Zhang Han, who left his hometown to be a leader in the Jin Dynasty, was not a person with ambitions and great realms, and every time the autumn wind rose, he remembered the delicacy of the lettuce and sea bass in front of his house: "The autumn wind is blowing and the leaves are flying, and the perch in the Wujiang River is fat." Three thousand miles away from home did not return, hating and looking up to the sky and grieving...... "finally couldn't stand it anymore and resigned from his official position and went back to his hometown to satisfy his hunger." Since then, many people have tried their best to go to Jiangnan to taste the perch, and it seems that everyone has contracted a kind of literati fashion disease. Lu You said: "This year's mushroom is coming with sea bass. Ouyang Xiufa sighed: "The clear words are not inferior to the name of Jiangdong, and it is difficult to understand the hidden words. Homesickness suddenly rises from the autumn wind, white clams and sea bass. Even Bai Juyi has "Occasional Yin": "There are still perch and lettuce, and they may plan to go to Jiangdong in the spring." Although they are all from other places, it does not prevent these cultural people who are already quite sour from taking advantage of the topic to express their homesickness.

I've also tasted Ulva and sea bass, but it's hard to eat both at the same time. The sea bass was bought in the vegetable market, and it must have been in vain, and I still can't be sure what the sea bass tastes like in the Wujiang River, and the developed root system is connected to the lettuce of Zhang Han's era, but I have really eaten it a few times. In the early years, it was thought that since Ulva was born by the autumn wind, it should only be eaten in autumn. In fact, the spring is the most tender cardamom year of Ulais. "The flowers are full of Su Causeway and the willows are full of smoke, and it is a sunny day when picking Ulva is a sunny day", which is the scene of picking Ulva in West Lake. Ulva only haunts the lakes and ponds in the south of the Yangtze River, and only the Jiangnan of smoke and rain and the Jiangnan of ink and ink can breed this kind of stunner with delicate water and an incomparably soft waist. In Hangzhou's West Lake, Sunan Taihu Lake, the world in April, seeing that all the delicate is about to be replaced by the vigorous and unrestrained summer, I can't help but be stunned, fortunately, there are also a variety of curvy Ulva flowers, lively running and dancing in the water, grasping its slippery and intoxicating taste, but also in the tongue to retain the reverie of spring.

A song in the twenty-eighth episode of "Dream of Red Mansions": "Endless lovesick blood and tears throw red beans, can't finish the spring willows and spring flowers are full of painting buildings, can't sleep unsteadily, after the wind and rain in the screen window, I can't forget the new sorrow and old sorrow, I can't swallow the jade grains and choke on the throat, I can't see the thin in the rhombic glass, the brow that can't be opened, and the unknown leakage." It seems that the green mountains that can't be covered are faint, and the green water flows slowly...... "The spring is sad, and I can't finish the sorrow and helplessness that Daiyu's sister and the daughter of the Red Mansion can't dissipate." This is the best food for Ulva here.

In fact, like shark fin, lettuce itself has no taste, and only when it is added to soup and paired with meat foods such as shredded chicken and ham can the beauty of it be extended. Ye Shengtao is a native of southern Jiangsu, well versed in the beauty of this thing, once said that the "tender green color and rich poetry, tasteless taste is really intoxicating". More than 30 years ago, I first ate Ulva in a restaurant in Wuxi. It was a bowl of soup, a few slender dark blue leaves, like tea but not tea, half soothing and half rolled leisurely floating in the soup with exquisite meatballs and fresh green spring bamboo shoots. Even the soup with leaves scoop a spoonful of the mouth, feel smooth and crispy, fine, there is a refreshing fragrance, very delicious, teach people to remember the kind of tongue enjoyment that has never been had.

Later, on a sunny day in late spring, I ran to the shore of Taihu Lake to see the growth of the lettuce. The lettuce floats on the water dots and spots, the small round leaves like copper coins, the front is fresh blue, the back is purple red, it looks smooth and tender, and it is also sticky and slippery when you touch it with your hands. This lettuce is very similar to a kind of aquatic plant commonly known as "lotus seed" in the pond in my hometown, and some people there pick its young stems in early summer to eat it cold, but I have never seen anyone eat young leaves. Looking at those Taihu women picking Ulva picking, they are like picking tea, sweeping left and right, only picking new leaves that have sunk in the water and have not yet had time to unfold, and the feeling of their fingertips is extremely delicate and accurate. The new leaves are small and spindle-shaped, wrapped in a layer of clear gelatin, trembling and brightly refracting the light of spring water, full of aura and poetry. It is said that you can't row a boat when picking lettuce, and if the rowing action is too large, the water ripples caused will cause the tiny lettuce to drift away. Only by sitting in the wooden basin and slowly approaching, among the round leaves that have been unfolded, find the buds that will not emerge from the water, and pick them against the stems of the stalks, and gently sweep them with their fingertips. The harvest period of Ulva is very long, from mid-April to late September every year, it can be picked every two or three days, and the yield is highest in July, but Chun Ulva has the best taste. In my imagination, every picking season, the lake full of lettuce rippling on the water, the girls sit in the wooden basin, slender waist forward, ten fingertips, picking tender Ulva ...... Poetic.

By the West Lake in Hangzhou, the Ulva is called horseshoe grass by the locals, and it can be seen in the shallow water of the wind lotus in the Quyuan, the fish in the flower port and the moon in the three pools. Interestingly, most of the horseshoe grass on the water surface of the pond and marsh in the non-tourist area of West Lake is planted by cuttings. In ponds with cofferdams, the water is drained before planting, and then sections of thin and soft stems and seedlings are squeezed into the mud like rice planting. It looks like the stems and leaves are fat, tender and juicy, and they are full of water. The young Ulva harvested is soaked in buckets and sent to the restaurant's kitchen as soon as possible to cook fresh "West Lake Ulva Soup", "Ulva Yellow Croaker Soup" and "Shrimp with Ulva Vegetables". If the harvest is too much, it can be dried and stored for a long time.

There is a point of attention to the preparation of lettuce. A friend in Hangzhou told me that whether it is making soup or stir-frying, it must be blanched with boiling water first to remove the bitterness. If you are inexperienced, the heat is not well controlled, and the color of the lettuce will turn black and yellow. Therefore, it is best to put the lettuce in a colander and pass it in boiling water to preserve the turquoise color, and put it in a soup bowl for later use. Then choose the most tender piece of toothpick meat on the chicken breast (this piece of meat will not be firewood after cooking), cut into shreds thinner than matchsticks, and cut the ham into thin strips, put them in a pot and boil them together, pour them on the lettuce, and then drizzle with cooked chicken fat. The turquoise lettuce, paired with snow-white chicken breast and crimson ham, is very beautiful. If you make a soup, the lettuce in the soup is emerald green, the chicken white leg is red, the color is bright, and the flavor is unique.

Wuxi and Suzhou and Wujiang have eaten a few times, and the waitress in thin shirts and wide sleeves served soup made of fresh ulva. The green and refreshing appearance of the lettuce has not changed in the slightest from the ecology in the water, and it is still tightly wrapped in a spindle shape, just like the graceful spring of Biluochun. It tastes slightly elastic on the tip of the tongue, and between the rich aroma and deliciousness of the ham and chicken, it is the slippery texture of the lettuce and the slightly bitter taste of the fragrance, which is very pleasant. I once ate Ulva in Wuhan, although it was fresh, but it was somewhat of a high-standard hospitality, but it was only a small bowl of base soup for each person before the chopstick, which was the so-called "drink the soup before drinking to keep the stomach from hurting". Add a few small pieces of water hair sea cucumber a few half-rolled leaves, the color is gray-green, finally let the tooth tongue hook, a piggyback, it will be completely scattered, melted, like chewing a piece of tea that has been soaked many times, can not find a little bit of that kind of squeaky crisp and smooth feeling wrapped in the gum. Perhaps this kind of pure dish, only with chewing and slow food, should not appear in the wine aura of pushing the cup and changing the lamp, and the reward is staggered.

Fresh lettuce is hard to come by, so I have never asked for a pot wok. This spring, I visited Hangzhou and brought back a small bag of dehydrated fresh lettuce, the color of which is not very eye-catching kelp green. When you get home, soak it and blanch it with water, reducing the ingredients to just meatballs and shrimp...... Oh, in a bowl of clear soup, swaying a piece of dark green, tender white and light red, full of fragrance, but also quite worthy of the tongue.

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