People in the summer, there is no appetite, the meal is light, a season to stay up, the weight to lose a little. Autumn wind together, appetite will open, want to eat some good, increase a little nutrition, compensate for the loss of summer, in Suzhou is called "paste autumn fat". Suzhou's seasonal autumn food is numerous, such as book mutton, catfish lung soup, Taihu Lake Sanbai, lettuce perch... There are two "things" that have always been the "heart love" of the old Suzhou people, the same is chicken head rice, the same is hairy crab.
Autumn wind crab foot fat (Visual China/Photo)
Wang Zengqi said: Chicken head rice is old, new walnuts are coming down, and summer is almost over. Chicken head rice, what is it? Chicken head rice and chicken head are actually irrelevant, it is an aquatic plant, the scientific name is Qi Shi, growing in the lotus pond, adjacent to the lotus root, only because the whole fruit looks like a chicken head, so it got its name. I remember when I was a child, in the autumn of Yili, chicken head rice was on the market, and the farmers carried baskets and shouted in the streets and alleys: "Ah want to buy chicken head rice?" My mother would always buy a few pounds for my family to try.
Chicken head rice has a wide range of divisions, both north and south, commonly known as southern and northern mustard, but the taste is very different. Beiqi is often used as a medicinal introduction, the price is low, can be bought in supermarkets, but it is not cooked for a long time; the southern qi is full of particles, white and tender as pearl jade, clear and delicious, commonly known as "chicken head rice". My hometown Gusu is in the hinterland of Jiangnan, the water network crisscrosses, providing a good environment for the growth of aquatic plants, especially in the Area of Fengmen, with contiguous pieces of Qitian, there are poems praised: "Suzhou is good, Fengshui breeds chicken heads, Yingrun per condensed beads ten Hu, soft fragrance prefers milk Yingou." ”
Farmers in Taicang, Suzhou, fertilize the mustard in the fields. (Visual China/Photo)
I worked in the Urban Management Section of Fengmen Hengjie for a period of time, from the beginning of the autumn to the Mid-Autumn Festival, a horizontal street from beginning to end almost became a solid street. There are round plaques in front of the doors of people in this area, and next to the plaque sits local women hand-peeling chicken head rice, chicken head rice is delicious and difficult to peel, the flesh is embedded in a round shell, the shell is quite hard, you have to use ingenuity, light can not be peeled, heavy peeling, bare hands peel a few grains, nails are weak and painful, therefore, women have professional copper nails on their thumbs. Peeling chicken head rice is a very bitter and tiring errand, I have tried to peel for a while, stand up two eyes a black, almost did not fall, peel a pound to remove one or two more meat, can be described as "who knows the plate of Chinese food, the grains are hard", have such an experience, will feel that the price of hundreds of yuan a pound is really not expensive. In Rao, laid-off women workers and migrant workers in the vicinity have joined the army of chicken heads and rice peelers, and it is said that the income of this season will allow farmers to have enough food and clothing for a year.
In the past, I often patronized the stall of an old lady who was more than old, and because there were too many orders, the old customers ordered forty or fifty pounds together. She started the stall at the earliest every day, continued to peel after dinner, and worked day and night, but she was never willing to eat a grain. The old lady said that her granddaughter was studying at a university in a foreign country, and she took advantage of the chicken head rice market to earn a handful of hard work, and her granddaughter did not have to worry about tuition and miscellaneous fees in the second year. Hearing this, people suddenly bred a bitterness of "people who are all over the world, not silkworm farmers".
In Taicang, Suzhou in September, harvesters harvest "chicken head rice" in paddy fields early in the morning. (Visual China/Photo)
Chicken head rice is a seasonal snack in the hometown, and only rich and noble families in ancient times could afford it. When Cao Xueqin was a child, he lived with his father and grandfather in Suzhou for a period of time, he also loved to eat chicken head rice, and also wrote this thing into the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", there is a section of Jia Baoyu who let Shi Xiangyun send food, one of the fresh goods is chicken head rice: "When people heard about it, they brought two small filigree boxes. First uncover one, which contains two fresh fruits, red diamond and chicken head. "In ancient times, the exquisite people stewed white fungus, cinnamon balls, red dates, lotus seeds, rock sugar and chicken head rice together, and the soup was sticky and thick, nourishing the face and beautiful skin, which was the favorite of the ladies and ladies. Later, the gourmand fried chicken head rice with river shrimp, lotus root, water chestnut, zibai, ci mushroom, etc., which was tender and sweet and crisp, with the unique refreshing taste of Jiangnan Water Town, known as "Eight Immortals of Water". Of course, the most classic way to eat is qingyi, that is, blanch in rock sugar water, sprinkle a handful of dried osmanthus flowers, chew it smooth and fragrant, and also have a refreshing nature.
Chicken head rice is known as "ginseng in the water", and the Shennong Materia Medica says that it "replenishes the middle, strengthens the spirit, strengthens the spirit, and makes the eyes and ears smart", and praises it as a tonic product. Northern Song Dynasty Wenhao Su Dongpo is more than a year old, still thinking quickly, walking like flying, he claims that the way to maintain health is to eat chicken head rice every day, and the way to eat is quite strange, take the freshly boiled mustard into the mouth, slowly chew until the jin liquid is full of mouth, and then drum rinse several times, swallow slowly, eat dozens of grains a day, perseverance.
The old lady in Tongli, Suzhou, is now peeling the freshly picked mustard. (Visual China/Photo)
Many years ago, I went to the north to study, and together with the autumn wind, I unconsciously bred Zhang Jiying's "thoughts of the sea bass", and my heart thought of the chicken head rice in my hometown. My mother was quite familiar with my thoughts, and she brought me a bag of hometown "local specialties" from thousands of miles away. I boiled water in the dormitory, poured the chicken head rice into the boil for three minutes, and finally mixed with a little sugar and dried osmanthus flowers, a bowl of minimalist sugar water osmanthus chicken head rice "came out". A spoonful of entrance, the soup with a refreshing osmanthus fragrance, chicken head rice soft sticky teeth and chewy, delicious from the tip of the tongue gradually spread to the throat, aromatic overflowing teeth, sweet throat, in this cool autumn, for me such a wanderer, both warm stomach and intimate.
Reminiscent of the fellow scholar Fan Yanqiao praised this object: "Silver Ou floating jade, blue waves sinking pearls, slightly fragrant, elegant and sweet, solid heaven between the wonderful food also." Immerse yourself in the delicacies of the mustard, as if you have seen the autumn of your hometown. If the few strokes of the painter Wu Guanzhong's "gray wall dewa, autumn leaves like fire, and wild ferry boats" represent the autumn colors of the hometown on the paper, then the rounded and fragrant grass bullets in my bowl are the hometown autumn flavor on the tip of the tongue.
Suzhou people display fresh "chicken head rice" that is peeled and sold in Fengmen Heng Street. (Visual China/Photo)
"The autumn wind sounds, the crab feet itch", Qingren Gu Le wrote in "Qing Jiale": "River crabs are produced in Suzhou, Taihu Lake, Wujiang and Changshu as the top products". Suzhou crab production, has a long history, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Wuguo crabs into a disaster, known as "rice crabs do not leave seeds" of the frightening rumors, crabs not only eat rice, even rice seeds also eat out. The "Chronicle of Pingjiang" says: "Wuzhong crabs are like locusts, pingtian is full, rice is gone, Wu proverb has 'shrimp barren crab chaos', which is exactly what it is called." Under the deep hatred, Suzhou people and the "eight feet" wrestled with wits and courage, and over time, those domineering guys eventually became a delicious "plate of Chinese food" on the local table. Suzhou people "eat crabs as the most solemn thing in autumn". Together with the west wind, every household is almost "crab-free and no feast".
In ancient times, there was a top foodie in Suzhou, Li Yu, who loved crabs as much as his life, and his family had seven hundred and forty-nine large tanks, filled with crabs, and did not eat crabs for a day. Drunken crabs are also pickled with Shaoxing flower carving wine and eaten in winter. It can be seen how delicious and tempting the crab is.
Lotus Island in Yangcheng Lake has a hairy crab breeding area. (Visual China/Photo)
Suzhou people who like to live a small life are also quite exquisite about eating crabs, and if they see people chewing and biting crabs, they will laugh at him for "eating crabs with cattle", which means that such good things are wasted in vain. In the old days, the old Suzhou household crab eaters had their own set of "crab eight pieces": waist round hammer, long handle axe, skewer, long handle spoon, tweezers, scissors, stool, basin, this formation is not "show", they have pads, knocks, splits, forks, scissors, clips, picks, sheng and other functions. At the bottom of my uncle's grandmother's box there was a set of "eight crab pieces" made of pure copper, when the steaming crab was brought to the table, the old lady put on reading glasses, first cut off two large claws and eight crab feet with scissors, and then gently tapped a circle around the crab shell with a waist round hammer, and then used a long-handled axe to split the back shell and navel, and then took the stool, needle, pliers, hammer, or pick or pinch or fork or knock, and took out the orange crab yellow, milky white crab paste, and snowflake crab meat one by one. Piece by piece of "weapons" take turns, the same kind of tools alternately play, with the assistance of "crab eight pieces", the "big unloading eight pieces" of crab yellow, crab paste, crab meat placed in the crab shell, dipped in the seasoning, picked up the crab shell to eat clean, the silky delicacy embedded in the lips and teeth is wonderful, eating crab has become a fun and elegant thing. After eating a crab, it takes half an hour.
Eight Pieces of Crab (Visual China/Photo)
Jiangsu and Zhejiang are rich in river crabs, and the "Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab" in his hometown has been listed among the "National Geographical Indication Products of China" because of its large fat and creamy flesh. In "Sha Jia Bang", Chief of Staff Diao has a line: "Order you to go down to Yangcheng Lake to catch crabs and buy them at market prices." "This is probably the first free advertisement for hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake." Relatives and friends from other places asked: Where can I buy authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs now? I can touch my conscience and tell you very responsibly: the so-called "Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab" signboard on the market is "bath crab", "washed crab" and other Western shellfish goods.
When I was still in middle school, I ate an authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crab. Relatives in the countryside personally delivered to the door, a total of six pairs, six males and six females. Each one is about five or two, and the outer surface of the view is "green shell, white belly, yellow hair, golden claw", and each one has a dancing claw with open teeth and a strong hole. Fine crabs should be steamed in a steamer – to maximize the freshness of the crab meat. The crabs put into the steamer basket especially made a dying struggle, and the adults clamped the edge of the pot with four large iron clips, and during the steaming process, they pressed the lid of the pot with their hands for several minutes, and they heard the silence inside before letting go.
After the crab that had just come out of the cage was on the table, I broke open the crab shell and feasted, and the oily crab yellow flowed in my hand, and I couldn't help but think of a beautiful picture of the children of the Red Chamber in Cao Xueqin's pen holding chelations, talking and laughing, and smearing their faces with crab yellow. Chinese food culture is vast and profound, but the same ingredient has a variety of cooking methods, and the taste of the production is naturally very different. A single crab, there are steamed, boiled, fried, noodle drag, spicy... "Old food" Cao Xueqin is naturally proficient in this doorway, the crab in the steamer steaming - in order to maximize the deliciousness of crab meat, steamed crab must be eaten while hot, after a long time to become cold will produce a bad smell of fishy, so Feng Jie commanded: "Crabs should not be taken more, still placed in the steamer." Take ten, eat and take. Sister Feng said, "Bring the hot wine." "Crabs are cold, eating crabs generally need to drink a few sips of hot wine to warm the stomach, neutralize the cold formed by crabs in the body." Ping'er gave Feng Jie a shell of crab yellow, and Feng Jie ordered her: "Pour more ginger vinegar." "In the poem "Yong Crab", Xue Baochao's "wine is not polyester and also uses chrysanthemum, sexual anti-accumulation cold fixed whisker ginger." And Jia Baoyu's "holding the claw is more like gui shade, pouring vinegar to beat ginger is crazy." It can be seen that ginger and vinegar are also the "golden partners" of eating crabs, the flesh is fat and tender, large pieces of yellow and white crab meat crab yellow juice is abundant, I dipped in ginger vinegar, a bite down, crab paste fat and plump, translucent lipid; crab gold yellow oil, eat the taste rustle slightly like egg yolk; crab meat is more like white jade, tender and full, a stream of indescribable freshness ripples between the lips and tongue, no wonder there is a local saying: "crab one on the table is light.".
Hairy crab "big close-up" of Yangcheng Lake (Visual China/Photo)
It should be noted that crab meat is not easy to preserve. At that time, my uncle went to beijing to study at university, and when he came into autumn, he thought deeply about the hairy crabs in his hometown, and his grandfather bought a cage of crabs, took out the crab meat and paste yellow, boiled it into crab oil, sealed it in a can, and mailed it to his precious son in the distance. Later, my father often boiled crab oil to make crab yellow noodles and crab flour soup buns for me to kill and kill.
Wang Zengqi is recognized as the "first blogger of food", his hometown Gaoyou belongs to the Lixia River Water Town, but also rich in shrimp and crab things, it is said that there is a great opportunity to "kiss crab Ze". Curiously, when I went through all the food articles in the Complete Works of Wang Zengqi, I did not find an article dedicated to crabs. Is the smell of crab so good that it cannot be described in pen and ink, so good that there is no more to say?
On the occasion of crab yellow cream, a large group of people ate a crab feast around the eight immortals table, and at the end, a bowl of sweet and soft chicken head rice sweet soup was really a day for the gods.
Shen Gongjing