Lu Yan
【Editor's Note】 Writer Xiao Er's latest novel "Queqiao Immortal" recalls the complicated past of the large dock by the canal - The ancient town of Qizhen in Jiangnan, written from the 1960s and 1970s to the millennium, a small group of people of green plum bamboo horses have successively walked out of the town, each undergoing personnel affairs, and many years later, the seemingly prosperous ancient town of Jiangnan has once again become the stage of life for the young people in the past. Jin Yucheng, winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, commented: "Open an accurate jiangnan heavy color map for readers."
The prototype of Qizhen is Xiao Er's hometown, Tangqi Ancient Town, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. She was born on the side of the canal, grew up on the side of the canal, in her pen, the background of Jiangnan civilization exists in the Jiangnan ancient town of "Qizhen", as the writer Xu Zechen said, "The canal in "Queqiao Immortal" is a canal of daily life, a canal of details, a canal of reality, and a canal that is organically unified with people, feelings and intentions." In the words of the novel, we can relive the traditional life in the small town of Jiangnan, which has now gradually passed away.
As a journalist in Shanghai for many years, Lu Yan, a writer who now lives in Hangzhou, has sorted out the Jiangnan cuisine described in "Queqiao Immortal".
Xiao Er/Author; Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House/2022-6
What does Gangnam look like?
Although I have read some novels related to Jiangnan before, it may be that I have not read well, and I still know very little about what Jiangnan is after reading. I had the opportunity to seriously read Xiao Er's latest novel "Queqiao Immortal", which was like taking a trip to Jiangnan and staying for a few days. Although several months have passed since the first reading, this trip to Jiangnan on paper still has a long aftertaste.
Why is the title "Queqiao Immortal"? There is a bridge in the book, the central location of the town, and many stories revolve around the bridge. When we imagine Gangnam, we may see a high bridge in front of us, flowing water under the bridge, and next to the bridge is an old house with white walls and black tiles. The "QiZhen" in the book is such a small town in Jiangnan.
Qizhen is a typical Jiangnan town The illustrations in this article are provided by the publishing house
The exquisite portrayal of Jiangnan products in the book also allows us to enter the real, nostalgic Jiangnan town life. Here is beautiful and rich, rich in products, including silk, pearls, and fine linen; Dishes include soy sauce hoof, pork balls, white chopped chicken, plate duck, fine sand sheep tail, rotten eel shreds, clear soup fish balls; Dim sum includes delicious wontons, shrimp loin noodles, tea eggs, pavilion toe mooncakes, white sugar wok soup; Fruits include loquat, bayberry, green plum, mulberry, sugar cane, water chestnut; The drink has sour plum soup and is a good place to nourish people.
The people of Qizhen are most proud of the fact that Laodizi was once the first of the "Top Ten Famous Towns in Jiangnan" and the bustling large pier on the Grand Canal
Round meat
"He watched Meizhi make dumplings, chopped fresh meat, scooped glutinous rice, soaked in warm water for three hours, fished out and drained, and then chopped the lean meat and fatty meat into meat mushrooms, mixed with the auxiliary ingredients of onion, ginger, rice wine, salt, added a little water, mixed with half of the glutinous rice, and then rubbed them into ping-pong-sized balls by hand, and put them into a sieve containing glutinous rice one by one to roll, and the surface of the meat balls was evenly dipped in glutinous rice, and then steamed in a steamer basket."
Rice wool meat circle infographic
The pork balls are one of the most nostalgic dishes. In the past, the New Year's Festival wedding celebration, "Rice Wool Meat Ball" is the final dish of "Ten Bowls" in Jiangnan Town. There are meat balls in many places in China, but only Jiangnan first uses glutinous rice mixed with minced meat to remove its greasiness, and then put it in a steamer basket to achieve light and delicious nutrition, only the rich Jiangnan is so exquisite.
Sugar wok soup
Woks are thin layers of sticky rice cookers made over a wood stove. When eating, use boiling water to soak and add sugar.
They sat together on a bench and ate a bowl of sugar wok soup. He said, about two spoonfuls of sugar, a little sweet. She said, it's still sweet and delicious. ”
Glutinous rice wok fin infographic
Glutinous rice wok is a traditional delicacy unique to Gangnam winter. Sticky rice is served on a wood-burning stove, and the layer of extremely thin, crisp and crispy pot formed is wok. A bowl of woks, scooped with two large spoonfuls of sugar, slowly added to the hot water, the original crispy wok soon turned into a soft sweet soup. Drink a bowl in winter to warm up and nourish your stomach.
Plum rainy season, green plum, sour plum soup
Dai Yanli remembers spending most of his life in Qizhen, from his childhood, every two years of the long rainy season, there will be a sad thing in the town, there are children drowning, there are electric shocks in the house or factory, there are normal people who become mentally ill. He remembered that Miss Fan, who used to be famous in the town, had become mentally ill after a long rainy season. ”
The rainy season has almost become a season unique to Jiangnan, and even the quilt is almost wet to the touch - in fact, it is dry. "Huangmei season home rain", "screen window several showers of yellow plum rain". Jiangnan is a water town, and the rainy season adds to Jiangnan's feminine temperament.
Wet Gangnam town
The rainy season is also the ripening season of Jiangnan plums.
"Plum blossoms fall into knots, divided into two kinds: green plums and flower plums. Green plum blossom pure white, fruit pure green, commonly known as the family plum. The flowers are white with a little reddish color, and the fruit is green with red in the middle, commonly known as wild plum. ”
"This kind of green plum, you have to use a lot of sugar to marinate it is not sour, or soaked in white wine, the wine is very strong."
"I saw an old lady selling plums on the street, and there were three of them in a small cup, very large, five cents."
"At that time, the workers were still eating well, and every day they went to the boat in the morning and returned in the evening. When it comes to Wulin Tou Silk Factory, it is always lively and interesting, and in the summer, it is often used to bring back the whole bottle of sour plum soup with a hot water bottle, as well as delicious diamond horns and sugar roots. ”
The raw materials of sour plum soup are ume, osmanthus flowers, rock sugar and honey. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Those who pick half yellow plums are smoked as ume." "It can be seen that Ume is made of green plum.
Plum rainy season, green plum, sour plum soup is a unique product of Jiangnan. The rainy season makes Gangnam too wet, and the green plum drink soaked in spirits can get rid of the dampness. Sour plum soup can remove heat and cool, relieve pain with peace of mind, and even cure cough, cholera, and dysentery. Sour plum soup even spread from Jiangnan to the north. The Qianlong Emperor loved to drink sour plum soup, and it is said that he liked to drink it before and after meals.
Black charcoal bayberry
"Liu Fengjiao washed a basket of black charcoal bayberry and placed it on the Eight Immortals table."
Zhou Zuoren wrote in "Yangmei": "After going to the countryside for a long time, there is no nostalgia for the taste of the countryside, but Yangmei feels irreplaceable... Bayberry raw food Gujia, soaked in shochu for a day, it also has its own flavor, soaked for a long time is tasted in wine, that is, the common so-called bayberry roast, is wine rather than fruit. "Bayberry is the fruit that condenses nostalgia.
Air-dried water chestnuts, sugar cane, diamond horns
"As soon as I ate the dried water chestnut, it seemed that I had actually arrived home."
"When you taste it, you can't get used to the earthy taste of this strange fruit."
"Jin Tian said, I asked my mother to boil some tea eggs and bring some sugar cane."
Water chestnut, sugar cane and diamond horn are all fruits unique to China's water towns, and the Book of Later Han records water chestnut: "At the end of Wang Mang, the south was hungry, and the people went into the wild, digging their shells and eating." ”
Air-dried water chestnut is a practice unique to Gangnam. During Lu Xun's life in Shanghai, water chestnut was a common sweet at home in winter. Xiao Hong wrote in "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun": "There is a rope or wire pulled on the wall, and a small suitcase and wire cage are tied on it. The air-dried water chestnut was held in the wire cage, and the wire that was pulled was almost crushed and bent. As soon as I pushed open the window of the library, there was a basket of dried water chestnuts hanging outside the window. 'Eat, very much, air-dried, extra sweet.' Mr. Xu said. ”
Air-dried water chestnuts
When I was in Hangzhou for the New Year, I also saw neighbors using plastic wire mesh full of washed water chestnuts, hanging in the wind to dry. Another neighbor used a circular plaque, yardted with a plaque, and placed it in the doorway to air dry.
Zhou Zuoren wrote in the article "About Water Chestnut": "Water Chestnut ... The British call it water chestnut, the Japanese called Hetz mushroom, although meaningful, but very elegant, it can be imagined that do not know how to eat this thing. ”
"Water chestnut is naturally best eaten raw, the tender skin color is black with red, there is a color called water chestnut red in lacquerware, just right, this kind of water chestnut eats well, saying how sweet it is not necessarily, but it has its own special rustic and fresh taste, and the thick rare fruit is the other way."
He also wrote in the article "Sugarcane Water chestnut": "I am still not rare apples and pears, but I still feel a little nostalgic for the coarse fruits I ate when I was a child, and the yellow ling meat that cannot be on the top of the table ,...... But I feel the most flavorful, because it represents the native products, such as Duyuan melon vegetables, the so-called soil cream dew gas has not yet been completely lost, compared to the foreign fruits from afar have another advantage. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Qian Chengxi
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang