Fresh Prose of Jiao Ling, a Watertown

There are many rivers in Suzhou, and the water surface is covered with water chestnut in summer. The diamond plate is on the shore, crowded and full of four small white flowers. The sun shines on the Tang Ling, and a layer of gold powder is coated on the dark green foundation.

When the flower of the diamond withers, the tender hairy claw diamond grows. Water chestnuts with four corners, commonly known as sparrow water chestnuts, water chestnuts with big horns and wild water chestnuts with old tips, are the most in the river branches. The wild water chestnut is firm and thick. Once it enters your lips, if you chew hot chestnuts, you will feel refreshed and delicious.

There are a lot of fish and shrimp in Tang Ling. Good fishermen can always catch fresh fish scales while splashing water. They can also stir up a diamond-shaped plate with the end of a bamboo pole and pick the water chestnut to taste, and their faces are full of smiles.

Women in my hometown are very good at picking diamonds. Barefoot, they rolled up their sleeves and trouser legs to their knees, revealing a white calf and a white lotus-like arm. Hold up a wicker boat, and put a board horizontally above the forecastle to make the originally narrow and long bow wider, so that the boat can be held up when picking diamonds.

As soon as the ship left the shore, their hands became busy. Gently lift a cluster of water chestnut leaves, which have been attached to dark red or turquoise leaves like knives and guns, with curved corners and moist water vapor.

They skillfully picked water chestnuts and occasionally condensed their beautiful faces in the water, unable to help smiling. The contour curve from forehead to chest is reminiscent of ancient Greek statues, showing an elegant posture. Their hair is raised into a bunch of reeds in the wind, their calves are dazzling white in the sun, their hips are full, and their arms are swinging rhythmically, which is quite like "picking lotus in autumn in Nantang".

At this time, there are beautiful folk songs flying out of some immature mouths. Subsequently, the quarrying boats around slowly sang together. As a result, people's familiar folk songs are floating in the wind and diffuse over Tang Ling, making people feel as clear as water.

In the rural areas of central Jiangsu, cooked water chestnuts are served at the Mid-Autumn Festival evening when enjoying the moon. Careful mother-in-law will bring a bowl of black, cow-head-like wind chimes to the children's house during the New Year, saying it is a clever meal.

Water chestnut tastes sweet and cool, and it can clear away heat and quench thirst when eaten raw. Cooked food is beneficial to invigorating qi and spleen. "Diet Spectrum, Rest Life" says: "Those who are familiar with water, who are sweet and flat, will fill their hunger and replace their food. It can also be pulverized to replenish qi and thicken the stomach. " According to the determination, water chestnut contains effective components such as starch, glucose, protein, sterol, ergosterol, tannin, etc., and has pharmacological effects such as laxative and cancer prevention.

Qi Yaomin wrote: "Spirit can nourish the heart and strengthen the will, eliminate all diseases and benefit the essence." Herbal Medicine in Southern Yunnan says: Spirit can cure soreness of waist and legs, numbness of the whole body and rheumatism. In Qing Dynasty, Li Yu said that onions, garlic and leeks have a heavy smell in vegetables, while water chestnuts have a faint and quiet taste, like a rich and clean heart.

Jialing is suitable for raw food, and wild water chestnut is most suitable for cooking. Wild water chestnut roasted meat, better than chestnuts, pork belly, cut into cubes, put water chestnut rice in a slightly red stew, and take it out of the pot. This kind of water chestnut rice is crisp and tender, pink inside, and faint river fragrance. Water chestnut rice can also be used to make soup. If the ribs soup is stewed, the soup is sweet but not greasy. The water chestnut rice stewed with pork belly will be shiny and make people salivate.

The ground water chestnut can be cooked and eaten, and the flour is as waxy as lotus root starch. It tastes sweet and fragrant, and it is unbearable to eat. Water chestnut is shelled and raw, tender as Sydney and crisp as fragrant lotus root. Chew, your mouth is full of saliva. As for cooking cock with rice, cooking taro soup with rice is delicious and fresh, which makes people never tire of eating it. (Gong Fenghua)