Today is the winter solstice, as the saying goes, "if you don't serve a dumpling bowl in winter, no one cares if you freeze your ears", I always thought that this sentence was just to find a reason to eat dumplings today, after all, what does this dumpling have to do with the ears?
Let's start with one person. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical saint", saw many poor people suffering from hunger and cold when he passed through his hometown, and their ears were frozen and rotten. He felt very uncomfortable, so he asked his disciples to set up a medical shed and a cauldron on a vacant lot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and give medicine to the poor to heal their injuries on the day of the winter solstice. Zhang Zhongjing's medicine is called "Jiao'er Soup", which is to boil mutton and some cold-dispelling herbs in a pot, and then take out these things and chop them after cooking, wrap them in the dough into an ear-shaped "Jiao'er Soup", and then cook them in the pot and distribute them to the patients who beg for medicine.
Two delicate ears per person, a bowl of soup, people eat the cold soup after the whole body is hot, the blood is smooth, the ears are warm, eat for a period of time, the patient's rotten ears are cured. Zhang Zhongjingshe's medicine lasted until the thirtieth of the Chinese New Year's Eve. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people celebrate the New Year and also celebrate the recovery of rotten ears, so they make New Year's food in the same way as delicate ears and eat them on the morning of the first day of the new year. People called this food "Jiao'er", and later because of the awkward name, it was changed to "dumplings" and continues to this day.
It's these seemingly commonplace foods around you, but there are many secrets hidden behind them, let's take a look at them today!
1.【油炸桧——对秦桧的恨】
The fritters are called fried juniper, which is originally related to the story of Yue Fei. Back then, the traitor Qin Hui and his wife Wang set up a poisonous plan in the east window and killed Yue Fei in the Fengbo Pavilion.
At that time, there were two food stalls, one selling sesame and scallion baked cakes and the other selling fried glutinous rice balls. The two stall owners talked about Qin Hui, and they hated it so much. Just look at one of them, pick up a dough, and pinch two noodles, one is a big man with hanging eyebrows, representing Qin Hui, and the other is a crooked woman, representing Wang. This one picked up the face-cutting knife and aimed at Qin Hui's neck and Wang's belly, both horizontally and vertically. Still angry, he directly pinched the two noodles back to back together and threw them into the boiling oil pot. The two looked at each other and smiled, "Fried juniper." When the people next to them saw it, they immediately understood what was going on, and everyone shouted together, "Fried stew, fried stew, sold fried stew!" It was the former prime minister who left a bad name, and the people fried Qin Hui in an oil pot. Hence the name of the deep-fried juniper.
2.【八宝粥——对岳飞的爱】
In addition to the fried juniper, another snack is eight-treasure porridge, which also has a story behind it. Laba Festival is the eighth day of the lunar month. On this day in China, every household has the Xi of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge is also called eight-treasure porridge.
It is said that Yue Fei led the Yue family army to fight against the Jin soldiers, passing through Zhuxian Town. At that time, it was the cold winter of the ninth month, and the Yuejia army was short of food and clothing. "Freeze to death without demolishing the house, starve to death without plundering", the Yuejia army discipline is strict, the autumn does not commit, the local people love it very much, they compete to cook porridge with miscellaneous grains to send each other, the Yuejia army won a great victory after a full meal, this day is the eighth day of the lunar month.
After Yue Fei died, in order to commemorate him, the common people cooked porridge with mixed grains and beans and fruits on the eighth day of the lunar month, which is the eight-treasure porridge that has been passed down to this day. In ancient times, eight-treasure porridge was boiled with red beans and glutinous rice, and later the ingredients gradually increased. To the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Mi wrote "Wulin Old Things" and said: "Use walnuts, pine nuts, milk tan, persimmon tan, persimmon chestnut and the like to boil porridge." This pot of porridge carries the people's strong and long feelings for Yue Fei.
3. [Zangzi Noodles - King Wen of Zhou]
The full name of the noodles is called Qishan noodles, because the noodles of Qishan are the most authentic. According to legend, Qishan Zhenzi noodles were invented by King Wen of Zhou.
In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in the Weishui at the foot of Qishan, there was often a dragon making trouble, and the dragon made waves, which made the local drought year after year, and the people had no harvest and were devastated. People couldn't stand it anymore, so under the leadership of King Wen of Zhou, they went to Jiaolong to fight to the death.
King Wen of Zhou drew his bow and arrow, aimed at the dragon's eyes, and shot an arrow. The common people rushed up and chopped the dragon into meat sauce. To celebrate this victory, the dragon's meat was made into noodles and then boiled. The common people had a full meal of Jiaolong Zhenzi noodles, and people found that this way of eating noodles was really delicious, so they kept this way of eating. It's just that there will be no dragon meat in the future, and people can only use the meat of cattle, sheep and pigs instead. The reason why the meat is chopped into dumplings is because the food culture of the Zhou Dynasty pays attention to "not getting tired of being fine".
The meat here refers to meat, and when the aristocracy of the Zhou Dynasty ate meat, it was necessary to chop it as finely as possible, and Confucius also said in the Analects that meat must be chopped. Because of King Wen of Zhou's "slaying the dragon into soup", the noodles of the land of Qi Zhou have been famous in China from ancient times to the present.
4. [Steamed Bun - Zhuge Liang]
The steamed buns we usually eat are related to Zhuge Liang. Before Zhuge Liang went out to the north to attack Cao Wei, he led his troops to attack the Southern Barbarians, captured Meng Shu seven times, and finally surrendered Meng Shu. In fact, the names of the ancient Central Plains Dynasty for these surrounding ethnic groups were derogatory, that is, "Dongyi, Xirong, Nanban, and Beidi." At that time, the Nanban that Zhuge Liang was referring to should be today's Guangxi, Yunnan, and even further south.
When Zhuge Liang attacked Nanban and won and the division returned to the court, he had to pass through Lushui on the way, and when the army was ready to cross the river, the wind suddenly blew and the waves hit a thousand feet, and the army could not cross the river. The local people said: "I heard that the two armies were fighting, and the fallen soldiers could not return to their hometowns to reunite with their families, so they made waves on this river to obstruct the return of the soldiers." If the army wants to cross the river, it must sacrifice the river with 49 barbarian heads in order to have smooth sailing. ”
Zhuge Liang thought to himself: It is inevitable that the two armies will be killed and wounded in battle, how can they kill another 49 lives? Thinking of this, he came up with a plan, that is, he ordered the cook to make noodles and make 49 human heads. Then set up an incense case and sprinkle wine to the river. It is also called "brute head", homophonic steamed bun, and steamed bun was born.
5. [Rice cake - Wu Zixu]
In 514 B.C., Wu Zixu was ordered by King Wu to build the city of Lu, which is now the city of Suzhou. After the son of King Wu, Fucha succeeded to the throne, he listened to slander and gave Wu Zixu to death.
Before he died, Wu Zixu said to his subordinates: "After my death, if the country is in trouble and the people have no food to eat, they will dig three feet under the city gate wall and find something to eat." Later, the Yue Kingdom attacked the Wu State, and the soldiers and civilians in the city ran out of food, and Wu Zixu's entourage remembered Wu Zixu's original entrustment, so they gathered the soldiers and civilians in the city and came to the city of Xiangmen. After digging three feet into the ground, he dug up many "city bricks" that could satisfy hunger. It turned out that the "city bricks" were made of glutinous rice flour, which was a plan set up by Wu Zixu before his death.
Wu Zixu, who was worried about the world first, expected that there would be such a catastrophe, as early as when he was supervising the construction of Gusu City, he asked his subordinates to cook glutinous rice, beat it into bricks, and bury it under the city gate, preparing food for the soldiers and civilians in the city.
Although Gusu City was still breached in the end, the soldiers and civilians in the city avoided the tragic fate of starvation to death with the help of these "glutinous rice bricks". Since then, every Chinese New Year, the people of Wu have to suppress rice cakes similar to "city bricks" to commemorate Wu Zixu.
6. 【龙井虾仁——Qianlong】
According to legend, the Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong paid a private visit and drank a cup of Longjing tea in a tea farmer's house in Hangzhou, which tasted very good, but he was embarrassed to ask for it.
Later, when Qianlong dined in a restaurant, he took out the tea in his clothes and told the shopkeeper to make tea. The shopkeeper saw the corner of Qianlong's dragon robe exposed, and knew that he was the Son of Heaven, so he secretly told the chef who was cooking the shrimp.
In a panic, the chef actually sprinkled the tea leaves brought in by the shopkeeper as green onions on the fried shrimp. Who knew that the crooked beating was right, and the shrimp fried in Longjing was tender and delicious, extremely delicious, and Qianlong was very happy after eating it. Since then, this busy and erroneous Longjing shrimp has become a famous delicacy in Hangzhou.
If you want to know more, you can pay attention to the variety channel "Come to the Former Residence to Listen to the Book" column, and you are also welcome to go out of the house and go to their hometowns and former residences to have a look, I believe there will be a different harvest.
Source: CCTV Variety