The new lotus root eaten when the lotus is in full bloom is the floral lotus. "The head stubble leek - the flower lotus, the newly married lady - the cucumber button", and the "thorny cucumber top flower lotus" are all said to be pure and new and tender of the flower lotus. The floral lotus root is on the market early, and after a small summer, the lotus leaves are crowded with water and the lotus flowers are pulled up when they bloom for the first time. When I first came out of the pond, it was white and tender and watery, like a beauty's jade arm, and the purple hoops were more like a beauty's girdle, with shy top buds clustered pink, and lotus root heads yellow-green translucent...... There will be two clear eyes in your doubts, gentle and heart-wrenching. The floral lotus root is simply the national color and natural fragrance, and it is also a pleasure to take a look. After the entrance, it is even more crispy, the meat is tender and sweet, like a ball of snow, leaving a refreshing and refreshing aftertaste, comparable to the best fresh pears.

A few years ago, on a midsummer afternoon, I was walking on the streets of Jinling, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and suddenly heard a familiar hometown love song tune...... A good scenery is a good day, a good moon is missing half of it, the lotus root should be delicious and take advantage of the flowers, the lang should drive a boat while the wind is good, and the sister should take advantage of the young ......" This slang tune that swirls repeatedly makes me seem to smell the faint fragrance of lotus flowers from the lotus pond in my hometown, and my heart is moved for a while. When I walked under the umbrella, it turned out to be an old man selling juice singing, and next to him was a press, and in the glass case there were small pieces of white and tender floral lotus roots. There was a long wind blowing in the alley, and the old man was lying on his back on the chair with his eyes slightly closed, humming to himself, looking very leisurely and content. Just a couple of young couples came over, the old man stood up, took a piece of lotus root and put it under the press and gently rolled it, and the lotus root juice flowed out of the small trough under the wooden bench, and flowed into the small cup below. Because I was infected by the pleasant expression of the country voice and the old man, I also stood behind the little couple and asked for a glass of lotus root juice to moisten my throat. Ho, suck it in your mouth through a straw and swallow it slowly, it's really sweet and cool.

Small heat and big heat, steamed and boiled. On the hottest dog days, the land is sunburned like a stove, and leafy vegetables like amaranth and water spinach are either old or roasted. When there is a shortage of vegetables, the floral lotus root comes from the cool rural pond, filling the "shortage" in a timely manner. This kind of tender lotus root is cut into thin strips, the red pepper shreds are boiled in the pot with hot oil first, and then poured into the lotus root shreds and stir-fried a few times, if you can decorate some green onions before serving, it is very pleasing to the eye, fresh and delicious. The cold lotus root slices are sprinkled with white sugar and put on a blue and white plate, which is as calm and confident as a woman walking on the catwalk; and the fried pork slices with lotus root are even crispy and delicious; even the tamales made of lotus leaves with floral fragrance can make people eat an idyllic scenery.

However, the best floral lotus root vegetables can not be bought in the market, they are all picked and eaten by the pond, the water is fresh and tender, there is really nothing to say. The children of the countryside, happy and simple, in that thriving and infinitely abundant summer, it is the most common thing to step on the fragrant lotus root in the cool lotus pond where the green leaves seem to fill the sky, and let go of the belly. This kind of thing often happens on moonlit nights. The key to picking flowers and fragrant lotus root is to identify lotus leaves. In the lotus leaf stall of Mantang Fat Senbi, search for a thin yellow small lotus leaf that is only the size of a vegetable plate, because the nutrients are taken up by the lotus root below, so the scientific name of this lotus leaf is Houbaye - the villagers named it after the genitals of the cow. Walk down the lotus leaf rod like a vine and touch the melon, and soon you will be able to draw a piece of floral lotus. The floral lotus root is too brittle and tender, if you smash the lotus root on the stone on the ground with a little force, the horn will sound crisply, a wisp of fragrant soul will disperse, and the whole lotus root will turn into jade pulp, like snow on the ground.

When a pond of lotus flowers blooms one after another, the lotus seeds are filled with slurry water, and the lotus picker sits in a narrow small pot, shuttling and swaying among the green lotus leaves. The wind is the freshest and most natural wind, the air is transparent and clean, with clear water, green leaves, and red flowers...... This situation and this scene will make people feel that the poetry and painting under the world have taken up the scenery in front of them.

When the lotus flowers fall and the lotus seeds are old and black, the lotus root picked at this time is called the autumn lotus. This kind of lotus root, without the fragrance of the flowers, the water spirit and purity that do not know the world, such as the plump young woman who first showed a rich demeanor, whitening and tame, eating raw in the mouth quite a lot of chewing, making people linger in the aftertaste.

I still remember the deliciousness of the lotus root cakes and lotus root sandwiches made with autumn lotus roots. Rub the washed lotus root into lotus root paste on the rough broken cylinder piece, add salt and green onion and stir, make a cake and put it in the oil pan and fry it until golden brown, crispy and glutinous. To make lotus root clips, you only need to cut the lotus root into thin slices, sandwich every two slices into a chopstick head minced meat, and put the two into one and fry them in an oil pan to brown them. Because the lotus root is stuffed with meat, it is fragrant in the mouth, and it is hot and urgent, and you don't even notice it when you bite your tongue.

Chicken head vegetable is "chicken head bud stalk", which was found in large and small ponds in the countryside in the early years. Its leaves, green on the top and purple red on the back, the leaf veins are convex, the meridians are tortuous and rugged, the edges are folded upwards and wrinkled, round shield-shaped, as big as lotus leaves but not as watery as lotus leaves, and the floating water surface is more like water lily leaves. The flowers protrude out of the water or do not come out of the water, and they come in white and purple colors, and they also bloom and close at dusk like water lilies. In fact, the chicken head that likes the summer sun is a floating-leaved aquatic herb of the water lily family. It's just that this chicken head dish is by no means as charming and kind as the water lily that people can watch, and the leaves of the pond are like being rolled out by a rolling pin, and they seem to be crowded and intimate, but in fact, their leaves, stems, and buds are not satisfied with the spikes of the cloth. Chicken head cabbage is spherical in shape, the top resembles a chicken head, and the spines are the longest and denser, which is daunting. Its young petioles or flower stalks, which are several meters long, and the thorny skin is torn off, which is the chicken head cabbage sold in the market.

Chicken head cabbage is an authentic grassroots vegetable. In the countryside, there is no rain in summer and autumn, and the eggplant, pepper, and green beans in the field are mostly dying and have no other care, and the villagers have to stretch their chopsticks into the pond. In addition to fish, shrimp, snails, mussels, and lotus flowers, chicken head vegetables were also pushed to the forefront. Make a waist basin, go down to the pond, look at the large floating leaves, first use a saw sickle tied to the bamboo pole to cut off the floating leaves, and then stretch the knife to the bottom of the water to cut off the petioles. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can cut off several petioles, flower stalks and bract stalks at the same time, because they are all hollow or have air sacs and buoys, and the bottom is cut off, and they immediately float horizontally to the surface of the water and pick them up in the pot. But this thing is full of thorns, and no matter how you grab it, it will prick your hands. After getting back to the shore, they have to tear the skin one by one, and after tearing out a bunch of smooth and moist "chicken head buds", a pair of hands, especially the thumb and index finger, are densely covered with dark thorns, and they can't pick them all. Fortunately, the thorns of the chicken head cabbage are soft thorns, not insidious, you leave it alone, let it be buried in your meat, and you will feel no more at all in ten days and a half months. Some aunts and uncles with calloused hands and feet can even grab those hedgehog-like "chicken head buds" barefoot or the whole handful, and the spikes can't help the old skin!

Chicken head dishes are mostly stir-fried. Fold it into inch pieces, wash it, pat it flat with a knife, and pinch it slightly with salt. Pour oil into the pot and heat it, add shredded red pepper and garlic to fry first, and then put the chicken head cabbage and stir-fry for a while, and it's good. Chicken head vegetables are sweet and relished raw, and stir-fried are crispy and fresh and delicious, and there is also a faint fragrance, a natural breath from the water nozawa. The pot stewed also has its own flavor, soft and smooth in the mouth, spicy, the best to eat. Marinate the chicken head vegetables in the jar for a period of time, and then fry them with red peppers, which is the best way to eat porridge. There are also people who catch the pickled chicken head vegetables into the bowl, put the water pepper, crushed old garlic, and then pour a few drops of cooked sesame oil, and put it directly in the rice pot to steam it.

"Chicken head bud" is a nest under the water, a root can grow dozens of buds successively, purple and blue flowers, the flower buds are sinking, and the bottom of the water sets fruits. The pregnant "chicken head bud", the spongy inner part is covered with pea-sized fruits, bright red when tender, can be eaten raw, and is an exclusive snack for children in the countryside. When you are old, peel off the outer skin of the black shell and reveal the white rice inside, which is the gourd, fried and eaten, sweet and fragrant, rich in starch like wild chestnuts. Zheng Banqiao has a poem: "The most is the autumn and August in the south of the Yangtze River, and the chicken head is full of rice and mussels." "This chicken head rice is a famous Chinese herbal medicine that retains the aura of vivid and unique water, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao and Southeast Asians, the most superstitious about its nourishing effect. When we usually cook vegetables, we call "thickening", "thickening" is the starch processed from the seeds. Su Dongpo has a self-created health secret recipe that has not been declared a patent, that is, take a few grains of gourd every morning and put it in his mouth until his mouth is full of saliva, then rinse it several times, and then swallow it slowly. Take about 30 capsules in total, every day, and it becomes a habit. He said: "People's food must be chewed carefully, and the root has no five flavors, but not greasy, can make people swell with Chinese liquid, turn to infusion, and promote appetite." ”

Produced in the Taihu Lake Basin, there are no thorns or few thorns, so it is mostly cultivated in a large area artificially, and it is also used for ornamental cultivation. After flowering, the young fruit shrinks into the water and grows into a "chicken head". I have seen farmers on the shore of Taihu Lake to cover the "chicken heads" with a special gauze bag to facilitate harvesting, and harvest the fruit with the bag when it is ripe. A friend over there showed me an article about a story: the gourd is also known as "chicken head", and the local elderly people call it "Yang Guifei" and "Guifei Milk". This glamorous name comes from the story of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and the noble concubine Yang Yuhuan bathing in Huaqing Pool. The concubine took a bath, "the brocade sleeves are at the beginning, and the grubs are slightly exposed", Xuanzong teased her milk and said: "Soft and warm, like freshly peeled chicken head meat......" Later, the storyteller "artistic processing" and dissemination, it was called this.

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Shen Chao had the words of "Remembering Jiangnan": "Suzhou is good, and the water grows the head of the chicken." Yingrun every doubtful pearl ten hundred, soft fragrance prefers milk Yingou, fine peeling small courtyard quiet. "When playing in the small town by Taihu Lake, you can often see some old men and women while pulling homely cooking, while cutting out chicken head rice with a pair of fish-shaped tongs, which is very dexterous. At their feet were two baskets, one for black and slippery fruits, the other for white rice kernels, and a pile of broken shells on the ground, as if they were a folk book that could not be cleaned up.

In the hot summer, cook some lotus seed porridge to eat, which can nourish the heart and calm the mind, and benefit the essence and strengthen the spirit. Use one tael of lotus seeds and two taels of glutinous rice, add water and boil the glutinous rice on the fire, then add dried lotus seeds (lotus seeds are easier to boil if they are not soaked), boil on the liquefied gas stove, and then put them in the rice cooker and simmer slowly. This kind of lotus seed porridge is more delicate in "Dream of Red Mansions", as if it is covered with a layer of boiling water when simmering, and the osmanthus braised is also added when eating. It's no wonder that the men and women in the Grand View Garden live so nourishingly when they live a good life, and Baoyu is not the only one who drinks Jianlian red date soup.