When I was a child, when the warm sun of early spring forced back the cold of late winter, I would usually think of the river bank not far from the old house, where patches of goji berries were probed out from the withered yellow weeds, spreading out the moist spring wolfberry heads, and the gluttonous insects in the stomach were also stirring.
After waiting a few sunny days, when the buds had grown into inch-and-a-half young stems, I made an appointment with a few partners and went to the river beach with baskets to pick.
The local wolfberry head, the gray-green stem is dark or light purple, and the branches are thorny, and the twists are colorful. This makes them easy to identify even when mixed with weeds.
It's just that, unlike the herbaceous shepherd's cabbage, you have to dig from the roots when you pick it. The woody wolfberry is taken from the tender head, and the skill must be mastered when picking. It must be like picking tea, gently pick up one end of the branch with both hands, carefully go down the trend, and grow next to the small thorns to half cover and half cover, the most plump and delicate tender green buds, it clicks, and the fragrance is overflowing.
There is a folk proverb: eat tender heads in spring and eat fruits in autumn. As everyone knows, the new buds and leaves of wild vegetables in spring are the most green and oily, as tender as a bird's tongue. But they are both sprouts, and their taste is still slightly different from each other. Anyone who has eaten wolfberry knows that its taste is slightly bitter and has a slight rustic flavor of grass leaves.
It is precisely this long aftertaste and unstoppable bitterness that makes the wolfberry head related to the literati. Lu You of the Song Dynasty wrote in "The Taoist Room": "The taste of pine root and poria is exquisite, and the fragrance of wolfberry in the retort is moving. Persuade the gentleman not to appreciate it, and end up as a cellar of dust in the mountains. Obviously, in the eyes of the poet, this fragrant and crispy wolfberry head is absolutely extraordinary. Coincidentally, Wang Zengqi, who wrote wild vegetables to the extreme, also said in his work "Food in Hometown": "Eating wolfberry heads in spring, clouds can clear the fire, just like northerners eat endive." ”
I remember when I was in elementary school, when I had been working for a long time and my eyes were astringent, my grandmother would stir-fry vegetables with wolfberry heads, and said: "Eat more, my eyes are clear after eating wolfberry heads, and I don't need to wear glasses in the future." ”
In my impression, my grandmother would take the head of the wolfberry to the tender inch long part, and fry it quickly in the oil pan over high heat. Seeing that the fluffy wolfberry head is wrapped in fat, soaked in juice, mixed with salt, and immediately served, the green and green are piled up in the porcelain plate, steaming, living and fragrant, and salivating is inevitable.
Take a bite and take a bite. With several crisp sounds, it feels fragrant and refreshing, crisp and tender, making the human body taste a kind of comfort like autumn cool water, and there is no dish that can compare!
People's preference for food usually has stages. Just like me back then, I didn't like bitterness, but I was more afraid of astringency, except for wolfberry heads. I often can't even figure it out.,Why do you like this slightly bitter thing?
Because it has just gone through a long winter, eating wolfberry head is equivalent to eating spring, chewing the good spring between the teeth. Every time I ate it, I would chew it like a cow eating grass, and I wouldn't miss even the little bright soup that was left. Drinking it with relish, not only is it a pleasure on the tip of the tongue, but also soothes the irritable mind. It is true that the literati of the past generations loved this wild vegetable!
Of course, stir-fried wolfberry head has a bitter taste after all, which is difficult for most children to accept. My sister, for example, has always rejected this mouthful of Qingfen, which seems to me to be extremely crisp and beautiful. As a green vegetable, wolfberry head can also be used as soup or porridge. As recorded in the Qing Dynasty diet and health monograph "Yang Xiaolu": "wolfberry head, blanched, ginger juice, soy sauce, and slightly vinegar." You can also cook porridge. "In the early years, my grandmother opened a small stove for my sister and cooked wolfberry porridge. I once ate it secretly, and the taste has its own merits with stir-frying.
Some dishes are not only simple to eat, but also short to eat, and wolfberry head is one of them. Although the buds that have been picked will reappear, the taste will be slightly different every time you eat them. Not only does the bitterness of the leaves become stronger, but the stems also become thicker and thicker. In terms of taste, it has to be discounted.
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Author: Zhong Zhenghe
Editor: Zhang Li
Editor-in-charge: Liao and Wei
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