Prose Master Wang Zengqi's Food Prose

Wang Zengqi's prose does not pay attention to indoctrination, but it is thought-provoking. And there are many articles about food in his prose. The following is the essay I brought to you: Wang Zengqi's essay on food for your appreciation.

The great essayist Wang Zengqi wrote about food: Kunming cuisine.

I wrote this article for foreigners, not for Kunming people. Talking about Kunming food with Kunming people would be a joke! Actually, it's more for myself. I have been away from Kunming for forty years, and I can't forget the delicious food in Kunming.

Kunming cuisine has its own characteristics. Kunming cuisine? Yunnan cuisine does not belong to the eight major Chinese cuisines. Many people think that Kunming cuisine is close to Sichuan cuisine, but it is not the same. Sichuan cuisine is characterized by its spicy flavor. Pixian watercress and pickled peppers should be put in most Sichuan dishes, and a lot of peppers should be put. It must be Sichuan pepper. People in many provinces in China like to eat spicy food, such as Hunan and Jiangxi, but there are not many places like Sichuan that like to eat Chili. There are many small noodle restaurants in Chongqing, and the white wall of the facade is painted with three big characters in black paint? Hemp, spicy and hot? You can see it from a distance. Kunming food is not as spicy as Sichuan food. Generally speaking, Sichuan cuisine is strong, while Kunming cuisine is light and pure. Sichuan cuisine is complicated in seasoning, while Kunming cuisine emphasizes the original flavor. Compare strange chicken with steamed chicken, and you will know the difference between them.

Yunnan steamed chicken

China people are good at eating chicken. Brine chicken in Guangdong, exotic chicken in Sichuan, beggar chicken in Changshu, fried eight pieces in Shandong, Dong 'an chicken in Hunan and braised chicken in Dezhou? . If all kinds of chickens in the country come to a grand prix, which kind of chicken should win the gold medal? I thought it should be steamed chicken in Kunming.

Who came up with this very unique way to eat? It is estimated that there must be a steamer to have a steamed chicken. Boilers made of water are the best. Now all the places that produce pottery in China can make steamer, such as Yixing, Jiangsu. But I don't think the chicken steamed in the steamer from other places is as delicious as the chicken cooked in the Jianshui steamer. This may be my prejudice. Since the boiler is made of Jianshui, the boiler chicken in Kunming may have come from Jianshui, right?

It turns out that there is a store specializing in steamed chicken near Jinbi Road west of Zhengyi Road. I don't know if this family has a house number. There is a plaque hanging at the door. There are four big characters written on the book: Xiuyi? . So everyone calls this restaurant? Cultivate righteousness? . Kunming people used to say:? Should we cultivate healthy qi today? An obedient person will understand that it is eating steamed chicken. ? Cultivate righteousness? Our chicken is very tender and has been trying. I said, I didn't go to dinner once. What happened to the chicken today? ! Therefore, the quality can be maintained forever. It is said that all his chickens are Wuding fat chickens. Thin chicken is meat and firewood, fat and tasteless. Du Wuding chicken is extremely fat and delicious. After uncovering the lid: the soup is clear as water, but the chicken is very fragrant.

Do you hear me? Cultivate righteousness? It's gone. The steamed chicken sold in Kunming Hotel is no longer the taste of that year, because it is not Wuding chicken, and there are all kinds of chickens.

Recover? Cultivate righteousness? It's not difficult to choose Wuding chicken again, is it?

The boiled chicken in Kunming is also great. On the copper pot of the wonton stall in Yuxi Street, there is a thin iron grate with two or three white cooked chickens on it. You can cut a side dish if you like. Do Kunming people call it white-cut chicken? Cold chicken? . We often eat and drink a little wine, because we eat on a long bench. A classmate gave this practice a name, called? Sit (eat) a good (cool) machine (chicken)? . The chicken sold in Yuxi Street is said to be Yuxi chicken.

There used to be a restaurant at the junction of Huashan South Road and Wucheng Road. Ying Shichun? The oil chicken is great. Large pieces of chicken are fried, and a 12-inch plate is piled high. Dip in pepper and salt. Young men in their twenties, seven or eight people, each took 35 yuan, and the porcelain plate instantly bottomed out. Eating chicken like this is a quick life.

Kunming used to sell chicken offal, with a round lunch box on his waist and sold it all over the street. Chicken gizzards and livers are strung together with sticks, such as candied haws in Beijing. Chicken intestines are as tight as vegetarian chicken. Slice them when you buy them. Chewy, very tasty and cheap, it is an excellent match for tea and wine. It is estimated that there are no snacks like Kunming. I talked to old Kunming, as recorded in Meng Yuan's Dream of China in Tokyo.

ham

Yunnan Xuanwei ham is as famous as Zhejiang Jinhua ham, and it is difficult to distinguish it. Jinhua ham is known to many people and has many grades. What is more famous? Jiang Xuefang's leg? . More advanced, smoked with bamboo leaves, what is it called? Bamboo legs? . Xuanwei ham doesn't seem so particular. It's usually called ham. Ham is produced in Xuanwei. It is said that every family in Xuanwei pickled it, and the centralized sales place is in Kunming. There used to be a ham restaurant on the east side of Zhengyi Road archway, which not only sold whole and sliced ham, but also ham bones and ham oil. Does the south goods store in Shanghai that sells Jinhua ham sometimes sell it? Ham claws? I sell ham oil alone. I've never heard of it. Ham bone soup, stewed tofu with ham oil, I think it must be delicious.

As a seasoning ingredient, ham is often eaten alone. There seems to be only one way to eat, steamed and sliced. There used to be honey baked ham. I wonder if it's delicious. Jinhua ham is divided into oil head, upper waist and middle waist according to parts. Below are claws. Kunming people eat ham from extra-large calves to elbow sticks. What is it called? Money legs? Because it is cut into a circle with lean meat in the middle and fat around it, the skin is thin. There is a local restaurant outside Daximen. It is small and untidy, but it has many dishes, and it needs money and legs. Because the horse pot head who drives the horse likes this dish best. The main customer of this restaurant is Ma Guotou. As soon as Brother Ma Guotou came in, he didn't order anything else. Call first. Cut a plate of money legs! ?

A Kunming dish is not dominated by ham, but it can't be without ham, can it? Fried mullet? . This is a famous dish of Dongyue Building. In this paper, two pieces of mullet (mullet must be killed alive and fillets must be approved by rotation) and a piece of ham with fat and thin in the middle are roasted on a flat pan with slow fire without any other seasoning. Delicate and delicious, indescribable.

Dongyue Building, located in Huguo Road, is an authentic old hotel in Kunming. Besides fried mullet, there are chicken legs with sauce, which is also great. I heard that the East Moon Building is gone now.

Kunming Jiqingxiang's ham moon cakes are very good. This Mid-Autumn Festival, Beijing shipped a batch and bought it. The taste is still the same as that of that year.

beef

I have never eaten such good beef in Kunming in my life.

The characteristic of Kunming Beef Restaurant is that it only sells beef. Take-out rice and wine, and don't sell other dishes. As far as I know, there are three such beef restaurants. There is one in Fengxiang Street outside Daximen. Because it is near The National SouthWest Associated University, we often go there. I come from this family? Study? Beef eater. One is at the small east gate. Majia beef restaurant outside Xiaoximen is the largest. Upstairs and downstairs, dozens of tables. Beef in the beef shop is sold in different categories. The most common ones are soup slices and cold slices. Slice the white beef, pour in the boiled broth, and make soup slices. The cold slices are the same thin slices, but they are neatly placed on plates and dipped in sweet soy sauce (sweet soy sauce is unique to Kunming). Soup slices and cold slices are very soft and do not come loose. It is said that the meat cut into soup slices and cold slices is steamed on one side of the cow. I don't believe it: where can there be such a big steamer and such a big pot? But the beef slices are really big. The beef is tender and needs to be cooked thoroughly. I was told that I had to steam (or boil). ) All night. What's next? Braised? . ? Braised? Braised beef is not stewed elsewhere, but also clear soup, but probably the beef is dyed red, so the meat is carmine. ? Braised? It was cut into small pieces. You don't need it from cows? Okay？ Meat, such as breast meat and leg meat, with some? Stubborn? Compared with soup and cold slices, it is a taste. There are also several special parts of cattle that are also sold separately. But they all have alternate aliases, don't they? what's up People who eat don't understand and don't know what it is. Like tripe? Lead the liver ; Cow tongue barking? Qingqing? . Many places sell tongues without saying anything? Tongue? Word, because? Tongue? With what? Erosion? Homophonic Wuxi manuscript recommended selling pig tongue to change its name? Profit? . Guangdong restaurant is called Niu Tongue? Cattle? Actually, Ben? Niu Li? Just add a piece of meat to the side to show that it is meat. This is all against? Erosion? Use it for good luck. Call your tongue? Qingqing? Haven't heard of it anywhere else. It makes sense to think about it for a while. Cattle eat grass with their tongues in their mouths. This nickname is very vivid, but it is too confusing. Beef restaurant also sells beef tendon. Once I went to eat Majia beef restaurant with a female classmate. She asked me: What is this? I really can't answer that. I have eaten beef tendon many times in Kunming, just because it is delicious, not for aphrodisiac. ? Lead the liver 、? Qingqing? 、? Big tendon? All with soup. The beef restaurant doesn't sell stir-fried dishes. In fact, the beef restaurant is mainly for making soup. This soup is good.

The cattle used in Kunming Beef Restaurant are all small cattle, and neither old nor waste cattle are used.

It doesn't cost much to eat beef restaurant once, which is cheaper, delicious and affordable than ordinary small restaurants.

Majia Beef Restaurant often has enamel tea plates to sell side dishes, such as head, pickled garlic, pickled ginger and rotten pepper. There are seven or eight kinds. Twenty or thirty cents can buy a side dish, which is very appetizing.

I wonder if Majia beef shop still has it? If not, it would be a pity.

There is also beef jerky in Kunming. Beef is cut into long strips, pickled and dried. A small restaurant sells fried beef jerky. It is said that this thing can be eaten raw. When the horse pot is on the road, it always takes dry beef, slices it with a knife, and goes with wine and rice.

Steamed vegetables

Kunming still eats steamed vegetables. There used to be one on Zhengyi Road. Steamed chicken, steamed bones and steamed meat are all steamed in a small steamer with a diameter of less than half a foot. Small cages are stacked layer by layer, dozens of cages are piled up, and a few are stacked on a large steamer for steaming. Steamed vegetables are crisp and rotten, and steamed chicken can even chew bones. Steamed vegetables have a substrate. In other places, the substrate of steamed vegetables is mostly sweet potato, potato and white radish, while the substrate of steamed vegetables in Kunming is saponin. I know Gleditsia sinensis. Girls in our place often steam a dozen honey locust kernels in small porcelain plates for embroidery. Light? Velvet, take it smooth, increase luster. I didn't expect this thing to be edible, and it was delicious. It looks good, too It is as clean as jade. So many steamed vegetables, how much saponin do you need, and how much saponin do you need to peel so many kernels? There is one on Yuxi Street that also sells steamed vegetables. Among the steamed vegetables sold in this house, there is a kind of small pumpkin color: small pumpkin, which is dug out and steamed with meat, which is very unique. Many places have rōng dishes, rōng wax gourd and rōng eggplant, all steamed with meat. Rūng doesn't know how to write, and this word can't be found in the dictionary. Or is it written? Brewing? The sound and meaning are wrong. After arriving in Beijing, we used to make rɑng melons, which didn't taste like Yuxi Street. Probably this family is steamed with many other steamed vegetables. vapor permeation, the chicken's flesh and blood, goes to the cage where small melons are steamed, so the meat in the small melons has melon fragrance, while the melons wrapped with meat have umami flavor. Single melon is not beautiful.

germ

A friend went to Kunming for a meeting, and I asked him to go to Kunming to eat mushrooms. He stayed at an old friend's house and ate all the mushrooms. See me in Beijing and say. How nice! ?

Chicken soil is the king of bacteria. There is a restaurant specializing in local chicken in Yongdao Street. This family also sells bitter vegetable soup, which is cooked in a large pot. It's cheap and delicious. People from other provinces say that there are three monsters in Kunming: the girl is called the old lady, and mustard is bitter. People in Kunming say that bitter vegetable is not mustard, but a kind.

A few months ago, an old classmate who had been living in Kunming came and said that chicken soil came from enriching the people. Once they had a meeting, they brought a car full of chickens from Fumin and had a good time. Chickens are everywhere, and enriching the people may produce more.

I have written about mushrooms, boletus, dried fungus and chanterelle in other articles, so I won't go into details. The bacteria in Kunming should always eat fresh ones. Chicken soil can never be made into oily chicken soil, and dried mushrooms can be dried more deeply, but the flavor is reduced.

Milk fan and milk cake

The milk fan is dried milk skin, and the milk cake is milk tofu. I quite doubt that this dairy product was introduced to Yunnan by Mongolian soldiers in the Yuan Dynasty. But Mongolian dairy products are only used to match milk tea, and Yunnan dairy products are used as dishes. These two can only be? Eating and playing? Don't eat.

scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs are found all over the world. Scrambled eggs in Kunming are especially soaked. Turn the pan once, turn the pan twice, and don't move the shovel. The table is hot, bright and fragrant, which makes people have an appetite.

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, until the tomatoes are cut off, they are still fragrant, not light, and the eggs will not die. Tomatoes and eggs mixed together, the color is still very clear, unlike scrambled eggs with tomatoes in the north. A mess? .

When there are snowflake eggs in spring, put the egg white and warm cooked lard on a small fire, and the lard and egg white are mixed together. Tender as a fish's brain, white and bright. The entrance has reached the throat, and it is impossible for the tongue to tell what it tastes like. It is really necessary. Another osmanthus egg is made of egg yolk in the same way. Snow eggs and osmanthus eggs are sprinkled with a thin layer of ham powder, but not too much, most of which cover up the fragrance of eggs. The practice of eggs is nowhere to be found. I used this method to entertain guests in Beijing, bragging? Is this the practice in Kunming? . Even after the guests have tasted it? Not bad! Not bad! ? And spread it around. In fact, I made neither snowflake eggs nor osmanthus eggs, which is a bit like Shandong's? Fake crabs? Yes!

Fried vegetables

Yuan Zicai's "Suiyuan Food List" points out that it is reasonable to use meat oil and vegetable oil for cooking. Lard is used in cooking in Kunming. The dishes in Kunming are fried well, because: the dishes are fresh and spicy, so use soy sauce with caution. Generally, when cooking, there is no water or little water, and the pot is not covered (many dishes are fried in restaurants), or the pot is covered in a short time. The dishes fried in this way will not lose their flavor or change color, just like they were picked from the garden at the beginning.

Cauliflower Kunming is called cauliflower. Blanch Beijing cooking flowers in water before frying. In this case, it is better to simply add water and cook it into milk rape flower soup. The fried cauliflower in Kunming is raw, crisp and clean. If you add ham, it will be especially wonderful.

Fried buns are only available in Kunming. Every year when Beijing tender corn comes on the market, I will buy some, dig out the corn kernels and fry them with the minced lean meat. It's strange that relatives and friends have come: can corn cook? After tasting two chopsticks, they all said? Does it taste good？ . The practice of frying corn is very simple and has been popularized in a small scale in Beijing. An alumnus from The National SouthWest Associated University invited several old classmates to get together at home and made a special statement: There is a Kunming dish today! ? What was served was fried corn. When the corn is old, there is too much meat, too much soy sauce and too much water. I said to him:? Fried corn like you can kill Kunming. ?

Before leaving Kunming, Zhu and I ate a plate of fried spinach with meat in a restaurant. It was amazing at that time, and it is still fresh in my memory. Spinach is particularly tender (Beijingers love to eat spinach that looks like a small tree, which is really insoluble), and it is particularly oily and even hot, and it tastes particularly fresh. Use shovels as little as possible when frying spinach. If you turn the pot frequently, spinach will turn black and taste astringent.

Black mustard? Leek flower? Eggplant vinegar

Kunming calls black kohlrabi black mustard. Yuan Zicai thinks kohlrabi is more suitable for frying meat, and he is quite right. Kohlrabi needs meat to give off its fragrance. We sometimes eat in Kunming restaurant. Seeing that the food was not enough, I quickly ordered a plate of black mustard fried meat. First, this dish comes quickly; The second kind is very edible. Eat it.

Leek flowers come out of Qujing. It's called chives. In fact, the main ingredient is finely cut and dried shredded radish. Is this China kimchi? God product? . This kind of side dish should be low in cost, but it is quite expensive, because pickling is very labor-intensive. Kunming people also have their own pickled leeks. This kind of leek flower is different from Beijing's leek flower with instant-boiled mutton as seasoning. Beijingers should not get me wrong.

Eggplant retting is to cut eggplant into filaments, air dry, seal the jar and ferment. I doubt very much that this belongs to Gu Yong. Guo Moruo thought it might be kimchi. Shuo Wen Jie Zi? Hey? Word gambling cloud:? Amaranth? I think it might be eggplant or something. China's side dishes in the name of Qiang are also found elsewhere, but what about Hunan? Pepper? . Every word in ancient books has something to do with wine. Eggplant and pepper are mellow and delicious.