China on the tip of her tongue (the taste of time)
Time is a good friend of food, and time is also a deadly enemy of food. In order to preserve food, although we have all kinds of scientific and technological methods, ancient methods such as pickling, air drying, drunkenness and smoking unexpectedly give us a completely different taste from fresh food, sometimes even more mellow and delicious. Today, these foods, which have been processed twice in time, still affect the daily diet of China people, and contain some special feelings of the Chinese nation for taste and the world.
In the early morning of autumn, the ancient Hulan River flows through vilen. It originated in Xiaoxing 'anling and meandered into Songhua River. Jin Shunji grew up by the Hulan River. For her, hometown is the smell of kimchi that haunts her. The cabbage in the garden is planted by my mother when she crawls every July. In order to make pickles, all varieties with tight hearts and tender leaves were selected. Today, my daughter learned to make kimchi with her mother for the first time. There are many kinds of kimchi, even if there is only one variety, it can present many different flavors: refreshing cold food, delicious cooking and so on. In the long winter, with the company of crispy and sweet spicy cabbage, it seems that the dull days will become warm, rich and delicious.
Tim in Hong Kong runs his own bacon shop with his family. Every morning, he is the busiest person in the shop. He has 10 years working experience. Hexing Laweijia has a history of 60 years, and has established a good reputation and reputation among customers with fresh and exquisite materials. Today, Tim takes care of everything in the shop with his father and uncle.
In inland Hunan, rice fields are blooming, and it is time for Miao people to make pickled fish and bacon. Xiangxi is rich in wood, and hardwood is the best fuel for smoked bacon, such as tea tree and bayberry tree. When smoked and roasted, the bacon should be hung on a fire pit for heating and cooking, and pine cones, tea shells and orange peels should be continuously put into the fire pit, so that the smoked bacon will have the fragrance of tea fruits.
For the simple Miao family, salted fish and bacon is not only a kind of food, but also a kind of life and memory preserved in the years, which will never be forgotten.
In today's Huangshan area, farmers' backyards are still drying ham and bacon, which is full of pastoral atmosphere. The "knife incense" made of bacon is a main course for entertaining guests, and it is also one of the representative works of Huizhou cuisine.
In Master Ye's view, the peasant ham in my hometown is the most delicious ham in the world. Of course, he must also know that a famous ham is also produced in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, not far from ancient Huizhou. It is famous for its red muscles and white fat, bright flesh color, rich aroma and delicious taste.
Sanyang South Goods Store is a local specialty store known to the older generation in Shanghai. All kinds of dry goods in Jiangsu and Zhejiang can be bought here. Master Hou, the leader of the curing cabinet group, has been working here since 1975. To identify the quality of Jinhua ham, we only need to insert such a bamboo stick into the upper, middle and lower parts of the ham, and pull out the super ham after three bamboo sticks, and each bamboo stick will give off a tangy smell. In a sense, the southern commodity shops such as "Sanyang" all over Shanghai are actually the taste memorial halls of this immigrant city.
Xiapu, the oldest county in eastern Fujian. The long coastline has created many natural harbors here, and the sea has become a water farm for growing laver.
16-year-old Lin Renzhuo began to learn to grow laver with his father. Now he is 49 years old. Today, he wants to erect more bamboo for his farmland. Bamboo cut from the mountain should be pretreated: the internal bamboo joints should be dredged to facilitate the insertion of bamboo into the seabed. Each bamboo is about 16 meters long and weighs more than 200 kilograms. Installing it in the sea is not an easy job.
Taiwan Province Province, which faces east Fujian across the sea, is a crucial moment for fishermen in Kouhu Township of Yunlin County to decide their livelihood for one year. Mullet roe is a special product in the southwest coast of Taiwan Province Province, which is pickled by mullet roe. Because it looks like China's ink, the Japanese call mullet roe "soup ink" and regard it as one of the three great delicacies in the world. In Taiwan Province Province and Japan, mullet roe has always been regarded as a high-grade delicacy on the table. It tastes dense, soft and moist, only a thin slice is needed, and it is already very thick and delicious.
Some scholars infer that human history is to smell salt. Tai O, located in the corner of the South China Sea in China, was famous for its rich sea salt in its early years.
Zheng Xiangxing Shrimp Shop is a century-old shop with four generations of experience, and has always been in the leading position in shrimp sauce and shrimp sauce in Tai O. 76-year-old Guo Shaofen is a native of Tai O. Since she married the Zheng family at the age of 20, she has been making shrimp sauce for more than 50 years. Whether it is shrimp paste or shrimp paste, the main ingredients and auxiliary materials are actually simple silver shrimp and salt. The production method is nothing more than mashing shrimp and salt and putting them on a bamboo curtain to bask in the sun.
Guo Shaofen and her husband took care of this old shop until her husband died on 20 1 1. It is said that Tai O is the best place to watch the sunset. Here, maybe it means more than just scenery.
This is the smell of salt. The smell of mountains, wind and sunshine is also the smell of time and human feelings. These smells have long been mixed with feelings and beliefs such as hometown, folks, homesickness, thrift, perseverance, etc., and then they are on the tip of the tongue and in the heart, so that it is difficult for us to distinguish which is the taste and which is the emotion.