Chapter 107 Nanjing Chila

Nanjing is a strange city in my life. I only know that it is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and there is a bird clothing alley that poets are fond of; other things I don’t remember clearly.I didn't connect it with the Jiangnan water town, and I still set it at a higher level. During the May 1st period, I went to Nanjing for business, but it was far from my imagination.Especially through the guide and introduction of Nanjing literary friend Gu Xin, my memory is full of words and pictures.That meal made me remember Nanjing Chila deeply, and the lingering fragrance in my mouth is still flying in my memory.

According to the saying in Changsha, I am a typical "gourmet ghost". Every time I go to a place, I have to ask my friends about the local famous dishes and snacks. .In fact, I am not a gourmand, but a traveler who likes to find delicious food. It is also a habit of mine in the past few years. Because I am on business trips all the year round, I don’t have any hobbies, so I have to take it as my duty to find delicious food. In addition, Looking for a healthy food to comfort my unsatisfied stomach.In this way, friends who are familiar with me will take the initiative to introduce me to local delicacies.Like Gu Xin, who has read some of my food essays, of course he will arrange for me to taste Nanjing’s food!

Gu Xin set the location in an alley next to Nanjing University. I can't remember the name. The restaurant is quite big. When we went, it was already full of guests, so we managed to find a table for three in the corner.Gu Xin ordered a few famous Nanjing dishes, and Nanjing Chi La is one of them. Strictly speaking, chi la is not a dish, but a kind of rice made of lump rice soaked in soup. According to Hunan cuisine, it is only a delicacy at most. Chila's rice bubbles are like sesame candy, a new year's item in the countryside of Hunan, about 4 centimeters wide, 10 centimeters long and less than 1 centimeter thick.But pour the soup on it and soak it.Chi la soup is a special kind of soup, which is light milky white, made with ham slices, fungus and other seasonings, and has less oil.Gu Xin also said that this is a health food. After soaking rice bubbles in boiling water, it will become very slippery, easy to eat, and easy to digest, especially for middle-aged and elderly people with stomach problems, whose digestive function is not very strong. It is good to eat some Chila properly.In addition, the nutrition of Nanjing Chila is also good, no less than that of fish.

It is said that the appearance of Chi La is also a kind of accident.After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, established his capital in Nanjing, he was busy with government affairs and didn't think about eating. Another theory is that Zhu Yuanzhang suffered from stomach problems and couldn't eat other foods.One of his imperial cooks invented Chila in order to cook him delicious food. Before he even named it, he hurriedly gave it to Zhu Yuanzhang to taste. Zhu Yuanzhang had never seen this dish before, so he asked the imperial chef for the name of the dish. The imperial chef happened to be busy. Pour the soup on the rice bubble and make a "chi la" sound. The imperial chef immediately responded and said: "chi la!" Since then, Nanjing chi la has been handed down and become a famous food in Beijing.

However, there are two ways to eat Chila: one is to pour the soup on the hot rice puff, let the rice puff up and eat it; the other is to soak the hot rice puff in the soup, after soaking eat again. If I want to eat the original flavor, I ask the waiter to make it on the spot.The waiter holds the red-hot iron plate in one hand (the hot rice is soaked in the iron plate), and the prepared fresh soup in the other hand, first puts the iron plate in the middle of the table, and then lifts the soup about a foot away from the iron plate , pouring around the rice bubble, the rice bubble immediately made a squeak, and then a burst of heat steamed up, and the smell of popcorn permeated around us.Smelling it again, the fragrance is not greasy, crisp and pure, a little sweet, and has the function of increasing appetite.

I took a piece and ate it in my mouth, it was not crispy anymore, it was soft, no need to chew, and it was very smooth.I immediately fell in love with the taste of Nanjing Chila, especially for my stomach.Later, I served a few famous dishes and tasted them. When I come to eat Nanjing Chila again, the taste is quite different. It has a salty and sweet taste, which is very attractive, and the Chila has been soaked very soft. Not only did it not fall apart, but it can also be swayed when clamped on the chopsticks. It is very elastic. When it is placed in the mouth, the soup quickly slides down the throat and enters the stomach like a loach.I simply poured out the contents of the bowl, filled a bowl of Nanjing Chila, and drank Chila soup while eating Chila, just like drinking salty eight-treasure porridge, which is very humane.At that meal, I was very full, but I didn't feel my stomach was bloated, and I didn't feel uncomfortable like eating crude fiber food.

I really want to know more about Nanjing Chila, but I left Nanjing that afternoon, and the rest had to be recollected and pondered during the car trip.