About ten years ago, at the end of the 20th century, at the foot of the former Hualian Building by the Mirror Lake on the pedestrian street, there was often a short old man with a kind eyebrow and a white apron, pushing a car and parking in a fixed place to sell copper pot lotus root porridge. This old man's lotus root porridge is particularly viscous, hanging on the mouth of the spoon can be stretched for a long time, and it is not red sugar but white sugar, and sometimes a little sugar osmanthus and raisins are sprinkled. The copper pot with a big belly like an incense burner is said to have been handed down from the previous generation and has a history of sixty or seventy years. A hot aroma came out from under the lid of the pot that had been removed, and it was very tempting. The porridge has just been served, it is very hot, it smells fragrant, it can't be eaten, and it must be stirred with a spoon and a few times to be sent to the mouth. There were three or two children jumping up to buy food, and the old man would kindly whisper while making porridge: "Oh, eat slowly." Slow down...... Don't burn. ”

In the eyes of outsiders, this is brown sugar porridge with small slices of lotus root, but authentic sugar porridge and lotus root must be sauce red. Copper pots must be used to cook lotus root porridge, and copper knives and copper forks must be used to cut lotus roots, otherwise, the lotus root will change color and it will not look good. The lotus root porridge is sweet and fragrant, refreshing and refreshing. Although it is street food, the selection of materials is quite particular. The high-quality glutinous rice is paired with the thick stem and fat rust-colored old lotus root, so that the simmered lotus root porridge will be deep in love, thick and sweet.

The older generation loves to beg for a good talk when they talk and do things, and they also give a lot of good hopes to the sugar lotus root porridge: often drink the copper pot lotus root porridge, and the days are prosperous, sweet and sweet; children eat lotus root, and open their minds early; adults eat lotus root, and the road is smooth; husband and wife eat lotus root, and occasionally come and go, and they come and go in pairs......

A table full of dishes, chicken, duck, fish and mushroom bracken, are all local farm specialties. Lao Xu said that most of these are the contents of "twelve bowls", so he used chopsticks to point to several dishes on the table and told us one by one: This is "boiled meat", that is, braised pork, which is added with fresh bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms; this is "stewed meat", the tenderloin is stewed until it is half-cooked, and then stewed with shiitake mushrooms or fungus, winter bamboo shoots, golden needle vegetables, etc.; and then such as "roasted shoulders", "slag powder meat" and the whole braised silver carp; in addition, it is "mixed vegetables", which is some toon, malan head into boiling water and then chopped, add salt, sweet and sour, mixed with dried shreds, dried skin, Water chestnuts and fat stewed soybeans.

At that time, I also saw the "Three Fresh Soup", which is a soup dish made of yams, water chestnuts, and chestnuts, which is tender and sweet and glutinous, and has the spice of pepper. "Drifting" means soup meatballs or soup fish balls. There is also "sub cake", Gayin Wannan Township pronunciation "egg" for "child", "sub cake" is cake, is to mix eggs with a small amount of water and steam into a cake, cut diamond-shaped stew into soup. There is a large bowl in the middle of the vegetables, which contains a paste with a layer of nut kernels, which is told to be the famous "Maolin paste", scoop a spoonful and taste, know that it is smashed peanuts and walnut kernels, as well as shredded meat and bamboo shoots, and the tongue is accepted, which is quite interesting.

I really tasted Maolin paste in the late spring of this year. When the mulberries and wild strawberries are ripe, the sky in the mountains is so blue that it seems to ooze oil, the bees are buzzing, and the air is filled with the scent of flowers. Along the way, the green is dyed, and the desire to dye the mountains and fields into large patches is displayed in the gentlest sunshine of spring. Wang Jun, who was once placed on the edge of Taohuatan in Jing County, said to us while driving, at present, the spring bamboo shoots are delicious, and the spring bamboo shoots are very seasonal, and a little negligence will miss the opportunity, which will make you regret it.

Basically, the fish from Taiping Lake is the main dish. There is a fish roll with tofu skin, the taste and shape are good, the fish meat is chopped into mince, leeks are added, and the long roll is wrapped in tofu skin, under steaming, it is green and refreshing, pure and moving, and it makes people obsessed. As for the braised spring bamboo shoots, it is a pity that it is a bit off-topic, originally the bamboo shoots won with Qingsheng, if you don't ask about the green and white with the thick sauce color of the stew, it is like letting the beautiful woman wrap in a vulgar coat, stealing is not advisable.

When the sun was slanting in the west, we drove out of Taohuatan, traveled four or five kilometers, and turned west to Maolin. At that time, Wang Jun had already called a store, and when we were seated, the dishes were put on the table one after another, which was also known as the "twelve bowls". Wang Jun said that the "Twelve Bowls" is just a disguise, and all the shops here solicit it in this way. We even said that as long as it is flavored local vegetables, it is good. After a tour of wine, everyone raised their chopsticks, and it was really a rich local atmosphere and farmhouse taste.

One of the large bowls of "mushy soup", it looks the same as the previous time, it is still a blue-white paste soup floating and sinking with dark yellow minced nuts, I take a spoonful of the mouth, the paste soup makes the tongue melt as soon as it is wrapped, and the remaining crispy and fragrant minced nuts and soft shredded meat, under the chewing, it is like the breeze Xu comes to all things new green, refreshing and delicious full of teeth and cheeks......

The town is most famous for its paste, which is made by boiling large bones and adding minced meat and dried fruits. This kind of paste is called "fog powder" in the mouth of Maolin people, because the color is like clouds and mist, it is made with chicken juice, starch and eggs, peanut kernels or walnut kernels, melon seed kernels, both the beauty of all the kernels, and the plumpness of meat, and then add green onions, ginger and coriander to enhance the fragrance, the taste is excellent, and the food, must be frequently raised. Oh, no wonder it is salty, sweet and crispy, and the more you smack, the more strange it is, and the change in taste and taste is eternal.

The chef's surname is Tan, which is a very good surname, but his nasal voice is so thick that he can't dissolve, and the Tan is pronounced into a "Tang" sound, while our surname is Tan, and the sound is different. Everyone coaxed "a toast", so they led their necks to the cup. Listening to Chef Tan, his ancestor came from Jiangbei Wangjiang, and his father was a village chef who specialized in helping people with red and white ceremonies. When it comes to Maolin aleurone soup, Chef Tan talks a lot.

Aleurone is one of the staple dishes in Maolin's "Twelve Bowls" and is the signature dish of all Maolin restaurants. The number of "twelve" means that the month is good, the year is rich, and guests of different genera can share the festivities. But in the early days, aleurone was mostly used as a seasonal dish during the Chinese New Year. There is a special thing in this, because the mountains are moist, in winter, some mountain delicacies should be supplemented, and the aleurone that is eaten and supplemented is just the right way, and it has slowly become a famous dish that sits on the top spot in the "Twelve Bowls". When it comes to specific operations, first simmer the meat and big bones, remove the bones, add mushrooms and bamboo shoots and then stew, put walnuts, chestnuts or peanuts and other ground inputs, beat in eggs, and finally stir in arrowroot powder or fern root powder.

In addition to the "muddy soup", the stew pot of wild boar meat and winter bamboo shoots is also very regional. Wild boar is sweet, the meat is tight, the skin is thicker and harder and chewy, the heavy color, heavy oil stewed and then stewed with winter bamboo shoots, delicious to the extreme, ordinary pork is difficult to look at the neck. Many years ago, when I went to Zhouzhuang, I saw that the streets were full of people selling 10,000 hooves, and the oil was so red and fat that it was dazzling. In fact, Maolin's hoof stewing is also to the extreme. Wang Jun introduced, Maolin hoof dish is called "burn shoulder", there are six or seven processes: water boiling, smearing red yeast rice, honey, frying, putting ointment soup in the pot, boiling in a hurry, adding more than ten kinds of seasonings, changing to simmer slowly, covering the hoof with a tofu skin, mainly used to protect the integrity and beauty of the skin, but also help to taste. You have to pour back the paste soup from time to time, commonly known as "Phi Soup", after two or three hours, the tofu skin becomes golden yellow, the hoof skin becomes sauce red, and the roasted arms with full color and flavor can be served on the pot. The skin and fat part of the "roasted shoulder" are immediately raised by chopsticks, which melt in the mouth, fat but not greasy, and the tendon part is cooked but shaped, salty and sweet.

Maolin cuisine is undoubtedly a tributary of Hui cuisine, good at using mountain treasures as raw materials, with the characteristics of heavy oil and thick sauce; however, because of the emphasis on fresh and tender, sweet and sweet, soup dishes like to use pepper, so it is somewhat different from the authentic Hui cuisine popular in the ancient Huizhou area. The atmosphere, smell and taste of the food culture of a region contain the humanities, customs, culture, history and other backgrounds of that particular region. Wang Jun can analyze it succinctly: the art of cooking is to find a way to make good things taste and ordinary things to taste. This statement has a great realm of life, which probably also shows the essence of Maolin's food culture.

In the evening, walking through the old stone path polished by time and space, there are broken walls and meandering wells, although I came to visit for food, but the spring breeze of the lush forest blows on the face, which makes people feel more and more boundless about the rise and fall of the world. The ears are noisy and noisy, the nostrils are inhaled by the smell of people's fireworks, while looking at the colorful tiles and carvings on the cornices on the walls of the deep alleys in the dusk, or the idle flowers in the corner of the wall, while imagining the prosperity of those once been from the old shops on both sides. Let go of your heart, walk leisurely, and think about the stories and moods of the many ancient towns in the south of the Yangtze River that have been visited by the footprints of your life and let your taste sense of taste be carefully explored.

Wonderful Book House