Unforgettable Vietnamese taste

Li Jianchun

Food is sustenance, carrying nostalgia and longing.

It has been more than 30 years since I left Yuexi. Now when we talk about Yuexi at family gatherings, I often recall those unforgettable delicious snacks.

The delicacy of Yuexi is not only made with heart, but also benefited from the unique geographical environment.

As the most rare piece of flat land among the endless mountains of Daliang Mountain, Yuexi Bazi is fragrant with rice flowers and rich in products, and there are countless delicacies and game hidden in the surrounding mountains.

Whether it is the snacks carefully made with local products or the wild fruits and vegetables directly collected from the mountains, they are all so delicious and memorable.

People who have lived here will definitely remember the taste of the small shops on the old streets of the ancient city and the small game stalls on the street. It is the taste of the distance and the taste of the hometown.

▲Corn cake

A few days ago, I took out the frozen tender corn paste from the refrigerator and prepared to make it according to the method of making Yuexi corn cake. This bag of frozen corn paste was brought to me by my younger sister from my hometown in Shandong.

When they were playing in the countryside last year, they saw large fields of corn planted in the mountain fields. The corn cobs were huge and plump, which was really attractive.

They bought and broke a lot of fresh tender corn cobs from a farm and went home to make corn cakes. She herself felt very similar to the corn cakes she ate in Yuexi when she was a child, so she specially left a bag for me, and wanted me to taste the taste that I ate in Yuexi when I was a child.

In July and August every year, the local corn in Yuexi has grown to eight or nine maturity. These "earth corn" grown entirely with farmyard manure without using chemical fertilizers can be cooked or roasted, and taste very good. , but the best taste and the most effort is the corn cake.

The Vietnamese people take the tender corn cobs that have just been broken off, peel off the corn kernels while they are fresh, grind them into corn paste with a stone mill, put an appropriate amount of corn paste into the fresh corn husks with a spoon, and roughly make them into small cakes. Wrap it well to prevent the juice from flowing out, and put it in a steaming cage to steam.

The corn husks should use the bright yellow, fresh, soft and moist ones that are close to the corn on the inner layer, instead of the dry and hard corn husks on the outer layer. The corn cakes are slowly cooked in the rising heat.

The cooked corn cake should be eaten while it is hot. Just take it out of the steamer, it is still a little hot, slowly uncover the corn husk, the bright yellow corn cake mixed with the fragrance of the corn husk comes out, and the corn cake after the entrance The mouthfeel is soft, a little glutinous, with a touch of sweetness, a touch of fragrance, and a touch of freshness. After eating, there is a lingering fragrance in the mouth, which is unforgettable.

Although it was prepared in the same way, the corn cake I made by myself did not have the unique softness and sweetness of Yuexi corn cake.

▲ Douhua

Douhua is my second brother's favorite. When he was working in Yuexi, he often visited Douhua Restaurant. The one he likes most is the one near the old county hospital on the south of Xijie Street.

The bean curd in that shop is the most famous, because the bean curd is well made, and the business of the shop is booming. Maybe he developed a love for bean curd rice in Yuexi, and now in Shandong he often buys bean curd made by Sichuan people to satisfy his cravings.

Yuexi bean curd is made by washing and soaking the local soybeans with the spring water from the spring of Baita Mountain, then using a stone mill made of bluestone to grind them into soybean milk, removing the bean dregs with gauze and leaving the soybean milk, which is then boiled and cooled to a certain temperature. It is made with brine, and the production process is the same as that of other places.

However, the Yuexi people have superb skills in making bean curd. The appearance of Yuexi bean curd is just like its name, clusters of white flowers blooming in water.

The Yuexi beancurd is soft and hard enough that you can pick it up with chopsticks lightly. If it is softer, it will be impossible to pick it up with chopsticks. If it is harder, it will lose its tender taste.

When eating bean curd, use chopsticks to gently pick up a small ball from a large ball of bean curd, dip a little dipping sauce prepared with chili, pepper and other condiments, and put it in your mouth while it is hot. The bean curd has a slight aftertaste of sweetness and a slight brine flavor.

Usually taste a few mouthfuls of bean curd first, then simply pour the bean curd and the soup for cooking the bean curd into the rice bowl, pour in the dipping sauce, then use chopsticks to mix the bean curd and rice into bean curd rice, and eat it in big mouthfuls. Fast, eat hard, you can eat more happily, eat more satisfyingly, and warm your body after a bowl of it.

In the 1990s in Beijing, the tofu curds I ate in Chongqing and my hometown in Shandong a few years ago were not as tender and smooth as Yuexi Douhua, nor did they have the flower-like shape. The shape and taste were more like tender tofu. .

Maybe it's because of the mountain spring water, maybe it's because of the production skills, maybe it's all there, Yuexi bean curd is the most beautiful and tender among the bean curds from all over the world.

▲Fold ear roots

You can eat a lot of wild vegetables and mountain delicacies in Yuexi. Zheergen is a kind of wild vegetable.

The locals also call it pig nose arch. It is said that wild boars also like to eat it. When the wild boar smells the smell of folded ears, it will use its nose to push it out and eat it.

I remember that on the South Street of the Old City of Yuexi, there are often villagers of the Yi nationality who sell Zheergen. There are bundles of Zheergen in the back basket. The price is 10 cents each. Snow white, with a few purple-red leaves on it, very fresh and tender. These Zheer roots are all wild, growing in the wetland next to the ditch in the forest, and have a strong smell.

Put the home-bought folded ear root into the water, rub it vigorously with your hands, and rub off the fine roots while washing the soil, and put it in a dustpan to drain.

Then cut into small pieces about one centimeter long, put them in a large bowl, add salt, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sprinkle chili powder and a little pepper powder on top, pour rapeseed oil into the iron pan, and cook until the oil starts When it is smoking, start the pot, pour hot oil on the chili powder, and the spicy smell will fill the room with the sound of sizzling. Use chopsticks to stir the Zheergen and seasoning in the bowl to make it fully flavorful, and the cold Zheergen is ready.

When eating, scoop a large spoon into the mouth and chew hard. The root of the folded ear has some toughness, and it feels brittle when bitten off. The taste is astringent and sweet, and the tongue and lips will feel numb after eating.

This kind of taste may seem a bit weird, but it is indeed addictive. Often the lips are numb and can't help eating spoonful after spoonful until the cheeks are sour.

Zheergen is generally served as a cold dish on the dining table, but the local Yi people eat Zheergen in a different way. With a big wooden spoon, you can eat it anytime you want. It is enjoyable and enjoyable.

Zheergen, a special food, is regarded as delicious by those who like it, and shunned by those who don't like it. Its strong fishy smell will scare some people away, and its astringent taste will also make some people stay away. But as long as you take a bite, chew slowly, and savor it carefully, most of you will fall in love with it from then on.

▲ Bean paste

My mother is from the north and has lived in Yuexi for nearly 30 years. Later, the dishes she cooked also had a strong Vietnamese flavor, and the pickled sauerkraut was even more authentic than that made by many locals. She also learned how to make bean curd from the locals.

Unlike making douhua, dou mao does not use soybeans, but immature green edamame.

Put the edamame into a pot, add water, add a little pepper, cook on the stove until it is half mature, and then use a stone mill to grind it into a slurry.

After boiling the ground bean juice, add finely chopped tender pumpkin, celery, leeks and salt in turn. After these ingredients are cooked, a pot of steaming steaming bean paste with a strong bean aroma is ready. alright.

The bean paste is like porridge and soup. The aroma of tender bean juice is mixed with the aroma of tender pumpkin, celery, and leek, and the taste is very delicious. Scoop the bean paste into a bowl and mix well with the rice grains. Take a spoonful and eat. The juice squeezed out between the rice grains will fill your mouth, and the taste will last. With the umami taste of bean paste, I often eat several bowls of rice.

Bean curd is a Vietnamese flavor that I have never eaten in restaurants and family dishes in other places, or even seen at all.

▲Dashan bacteria

Last year, my wife bought a box of matsutake from Yunnan online. This expensive mushroom, regarded as a delicacy by the Japanese, is the star of gourmet shows, and people have high expectations for its taste. After frying and frying, I tasted its fragrance and umami taste, but I still feel that it is not as delicious as the wild mushrooms I ate in Yuexi.

Every time after the rain, all kinds of wild mushrooms will grow in the mountains of Yuexi, such as rice soup fungus, tea tree fungus, chicken fir fungus... There are many varieties and different tastes. Among them, the rice soup mushroom is the smallest, and the mushroom head is as big as a grain of rice. The soup cooked with rice soup mushrooms is as white as milk, thick and smooth, and tastes extremely fresh.

The Shanda mushroom is the largest, more than ten centimeters in length, white, and its size and shape are very similar to the Coprinus comatus sold in the vegetable market, but the stalks are thinner than Coprinus comatus, and the overall appearance is more slender.

The cooking method of Shanda bacterium is very simple. After washing, tear it apart along the stalk, put an appropriate amount of rapeseed oil in a hot pan, add mushrooms, sprinkle some salt, and fry slowly.

The fried mushrooms can be torn and eaten directly by hand. The chicken-like mushrooms are chewy, and the more you chew, the more fragrant they become. The mouth is filled with the aroma of rapeseed oil and the unique fresh aroma of mushrooms. Shanda mushrooms are eaten in a special way and have a special taste. It is an unforgettable delicacy.

When I was in college, the students in the dormitory made an appointment that after the summer vacation, each of them would bring a piece of food from their hometown back to school. What I brought back was a large bottle of mountain mushrooms fried by my mother. While I tasted Lanzhou white pumpkin and Guangdong coconut juice for the first time, my classmates also tasted the mountain delicacy from Yuexi for the first time - Shanda mushroom.

▲Sweet kudzu vine

Sweet kudzu vine is a vine, and the Vietnamese people like to eat its rhizome. People have worked tirelessly to find this plant in the mountains and through the woods, and then dig it out with great effort, just for its unique licorice-like sweetness.

I remember that when elementary school is over, there will always be a group of children around the southwest corner of the Bell and Drum Tower, one floor inside and one outside, holding one-cent and two-cent coins in their hands, vying to buy sweet kudzu vines.

After receiving the money, the seller puts the root-like sweet kudzu vine rhizome on the wooden board in front of him, cuts off a few thin slices, spreads it out on the wooden board, picks up the bag containing lime and beats it a few times, Turn it over and beat it a few times, the sweet kudzu slices turn from white to yellow under the action of lime.

Hold the sweet kudzu slices in your hand, put a piece in your mouth, and chew while walking, the sweetness soaks the tip of the tongue, and the aftertaste is long.

The wild taste of sweet kudzu, the delicacy that can be bought for a penny or two, is hard to find now.

▲ sweet cherry

There are many varieties of fruit produced in Yuexi, such as apples, peaches, pears, loquats, etc. Among them, Yuexi apples have a long-standing reputation. I remember that the National Apple Planting Conference was held in Yuexi in the late 1970s, which shows its great reputation.

In fact, the quality of Yuexi cherries is also very good. Since they were not planted on a large scale at that time, farmers only planted one or two trees in front of and behind their houses, and the yield was very small, so they were more rare than other fruits.

Whenever the cherries are ripe, you can see people selling them on the roadside at the corner between the hardware store and the department store. The cherries are packed in a basket and covered with fresh leaves. The bright red fruit is very attractive, and people passing by will pay more attention whether they want to buy it or not.

If you buy a handful for ten cents, there are only a dozen or so in your hand, which is more expensive than other fruits, so few people bought them by the catty at that time. At that time, eating cherries was also very interesting. Because they were expensive and rare, they were especially cherished. The cherries were reluctant to be eaten immediately, and they were held in the mouth for a long time before they were bitten and eaten.

The boys were impatient and couldn't help eating it for a while, but the girls took a long time to suck it, and some even lasted for a class time until they melted the cherry. The little cherry not only reminds people of its fresh and sweet taste, but also its noble value.

My hometown in Shandong is also rich in cherries, and now they are planted on a large scale with a large output. Now you can eat cherries as much as you want, and eat a lot, but the taste of Yuexi cherries is still in my memory.

▲Wild Fruit King

There is a kind of wild fruit from the deep mountains. I can’t find a picture of this kind of wild fruit. I can’t remember its name, and my brothers and sisters at home can’t remember its name either, so they call it the “King of Wild Fruits”.

Wild Fruit King is very rare, and only when you are lucky can you meet someone selling it on the South Street of the Old City, and the number is very small. Its shape is a bit like broad beans, but thinner, and the color of the outer skin is a rare turquoise. When eating, the outer skin is peeled off like a broad bean, and the inside is a sticky juice like glue, which is licked with the tongue.

The edible part of the wild fruit king is very small, and it seems that there is nothing to eat, but when you peel off the outer skin, the aroma is overwhelming, and the jelly-like juice is extremely sweet, like something out of the sky. . Although it can't be eaten, it is fully qualified to be elected as the "King of Wild Fruits" by virtue of its unparalleled sweetness.

There are a lot of wild fruits in the fields and mountains of Yuexi, the big dragon by the fish pond in the Armed Forces Department that can dye your lips red, the snow-white and fragrant ground fragrance bubbles on the apple grove and grass, and the bright red sour-sweet fruit on the Baita Mountain. The sour persimmon pear, and the goat's milk that can taste milk, too numerous to mention.

Bean paste, sour persimmon pear, Shandajun...these names were passed down by word of mouth at that time, and were not found in the text.

Since I haven't done it myself, the description of the food preparation method may not be accurate, but these do not prevent the pleasure I feel when describing the food, and recall the good old days when I recreated it.

The smoke from the cooking stove and the warm stove always make people feel the warmth of home. Street snacks and fresh fruits on trees always remind people of the scenery of their hometown. No matter how far you go, no matter how long you live, the warmth will always be in your mind, and the scenery will always be in front of you.