Chapter 30 Night Snack · Spring and Summer

The Dutch bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, slipped from Malacca, which was as narrow as the waist of a beautiful woman, into the Southeast Asian waters, and saw lilacs under the thatched eaves of the Nanyang people: this poetic beginning did not follow the trend. People are in awe of the beauty of oriental mysterious plants.According to the expressionless narration in the history books, the Dutch shipped lilacs in large quantities and used them as seasonings for cooking meat.Such an ending is certainly not to the liking of girls, but it is the truth. To cite this example proves that, for most of the world, food is more important than art.Lilac's experience tells us: diet is not just to meet the needs of the body, food is like beautiful scenery, and it needs to be enjoyable.The Nordic people in the Middle Ages swallowed the tasteless meat with embarrassment. Such a bleak past is in stark contrast to today.The basic function of food is to fill the stomach sac, but greed is not enough, people need to go one step higher on this basis, so there are seasonings, salt, sugar, jams and recipes handed down from generation to generation by chefs. secret recipe.

Reading about cooking meat at midnight is akin to masochism, though I don't appreciate the smell of cloves the way the eighteenth-century Dutch did.Breakfast, lunch and evening meals are the habit of the British people when they were engaged in the industrial revolution. In the Song Dynasty, when material civilization was abundant, the Chinese who did not eat breakfast liked to use midnight as a meal time, and takeaway midnight snacks with silver tableware were popular. .The night of Quanzhou City recorded by Marco Polo also has lanterns, hot spring baths and people who eat at night. However, midnight snacks are not suitable for such grand occasions as night banquets.Night is originally a secret time, the sun is gone, and the stars and the moon are in the sky.When the moon is dark and the wind is high, it is suitable for murder and arson, and when the spring night is soft and warm, it is suitable for flowers under the moon.The sunny and warm spring and summer nights are mellow and sweet wine. As soon as the night falls, Xiaodan also acts boldly, and the taboos of the day are put aside early.In the middle of the night in spring and summer, the dinner has been digested, and the silence outside the window makes people's ears lonely.To borrow a phrase my mother loves to say, it is "I feel that my mouth is too light".Animals that forage for food at night rarely do so to fill their stomachs.There are also excuses to say that you are hungry, but you will never eat a lot of food and find a table of food to make up for it.It is often in the middle of eating that I will blush and admit that I am just hungry.

In fact, being hungry is just a trivial matter. If a person does not sleep in the middle of the night, he will feel lonely.It’s not uncommon to be surrounded by complete silence, but it’s common for people to be too quiet to talk to themselves out loud.Li Bai is such a suave person, he still wants to invite the moon to face each other, and gather the three of them to drink together.Going out in the middle of the night, stepping on the dark light, counting the plush toys, mannequins and globes in the closed supermarket all the way, looking for a place with light to sit down, eating and drinking, I can hear someone nodding, yes, in the kitchen With the sound of cooking and cutting vegetables, the lonely atmosphere was swept away, and the surroundings slowly came alive.

There are very few people who put on a show during the spring and summer snacks, and most of them sneak out to steal a few snacks.The real essence of food in various places cannot be eaten with only three regular meals. Only by walking around the streets in the middle of the night and eating around the corner under the stars can one appreciate it.Famous chefs at the palace level often cannot cook the delicious street snacks, and it is difficult for two or three people to feel at ease when eating snacks in a place full of crowns.The three meals during the day often pay attention to nutrition, hygiene, and matching. At midnight, they often change into another person, like taking off the veil to reveal the true colors of wolves, tigers, and leopards.Spicy, sweet and salty, it is rare to see Zhongzheng's elegant taste in Xiaoye, but it is often fierce and tongue-piercing.The pure and elegant dishes carefully matched and harmoniously coexisted at the dinner stand are inevitably like a scholar meeting a soldier, and the reason is hard to explain.If the mood comes and wine is needed, it should be tempered or pungent or clear, with a mellow taste that can be eaten during the day.So and so, mixed flavors.The midnight snack tastes scattered and graceful, making it too late for people to feel monotonous.

Rain is often a nuisance during the day, but a little rain isn't such a bad thing for late-night snacks in spring and summer.There will be fewer customers and the store will be empty, but there will always be one or two people to talk to you under the bright lights-the girl on the night shift, the boss who is bored, or a friend who came with you.Hiding in the depths of the store and eating the mixed flavors you want, seeing the rain outside is verdant, chatting with idle people or reading an easy-to-digest novel while eating, it is quite a pleasure to steal . In the middle of the spring in the middle of the night, I held an umbrella to satisfy my greed and returned, and I smelled a faint scent of plants on the courtyard wall.Fortunately, I was full, otherwise the smell—summer flowers often have a spicy taste of meat—would only make my hunger worse.The only downside is that it's too dark after all to make out what plant suddenly caught your nose.