Geng Baochang looked at Su Yuan's obsessive expression and nodded secretly, the craftsman should have a kind of madness.

As the old saying goes,

If you don't go crazy, you can't live!

In the evening, the old man was very happy and arranged: "There are friends from afar, today I will be the east, eat something good!"

The three of them left the Forbidden City and drove to a private restaurant, where the boss saw Geng Lao coming to the door, and hurriedly arranged a private room, cooked in person, and entertained the guests.

The three of them chatted while drinking tea, and soon the first dish was on the table, Geng Lao pointed to the small turquoise reed, and introduced: "The great gourmand Su Dongpo said that the reed buds are short all over the ground, and it is the time when the puffer fish wants to eat it." Comparing artemisia to puffer fish shows its deliciousness. ”

"The crisp and tender reeds in the entrance are pungent and astringent, and they are endless, but it is the sultry smell of artemisia that always reminds people of the green bushes on the river beach. ”

"Wild plants that grow naturally and are scattered on river beaches and reed sandbanks. The March in the south of the Yangtze River, when the grass grows and the warbler flies, is the 28th year of the pure and juicy reed, the reed in February, the artemisia in March, and the firewood in April and May. Ten days and a half months of sluggishness, that is, the twilight beauty is unbearable. ”

The old man picked up a piece, gently put it in his mouth, and recalled: "I grew up by the river since I was a child, and outsiders may not be used to smelling the rushing artemisia gas, and they can't eat it. But for the people along the river, this authentic and rich artemisia breath is the smell of the pastoral homeland with fragrant veins, and it is the nostalgia full of the taste of the rain in the south of the Yangtze River!"

According to Wang Zengqi, it is like sitting by the river and smelling the smell of the newly rising spring water, just like the beautiful and moving Qingwen in the dream of the Red Mansion who loves to eat artemisia, and I guess that there may be a mulberry garden by the Yangtze River that she misses. ”

Su Yuan also picked up the reed, put it in his mouth and said: "The reeds sold now are wild and greenhouse, freshly picked in the wild, the stems are red and purple, thin and a little old-fashioned, crunching when chewed, but the aroma is clear and pleasant." ”

"The greenhouse vegetables look tender and green, and they look like they are overnourished, and they taste much lighter in the mouth. One year, I went to play in a friend's hometown in the countryside and saw a lot of reeds growing in the fields. ”

"They cut up the roots of the reeds that grew to four or five inches long, stacked them in one piece, and some put them in the sand, covered them with straw, watered them every once in a while, and covered them with film to soften them. After two or three days, the meat becomes tender and crispy, and it looks full of juice and has a more mellow taste. ”

The old man laughed, put down his chopsticks, and said a little proudly: "I suggested this dish to the boss, let him pinch the reed artemisia into inch segments first, soak it in water to remove the astringency, and then marinate it slightly with salt, so that it will be both flavorful and crisp and tender when stir-fried." ”

"The stir-fry fully reflects the original taste of Artemisia reed, and when eaten in the mouth, it is crispy and fragrant, slightly spicy and appetizing, and the so-called mouth is full of fragrance. It is worth mentioning that the reed is fried stinky dried seeds, I have eaten it several times when I was young, with the fragrance of oil and fire, the fragrance of artemisia reed and the smell of stinky dried seeds are integrated, and the reeds are carried by stinky dried seeds, and it is a fresh and long fragrance in the mouth!"

After speaking, his face was full of taste: "That's really the fragrance of the "new spring water" that can be touched!"

The three of them laughed, Su Yuan liked this atmosphere very much, relaxed and natural, and the family had an old man like a treasure. Especially Geng Baochang, who has traveled from south to north, is knowledgeable, and can say such a charm in any dish, which is worthy of everyone!

Just as the boss pushed the door in, said a few polite words, and put down the second dish, scrambled eggs with ground vegetables.

Su Yuan looked at the so-called ground vegetables, similar to fungus, only the size of a fingernail, but it looked a little exaggerated, wavy and flaky, light yellow in the middle, olive in the middle, dark black and almost dark green in the periphery.

The difference is that the fungus grows symmetrically and attaches to the rotten wood, with large skin and thick flesh, while the ground moss has no roots and can only grow in a specific environment.

"This is a real seasonal vegetable!" Geng Baochang commented: "The moss bark is a real grassroots vegetable, in late spring and early summer, as long as after a rain, on the embankment grass that is a little old and messy but never lacks vitality, there will be a handful of such black things that do not slip away." ”

"And it only appears after the rain just after the rain, and you have to pick it up quickly, because if the sun is a little bone, the moss skin will immediately dry up, curl up to a gray-black, and you can't eat it. It seems to be a hurried passer-by in the rainy season, as if it has come from all directions, but it has completed all the roads in this world at once. ”

"Not bad, not bad!" Lu Chenglong continued: "In our hometown, as long as the moss grows, the soil is not too thin, the grass is green and juicy, and wild garlic and cow mushrooms can often be seen. ”

"I remember when I was a child, I used to pick up this thing, and after the rain, the sun broke through the clouds and fell obliquely, and there were still scattered raindrops falling, so I wore a straw hat to pick it up in the field. Like elves after the rain, black and bright scattered in the grass on the embankment, there are grasshoppers and thumb-sized gray and black toads constantly jumping, and a large array of starlings fly far away after the rain. ”

"We children all believed at that time that the moss skin that had been blasted and thundered could not be eaten, and that if we ate it, we would get sick with stomach pain!"

Geng Baochang picked up a piece and put it in his mouth, Meimei tasted it: "This thing is wet and sticking to the grass after the rain, scattered and fine, it is difficult to pick it up, and it will stick to the withered grass leaves, moss, mud and sand." ”

"I usually go home and sprinkle it with water to make it soft and puffy so that it doesn't break, and then I pick it up little by little. You have to choose with your hands, blow with your mouth, and play with your fingers. Although it is not easy to pick up a basket to go home, it is even more difficult to choose to wash it, so we must cherish it and not waste it. ”

Su Yuan was also reminded to recall: "I once ate stewed tofu with chicken soup with moss skin in a distinctive local restaurant, and that time four or five of us each ordered one or two of our favorite dishes, gossiping, listening to the pastoral tune, looking at those familiar wild vegetables, wafting a faint bitter taste, with a hint of earthy aroma, and the mood couldn't help but feel extra relaxed and comfortable." ”

"I still remember the bowl of braised tofu in chicken soup with moss skin, which can really be described as soft and soft, black and white, with bright red sea rice, which is very pleasant to look at, and it is even more unique in the mouth. ”

"So every time I eat the mossy skin, I feel good, I can think of the sky after the rain, and the smell of grass and earth mixed with fragrance, and my mood is moist and thoughtful...... Perhaps, it is a kind of recollection and mourning of childhood life. ”

Although the two dishes are very ordinary, the real food pays attention to the plain and magical in the middle, and the details show the effort, and it is the master who can make the home-cooked food unique.

Soon the third dish was delivered, slowly lifted the lid, the fragrance was overflowing, and the white porcelain plate was filled with golden small fish, more than three inches long, with a fat head and belly, sprinkled with red oil sauce, which made people have a great appetite.

Geng Baochang pointed at the small fish with chopsticks and asked, "Does anyone know what kind of fish this is?"

Su Yuan looked carefully, a bit like a scavenger with a sucker, but shorter and fatter than a scavenger, with a round belly and a black mush, he looked stupid, and he had never seen this kind of fish.

Lu Chenglong also shook his head, he hadn't seen it either, and guessed: "It should be a nerd fish, right?"

Geng Baochang waved his hand and said: "The scientific name is Tu Feeding Fish, but it also has a better name, Peach Blossom Idiot!"

Picking up one with chopsticks, he introduced: "The peach blossom idiot lays eggs on mussel shells, broken tiles, and tree roots, and especially likes to lay a sticky egg on the stone slab at the bottom of the water jump, and then guards the nest until the small fish hatch." They bloom in the spring after the peach blossoms bloom, and the country children like to go to the river pond to catch the peach blossom idiot with a swollen belly, so they get a nickname, cauliflower infatuation. ”

"The scientific name is pond snakehead, it is an ordinary fish in the water town in the south of the Yangtze River, usually stay at the bottom of the deep pond, eat the small fish and shrimp that hit the mouth, so the meat is thick, the taste is delicious, it is salted and then smeared with some water to grind the pepper, and the head of the rice pot is steamed, revealing a fragrance. ”

"It's rough and a little tongue-pulling, so it has to be scraped off. The kind of thumb-sized peach blossom idiot stew that has not yet grown is the most delicious, and it is almost a home-cooked dish for people there before and after Qingming. ”

"Peach blossom idiot, snail meat, river shrimp, bamboo shoots, and artemisia are both known as the five famous spring dishes in the south of the Yangtze River. Its appearance is black and silly, but the meat is white and delicate, with little fishy smell, especially the two cheeks on the head, which are even more smooth and delicious. ”

"At the beginning of the last century, the exiled king Sihanouk traveled to the south of the Yangtze River and had no intention of tasting a soup called pickles and watercress soup, and he was greatly admired. ”

In fact, the so-called "pickles" are actually lettuce, and "douban" is the cheek meat of the peach blossom idiot, plus Jinhua ham slices, spring bamboo shoot slices and chicken consommé, which is delicious and abnormal. It's just that this bowl of pickled cabbage and bean paste soup has wiped off the faces of many peach blossom idiots. ”