Only food cannot be disappointed

The most healing thing in the world is food first, and words second. Food is not only for the needs of the taste buds, but also for the satisfaction of the spirit. As an unabashed and naked foodie, I will definitely go to a restaurant I hear good to try. What is depressing is that nowadays people are becoming more and more cunning, and most of them are no longer eye-catching, which is a great regret in life.

I remember what Hong Kong gourmet Chua Lam said about Henan: "When it comes to Henan, what comes to mind is water banquets (dishes made with various soups). Among them is a fake bird's nest dish with radish cut into thin pieces. No matter how thin the silk is, boiled in soup, the taste is indeed comparable to that of bird's nest. "Water banquet is a special delicacy in Luoyang. The main ingredients of the fake bird's nest mentioned by Cai Lan are white radish shreds, sea cucumbers, squid, chicken, and fried eggs. Skin, ham, chicken, etc., a dazzling "peony flower" floats on the soup and vegetables. The vegetables are fragrant and flowery, the soup is delicious, spicy and sour, silky and refreshing. The real name of this dish is "Peony Swallow" "Dish" is listed as the first dish of Luoyang water banquet. "Luoyang Water Banquet" originated in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of more than 1,000 years. The banquet has 24 dishes, including eight cold dishes, four main dishes, eight Chinese dishes, and four table dishes. It is said that the water banquet has two meanings. One is that all the hot dishes are served with soup; the other is that after all the dishes are eaten one is served one after the other, just like a flowing water banquet.

When it comes to Luoyang water banquets, it is impossible to expand on it. There are so many dishes that are dazzling. Unfortunately, the space is limited, so I won’t go into details here. In addition to water banquets, Luoyang food has everything you need. First of all, Speaking of breakfast, Luoyang people’s favorite soups are all kinds of soups, such as mutton soup, beef soup, tofu soup, meatball soup, donkey meat soup, non-turning soup, etc. Every morning, soup restaurants in Luoyang City open before dawn. To welcome guests, the prices of soups vary. Meat soups range from 5 yuan to 50 yuan. The difference lies in the amount of meat. Tofu soup and meatball soup are both 5 yuan. Burnt croquettes are sold separately, priced at 1 yuan for four to 6 yuan. They vary, with shredded pancakes or sesame seed cakes, one or two yuan is enough. In good soup restaurants, there is a long line of diners serving soup, and those who love chili peppers don't forget to shout: "Double chili peppers!" The soup drinker never forgets to shout: "Be fat!" After returning from serving the soup, find a seat and put shredded pancakes into the soup, or break the sesame seed cakes into small pieces and put them into the soup. Hold the soup in your left hand and chopsticks in your right hand. , squatting or standing, becoming a distinctive street scene in the morning sun; in addition to soup, there is also a delicacy that cannot be ignored - fruit oil tea. The flour is fried and boiled into a paste. There are crushed peanuts on the bottom and minced peanuts on the top. There are fried fruits. If you finish one bowl and you’re not satisfied, you’ll need another bowl. Hu spicy soup has also become popular in recent years. Before those big Hu spicy soup guys from Zhengzhou settled in Luoyang, there was a small shop that insisted on making Hu spicy soup. The spicy soup has been brewing for decades. It does not follow trends or be kitsch. It is quietly located in the alley. The price is high and the taste is great.

Let’s talk about lunch. In Luoyang, Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine are the most popular. There are many small restaurants and the taste is very good. It is suitable for friends to get together and exchange cups. The spicy food will make you sweat profusely. We still had a great conversation. The only drawback is that the place is not elegant enough, not upscale, and not suitable for official occasions. The second is Xinyang cuisine. The most famous among Henan cuisines is probably Xinyang cuisine. It mainly makes stews and is good at cooking fish. Xinyang's dialect may be closer to Hubei, and its eating habits are closer to those of the south. In terms of stylish restaurants, most of them focus on Cantonese, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang cuisine. In recent years, more sophisticated cuisines such as Hangzhou cuisine and Chaoshan cuisine have appeared, enriching the cuisine. My choice. Here I would like to mention Chaoshan cuisine. Chaoshan cuisine is an important part of Cantonese cuisine. It has the highest status due to its health-preserving ingredients and exquisite cooking techniques. It has exquisite selection of ingredients, fine knife skills, and various cooking methods. It is dedicated to pursuing color, flavor and taste. , is known as the most high-end cuisine in China, and the price is really expensive. I like seafood and porridge the most, and it is still very good to eat occasionally.

Next, let’s talk about hot pot and barbecue. These two are most suitable for dinner parties, hot pot on winter nights and barbecue on summer nights. Friends sit around the table and chat happily. , enjoy your meal. Hot pot is generally divided into three categories. The first category is the old Beijing mutton-shabu-shabu, which is characterized by a copper pot, clear soup, and large slices of mutton. It is very enjoyable to dip it in sesame sauce. Occasionally, you can also encounter freshly cooked fried belly. The taste is amazing, but it’s a pity that you can’t find it; the second category is the seafood hot pot in Hong Kong and Macau. "Du Lao" has the same pronunciation as "Du Lao", which means that everyone can fish together to gain blessing, wealth and luck.

Of course, the specialty is seafood, but unfortunately Luoyang is located inland. Deep-sea seafood pays attention to the word "fresh", and it feels like what we eat on weekdays are all frozen products; the third category is the hot pot of Sichuan and Chongqing, reject the mandarin duck pot, the red one A big pot of chili is enough to taste. A pure pot of chili is better than a stuffed bun. The dipping sauce must be sesame oil and some minced garlic at most. The only meat dishes to be cooked are hairy tripe, yellow throat, louver, large slices of beef marinated in chili, and small crisps. My favorite meat and vegetarian dish is bamboo fungus. The only drawback is that it absorbs too much oil. I don’t dare to continue writing about this topic. My mouth is almost watering.

The same is true for barbecue. As of this writing, it is difficult to suppress the secretion of saliva. I am used to eating barbecue in Luoyang, and I can’t find the taste here anywhere. I went to Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao for training ten years ago. It was a hot summer day and I was tired of eating local seafood and wanted to eat barbecue. So I searched for barbecue stalls all over the city, but I couldn't get enough of it after trying it. From then on, I only ate barbecue in Luoyang. Regarding the art of skewers, there is a good saying: "One person plays skewers, and what he plays is his mood; two people play skewers, and what he plays is a tacit understanding; three people play skewers, and what he plays is the world." The summer night is long, and the street is small What a wonderful memory we had at the stall, three or five close friends, making skewers and blowing bottles. Nowadays, everyone is busy, and getting together has gradually become a luxury. Barbecue pays attention to heat, technique, marinade, and sprinkling of ingredients. All of them are indispensable. There are also many types of barbecue, such as roasted lamb skewers, roasted beef skewers, roasted loin slices, roasted lamb loin, roasted lamb loin, roasted lamb loin, roasted breast fork, barbecue tendon, roasted lamb eye, roasted beef eye, roasted large intestine , grilled tripe, grilled chicken wings, grilled chicken gizzards, grilled gluten, grilled fish and tofu, grilled green peppers, grilled mushrooms, grilled leeks, baked potatoes, grilled fish, scones, and if you are lucky, you can also encounter grilled rabbit waist, which is a sigh of relief Chinese people study food so carefully. We once made an appointment with Ann, a foreign teacher, to come to Luoyang to eat barbecue and drink mutton soup. Now that I think about it, except for mutton and beef, I probably won’t be able to enjoy the rest of the ingredients.

In recent years, foreign cuisine has gradually entered the Luoyang food circle. Let’s not mention American fast food, Korean barbecue, Indian restaurants, and French Teppanyaki. They don’t have much appeal to me. I heard this two days ago My wife recommended that we try the Korean rice cake hot pot together. I had no interest in Korean food before. The stone pot bibimbap was too hot, the cold noodles were too cold, and the Korean barbecue was not as good as Luoyang street barbecue. In short, I didn’t like Korean food. This time I followed my daughter-in-law to a Korean rice cake hot pot restaurant, which is a buffet hot pot restaurant. I went to the self-service area to select the dishes, put them in the pot, and brought them to the table. They looked colorful and beautiful. I opened the gas tank. After ten minutes, you can eat it directly without dipping. Alaskan king crab, prawns, bacon, tofu, and kelp all taste good. Rinse the vegetables at the end is equivalent to eating hot pot. Unfortunately, the only drawback is the buffet. Starting this year Avoid buffets, which can make you prone to overeating.

The night before yesterday, a friend told me that there were several Japanese restaurants opened in a certain business district, so we made an appointment to go there together. When they arrived at their destination, both restaurants were full, and the bar and booths were all packed. The queue was desperate. For this delicious meal, I was determined to get a seat. I waited patiently for nearly an hour. Finally, it was our turn. We were pretty lucky and got a booth. , this is an unexpected surprise, small blessings are everywhere in life. After taking a seat, the waiter was wearing Japanese clothes, and the store decoration also has a Japanese style charm. I ordered thick egg yaki sushi, star minced eel rice, and warship octopus sushi. While waiting for the signature dish, I got a bottle of 300ml sake. The two chatted happily while eating. The alcohol content of the sake is not high, so it is very suitable for drinking. It is just right for the stomach. The taste of mustard stimulates the taste buds. Enjoying the delicious fresh food, I was reminded of Ono Jiro's sushi restaurant located in the basement of the Ginza office building in Tokyo, Japan. Gourmets came here just to taste the sushi skills of the "first sushi man" for more than fifty years. From the outside it looks very plain, even a little shabby. A small shop with only ten seats behind a wooden fence, even though their restaurant only has ten seats, and the toilet is even outside, even though it needs to be reserved a month in advance, even though a meal is limited to 15 minutes, even though the per capita consumption is hundreds of dollars (the minimum consumption is three 10,000 yen), people who have eaten it will still sigh that this is "sushi worth waiting for a lifetime." Ono Jiro is 92 years old this year. I wonder if I will be lucky enough to taste the sushi made by Ono Jiro himself in this life.

Finally, let’s talk about snacks. I don’t dare to expand on this. There are too many snacks. Let’s just pass them by like a running account. Fried dumplings on the roadside, almond tea deep in the alley, and food in the family courtyard. Egg-filled pancakes, Daobei Caoji's rice noodles, Xinjie Wife Rice Noodle Shop's meat buns, Xigong Restaurant's pot stickers and glutinous rice balls across the street, Tianfu's Dandan noodles and Guoqiao rice noodles, Yuying rice noodles, rolled dough and vegetables from many places The market’s crayfish and crab claws, Yanshi Guxian Rouhe, Xin’an Hot Noodle Corner, Mengjin Chaoyang Fried Noodles, Yiyang Wangdianzi Roast Chicken, Ruyang Caidian Braised Pork, Songxian Reservoir Area Fish Feast, Luanchuan Tofu Feast, Luoyang Ning Sour Beef, and the coke cakes that we specially looked for on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month (for details, see the article "Leisures and Interests on the 28th Day of the twelfth lunar month").

That’s it for now. I’ll tell you some of my insights about food.

[1] Food is hard to come by. Everyone has different tastes. What others highly recommend may not necessarily be the one you like. You need to find it with your own heart. I believe that fate has come. You will meet each other, it is the same with reading, making friends, watching movies, and eating delicious food, just let it happen.

[2] Food is like friends. Meeting delicious food is like meeting a close friend. We have a great conversation and regret meeting each other so late. We are sincere and heart-to-heart. We wish we could be together every day. "Heroes of the Water Margin" Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen in "True Colors" hang out together every day, like gay friends; I miss a certain snack every day, unable to suppress my longing, so I drive more than ten kilometers to go there to satisfy my craving.

[3] Food is like love. If you want to win the heart of a person and stay together forever, if you meet the food you fall in love with, this is the only one you can ask for.

[4] Food is the carrier of memory and a part of life. For details, please see the articles "A bowl of beef soup is enough to dispel the haze in the heart" and "That bowl of tofu soup that makes you dream and worry about you"

[5] Food depends on your mood, no matter how good the food is, it will be different from your heart. If people who don't agree with each other eat together, the food will be tasteless and taste like chewing gum.

[6] The food you eat with the one you love is the most delicious food in the world. Only food cannot be disappointed, and the same goes for love!