In the "History of Rulin", the author writes about many local delicacies, especially meat dishes such as chicken, duck and fish, which can be seen everywhere in the book.
Below, based on my impressions, I will take stock of some of the "most delicious" of them.
1. Thin pork
In the "History of Rulin", many people love to eat meat, and they love to eat fat meat.
The most typical of these is Mr. Ma Er. Once, Gongsun Invited him to his home for dinner, and what was laid out was "a bowl of stewed duck, a bowl of boiled chicken, a tail of fish, and a large bowl of simmered and thin pork."
Mr. Ma Er was also not polite, saying, "This fish does not have to move, but the meat is good", so he began to eat, "At the moment, I ate four bowls of rice, and ate a large bowl of rotten meat cleanly." When I heard it inside, i added another bowl; even the soup was eaten. ”
There are so many characters in "Ru Lin Wai Shi", the author rarely writes about the height of people, but Mr. Ma Er is an exception, as soon as he appeared, the book said that he was "eight feet long, described as very great", so he "ate quite a lot", loved to eat meat, and always seemed to have enough to eat.
When visiting the West Lake, Mr. Ma Er did not look at the scenery all the way, only two things, one is a woman, and the other is food. In his eyes, there was full of fattened lamb, piping hot hooves, wontons boiling in the pot, steaming huge steamed buns on the steamer...
Pull it away, back to the thin pork.
Yan Jiansheng once criticized his brother Yan Gongsheng behind his back for not knowing how to be diligent and thrifty in running the family, saying that his family always ate pork, "in three days, once you buy it, it is five pounds, and you have to cook it in vain."
These few details show that at that time, people's taste, pork had to be cooked or simmered until it was thin and rotten.
Pork is rotten and delicious, since ancient times, Su Dongpo's famous "Ode to Pork" said: "Clean washing bells, less water, firewood head smoke flames." When he is self-familiar, he is not urged to urge him, and when the fire is full, he is self-beautiful. ”
This is said to be the source of today's Dongpo meat practice.
2. Extremely fatty duck
If you want to talk about the top food of "Ru Lin Wai Shi", duck is definitely on the list.
In the author's writing, from north to south, whether it is Wenshang in Shandong where Zhou Jin is located, or Gaoyao in Guangdong where Fan Jin once arrived, there are duck meat on the dinner table. As for the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, like Hangzhou and Nanjing, there are more duck meat on the table.
If nothing else, the practice of only ducks appears a lot in the book, such as The Gongsun family entertained Mr. Ma Er with "stewed duck", Mr. Ma Er saw "bad ducks" at the hotel counter by the West Lake, Pan San asked Kuang Chao to eat "whole ducks" in the hotel, Zhuge Tian applied for Xiao Jinxuan and Ji Tianyi to eat "plate ducks", Zhuang Maojiang gave Du Shaoqing a "roast duck" in the things he gave to Du Shaoqing for the festival, and Du Shaoqing invited guests in Tianchang's home "simmering old ducks weighing seven pounds"...
As we all know, Nanjing people love to eat duck, especially Nanjing saltwater duck is famous. Perhaps it is because Wu Jingzi has lived in Nanjing for many years, which is why he loves to eat duck so much in "The History of Ru Lin".
Speaking of Nanjing saltwater duck, I also love to eat it, I think it is salty, tender, and full of fresh flavor when chewed.
In addition, the "History of Ru Linwai" writes that people at that time ate meat, especially when eating duck, pay attention to meat to be fat.
Jing Lanjiang, Zhao Xuezhai, Kuang Chaoren and other "celebrities" West Lake Yahui, to the market to prepare food, Hu Sangongzi "I am afraid that the duck is not fat, pull out the ear to poke the thick meat on the breast, only to tell Jing Lanjiang to negotiate the price to buy."
Mr. Ma Er traveled to the West Lake and saw the "fatty mutton hanging in the shop"; the powerful Pan Sanye went down to the restaurant, and the restaurant "farted and urinated, and the duck and meat were picked up with a very fat cut"; Yu Huaxuan teased the hungry Cheng Lao Dad, deliberately in front of him, "big fat meat pieces, ducks, foot fish, sandwiched and sent to the mouth"...
It seems that extremely fatty meat, especially fat duck meat, was the love of people at that time.
3. Delicious bird's nest sea cucumber
In the "History of Rulin", bird's nest, sea cucumber and other delicacies that now seem to be more precious appear many times.
In Gaoyao, Guangdong, Tang Feng invited Fan Jin and Zhang Jingzhai to dinner, and there was a detail during the banquet that Fan Jin "picked a large shrimp yuanzi in the bird's nest bowl and sent it to his mouth".
When Mr. Ma Er traveled to Hangzhou, he saw the people in the cloth government secretary's room inviting guests, "the bird's nest and sea cucumber in the hot soup soup, and the bowls and bowls were held in front of him", and he "envied it again".
Pan San invited Kuang Chaoren to dinner, and there was "a sale of sea cucumber miscellaneous" at the big meal, and the shop specially "added flavor as a ingredient" for him.
Compared with chicken, duck and fish meat, sea cucumbers and bird's nest appear less often in the book. One of the characteristics of the three times mentioned above is that the guest is either an official or an official--Tang Feng is a Zhi County, Mr. Ma Er sees that the guest is in the office of the political secretary, and Pan San is fishing for black money for the official at the Yamen.
This shows that even at that time, bird's nest and sea cucumber were more precious than ordinary chicken, duck and fish meat, and it was not something that ordinary families could afford to eat.
Compared with the fine and wonderful diet of "Dream of the Red Chamber", the diet of "Ru Lin Wai Shi" is rough and tacky; compared with the "Water Margin" diet of "beef just cut", the "bowl of stewed duck and a bowl of boiled chicken" of the "Ru Lin Wai Shi" diet is trivial and stingy.
This may be a concrete and subtle manifestation of the group of readers under the imperial examination system, different from Miss Gongzi in the Grand View Garden, and even more different from the heroes and good men in Liangshan Poli.