March is the season to eat spring shoots.
In March 931, the 44-year-old Su Shi had just experienced the prison sentence in the Wutaishi case and was relegated to Huangzhou (in Huanggang City, Hubei Province). This was the first time in Su Shi's career that he suffered a major setback.
Su Shi and bamboo forest
Self-laughing life is busy with mouth, and the old career turns absurd. The Yangtze River goes around Guo Zhiyu is beautiful, and the good bamboo and mountains feel the fragrance of bamboo shoots. Eviction may as well be placed outside, and the poet is exemplary as Shui Cao Lang. Only ashamed of nothing, shang fei official family pressed the wine bag.
When he first arrived in Huangzhou, Su Shi wrote poems, first laughing at himself, saying that he had a great future, but because he could not control this mouth, he always liked to say something that should not be said, so he was convicted.
But then, as soon as his words turned sharply, he threw his worries out of the cloud of nine clouds and talked about eating.
"The fish in the Yangtze River are really delicious, and the bamboo shoots that spread over the mountains are fragrant and fragrant", the foodie Su Dongpo was amazed by the delicious taste of river fish and spring shoots. No matter what the situation is, as long as there is food to accompany, Su Dongpo is happy.
Fresh and dripping spring shoots
During his debasement of Huangzhou, Su Shi wrote the famous articles "Chibi Fu", "Later Chibi Fu", and "Nian Nu Jiao Chibi Huaigu". In his spare time, he and his family became farmers, reclaimed a slope in the east of the city, and taught the villagers how to make pork to eat, and the nickname of "Dongpo Resident" was also born at this time.
At this time, Su Shi did not know that in a few years, his career would turn around and he would be transferred to Hangzhou as mayor. In Hangzhou, he can eat enough bamboo shoots.
Suzhou continues to cook, Hangzhou continues to shoot. In the list of China's bamboo shoots region, Hangzhou should not let the top spot.
Hangzhou is a place where there are bamboo shoots all year round, bamboo shoots are very important in the recipes of Hangzhou people, and the spring bamboo shoots are particularly tender and lush, and the fame of Hangzhou spring shoots is well known.
Tianmu mountain bamboo forest
Produced in Hangzhou, Tianmu bamboo shoots are of excellent quality, and are called "Fresh And Fresh", "Jia Yu Guo Shu".
During the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was the capital city, and "Tianmu Bamboo Shoots" was naturally sought after by everyone. Farmers made dried bamboo shoots and sold them to other places, making the reputation of Tianmu bamboo shoots spread far and wide. During the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the annual output value of Dried Bamboo Shoots was three or four thousand quintals. In the Republic of China, a load of dried Bamboo Shoots can be exchanged for ten stones of rice, worth 50 to 70 yuan.
Dried bamboo shoots in the sky
The famous monk Zanning of Lin'an in the Song Dynasty wrote the "Feelings of Objects", which recorded the fate of a monk in Tianmu Mountain. A poem goes like this:
The people in the mountains violated, and the eyes of heaven were fixed. I have no roots, only shoots for life.
Hangzhou people eat bamboo shoots, whether rich or poor, regardless of class.
Bamboo shoots, this kind of ingredient, not only has a high-end approach, but also can enter the kitchen of ordinary people's homes, achieving the most ordinary home cooking, and is the representative of the food industry that can be "salt and sweet".
The simplest ingredients, the most homely approach, as long as the ingredients are fresh enough, you can achieve a famous dish - oil braised spring shoots.
The oil braised spring shoots are made of tender spring shoots unearthed before and after the Qingming Dynasty, cooked with heavy oil and heavy sugar, and the color is bright red, fresh and refreshing. Although it is a vegetarian dish, the taste is not lost to any meat dish. Bai Juyi's poem mentions bamboo shoots: "Every day I add food, and I don't think about meat when I am timed." "People who love to eat bamboo shoots will have this feeling.
Star Huang Lei, who calls himself "Huang Xiao Chef", is a gourmet, and his method of cooking braised spring shoots in oil is more homely and authentic:
First of all, we must prepare spring shoots, oil, cooking wine, sugar, soy sauce, wash the bamboo shoots after peeling, use the back of the knife to pat loose, and then change the knife to cut into long pieces, and then boil the water to blanch the bamboo shoots, blanch them out and drain them for later. Oil to more, put the bamboo shoots into the oil and stir-fry, wait until the shoots are slightly yellow, on a layer of burnt color, then put cooking wine, put more sugar, with old soy sauce, raw soy sauce, a little salt seasoning, and then add a little water, wait for the water to turn to a small heat, about five minutes to turn the heat to collect the juice, to be collected by the juice, turn off the fire and sprinkle a little green onion, turn over the pot, it becomes. —— "Huang Xiao Chef's Beautiful Daily Life"
Braised spring shoots in oil
As a native of Zhejiang, Chiang Kai-shek liked the dish of braised spring shoots in oil. At the official residence of Shilin in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek must have bamboo shoots at every meal. After the fresh bamboo shoots were transported to the official residence, Chiang Kai-shek would personally inspect them and play with them a few times. It's like an old fun.
Another spring seasonal dish, horsehead orchid with spring shoots, can maximize the excitement of all the fantasies of spring in diners.
Horsehead orchid, a wild vegetable that grows on the side of the road, would not have received much attention. However, the day is not everywhere, youth is just coming, because it enters the food list of Chinese, and the fate of Ma Tau Lan has changed since then.
Spring shoots cut into fine strips, blanched with fresh horsehead orchid, remove the bitter taste, and then put in salt, sesame oil cold mix, the method is not complicated, the pursuit is a fresh taste. Clip a chopstick entrance, and the breath of spring will come to you in an instant.
Horsehead orchid mixed with spring shoots
In addition to the vegan approach, most of the time, bamboo shoots and meat are cooked together, which is recognized as a perfect match.
In the fall of 2018, I went to Hangzhou to play. As a foodie, you naturally can't let go of the opportunity to eat bamboo shoots. At that time, I remember that at a private restaurant in Longjing Village, I ate chicken soup boiled with dried bamboo shoots, which tasted mellow but sweet, and was cleverly integrated with the surrounding green mountains and tea gardens.
A similar approach is also common in Hangzhou. Under the Liuhe Pagoda, there is a restaurant called "Yema Tea House", which ranks among the must-eat restaurants in Hangzhou in 2019. This family's signature dish, "Salted Pork Trotter Stewed Duck", is made by boiling dried bamboo shoots and has a very fresh taste, which is similar to "pickled Tuk Fresh".
Salted pork trotter stewed duck
This method of simmering bamboo shoots with chicken and duck appeared in the "Suiyuan Food Menu" as early as the Qing Dynasty.
In the book, Mr. Yuan Mei introduced a bamboo shoot method: the three ingredients of Tianmu bamboo shoots, winter bamboo shoots and Qingzheng bamboo shoots were simmered together with chicken soup, known as "three bamboo shoot soup". "Ask the government shoots" produced in Anhui, the collection of three kinds of bamboo shoots, in the logistics industry was not developed in ancient times, there is no point in the family is not possible.
However, even if it is a common people's home, there is no need to collect three bamboo shoots stewed chicken soup, and a bowl of "Slice River" can taste the freshness of bamboo shoots. Regarding "Kataer Chuan", I have described in detail in "A Bowl of Slice Erchuan, Eating the Taste of the Southern Song Dynasty in Hangzhou", and I will not be tired of mentioning it here.
In Hangzhou, another dish related to bamboo shoots, "spring shoots and fish", is now rare, and it is only possible to eat it if you go to a high-end restaurant. But it was once a representative of Hangzhou cuisine, and in 1956, spring shoots were listed among the 36 traditional Hangzhou famous dishes along with the oil-braised spring shoots and the southern meat spring shoots (today's "pickled tuk fresh").
Spring shoots step fish
The tubu fish, also known as the pond shrew (táng lǐ), is produced in the streams and ditches around Hangzhou and in the water towns of Jiangnan, with a wide head and a wide mouth. Yuan Mei once wrote:
Hangzhou is based on tubu fish as the top product. ...... The meat is the most tender, fried, boiled, steamed, add pickled cabbage for soup, soup is especially fresh.
This fish prefers to lie on the bottom of the water in winter, walking with the soil, and in the spring, it will feed in the lush aquatic grass. The perfect combination of early spring toubu fish and spring shoots makes for a delicious dish. The fish is fat, the meat is tender and delicious, the meat is as white as silver, the tenderness of tofu is far better than its freshness, and with the tenderness of spring shoots, just thinking about it can make people mouth-watering.
People love to eat bamboo shoots, mainly the pursuit of umami.
The Northern Song Dynasty poet Lin Hong introduced a bamboo shoot dish "Bing Lin Xian" in the "Mountain Family Qing Offering": "When the bamboo shoots are in full bloom in early summer, the leaves are simmered on the bamboo edge, and its taste is very fresh, and the name is BingLin Fresh. He said that fresh bamboo shoots are best picked and eaten fresh, don't delay for a minute, just at the edge of the bamboo forest, with fragrant bamboo leaves as fuel, simmered on the spot freshly picked bamboo shoots, the taste is particularly delicious.
In the Ming Dynasty's "Four Hours of Secret Taste", the practice of "Pinglin Xian" is also introduced:
Every spring shoots draw the right fertilizer, just under the bamboo, sweep the leaves and simmer the shoots until they are cooked, and the knife pokes and peels them. The bamboo forest is delicious and delicious. Man is a worldly thing, and he will not tolerate this true taste.
Come to think of it, only otherworldly people can appreciate the true taste of bamboo shoots. The taste of the world is Qinghuan, which is the taste of life tasted by this weak mentality.
In the Qing Dynasty, bamboo shoots were further developed into a seasoning for freshness. Yuan Ming recorded in detail the practice of the seasoning "bamboo shoot oil" in the "Suiyuan Food List":
Ten pounds of bamboo shoots, steamed for a day and a night, through its knots, paving the board, such as making tofu method, adding a piece of pressure and squeezing it, so that the juice flows out, add fried salt one or two, is bamboo shoot oil. Its bamboo shoots are dried and can still be used as preserved.
I don't know how the bamboo shoot oil that comes out of this tastes. If there is such a seasoning today, presumably there will be no market for MSG. Make a "bamboo shoot oil noodle" in the morning, so that the onion oil noodles are also self-contained.
The smell of snail powder touching the soul is the taste of sour shoots, which is not ugly to eat, but very fresh.
To this day, bamboo shoots are often used as the main ingredient in addition to freshening.
For example, when steaming anchovies, the fish should be covered with a few thin bamboo shoots; or the three cloves in the Huaiyang fine dots, one of which is the bamboo shoots; the smell of the snail powder touching the soul is the taste of sour shoots, which is not ugly to eat, but very fresh.
Eating, in the hearts of Chinese, is never as simple as satisfying the appetite. Diet, or the longing for hometown, or the release of temperament, or the pursuit of health.
"Meilan Zhuju" is the four gentlemen of Chinese culture. Bamboo shoots, as the juvenile form of bamboo, are not only a delicacy, but also a kind of elegant food, which has been given a rich spiritual connotation by the ancient literati. Su Dongpo's "It is better to eat without meat than to live without bamboo." No meat makes people thin, no bamboo makes people vulgar. If you want to be not thin and good, or burn bamboo every day. That's what it means.
Bamboo shoots are not only a delicacy, but also a kind of elegant food.
"Bamboo shoots", same as "筍". In the "Sayings", it is recorded: "筍, bamboo tire also." From bamboo, ten sounds. For bamboo shoots, the more complete interpretation in history is the "Bamboo Shoot Spectrum", and the author is the Song Dynasty monk Zanning who wrote the "story of the monk who ate bamboo shoots like a life" mentioned above. The version of the Bamboo Shoot Notation that has survived today is divided into five parts:
"The Name of One", examines the various names of bamboo shoots, such as meng, zhuo, bamboo tire, bamboo bud, bamboo and so on. "Two Out", examines more than ninety kinds of bamboo shoots that various people talk about. "Three Foods", from the perspective of dietary therapy, said that the benefits and disadvantages of bamboo shoots, in his words, bitter bamboo shoots are better than sweet shoots, "Gando damages the spleen and reverses the stomach, and bitterness supplements the liver and helps the gallbladder". The method of eating bamboo shoots, in addition to steaming and boiling soup, is simmering in the ashes of the pond. "The Four Things" copies the records of people and bamboo shoots in the past. "Five Miscellaneous Theories", the author's own collection of statements, such as bamboo shoot skin as a fan, why the bamboo shoot is a dragon sun, bamboo shoots have five colors, and so on.
The earliest record of bamboo shoots can be found in the Book of Poetry. More than 20 kinds of edible fruits and vegetables are recorded in the Book of Verses, and bamboo shoots are among them. In the Book of Poetry, Daya Han Yi, it is written:
Its Wei He, Wei Bamboo and Pu.
This passage says that Han Hou went to worship his ancestors and lived in Duling near Xi'an, and the local elders set up a banquet for him, bringing green shoots and fresh pu vegetables, so that Han Hou was very happy to eat. It can be seen that in the Zhou Dynasty, bamboo shoots were used as high-grade ingredients to entertain dignitaries and dignitaries.
In the Han Dynasty, there were special people in Shaanxi who specialized in planting bamboo, wheat bamboo and bamboo shoots, and in the "Chronicle of The Chronicle of Cargo Breeding", it is recorded that in the Han Dynasty, "a thousand acres of bamboo in Weichuan ... All of them are related to the Marquis of Qianhu and so on. It can be seen that at that time, there were still large bamboo forests in the northern region, and eating bamboo shoots was also a custom of the Central Plains people. The Western Han Dynasty poet Fujia, similar to Sima and called "Ming Ma", once said that the most delicious food in the world was "the fern of the young cow, and the dish is bamboo shoots".
Like other diets, the love of bamboo shoots was gradually brought to the south with several "southern crossings" in Chinese history. The first time occurred during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wushu Sun Hao's biography, quoting the Biography of the Ancestors of the Chu State, records the story of "Mengzong Weeping Bamboo Shoots":
The patriarch loves bamboo shoots. The winter festival is approaching, when the bamboo shoots have not yet been born, the sect enters the bamboo forest to lament, and the bamboo shoots are out of it, and they are provided for the mother, all of whom think that the sense of filial piety is caused. After the gradual relocation of Guanglu Xun, he went to the public.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Mengzong, a Jiangxia man, died when he was a teenager, leaving only his old mother to raise him. The mother was very old and sick, and the doctor said that soup made of fresh bamboo shoots was necessary to cure the disease. But it was winter, there were no fresh bamboo shoots, Meng Zong had no choice but to run alone to the bamboo forest, holding the bamboo and crying, frantically complaining. After a while, the earth suddenly cracked, several tender bamboo shoots suddenly appeared, Meng Zong was overjoyed, and picked the bamboo shoots back to make soup for his mother, and his mother drank the soup and her illness was cured. Later, Meng Zong became the sikong of wu guo, equivalent to the minister in charge of science, education and cultural undertakings today.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Guo Shouzheng compiled the "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties", including the story of "Mengzong Weeping Bamboo Shoots" and becoming a filial piety. Eating bamboo shoots is associated with filial piety.
At the same time, during the Wei and Jin dynasties, the scholar class also regarded eating bamboo shoots as a representation of personality pursuit, giving it the spiritual meaning of "simple and light, transcendent and unworldly".
By the Tang and Song dynasties, China's economic center of gravity gradually shifted southward, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Delta region were developed as never before, and the fashion of eating bamboo shoots flourished, and bamboo shoots appeared in a large number of poems. Among them, the most direct is Bai Juyi, who wrote a poem called "Eating Bamboo Shoots", expressing his thoughts about the delicious bamboo shoots:
This state is a bamboo township, full of spring shoots in the valley. The mountain man folded and hugged, hugging the morning market. Things are more cheap, and double money is easy to bunch. Place in a cooking bowl and cook at the same time as rice. Purple jade, vegetarian muscle new jade. Eat more every day, and don't think about meat after a while. For a long time as a Jingluoke, this taste is often insufficient. And do not hesitate to eat, the south wind blows bamboo.
The roots are in the rocks. Bamboo shoots that broke through the ground have become a symbol of a positive attitude towards life.
The teacher of the great poet Lu You, the Song Dynasty poet Zeng Ji, also wrote a poem "Eating Bamboo Shoots":
At the beginning of the flower affair, a flavor of spring vegetables. After the dragon snake swept the wind and thunder, the tiger and leopard were spotted with fog and rain. But let this king always have a son, and not worry about every food and sigh without fish. Ding Ning had to keep it under the fan, but the obstacle sun covered the wind but wanted a canal.
He compares the bamboo shoots that thrive after the rain to the dragon snake that is eager to move and the tiger and leopard with spots on the body, which means vigorous vitality. Bamboo shoots that broke through the ground have become a symbol of a positive attitude towards life.
Firmly believe that the green mountain does not relax, and the root is in the broken rock.
It's the season of eating bamboo shoots again, taste the freshness of spring, and establish a positive attitude towards life for the new year, just start by eating bamboo shoots!
How to make spring shoots the best to eat? You are welcome to actively interact in the message area.
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