Bright Culture Weekend Edition: Peanuts

【Zhiwei Zhai】

Author: Xu Tinghua

Peanuts, also known as "long-lived fruits", also have places called "falling peanuts".

Called "Falling Peanuts", it reminds me of Xu Dishan, a famous writer in the history of modern literature and with the pen name "Falling Peanuts", who once wrote a well-known prose work "Falling Peanuts", which has been included in junior high school language textbooks for many years. I remember the beginning very clearly:

Our backyard has half an acre of vacant land. The mother said, "It's a pity to let it be absurd, you love peanuts so much, just open up and plant peanuts." "Our sisters and brothers were very happy, we bought seeds, ploughed the ground, sowed seeds, watered, and within a few months, we actually harvested!"

From this, it can be seen that peanuts do not choose the land and are easy to grow. In the text, he also praised peanuts, "unlike apples, peaches, and pomegranates, they hang their bright red and green fruits high on the branches, so that people will have admiration at first sight." ...... It grows short on the ground, pays attention to burying its head in hard work, and buries the fruit under the ground for people to dig up..." In this essay of less than a thousand words, the author borrows things to illustrate people, revealing the character of peanuts who do not seek a false name and silently dedicate, exhorting the world to "be a useful person, not a great and decent person", expressing the author's ideals and values of life that are not for fame and fortune, but only for the benefit of society.

There are several riddles in the folk that describe the quality of peanuts very thoroughly, such as: a sesame egg grows in the soil, peeling out is a red egg, uncovering is a white egg, eating in the mouth is a fragrant egg. Another example: green vines bloom yellow flowers, the outside of the white jacket and the inside of the red yarn, the flowers on the ground do not bear fruit, and the underground fruits do not flower. Another example: hemp house, red tent, living in a white fat man. The mystery refers to peanuts.

In the past, peanuts were recognized as native to Peru and Brazil, and were only introduced to China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. However, from the written records, as early as before Columbus discovered the American continent, there were records of peanuts in ancient chinese books. In the Tang Dynasty Duan Chengshi's "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks", there are written records that "shaped like sweet potatoes, vines", "flowers bloom and fall to the ground, and knots such as sweet potatoes, also known as peanuts". In the "Dietary Instructions" written by Jia Ming at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it is said: "Recently there is a kind of fallen peanut, the strange name of the long fruit, the taste is spicy, bitter, sweet, cold, shaped like a pod, and the seed is like lotus flesh." These works were written before Columbus discovered the New World in South America and are the world's earliest documentation on peanuts. By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, peanuts in China were widely distributed and were planted everywhere. The main production areas are Shandong, eastern Liaoning, Guangdong Leizhou Peninsula, Huanghuai River area and coastal hills and sandy areas along the southeast coast.

Peanuts are known as nutrient-rich "plant meat", crispy and delicious, and loved by young and old. Folk saying that "often eat peanuts can be nutritious, eat peanuts do not want meat".

In the early years, my family downstairs to watch the carport of the old Liu, in order to refresh, every night to drink a few or two liquor, hot summer nights, he through the street lamp, move a chair, Wu Zi sat on a small bench, there is no dish, just a bag of peanuts, while watching TV, while taking a sip of wine, eat a few peanuts, that look very flavorful, the ground is paved with a pile of peanut shells, every day to watch him clean the "battlefield". Once, I bought a handful of coriander from the vegetable market, washed and blanched the water into small pieces and mixed it with peanuts and rice with spices, and gave him a plate to taste fresh, and he called it good. Sometimes I was pumping the tires, and when he saw me, he immediately came up to help me, which was a very easy thing for him, and he only got enough to get a few shots.

Peanuts are eaten in many ways, fried peanuts, fried peanuts, brine peanuts, shelled boiled peanuts, peanut crisp, peanut candy, peanut butter. In particular, fried peanuts and brine peanuts, the crisp, bursting, oily aroma and the pleasure of eating in the mouth, are the love of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign alcoholics. Mr. Jin Sheng sighed that he probably liked to eat peanuts. The last journey of his life also left an age-old mystery of the instructions: peanut rice and spiced dried tofu chewed together have the taste of ham. It is estimated that this peanut rice must be air-dried brine peanuts. Otherwise there would be no tough taste similar to meat.

Nowadays, children especially love to eat, and the price is expensive, called "peanut nougat", which is very popular in the market. I suffer from diabetes, and sometimes I can't help it, and I have secretly tasted one or two pieces from my family, and the taste is really good. The famous writer Su Tong probably also ate it, and wrote an essay on "Peanut Nougat", which was interesting to read.

Guangming Daily (November 27, 2020, 16th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily