Chapter 18 Jealousy

The famous gossip between Li Shimin and the two ministers was all related to jealousy: First, Wei Zheng always put on a goat nose and scolded the emperor with a cold face. He has three cups.Wei Zheng was overjoyed, he spread his fangs and claws to eat them all, sweeping the floor with gentleness.Later, Mrs. Fang Xuanling resolutely resisted the concubine bestowed by the emperor, so Taizong sent a cup of poisoned wine: kill yourself.Mrs. Fang, a staunch supporter of monogamy, drank it, only to find out that it was vinegar—as we all know, the allusion of "jealousy" comes from here. According to Taizong is the jealous emperor, there is a reason for the incident: the army was raised in Shanxi, and the capital was set in Chang'an.Residents of Shanshan and Shanxi love to eat sour food, and Emperor Taizong was no exception.Shanxi is famous for its vinegar, no matter what.In the movie, the old lady frightened the two people: "Where is Shanxi, I heard that you have to drink a bowl of vinegar for a meal there!" Although exaggerated, it more or less represents outsiders' imagination of Shanxi.Shaanxi cuisine has a strong spicy and sour taste, and it is often mixed with garlic and vinegar.As for stewed cat ears and sour soup dumplings, the soups are even more sour.

I have seen two kinds of vinegar celery, one is chopped celery, mixed with vinegar, salt, etc.; the other is eaten in the northwest, but the name does not seem to be vinegar celery.Celery, shredded bamboo shoots, etc. are cooked, it is a soup dish, the soup is hot and sour and clear.The celery is tender and crisp, the shredded bamboo shoots are slightly tough, and the sour soup is tasty, yet light, and quite delicious. Although it is impolite to eat too quickly, it is still worth the price.Thinking about it carefully, the latter one is probably more reliable. No wonder Wei Zheng, a dignified person like Wei Zheng, would spare no expense to eat.

The taste of hot and sour has one thing in common: compared with the gentle taste of salty and sweet, hot and sour is much more unrestrained and provocative, seductive, exciting and fascinating.Although people often lament that the best life is sweet like sugar, don’t spend it with bitterness-spicy is spicy, and bitterness = hot and sour-but hot and sour has more personality than sweet.All kinds of snacks when I was young, less sweet and more sour, such as figs, hawthorn slices and plums.If Cao Cao didn't ask for plums to quench his thirst, but shouted "there are big peaches in the woods ahead", it is estimated that he would only encourage Monkey King.I chatted with my Northwest friends about why they love to eat sour, except for "the ancestors chanted it like this", but in the end it always comes down to: the Northwest has more beef and mutton, more noodles, generous and heavy flavor, not suitable for hot and sour, and it is easy to get tired of eating.It is this bit of sourness that urges everyone to continue to eat gluttonously.So the sourness is not the righteous and strong taste of Guo Jing's Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, but the subtle and evil of Huang Rong's Luoying Excalibur Palm.Xiaojiabiyu is cunning and seductive.In the summer market, there are always some aunts who pay attention to "not too sweet bayberries, but slightly sour ones, but not too sour".

When it comes to vinegar, Shanxi mature vinegar and Zhenjiang vinegar are good at each, but Yuan Mei, who is from Jiangnan, doesn't like Zhenjiang vinegar very much.According to him, vinegar is based on acidity, and Zhenjiang vinegar is too fragrant, which is a bit overwhelming.Thinking about it carefully, in terms of acidity, Zhenjiang vinegar is indeed not as good as Shanxi vinegar.We eat balsamic vinegar here, mainly for flavor, or with shredded ginger as a dipping sauce. When eating meat or crab, the fragrance is more than enough, and the acid is not so strong. There are Taoist home-cooked dishes in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are different versions in different places. In my hometown, it is called "crab powder eggs".It’s nothing more than scrambled eggs, but the magic touch is the addition of some balsamic vinegar and some minced ginger.If stir-fried properly, the tender egg whites will taste like crab meat, and the egg yolk will taste like crab roe, which is actually due to the vinegar and ginger.Use porridge to coax people, and children can eat one more bowl than usual.The attractiveness of vinegar can be seen.

Sauerkraut and sour bamboo shoots are masterpieces of sourness.Sauerkraut is famous all over the world due to the lyrics of Xuecun, coupled with the popularity of Northeast TV dramas, the popularity of sauerkraut pork vermicelli is steep.Fortunately, sauerkraut is diverse, making dumplings, frying, stewing, decathlon.It is used to shabu-shabu, sauerkraut and white meat pot, with fresh oysters as the soup base, it is a divine product.There is pickled cabbage and yellow croaker soup in the south of the Yangtze River. It has a fresh taste and is the most appetizing. It is much more tantalizing than the usual milky white and thick fish soup.People in Guangxi and Guizhou eat rice noodles and often add sour beans and shredded sour bamboo shoots.The originally light and elegant umami taste suddenly became unrestrained and light when the sour taste was mentioned.

Acid can appetizer, but also hangover.Jia Baoyu ran to Aunt Xue's for a drink, and Aunt Xue finally gave him sour bamboo shoots and chicken skin soup.Want to come tender and sour, easy hangover.Song Jiang was caught by Yanshun and wanted to make hot and sour soup to sober up.People's hearts probably have little to do with sobering up, what matters is the word "hot and sour".Later Song Jiang and Dai Zong ate wine and wanted to drink spicy red and white fish soup to sober up.Anyway, after wine and meat, some sour food is not a bad thing.Here in my hometown, a bowl of tomato and egg soup before the feast, and a bowl of sour bamboo shoot soup after the feast are always popular.

When it comes to Taizong making Mrs. Fang jealous, there is actually some ice and snow in it.The sour is slightly pungent, but the taste is good and attractive, which is slightly similar to sweet.Love between men and women is nothing more than this: a little sweet, slightly pungent, and attractive.So drinking vinegar is not a good word, and there are still girls who tend to be sour: there are not many sweet things in the world, and if you don’t be sour, will you let people live?