When the pig's head laughs, it is usually the time of the New Year's Festival, and the smile appears on the faces of the people at the bottom. In this sense, the pig's head represents the happiness index of the people of Shanghai at a certain time.
(Pork head with sauce)
Haha, Zhou Zuoren actually loves to eat pork head meat. "When I was a child, I bought pork head meat with a few dollars at the stall, cut it into thin slices, put it on the dried lotus leaves, sprinkled with salt slightly, and ate it empty. Sandwiched in the baked bread is the most suitable, better than the northern sauce elbow. The people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang will buy pig heads to worship the gods in the New Year, but people in the city often use rectangular pork..."
In this short article entitled "Pork Head Meat", Zhou Zuoren also recalled that he had eaten pork head meat at a friend's house once, and the master drank two small poems, and he wrote oil poems according to the original rhyme, including two sentences: "I got up early to drink tea and read the newspaper, and went out to eat the pig's head." "Writing poems for eating pork head meat is relatively pedantic, but Zhou Zuoren's oil poems are not, a bit self-deprecating excuses, and it is not pretentious. When the old man of bitter tea wrote this short article, it was already 1951, which was popular all over the mountain, so the word "people" was applied in the text with the times.
It should be said that the government is not thin for him, and his monthly salary is equivalent to that of a deputy ministerial cadre of the State Council, but he is obsessed with the past food, and during this time he has written a lot of food essays, including pork head meat that is not on the table.
Zhou Zuoren said it well, the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang must prepare a pig's head for the New Year, but they no longer use the pig's head and three animals to sacrifice the gods, purely to fight the teeth. Our family also regarded the pig's head as a major play, and my father, the task, was usually done by the father, who came back from the vegetable market with a bloody pig's head, and asked the master to split it into two petals beforehand, and give it to the mother to shave, divide, and cook. Half white boiled, half braised. I like the white cut pork head, the soy sauce dish rolling, the big pieces in the mouth, the fat oil drilling in and out of the teeth, the satisfaction is the strongest.
Shanghainese have a slang saying: "Pork head meat, three not refined", which vividly summarizes the basic state of pork head meat as a wine dish. Pork head meat is fat and lean, thick cortex, tough enough, even the thickest soap-like part, if cooked just right, after cooling can also maintain the appearance of Theada jade, after the entrance to the teeth proper resistance, chewy, flavorful. Another sociological meaning of this slang sentence refers to the fact that some people have strong hands-on ability and common sense, and can be called a generalist in the circle of friends, but they do not necessarily have a specialty. A corresponding adjective is "three-legged cat".
Braised pork head meat is more greasy, although the addition of white sugar, fennel, cinnamon, the taste is more layered, but if it can not be compared with the white cut. The leftover braised pork head meat with a layer of snow-white grease on the bowl surface, and the scenery outside the window of the cold winter moon constitute the basic color of the cold vegetarian life, the chopsticks are tuk tuk, and the appetite is getting worse and worse every day. Finally, in the boiling hot vegetable soup noodles, a piece of pork head meat is baked into it, and the aroma escapes lazily, and the noodles are eaten with a huhula, which is also a supplement to nutrition.
In the past, the pork head meat sold in the delicatessen was white cut, but in the past, it was rubbed with salt before cooking, and the lean meat was slightly red, like a touch of peach blossom, and it was fragrant to eat. Later, the food hygiene department issued a warning that nitrate is a carcinogen and eating more is harmful to the body. Since then, it is strictly forbidden to add salt to the pork head meat, the meat color is white, but the flavor is much inferior.
The salt meat and salt hooves in Huaiyang cuisine are very famous, and the formation of characteristics also lies in the addition of salt. At the beginning of the eldest brother's work in Zhenjiang with the unit, every time he returned to Shanghai to visit his relatives, he must bring three kinds of food: crystal salt meat, crab powder cage, and sauce radish head. The salt meat and small cage are wrapped in dried lotus leaves, packed in a net basket, covered with a piece of red paper, and tied with brown rope, which is a good gift. Because there is a soup condensed in the salt meat, it is shaped like crystal, and it is called crystal salt meat. Sprinkle more tender ginger shreds in the vinegar dish, which can be degreased when dipped. Later, it was impossible to add nitrate, and the ingestion of nitrate meat could not be compared with the past.
Now there are Yangzhou salt meat in the hotel as a cold dish for guests, because there is no salt, and all dishes are written on the menu. But Shanghainese people read the white characters and still call out in the flesh of the salt. Pork is unimaginative, does not refer specifically to cooking methods, and is stored in the refrigerator on hot days, and it is very annoying to eat.
In Shanghai's former fly houses, pig's head meat has always been served, and the pots are stacked on top of each other, allowing the drunkards to choose their own. It can also be divided into brains, ears, nose punches, jaws, faces, eyes, etc., and drunkards who eat are keen to enjoy the eyes and "surrounding areas", which is said to have a strange fragrance. I had the audacity to taste it, and sure enough, it was extraordinary, and the smell was similar to that of a fine leather egg.
Nose punch is live meat, because the second master brother uses it every day to arch the wall, exercise quite firmly, cut thin slices, and be full of tenacity. Pig brain steamed, tender over tofu, fresh dragon marrow, but this substance cholesterol is extremely high. Needless to say, two layers of skin tightly wrapped around a layer of cartilage, sandwich style, Shanghainese people love to eat, its price is higher than other parts.
In the old days, there was a restaurant on the beach called Lao Heji, and there was a famous dish that was loved by old diners, the so-called "gold and silver brain", which was cooked with incandescent pig brain and smoked pig brain. There are a few drunkards who also particularly like to eat the pig tooth bed, hehe, this kind of thing is also disgusting to think about, but it is very cheap, two dimes soft toot a large basin.
After the pig's head is cooked, it is difficult to remove the jawbone, you have to borrow a rag, with a little ingenuity in your hand, three turns and two turns out, race through the cudding to solve the cow. If it is not folded well, the meat will be broken, and it will not sell for a good price.
Bad head meat, bad pig ears are summer under the wine, in the past there are served in the delicatessen, after buying back in the refrigerator for a while, open a few bottles of cold beer at night, watch the ball game live on TV, this is a man's happy time.
I have eaten pork head in Hunan. In addition to the unique flavor of bacon, it is also more resilient than ordinary bacon and more suitable for drinking. I have eaten braised pork head meat in Shandong, which is different from my family's style, chopping large pieces, adding garlic, more fat, a large pot in the center of the table, and eating cakes.
One year near the New Year, I saw the pig head on the market in the Sanyang South Goods Store on Nanjing Road, produced in Guangdong, and the price of one was more than 100 yuan. It was hung in a conspicuous place by the master, and it had been flattened to an inch thick and quite delicately sealed. The face of the pig's head was originally a little smiling, and at this moment, its value went up, and it was particularly proud. The wife said that once upon a time, her father would also take a pig's head home during the New Year, and the family would have meat dishes to eat. She had tears in her eyes as she said this. She remembered her father, my old Tarzan, who had been dead for ten years.
Zhang Ailing described watching rural people kill pigs in "A Foreign Land": "A snow-white and strong pig swooped over on the edge of the bucket, and at this time it really looked like a person. But the most abominable and terrible thing was that later, the pig's face, which had completely gone to hair, was completely exposed, and it was actually smiling and giggling, and the small eyes narrowed into a line, as if extremely happy. This expression has been preserved to this day, unchanged, and consistent with my childhood observations, which is Zhang Ailing's strength.
I love pork head meat. If there are pig ears in the restaurant, known as "downwind", or pig's head cake, cut into strips of potting, I am not welcome, first taste as fast. However, the whole pig's head did not dare to procure it, and after this thing was carried home, it must have been contracted by me alone. Therefore, when the hungry insects hooked people, they had to go to the Sanyang South Goods Store to buy two or three wax pig noses and rush home. After steaming, cut into thin slices and sprinkled with pepper salt, it is full of toughness and aroma, and it is delicious. The old man in the garden said that yellow wine is a scribe, and liquor is a bare stick. Then drinking white wine and eating bacon is simply a bare stick with a widow.
Salty pig head in winter to eat quite well, a small plate of salted pig ears, a large bowl of hot porridge, a big happy life. The salty pig's head also looks a little smiling, because there are deep wrinkles and salt flowers, and the expression of old Shanghai that has been weathered by wind and frost. When the pig's head laughs, it is usually the time of the New Year's Festival, and the smile appears on the faces of the people at the bottom. In this sense, the pig's head represents the happiness index of the people of Shanghai at a certain time.
Shen Jialu is the chief writer and senior reporter of Xinmin Weekly. He is a member of the China Writers Association and a director of the Shanghai Writers Association. His works have won the 1990 "Bud" Literary Award, the 1994 "Guangzhou Literature and Art" Award, the 1996 "Mountain Flower" Award, the 1991 and 1996 "Shanghai Literature" Literary Award. In 2004, he published "Fashion Old Furniture" and "Looking for Old Furniture", showing the immortal charm of classic old furniture, leading readers to shuttle back and forth between classical and fashion, opening the window of cultural appreciation of old Western furniture, and becoming a must-read book for people who liked Old Western furniture in that era. He also loves to collect and play with ceramics and furniture, but he prefers to be treated like a foodie and present himself as a Shanghainese gourmet.
Shen Jialu's paintings
This article has been published with the author's permission, and the graphics and text are provided by the author
Special thanks to the old Shanghai flavor public number support