Linhai bathhouse

? The custom of eating "rotten soup" on the Lantern Festival in Linhai is rare all over the country, which is really strange. An incomprehensible word "bad" was added before the word "soup", which I think means miscellaneous.

The name "rotten soup" is not very pleasant to hear, and its value is not high, but it is really delicious, delicious and unique. It has a long history of production and can be regarded as a real local flavor food in Taizhou.

The custom of eating "rotten soup" in the Lantern Festival in Fucheng, Taizhou has a long history and is difficult to test. There are as many as five or six versions. The celebrities involved are Weichi Gong, the founding general of the Tang Dynasty, the leader of the peasant uprising army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese soldier in the Ming Dynasty, and Qin, a minister of rites in the Ming Dynasty. In contrast, I think the following version is more credible.

It is said that the origin of "rotten soup" is related to a period of history of the ancient city wall of Taizhou Prefecture.

The ancient city wall of Taizhou was built in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, the scale was small, only in the area of Longgushan in the northwest of Linhai. After the founding of the state in the early Tang Dynasty, Taizhou Prefecture began to expand the city wall. In the winter of Wude period in Tang Gaozu, people in the city came to offer their condolences when they saw soldiers and migrant workers struggling to build the city. On the 14th day of the first month, people grind rice into rice pulp, make new wine with distiller's grains as water, add chopped diced meat, taro, winter bamboo shoots, dried bean curd and mustard greens, and stir them together in a large iron pot to cook a steaming and delicious paste.

This delicious soup paste is "rotten soup", and this stirring process is called "stirring soup". The pronunciation of "stir" and "engage" in Linhai dialect is very similar, so it sounds like "engage in soup" to outsiders.

Therefore, the Lantern Festival near Taizhou Prefecture is different from other customs. It's not the fifteenth day of the first month, but the fourteenth day of the first month. Every family eats "rotten soup" instead of "Yuanxiao".

It is always very serious to stir up "rotten soup" on the fourteenth day of the first month in Linhai. In my childhood memory, every household began to prepare stirred soup many days in advance. Soak rice to grind pulp, sprout bean sprouts, peel taro ... Usually, fresh meat, taro, winter bamboo shoots, dried tofu, oil bubbles, mushrooms, water chestnut, carrots, garlic sprouts and mustard are diced, and the knife skills are very exquisite. Many people do nothing all day, which can be described as "the ancient city welcomes the Lantern Festival, and every family chops the anvil".

The operation sequence of stirring soup is fried fresh meat, winter bamboo shoots, dried bean curd, taro, oil bubble, mushrooms, water chestnuts, carrots and so on. In the wok, sprinkle seasoning such as cooking wine, then add Sichuan bean board and bean vermicelli, add appropriate amount of water, boil until cooked, and stir constantly while adding rice slurry.

In the past, every household had to fry a few pots of "rotten soup" and divide them into large and small pots, which took several days. Neighbors also share gifts with each other.

On the night of the 14th day of the first month, children and even adults go door-to-door begging for soup with bowls, because the old man told the children that their eyes would be brighter if they ate the "rotten soup" from seven families. This is a custom handed down from the previous generation, and it is hard to see such a situation now.

Rotten soup is not hungry. After eating it, I went to the streets to watch lanterns, dragon dances, gongs and drums pavilions and fine blowing pavilions, blowing and playing, and having a Lantern Festival. I am busy, I am playing, I am hungry, and I will continue to eat when I get home.

"The fourteenth day of the first month is the Lantern Festival, and every copy (local dialect, meaning of every household) is not good." This old saying is familiar, and I often heard it when I was a child. But I have never eaten "rotten soup" made of distiller's grains. I remember that from the 1950s to the 1960s, especially in difficult times, even dried bean curd was restricted by bean products tickets, let alone pork. Mushrooms are also bought with pedicels, soaked and cut into thin pieces for later use.

Today is not the same as before, and now the soup is gradually enriched.

Seafood includes dried shrimp, razor clam, mussel, clam or oyster. Besides diced meat, there are sausages, pig ears and pig intestines. The amount of soup can be increased or decreased as you like, but taro, winter bamboo shoots, dried bean curd, oil bubble, water chestnut and mustard are still necessary.

Mustard is always an essential green fresh vegetable, with orange peel mustard as the top grade. If we want to talk about the more traditional "rotten soup", we should use rice paste (polished rice soaked in water) instead of dry rice flour.

After eating salty "rotten soup" on the 14th day of the first month, people in Linhai still eat sweet soup instead of Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first month.

Sweet soup, also known as mountain powder soup, is made of sweet potato starch. Soup materials include red dates, lotus seeds, longan, water chestnut, kumquat cake, raisins, Sichuan bean board, fermented grains, glutinous rice balls and so on. Naturally, brown sugar is added instead of white sugar.

Eat salty soup on the fourteenth day of the first month and sweet soup on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the year is over. Usually eat salty soup first and then sweet soup, which means bitter first and sweet later, and the sweeter the days get.

The Lantern Festival in Linhai is so local.