Text/Zheng Yongtao
Plants are the most unable to hide their hearts, as soon as the spring breeze comes, they sprout, the long leaves of long leaves, the blossoming of flowers, sweep away the dry silence of winter, and re-decorate the world beautifully and vividly. However, the plants in the spring are not only used for ornamentation, but also for all kinds of wild vegetables as an additional gift from nature. But what I miss most is a kind of young leaf that grows on the tree - toon buds, scrambled eggs with toon buds and eggs cooked with eggs, which I call "spring stir-fry".
The toon tree is a tree that spreads throughout the north and south of the river, especially in the Central Plains. In my hometown of Ji'nan Plain, the toon tree is an ordinary tree that can be seen everywhere in front of and behind the house. Because toon sprout ingredients are easy to obtain and very grounded, toon scrambled eggs have always been an indispensable seasonal side dish in the spring of the villagers, and the proverb "March 8, eat Tsubaki buds" has been circulating in the northern region for a long time. In fact, Chinese eating toon has long been a habit, and it has been popular in the Han Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the pharmacist Su Song confirmed the edible value of toon in the "Materia Medica": "The tree is solid, and the leaves are fragrant. In the Jin Yuan Dynasty, Yuan's good questioning "Xi Tong relatively picks Tsubaki buds, referring to the Yang slope and saying that seeds melons", Li Lian's "Holding Sun TanQuests, Staying and Cutting Tsubaki Buds" in the Ming Dynasty, and Kang Youwei's "Changchun Immortal Han King Wishes, Eating Moon Fragrant Tooth Cheeks" are all vivid descriptions of people picking tsubaki, eating tsubaki, and praising tsubaki in ancient times. The young shoots of toon are rich in nutrients, known as "vegetables on the tree", used for stir-frying, cold mixing, pancakes, cooking brine, soup, pickling, etc., not only delicious taste, but also dietary therapeutic effects, can effectively get rid of wind chills, rheumatism, stomach pain, dysentery and other diseases, very practical. The reason why I love toon scrambled eggs is not only because I love its delicious taste, but also because it can only be eaten in the spring, which is a unique and delicious seasonal vegetable in spring, a mood, and a feeling. Moreover, "Tsubaki" is originally in harmony with "spring", it is born for spring, and it is specially designed to add flavor and cheer to people in the spring. And its overdue temperament seems to teach us some truths and urge us to be diligent.
The cooking procedure for toon scrambled eggs is not complicated. Blanch the toon buds after rooting, blanching, rinsing with cold water, grabbing the water dry, then chopping and setting aside. Whisk a few eggs into a bowl and beat them with chopsticks to form egg mixture, then stir well with the chopped toon buds and a pinch of salt. After the frying pan is heated to 70% in cooking oil, pour in the toon egg liquid, and stir-fry the egg liquid until it is cooked.
Toon scrambled eggs this dish, really reflect the color and flavor to the fullest. Toon scrambled eggs in a white porcelain dish, the eggs are golden brown, and the toon buds are emerald green, yellow and green, like a cluster of green leaves and flowers. The layers of toon buds and eggs hug each other, emitting the natural fragrance of the toon buds themselves, the fragrance of eggs and the fragrance of cooking oil. With bamboo chopsticks, a bite of scrambled eggs with tender toon on the outside is sent to the tip of the tongue, and the tender taste and delicious flavor can instantly hook people's entire soul. After eating a plate, the mouth is fragrant, the aftertaste is long, and the feeling is still unfinished, making people involuntarily calculate the next meal.
The essentials of toon scrambled eggs are all on a "tender" word, so the selection of materials should be tender, the blanching time should be short, and the stir-fry should not be over the heat. Therefore, people who can scramble eggs with toon to make them tender understand the importance of heat, and cooking and doing things should not be too bad.
The reason why I sent the toon scrambled eggs "Spring Stir-fry" is because this dish is indeed full of spring emotion and elegance. To this end, I also organized a special toon feast. In the late winter and early spring of that year, the epidemic was so bad that everyone was at home for dozens of days, and at that time I had long missed the scrambled eggs of toon, so I went to eat scrambled eggs with toon after I unsealed my friends. Long farewell reunion, literati yaji, that spring night everyone was particularly good, in addition to drinking, talking, chanting, but also tasted the protagonist of the dinner table - toon scrambled eggs. Everyone ate scrambled eggs with toon, chanted or improvised poems about spring, and their mood was as cheerful as spring, and their smiling faces were as bright as the sun. For this dish, for this spring, everyone has really been looking forward to it for a long time.
When I was young, spring was the season when food was scarce, so the villagers were grateful for the toon tree. At that time, the two small toon trees in the yard could provide our family with several meals intermittently. My mother asked our children to pick toon buds, and we would fry a plate of scrambled eggs with the toon we had been waiting for for a long time, and before we went to the table, we would use chopsticks to set aside some for the next meal. I remember one noon, all three of us were very hungry, so after a while we snatched up the scrambled eggs that my mother had put on the toon, and then ran out to play without asking. When I was about to go to class, I ran home to get my school bag and found my mother breaking the cornmeal nest and sipping the dish, which had been clean and polished, and there was no need to brush it at all. I asked my mother why you didn't eat the half-plate of dishes that you kept, and my mother said that she ate the dishes that she kept, and everyone had no food for dinner. I listened, and the mood that was still high after the crazy play suddenly fell down. I was silent, put on my bag, and walked to school with my head bowed. I didn't say a word on the way, but I felt like I should have grown up a bit along the way. It is also because of this past that toon scrambled eggs are actually a very heavy dish in my heart.
(Image from the Internet)
【About the author】Zheng Yongtao, pen name native, male, born in 1984, from Handan, Hebei, graduated from the department of Chinese of Jiangxi Dayu University, a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, a member of the Hebei Writers Association, a member of the Hebei Provincial Essay Literature Association, a director of the Handan Writers Association, and the chairman of the Handan Feixiang District Writers Association. His works have appeared in many newspapers and periodicals such as "People's Liberation Army Daily", "Rule of Law Daily", "People's Public Security Daily", "China City Daily", "China Women's Daily", "Language Learning Newspaper", "Composition Weekly", "Hebei Daily", "Hebei Legal Daily", "Hebei Farmer Daily", etc., and published the essay collection "Born and Raised".
Sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society, Contemporary Prose is a bimonthly prose journal, which mainly publishes the works of members of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and welcomes Shandong prose writers to apply to join the Shandong Provincial Prose Association. The Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association holds various prose activities throughout the year to provide book publishing services for writers. Submission Email: [email protected]
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