Text/small fat shrimp
Lu Wenfu's novella "Gourmet", after appearing in Harvest magazine in 1983, had a great impact, and won the National Award for Excellent Novella in China; as soon as the French version abroad came out, it was warmly welcomed by French readers, and 100,000 copies were sold in Paris alone. For more than a decade, there were still many readers in French cities, and novels were reprinted every year. The story tells the story of the ups and downs of revolutionary cadre Gao Xiaoting and the capitalist Zhu Ziye for more than 40 years, dissecting nearly half a century of Chinese social life from a special perspective, reflecting the changes of the times and the changes in people's values.
Lu Wenfu has lived in Suzhou for more than 60 years, and the stories of his works almost all take place in the factories and alleys of Suzhou, whether it is pingtan, Wu language, food, folk customs, all of which permeate Suzhou's unique city style. In this work, Lu Wenfu not only focuses on reflecting the theme of contemporary social and political changes through the fate of the protagonist Zhu Ziye, a gourmet, but also spends a lot of pen and ink to introduce Suzhou's exquisite and unique food culture to readers in depth and comprehensively.
Lu Wenfu is a gourmet himself. The success of the novel is inseparable from Lu Wenfu's own attitude towards eating. He believes that eating should seek a realm, or environment, atmosphere, mood, situation, only the environment is elegant, the atmosphere is rich, diners will have interest in eating, eat comfortably, eat happily. Since the sensation of "Gourmet", every time Lu Wenfu went to a restaurant to eat, the chef heard that Lu Wenfu came to eat, he was a little panicked, there was a sense of axe in front of the gourmet, if you make a bad dish, I am afraid that I will ruin my reputation!
The novel mentions that there is a Suzhou noodle restaurant called Zhu Hongxing Noodle Restaurant, which has a variety of ways to eat noodles, and can be defined different ways according to the preferences of diners, "hard noodles, rotten noodles, wide soup, tight soup, heavy green (put more garlic leaves), no green (do not put garlic leaves), heavy oil (more oil), light point (less oil), heavy noodles light pouring (more noodles and less toppings), heavy pouring light noodles (toppings more noodles less), crossing the bridge..." "The toppings cannot be covered on the noodle bowl, but should be placed on another plate, and when eating, use chopsticks to rub it, It's like it came through a stone arch bridge to get into your mouth..."
Zhu Ziye has his own special requirements for eating noodles, just as the running hall guys sang in their mouths: "Come on, clear a bowl of fried shrimp, to be wide soup, heavy green, heavy pouring to cross the bridge, hard point!" For this bowl of noodles, Zhu Ziye did not hesitate to get up early and three times, if he missed the first bowl of noodles, he would be mentally weak all day and have some regrets in his heart. This not only reflects the high requirements and fine taste of Suzhou people for food, but also shows the uniqueness of Suzhou's diet that pays attention to the art of eating.
Suzhou cuisine is carefully selected, finely made, and artized according to the material, and the four seasons are different. Suzhou cuisine has a relatively complete food structure, the first dish to the end of the dish has a fixed order, can not be changed at will; from cold pot to hot stir-fry, from sweets to large dishes, from dim sum to soup, all show the delicacy and intimacy of Su cuisine. In addition to the strict requirements of the dishes, there are also certain restrictions on the number of people who eat, and the richness and variety of Su cuisine determines that the collective action of many people is required to complete - four to eight people are the best, too few can not taste the food, too many dishes are not enough to eat.
In "Gourmet", the most prestigious is the "glittering" banquet hosted by Zhu Ziye and his wife, which is amazing from the name of the dish alone:
Heart-picking lotus seed soup, lotus flour chicken head rice, snowflake chicken balls, squirrel cinnamon fish, honey ham, three sets of chicken, etc., and the taste is naturally reluctant to put down chopsticks. This feast not only delighted the diners, but also highlighted the characteristics of Suzhou cuisine: pay attention to freshness, fine workmanship, color and flavor.
Suzhou people are not only good at eating big dishes, but also obsessed with Suzhou snacks. Suzhou people who love to drink like to meet with three or five friends at dinner time to the hotel in Suzhou, but the hotel often only provides wine but does not sell vegetables, so snacks begin to enter the field of vision of diners. Sauce meat, game, rotten goose, stinky dried tofu, etc. have become a model of Suzhou snacks, in the streets, alleys, bridgehead intersections can find their traces, or shops, or stalls, or along the street to sell, this civilian way can also allow more diners to appreciate the charm of snack culture.
The publication of "Gourmet" has allowed more people to understand the richness and refinement of Suzhou's food culture, with a wide variety of colors, a wide range of tastes, sour, sweet, bitter and spicy; at the same time, it also explains to people that the behavior of eating is not a single function of full stomach, but also a unique realm of communication, the environment, atmosphere are indispensable and important factors in food culture. The novel takes food as the starting point, showing the customs and customs of the ancient city of Suzhou, Wuyue ruins, flavor snacks, stone alleys, etc. are all vivid, so that the world can appreciate the art of eating and the value of eating, and also make Suzhou food culture famous all over the world.