In the history of Chinese food culture, no vegetable has won as much appreciation as lettuce. In terms of historical origins, as early as the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC when the Book of Poetry was produced, that is, two or three thousand years ago, the people of our country have begun to eat lettuce
And in the poem "Shijing Lusong Panshui", it is recorded in verses: "Si Le Pan Shui, Thin Picking its Mao". Lettuce, that is, the ancient name of lettuce. Lettuce has been so steeped in a strong cultural atmosphere that the poems of later poets such as Du Fu, Lu You and others and classic works such as "Dream of the Red Chamber" have all mentioned the famous dish of lettuce.
Judging from the materials found now, it is Gao Lian, a Hangzhou gourmet in the Ming Dynasty. He said in the "Four O'Clock Appreciation": "Next to the three pagodas of the West Lake today, there are many and beautiful births. ...... Yu every picker peels the diamond, as a wild man celery recommendation, this sincere golden wave jade liquid, the taste of green essence and blue earth, the lamb of the world cooking rabbit is more peppery! "Naturally, lettuce, as Gao Lian speaks, is wild.
History has turned a page, now Hangzhou lettuce has been a large number of artificial cultivation, according to incomplete statistics, the output has reached more than 300,000 catties, leaping to the first place in the country. Therefore, Hangzhou's lettuce dishes are more numerous than other places, including West Lake lettuce soup (meat and vegetarian), Sanjiang sea lettuce soup, shrimp mixed with lettuce, lettuce monkey head soup, bamboo lettuce soup, fresh mushroom lettuce soup and so on. In addition, during the Southern Song Dynasty, there was also a lettuce shoot. New varieties have yet to be developed.
Lettuce belongs to the water lily family, its leaves are turquoise, ovate or oval, to say that its taste, except for the smooth feeling, there is no taste. So, why can it become a famous dish for thousands of years? This can be said from two aspects: from the perspective of the traditional taste theory of the motherland, it has always advocated the "taste of the soup", that is, the big taste must be light.
The green color and rich poetry, tasteless in the middle of the real enough to be enchanting." Elder Ye's words can be said to have revealed the mystery.
Hangzhou's first soup, West Lake lettuce soup, the specific time of its appearance, has not been able to be examined. However, the hangzhou famous chef's view of the ingredients and soup when making this soup can be said to be completely consistent with the concept of the old man Ye Shengtao. It is made by fresh lettuce in boiling water, placed in a light chicken soup or light ham soup with a good taste, and then decorated with cooked ham shreds, cooked chicken shreds, egg shreds, and dripped with chicken fat
After this soup is ready, the lettuce slices are emerald green and smooth, the ham is red and fragrant, the chicken is fine white and tender, the pale yellow chicken fat floats on the soup noodles, and a seductive aroma floats leisurely, and the true color and fragrance are complete, if it is in the Yuezhou blue and white porcelain soup bowl, it can indeed be "intoxicating".
Naturally, to make this soup, you need to use fresh lettuce, the bottle is often not smooth enough, and there is no skillful knife work, fire kung fu, and it is difficult to produce fine products. Although the author has had the privilege of tasting the two different flavors of meat and vegetarian food, but they are all general works, I still don't know which famous teacher in Hangzhou can make superhuman products, and I hope to wait until the next day.