A bowl of soup
Li
That bowl of soup ran through my entire childhood. Now, with my hands caressing the gray hair on my sideburns and brushing away the fast pace of life, I always find the slow life I was looking forward to, the healing tie that matched — or the bowl of soup.
Right! That soup is Wang Ji chicken soup.
Yesterday, a friend who went to Korea to sweep goods called me, and his words were not without surprise: "Do you know what I swept in Korea?" Swept a stomach soup, Wang Ji chicken soup Oh! ”
I smiled, people in Korea sweep cosmetics, sweep kimchi, sweep leather products, sweep electronic products, but you are sweeping my childhood wisps of tenderness and honey.
Wang Ji chicken soup has become the leading industry in Xinzhou, stirring up a city, it walks in the country's major supermarkets, thriving, dominating the world.
My parents are both from Wangji, Xinzhou District. When I was a child, when I went to my grandmother's house in Wangji Binhu Village, the old man would always drag his pointed feet and direct the fourth uncle: "The chicken is blessed (we are there, the New Year chicken is called The Lucky Chicken). ”
When the old mother heard this, she hurriedly waved her hand: "Chickens that can lay eggs should not be blessed." ”
The worms in my stomach began to flood, and my eyes looked at Grandma, who said, "When my grandson's eldest brother comes, it is a golden mountain that must be flattened, what is a chicken?" ”
This chicken is the "golden ass" of the grandmother's family, the egg laid, I don't know how much salt money was exchanged.
Grandma is a master of boiling chicken soup, the chicken is blanched with boiling water, plucked out the hair, removed the internal organs, cut into small pieces, mashed the chicken bone chicken with a clothesbag, wrapped in a cotton gauze bag, then boiled water on the wood stove, injected a crock pot, gently put it into the chicken yarn bun, and then put the crock pot into the Martian pile of the stove, closed the stove door and boiled it.
Why close the stove door?
Grandma Tai smiled mysteriously and said, "I'm afraid that other people's children will smell the fragrance and mouth." ”
At that time, I was ignorant and thought that what my grandmother said was true!
What followed was a long wait of five hours. A thousand hands had already reached out of my throat and slammed into the crock pot inside the stove door.
Afraid that I was anxious, my grandmother asked me to knot the emerald green slim shallots (this I like, isn't it a game), while cutting ginger, peeling garlic, and telling a story: the monks in the temple are vegetarian, one day, there is an old monk who can't help it, want to eat meat, he secretly bought a chicken, taking advantage of the other monks to sleep, the chicken was cleaned up and put into the crock pot, and then to the Buddhist hall, found a bunch of candle heads, took turns to light the candle heads, placed under the crock pot to burn. Burning and burning, the old monk was worried that the aroma was drifting, so he let the other monks know, so he sealed the crock pot, and waited, wait, a pile of candle heads burned out overnight. After a long simmer, the chicken crispy soft soup in the crock pot is fragrant and delicious. This one is called "wax head stew chicken".
The more I listened, the more anxious I became, and I shouted for chicken thighs. The fourth uncle said, "Forgot the ugly thing about eating chicken legs last time?" ”
Last time, grandma didn't mash the chicken to boil the soup like this, but cut the chicken into pieces and put it in. That time I held up a chicken leg and ran around the village like a victorious warrior. A small rock quickly ended my pride, and I fell to the ground, the chicken leg bone scratching my jaw.
So, Grandma Tai changed her course and began to boil a boneless clear soup.
The soup was ripe, and the shallots I knotted slid into the crock pot.
Drinking the fragrant clear soup, there was no big pleasure in eating chicken legs to the fullest, then the grandmother brought a plate of chicken meatballs, haha, my miraculous grandmother took the chicken in the gauze bag, a little bit out, chopped into minced meat, made into balls.
It's cool to have food and drink without a bone that can scratch your jaw!
Why is this soup so delicious? Grandma Tai said, "It's good water, this water, it's the well water in our lake area, more than ten meters deep, sucking up the essence of the Water Dragon King, of course!" ”
When I grew up, I drank a lot of exquisitely made, cumbersome and a lot of foreign chicken soup, such as sea cucumber white fruit chicken soup, flower carved chicken soup, chestnut chicken soup, bamboo shoot chicken soup, assorted vegetable chicken soup, abalone chicken soup, including Ginseng chicken soup unique to Korea. Just say that the ginseng chicken soup, the chicken swimming in the soup, the belly is actually filled with glutinous rice, dates, and a small Korean ginseng, the process is intricate, drink a sip, a medicinal smell chokes into the nostrils, always feel and the chicken soup made by grandma a layer of taste. Tai Muwa's chicken soup is simple, refreshing, and even the accessories are surprisingly few, nothing more than spring onions, garlic, and ginger.
What makes my throat exclusive? I think it's a strong complex, a nostalgia complex.
Yes, the human tongue, is emotional, a simple version of chicken soup with grandma, has always dominated my taste buds.
As a veteran foodie, the sight of my grandmother's chicken soup is still engraved in my mind today. That day, I accidentally read an article, Mr. Liang Shiqiu talked about eating, and that momentum was compared with the soup in my childhood. Mr. Liang said that one big winter, he tossed and turned in the quilt, what was the reason? When I think about it, I originally wanted to eat donkey face meat, and donkey face meat is what we call donkey head meat. What should I do if I can't sleep? To relieve his hunger, of course, he put on his pajamas, knocked on the door of the cooked butcher shop, and bought a cooked donkey's head to go home. When he got home, his stomach was impatient, he simply didn't bother to get dressed, he carried the donkey's head into the quilt, held the knife, and cut it into his mouth one by one, which was strange to say, the stomach was satisfied, the sleepy worm also came, he lost the donkey's head, and slept until dawn.
After going to the field to interview that day, I heard that I wanted to drink soup, and I immediately recalled the chicken soup of my childhood and sighed wildly. The companion said, "Come and come, and I will give you the most delicious thing." Soon, the master brought up a cup of tongue and said that it was Yu Dafu's favorite. I looked at the shell in the cup and asked, What is the Xishi tongue? My companions thought I was ugly and did not say a word. I tasted it, is not the chicken soup shell meat, the taste of chicken soup and the taste of seafood strung together, or not as simple as Grandma Wang Ji chicken soup.
In Wuhan, many families drink chicken soup on the first day of the New Year, saying that it symbolizes "peace"; adults in the family also eat chicken feet, saying that they are "catching money in the new year"; if there are students in the family, they must eat chicken wings, which means "spreading their wings and flying high".
After my grandmother died, my fourth uncle flew high by spreading his wings in chicken soup.
My grandmother and grandfather died early, and it was my grandmother who brought up my fourth uncle. When Grandma Tai went to the west of the crane, the fourth uncle was only more than ten years old. A few years later, the fourth uncle became an adult, because the family was not good, and he could not marry his daughter-in-law. When the state-owned enterprises were popular, he could not enter the factory; when he was popular when he enlisted in the army, he did not become a soldier; when the labor model was popular, he had no strength to tie the chicken and could not earn work. My mother stomped her feet in a hurry, nagging her uncle, even if it was to find a widow. The fourth uncle was not in a hurry, and advised my mother to say that the boat was naturally straight to the bridge. My mother said, "You've been on the bridge for a hundred years, and I haven't seen you straight!" The fourth uncle said, "Wait! ”
The fourth uncle, this wild lily, finally waited for spring.
With the rise of Wangji chicken soup, Wangji became famous from an obscure town. With the help of the local government, the fourth uncle also boiled Wang Ji chicken soup.
Soon, the fourth uncle, like other Wang Ji chicken soup cookers, turned into a fragrant feast. The chicken soup made by the fourth uncle is known for its delicious taste, tender meat and mellow aroma. This is incredible, for a while, the red brides who are the fourth uncle are endless.
Last year, the fourth uncle in his fifties married a high-achieving student who graduated from a foreign food college.
My mother couldn't help but be overjoyed, and sang a new continent drama at the wedding of the fourth uncle: Miss Zhengyue sat in the embroidery room, embroidered love brother with phoenix, phoenix was originally Tang Xiucai, not far away with a pair. Tang Xiucai, can boil soup, a house of old and young drunk busy, but also left a jar of seedlings, planted seedlings, cut the grain, and left a jar to return the year.
I asked the fourth uncle why the taste of WangJi chicken soup was special, and the fourth uncle said: "In addition to what your grandmother said about the good water of our Wangji, there is also that our Wangji native chicken is naturally stocked, and of course, there is the secret of simmering soup 'stir-fry on high heat, simmer on small fire', simmer for five hours." ”
The current WangJi chicken soup, known as the "first soup of Chutian", has won many awards at the National and International Agricultural Fairs.
The fourth uncle said that the tradition of Wang Ji folk tile simmering chicken soup has a history of more than 200 years, and every year it Chinese New Year's Eve, and the clay pot chicken soup is a standard dish.
With the fame of Wangji chicken soup, Xinzhou Wangji Street has risen to a soup city. At present, Wangji chicken soup has developed into a cluster soup industry based on chicken soup, supplemented by more than 20 varieties of duck soup, pigeon soup, hoof flower soup, fish head soup and so on. The annual output of soup is millions of cans, and the sales income exceeds 100 million yuan.
Today's Wangji Tangcheng, an industrial chain with soup food characteristics as the leader, driving the development of breeding, incubation, processing, marketing and other related industries has been formed, and the soup food industry has developed into a pillar industry for the rich people of Wangji Street and even Xinzhou District.
Producer: Wuhan Federation of Literary and Art Circles New Media Center
Supervisor: Deng Nai Producer: Wu Xiaojun Editor: Jian Jian
Proofreader: Zhang Jie Xiao He Zhou
Article: Selected from the essay volume of "Impressions of Wuhan 2016"
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