"The West Lake is better than Eastern Wu, and the spring waves in March are full of green lakes; the new sample yue Luo cuts narrow sleeves, and people say that it is like Luo Shi."
This is the scene of the Zhejiang poet Shen Mingchen in the middle of the Ming Dynasty writing about a woman picking lettuce in Jiangnan. In the Ming Dynasty,"West Lake Tour", there is a record of "the third bridge of the West Lake near the lettuce". At present, it is planted in places such as the Three Pools Moon Printing and the Flower Harbor Fish Watching.
<b>Lettuce is recorded in the Book of Verses</b>
Speaking of lettuce, many people may never have heard of it, but in Jiangnan, this is a well-known aquatic plant, also known as lettuce, calla lily, etc., the production area is mainly distributed in the lakes and wetlands south of the Yangtze River, especially the West Lake in Hangzhou, the Xiang Lake in Xiaoshan, and the Taihu Lake in Jiangsu. Jiangnan has a long history of eating lettuce, and the song "Shijing Lusong Fengshui" says "Si Le Pan Shui, Thin Picking Its Mao (máo)." Among them, Kong Yingda, a Tang Dynasty commentator, believes that it is the lettuce eaten by Jiangnan people. According to the Song Dynasty geographical chronicle "Taiping Huanyu Record": "Changxing (Huzhou, Zhejiang) West Lake, a Wucheng Lake, out of the lake out of the jia, taste tribute." "This is an earlier record of Lettuce in history.
The ancients have always admired the flavor of lettuce, and during the Western Jin Dynasty, people compared it with white and sea bass, and the Ming people praised it as "its taste is crisp and smooth, slightly like fish marrow, crab fat, and qing is far better... Its products can spoil the lotus root, and the one who has no right, but the orchid in the flower and the bayberry in the fruit can be used as a matching ear. The Ming Dynasty also has a "Song of Boiling Lettuce": "The glass bowl is full of jasper light, the five flavors are mixed with raw incense, the four seats of the plate have sighed, the lifting does not dare to compete to taste, the shallow chewing means enough, pointing the cup and plate to love Yu Fu, but the crisp and slippery teeth, do not feel clear and tired, the flesh and blood are dry and the grass and wood are bitter, this taste is detached from the taste", but also the color, aroma, taste, shape, texture and utensils, love, and atmosphere of the lettuce are written in a wonderful way, vividly, so that people who have tasted lettuce approve, and those who have not tasted it are salivating.
Perhaps this small bowl of lettuce soup is not conspicuous, and even a little cold, but carefully examining its history and culture, lettuce soup is a veritable "cultural depth".
Lettuce story
Many people know that the Tang Dynasty had the story of sending lychees to the imperial palace pegasus, and coincidentally, the Ming Dynasty also had the story of pegasus sending fresh lettuce to the imperial palace: during the Ming Dynasty, the lettuce of Suzhou Dongshan was listed as a "tribute", in order to keep the lettuce tender, local officials found ways to use flying horses to transport to the capital to meet the needs of the imperial diet. When the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty went down to Jiangnan and inspected the Dongshan Mountains in Suzhou, there was a local man named Zhang Zhihong, who specially prepared ten jars of lettuce and the ancestral exquisite painting "Cai Shu Tu" and twenty poems of the "Gong Shu Poems" he wrote, Kangxi was very happy after tasting it, and ordered the eunuch to accept the gift, and ordered the eunuch to transport the lettuce to the Beijing Royal Garden for breeding, and set the lettuce as "Gong Shu", and also appreciated his poems, and later simply rewarded Zhang Zhihong with a black hat, so the locals jokingly called him "Gong Guan". In Chinese history, the poetry of Acura is endless. Yuan Tao Zongyi's "Title Zhang Shuqing < Picking The >": Purple lettuce on the Autumn Wind River, when the boy carries a basket. The unique DongCao can drive, and so far this taste is little known. It is the beautiful text of Acura lettuce.
There are those who have been promoted because of lettuce, and there are also those who have resigned because of lettuce. Zhang Han, a famous literary scholar of the Western Jin Dynasty, missed Wuzhong lettuce, lettuce soup and sea bass because he saw the autumn wind. According to the "Biography of Zhang Han in the Book of Jin", Zhang Han, because he saw the autumn wind, thought about Wu Zhong's lettuce and sea bass, and said: "Life is too expensive to be suitable: how can you detain officials for thousands of miles to be famous?" "And so he drove home." Therefore, later generations often used "lettuce soup perch" as a metaphor for resigning officials and returning to their hometowns. The Yuan dynasty poet Zhang Kejiu also has the sentence "Lettuce Zhang Han, Fishing Boat Fan Li, Tea Stove Guimeng" in the word "Full Moon of Man". It is precisely because the soup perch has the meaning of thinking of the country and homesick, which is cherished by people, and in Hangzhou for a long time, the lettuce soup in the building outside the building is simply named "The Thought of the Sea bass". In recent years, many overseas Chinese have come to the West Lake to visit, and they are often happy to order the dish of "Thoughts of The Perch" to express their longing for the motherland and their hometown.
There are actually many practices of lettuce in Jiangnan, such as adding aquatic products such as crucian carp and silver fish to the lettuce, or "big meat" such as beef nuggets, but in the lettuce soup cooked in this way, the taste of big fish and big meat is inevitably too heavy, and it is difficult for diners to fully taste the taste of lettuce. "The cup of wine is light before life, and the autumn wind is heavy behind the perch."
Lettuce from a botanical perspective
Lettuce is a perennial aquatic plant. Both the petiole and peduncle are covered with a layer of lubricated transparent gelatin. The edible part is the new leaf that has sunk in the water and has not yet unfolded. "Flowers are full of willow smoke, and it is a sunny day when the lettuce is picked." Spring blossoms are the best season for picking lettuce. Lettuce is harvested for a long time, from mid-April to late September, and can be picked every two or three days, with the highest yield in July. Now hangzhou is in the middle of June, which is a slightly hot time, which is also a good time to taste lettuce.
Cooking method
Fresh lettuce, cooked shredded ham, cooked chicken shredded, ham chicken soup, salt, monosodium glutamate, cooked chicken fat. Put the fresh lettuce into a pot of boiling water, put it in a soup bowl, put the original soup made of ham and chicken into the pot, add salt and MSG to boil, pour over the lettuce, sprinkle with shredded chicken and ham, and drizzle with cooked chicken fat.
Nutritional characteristics
Lettuce has a white transparent gelatinous substance around the young stems, shoots, and curl leaves, containing a higher gum and other components. It has been determined that each 100 grams of fresh lettuce contains 900 mg of protein, 230 mg of sugar, and more vitamin C and a small amount of iron. Lettuce is a precious wild aquatic vegetable whose application value is concentrated in medical value and edible value. Lettuce has the effect of clearing heat, water, swelling and detoxification. Indications for the treatment of detoxification, hypertension, diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, nausea, carbuncle boils, fever boils, fever boils, etc. In addition to the main raw material lettuce, West Lake lettuce soup also contains cooked chicken shreds, cooked chicken fat and chicken soup, chicken soup, especially the old hen soup has always been known for its delicious taste, "tonic" effect is also known. Chicken soup can also play a role in relieving cold symptoms and improving the body's immune function. Chicken fat belongs to animal fat, one of the five major nutrients of food, which can strengthen the spleen and appetizers, and replenish the body. It is suitable for postpartum weakness, lack of food and other symptoms, and can enhance the body's immunity and prevent the occurrence of diseases. Chanterelle can also be used to treat baldness, hair loss and other conditions.
BY Eddie Zhou