Wu Ge original
Last weekend, Mr. Zhang Yi, a friend who was far away in Japan, wrote an essay on pork head meat, more than 2,000 words, quoting scriptures and paintings, rendering the delicious taste of pork head meat to the point of divine, making the friends salivate. He said that the reason for writing this article was to see a "Wu Ge Say Something" that I forwarded in the WeChat group, which caused him to recall the pork head meat.
"Wu Ge Says Things" is my self-media headline number, from time to time to send some words to eat, drink and have fun. That day, it was said that a chef in a township in Nantong who had burned pork head meat for more than 30 years opened a store that could sell 200 pig heads a day. His craftsmanship has been handed down from his grandfather for nearly a hundred years and has become a local "intangible cultural heritage". Recently, he opened a delicatessen factory and invested one or two million yuan, intending to make the "pig head meat business" bigger and stronger. This story also reminds me of an Akun delicatessen restaurant in Shantang Street, Suzhou. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, Ah Kun's father regained the old art, opened this delicatessen shop, the business was prosperous, and later handed over the stick to Ah Kun, the business is still prosperous, especially the pig head meat is famous, Suzhou people flock to it, every day must get up early in the morning to queue, 10 o'clock in the morning pig head meat is all sold out. It is said that Ah Kun never burns much, fixing 20 pig heads a day. Twenty or thirty years later, Ah Kun is also old, no one takes over, and the pork head meat shop is closed. Last year, I walked through Shantang Street and heard Suzhou people holding back the pork head meat of Ah Kun. Although there are two long-established delicatessen shops on the other side of Shantang Street, "Du Sanzhen" and "Zhu Hongxing", both of which have pig head meat to buy, suzhou people miss Ah Kun and say that Ah Kun pork head meat is delicious and difficult to reach.
I have not eaten the pork head meat of these two families. A Kun pig head meat has been closed, there is no chance to taste, Nantong's pig head meat production is large, even do not need to travel hundreds of miles to Nantong, it is estimated that soon can be expressed. To be fair, my love of pork head meat is not too eager, there is always a faint look, listening to others say where the pork head meat is good, I will have the idea of trying it, but it is not very strong. I once drove nearly 20 kilometers to chengdong township and found a pig's head meat shop that claimed to be the best in Xiyi, but I only bought a small piece and tasted it.
The first memories of the delicious pork head meat are derived from the story of my aunt. Aunt's father is a porter at the riverside dock, aunt said that her father has great strength, a shoulder is always more than others to carry a bag, the amount of food, wine is also large, after work, will buy a package of pork head meat, oil peanut rice or silkworm watercress, a small bottle of shochu, a small table, enjoy a drink. The reason why my aunt was able to drink some wine was because of her father's influence. Porters, pork head meat, small shochu, left a deep impression on my heart as a child. When I grew older, when my father and uncle came home to visit my relatives, my grandmother would tell me to buy pork head meat. The delicatessen shop was outside the West Gate Bridge, and it took ten minutes to walk along the canal, when the pork head meat was cheap, and the triangle money could buy most of the enamel teapot, and on the way back, I took a piece of meat from the enamel cup and stuffed it into my mouth, but it didn't feel as delicious as my aunt said. But when I returned home, watching my father and uncle drinking small wine and eating pork head meat, I could clearly feel their relish.
Drinking some small wine and taking some small dishes was the "little lehui" of that era, and the most popular wine dishes among the people were pork head meat. The folk "four major appetizers", the top three, the thunder is peanut rice, pork head meat and pickled cucumbers, the fourth is sauce beef, pine blossom eggs, jellyfish head or brine edamame, there is some controversy. Pork head meat has always been the first in the four major appetizers, and the position on the table is quite high, very stable, and very popular. For middle-aged and elderly people who like to drink a little wine, the taste of pig head meat is often unforgettable, no matter whether it is spring, summer, autumn and winter, no matter whether it is drinking wine or rice, there is less than a plate of pork head meat, just like the fish lacks water, the soup is less salt, and it can not reach the climax of taste and atmosphere. Pork head meat is an old taste on the table.
In the north and south of the world, almost all over the country there are famous pig head meat famous broadcast, the old brand needless to say, and even the intangible cultural heritage also has the location of pig head meat, which is the wonderful historical and cultural mark left by the folk status of pig head meat in catering. In the famous food of old Beijing, the pig's head meat is not to be tolerated, which can be regarded as the deep love of the old Beijingers, cut a plate of pig's head meat, with a bottle of two pot heads, just two words: delicious. Mr. Lao She wrote: "After fishing, the pig's head meat in the wild tea house, boiled tofu, white dry wine and brine beans can also make people drunk." "Old Beijingers say that there are some minced pork head meat in the baked cake, and when you bite it down, it is also two words: spray incense, what Baoding donkey meat is burned, Shaanxi bacon sandwich steamed bun, everything is out of the question. There is a changzi county in Changzhi, Shanxi Province, known as "China's first pig head meat", full of streets are open pig head meat restaurants, it is said that more than 1,000 pig heads are used every day, which is more than 300,000 a year. Far away needless to say, as far as Jiangsu is concerned, Changzhou Buyi Bridge, Wuxi Maotang Bridge, Suzhou Shantang Street, as well as Xuzhou, Huai'an, Suqian, Yancheng, Nantong have a very famous pig head meat, Suqian has a yellow dog pig head meat, is Suqian municipal intangible cultural heritage, at first thought it was yellow dog meat roast pig head meat, went to know that the founder is called Huang De, commonly known as puppy, and later set up a stall to buy pig head meat, the Qianlong Emperor occasionally tasted, Daxi, for him to take a shop sign: yellow dog pig head meat, according to legend has been passed down for eight generations.
Nanjing Liuhe pork head meat, Yangzhou grilled whole pig head, is a big name. Liuhe pork head meat is famous in the 12th year of The Qianlong Dynasty, more than 260 years ago. It is rumored that qianlong's southern tour, every time he passes through Liuhe, he must eat pork head meat. The people rumored that the emperor was so appreciative, they all followed the taste, the boss kept the marinade when cooking the pork head meat for Qianlong, and every time it was stewed and mixed with new soup, day after day, it was called "Qianlong Old Soup" pork head meat. By the Xianfeng period, Liuhe pork head meat has become famous all over the country. Liuhe pork head meat is now a popular delicacy in the folk, and it is sold in roadside delicatessen restaurants. In 2012, Liuhe Pork Head Meat applied for a national intangible cultural heritage. According to rough data, there are no less than four or five hundred delicatessen shops selling pork head meat in urban and rural Areas of Nanjing.
The Yangzhou people introduced pork head meat into the banquet and created a "grilled whole pig head", which became a famous dish in "Huaiyang cuisine". In the legend of old Yangzhou, this "grilled pig's head" was actually created by a great monk: during the Qianlong period, there was a lotus master in Yangzhou Fahai Temple, who was good at cooking pig heads, and the pig's head was fat and tender and sweet, and the lotus master often used to roast the pig's head by hand to entertain the donor, the beauty of the food was indescribable, known as the taste pressure jiangnan, and finally came out of the temple, which was studied by Yangzhou chefs and entered the Huaiyang recipe. The Qing Dynasty's "Yangzhou Customs and Folklore Collection" contains the words of Baisha Yu'an's "Wangjiangnan", and one of them records this story: "Yangzhou is good, Fahai Temple is idle." On the lake, the virtual hall opens on the opposite bank, and the waterside tuan tower reflects the middle stream, leaving the rotten pig's head. "Zen monks did not eat meat, but the Great Master was good at roasting pork head meat, which can be described as an ancient anecdote, which added a different flavor to Yangzhou pork head meat."
Now there are roughly two kinds of pork head meat sold in delicatessen shops, one is hard and crisp, and the other is sticky. The hard and crispy pork itself is not flavorful, and after the customer buys it, it is cut into thin slices, then mixed with spices and spices, added coriander and chili oil, tasted, and does not like the taste. As the saying goes, fire rots to the head of a pig. I thought that pork head meat should be sticky and delicious. Suzhou Du Sanzhen's stir-fried white stewed pork head meat, Wuxi Maotang Bridge's braised pork head meat, are all glutinous type. Su Shi, the founder of Dongpo Meat, believes that cooking pork head meat is very important, and one of his poems, "Ode to Cooking Pig's Head", describes the situation of him happily roasting pig head meat and eating pig head meat: "Clean washing pot, shallow water, deep pressure wood head Mo teaching." The rich refuse to eat it, and the poor do not cook it; sometimes they make a bowl at home, and they are self-satisfied and self-conscious. "What is "uncooking"? It is to know the key to cooking, this is fire gong, to use hard wood to small fire. There is a Song Huilian in "Golden Bottle Plum", who is very good at burning pork head meat, and the trick is to use hard firewood to grasp the cooperation of the small fire in the fire, and the stewed pork head meat is sticky and fragrant. According to legend, after the Qianlong Emperor ate the yellow dog pig's head meat, he also left an oil poem: "The yellow dog pig's head meat, crisp and tender and fragrant, is not found in the palace, and it should be unparalleled in the sea." It can be seen that what they like is the glutinous school, and "crisp and tender and fragrant" is the standard of a good pot of pork head meat.
As a child, I had the experience of roasting pork head meat once. At that time, pork was supplied by ticket, half a catty per person per month, not enough to eat, and there were several ways to eat more meat: restaurants, canteens, delicatessens, and pork here did not need tickets. Another way is to go to the state-run meat stalls to queue up and buy pig sewage and pig head meat, which will occasionally be supplied without a ticket. One winter, I went to the meat stall with my aunt and eldest sister in the courtyard at 5 o'clock in the morning, and I lined up for three days, but I didn't buy it in the first two days, and on the third day I bought a whole pig's head. After returning home, under the command of my grandmother, I first washed the pig's head on the well platform, plucked out the big hairs and small hairs, found a small jar, and marinated the pig's head with coarse salt and shochu. Ten days later, heavy snow fell, and clean snow was held, piled into a small vat, and let the pig's head soak in snow water for a few days. After the snow, the pig's head was hung on the tree in the courtyard and dried for two days. Watching the snow-white pig's head glow red, the pickled pig's head was finished. My grandmother cut half a pig's head, simmered it in water, and simmered it on a briquette stove for four or five hours. It was a Sunday afternoon, I was doing my homework in my room, and the tantalizing aroma of stewed pork head meat came from the kitchen from time to time. At dinner, I attacked the bowl of white and reddish pickled pork head meat, and I was very happy to eat it, so I also carved a realization in my heart: the glutinous pork head meat is delicious!
In the eyes of many people, pork head meat is not a noble food. In fact, in traditional Chinese culture, the pig's head has always been a hall of elegance, and one of its important functions is to be used for sacrifice. Sacrifice is the oldest cultural tradition of mankind, is a way to communicate with the gods and ghosts of heaven and earth, and offering food to the gods and ghosts of heaven and earth is an important element of sacrifice. The zhou dynasty ritual system stipulates that the son of heaven should use cattle for sacrifice, princes should use sheep, nobles should use pigs, and commoners should use chickens or dogs. These five kinds of domestic animals are called five animals or five animals, plus horses are called six animals or six animals, and animals that are slaughtered for sacrifice are called "sacrifices". At first, the "sacrifice" was a whole cow, a whole sheep, and a whole pig, and later it was changed to an offering of a cow's head, a sheep's head, and a pig's head. In general, when families and families sacrifice, pig heads are often used, and rarely cow heads or sheep heads are used, not only because raising pigs is more common, but also because pig heads are pleasing to the people, pig heads are not called yuanbao heads, smiling and squinting, and angry and wealthy, and want to be used as sacrifices must be very popular with the gods and ghosts of heaven and earth. After the sacrifice, these "sacrifices" will be taken to cook and then served to the tables of each family, and the popular "bull's head feast" and "February 2, eating pig's head" are generally the customs of this sacrificial culture.
Occasionally eating a cold bowl of pork head meat in a large hotel, I feel that it does not match the scene, and the pork head meat seems to be more suitable for that simple and old scene. A few years ago I went to the countryside to visit ancient times, walked to a hilly mountain village, five or six houses built on a mountain ridge, the bottom of the slope of the small flat field, rice began to blossom, the hillside planted tea garden, mountain village houses in front of a few large trees, scattered shade, two old farmers sitting in the shade, on a small round table, drinking small wine with great interest, in addition to patting cucumbers, peanuts, fried leeks, a large pot of pork head meat is the most eye-catching. In the distance, the returning farmers walked, and in the bamboo forest in the corner of the house, the chickens were quietly preparing to rest. Seeing that I had come uninvited, the old farmer warmly invited us to drink some and taste the pork head. After sitting for a while, I suddenly felt that this might be the best scene to eat pork head meat.
Eating pork head meat is also important with wine. I remember that there were old friends who met for dinner, and it was especially suggested that there was a good pork head. The place is in the northeast of the city under the town of Hongdou old factory outside the west wall of an old house, the entrance is a two-bay room, placed a few old square tables and benches, when I went to the dish has been placed on the square table, nothing more than some local rural popular steamed vegetables. Seeing that everyone was there, the boss fished out half of the pig's head from the pot, cut it into large pieces with a knife and put it in a large basin, and placed it in the middle of the square table. The owner said that this was the last plate of pork head meat today, and the guests behind it did not have to eat. Old friends while introducing how famous this pig head meat, while pouring Wuliangye for everyone, I said that eating pig head meat must be accompanied by two pots or bad shochu, take out the specially brought Wuxi lees shochu, let everyone try a cup of Wuliangye first, and then change the bad shochu. After two glasses of wine, friends have praised: it is better to taste wine. Three cups of lees shochu went down, and the large plate of pork head meat had bottomed out. The reason is not difficult to understand, the bad shochu is not as good as Wuliangye, but it is more compatible with pork head meat. Words are gentle and bold, people are divided into elite and grassy, and so is food. Pork head meat is the grassy delicacy in the wine dish, rough, low-key, no need to modify, so with the same bit of sloppy meaning of the bad shochu to match, but let the pig head meat show its unique delicious characteristics.
Now the people who like to eat pork head meat are shrinking more and more, which should be the reason for material abundance and economic prosperity. Some people genuinely like it, some people do it out of nostalgia. Once ate in MeiliGudu, about ten dishes, the host specially arranged a plate of Maotang Bridge pork head meat, after the meal, there were a lot of leftovers on the plate.
About author:Wu Ge, a cultural scholar, brand strategy scholar, and senior media person, strives to become a "foodie" with culture and feelings.