Baoyan Ancient Town: There are no traffic jams here, but there are delicious food everywhere, and the people are so simple that I can’t bear it.

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If everyone has a favorite dish when dining around the table, this is undoubtedly a successfully arranged banquet...Write this sentence, I suddenly discovered that I liked every dish. Then I am undoubtedly a foodie.

Adjutant Ma recently announced in our foodie group: Professor Zhou Aidong of Yangzhou University and tea master Li Chen are coming to Zhenjiang.

After thinking about it for a while, he made up his mind again and changed the group announcement, saying that in order to celebrate the National Day, he was going to have a dinner party. He also brought in Baohe Tang from Nanjing and gave him a cheerful name: He Xiaobao.

It was a rare opportunity, so we foodies had fun ordering dishes, each one more aggressive than the other: Ai Dong said he wanted to eat big fat sea (crab), and he also wanted to eat blunt shells; Ting He said he wanted to eat plums. Gongdan, pork is expensive these days, so this is undoubtedly a tough dish; He Xiaobao and I are both talking about having butter mixed rice...

Li Chen didn't speak, looking dazzlingly gentle.

Every time we reported the name of a dish, Adjutant Ma was in agony and kept shouting: "You are all dead!" In fact, he was the worst. Adjutant Ma said, "We haven't eaten any delicacies from the mountains and seas before. This time we should try local Zhenjiang dishes, and Baoyan is excellent... This important task of organizing the food naturally fell on my shoulders."

It is undeniable that going to Baoyan to eat country food is a wonderful idea.

Many retired elderly people in Zhenjiang take a 2-hour bus trip to Baoyan almost every week to buy various aquatic products. There are many varieties and low prices. Local chickens and vegetables are also plump. Watery. Moreover, there are no traffic jams around Baoyan Ancient Town.

When it comes to eating in Baoyan, my only choice is to go to Zuixianlou.

Because I have written about his home before, after a round of inspection, his home is the largest and most distinctive. So I called my boss Ding Aimin and asked him to prepare.

When the local dishes were served, they were still showing off their teeth and claws. But in my eyes, it was a bit thrilling.

Because, not only is it consistent with the "characteristics", but every dish is strongly related to me. Let’s talk about turtle first. Baoyan is rich in soft-shelled turtles all year round, and there are a wide variety of dishes made with soft-shelled turtles: braised soft-shelled turtle, steamed soft-shelled turtle, white-braised soft-shelled turtle, rock-sugar soft-shelled turtle, sea cucumber combined soft-shelled turtle, Sixi soft-shelled turtle, etc., each with its own characteristics and special flavor.

The "Baoyan Turtle" cooked by Zuixianlou once won the first place in the "Beautiful Zhenjiang Rural Tour" selection of "The Most Delicious Farm Food".

When a large casserole of "Chili Chicken" was served, I misjudged it and was made fun of by a few foodies.

Pepper chicken is a famous traditional dish spread in Sichuan, Xinjiang and other places. The peppercorn chicken I used to eat was a cold dish, so when I saw this pot, I blurted out: "There are so many peppercorns in the chicken soup! Is this the ancient method?"

This is also Don’t blame me, I can’t really understand the dishes passed down from Zhou Aidong and others, and I have never eaten peppercorn chicken in Zuixianlou, and the soup is so rich...

This is indeed a bit strangeness.

If you think about it carefully, you will find that at this time last year, at the “Chinese Cuisine” event to be released to the world and the large-scale exchange meeting of provincial and regional classic dishes and famous banquets held in Zhengzhou, Henan, this dish On the list. The "Three Kingdoms Banquet" I wrote some time ago was also rated as one of the "Top Ten Famous Banquets" at the same time. Is this a coincidence?

I mentioned celery to Aimin on the phone. This is a well-known vegetable in Baoyan. The strong medicinal aroma is not found in celery from other places. Moreover, the celery here is so tender that there is no residue, which makes it so delicious. Those who tasted it were also very good.

I put down the phone and suddenly remembered that locals usually eat celery during the Spring Festival to get the good reputation of "passing all over the place". Will it be available in the golden autumn? Unexpectedly, Aimin actually served it.

Yaoqin is fried with louver leaves. Baoyan’s louver leaves, tofu, etc. are also among the few around Zhenjiang. The same thing as above is "Old Tofu Stewed with Shutters". Generally, the same ingredients are not served twice. Obviously, this is also to let everyone appreciate the beauty of Baoyan's soy products.

Sure enough, Adjutant Ma kept saying, "I haven't eaten such traditional tofu in a long time!" He used chopsticks and spoons at the same time and enjoyed eating. Li Chen said slowly: "The taro seeds are cooked really well, soft and crispy."

When the vegetable soup "dried in the oven" was served, Tinghe was no longer calm and shouted: "That's right." It tastes like what I ate when I was a kid!” Indeed, Zhenjiang’s meat soup can be found everywhere, and it’s rare to see a well-made vegetarian soup.

Ai Dong prefers dry-cut beef. He thinks the pattern of elbow tendon melon is particularly beautiful. That's natural. Zuixianlou has a beef banquet in winter. Serving a plate of dry-cut beef is a piece of cake, isn't it? In fact, the salted goose is also made by Zuixianlou itself. Every store in Zhenjiang has salted goose, but those who can make it themselves are very rare.

This is also a touchstone to measure the true skill of a store.

What impressed me the most was the oysters and braised Saddlebred Bridge. The former was cooked by Aimin himself, and I know he hasn't cooked for a long time; the long fish was picked from the wild by him in the town early in the morning. I looked through my previous articles and found that the first time I ate stir-fried stinky cowpeas was in Zuixianlou, and nowhere else except in Danyang towns.

"Dongxiang Eggs" is also a rare dish. It is a dish that residents in Dongxiang, Zhenjiang must eat during the Chinese New Year. It is rarely seen in restaurants. Aimin also knows the meaning of this dish: "If Dongxiang people don't have this dish during the Chinese New Year, it will feel like there is no Chinese New Year."

Baoyan noodles are something that a few foodies have been thinking about since the dinner started. Yes, the streets of Zhenjiang are now full of Baoyan noodle shops, but to be authentic, you still have to come to Baoyan to eat.

I said I wanted to drink the wine they brewed in Baoyan, so Aimin bought a large bottle of bayberry wine brewed in their own liquor. Adjutant Ma drank a small glass, and Aimin and I also had He Xiaobao. I was really happy to drink such a big bottle.

It was the first time for He Xiaobao and the others to come to Baoyan. I specially taught him how to eat crystal pig knuckles.

I don’t tell ordinary people: This dish is not eaten with wine, but with a sip of warm green tea. In this way, all the fragrance and umami of the pork trotters are released without any greasy feeling. Few outsiders know such an authentic way of eating. This is actually why Zhenjiang people say that “meat is not a dish.”

The authentic way to eat meat is to have it as morning tea with green tea. What was served this time was Baoyan’s Crystal Pork Knuckle, which is also a very famous dish. In terms of seniority, it is still the “predecessor” of the dish.

In ancient times, in the Zhenjiang and Yangzhou areas, meat dishes made with meat and pork hoof were called only one word: "yao". Later, "Jingjiang Yao Ho" and "Jingjiang Yao Ho" gradually came into being. The name "hoof dish".

Qiu Pangtong, a big figure in the food industry and a senior at Aidong School, once said: (Meat) At first glance, it looks fat and thin, and most people would not dare to care about it because they are worried that it is too fat. In fact, this worry is unnecessary. Because the skin of Jingjiang cuisine is tough but soft and waxy, the fatty part is fat but not greasy and melts in your mouth, while the lean part is firm and crispy. A large population, with diverse textures and a wonderful harmony, the taste is salty and fresh, and the aroma is rich.

You see, even reading such a sentence with a sip of green tea will make your teeth and cheeks full of fluids.

The preparation of crystal pork knuckles is similar to that of pork knuckles, except that the bones are not broken and pressed into pieces. In addition, the outside is crispy and the inside is soft and elastic. This practice actually has quite a origin, and is similar to the practice of "Giving Fei Sheep" in the Five Dynasties, "Crystal Cold Taobao" in the Song Dynasty, "Conch Si" in the Yuan Dynasty, and "Xiayue Frozen Hoof Paste" in the Qing Dynasty. Quite ancient.

Come to Baoyan to see it. It has the freshest ingredients and dishes with a very ancient charm.

Many people may not know that Baoyan Ancient Town has a long history, dating back thousands of years since Taibo and Zhongyong went to Wu in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and is known as the "land of plenty". A children's song circulated here is waving to you: "Baoyan, the ancient town, has everything. Two pounds of beef and three bowls of wine. Big turtles, crayfish, and a bowl of noodles will taste delicious. Wanshan is red after a walk, and strawberries and grapes are sweet. ”

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