Chapter 46 Winter Chowder

When I was young, I spent the few days before the Spring Festival holiday visiting relatives and friends. I was so full of food that I was full of fat, and my face was full of anger.When I was really hungry, I divided the leftovers from the New Year's Eve dinner into red and white chowders and made them into meals. It was delicious.Regarding this dish, there is no fixed name in the local area, and it is generally called chowder.It is common in northern storytelling, for example, the hero Yexue knocks on the door for accommodation, and the grandpa and grandma cook such a stew to deal with it, which is called "Zheluo".

Chowder is delicious, partly because it has a variety of flavors, each showing its own special powers. The principle is actually similar to pickled Duxian, but there is a difference between Yangchun Baixue and Xialibaren.In salted Duxian, bacon, ribs and bamboo shoots are all popular, and the last thing is to pay attention to the purity of the color and the atmosphere of a scholar-bureaucrat.For miscellaneous dishes, the thicker the soup, the better. I wish it could be mixed together, with different colors, and all the ingredients are half-crispy and melted. There is me in you, and you in me.

I eat chowder in restaurants, usually small, homely type establishments with a large party.If two people sit opposite each other on the occasion of the friendship between gentlemen, it seems that it is not appropriate to go out.Probably because this thing is ambiguous and vague, it is not suitable for the occasion of Jintangyuma.Chinese scholar-bureaucrats in ancient times paid attention to the elegance and cleanliness of their dishes, and the soup and water should be clear at a glance, while the chowder usually has the flavor of Hugo statue carved by Rodin, almost half-melted into the mud.But in the words of the French who praised the statue of Hugo, "the closer to the mud, the nobler".The sticky and strong taste of the chowder stimulated the people's appetite even more.

The miscellaneous dishes in Northeast China are very heroic, and the pot is full of ingredients and bulky. It is difficult to return empty-handed after every spoonful and chopsticks.The collocation is gorgeous, blood sausage, vermicelli, potatoes, sauerkraut, frozen tofu and other big men can be added at will, but the ever-changing main theme is large pieces of meat.When eating Northeast stewed dishes, it is difficult to accurately detect the object of one's next chopsticks, and it is difficult to be polite when you stumble into something in the midst of the aroma, swallowing with a forceful momentum.After eating such a meal, the courtesy is abandoned, and non-acquaintances will become acquainted.

Southern food is refined, Cantonese seek the original taste, and Jiangnan people are more refined, occasionally a bit blurred, but the taste is still distinct.When it comes to chowder, Anhui is quite unique.The legendary Zhu Yuanzhang Pearl Jade White Jade Soup seems to be a typical chowder of leftovers.Of course, Anhui cuisine is really delicious, not relying on Zhu Hongwu's shadow.I guess Anhui miscellaneous dishes are excellent. One is that Anhui cuisine is heavily braised in red and fire.According to textual research, half of the thick red sauce in Shanghai cuisine was brought by Huizhou merchants.Braised in soy sauce has a strong flavor, not as clear-cut as boiled in vain, for fear of spoiling the light taste, it is very suitable for the heterogeneous nature of chowder.The second is the many mountain delicacies in Anhui, all kinds of mushrooms, cured meat, flowers and wild fruits, which are good products for fresh seasoning.What's more, Anhui cuisine is traditionally heavy on ham for seasoning.Moreover, miscellaneous dishes are mellow and simple. Compared with other finely prepared ingredients, mountain delicacies are obviously more connected with the aura of heaven and earth, extract the essence of the sun and the moon, and have a more natural boldness.

In my experience, eating chowder is better than eating at restaurants, and eating in cold winter is better than hot summer.Cooking chowder in a restaurant is a bit reserved after all, the ingredients are selected, and the taste is strong, but you have to be in a hurry, and you can't give up your face to be completely inferior, so it is often a bit nondescript, like a drama that each plays its own way and cannot go together .The home-cooked chowder is not so particular, and the color is ugly and no one will pick it. It can be made into a pot of red rice dumplings and served on the table, and then the host and guest enjoy themselves.I like red stew, and I think the wonder of chowder should be that it is hard to distinguish when you eat it, and you can roughly guess its background after chewing, and then impatiently roll up a group of brothers.Ideal chowder, where the broth determines its color.If the soup is light and thin, or if it has a little backbone only by thickening it, it is obviously not ideal, and it will taste dull.The soup is thick and fragrant, semi-solid, when poured on the rice, the lines of the rice grains will be covered immediately, and it is difficult to tell where the fragrance of the soup comes from, it is the top grade.The chowder to this point is a sharp weapon with rice.The beauty of the sauce is beyond the dish itself.

Of course, like all soups and succulents, chowder should not be raw or cold. It is full of passion when it is hot, and frosty when it is cold.Therefore, when eating chowder, you have to start while it is hot. One bite into your mouth, you feel like a hot mouse jumping violently, tears are about to be scalded, and you only have time to chew a few bites, and a hot line goes straight to your stomach.This way, whichever is hot and fragrant, is most suitable for the busy, noisy and joyous atmosphere of eating in winter.