Today, I want to talk about tofu! Yes, I heard you right, it's the piece of chopsticks you have!
To say that the predecessor of tofu, ah, everyone is familiar, is soy milk. But how does soy milk become tofu? Speaking of this, we have to thank Liu Bang's grandson, Liu An, the King of Huainan.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 The front hand of the alchemy furnace was shaken, and the white jade tofu broke through the air</h1>
At that time, the powerful and idle people were all good at pursuing the secret of immortality, and there was nothing to do to refine a elixir as a snack. Liu An is such a particularly curious second generation official, in addition to inventing tofu, he also smoked the egg whites and yolks in the egg, and then lit wormwood smoke and played with eggshells! Speaking of which, this is a principle with the current hot air balloon.
However, Liu An invented tofu not intentionally, but inadvertently inserted willow. Legend has it that day, Liu An took a bowl of soy milk and was staring at the fire of Dan Yao in front of the alchemy furnace, and with a shake of his hand, a bowl of soy milk was all sprinkled on a piece of plaster on the stove top. Soon, the plaster disappeared, and the soy milk also turned into a lump of white and tender things. Everyone looked at each other: What is this? A daring doorman beside Liu An twisted a piece and tasted it, eh? Sweet and delicious, melts in the mouth, it is really delicious. Tofu was born, and Liu An, the king of Huainan, also had another name: the father of tofu.
Liu An, King of Huainan
Tofu walked down the alchemy furnace of the King of Huainan, first on the table of the palace, and soon entered the homes of ordinary people. For thousands of years, whether it is a royal court cook, a literati foodie, or a folk woman, they have all added up to this seemingly tasteless tofu and invented many different ways to eat.
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There are too many ways to eat tofu, and there are countless. I'll pick up a few elegant and light, literati talk.
(1) Snow soup
The Song Dynasty Lin Hong recorded in his book "Mountain Family Offerings" such a dish:
"Picking hibiscus flowers, removing hearts and roots, soup and boiling, boiling with tofu, red and white, like the xia of xueji, named 'xuexia soup'."
Hibiscus flowers are plucked from the buds and stalks, scooped up in boiling water, cooked together with tofu, and placed in a bowl of pale red and tender white. Tofu wins the snow, hibiscus is reddish like Xiaxia, it is indeed good-looking. The tone of this breeze and moon is very compatible with the book.
(2) Vince tofu
Wensi tofu is a traditional Jiangsu dish, which is said to be a soup made by the Monks of Tianning Temple in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The method is quite exquisite: first of all, a piece of soft and fragile lactone tofu is cut into thick tofu shreds. This test is not only the cooperation of hands, eyes and knives, but also the realm of unity of heart and hand.
Tofu is sliced first, then shredded, and in a few minutes, a fragile piece of tofu becomes thousands of shredded tofu. Blend in water and season in fresh soup. When you are on the table, you can only see thousands of snow-white tofu shreds, the roots are clear, the thickness is uniform, as thin as hair, not sticky, not broken, floating in the clear soup, light, white, delicate. It is smooth and soft to eat, and it is also fresh and sharp, which makes people taste endless.
In addition to Wensi tofu, Pingqiao tofu and boiled dried silk are also famous dishes in Huaiyang, all of which are known for their exquisite knife workmanship and light and delicious taste.
(3) Chrysanthemum tofu
Chrysanthemum tofu is said to be a state banquet soup, like a white chrysanthemum, swaying in a flood of autumn water, it is really full of color and fragrance. The delicate needle-piercing "chrysanthemum tofu" blooms in a bowl of water, like a dream, and is a perfect interpretation of the communion of food and art.
(4) Lianpeng tofu
"Lianpeng Tofu" is the best of the Northwest Tofu dishes, and it is also the most chic tofu in my mind. The production method is not complicated: fresh shrimp and lactone tofu, whisked into a paste with seasonings, and then put into a small bowl, the surface is embedded with green beans instead of the lotus core, steamed into the pot and then taken out, shaped like a lotus, the appearance is cute and pleasant, the taste is soft and delicious.
This soup, when laid out, is full of vitality, making people feel as if they are really at the edge of the lotus pond, the breeze is gentle, the lotus leaves and lotus puffs are gently swaying, and the fragrance is fragrant.
Because of its light and tasteless tofu, tofu can make people with hearts play to their fullest. Here are a few heavy ways to eat.
(1) Stinky tofu in Changsha.
Stinky tofu is similar to durian, smells stinky, and eats fragrant. There are also people who hate it deeply, and some people who love it like life.
Stinky tofu is the most famous of changsha fire palaces, because Mao Zedong often went to eat it when he was young. Later, when I returned to Changsha, I deliberately ate it again and said a sentence: "The stinky tofu of the Fire Palace is still delicious." This becomes the "supreme instruction", written on the wall. The stinky tofu of the Fire Palace became the first in the country. I went to Changsha in 2008, and that line is still there.
The usual way to eat stinky dried tofu is to fry it in oil, put it on a small plate, and stir it with chili sauce and garlic, which is very flavorful.
(2) Mapo tofu
Mapo tofu is very famous, and most of the friends who like Sichuan cuisine have eaten it.
"Jincheng Bamboo Branch Words" Cloud:
Ma Po Chen clan is still famous, tofu baked to taste the most refined, Wanfu Bridge side curtain shadow moving, Hegu Chun drunken Mr.
It is said that in the first year of the Tongzhi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1862), by the Wanfu Bridge in Chengdu, Chen Mabo, the female owner of the restaurant, cooked Mapo tofu in a unique way, which made diners flock to it.
The earliest mapo tofu used rapeseed oil and yellow beef, and later in order to take care of the tastes of more people, beef was replaced by pork, and the oil was also replaced by peanut oil. The taste emphasizes hemp, spicy, hot and salty. It's a good dish to eat.
(3) Favorite hometown flavor: bean blossom
Wang Zengqi once went to Leshan with a writer friend and ate bean blossoms once, praising them as a wonderful thing.
Sichuan bean blossom is the most famous in the Fushun area of Zigong. Because of the production of well salt in Zigong, salt brine is used as a by-product of salt, and the bean blossoms ordered have a unique flavor.
Bean blossoms and dipped in water are a perfect match. The main ingredient of the dipping water is watercress paste, supplemented by pepper noodles, minced garlic, minced ginger, etc., drizzled with piping hot rapeseed oil, sprinkled with green onions and ready. A bowl of fluffy, tender and porous bean blossoms, floating in the clear tofu soup, with chopsticks to pick up a piece, trembling, dipped a little dipped in the water entrance, spicy, salty, fresh, and accompanied by a bowl of white rice, Ba shi very much!
As for the practice of home-cooked tofu all over the country, there are more: edamame tofu, frozen tofu, tofu brain, casserole tofu, braised tofu, shallots mixed with tofu, boiled tofu, crab yellow tofu... It's too numerous to count. When you go out to eat, if there are elderly people and children among the guests, you will inevitably say: order a plate of tofu.
Tofu, because of its own light taste and changeable shape, gives the people and chefs endless room to play. Various places have launched "tofu banquets", full of tofu, the taste is different, the appearance is not the same.
In addition to appearing on various tables, tofu is everywhere in the articles of literati and inkers and the familiar sayings of the people.
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(1) Tofu written by ancient poets
As a household item on people's tables, tofu has also been loved by poets.
▲ The famous foodie poet Su Shi, eating tofu is also quite exquisite and chic: it needs to be accompanied by meat, goose and duck, and honey wine.
"Honey Wine Song". Su shi
Mossy, green puss. Rotten steamed goose duck is a pot.
Boiled beans for the juice for crisp, high-burning oil candle pour honey wine.
The "juice" in the poem is soy milk, and the "fat" is tofu. Under the high-burning oil candle, the poet chewed slowly, accompanied by a glass of honey wine, a taoran.
▲ Patriotic poet Lu You also wrote poems related to tofu:
"Neighbor Song". Lu
Turbid wine gathers next to each other, and occasionally comes to non-overnight periods.
Swab plates are stacked continuously, and the kettle is boiled with quinoa.
The black confession will be a new calf, and the green mulberry will grow new branches.
Nian Feng is happy, persuades and raises eyebrows.
The "Quinoa Qi" in the poem is tofu, and the sound is the same as "bizarre", which is said to be named after Liu An accidentally invented tofu and shouted "bizarre". From this poem "Neighbor Song", it can be seen that when the farmer meets the good year, in addition to drinking turbid wine, it eats tofu.
▲ Zheng Yunduan, a female poet of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a tofu poem specifically, using anthropomorphic techniques to write the whole process of making tofu, it seems that the female poet is also a wonderful person who loves food:
"Tofu". Zheng Yunduan
The Huang family sent out a million soldiers, and the company camped into a clear water pit.
The beacon fire burned the temple of the king of the stove, and the grinding mountain engulfed the doujia soldiers.
The slurry steamed out of the clouds, and the waterfall poured out of the curtain cage.
The mold is placed in a thousand heavy nets, and Tarzan presses the top to peel off the yellow aya.
(2) Modern writers are also full of love for tofu.
▲ Zhu Ziqing once wrote in the essay "Winter" that a family sat around the fire and ate white water tofu:
"Speaking of winter, I suddenly think of tofu. It is a "small foreign pot" (aluminum pot) white boiled tofu, steaming hot. The water was rolling, like a number of fish eyes, and a small piece of tofu was raised inside, tender and slippery, like a white fox coat worn backwards. The pot is on the "foreign stove" (kerosene does not beat the gas stove), and the stove is smoked black, the more white the tofu appears. "
On such a winter night, although the old house was lit with "foreign lamps", it was still dark, and the three Zhu Ziqing brothers and their father sat around the table. The "foreign stove" was so high that even the father had to stand up to pick up the tofu and put it in the children's soy sauce dish. The steaming heat, the brothers' eyes looking forward to the tofu in the heat, was written by the author extremely delicate and touching.
At that time, their brothers were still young, and they had not yet appeared in the contradictions with their father when they later wrote "Back Shadow". A strong warmth overflows between father and son, and the happy and harmonious heat of winter is nostalgic.
▲ Wang Zengqi wrote a special article "Tofu" for tofu, which was included in his essay collection "Grass and Trees on Earth". This essay can be said to have written all aspects of tofu, but the light words are funny, and I want to laugh and drool when I see it, and I can't help but excerpt a few paragraphs.
Tofu is older, for the north tofu. I heard that there is a fort in the Zhangjiakou area where the tofu can be hooked by a scale hook and carried a scale pole for dozens of miles. Is this tofu?
Tofu mixed with tofu is the best in tofu mixed. Tender toon head, bud leaves are not comfortable, the color is purple and red, smell the aroma is fragrant, into the boiling water slightly hot, the stem leaves turn turquoise, fished out, kneaded with fine salt, waiting for cold, cut into minced, mixed with tofu (preferably south tofu), a few drops of sesame oil. One entrance, three springs do not forget.
Salted duck egg mixed with tofu is also a southern dish, but it must be made of "Gaoyou salted egg" produced by our hometown. Gaoyou salted egg egg yellow such as cinnabar, oily, mixed with tofu, red and white, just the color can make people appetite.
(3) Tofu imagery in life idioms
There is also a shadow of tofu in many familiar words of life. If you exhort the acute child, you will say: You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry;
Mocking the short and fat man, he said: "Not as high as three pieces of tofu";
Praise a person's incorruptibility, just say: "shallots mixed with tofu - one clear and two white";
To compare someone with a kind heart and a mouth that does not spare people, it is said: "Knife mouth, tofu heart";
Answering something that cannot be said and helpless, he sighed and said: "Ponytail wears tofu - can't lift it";
There is also a sentence "Looking for a thousand roads at night, getting up early or selling tofu", which is even more bitter and helpless in the lives of working people.
We also often refer to young women who sell tofu as "tofu Xishi", and the white tenderness of tofu conceals the beauty of women's skin, which is also a preference for tofu.
In "Hometown", Lu Xun created a beautiful "tofu Xishi" Yang Second Sister-in-law, but the baptism of the years made the beautiful and moving woman in her youth become a sharp and mean thin foot compass.
Whether it is the tofu written by the literati or the tofu in the familiar language of the people, it carries the understanding of the taste of life. This piece of soft tofu is full of thick human fireworks. These poems and folk sayings related to tofu have been passed down for a long time, adding cultural flavor and interest to tofu.
The highlight moment of simple tofu is probably the story of crossing the ocean and indirectly changing the trend of the Chinese revolution and ushering in the peak of life in a foreign country at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
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(1) Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party was funded by the Tofu Company
The tofu we talked about before is all Chinese. To say that the person who let tofu rush out of Asia and go to the world is the son of Li Hongzao, a heavy minister in the late Qing Dynasty: Mr. Li Shizeng, who was legendary all his life. Li Hongzao was a conservative Qingliu leader who was extremely disgusted with the foreign affairs movement. But Li Shizeng is very fashionable. The teenager Li Shi was awakened by a fire in the Yuanmingyuan and was determined to revitalize China by relying on Western studies, so he ran to France to study with the support of Li Hongzhang and opened a tofu company in Paris.
Mr. Li Shizeng
Li Shi has been overseas for many years and made a fortune by opening a tofu company. In order to make the national essence more pure, the masters and small workers of the tofu company are all found from China. He also opened Europe's first Chinese restaurant, called "Zhonghua Hotel", on the Avenue Montparnasse in Paris, which gave the locals a taste of "tasteless tofu", foreigners were full of happiness, and Li Shi also made a fortune.
Li Shi, who had made a fortune, generously funded Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party. It is said that as long as Sun Yat-sen had no money to spend, he took a telegram to Li Shi with ABC written on it, and the money was remitted from Paris. "A" stands for ten thousand, "B" stands for twenty thousand, and "C" stands for thirty thousand.
(2) Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai opened a "Chinese tofu shop" when they stayed in France
Li Shi not only funded Sun Yat-sen's revolution, but also established the "Work-study Institute in France" in France in 1915, funding many aspiring young people to study in France. China's earliest communist groups were formed from these people, including Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
After World War I, the French economy withered, and the life of Chinese students was very difficult. In order to solve the cost, in June 1922, at the initiative of Zhou Enlai, under the auspices of Deng Xiaoping, a "Chinese tofu shop" was opened in Paris. Everyone took turns to push and grind to make tofu, and it was very pleasant.
This oriental tofu shop quickly attracted the French, famous in Paris, and was in short supply. In this way, Deng Xiaoping sold tofu, which not only solved the diet and tuition fees for working and studying in France, but also provided activity funds for the CCP's European branch at that time.
Speaking of which, whether it is the overthrow of the Qing government or the development of the CCP, tofu is indispensable!
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These colorful ways of eating, the true taste of life in poetry and sayings, and various anecdotes are expressed in people's sincere love for tofu. This love knows no classes and no borders.
Tofu starts with soybeans. Thinking about it carefully, the truth of "The Tao gives birth to one, life two, two births to three, and three lives to all things" is fully revealed in this simple and simple tofu.
It may be said that Chinese expressed his soft and flexible adaptability with tofu, so that a soybean was sublimated.
- "China on the Tip of the Tongue"
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(Image from the Internet)
Autumn Yiju: With a light pen, write a cold and warm life.