The taste temptation of hawthorn
Huang Zihong
In childhood, once there is no appetite for eating, the family will generally use chicken gold ground into powder and a little sugar to feed, or grab a pair of spleen and stomach Chinese medicine - among which there is always a recipe for jujube and hawthorn, in fact, the simplest and crudeest way is to eat hawthorn and its derivatives.
The first impression of hawthorn was the big red and pink paper hawthorn slices and hawthorn strips in the glass cabinets of the supply and marketing agencies and commissaries, the sweet and sour taste, raw and appetizing, suitable for all ages, very unforgettable.
Sichuan is not the origin of hawthorn, so as far as I can remember, in the 1980s and 1990s, there were also rock sugar gourds in the streets and alleys of Sichuan, but it was a cottage version, using fresh dates, apples, and even rice to puff food, put on bamboo skewers, wrapped in a layer of scarlet pigmented sugar juice and even juice with saccharin, and began to sell after cooling.
It may be that the material and cultural life in China was not very rich at that time, and the children in ordinary people's homes were also easy to be fooled, and they could not withstand the temptation of sweets with bright colors. In order not to buy for their children and convince their children orally, some parents often hold their children coldly, and follow the children who lick the red sugar on the surface and reveal yellow-green apples, fresh dates or white raw rice puffed foods.
So at that time, some of the jujube, hawthorn and other medicinal residues in traditional Chinese medicine, many people often carefully found out and ate them after boiling the medicine.
In that era, snacks such as hawthorn slices, hawthorn strips, and hawthorn cakes were already considered tall, and even after eating, they did not forget to lick the remaining white sugar grains and slag clean.
The first time I ate a real hawthorn rock gourd was when I was in high school, and once I stumbled upon it while shopping, so I bought a bunch. In one mouth, the crisp sweetness of rock sugar, the mellow aroma of sesame seeds and the sour sweetness of hawthorn are combined to make it very delicious.
Later, I ate Beijing's rock sugar gourd at Liuliqiao in Beijing, there were pure hawthorn, there were also mixed with kiwifruit, bananas and the like, and once I also ate a string of rock sugar gourds inlaid with date paste and walnut kernels, and then I suddenly looked at Chen Kaige's movie "Farewell to the Overlord", and the little leper who escaped from the drama class with the teenager Xiao Douzi, and the ice sugar gourd bought with several copper plates stolen from under the small bean pillow, you are wandering and full of enjoyment.
Later, there was a fresh hawthorn for sale on the market, that kind of sour and sweet, red and white feeling, so that many people liked, of course, can not eat more, stomach and teeth will not be able to stand.
In traditional Chinese medicine stores and shopping malls and supermarkets, dried hawthorn is also very popular, many people slice or powder, buy home to soak water to drink, not only appetizing and healthy spleen, but also have a good effect on blood lipid regulation.
Now that I'm in the summer, I always have a few pieces of hawthorn in my homemade herbal tea recipe, and I like the sweet and sour taste.