Three volts a bowl of sour plum soup

□ Miriho

Sour plum soup, a classical drink suitable for drinking on three days, is said to have accumulated thousands of years of history.

The "plum" of sour plum soup is Ume. The Compendium of Materia Medica says "plum": "The plum is half yellow, and the smoked one is the plum." "It can remove heat and cool, calm the nerves and relieve pain, and even cure cough, cholera, dysentery." In the mythological novel "The Legend of the White Snake", there is a story of Wumei to fight the epidemic. Sour plum soup has the effect of eliminating food and harmony, dissipating qi, quenching thirst, converging lung qi, and removing annoyance and calming the spirit.

There is a saying in the Book of Rites that "slurry water enzyme abuse", Zheng Xuan commented that the enzyme is a kind of plum pulp, from Umei, which should be the earliest record of using Umei as a drink.

The official introduction of plum soup to the market was the Song Dynasty. According to the "Wulin Past", Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty sold a cold drink called "brine plum water", which is the predecessor of today's sour plum soup.

During the Qing Dynasty, sour plum soup was further perfected. At that time, the imperial dining room of the imperial palace soaked the hair of the ume, added rock sugar, honey, osmanthus flowers together, and used ice cubes to freeze, sweet acid cool, relieve the heat and eat. In the "Records of the Yanjing Dynasty", it is said: "Sour plum soup is boiled with sour plum ice sugar, mixed with roses, wood trees, ice water, and its cool teeth..." Its ingredients such as plum, hawthorn, and licorice can not only drain oil and degreas, but also enrich a variety of nutrients. It is said that the Qianlong Emperor drank tea before and after tea. Plum soup spread from the palace to the people, welcomed by the common people, known as the "Qing Palace Exotic Treasure Imperial Ume Soup". This kind of summer quenching and thirst-quenching drink is more than 100 years earlier than the soda that was introduced to China from Western Europe.

There is such a verse in the "Dumen Miscellaneous Songs": The heat is more insurable, and the copper cup is knocked on at night to sell plum soup. I think that in the old evening, the heat will dissipate, and the ground will splash thick shade, but the cicadas are still chirping in the trees, and people are still waving old fans. The person who sells sour plum soup picks up the burden and knocks on the copper cup at night to sell plum soup. Yellow hair hanging down, surrounded by clusters, you a bowl, he a bowl, such a scene, it is really pleasant.

At noon, sour plum soup is more popular. Under the scorching heat, those who escaped from the sun were covered with a cloud of steam on their heads; a bowl of sour plum soup, sour and sweet into the heart and lungs, the heat slowly receded. A bowl to the bottom, and a few grains of ice slag, chewed in the mouth, clucking, clucking, chill into the teeth, ice ah, do not dare to exhale, roll their eyes.

At the end of the drink, the sour plum soup slowly warmed up. The sweet and sour of the plum soup appears, slowly touching, sour and sweet, sweet and sour, really resistant to aftertaste.

This is also the beauty of sour plum soup: its taste is almost diverse and three-dimensional: initially, it is sour, re-tasting, it is sweet, it is touched, it is back to sour, but it is wrapped with a wisp of sweetness. Sweet and sour, soothing and long, like a melodious slow plank, the burning mood is slowed down, stabilized, and calmly faced with the enthusiasm of the summer.

In "Yashe Talks About Eating", Liang Shiqiu wrote about sour plum soup: "There is more rock sugar, the plum juice is thick, and the water is less, so the taste is thick and salty." It is catchy and cold, moderately sweet and sour, and contains pure mash in the mouth, and is reluctant to swallow. "Just think about it in terms of words, the depth of that taste really makes people feel happy."

The production of sour plum soup is not complicated, and families can easily make it. Raw materials, mainly hawthorn, ume, tangerine peel, licorice, soaked in cool water for half an hour, washed and put into a casserole, add cool water, cook on high heat. After the water has come to a boil, reduce the heat and continue to simmer for at least half an hour.

Before coming out of the pot, put some rock sugar cubes and simmer, and that's it. If there is sugar osmanthus or dried osmanthus flowers, when the fire is small, put it in, which can add a little elegant flavor to the sour plum soup. Ordinary people, boil a pot of sour plum soup, put it in a cold pot to cool, the refrigerator is cold, the whole family can drink for several days.

Zhang Ailing's novel "The Golden Lock" has a sour plum soup appearance: "Sour plum soup drops down along the table, like a delayed night leak - a drop, a drop... One more, two more... One year, one hundred years. It's long, this moment of silence. This bowl of sour plum soup that was overturned dripped out of a sad atmosphere. However, the original taste of sour plum soup is cold, but it is not the kind of sadness that goes into the bone.

It is gentle, peaceful, gentle and courteous, so rich in a classical taste.

Source: Spring City Evening News