A diagram of how to choose coconuts

Study on Coconut Eating in Northern China

The author of this article is Ni.

When tropical fruits in the south are on the market one after another, residents in the north can taste them again.

In the past, even in earlier years, it was not so easy for northerners to eat southern fruits. Litchi, longan, coconut, betel nut and banana are all royal tributes in ancient times, which most people have never seen, let alone tasted.

(Rich in tropical fruits)

This article first talks about coconuts.

Among the ancient tropical fruits, coconut is famous for its juice, and now people like to drink it best. Now the supermarket is full of all kinds of coconut juice. Although these coconut juices are labeled natural and contain no preservatives, they are not natural and contain no additives. After manual processing, the price is much more expensive than ordinary juice. But even so, people still like drinking, which shows how much people like coconuts.

Coconut, like litchi, is one of the important specialties of the Southern Tribute and Northern Dynasties, and there are many in Hainan and Vietnam today. Jiaodi (now northern Vietnam, which belonged to Wu at that time) was the most active place to pay tribute in that year.

(Three Kingdoms Territory)

According to the Biography of the Three Kingdoms, Wu Shu and Shi Xie, at that time, Shi Xie sent people to Jianye (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) every year during the listing season to let the Wu nobles in Sun Quan's class taste new things.

According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, there are many local products that Shi Xie paid tribute to: "Every time he made it right, thousands of fragrant kudzu vines were used, including pearls, shellfish, jade, tortoise shell, rhinoceros, elephant treasure, exotic fruits, bananas, evil things and longan."

(Southerners pay tribute to precious fruits)

The "evil" in Shi Xie's tribute recorded in the History of the Three Kingdoms is coconut. Also known as "Xu Xie", Sima Xiangru, a writer of the Western Han Dynasty, said in Shang Fu Lin: "Leave Xu Xie and Renpin (Betel nut) will meet."

The article "Coconut Tree" in "Southern Vegetation" says that coconut leaves are palm-like, six or seven feet high and have no branches. In fact, it is as big as a melon, with rough skin, shell, round and strong. It has white skin, half an inch thick, tastes like walnuts and is extremely fat. You get drunk when you have pulp. "

(coconut tree)

Coconut used to have a common name, called "Yuewangtou", which has a code name, just like its name, evil. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lin Yi (located in the central part of Yue State), a son of Gong Cao, became king on his own, which was called "King Linyi" in history. He sent someone to kill the King of Yue who had been enemies, hung his head on a tree and turned it into a coconut.

More mysteriously, because the king of Yue was killed when he was drunk, the coconut was "pulp like wine" and "drunk".

This story is also recorded in "Southern Vegetation": Coconut, "commonly known as the head of the King of Yue", had a grudge against the King of Yue in the past, and sent a knight to stab its head, hang it on a tree and turn it into a coconut. King Linyi was furious and ordered to cut off the drinking vessel. Southerners have been working on this. King Yue was drunk when he stabbed, so his flesh was like wine. "

(Coconut shell bowl)

Obviously, King Yue of Lin Yi gave birth to coconuts, which is an attachment. There is a similar legend in Hainan, China, except that the King of Yue was replaced by "Luo Wang": the tribal leader in the west of Hainan Island was named Luo Wang, and his head was cut off by his enemy and hung on a tree, so Luo Wang's head became a hard coconut. Coconut leaves are Luo Wang's hair, and the trunk is his incarnation.

Of course, the legend of "King Yue's Head" is not credible. According to "Mountain Story": Coconut, "as big as a pot, the oolitic skin is like a big belly and the shell is hard. Round and solid, two or three points thick. " He also mentioned coconut milk: "If there is liquid in the shell, you can drink it as milk."

(Coconut shells are piled at the roots of coconut trees and look like human heads from a distance)

However, according to the records in Mountain Watch, it seems that the ancients were most interested in coconut not its juice, but its shell. Northerners like to use it to make handicrafts and show them off at home. "If there is a circle like an egg, it is to cut off one end and rub it with sand. Remove its wrinkled skin, its broken brocade, and put it in platinum, thinking it is a water tank, which is rare and lovely. "

It seems to be a tradition for the ancients to make drinking fountains from coconut shells. According to the article "Coconut" in Qi Yao Min Shu, the ancients often used it as a bowl or cup: "Cross it, it can be used as a scorpion, or as long as a scorpion [guā]; Breaking it can be a knight. "

(peach coconut)

"Gui Yu Hai Zhi Heng" also mentioned: "The husk of (coconut) skin can be used as a vessel, and the pulp in the husk is as white as jade and delicious as milk. In the wine, the newcomer is extremely clear and fragrant, and it is turbid and unpalatable for a long time. "

How to choose coconuts? The ancients also had experience. Hainan people said, "Don't buy coconut clothes, just buy hearts." The article "Coconut" in Fan Duan 'ang's "Guangdong Province Knowledge Department Nine" in Qing Dynasty describes a wonderful trick, one of which is accurate: "Whoever picks a coconut, shakes it flat, and listens to the clear underwater sound, its heart is big and sweet, and its meat is thick; Water turbidity is not the case. "

What Fan Duanang remembers is that everyone can try it when they go to the fruit stand to buy coconuts.