In fact, sometimes I wonder, do we really understand "eating"?
It’s not the kind of food you eat to fill your stomach.
It's the kind that, when you take a bite, you will suddenly understand why the people on this land live like this.
Eight major cuisines. Those four words sound like a museum display cabinet.
Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui. I can recite it, but what kind of relationship does this have with me?
Today we won’t talk about such a big word as cultural inheritance.
Just talk about the imperfect and even embarrassing truths about the world hidden in the dishes.
Lu Cai: Like a silent parent
The oldest and most complex technique.
But in your daily life, you can hardly feel its existence.
Just like the father at home, he talks very little, but he sets all the rules.
That bowl of milk soup with pucai is so refreshing and refreshing. You might think it’s bland, but it’s all about hard work.
It doesn't need to be praised, it's just there, supporting the bottom.
Sichuan cuisine: Our “pleasant personality”
Many people think of Sichuan food as spicy.
Actually? Eighty percent of Sichuan food is not spicy.
The fish-flavored shredded pork had no fish, and the couple's lung slices had no husband and wife.
It is particularly good at making the most common ingredients come alive with the most intense seasonings.
Isn't this just like us, in order to make a living, we desperately try our best to add various dramas to ourselves, showing a lively scene on the surface, but in the heart, the unique freshness (like a hundred dishes and a hundred flavors) is only understood in one's heart.
Cantonese Cuisine: Refined Egoist?
Authentic.
If the chicken is cut into pieces, the bones are still bloody, so you have to eat the "freshness".
Very pure. If the ingredients are good, I won’t play tricks on you.
Some people say it’s shrewdness, while others say it’s living a transparent life.
Look at the claypot rice, cooked slowly over low heat, and the layer of crispy rice at the bottom is the soul of the meal. Don't be in a hurry, take your time.
Su Cai: Elegant sense of fragmentation
Lion head. To make it fat and thin, it needs to be simmered in a casserole for several hours.
Melts in your mouth.
But that kind of transformation is not a softness, but a gentleness that has been tempered for thousands of times.
Just like a person who has experienced the roaring wind and huge waves, his voice is soft and delicate when he finally talks to you, but you always feel that there is something hidden in his heart.
The dish called "Squirrel Mandarin Fish" is so beautifully fried that it squeaks when marinated on it.
The excitement is for outsiders to see, but the sweetness and sourness inside belongs to you.
Fujian cuisine: nostalgia in the sea breeze
Buddha jumps over the wall.
What a great name. The altar was opened and the fragrance of meat floated around. The Buddha heard that he had abandoned his Zen and jumped over the wall.
All the delicacies from the mountains and seas are sealed in a jar and simmered slowly.
Does this look like those people who went to Nanyang?
All the longings, all the unwillingness, and all the dreams were kept in my heart. After years of accumulation, they finally turned into a bowl of thick, inexplicable soup.
One soup changes ten times. In fact, it is not the soup that changes, but the days.
Zhejiang cuisine: textbook perfection
West Lake Fish With Vinegar Sauce.
Grass carp needs to be starved for several days to get rid of the muddy smell.
The thickening should be just right, and the juice should be as bright as glass.
It’s too standard, as standard as the life we post on our friends circle.
Exquisite, good-looking, can't fault it.
But I always felt like something was missing. The smoke and smoke that makes people frown is missing.
Hunan Cuisine: Emotions given directly
It's just spicy.
It's not spicy like Sichuan cuisine, it's the straight-forward, pure kind of spicy.
The chopped pepper fish head was served, it was so red that it made me sweat just looking at it.
Are Hunanese people hot-tempered? I don't think so.
It's so real. If you like it, you just like it, if you hate it, you just hate it, don't hide it.
It's like the bacon they have has been smoked and burned before it has that unique, pungent aroma.
Anhui Cuisine: Misunderstood simplicity
Stinky mandarin fish.
The name doesn't sound good, and the smell doesn't sound good either.
But when you bite into it, the meat is firm and tender.
Many things in this world are like this.
It doesn't look like anything special, and it doesn't smell very appealing. However, as long as you are willing to take a bite, you will find that there is a whole new world hidden in it.
Those Anhui merchants, traveling all over the world, may be thinking about this "stinky" thing most often. It is a unique taste originating from home. In the eyes of others, it may seem strange, but they themselves love it and regard it as delicious.
After writing this, I suddenly realized.
What we eat is not an ordinary dish. Some of it is the landscape of that particular place, some of it is the way people spend their days there, and some of it is the kind of reconciliation they have reached with the world over the long years.
Next time you order food, don’t just take photos.
Try to taste the temper and helplessness of that place.
After all, the so-called food, in the end, is about life.
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