Nearly 2,000 years ago, Emperor Sima Zhen of Jin Hui heard that the poor people could not afford to eat and starved to death, and he sighed with the famous "why not eat minced meat". There is also a well-known variation of this in modern times.
During World War II, Japan held some Allied prisoners in a shelter in Niigata Prefecture. When the war ended, the prisoners who lived here filed a lawsuit in a court-martial, saying that the shelter would not give us bread, but only tree roots! The Japanese couldn't help but laugh and cry, saying that it was burdock and mountain artillery, and that it was ginseng, a good thing, and that it was the same as the minced meat. The prisoners of war said that the stick and the minced meat can be the same? Do you put this thing in your hamburger? The Japanese said that we don't eat hamburgers, we eat noodles! This is what you put in your noodles!
Japanese-style burdock noodles, burdock is mainly used as a soup base seasoning
Source: Movie "Little Forest Winter and Spring"
We don't know if those war criminals really gave burdock or made it up after the fact, anyway, Westerners can't tell the difference between burdock and tree roots.
Exports to domestic sales, that is, a little long
Not to mention that Westerners can't tell the difference, Asians can't tell the difference. Let's just say how many people who have eaten burdock in front of the screen are bought by their mothers as yams, anyway, I am. I guess the rest are those who haven't eaten burdock......
Mother: The price of yam has increased today
Burdock is quite similar to some slender root vegetables, which is nothing more than the difference in length and thickness. The Japanese couldn't tell the difference at the earliest, so they confused Huaishan (a famous Chinese yam that is often used as medicine) and burdock. To this day, burdock pickled in soy sauce produced in Japan is also known as "Huaishan pickle". The former Japanese army invaded China in the northeast and wanted to eat burdock and couldn't find the raw materials, so they found the bellflower eaten by the locals, and they also felt that it was similar, and it was also called burdock (ごぼう pronounced gobou). Later, the Japanese left, and the locals still retained the Xi of that time, and to this day they call pickled bellflower "dog treasure pickles".
Japanese famous Huaishan stain (serious no chili)
狗宝咸菜
About it can read "The Pickle Seller Says It's Not Radish Sticks It's Ginseng, But It's ......"
Could it be that the people of the Northeast at that time couldn't tell the difference between burdock and bellflower? I really couldn't tell the difference, because the Chinese didn't eat burdock at that time. Modern burdock only entered China from Japan after the 77 Incident. Is the burdock native to Japan? No, it came from China.
To be precise, burdock is widely distributed in Eurasia, Japan in ancient times, and Europe also has it, but it is not easy to eat. But in ancient China, burdock was eaten, and both young leaves and roots were eaten. The Southern Song Dynasty's "Shanjia Qing Offering" recorded the practice of "burdock root". The poet Gao Zhu also wrote the poem "Burdock vegetables are hanging in the corners of the house, and there are many horse orchids on the roots of the hedge", which shows that burdock was a very common vegetable at that time. Around 900 AD, the Xi of eating burdock spread from China to Japan and has been passed down ever since. On the Chinese side, no one ate it later, and by the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it had fallen into the "Materia Medica" and became a wild vegetable that was only eaten in the famine year.
Burdock sprouts, called "wakaburdock" in Japan
Why don't you eat it? It's not delicious, it's not sweet or fragrant, and it's quite firewood if it's not cooked. As more and more vegetables get there, it steps aside. Moreover, the ancient burdock "root is more than a foot long, as thick as a thumb", which is only the size of half a cucumber, and there is really nothing to eat when the skin is removed.
I have to say that the Japanese have made great achievements in the cultivation of burdock for a thousand years, and now the Japanese burdock is more than one meter long, and the thick variety is a slap, and the small amount of rice can be eaten for several days.
Modern long breed burdock
By the way, even the Japanese pronunciation of "gobou" is highly suspected to have come from China 1,000 years ago. Today, the burdock in Cantonese is pronounced like "oubong", and it will become a dog treasure after a thousand years of export and domestic sales.
Miracles are produced vigorously, and the fruits are abominable
Burdock is a plant of the Asteraceae family, which is actually quite hard to imagine. The aboveground part can grow to more than one person's height, and the leaves, especially the basal leaves, are very large, and the ancients said that "such as taro" is really quite vivid.
The basal leaves of the burdock field
The most prominent feature of burdock is its inflorescence, a bunch of tubular flowers, unremarkable, only the thorn on the always bud, has a unique secret technique. There is a small barb at the tip of the thorn, and the bract remains firm when the flower falls. This small hook is easy to hang on the animal's hair, and once it is hooked, it cannot be removed. That's why burdock is often called "evil truth" in ancient books, you think. There is also a common name, called "rat sticky", which also means that the rat will take the fruit away as soon as it passes.
The reason why burdock is so naturally distributed is closely related to the "smart" means of communication. It is said that the invention of Velcro was inspired by burdock.
Another popular name for burdock is "vigorous", which is really cheesy, but impressive. Various books in ancient times have recorded that burdock "wears light for a long time, so that the manpower is large", and even says that the cow runs more than two miles after eating. The Japanese also believe that burdock can improve energy and physical strength, and is a favorite "tonic" for sumo wrestling. Judging from modern pharmaceutical research, the various chemical components of burdock have no excitatory function, and the only thing that has anything to do with "light body and strength" is that it has certain anti-diabetic properties, and lowering blood sugar can indeed make people feel that their energy is increased. But how many people in the ancients could get diabetes at that nutritional level? It's good to have carbs to eat...... Anyway, it's up to the study.
Attention to health care products, the wind and waves are not big
In the field of traditional medicine in the mainland, burdock is most commonly used as "seed", that is, fruit, the name is "burdock seed", which can clear heat and detoxify, disperse wind and brighten the eyes, and appears more in some prescriptions for treating rashes, sore throats, and dizziness. But what is more familiar to the current generation is its roots.
Burdock seeds, in addition to frying, can also be directly soaked in water and porridge
In the first ten years or so, China once set off a burdock fever, there are fresh burdock for sale in supermarkets, burdock tea and burdock tablets on the Internet are even more powerful, and the four king-level superstars have been invited to endorse, of course, accompanied by a variety of high-nutrition, high-efficacy publicity. Now it seems that it is still a lively script for capital entry, but now it is basically silent, and fresh vegetables are rarely sold in supermarkets.
The laboratory has found that burdock does have many components that can improve the physiological level of experimental animals, such as anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic and even anti-tumor effects. However, this is all in the laboratory, and there is no clinical useful record, and those who often read our literature understand it, if it is useful. Having said that, burdock is non-toxic and harmless, and it is good to make a tea substitute if the price is right, and it is always good to drink more water.
Burdock tea, drinking more hot water is the magic weapon
Of course, it is not that burdock is useless, aside from the so-called health care, the main ingredient of fresh burdock is water, accounting for ninety percent, carbohydrates account for about 3%, mainly inulin, which is a kind of sugar that the human body cannot digest. Compared with yam, which has 12% sugar and is mainly starch, burdock is indeed quite suitable for diabetics. Eating makes you feel full, but it has little effect on blood sugar, which is always better than eating food. In a way, this happens to be the "low nutrition" of burdock.
Finally, there are two things that can be confused. The first is "mountain burdock". In Japan, some burdock products are packaged with "mountain burdock", this "mountain" is to describe its natural origin, whether it is really wild or not, we don't care, in short, adding a "mountain" seems to be more advanced. But in the Chinese world, it is a bit of a problem, in Chinese, "mountain burdock" is another plant, is the genus Asteraceae, and burdock is not a very close relative, and no one eats it, don't get confused.
Mountain burdock in Chinese
图源：inaturalist
There is also a kind of "burdock", which is a Brahmana ginseng of the Asteraceae family, which also has a taproot, which is much smaller than burdock. Even in the West, it is not a very popular vegetable, and it is said to have a smell of oysters, and it can be used as a side dish for steak and seafood, and I think it looks good on the plate. There are wild ones on the mainland, but no one has ever eaten them.
Burdock root