Chapter 19 Dongyang Chicken

Sometimes I think that where there are cultural people, it must be famous for food.In other words, many famous foods are related to cultural people, such as the elbow that Beijingers like to eat, the dish is called Dongpo elbow.As far as I know, there is another kind of fried food named Dongpo cake in Chibi, Huangzhou, where Mr. Dongpo wrote "The great river goes east, and the waves wash away". As for these foods, Mr. Dongpo liked to eat them back then As such, it cannot be verified.The rice wine brewed by the people in Fangxian County, Hubei Province is also very interesting. It is actually called Huangjiu.When I first went there, I always thought they were talking about rice wine, because rice wine can be regarded as a general name for rice wine. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang all drink rice wine.When I found out that they called their own wine imperial wine, I was very surprised: Can imperial wine be called casually?After inquiring clearly, I realized that the name of the imperial wine was not groundless. It turned out that this wine was not brewed by the common people, but was brought from the palace when Wu Zetian's son-in-law King Li Ling was dispatched to Fang County. There was also a set of red tape wine regulations. One hundred and sixty articles.

Of course, Dongyang has been a literati since ancient times. Historically, there were prime ministers in Tang and Song dynasties, such as Zhu Xi and Lu You, who traveled and stayed in Dongyang. The contemporary university scholar Yan Jici is from Dongyang.It is said that Dongyang City has as many as a thousand professor-level literati scattered at home and abroad, and it is really a hometown of literati.Then, it is not surprising if Dongyang is famous for its food.Dongyang's famous food, I thought Dongyang chicken was the most popular. Before the National Day in 1995, I went to Hangzhou, and it happened that Mr. Li Tusheng, a Dongyang native Yi scholar, kindly invited me to visit his hometown Dongyang, and I went there with pleasure.

Mr. Li Tusheng has been studying "Book of Changes" for more than 20 years, and he has achieved positive results. He asked him for advice along the way, and jokingly asked him to test the hexagrams, but he was a little bit accurate. I said it would be better if I went to stock market. Come to help me predict, Mr. Li said seriously: No, this is absolutely impossible.In fact, this is also a joke. How can I stop writing and speculate in stocks?Talking and laughing all the way, we arrived in Dongyang.Mr. Li's home is in Xianshan Village, Shanglu Town, Dongyang. It is about an hour's drive from Dongyang City. The car is galloping along the beautiful Dongyang River. The village, the relatively novel scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, I just feel that I can't see it.Soon, they arrived at the home of Mr. Li Tusheng.The name of the village of Xianshan is well-deserved. Behind the village, there is Longtou Mountain on the left and Hutou Mountain on the right. From the perspective of Fengshui, it is the one with the green dragon on the left and the white tiger on the right. I live in Mr. Li Tusheng's house.It was dusk at that time, and I was quite tired all the way. I ate a bowl of "dried rice noodles" under shredded pork, which is also a local specialty. After washing, I fell asleep and didn't get up until nine o'clock in the morning the next day.Coming down from upstairs, I saw Mr. Li Tusheng, his respected mother, directing everyone to move water tanks and make briquette stoves.I suddenly had doubts, so mobilizing teachers and mobilizing people, it is not because of me, right?I immediately asked Mr. Li Tusheng: Teacher Li, please don’t worry about me, I’m so sorry.Mr. Li Tusheng smiled and said: It is not possible to do otherwise.I said: why not?Mr. Li Tusheng said: You don't care, wait for us to come back to eat.I was still puzzled, and asked again: Isn't your home already burning liquefied petroleum gas, why do you need a raw coal stove?Mr. Li Tusheng said: This is very particular, if you are interested, just watch and do it.

I just watched, they are making a kind of chicken, Dongyang chicken.I asked, this method is called Baibuxiang. I think it is better to call it Dongyang Chicken. They have Dezhou Braised Chicken and Daokou Roasted Chicken, which have become famous products.Making Dongyang chicken is cumbersome: a Dongyang native chicken weighing about two catties, equal pork belly, cut into pieces and put them in a casserole, put about half a catty of ginger, garlic, soybean soy sauce, and homemade sink Mix rice wine with it, and add fresh water from the well.I thought this could be simmered on a coal stove?no.First, sit a large iron pot on the stove, place four red bricks on the pot, put a small water tank on the bricks, put another red brick in the water tank, and then put the chicken and pork casserole Put it in the water tank.Then, put a water tank upside down on the water tank, and the whole process is declared complete.

Mr. Li Tusheng told me: Don't even think about eating at noon, you have to wait until evening, at least eight hours. My goodness, this chicken is not boiled, steamed, stewed, or grilled. It is baked by the temperature in the water tank, and the water tank is not directly exposed to the heat source. This is the real slow fire!In the end, I ate it all over the north and south. This is the first time I have encountered it. Even the beggar chicken in Suzhou is wrapped in mud and burned on the fire. This is a very creative idea. Mr. Li Tusheng and I went to the mountain for a walk. It was foggy all day long on the top of the mountain. There was a reservoir in the middle of the mountain. On the side of the mountain was a piece of stone that was said to be a fairy stone. Judging from my shallow geological knowledge, this piece of rock structure was similar to the rock structure on the mountain. A completely different lone rock, most likely a meteorite that fell from the sky.According to Mr. Li Tusheng, it has been passed down from generation to generation by the elders that a fairy accidentally dropped a piece of stone when passing by here from the sky, and it has taken root on this mountain since then. Doesn’t this legend also mean that it is a meteorite?

The banquet in the evening was sumptuous, with Dongyang chicken being the main subject, a dish cooked over fire without seeing it, which lasted eight hours.This smell is really rare, so I quickly put out the cigarette, took out my own toiletries, went outside the door to rinse my mouth, washed away the smell of smoking and drinking tea, and then sat down on the table properly. The taste is really extraordinary. Dongyang chicken is not tender, not old, but not rotten. It has an excellent taste.After tasting a piece, the mellow aroma remains in the mouth for a long time, with a lingering flavor.The soup with golden oil flowers also looks mellow.However, Mr. Li Tusheng said: The real chicken flavor is in the pork.So, I picked up a piece of pork belly and ate it. The pork was soft and smooth, not greasy, and it was full of the fragrance of chicken.That's it, drinking the sinking rice wine brewed by Mr. Li Tusheng's respected mother, tasting Dongyang chicken, and talking about Dongyang's folk customs, until the moon reached the sky.With delicious food, time flies fast, and the sinking rice wine is not on the top, and I feel a little fluttering after drinking too much.

Come to think of it, Dongyang's famous food is wheat dumplings.Mr. Li Tusheng and I went to Shanglu Town to eat wheat dumplings.Shanglu Town is an ancient town with a river running through it, and white geese and croaking ducks floating on the water.As usual, there are women squatting by the water to wash clothes.There are various businesses in the town, mostly selling local products, some selling incense candles and straw paper, some selling small persimmons and wild ducks, some selling lotus seeds, water chestnut, chicken head rice and water chestnuts, and some wearing old neat Chinese tunic suits with two pens in their pockets. The old-fashioned scholar who set up a stall and used a brush to hang books to write couplets for others... In short, the town was bustling with people, and the town was very lively.We came to a stall selling wheat dumplings. There were also women in side skirts and pointed hats, as well as very modern young girls. We sat among them and ate wheat dumplings.Wheat dumplings are fried in a flat-bottomed pan, with a flat shovel, mixed with eggs and flour, wrapped with diced lotus root, dried fragrant, green beans, diced meat, vermicelli, red pepper skin, etc., folded into triangles, and fried on the pan until it turns yellow. It is similar to the bean curd in Wuhan, except that the bean curd is mainly filled with glutinous rice, while the wheat dumplings are not.The Mai Dumplings are delicious, and I even think I prefer these fast-food-style Mai Dumplings to Hangzhou's xiao long baozi.

I went to Dongyang to eat Dongyang chicken, wheat dumplings and other Dongyang specialties. I think Dongyang’s food culture is very developed. I am even sure that the method of making Dongyang chicken must have been invented by literati. Think about other people in the industry or Common people, how can it take such a cumbersome process and such a long time to make a dish?