Last weekend, I visited the wet market and saw a white card erected in front of a stall with a marker pen: 10% off the toon. I was so happy to see it that I rushed up, but I didn't find the toon.
The eldest sister who sold vegetables told me while collecting the signs inside, and at the same time speaking a Wuhan dialect: "I got it, it sold out!" ", for a moment it was very lost.
I was not dead-hearted, and asked her if she had it every day, and the eldest sister said very firmly: "No, it is too expensive to make a dish, the price must catch up with the chicken and duck, and I dare not blindly buy and sprinkle." ”
I forget all about what I bought later that day, but I deeply remember that toon was on the market. Yes, the rain in the Qingming Valley is approaching, and the day of eating toon is coming again.
Chinese toon
I fell in love with toon after leaving home, although I was hungry when I was a child, chewed corn stalks, and sipped white grass roots, I didn't care about toon, its unique aromatic smell smelled a little strange, far less tempting than the sweet taste.
At that time, it was very ordinary, behind the eaves of the house, in the field, you can see toon trees everywhere. There are three seasons of the year, which are no different from other trees, bare in winter, and mixed in the middle of a green in summer and autumn.
I only think about textbook covers that are about to fall off, or when I need to glue a co-edited workbook. The trunk of the toon will be oily, amber, very thick, very sticky oil from the scars on the trunk of the eyes down, like tears. In an era when even scotch tape was scarce, it was a pleasure to glue things with toon resin.
Toon resin
There is also a toon tree in front of my red tile house. My mother told me that the tree was as old as my family's house and was planted after building a new house. The soapy water left after washing clothes, the grass and wood ash accumulated in the stove will be poured under the tree. Unconsciously, this tree has grown slender and luxuriant.
Every spring in memory, when the first scarlet buds emerge from the toon tree, mother and grandmother will take a special bamboo pole and shed these seedlings from the tree.
Short chopped, long picked up for later. Beat a few eggs in chopped toon, add some salt, stir well with chopsticks, and fry in a frying pan. Because there are many toons and few eggs, they do not form after being plated, and the scattered toon egg particles need to be spooned and eaten.
Picking toon
Later, I went to work in the southern city, and settled here for a long time, walking through the big and small corners of the city but never found the scarlet toon in my hometown.
I also learned to fry toon cakes like my mother, and when I fried them in a non-stick pan until they were golden on both sides and spread out into a large cake lying on a white porcelain plate, I was still complacent at first, eating and eating, and found that I was not happy. Today, toon is much more expensive than eggs, my cake eggs are more, less fragrant, and the rich fragrance of that year is gone.
I also tried to fry the toon seedlings in eggs and flour liquid in a frying pan, a large, fluffy plate that was very crisp to eat. However, this way of eating is not common in my hometown of the Central Plains.
Fried toon
In addition to making scrambled eggs with toon, people will also put the inexhaustible toon into the water and boil it, then fish it up and add salt to rub it, and hang it on a bamboo pole to dry. Such dried toon can be kept for a long time until late spring and early summer.
After drying, the flavor of the toon has changed greatly, eating a little wood in the mouth, and it is also very difficult to chew, and the unique aromatic smell of the toon is also greatly reduced.
Toon is best eaten freshly, in the Spring of March, eat a bite of toon scrambled eggs, close your eyes and sniff the fragrance of spring everywhere, unforgettable.
Toon egg cake
Of course, March is my favorite time of year. In March, in addition to toon, there are also wild camellias, orchid flowers, spring shoots and so on.
In addition to making dried toon during this season, my mother also makes dried bamboo shoots. Bamboo shoots need to be picked up very early, and dry food must be prepared in advance, usually homemade wheat and rice, and then a pot of water in a canned glass bottle. Women from the same village often make an appointment to go into the mountains together in advance, set off at dawn, and do not return until late afternoon.
At that time, I understood what it meant to return with a full load, two large bamboo baskets, pressed solidly are spring shoots. The mother carried them, and the flat shoulders trembled up and down with the footsteps.
In addition to bamboo shoots, there are often bunched orchid flowers, as well as scoops (wild strawberries), Lu Duzi (aka goat's milk), each of which is surprising.
Entering the mountain is a very hard thing, the mountain is high and far, the forest is full of thorns, and there are poisonous snakes and wild boars. But the temptation of spring is too great, and the revived mountains seem to be full of treasures. Spring shoots are suddenly swooping upwards, camellias spit out bud tips, the fragrance of orchid flowers is swirling, wild fruits are red belly... Spring brings not only the flavor between the teeth, but also the surprises that change every day.
Scoop
Orchid flowers
Lu Duzi
When she got home, my mother was tired and paralyzed every time, gulping down water and resting on the back of the chair for a long time. I found the same canned bottle, an empty bottle, inserted the orchid flower, watched the water flow over its stalks, and placed it contentedly on the windowsill of my home. The whole house was fragrant, and every dream at night was incense.
In fact, there is no shortage of beautiful flowers in the mountains, peach blossoms, mountain red, rape flowers, thorn roses are very common, but no one picks them, and few people will put them at home, orchid flowers are an exception, it is unique to everyone's love.
After dinner, everyone sat in a circle to peel the bamboo shoots, and the bamboo shoots soon formed a hill among us. The peeled bamboo shoots are first passed through the water, then dried, evaporated after the water becomes dried bamboo shoots, and only during the busy season of farming or the New Year is willing to take it out and eat.
The usual practice in my family is to stew with bacon, brush the bacon with a brush, cut it into pieces and put it in a crock pot, grab a handful of soaked mountain shoots and throw it in, and then put some ginger pieces and radishes without adding salt and other spices. The longer it is stewed, the whiter and thicker the soup becomes. Scoop a spoonful of rice and pour it over the rice, you can suck it all in one breath, and the dishes are saved.
Braised meat with bamboo shoots
Mountain shoots, toon vultures grow in the spring, but they are never tamed by urban civilization, behind each chopstick ingredient is inseparable from a pair of feet wading through the mountains and waters and a hand that has worked mechanically for thousands of times.
Regarding eating, there was such a saying in ancient China: eat buds in spring, eat leaves in summer, eat fruits in autumn, and eat roots in winter. The ancients advocated adapting to the changes of the four seasons and eating different parts of plants. The custom of "eating spring" in Guyu also followed, and toon, spring shoots, etc. are indispensable ingredients in the custom of "eating spring".
(1) Toon
Toon has a history of more than 2,000 years of cultivation in China, and its earliest written record is recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and the "Chenghou Mountain" chapter writes: "Five hundred miles to the east, the mountain of Chenghou, its mountain is more than a tree", the ebony wood refers to the toon tree.
Chinese also has a long history of eating toon. According to records, as early as the Han Dynasty, the folk had the habit of eating tsubaki. Not only do ordinary people love to eat, but also dignitaries and nobles flock to it. During the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were toon in the list of court tributes. Many literati and inkers have expressed their love for it.
Su Shi of the Northern Song Dynasty described toon as follows in "Spring Vegetables": "It is like my Shu rich winter vegetables, frost leaves dew teeth and cold more thrive"; The Ming Dynasty essayist Liu Tong wrote in the "Imperial JingJing Scenery Strategy": "New Year's Day into the spring buds, cucumbers, one bud and one melon, half a thousand dollars"; The Qing Dynasty literary scholar Yuan Ming described the grand scene of eating toon in the "Suiyuan Food List": "Everywhere there is, the lovers are especially numerous. ”
Moreover, the ancients' eating methods were more diverse, and toon brewed tea, toon fried gluten, toon boiled tofu, and toon mixed with seasonal vegetables were common practices.
Tofu mixed with tofu
In addition to cooking, toon can also be used in medicine. Li Shizhen pointed out in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that toon has the effect of clearing heat and detoxification.
However, although the toon is delicious, it cannot be greedy. Toon leaves contain trace amounts of nitrate and nitrite, which become higher and higher as young shoots take shape. Therefore, the best time to eat toon is before the valley rain, on the one hand, the young shoots are more delicious, and on the other hand, it is healthier to eat the young shoots. There is a folk saying that "before the rain Tsubaki buds are tender, after the rain Tsubaki buds are born of wood", which says this truth.
In the traditional culture of our country, toon has a deeper meaning, it is regarded as a symbol of longevity, often used to express wishes for the elders.
For example: "Chitshin" means Chitose. The ancients also often used "Tsubaki" to refer to fathers and elders, and fathers can also be called "Tsubaki".
(2) Bamboo shoots
Chinese has a longer history of eating bamboo shoots, lasting 3,000 years. As early as the Shang Dynasty, bamboo shoots became a delicacy on people's tables.
The ancients often compared bamboo shoots and pork together, and Huang Tingjian lamented in the poem that "the bitter bamboo shoots in the South Garden taste better than meat", and his love for bamboo shoots is overflowing. Celebrities such as Su Dongpo, Lu You, and Zheng Banqiao also praised the bamboo shoots.
Su Dongpo wrote in "Yu Qian monk Lu Yunxuan": "It is better to eat no meat than to live without bamboo, if you want to be vulgar and not thin, please eat bamboo shoot roast meat." ”； Lu You wrote in "Zhou Hongdao's Invitation to Eat Jiangxi Bamboo Shoots as a Dead Sentence": "The color is like a jade version of cat's head bamboo shoots, and the taste is against the hump oxtail beaver." ”； Zheng Banqiao, a calligrapher and painter of the Qing Dynasty, said: "Jiangnan fresh bamboo shoots take advantage of the anchovy, and cook the spring wind in early March."
Spring shoots
The ancients loved to eat bamboo shoots, in addition to loving its delicious taste, it was also out of a spiritual pursuit. In the minds of the ancients, plum, pine and bamboo symbolized the noble soul, and they were called "the three friends of the cold year". Bamboo and bamboo shoots have the same root, and eating bamboo shoots has become a big elegant thing. How elegant is it? Dishes made from bamboo shoots are called "magnolia slices". Bamboo shoots can be fried, stewed, stewed, boiled and pickled, and are one of the best partners for meaty ingredients.
Eating bamboo shoots also has many benefits, the fragrance of bamboo shoots has an appetizing effect, and the plant fibers contained in it can promote gastrointestinal peristalsis and facilitate digestion. The plant proteins, vitamins and trace elements contained in bamboo shoots can enhance the body's immunity.
Three meals a day, all year round, the meaning of food to us has long exceeded the scope of the stomach. We walk the world, from south to north, from the city to the countryside, the boundaries of regional colors such as accent and appearance are blurred, but there is one thing that is always clear, that is, our food habits and memories. No matter where we are, the dish we love most in the kitchen is always about childhood, about hometown.
Just like me, in every early spring, I will be particularly worried about toon and bamboo shoots. We are eating not only the food itself, but also the smell of spring and the most precious memories.