White papaya The papaya that Yunnan people usually say is not the kind of papaya that people all over the country are familiar with, but the white papaya that is only produced in western Yunnan. Most counties in western Yunnan produce white papaya, but the quality is not as good as Yongping. First of all, it is too small, only half the size of a fist. Secondly, it is too acid, which belongs to the kind of "oligomeric acid". Although Yongping is a small place, due to climatic reasons, white papaya is a specialty, which is planted in seven towns and villages. It is also big, thick and juicy, with moderate sweetness and sourness and long fragrance. It contains a variety of nutrients and medicinal effects, including appetizing, invigorating spleen, nourishing from traumatic injury, expelling wind and removing dampness, relaxing muscles and activating collaterals. This statement is naturally well-founded. In Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, it is "woody, blooming in late spring and crimson. In fact, it is as big as a melon, as small as a fist, and as yellow as powder. ..... papaya is warm and sour, calming the liver and stomach, relaxing muscles and collaterals, activating bones and muscles, and lowering blood pressure. " Record. White papaya is a deciduous shrub in Rosaceae. This tree is two or three meters high and has thorns on its branches. Flowers will bloom before the leaves are painted, with three or five flowers in a cluster, flourishing on the old branches, giving people a more positive feeling. Flower-shaped five-petal single layer, the calyx is bell-shaped, scarlet, reddish or milky white, but it is extremely rare. The fruit of white papaya is oval, but it is official, and Yongping locals call it "bovine kidney". We call him "papaya (de)", which is the local dialect of Yongping. Can only understand, can not express, contains the meaning of "young" or "fresh". In my memory, "papaya" was my favorite snack when I was a child. When the young fruit of papaya grows to the size of thumb, we secretly pick some behind adults' backs and mix pepper noodles with salt and monosodium glutamate to make pepper salt. That taste, hot and sour, crispy and appetizing. In retrospect, it still makes people laugh. The best harvest season of white papaya is after the first frost. At this time, the white papaya is ripe and golden yellow, and the peel will ooze a sticky honey juice, emitting a faint sour fragrance. Yongping people not only like to process it into shredded papaya or dried papaya slices for collection, but also like to put mature white papaya in the center of the room with bergamot and citron fruits. The rich aroma can refresh the mind and make people feel comfortable. I never like soup, except chicken soup or white papaya fish soup. When drinking soup, papaya chicken soup and papaya fish soup are the first choice. Mugua chicken and papaya fish are not complicated, just ordinary stewed chicken and boiled fish, but after putting papaya slices, the taste is completely changed. The sour and fresh taste of alkyd combined with sweetness is quite appetizing, and a bowl of soup makes people vomit their tongues. White papaya doesn't grow all year round. In the season when there is no fresh goods, you can also use dried products such as papaya slices or shredded papaya. Fresh papaya meat is light yellow, and the cooked soup is bright, with better taste and stronger fragrance. The air-dried papaya is brown, and the boiled soup must be turbid, but fortunately the taste and efficacy have not changed. Yongping also has a very distinctive dish, that is, white papaya fried mutton. Chop mutton first, add shredded ginger, soy sauce, wheat flour and salt and stir well, then cut fresh papaya into filaments. Then, heat the oil violently with dried peppers. When the oil is boiled, put the mutton into the pot and stir fry quickly, then put the fresh shredded papaya into the hot pot, stir well and quickly take it out of the pot and put it on the plate. The biggest feature of this dish is that the shredded pork is fresh and tender, sour and delicious, and the most delicious. Anyone who has eaten Dali hot and sour fish will remember it clearly. The method of making hot and sour fish is very simple. In Dali, almost every family can cook this dish. Hot and sour fish is famous for its crucian carp in Erhai Lake, pepper in Binchuan, spring water in Cangshan Mountain and white papaya in Yongping. Otherwise, the taste of hot and sour fish will be greatly reduced. Dali people also love to fry chicken pieces with tender papaya the size of eggs, which is amazing. The method is to prepare a tender chicken, slice the green papaya for two or three times or cut it into small pieces, heat it in a pan, add dried pepper, tsaoko and star anise to saute until the chicken turns white, then add papaya, chicken, garlic cloves, ginger slices and onions, then add soy sauce to color and taste, then add a proper amount of water until the chicken has just passed, cover the pot and stew for a while, and when the fragrance floats out, uncover the pot cover and stir-fry evenly. Then cover the lid until the juice is dry and fragrant, and you can eat it out of the pot. Although the name of white papaya is not beautiful, its flowers are beautiful and gentle, both beautiful and fragrant, and have always been regarded as ornamental trees. The bonsai cultivated with the old roots of white papaya is elegant, solemn and simple. The flowering period of papaya is dark green, or crimson, or reddish, or pink, covered with strings of papaya flowers, which is really beautiful.