▲ Broad beans in shallot oil. Photography / Jian Gang, Picture / Figure Worm Creative
-Fengwujun Language-
Sniff green plums and taste new wheat
Lixia is windy
Unwind today
The whites grew longer, the thick clothes faded, the roadside flowers bloomed warmly, and the small fruits emitted a fragrance. Although Yang Shu and Liu Shu were still flying, we all heard the bells of the season: spring was fading, and summer was coming.
▲ In the summer season, Jiangsu Huai'an is in full bloom. Photo/Visual China
Today is Lixia, the first solar term of summer. "Grasshoppers singing, earthworms coming out, wang gua sheng", this season provides the most vital ingredients of the year, the southern plum ripe, the northern locust flowers, rape is about to ripen, wheat flowers are filling.
▲ Green plums, cherries, red and green chic flavor. Photo/Visual China
Henan's jing mustard was served on the table, Jiangnan's black rice steamed, a bowl of shrimp noodles along the coast entered the summer, Hunan's Lixia soup was full of expectations, and Jiangxi ate tamales to "support summer"... There is always a delicacy in preparation for the upcoming summer.
A cool, refreshing
As soon as summer arrives, the weather becomes significantly hotter, and every household begins to prepare cold food to cool off the heat. Eating a cold fruit and tasting a cold dish is always refreshing and pleasant.
Cold fruit | It is to taste the "new", but also to taste the spring
▲ Plum cider. Photo/Visual China
In the Jiangnan area, Qingmei is another name for "Lixia". When the plum grows, it means that the warm and humid summer is coming. The Southern Song Dynasty poet Shen Changqing wrote about the red and green scenery in early summer, and his eyes fell on the attractive green plums on the branches:
"Orange blossoms are full of incense. Pick green plums, still afraid to taste. ”
Green plum is one of the "three new" tastes in early summer, tastes the new taste of the tip of the tongue, and feels more is the sadness of late spring. "Green plums are like beans, and spring returns" (Zhang Zhen's "Beishan Xi· Spring Half"), using green plum wine to make sauce, even if it is spring, it is also necessary to retain the taste of spring precipitation.
▲ Did you eat the loquat in the summer season? Figure/Figureworm Creative
The earlier loquats were also yellow, and the cherries of the "first branch of the hundred fruits" were also dressed in red, as well as strawberries and mulberries, which were "sweethearted" to say goodbye to spring.
When the heat hit, the ancients dipped the fruit in cool water, just for the sake of that mouthful. "Floating sweet melon in Qingquan, sinking Zhu Li in cold water" (Cao Pi's "Book of Wu Quality"). Eating cold fruit has been a rare and refreshing taste in early summer since ancient times.
▲ For the summer, how can you get less mulberries. Photo/Visual China
There is rarely a saying of "trying new" in the north, and the delicious taste of eating cold fruits will not be missed. In the memories of old Beijingers, the hutongs of May always echo with such shouts: "Red cherries come to big mulberries"...
Cold dishes | Raw food and cold mix are always appropriate
In addition to the cold fruits, Li Xia is also indispensable to a plate of cold dishes.
▲ Amaranth, one of the "three fresh" essentials in Jiangnan Lixia. Photography / PAOPAOANFANG, Photo / Figureworm / Creative
In Wuxi, there are three fresh trees, three fresh ground and three fresh water in the taste of "three fresh". What kind of three fresh foods are different, in fact, they are all seasonal foods that are prevalent in various places, and the fava beans, amaranth and cucumbers that taste the three freshest are the most common. "The flowers of the mountain path are blown out, and a cup of fava beans and green plums is saved" (Shu Yuexiang's "Spring Festival Gala Still Zhi'an"), the custom of eating tender fava beans in summer still exists today.
Eat cold vegetables, the north does not lose. The arrival of thorn mustard is a signal that the Central Plains has entered summer. The emerald green leaves do not look surprising, only after eating can you understand it, which is the summer muse in the hearts of Henan people. Whether it is embellished with chicken noodles, or "mixed" with cucumbers and peeled eggs, jing mustard is always a magical existence like a finishing touch.
▲ Above, Wattle mustard onion. Photography/lxpcxplcy, Figure/MarketMap;Below:Pickpocket, Photography/Candlelight Night Reading, Figure/Marketmap.com
In the old days, old Beijingers felt that vegetables and fruits were not addictive, and LiXia also had to eat a bowl of grilled cakes. The soba noodles are cut into small pieces and served with marinated shredded carrots, garlic paste, chili oil, and of course, your favorite sesame sauce, mustard sauce and other sauces, which are very cool and pleasant. "The canopy, the fish tank, the pomegranate tree", the fan in the hands of the old man, and the grilled cake that the child is reluctant to put down, are all the early summer scenery in the courtyard of old Beijing.
Acacia flowers are also a seasonal delicacy in the north in summer. Walking on the side of the road, no one can resist the intoxicating fragrance of locust flowers that hit the bottom of the heart. Cold acacia flowers, without too much seasoning, are enough to stir up the taste buds. Northwest into the summer evening, just out of the tender acacia leaves with a long pole to hit a basket, boiling water, with hot oil a splash, and then add leeks to make locust vegetables, soft locust leaves are fragrant, the milky white thick soup taste is even more "beautiful".
▲ In early summer, locust flowers are blooming. "Don't eat from time to time", the next time you eat it will wait for next year. Photography / Lan Lan, Picture / Figure Worm Creative
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="71" > a mouthful of warmth, a touch of warmth</h1>
Compared with the ceremonies of "Li Chun" such as biting spring, stepping on spring, and beating spring cattle, the "summer greeting" ceremony is more easy. Summer weather is changeable, affecting the harvest of crops, children are also prone to physical fatigue, loss of appetite, the so-called "boil (zhù) summer". Therefore, in addition to the spring, the establishment of summer is to pray for people to spend the summer healthily and look forward to the harvest of autumn. And those warm foods are full of many warm meanings.
Hot meal | And Le Fengmei, "make up the summer" is not safe
▲ Black rice. Photography / Blue Mood 189, Photo / Figureworm Creative
"Summer cake, river fish rice cake, sour plum broad beans and cherries, bacon roast goose salted duck eggs, sea lion amaranth wine brewed lees." Zhejiang people ate a lot in the summer, but a bowl of "black wuwu" rice was the food that needed to be prepared the most.
This black rice, also known as Qingjing rice, has long been imprinted in the thousand-year history of Jiangnan, like a mottled ink color. Du Fu said: "There is no green fine rice, so that my color is good", and old Hangzhou also said that LiXia ate black rice, and was safe and happy, and would not be bitten by mosquitoes all summer.
▲ "Eat the Lixia dog, go east, west, north and south." Graph/Network
In Hangzhou's Tangqi Ancient Town, every household will also make "Lixia dog" for children to eat. Use rice flour to pinch out cute puppies and mix them with fresh ingredients from the fields such as wormwood, pumpkin, and purple potatoes to give the "puppies" a beautiful color. "Eat the Lixia dog, go east and west, north and south", in the eyes of Grandma, the child who eats the "Lixia dog" is as healthy and lively as the puppy in the summer.
▲ Don't forget to eat a bowl of broad bean rice in the summer. Photo/Visual China
In addition to black rice, many places in the south refer to "five-color rice" as "Lixia rice". Red beans, soybeans, black beans, green beans, mung beans mixed with white stem rice steamed, there are places with broad beans, soybeans, bamboo shoots, mustard greens, plus sauce meat or salted meat, the same five kinds, but not five colors, it is called "five kinds of rice", the other can not be added, must eat or tender broad beans.
▲ Kneaded into a "ball" of Lixia soup. Graph/Network
In Hunan, Lixia also drinks "Lixia soup", which is made of raw rice flour in a pot and green vegetables; if it is more delicate, you can first rub the raw rice flour into a "ball" (dialect pronunciation tuo), put it in the pot and cook it into a soup; you can also pay attention to it, and cook it into a sweet "Lixia porridge" with glutinous rice, rice kernels, red beans, peanuts, dates, etc. The more varieties, the more festive, "eating Lixia soup, stepping on the stone into a pit", "Lixia eating a ball, one foot across the river", full of parents and elders' prayers for the health of their children.
▲ Eating Lixia eggs in Lixia is a custom in both the north and south of China. Photography / Dapeng DP, Picture / FigureWorm Creative
To count the most widely eaten lixia, or "lixia eggs", eggs are boiled with tea leaves or walnut shells, eat one while hot, egg aroma tea overflowing. "Li Xia ate eggs, and the hot days did not boil summer." In addition to eating eggs to "make up for the summer", quickly and small partners "egg", fight out the hardest "egg king".
Going further south, in the coastal area and Hainan Island and Taiwan Island, LiXia will eat a bowl of noodles. Because the sound of "shrimp" and "xia" is similar, lixia eating shrimp noodles also has a beautiful meaning. If the ingredients are abundant, Pippi shrimp, crab, yuanbao shrimp, and clams are all put into the bowl to make a bowl of seafood noodles, which is even more delicious.
▲ Seafood noodles above, tamales below. Photo/Visual China
In addition to staple foods, eating meat and eating vegetables can not be less. Ningbo people like to eat (jūn) (dá) dishes, "foot bone shoots", all have the meaning of health and longevity; Jiangxi old cousins eat tamales, in order to "support summer" and ensure nutrition; Shandong people will make cakes with noodles, wrap them with shredded meat leeks, fry them into summer cakes, and wish for a good summer wheat harvest.
Hot tea | And will try new tea on a new fire
Lixia is the most suitable for eating tea, and a cup of tea also carries a beautiful meaning.
In Jiangnan, people eat "Lixia tea" to prevent summer fever. This Lixia tea is not a simple tea, but a kind of fruit tea, mixed with "new tea, new shoots, vermilion, green plums and other things, mixed with branches and round jujube core fruits" (Kangxi "Hangzhou Fuzhi"), fresh and greasy.
▲ Eat and drink enough, and then make a new cup of tea, the most comfortable. Photography / Fairy Flowers
Nowadays, Jiangxi and Zhejiang rural Lixia also drink seven teas, and the neighbors bring their own newly baked tea leaves, mix them and cook or brew into a large pot of tea, and everyone gathers together to drink, respect each other's tea, gifts, and pass on blessings. It is said that Li Xia drank seven teas, which can ensure that he will not be sleepy throughout the summer.
When you have enough to eat and drink, you are about to be weighed. In Jiangnan, Lixia has the habit of "calling summer". The child sits in the frame of a large scale to weigh and weigh, and when it comes to Liqiu, weigh it again, compare the two, and know how the summer is, whether it is a "bitter summer", if it is, it is necessary to supplement in the autumn, that is, it is time to "paste the autumn fat".
▲ Lixia "called summer", healthy and healthy summer. Photo/Visual China
Lixia is always so humane, the delicious food around is so rich, cool as a si, warm as si, eating is endless fun, people also use food to pray for the health of relatives and friends. In the "four stands" of the year, Li Chun is a dialogue between people and heaven and earth, serious and solemn, while Li Xia is full of the enthusiasm and joy of youth.
Spring is hidden, and early summer is long. The warm breath drifted from south to north, and everything grew wildly. The four seasons rotate, changing the rare taste of the tongue in season, and the unchanged is the endless fireworks in the world.
- END -
Text | Li Yi
Cover photo | fxy1223 Figureworm Creative