Winter food supplement, radish first genus. Radish has the reputation of "immortal bone" and "little ginseng", Li Shizhen praised it as "the most beneficial of vegetables", and there are also folk proverbs such as "eat radish in winter and eat ginger in summer, do not work for doctors to prescribe medicine", "the family has a thousand, it is better to eat radishes" and so on.
In the vegetable family, radish can be called a "famous family", carrots, green radish, white radish, water radish, heart beauty... There are many categories, all over the world.
In the name of "Lai"
The earliest record of radish is the "Book of Poetry, Shao Feng, Gu Feng", "Cai Feng Cai Fei, no lower body", of which "Feng" is kohlrabi and "Fei" refers to white radish.
The Han Dynasty people called white radish "Reed", "Luofu", etc., and the "Later Han Book of Liu Penzi Biography" described the situation in which the palace women "dug the root of the reed in the garden" and ate it.
During the Tang Dynasty, the world's first pharmacopoeia compiled and promulgated by the state, the "New Cultivation of Materia Medica", came out, and white radish was included in it, and the official name of the medicine was "Lai Shu". "Lai", the harmonic sound "Laifu", has a beautiful meaning of praying for xiangrui.
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In the Qing Dynasty's famous cowpea red "eight yards", there is a piece of "Lai Zun Zun", because of its shape like a radish and named. This statue is now in the Palace Museum, with a slender mouth, slender neck, full shoulders, long abdomen, narrow circle feet, and cowpea red glaze on the outer wall. The shape is light and beautiful, the tire is neat and tidy, and the enamel is uniform and bright.
There are many other names for radish, such as hail, warm pine, purple cloud pine, earth crisp and so on. Wang Zhen's "Book of Agriculture" of the Yuan Dynasty says: "One kind of radish and four names." Spring is a broken cone, summer is summer, autumn is radish, and winter is crisp. Therefore, Huang Guyun: 'The soil of the golden city is crisp and pure as practice', with its cleanliness. ’”
▲ Qing Yongzheng Rouge purple glaze pastel Lyre pattern small plate
Collection of the Guanfu Museum
Those turnips, those people
Radish, Cao Cao and "Saving Cao Tian"
In the Battle of Chibi of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao was defeated and fled from Huarong Province. During the retreat, there was not enough food and grass, and tens of thousands of troops were hungry and thirsty, so tired that they could not walk. It just so happened that there was a large field of turnips on both sides of the road, and the soldiers used the turnips to fill their hunger to save their lives. This turnip field played a key role in saving the Cao Army, so it was called "saving Cao Tian".
Radish, Wu Zetian and "Fake Bird's Nest"
When Wu Zetian was proclaimed emperor, it was often said that "Mai Sheng has three heads, and the valley is long and double spikes". In the autumn of one year, a "plus version" of radish grew in the Dongguan vegetable field of Luoyang, three feet long, green and white, and the people regarded it as a "strange thing" and paid tribute to the imperial court. When the female emperor saw the dragon's heart, she instructed the imperial chef to use this large radish to make a special dish.
The imperial chefs meditated and used all kinds of skills, and finally cut the radish into strips and served them with mountain treasures and seafood to make a soup. After tasting it, the female emperor thought that this soup was delicious and delicious, and the taste was comparable to that of bird's nest, so she gave it the name "fake bird's nest", after which the radish soup was on the table of Wang Sun Guixin as a royal court meal.
Radish, Su Shi and "Dongpo Soup"
Su Shi's "Dongpo meat" is famous all over the world, but this "Dongpo soup" is little known. In fact, the color and aroma of "Dongpo soup" are beautiful, not inferior to fish meat, "no fish meat five flavors, there is natural sweetness." ”
The main ingredients of Dongpo soup are Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, radish and wild cabbage. Su Shi has a special affection for turnips, and also specially gives a poem: "Who knows the old man of Nanyue, interpret it as a dongpo soup." There is a reed root, and it still contains Xiao Luqing. Don't talk to your noble son, drunk from the canal. ”
Radish, Premier Zhou and "Peony Swallow Vegetables"
"Peony Swallow Dish" is the main dish of the 24 famous dishes in Luoyang Wine Banquet, which is cooked with radish. In 1973, when Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau on a visit to Luoyang, he tasted this dish at the "Really Different" restaurant.
The chef is ingenious in taking peony flowers into the dish and making them float on the noodle soup. After seeing this, Premier Zhou said: "Luoyang peony is in the world, and the vegetables are raw and flowered." Since then, Luoyang Yancai has added another name of "Peony Yancai".
"Sky-high turnips" in museums
The Henan Museum has a water spirit ivory radish, which can be called "one of the treasures of the town hall". The radish is 27 cm long, the color changes from tooth white to water red, the radish whiskers are carved with unwashed dirt, and the emerald green radish wisp is lying on a grasshopper, greedily sucking juice, and the fluff on the legs is fine, and the alert posture is enough to mess up.
▲Qing Dynasty ivory radish Collection of Henan Museum
This Qing Dynasty ivory radish is still bright and still fresh today, without any fading, as if to present the world with a pastoral picture of a midsummer afternoon, which is intoxicating and fascinating.
▲Qing Dynasty ivory radish Shaanxi History Museum collection
Goku Uchida defines radish as "genius supporting role" in "Vegetable Classroom", in fact, in those days when there are no fresh vegetables, radish cabbage is the protagonist on the table of northern people.
Radish is inexpensive and nutritious, representing the wind and bone of light home cooking. Autumn and winter nourishment, don't forget to eat turnips!