Mr. Wang Zengqi has an article in his collection of essays "The Taste of the World", which is about "Pickles and Culture". He shares the same view as Mr. Gao Xiaosheng, believing that eating is also culture.
Eating is of course a kind of culture. I have heard about "wine culture" and "table culture". The Chinese people's seven things to open the door: firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, in addition to the need to cook them You can’t eat firewood, but the other six things are inseparable from eating. The familiar "kimchi" from the three East Asian countries is also considered a pickle in our eyes. To be honest, if it is imported kimchi, I really can’t praise them for their ability to make kimchi. The best kimchi in my eyes and mouth is called "Sichuan kimchi". To put it bluntly, everyone who makes kimchi today learned it from Sichuan people.
I have eaten pickles from many places. When I think about it, the mustard dumplings made by my mother in my childhood are the most delicious. My friend once said that you can eat meat from the pickles. It tastes great, and it still tastes like soy sauce beef. The beef in sauce is still the same kind of veal, tender and fragrant. It is definitely not old beef, only the old beef is fat.
Mr. Wang Zengqi has traveled extensively and has gained extensive knowledge. He talked about pickles from all over China, especially the pickles from the south, which opened my eyes. I had heard that people in the south could eat them, but I didn’t expect them to be so good at them.
I also think there is no big difference between pickles and pickles, they are both great accompaniments to meals. In the past, old people often said that to satisfy your craving, spicy food will make you salty. I know this personally. The pickle dumplings made by my mother can be eaten open until the Chinese New Year. When spring comes, fresh vegetables will be available, so I take out a big vat of pickles and tie the pickle dumplings into strings and hang them on the wall in the yard. . The very large bunches of pickles will gradually shrink and eventually become very inconspicuous. Thinking of it, I will take down a few and clean them first to remove all the salt. Throw it into the pot and stew it with the meat. After it's cooked, the aroma fills the alley, often making us "greedy cats" drool.
My father also has a unique skill, which is stewed crucian carp with pickles. This is a big dish, and my father is reluctant to do it easily. He will only show his hand when there is a big event or relatives come.
The Spring Festival has just passed, and it must be after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Because our concept at that time was that the year after the fifteenth was considered passed. My father reached in and fished out a bowl of pickle dumplings from the thinly iced pickle jar, then retracted his hand into his sleeve and "carried" the pickle bowl home with his forearm. He cut each pickle dumpling with two knives. Divide into thirds. Wash and soak in clean water and wait.
The next step is to deal with crucian carp. We call these crucian carp that are one foot long "crucian carp seeds". A pot of "crucian melon seeds" must weigh seven or eight kilograms anyway. My father said that anything less than five kilograms is not worth doing. Cut the belly open one by one and use a pair of scissors and a few basins of water to solve the problem. The internal organs of the small crucian carp and the melon seeds are not used, leaving only the fish floats. We are also fascinated by the stewed fish floats.
Different from cooking fish now, there is no oil in the pot, but the seasoning is very complete. Onions, ginger and garlic are indispensable. There is a layer of fish and a layer of pickles, and half of the pot is placed. My pot is big and there is rarely a time when it cannot fit. Simmer over low heat, allowing all the flavors to slowly penetrate together. Then the meaty aroma of the crucian carp penetrates into the pickles, and the aroma of the pickled lumps also penetrates into the crucian carp. It is rare to see my father stew crucian carp during the day. Most of the time he stews it before dark at night until early the next morning.
Every time, when we open our eyes, the most beautiful and fragrant smell in the world will come into our noses. At that time, we did whatever we were told and obeyed absolutely, and we didn’t dare to speak loudly for fear of angering our father and eating less of the most delicious fish in the world.
Breakfast is very simple. Each person has a piece of cornmeal steamed bun (we call it Fa Gao), a bowl of boiling water, three small crucian carps, and three pickles. The fish bones of the small crucian carp were soft and extremely crispy, but the pickle lumps were chewy and chewy. It was so beautiful that I wanted to cry. I wanted to throw myself into the pot and sleep with the pickled crucian carp. At this time, the pickle dumplings have fully absorbed the aroma of the fish, and coupled with its own taste, it is definitely more fragrant than crucian carp. At the beginning, I could exchange three small crucian carp with my sisters for six pickles.
Later, they discovered this little plan, and my plan never succeeded again. At lunchtime, it’s time for the big show. The guests and our family gathered around a small table and started eating. Soon my father would let us children each fill a bowl with a variety of dry food in our hands. , hid aside to eat. When we finish eating, we have to look at our father's eyes. If there is not much left, his father will pout his lips to indicate that we can't eat any more and leave it to the guests to eat as much as they can.
When I grew up and started working, I tried to cook crucian carp stewed with pickles and dumplings several times. Unfortunately, I never succeeded. I couldn’t get the same taste as my father’s stew. My father said: One is that there are no pickles that my mother pickled, and the other is that I don’t have the patience and the heat is not enough.
Mr. Wang Zengqi must have never eaten crucian carp stewed with pickles, dumplings and pickles. Otherwise, he would definitely write down this worldly delicacy in a book, in this collection of essays "The Taste of the World".