vegetables in the memory of each other intertwined, entangled, gently and quietly tripped my footsteps. I enjoy this trip, stop, buy a little, buy a little more, and then return with a full load. It's a completely different feeling than buying groceries at the grocery store. Those neat, clearly marked fruits and vegetables, across the board, give a strange sense of detachment, as if they are blocked by something, losing a lot of flavor.
Fruit and vegetables full of mountain fragrance, is living in the city people can not resist the temptation of the tongue. I buy, you buy, he bought. Buy buy buy buy. In this way, in the rising and falling sound of the price change, in the selection of vegetables and pick the fruit of the leisurely action, one by one, the day slowly recede into the depths of time, a wisp of smoke and fire leisurely rise and spread out.
In the small town, every farmer who sells fruits and vegetables is like a mystery. Their pace is slightly staggering, and their expression is elusive. The deep wrinkles on their faces tell of the difficulties of life, and the thick calluses on their hands write of the hardships of struggle. Most of them are not good at hawking, even if the "works" accomplished with blood and sweat are so outstanding. They are always accustomed to walking, standing or squatting in silence, all their expectations are precipitated in the eyes. They don't seem to care whether passers-by patronize them or not. How many twilight dusk, those picking leftover fruits and vegetables from the downtown quietly to the home of the farmers, is never a face of silence, silence like a mystery.
It is this they, day by day in and out of the small town, rich in a city of people's table, rich in a city of fireworks.
In the summer, in the streets of this small city of Jianshi, you may also meet a non-fruit and non-vegetable beautiful temptation, which is the "God tofu".
God tofu, is the city near the village of Dai Chen ditch village people grow in this small village called God tofu tree (commonly known as the zebra duck Quercus) made of shrubs. This plant was born on the side of the ditch, roadside, and its leaves were picked, washed, scalded, rubbed, filtered, added cream, and then magically became the fragrant, tender, crystal green "tofu" after resting.
This tree has a special flavor of God, the production process and the addition of God's ash water, so people call it God tofu.
God tofu that emerald-like appearance, it is enough to see the heart of the person, will be cut into small pieces or strips, plate, sprinkled with a little red pepper, ginger foam, sour garlic water, etc., you can eat. Folk poetry: non-fruit and non-vegetable non-rice food, exquisite jade jade light. Competitively held up by the bead plate exhaustion, armpit wind teeth cheeks cool.
God tofu, a bit of God.
Whether it's a quart of fruits and vegetables, or a piece of divine tofu, it's a fragment of the small town's fireworks. It's all in the flavor.
The small city of Jianshi, the fireworks that stretched for thousands of years, y hidden, shallow bloom.
2
Let's talk about the food-related stores in Jianshi.
Let's start with the breakfast stores. The stores are located in various streets of the town, such as the ones that make fried pancakes and dumplings, the ones that deep-fry oil incense and doughnuts, the ones that fry bean skins and river noodles, the ones that steam buns and steamed breads, and the ones that cook wontons, noodles, and egg skins. The people who opened the breakfast store, each with a unique trick, cooking all kinds of delicious, just waiting for customers to come close.
The rush to work, hastily buy two doughnuts and a cup of soybean milk, or a few buns, a doughnut, in the hand, while walking and eating. The people who are free, either alone slowly and leisurely to choose a favorite breakfast store, sit down, point a, savor; or about two or three friends, gathered in a store, eating while chatting white. That leisure, the gods see also envy. That is a touch of a touch of flow of the earth's fireworks.
Who can't live with breakfast. Eat breakfast, only to have the strength in the new day to do their life destined to do the work. A city of people, clearly and indistinctly eating breakfast, a small city of smoke and smell to eat the sky, rolled to the ground, vast.
Who hasn't had a favorite breakfast place.
For example, Jianshi East Street, there is a Cui family name to do the buns of the old store, more than 50 years of three generations to do the buns for a living, the craft continues to improve, the taste is excellent. Every morning, the Cui family is busy, customers are endless. Cui's family is made of pan-fried buns, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with golden color and aroma. How many people come to the house, for a fried bun, willing to wait in line. A pot of buns fried, steaming, quickly snapped up.
There is another one, called "Fatty Luo package noodle shop", used to operate in the small town of Dabeimen, and later moved to Guangrun Road. The owner of Fatty Luo made a handful of outstanding package of noodles, thin skin like cicada wings, soft and tender fillings, soup color bright, smooth in the mouth, between the lips and teeth, overflowing fragrance, an unforgettable meal. Don't look at Fatty Luo's big head, but his work is very flexible. Just see him throw the noodles into the boiling water, and then quickly mix the ingredients in the bowl, three or five minutes, the noodles out of the boiling water, poured into the bowl, served in front of the customer. A lot of people come to this store in the morning, are repeat customers, into the door shouting "Fatty Luo, to the bowl of noodles!" "Okay! Big bowl or medium bowl?" Fatty Luo's voice is also big.
Breakfast, open the small town every morning, dense out of the soft fireworks. Small town, unconsciously faded away the darkness and silence of the night, re-energized. It is as if the small town also ate a mysterious breakfast, full of great strength, glad to do something.
Breakfast store has not yet closed it, some of the specialty food stalls will start to tempt the taste buds of a city. Baked gluten, kang yam, baked sweet potatoes, pancake fruit, stinky tofu, soy sauce cake, baklava, lasagna, hand-held cake, cold noodles, cold skin, cold noodles, rice poop, taro poop, buckwheat poop, mash, rice wine, dunked soup egg buns, hot and sour noodles ...... People who do these small businesses, pushing special carts full of ingredients, condiments, out in twos and threes on the The streets and alleys, flying thick and light flavor, ruffling the pedestrians coming and going, spreading hot and strong fireworks.
In the evening, the street is more lively. More food stalls popped up. They draped in the gradual lighting, and a burst of melodious square dance music, to meet a variety of footsteps into the night, lovely and quirky to a small town of fireworks rendered to the fullest.
We have to mention, is loved by the Jianshi people is also the Jianshi people original food - Jianshi big cake.
I don't know which Jianshi people first had the bright idea to put a layer of tightly packed clay inside a big oil drum to make a stove for baking cakes. Later, out of the stove made of oil drums, instead of special custom stove, still cylindrical, about 1 meter high, the bottom of the stove burning red carbon fire. Next to the stove, a board is set up, and dough with the right amount of acid and alkali is placed on it, along with a bowl of finely minced, spicy meat. Cut a small ball of dough, put the filling in the center, roll it out with a rolling pin into a thin oval, smear a little soy sauce evenly on one side, sprinkle white sesame seeds, pick it up, and turn it over a few times with both hands alternately, using the tension to fling the cake thinner, and then quickly stick the sesame-less side to the inside wall of the stove, which quickly bakes the cake until it is crunchy, and the rich fragrance comes out from the inside of the stove. The pancake is pulled out with a fire poker, and you can enjoy this one-of-a-kind delicacy!
Not far from my home downstairs there is a small stall selling Jianshi cakes, called "Yu Da Cake" (the boss surnamed Yu). It's run by a husband and wife. The woman kneads the dough, adds the filling, rolls out the cake, and moves neatly; the man bakes the cake, busy but not chaotic. In the evening, those who go to buy "Yu Da Cake" and passers-by who can't resist the temptation come from all directions and gather in front of the stall. You one, I two, he four or five. Some people also buy dozens at a time, that is to send to distant friends and relatives to taste Jianshi's specialty snacks. Customers talking and laughing, the couple with the tacit understanding, a fresh Jianshi cakes one after another. A set of customers left, another set of customers came. Couples often from the afternoon to do late at night, too busy, the two also mixed a mouth, red face, but as long as the customer came, immediately smile to welcome.
In addition to the breakfast store, snack bar called people can not stop, many restaurants in the meal, also mouth-watering. Demoiselle rice, rice and cornmeal mixed steamed, it also has a very literary name - wind cross snow; taro potpourri rice, yellow, fragrant; taro and lotus stalks fried meat, fresh and unusual; steamed button meat, soft and delicious ...... flavors have their own unique characteristics, no need to enumerate.
Eat, we have to eat casually, eat freely, eat rich and colorful. The people to food is the sky. Eating, is the real thing of the world.
In Jianshi, no matter what you eat, are eating the flavor of the small town, realize the temperament of the small town. Eat and eat to understand.
The small city of Jianshi, smoke and fire rolled, unlimited flavor.