The most missed food is not a mountain treasure and seafood, not a Michelin three-star, but usually an ordinary dim sum, a small dish. It seems ordinary, but it is unique, because behind this cuisine is our connection with our hometown, which is a strong sense of humanity.
(Note: This is a set of original manuscripts from the "Life Catcher" during the Spring Festival in 2016, let's reminisce about the "childhood on the tip of the tongue".) Please indicate the source of the reprint. Life Catcher WeChat public account: hunter_stella)
About the author: Wing was a classmate of my middle school for six years, and I was still at the same table for several years. But knowing she was a foodie, still years after graduation. Last summer, she brought her son to Beijing to play, and her classmates picked the Jubaoyuan hot pot in Niujie, and although the lamb and burnt cakes were good, they always had to wait in long lines. Everyone vowed to go in advance, and as a result, Wing Students arrived at four o'clock in the afternoon and took the second number. What a foodie spirit this is!
People who love to eat and can eat are often cheerful and optimistic, and this is the case with Wing Classmates. What's even more rare is that her writing is still very good (to be honest, this talent has not been discovered before), and she wrote an article commemorating her deceased mother, which once brought me to tears.
There are many delicacies in Nantong, and it is quite surprising that Wing chose to write salt silk. But if you think about it, boiling water with a plate of salt shredded rice is also my favorite appetizer.
Wash away the lead and eventually dye the ignorance, learn to feel the beauty of the bland snack, this is another realm.
Speaking of the taste of childhood, I think of the sausages and bacon hanging in front of every house in the waxing moon; I think of the hot steamed buns and buns that have just come out of the cage; and I think of the red couplets and lucky characters on the door panel.
Nowadays, the quality of life is better, people's taste is sharper, the taste of the year is getting lighter and lighter, but there are a few delicacies, we Nantong people as long as we eat it will feel "well, this is the taste of the New Year", such as leek yellow spring rolls, such as cabbage tofu, but the first, must be "pheasant shreds".
"Pheasant silk", I think it is a mountain treasure, but in fact, it has nothing to do with this silk and pheasant. "Pheasant shredded", just Nantong commonly known, the scientific name should be called "salt silk", take ginger shredded, pickled melon shredded, tenderloin shredded together fried together.
In the old saying, "齑" is pickled vegetables, and sweet bag melons are pickled vegetables. During the Tang Dynasty, local chefs in Tongzhou used this menu to make cold cuts, called "tenderloin silk", but at that time, the Tang Dynasty was surnamed "Li", in order to avoid secrecy, the "tenderloin silk" was changed to "smelting ridge silk", and then generation after generation of ordinary people passed it on by word of mouth, "smelting ridge silk" became "pheasant silk", less cautious and cautious, more nostalgic and wild.
Nantong's Qihai dialect has been called "pickles" since ancient times as "salt", the people in this area like to drink "salt soup", according to historical data, "salt soup" originated from Luo Binwang, one of the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty, Luo Binwang was condemned to Wu Zetian because of the "Wu Wu Wen", was relegated to the Lüsi area, life was embarrassing, in order to survive the difficulties, Luo Bin Wang washed the wild vegetables on the beach by the sea and spread them out, pickled into "salt", usually used this "salt" plus small fish and shrimp fished up by the sea to cook soup as rations, it is said that the taste of this soup is better than " Eight Treasures of Sea and Land", Luo Bin Wang also has a poem "Qingqing Salt Soup, Delicious Hundred Year Soup".
"Salt roasted watercress" is also a famous dish in Nantong, this dish has many stories, can be said separately.
"Pheasant Shredded" looks simple as the side dish, but in fact it hides mysteries. Sweet melon is a local specialty of Nantong, the sauce of pickled bag melon is fragrant, sweet and salty, and it is taken out of the sauce jar before frying the bag melon, and the time should not be too short, nor too long. The time is short, the salty taste of the melon has not been removed, too salty affects the taste, the time is long, it is not crisp, but also affects the taste, this trick "because of the melon conditions", the length of time is in the hands of the people of Nantong themselves.
Ginger is the best to choose tender ginger, spicy taste does not flush the nose, but crisp to the benefits, plus the best tenderloin, the three main ingredients are all cut into silk, and the finer the better, under the pot stir-frying, before coming out of the pot to cook some cooking wine, add a spoon of sugar can be, sweet and salty fresh spicy flavor is complete, young and old, salty, salty, well-known.
In the past, living conditions were poor, and I could only eat meat in the New Year, and I was reluctant to eat it at one time, so I cut it into silk, plus it was winter, the food was not easy to deteriorate, and a large pot of "pheasant shredded" could eat a Spring Festival. Nowadays, although the living conditions are better, everyone is busy, and cooking a meal for themselves and their families has become a luxury.
At this time, if there is a bowl of boiling water to make rice, a small fluttershy "pheasant shredded" is a simple and delicious meal that is also a full meal, and this comfort can be from the tip of the tongue all the way to the navel.
Life, in fact, is a bowl of human fireworks, delicious as a full table, small as "pheasant silk", simple and simple have fun, but the taste of youth is unforgettable, and then give some new taste, but also become a sweet taste that cannot be erased in the depths of memory.
(Welcome to the WeChat public account: hunter_stella, w Foodie Scientists will share with you a mash-up platter of food, Chinese medicine and life wisdom)