As a child, my mother said
If you can't find a home
Just smell the osmanthus flowers back
I am a child of the South. I'm in the north and miss the taste of osmanthus flowers.
In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, it is called "Guiyue". From the misty and rainy Jiangnan water towns, to the central China Plain where the whistle roars, to the southwest hills surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the Lingnan region where the "autumn tiger" is threatening, the autumn in the whole south is the world of osmanthus flowers.
The laurel branches are usually not tall, making the osmanthus flowers approachable. Or golden, or silvery white, hidden in dark green. Figure/Figureworm Creative
When I was a child, around the Mid-Autumn Festival, we would always smell the faint fragrance outside the window, with a hint of sweetness in the cold.
This fragrance does not capture the breath, but it has considerable penetrating power. Usually you are in a trance, a sweet light into the nasal cavity, suddenly but gentle. You look around, and before you can see the laurel tree, you are already immersed in the fragrance of osmanthus flowers —incense in the house, incense by the window, and incense all over the city. Osmanthus, on the other hand, hides behind the leaves and looks at you shyly.
This penetrating power not only spans time and space, but also directly hits your soul. Photo/Visual China
This osmanthus flower, which is also a treasure of autumn, smells pleasant and makes people feel tongue-tied.
In my memory, in the late autumn mornings, I was often awakened by the sweet scent, only to see my mother wearing an old apron for cooking, busy in front of the steaming pot, sweat soaked through the sideburns. Fixed your eyes on it, the pot is the osmanthus soup, noisily grabbing the porcelain bowl, taking a big bite, a sweet warm current, along with the wisps of fragrance and the mother's loving gaze, together with the autumn of the hometown, warm in the heart.
This incense seems to come from a dream and wander around the world. Photo/Visual China
When I grew up, I said goodbye to my hometown and came to the vibrant north. There is naturally cinnamon in the north, but it does not flourish, and the original light and elegant aroma is more ethereal. By chance, I had to look around, take a few deep breaths, afraid that if the autumn wind came, the thin aroma would scatter, and if I missed it, I would have to wait for a whole year.
Late autumn, it is always the time when southern children make homesickness, because of osmanthus flowers.
The world is big, if we talk about the lovers of flowers, for us, there is only osmanthus flowers.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" data-track="37" > the second city of Suzhou and Hangzhou, whose osmanthus is beautiful? Guilin was next to him, laughing and silent</h1>
Osmanthus flower, also known as "Muxi", is native to southern China, Jiangnan, Central China, Lingnan, all of which have her figure.
As an ancient flower, it has many varieties, the most famous of which are dangui, golden gui, silver gui, all three can become trees, the flower colors are red, yellow, white, all bloom in autumn. Among the three brothers, the golden gui is the most beautiful, the dangui is the most fragrant, and the silver gui is the most elegant; there is also a younger brother, the four seasons of gui, the flower color is light yellow, the plant is short, suitable for potting, can bloom several times in a year, and the aroma is lighter.
From top to bottom: Dangui, Jingui, Silver Gui. Figure 1 Figure 2/Visual China; Figure 3/Figureworm Creative
When it comes to osmanthus flowers, I have to mention Su Hang. These two Jiangnan cities with similar temperaments are also the world of osmanthus flowers every autumn.
Hangzhou Gui, the vast South of the Jiangnan smoke and rain
The osmanthus flowers in Hangzhou can open a vast map of smoke and rain in Jiangnan. "The stars and the moon are yellow, and the laurel trees in the city are full of incense", around the eighth month of the lunar calendar and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the osmanthus flowers are like golden ink into the water, which will blend the whole city and be beautiful. The West Lake is already full of tourists, under the fragrance of this sky, even if the autumn wind is depressed, it is also blowing tourists intoxicated.
Above Hangzhou Lingyin Temple; bottom pictured Manlong Guiyu. Figure/Figureworm Creative
Old Hangzhou will tell you that tourists go to the West Lake to appreciate the matter of guigui.
During the osmanthus season, locals will travel in pairs, avoiding the hustle and bustle of tourists, and head to Manjuelong, south of the West Lake. This is a valley, since the Ming Dynasty is the most prosperous place for osmanthus flowers outside Hangzhou; if the autumn wind rises and the dew is heavy, the osmanthus flowers in the valley are often sprinkled with the wind, and the distance looks as dense as raindrops; if you are in the laurel bushes, it is as if the flowers are raining and fragrant, which is not interesting.
This is exactly a scene in Hangzhou, "Full of Longgui Rain".
Gui falls on the water, and the world is beautiful. Figure/Figureworm Creative
In Hangzhou, if there is no tea, I always feel that there are shortcomings. If you can brew a pot of osmanthus longjing under this rain of longgui, it is worth the trip. Longjing is originally spring breath, osmanthus is autumn flavor, spring and autumn, tea and flower, each has to go through half a year to have a perfect encounter.
Suzhou, a well-trimmed osmanthus flower in a garden. Photo/Visual China
Suzhou Gui, jasper small bridge flowing water
Suzhou's osmanthus flowers appear to be a lot of jasper.
This is a garden-like city, with peonies, tang pears, cherry blossoms, etc. alternately blooming and competing for beauty, only osmanthus is a supporting role, scattered around the city, always let you look for it. Even in the exquisite and elegant Su-style garden, osmanthus is often quiet in a corner, not ostentatious, not competing for favors, alone and beautiful, as if delicate and elegant, but without losing grace of Su embroidery.
Suzhou, lingering garden, osmanthus flowers on the eaves. Figure/Figureworm Creative
In late autumn, tourists flock to Tiger Hill and bustle among the osmanthus bushes. The real old Suzhou, will bring a family around the autumn equinox, to the stone lake to enjoy the moon rafting, watching the reflection of the bright moon reflected through the bridge hole, as if several months of bright string together, this is the Wudi folk customs, "stone lake string moon".
The osmanthus flowers in the night, in the cold moonlight appear pink, the posture is hidden, fleeting, like a very beautiful And colorful Jiangnan woman, but also know the book, know how to advance and retreat, only in late autumn when the flowers fall out, only bloom their own elegant sweetness.
Dried osmanthus flowers, an indispensable taste of Suzhou. Photo/Visual China
Suzhou people's love for osmanthus flowers lies more in taste. The people here love sweetness, this osmanthus sweet as if it is a gift from heaven, this side of the box is collected, put on the stove to dry; the other side of the box boiled syrup, steaming steam and silk sweetness, and then put in the osmanthus flowers that seal the autumn flavor, the osmanthus syrup is made.
This syrup is available throughout the country, but suzhou people boil it fragrantly, boil it sweetly, and boil it authentically. Its sweetness will pass through the four seasons of Suzhou, drizzled on lotus roots, yams, rice cakes, small rows, and together with winter wine, soothe people's hearts.
If it rains in Guilin in late autumn, it will be full of gold clothes all over the city. Photo/Visual China
Guilin Gui, its own charm
Suzhou and Hangzhou two cities, whose osmanthus flower is the most beautiful? Seeing this, Guilin smiled.
Guilin, laurel trees into a forest, here no garden is planted with laurel, no one does not know the laurel. Not to mention parks and attractions, even if it is the downstairs of the community and the courtyard of the family, Guilin people will not hesitate to plant laurel trees, carefully care, only waiting for flowers.
The weather in Lingnan is hot, and the flowering of laurel trees will not wait until October. Once in bloom, the whole of Guilin, like overturning golden paint, a piece of cinnamon yellow dotted with orange and silver white, quite ostentatious; you take a breath, the whole city is more like overturning the osmanthus-flavored perfume, as if there is no other smell.
In Guilin, if you sneeze, it may all be osmanthus flavored. Figure/Figureworm Creative
Dangui belongs to a must in Guilin. Its color is orange-red, extremely dazzling among the branches and leaves, although the body is small, there is a kind of wild arrogance, pressing on the head of the golden gui, also called yuanhong; its aroma is rich, other osmanthus flowers are elegant, it is free and unrestrained, like a very enthusiastic southern girl, rushing straight to your face.
Guilin people, especially lucky. In late autumn, the three-color osmanthus flowers that spread across the city, with the strange mountains and waters along the Li River, are also as sweet as perfume. Guilin's beauty, enthusiasm and charm, its own faction, no need for more ink.
Dangui, open more open, the aroma is more unrestrained. Figure/Figureworm Creative
The osmanthus flowers in the south are so beautiful. It has a variety of postures, in Hangzhou is beautiful and vast, in Suzhou is beautiful, in Guilin is beautiful and ostentatious. If it were you, what kind of osmanthus would you like to be the most beautiful?
Secretly tell you that for us, no matter what kind of osmanthus, there is no beauty in the mother's brand kitchen.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" data-track="232" > love a flower, you have to eat her! </h1>
Chinese's talent is not his, only farming and foodie. Our highest praise for the flower is that we seriously eat her.
If you want to talk about osmanthus food, southerners can talk to you until dawn. Figure/Figureworm Creative
Osmanthus cake, ancient Jiangnan charm
Flowers are eaten into the dish and made into a dish or dim sum, which the ancients called "flower food". The Southern Song Dynasty's "Mountain Family Offering" records that purple chrysanthemums are picked in spring, gardenia flowers are fried in summer, and Guanghan cakes are made in autumn. This flavor guanghan cake, need to "pick Guiying, go to Qingti, sprinkle with licorice water, and rice spring flour cooking as a cake", in fact, it is today's osmanthus cake in all parts of Jiangnan.
Strictly speaking, there is no particularly clear standard for osmanthus cake. Osmanthus cakes from all over the world are all kinds of colors, all of which are the continuation of the ancient recipe. Photo/Visual China
There are many genres of osmanthus cake, if you follow the ancient recipe, Zhejiang Wenzhou osmanthus cake may be more authentic. Collect the osmanthus flowers, dry them and marinate them with molasses, mix the rice noodles with cooked lard and sugar, steam them in a box and season them with osmanthus molasses, and a fresh and elegant delicacy becomes.
Shek Hong Kong cake is said to cure obsessive-compulsive disorder. Photo/Visual China
Among the ancient osmanthus cakes, there is a special existence - Shigang Cake in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. This is an intangible cultural heritage, and its real name is Yin Cake, so named because each cake has a pink print on it.
To make Shek Kong cake, local japonica rice and glutinous rice need to be mixed proportionally, soaked for 7 days before processing, washed 7 times, then ground into rice flour, wrapped in flowing osmanthus bean paste, steamed into cake and printed. The osmanthus cake that comes out of this way is eaten while it is hot and soft, and it is cool but not hard when it is put a little. It is a seasonal tea that begins with a sting and ends before summer.
This sweetness travels through millennia
Osmanthus and syrup are a pair of companions through thousands of years. They are each other's appearance, fragrant and elegant, sweet but not dazzling, clear and not colorful. It allows you to travel back to a thousand years ago, appreciate the unique flavors of ancient China, and also build a guiqiao bridge in modern times, holding the hand of exotic flavors, and playing with the combination of East and West.
Duang, Duang, Duang... It's very decompressing, very decompressing, extremely decompressing...
For example, the coconut osmanthus cake in modern Cantonese morning tea that duang comes to duang. It combines Cantonese, Chao and Western dim sum techniques, first mixing coconut water and osmanthus syrup with gelatin (gelatin), steaming one layer, laying another layer, and finally sprinkling golden osmanthus flowers.
It is so rogue, duang in your eyes, duang in your mouth, duang in your heart... Eating or not eating is a real problem.
Chongqing, a cup of fragrant osmanthus latte. Photo/Visual China
Nowadays, in all kinds of coffee shops, autumn is bound to be a latte of osmanthus flowers. It is the whimsical idea of Shanghai's Shili Yangchang, with the rise of local coffee in recent years, awakening a sleepy-eyed soul in late autumn, and also enriching the afternoon comfort of new white-collar workers in the city. It is said that in Hangzhou, you must come to a cup before the gui rain that falls with the wind.
Who said osmanthus can only be made for dessert?
The taste associated with osmanthus flowers is too much. It has long surpassed desserts, which can be used to make tea, but also to embellish meat, and even to make fine wine. A osmanthus flower with countless beautiful faces.
Osmanthus Oolong, Fujian and Taiwan famous in the world. Figures/MarketMap
In the treasure island of Taiwan, there is a specialty osmanthus flower oolong, quite a cinnamon mood. Knowledgeable local tea farmers will plant laurel trees next to the tea garden to enhance the aroma of oolong tea; during the baking process, dried osmanthus flowers will be added to further increase the aroma level, and you can also see the blooming osmanthus flowers in the brewed tea water.
Osmanthus flowers delicious to eat too much, not the whole two cups? Photo/Visual China
We returned to Jiangnan, the water town of Shaoxing. This is the hometown of rice wine, and osmanthus flowers will naturally not be absent. Be diligent, then boil the dried osmanthus flowers slightly in water, filter and add the rice wine, roll again; lazy, just soak the osmanthus flowers directly into the rice wine. There are also osmanthus wine brewed directly with osmanthus flowers, which is warm and cold in late autumn, and it is best to warm a pot.
The final finale is Suzhou's unique winter wine, also known as "winter sun wine". It was once the capital of the State of Wu during the Warring States period, and traditionally inherited the Zhou Dynasty calendar, taking the winter solstice as the beginning of the year, and suzhou still has the relic of "the winter solstice is as big as the year".
It's cold, drink some winter wine to go cold.
There is a saying in Suzhou that the winter solstice does not drink winter wine, and the next year does not resist winter. This wine is made with rice wine as the base and brewed with osmanthus flowers, with a golden color, sweet taste, and a faint fragrance of osmanthus flowers, which is very refreshing.
It is very rare, brewed only once a year, and if you want to drink it again, you can only wait for next year. It is the same as osmanthus flowers, only once a year, the flowering period is not long, miss it and see you next year.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" data-track="235" > osmanthus flowers, the eternal nostalgia of southern children
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It is another year of osmanthus blossoms, and thousands of miles enjoy the Mid-Autumn Moon. Quietly, the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, just like the flowers of this laurel tree, fleeting and silent.
Every child who grows up in the south, the lingering aroma in the depths of the soul, is the smell of osmanthus flowers. After all, in that hazy hometown, there is the fragrance of osmanthus flowers everywhere. Even if there is no surroundings, this unique aroma will appear in your diet inadvertently along with the sweetness, moisturizing your sense of taste and making you remember it.
Osmanthus flowers are sweet, even in winter. It also haunts us. Figure/Figureworm Creative
The nostalgia of the southerners is the sweetness on the tip of the tongue, and it is also "bittersweet", astringent and sweet intertwined, like the osmanthus flower that has just been picked. The longer you run outside, the more homesick you naturally become; but the more you run, the more you dare not look back easily.
In this world, there are all kinds of tastes, there are no wonders, and a mountain is even higher. But no matter how fragrant everything is, it is not fragrant enough to return home for a meal; everything is sweet, no sweeter than osmanthus candy made by my mother's own hand. Early in the morning, it was still the sweet smell; pushing open the kitchen door, it was still a pot of osmanthus soup. However, the mother's sweat-soaked sideburns were already white, like silver laurel under the moon, and dim white frost.
Soft glutinous, sweet and silky Jiangnan flavor, how can you do without this osmanthus sugar rice cake. Photo/Visual China
Therefore, running around, do not dare to look back easily. This feeling, when I was a child, I didn't understand it, I didn't understand it when I read it, and now I can't smell the fragrance of osmanthus flowers, and I finally understand it.
The osmanthus flowers in the hometown have a short flowering period and often fall out in the drizzle within a few days. Fortunately, people always have a way to keep the fragrance of flowers in the hand of food, which has become a delicate embellishment of the Southern New Year's Festival and even the four seasons of the year. I also want to thank the developed logistics today, the source of good things at hand, after all, can solve the homesickness on the tip of the tongue.
Smell the osmanthus flowers, you will definitely find your way home. Figure/Figureworm Creative
Text | Water water
Head photography | Leafy