I know, you must have seen too many Xuancheng food guides.
Who doesn’t know how to write nonsense like “Ah, Xuancheng has beautiful mountains and rivers, and the food is delicious”?
I don't want to write that.
What I intend to write about is, in essence, the specific situation in which human beings are trapped in the dilemma caused by food. Moreover, it is also necessary to explain how food provides a way for humans to be rescued.
Let’s talk about the Three Treasures of Water and Yang first. It’s not the dish, it’s the town.
I have been to that town once. It is located south of the Yangtze River. It has a polder-like landform. Ditches are as dense as blood vessels everywhere. You would think it is as gentle as a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, but in fact it is not like this. You are wrong.
The three treasures of Shuiyang: duck feet buns, duck wings, and dried fragrant spices
Most of the men in Shuiyang work elsewhere, while the women stay at home, raise crabs and make duck-foot buns.
What exactly are duck feet buns? It is a kind of thing where the duck's feet are wrapped around the duck's heart, and then the duck's intestines are tightly wrapped around it. Let it dry in the drying field, and the wind blowing from Shuiyang River will gradually turn it into amber color day after day. When you taste it, bite it hard and you will feel the chewy texture, full salty flavor and chewy texture. So what exactly is it? That is the hand strength possessed by left-behind women, the strength full of love that only looks forward to the return of a man once a year.
The best spring rolls I've ever had, not at a banquet.
There was a place at the entrance of an alley, where an old lady was setting up a small stall. The spring rolls she wrapped were so thin that light could pass through them, and they turned golden after being fried. When you take a bite, there will be a clicking sound - the crispy skin will crack, and the dried shepherd's purse monk inside will be soft and leak out.
The old lady said that she had been doing it for forty years.
Spring Rolls: A Thousand Liang of Gold
I asked her, has your daughter learned?
She shook her head and said, the girl is in Shanghai and will not come back.
The oil pan used to fry the spring rolls made a sizzling sound, and the sound she made was very slight. I suddenly had this idea, why are these spring rolls called Golden Wan Liang? It's not just that it's the color of a gold bar. It's because it wraps all the items in it so they don't fall apart. Just like family.
Maolin paste is the only dish I can't make.
I tried to implement the recipe on the Internet: I chose the chicken soup produced by my mother, simmered the pork leg meat for a long time until it was soft and tender, then carefully tore the meat into shreds, and thickened it with potato starch.
The result is a bowl of paste. Not bad, but not right.
Jingchuan Maolin Paste
Later I learned that Maolin paste was the seventh bowl among the "Twelve Bowls of Maolin". Twelve dishes corresponding to twelve months. Mao Pi paste ranks seventh, neither forward nor backward, neither salty nor bland, thick but not sticky, smooth but not runny. Just like the days of middle-aged people, you must follow it and do not rush it, otherwise it will become lumpy; nor can you stay still, otherwise it will become cold.
Jixi tarts, I can’t even type the word correctly.
Tart? Extension? collapse?
Anyway, this is what people in Jixi call it. There is no oil on the pancake, and it is dry-baked. The filling is in a dry state, the fat is squeezed out, and the skin achieves a crispy effect. It is completely different from the northern pie. The kind in the north will have soup flowing when you take a bite. You need to break it open and eat it in a crispy way.
Jixi tarts
I remember a friend from Jixi said that in the past, all men in their area went out to engage in business activities, while women made tarts at home for men to carry and eat on the road. They were dry, but could be stored and would not spoil.
When she said this, she was working as a senior executive in a foreign company in Shanghai. She was single and had no plans to go back even for the Chinese New Year.
She said that her mother would send me tarts every year, and when I ate them, I would think, this thing is so dry, no wonder they were able to travel so far back then.
Dry pot stew is from Anqing, not Xuancheng.
But it is written on the list of Xuancheng delicacies.
Jixi dry pot stew
Does it feel weird? It's not that weird. Anhui cuisine is originally a cooking method in which various ingredients are stewed in one pot. Use black pig pork belly and dried wild horsetail and put them together in a dry pot, and then bubbles will start to bubble in the pot. The meat is fragrant, the vegetables are tough, and they taste fat but not greasy.
Like people in this place, they travel around and bring back items from outside, and then stew them with the original items at home. Do you think this approach is authentic in a pure sense? In fact, it is not originally obsessed with authenticity. What it pursues is to continue to survive and live a more comfortable and warm life.
Finally, let’s talk about wild geese.
Those nutrition experts will definitely say this. Langxi geese are low in fat, have high protein quality, and have a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids.
I don't say that.
Langxi wild goose
On the day I went to Langxi, there was light rain in the sky. There was an old man who was engaged in raising geese, squatting at the entrance of the tent and smoking a cigarette. These geese, he claimed, were extremely stupid. When it rains, I don't know how to find shelter. I just stand there and let the rain pour on me.
He took a puff of cigarette and said, "Like a human being."
I asked, who is he like?
He didn't answer. He stood up, patted his pants, and went into the shed to feed the geese.
Later I thought that he might be talking about his son going to Zhejiang to work and coming back once a year. Even if it rains, I insist on coming back.
You ask me what Xuancheng smells like?
It’s not the freshness of dried bamboo shoots, the sweetness of tribute dates, or the tenderness of wild geese.
The wind blowing on the duck feet that are being dried is the wind from the Shuiyang River, drying them day by day. The oil pan used to fry the spring rolls belongs to the old lady and has not been extinguished for forty years. The moment when Maolin thickened the soup, if the force was wrong, it would be ruined.
It’s those who don’t come back, and those who can’t.
It's something that's stuck in your throat, stuck in your throat, and you don't know what to say.
If you come to Xuancheng, don't just eat.
You have to listen, listen to the unique crisp sound when the duck feet bun is bitten off, listen to the sound when the spring roll is broken in the mouth, and listen to the silent state of the maolin paste as it slides down the throat.
That is the real Xuancheng.
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