A nine-story tower, not a tower with nine floors, but a vegetable.
A casual lunch and acquaintance with the Nine-Story Tower. One day, a friend invited our husband and wife to a small gathering at a restaurant. The owner of this restaurant located on Guyang South Road in the old town of Songjiang is Taiwanese, and the name of the restaurant is "Fengjia Xiaoguan --- Taiwanese cuisine". Because of my work experience, I know a little about Fengjia, especially Fengjia Night Market. Fengjia Night Market is very famous on the island of Taiwan, and the special snacks on Fengjia Night Market are known as the first in Taiwan. It is not surprising that Songjiang has opened a small restaurant in Fengjia, because Songjiang has many Taiwan-funded enterprises, and a large number of Taiwanese people work and live here; and Songjiang people also love Taiwanese cuisine.
The impression of the first fengjia small restaurant is warm, simple decoration, elegant environment, neat decoration, warm and quiet waiters, especially the pot of red jujube guiyuan welcome tea, fragrant and spleen, sweet and moist stomach, mild and palatable, pleasant and refreshing. As for the dishes here, the pure Taiwanese cuisine is completely original. On that day, we ordered pretzel and salt ribs, pineapple shrimp balls, Taiwanese marinated meat rice, three cups of chicken, garlic sweet potato leaves, etc., chopsticks into the mouth, crisp and refreshing, taste buds blooming. However, what impressed us most about Fengjia Xiaoguan was not Taiwanese cuisine, but the nine-story tower.
The waiter handed over a three-cup chicken, and the braised chicken nuggets were randomly placed on top of a few green stems and leaves, which gave people a wonderful visual effect. The wife was attracted by the green stems and leaves. She used chopsticks to pick up one of the sticks and bring it to her nose, and just after smelling it, she asked in surprise: What kind of dish is this, there is a strong smell of fennel, very good smell. I examined the stems and leaves in the dish carefully, shaped like mint leaves, purple-green, with soft hairs on the surface, which were obviously not; like the head of Maran, but the leaves were wide and large, nor were they. I looked at my friend, and the friend shook his head; my wife looked at me, and I shook my head. We had to ask the waiter, and she said she didn't know either. Fortunately, the waiter was very attentive, and after a while she came to us and said that she consulted the chef in the kitchen, and the chef said that the tender head was called the nine-story tower.
Nine-story tower? How to write? The waiter smiled and said: Nine-story tower. yes? The small, green, delicate stems and leaves in front of me are actually a huge building: a nine-story tower! It was so surprising! Even a chinese cabbage, placed on the edge of a nine-story tower, is disproportionate! I had no way of imagining how this stem and leaf in front of me could relate to a tower!
The wife was still in a strong interest, and while smelling it, she tasted it again, so she was surprised again: it was very fragrant, very refreshing. We each picked up a young leaf with chopsticks and smelled and tasted it. This nine-story tower chewed in the mouth, and the mouth had a fragrant, refreshing taste.
The good taste inspires curiosity, and I search for "nine-story tower" on Baidu on my phone. Sure enough, there are nine-story towers. The nine-story pagoda is also known as "fish coriander" and "basil", and in Teochew cuisine, it is also known as "Jin Bu Chang", and the Hakka call it "Full Garden Fragrant" and "Man Auntie Xiang". The nine-story tower is an annual herb called the "nine-story tower" because of its multi-story tower-like flower. Because its leaves, stems and flowers have a strong star anise fragrance, it is also called lanxiang basil. It has the effect of relieving wind and dissolving the table, reducing dampness and neutralization, invigorating the blood, detoxifying and reducing swelling. The young stems and leaves of this nine-story tower have a soft aromatic aroma, which can be appetizing, so in Guangzhou, Taiwan and other areas are often used as the embellishment material for some meat dishes, which can be both bright and seasoned; some directly use the nine-story tower as the main ingredient, or cold mix, or stir-fry, or make soup, fragrant and seductive, delicious and delicious, both can increase appetite, but also aftertaste endlessly, is a very popular dish.
My reading about the nine-story tower on Baidu stimulated my wife's interest in the nine-story tower. When she heard that the nine-story tower could be planted, she immediately called the waiter. The wife made a request to the waiter, asking her to go to the kitchen to find a few branches of the nine-story tower. After a while, the waiter came over with a smile, holding two young stems like Maran's head, "There are not many, these are two picked from the washed plate." "Haha, this is "chopsticks under the dish"!
I asked my wife, what do you want this for? The wife said: Take it home and plant it. What the? I was surprised. I stared at the tender heads of the two washed nine-story towers, and thought of the green cabbage hearts and maran heads that had just been plucked, how could this be planted alive. "Don't toss blindly, just two tender heads that will be sent into the mouths of others, can you still plant a job?" My wife said, try it, maybe you will plant a job.
After dinner, the wife carefully wrapped the two tender heads in napkins and really took them home.
When she got home, her wife found two paper cups, poured a small half cup of water, and then put the tender heads of the two nine-story towers in them. I said: If you can still live like this, it will be a miracle. The wife said: Then let's expect a miracle to happen.
The next day I got home from work, and my wife said that the nine-story tower was alive. I don't believe it. I walked over to the two paper cups and glanced at them. Strangely, I thought that after one night and one day, those two tender heads were almost weak, but unexpectedly, they were even fresher and more delicate than last night! Judging from this bright and beautiful texture, it should be alive. However, I still have doubts: this is the work of water, and planting them in the soil may not be able to survive.
The wife was very excited, and found a flowerpot in the yard, which was a pot that had been planted with chrysanthemums; the chrysanthemums that had experienced the harsh winter had long since withered, and the pots had become deserted pots. The wife pulled out the withered chrysanthemums in the pot, turned the soil loose, and then, expectantly, moved the tender heads of the two nine-story towers from the disposable paper cups to here; and also poked the bottom of the paper cups a few empty, and buckled upside down on the tender heads of the nine-story tower----- the wife was worried that the stems and leaves were too tender to withstand the sunlight.
After about a few days, my wife mysteriously pulled me into the yard, and she pointed to the two nine-story towers in the flowerpot and said excitedly: Look, I am really alive! Really alive! As soon as I looked, a few days had passed, and the stems and leaves of the two nine-story towers planted in the pots were still as fresh as ever! Watching them overflow with vitality clearly declares that these two nine-story towers that were "snatched" from the mouths of diners were really planted by my wife! No wonder the wife who has been a grandmother is happy to be as innocent as her grandson!
However, the unexpected gains were met with unexpected surprises. After about two or three days, my wife told me with an anxious face: the leaves of a nine-story tower were pecked off by a bird; what should I do? Expect me to give her a little measure. I followed my wife into the yard to see what was going on. However, when I saw the nine-story tower that had run out of leaves, I knew the real reason. The appearance of the nine-story tower with only bare roots left reminds me of my experience growing cotton in the countryside when I was young. When cotton is first planted, it is often encountered when a bug bites off the stems and leaves; at that time, adults went to the cotton fields every morning to catch insects. So, I told my wife that the stems and leaves of the nine-story tower were not pecked by birds, but there were bugs in the soil. The wife was astonished, what bug is so powerful? I said, whatever the bug is, change the pot at once, and quickly transplant the other nine-story tower; otherwise, tomorrow morning, it will be bitten by the worm. Just do it, don't delay! A rush moved the surviving nine-story tower to a new "home.".
Everything was smooth sailing in the back. The surviving nine-story tower grew day by day. New leaves began to grow, the new leaves were purple-green, and had a faint layer of soft hairs; later, they were knotted, and the branches grew opposite leaves, and the leaves were ovate lanceolate, and the edges were sparsely serrated; and then small white flowers bloomed between the branches, although not bright, but very plain. Then, grow one layer and then grow up; one more layer, and then continue to rise; as if people climbed the tower, they climbed layer after layer, and climbed up vigorously. In the summer, the original small stem and leaf have grown a multi-layered "pagoda", and each layer of branches is luxuriant, and small white flowers bloom quietly between the branches. The whole nine-story pagoda, in the shape of a pagoda, is really like a tower, standing firmly in my yard! Although it is just a vegetable, it does not have a towering majesty, but it is graceful and graceful, and the form is beautiful and elegant. Oh, and it's truly worthy of its name, a "nine-story tower" in a dish!
Looking at the layered nine-story tower in front of me, thinking about its origin, my heart was a little excited. Life is about fate, there is a fate of life. In fact, plants are also related. The two nine-story pagoda stems and leaves that were "snatched" from the dishes of the Fengjia Restaurant were bitten off by insects, and one eventually grew into shape in my yard. If it hadn't been for that "encounter" with us, it probably wouldn't have had such a prosperous ending as it does today!