On the eve of the new autumn, the moon will be full. Today, when I talked with my friends about the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, I couldn't help but be interested again, joking about the seasonal food at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in Suzhou.

As one of the four traditional festivals in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with the half of the three autumns, full of fruits, and the fields are golden. Jiangnan seasonal fruits and vegetables and delicacies have already been on the market one after another, to the main table in the middle of August, it can be described as a dazzling array of dishes, eat and want to eat, only blame the belly is small, "eat the head" ah is really enough......

In the old days, Suzhou people were quite particular about the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the folk activities such as Ramadan Palace, burning bucket incense, walking the moon, Tiger Hill Quhui, Shihu stringing the moon, and enjoying the moon with treasure belts were in an orderly manner, and they were quite "heart-oriented". Now, with the improvement of living standards and the diversification of entertainment programs, the sense of ritual of the festival has gradually faded, but the seasonal food has become more and more memorable and more refined.

First, pull the "finger stem" and count the offerings of the Ramadan Palace.

The Ramadan Palace of the "old foundation", that is, the moon worship in the middle of August, the open-air table offers fresh fruits and cakes, the family makes a wish while admiring the moon, eats and chats, and enjoys the family fun of "the wind and the moon are boundless, and the grass is green", and "come to a pleasant" place. There are usually six or sixteen types of offerings, and as many as thirty-six for the more extravagant households. There are Suzhou-style moon cakes, osmanthus sorbet, pomegranate, crystal pomelo, water eight immortals (coconut white, lotus root, water cress, gourd, ci mushroom, water chestnut, water chestnut, water chestnut, water chestnut, water chestnut), persimmon, watermelon, apple, pear, taro, edamame pod, chestnut, peanut, radish, grape, red date, etc.

At the Mid-Autumn Festival, in addition to fresh fruits and cakes to worship the moon, there are also various delicacies made of seasonal vegetables to taste.

"Water Eight Immortals" refers to eight kinds of aquatic vegetables, including water chestnut, lotus root, cress, gourd, mushroom, water chestnut, water chestnut and water chestnut, which are mainly distributed in Wujiang, Wuzhong, Changshu, Taicang, Zhangjiagang, Kunshan and other areas of Suzhou City. Let me pick a few things and talk about them in detail~~

Ranbai: It is a specialty of Taihu Lake and one of the three famous dishes in the south of the Yangtze River. Its meat quality is white, fatty, tender and less fiber, high protein content, meat and vegetarian stir-fry are suitable, with the best quality of "Wujiang Callus" in my hometown, "Fried edamame with Coconut White", "Coconut White Braised Pork" are all home-cooked dishes that I like. Li Bai once had the poem "Kneel into the carved hu rice, the moonlight shines on the plain plate". The so-called "carved hu", also known as wild rice, that is, the seeds of the white cocoon, is one of the "six grains" (millet, millet, millet, sorghum, wheat, mushroom). It can be seen that its history is far-reaching and its high edible status.

Lotus root: When the poet lamented that "the incense of the lotus is sold and the green leaves are left, and the west wind is worried about the green waves", the lotus root is on the market. The lotus root is full of treasures, roots, leaves, and flowers can be used in medicine, and lotus seeds and lotus roots are all delicacies. The lotus root is divided into seven holes and nine holes. Seven-hole lotus root, also known as safflower lotus, has high starch content, less water, glutinous but not brittle, and is suitable for making soup. Such as "stewed lotus root slices with pork ribs", which is fragrant and heaty, and spleen and appetizing. Another example is "osmanthus sugar lotus", a traditional snack in the south of the Yangtze River, which is filled with glutinous rice and stewed with lotus root, and then poured with osmanthus nectar, the rice fragrance, lotus root fragrance, and osmanthus fragrance are blended together, and the entrance is rich, and the happiness is full immediately. Nine-hole lotus root, also known as white flower lotus, has enough water, crispy, tender and sweet when eaten raw, and is also suitable for cold dressing or stir-frying, don't forget to drop a few drops of balsamic vinegar when stir-frying, sweet and sour delicious.

Gourd: commonly known as "chicken head rice", there are southern and northern roots. Suzhou's Nanqi round whole grain is large, the texture is sticky and glutinous, the aroma is strong, it is a precious nourishing food. Approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, strolling through the old street of Tongli, almost every house is busy peeling the chicken head rice in front of the house, because the people of the water town know that "from time to time do not eat, outdated do not wait", the sweet and firm taste to the Mid-Autumn Festival is to reach the golden period of chicken head rice, the price of this autumn has soared to 120 yuan a catty, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the situation is declining, and the particles are shrinking. Jiangnan people, who have always been particular about ingredients, have to buy fresh and sticky high-quality products as soon as possible to satisfy their hunger. And those chicken head rice that has entered the old age will be ground into flour and made into easy-to-preserve scenic specialty gourd cakes that are sold all over the world.

Ling: water chestnut, take its homonym "Ling" or "Ling", blessing the little trick "smart and clever" meaning. The water town's water town is multi-colored and multi-angled, there are big green ling, small white ling, water red ling, sand horn ling, wonton ling, monk ling, etc., the angle is divided into four corners, two corners and no horns. Among them, the hornless Ling (also called the monk Ling) eats the top effort-saving, it is the same as the two horns of the Wuling meat hard, starchy more, the cooked food is hard and glutinous and full, and the old Ling roast meat also has a unique flavor. And the offerings of Suzhou people on the Mid-Autumn Festival must be the pretty and crisp water red ling, which activates the grand worship, just like the flower of hope blooming one after another, sweet in the mouth, love in the heart.

Ulva Herba: Taihu Lake Ulva can pick young leaves to eat in spring and autumn every year, especially autumn Ulva is the best. Autumn Ulva with autumn perch is used to spice the soup, which is crispy and tender. "Cultivating Yu Lu" cloud: "Hui (Ulva cabbage) tastes slightly like fish pith and crab fat, and it is light and clear and far better, and there is no one who is better than it, but the orchid in the flower and the lychee in the fruit are poor matching." Zhang Han, a native of Wujiang, saw the autumn wind rising, and thought of Wuzhong mushrooms, ulva soup, and sea bass. The two classics of "Ulva Soup Perch" and "Thoughts of Ulva Perch" are from "The World Says New Words", which not only expresses homesickness, but also makes Wujiang food famous all over the world. This "sea bass soup with Urana cabbage" was originally a treasure at the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet, but it is now ancient, and it can only be a famous dish in memory.

Four-cheek bass

"The flat boat is tied to the shore and can't bear to go, and the autumn wind is slanting to the perch country. Songling, which is known as the perch township, Songling is governed by Wujiang County, and the river water of Songling is also called Songjiang, Wujiang, Wusongjiang, in the south of Gusu. As early as the Western Jin Dynasty, the great Sima Dong Cao Peng Zhang Han (the word Ji Ying) composed a poem: "When the autumn wind rises and the scenery is good, the water of Wujiang is fat. Three thousand miles of home has not returned, and it is rare to hate and look up to the sky and be sad. During the period of Song Xining (1068-1077), Lin Zhao, the county governor of Wujiang, built the "Perch Township Pavilion" in Songling, and took Zhi Perch Township as its place. This perch township is not Songjiang in Shanghai, which was later established in the Yuan Dynasty, but Wujiang in Jiangsu. In order to distinguish Songjiang water from Songjiang Prefecture, the name of the water is from "Song". Therefore, after the Yuan Dynasty, people changed the origin of sea bass to "Songjiang" or "Wujiang", which is also another name for Songling. "Please hear about Wujiang perch, but there is nothing in the world except Wujiang. "Wujiang perch is the four-gills perch abundant under the Songling Chuihong Bridge, famous for chopping the salt, as Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty remembered, "Where the fish is alive, thinly cut and wash the bloody." Fertile...... Five Flavors of Food". Today, people know that Japanese sashimi is delicious sashimi, but most people don't know that in ancient China, it was once regarded as a "national flavor" for 3,000 years. In the pre-Qin period, there was the word "guan", which means finely cut meat, so there were beef tart, sheep tart, pig tart, etc. However, the Han people often eat fish tart, that is, the sashimi of the ancient method, which later formed the character "鲙". Wujiang four-cheek perch is the big perch that swims around the "Wusong River" in the passage of Taihu Lake into the sea at the beginning of autumn, because the downstream reclamation makes the waterway gradually silted up, so that the river is broken, and the ecological environment of the perch goes up the river to destroy the perch, to the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the perch township has been a rare perch trace, and the modern "perch township" has no perch. At present, the so-called sea bass served on the table is either the newly introduced California sea bass or the fish from the red-jawed gill ponds in the countryside (produced in spring), rather than the Songjiang sea bass (produced in autumn) that has been sung by literati throughout the ages.

Then, the treasure "Ulva and sea bass soup" at the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet can only be simple, and the Ulva whitebait soup will be replaced by ~~

Hairy crabs

There are many types of crabs, due to the different geographical locations of distribution, there are grades, the first class is lake crabs, the second class river crabs, the third class river crabs, the fourth class brook crabs, the fifth class ditch crabs, and the sixth class sea crabs. The hairy crabs of Taihu Lake and Yangcheng Lake abundant in Suzhou are undoubtedly the best. The taste of crab written by the ancients is "as beautiful as the pillar of jade, as fresh as the house of oysters, crisper than the tongue of Shih Tzu, and fatter than the fat of the right army". Eating crabs, drinking, appreciating chrysanthemums, and writing poems, as a literati, the romance began in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Why are the crabs in Suzhou called "hairy crabs"? Bao Tianxiao's "Hairy Crab Historical Examination" says: "The three words hairy crab come from the mouth of the crab seller in Suzhou. "People always like to eat crabs before dinner, or on the fly. So these crab sellers always carry their burdens in the afternoon and shout along the street: 'Hairy crabs come to hairy crabs'. The word "gate" is the same as "SA", (SA means boiled in Wu dialect) crabs are steamed and eaten in water, which is called "SA crab". In the golden autumn, because of the crab, you can taste the fun and nourishment of the world, and because of the crab, you can add leisure and cultural enjoyment.

And its origin, about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are many theories. The term Mid-Autumn Festival was first seen in the "Zhou Li", and the "Book of Rites and Moon Order" said: "The moon of mid-autumn nourishes aging, and the porridge diet is practiced." ”

It is said that it originated from the sacrificial activities of ancient emperors. It is recorded in the Book of Rites: "The Son of Heaven is the spring sunrise, the autumn sunset", and the sunset moon is to worship the moon, indicating that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the emperor has begun to worship the moon and worship the moon. Later, aristocratic officials and scholars followed suit, and gradually spread to the people.

Second, the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to agricultural production. Autumn is the harvest season. The interpretation of the word "autumn" is: "When the crops are ripe, it is called autumn". In August, the Mid-Autumn Festival ripens crops and various fruits one after another, and farmers take the "Mid-Autumn Festival" as a festival in order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy. "Mid-Autumn Festival" is the meaning of the middle of autumn, the eighth month of the lunar calendar is the middle month of autumn, and the fifteenth day is the middle day of this month, so the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom inherited from the ancients "Autumn Report".

Some historians have also pointed out that the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival should be the end of the Sui Dynasty Tang Army on August 15, the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, the Tang Army Pei Lin took the full moon as the concept, successfully invented moon cakes, and widely distributed the army as military salaries, and successfully solved the problem of military rations derived from the large absorption of anti-Sui rebels.

The custom of admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to historians, was originally arose by the literati of the ancient court, and then spread to the people. As early as in the Wei and Jin Dynasty Yuefu's "Forty Songs of Midnight", there is a song "Autumn and Moon" that describes: "Look up at the bright moon and send a thousand miles of light." In the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival was quite popular in admiring the moon and playing with the moon,[6] many poets had verses about the moon in their famous articles, and the Mid-Autumn Festival began to become a fixed festival, and the "Book of Tang Taizong" recorded that there was a "Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15". Legend has it that Tang Xuanzong sleepwalked in the Moon Palace and got the neon clothes and feather clothes, and the folk began to prevail in the custom of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, August 15 was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there was a festival food of "small cakes such as chewing the moon, crispy and syrup". Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Menghualu" said: "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the noble family decorates the pavilion, and the people compete to occupy the restaurant to play the moon"; and "the strings are heavy and boiling, and the residents near the interior are heard in the middle of the night, just like outside the clouds." Children in the room, even night wedding scenes, night markets in Khotan, as for the know. Wu Zimu's "Dream Lianglu" said: "At this time, the golden phoenix is cool, the jade dew is cool, the osmanthus is fragrant, and the silver toad is full of light." Wang Sun Gongzi, a rich family, all climb the dangerous building, play the moon in Linxuan, or open the wide pavilion, the tortoise feast is listed, the piano is sonorous, drink wine and sing, and the joy of the night. As for the home of the shop, they also climbed the small platform to arrange family banquets and gather children to reward the festival. Although the people in the alleys are poor, they are relieved of the agricultural market wine, and they are reluctant to welcome the joy and refuse to waste it. This night the street sells and buys, until the five drums, playing the moon tourists, the mother-in-law is in the city, and the fire is endless. What's more interesting is that the "New Drunkard Talks" describes the custom of worshipping the moon: "The children of the people in the city do not take the rich and poor to reach the twelfth or thirteenth on their own, but they all use the eyes of adults to decorate them, go upstairs or burn incense to worship the moon in the atrium, and each has his own dynasty; ...... The woman wishes to look like Chang'e and be as round as the moon. ”

The moon viewing activities of the Ming and Qing dynasties were popular. "The sacrificial fruit cake will be round"; each house should set up a "moonlight position" and "worship the moon" in the direction of the moonrise. Lu Qihong's "The Chronicles of the Year of Beijing" contains: "On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, people put the moon palace symbol, and the charm is exempt from standing like a person; Chen melons and fruits are in the court, and the moon palace toad is painted on the cake surface; men and women worship and burn incense, and burn it. Tian Rucheng's "West Lake Excursion Zhiyu" cloud: "On the eve of the night, people have a banquet to admire the moon, or take a boat from Baihu Lake to travel along the dawn. On the Su Causeway, they sing together, which is tantamount to the daytime"; The folk invite each other with moon cakes to take the righteousness of reunion". Fucha Dunchong's "Yanjing Chronicles" said: "Mid-Autumn Festival moon cakes, the front door to the United States is the first in Kyoto, and there is not enough food elsewhere." Mooncakes are available everywhere. The big one is more than a foot, and the shape of the wax rabbit of the Moon Palace is painted on it. "Every Mid-Autumn Festival, the Zhumen of the Mansion is gifted with moon cakes and fruits. When the moon is full in fifteen, the melons and fruits are offered to the moon in the court, and edamame and cockscomb flowers are enshrined. It is also the time, when the sky is empty, the colorful clouds are beginning to disperse, the cup is washed, the children are noisy, and the so-called festival is really so-called. Only during the moon offering, most men do not bow. At the same time, in the past 500 years, festivals such as "burning bucket incense", "walking the moon", "putting sky lanterns", "tree Mid-Autumn Festival", "lighting tower lanterns", "dancing fire dragons", "dragging stones", "selling rabbits" and so on have been introduced; among them, the customs of admiring the moon, eating moon cakes, and reunion dinners have been passed down to this day.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China. According to historical records, the term "Mid-Autumn Festival" first appeared in the book "Zhou Li". By the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, there was a record of "Yu Shangshu Town Cattle Confusion, Mid-Autumn Festival Eve and Left and Right Micro Service Panjiang". It was not until the early years of the Tang Dynasty that the Mid-Autumn Festival became a fixed festival. "Tang Shu Taizong Ji" records that "August 15th Mid-Autumn Festival". The popularity of the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty, and by the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it had become one of the major festivals in China, along with New Year's Day. It is also the second largest traditional festival in China after the Spring Festival.