Chapter 7 Nanjing people

I have a friend who has visited the food in Beijing all over the world. He called me today and said that you must come and eat your Nanjing food.According to his instructions, I came to Chaowai Street, and I saw the signboard of "Nanjing Renjia".Next to it was actually a wedding photography shop.I am not Mr. Feng Shui.But I still associate it subconsciously: Look at the position chosen by others, there is wedding wine every day, which satisfies both the taste and the eyes. To be honest, the words "Nanjing people" still plucked my heartstrings.My friend Zhang Chu from Xi'an wrote a few classic lyrics in Beijing: "A person from Chang'an, walking on Chang'an Street..." As a native of Nanjing, I never expected to be able to eat Nanjing food in Beijing.Based on my memory of moving here for more than ten years, this is really the first time I have encountered a restaurant that directly uses Nanjing as its signboard.Strictly speaking, Nanjing cuisine is somewhat different from the Huaiyang cuisine or Jiangsu-Zhejiang cuisine that has been flooded.It is the essence of the essence, dyed with the thick and insoluble Six Dynasties gold powder, rich and fragrant.Although Nanjing is not very popular for the extravagant Man-Han Banquet, as an ancient capital, it is still "competitive" with Beijing; Qinhuai snacks are small and small, but they have always been good at four or two. After all, it has nurtured Mo Chou, Li Xiangjun (representative of Qinhuai Bayan) and even Jinling Twelve Beauties.The food in Nanjing is typically suitable for the taste of beauties.Of course, even if you are a hero, I am afraid you will not refuse to have one or two Jinling Spring Dreams of warm and fragrant nephrite.

As a native of Nanjing, I am still very proud of my hometown, no matter its history, its culture, or its food.It is a place where you can live delicately and relax.Beautiful scenery, beauties, food, it's all there.I haven't heard anyone say that I have been to Nanjing and regretted it.I hope that the "Nanjing Family" located outside Chaoyang Gate in Beijing can also do the same.After all, Beijing's material life has many thick and hard lines, so it is necessary to add some curves or arcs.Really good steel should be soft around your fingers. When I walked in, a table of friends was already waiting for me in a garden-style box: the boss is also from Nanjing, so he came to say hello.My attitude towards the local accent is average (I don’t have the feeling of “two teary eyes”), but the set of cold dishes made me think of perch: Malan head mixed with dried fragrant, fragrant rice lotus root, ground vegetables, female wolfberry head, chrysanthemum Brain, shepherd's purse... If eating Nanjing cuisine in Beijing is enough to surprise me, I never expected to encounter so many varieties of wild vegetables in my hometown.In my impression, in the era of Zhou Zuoren, the wild vegetables in the south of the Yangtze River were pampered and unacceptable to the soil and water in the north; but today, why do they appear thousands of miles away like me?The boss hurriedly explained: This is a long-distance consignment from Nanjing every day.

I have always felt that the so-called Jinling Chunmeng is based on these wild vegetables that were hard to find elsewhere.In Nanjing, wild vegetables not only do not look poor, but are very characteristic lace, and their status has always been high.Nanjing people are probably the first to understand the concept of "green food" from their bones.Not to mention that certain wild vegetables are definitely Nanjing specialties. Even if they are the same variety, the taste of those grown elsewhere will be very different from those grown in Nanjing; we can only say that the soil and water in Nanjing are good.This is true not only for plants, but also for people. There was a saying in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: In Nanjing, even the servants and bartenders have the smoke and water of the Six Dynasties.I think this kind of smoky water has deeply infiltrated the soul of wild vegetables, or the soul of people.

I can't remember where Li Shizhen is from and where he wrote it.But Yuan Mei, the great poet, was indeed written in Nanjing.The wild vegetables in Nanjing make his heart extra wild. When a fried stinky dried artemisia was served, I took a chopstick and chewed carefully, speechless for a long time.Alas, I really chewed out the taste of the Yangtze River water.This kind of aquatic plant can only grow on the water surface of the section of the Yangtze River that flows through Nanjing.You could say its roots are flirtatious, but also stubborn.Am I not the same?Even though I have tasted all kinds of cuisines in the east, west, north and south, I have never found anything more delicious, satisfying, and satisfying than the food in my hometown.I believe that until tonight, my spiritual roots are still lurking in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, unable to extricate myself.

Cao Xueqin is a native of Beijing, but he lived in the Jiangnan Weaving Department near Hanfu Street in Nanjing when he was young.I suspect that what he wrote at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain was actually set against the background of the days when the bells were ringing and the feast was in Nanjing.His youth in Beijing was very poor.But this does not prevent him from curling up in a farmhouse in Huangye Village in the western suburbs, reliving the distant spring dream of Jinling.Otherwise, why would he name the girls he secretly loves "Jinling Twelve Beauties"?It is not only a book of love, but also a book of food.The crab poetry meeting and many delicacies described there have a strong Jiangnan flavor. I hope that it is the craftsmanship of a certain Nanjing chef, and it will be an indelible memory for Cao Xueqin.

Regardless of whether the Grand View Garden in Cao Xueqin's dream is in Nanjing or Beijing, I should wish that the "Nanjing Renjia" opened by my hometown will become a gourmet Grand View Garden in Beijing-this is true.To put it bluntly, as long as there are beautiful scenery, beauties, and delicious food, anywhere can be counted as a Grand View Garden.I might as well write a "beautiful article" on it after drinking the perfect wine (authentic Huadiao), which can be regarded as "paying the bill" emotionally.