Chapter 33 Three outstanding autumn fruits: walnuts, chestnuts, persimmons

In a supermarket in the United States, I saw a small alloy clip like a compass, with six long small machetes attached, finely carved and beautiful in style, I couldn't guess its purpose.The child told me: "It is an American custom that when Christmas comes, when guests come, they celebrate with walnuts in shell. With this kind of knife clip, you can pick off the shell and eat the walnut kernels." In the early years of China, melon seeds were eaten, and the beautiful women in the boudoir were afraid that their white teeth would be hurt, so they used a kind of melon seeds to eat, and the walnut crackers were unprecedented.At the same time, I thought that although Chinese people do not have the habit of eating walnuts, it would be wonderful to wait until the Dongli crab is fat and use it as a tool for holding pincers and appreciating chrysanthemums.

Walnut is a kind of mountain product, so it is also called pecan.According to people who have experience in planting walnut trees: "Walnuts are produced in Zhi, Shandong, Jin, Henan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces. There is also a kind of hemp walnut, which has firm skin, wrinkled, more meat, and is specially recommended for viewing and kneading activities for the elderly." Wrist use." Small hickory nuts are only one-half or one-third the size of ordinary walnuts. In addition to being for people to watch, because the walnut shell is hard and tough, it is easy to use knives, so pairs of small hickory nuts are regarded by sculptors as For treasures.Another kind of walnut is dark brown, with tight and thin flesh, slightly astringent and sweet. Some people call it fragrant walnut, which is a delicious food.There is a kind of sand walnut in Hangzhou, which has thin skin and crispy meat. It is similar to torreya, and it is a leisure snack in the boudoir.Most of the walnut trees grow in the mountains and valleys, and most people in the city have never seen what a walnut tree looks like.At that time, there was a walnut tree under Beiping She, which was more than Xun Zhang high. It was fruity in early autumn. Dirty clothes are stained with water, and it will not fade for a long time, so the old dyeing workshops use it as a dyeing agent.Crows like to eat fresh walnuts the most. As soon as the walnuts are ripe, they twist off the green-skinned fruits and carry them to a hidden place and bury them in the soil. When the skins are rotten, they turn out the walnuts and use their steel beaks to peck the shells and eat them. Meat.Everyone calls the stupid old crow, but it is actually much more dexterous than ordinary birds when it comes to eating walnuts!In Shichahai in Beiping summer, there is a delicacy called "Hexianer" for drinking. Except for water chestnut, fresh lotus, chicken head rice, and tender lotus root, all of which are Hexianer from Shichahai, the rest are hazelnuts, almonds, and fresh walnuts. It is an indispensable material in ice bowls, and fresh walnuts are especially indispensable as a main dish.No other restaurant can compare to the ice bowls that Huijuzhang used to cool off the heat back then, that is, the fresh walnut kernels of his family came in batches from the walnut orchard and sold alone.

There is a kind of mountain product house in Peking, such as walnuts, chestnuts, red dates, hawthorn, etc., all belong to the scope of mountain product trading.When the harvest season came, villagers from the four townships and eight towns sent whole baskets to Shanhuo House for sale.After being carefully selected and sorted by the Shanhuo shop, they are sold to the dried fruit shop, and the price is quite different.The walnut sticks made by the dried fruit shop were the most popular in those days. For birthday celebrations, four dried, four fresh, and four candied fruits were emphasized, and walnut sticks were indispensable.In fact, the sticky walnuts are pure white and flawless, and they look good in a fruit dish. When it comes to deliciousness, they are far less delicious than fried walnut kernels, which are crispy and delicious.

There is a dish called "Walnut Kidney" in Chunhua Building, Beiping. It seems that there are not many.Recently, there are more and more restaurants in various provinces in Taipei City. In order to compete in business, they all try their best to renovate and add some dishes.Two days ago, I ate "walnut cheese" in a newly opened restaurant. The color is light yellow and almost brown. Taiwan’s walnut cheese, although the walnut cheese is mainly made of walnuts, but the date paste is an indispensable main ingredient, of course the walnuts must be ground very finely, and the dates are carefully peeled and the weight of the date paste is also the most important thing for making walnut cheese one ring.For jujubes, use "Xiaohongpao", whichever has jujube meat is plump and jujubes have a soft fragrance. After the two are mixed with water and mashed into juice, they should be mixed evenly, not thin or thick, and sugar should not be too much, so as not to reduce the aroma due to being too sweet. It is said that this dish was passed down from the family of Yang Lianfu, who was famous for his delicious food.Although Taiwanese walnuts are not rare, red dates are extremely difficult to get here. This kind of real walnut cheese can only be eaten in the north.

Chestnuts are also deciduous trees. They mature after the first frost, and their shells are as prickly as hedgehog hairs. There are single, double, and multi-petal fruits in a bud. The more petals, the smoother the fruit, the easier it is to peel, and the higher the sugar content.Most of the chestnuts eaten in Taiwan today are produced in South Korea. South Korea did not produce chestnuts originally, but they were brought back from China by Korean tribute envoys in the early Ming Dynasty to breed them.The Japanese have a preference for chestnuts, and there are many types of cakes made by Zhou Lizi. Their chestnuts were transplanted by Mr. Zhu Shunshui, a great Confucian in the Ming Dynasty, when he went to the East to give lectures. The yokan here is made with chestnut powder as the main raw material.

Examination of various ancient books shows that in the early Tang Dynasty in our country, we knew to use yellow chestnut when we wished to recommend new ones.It is said that chestnuts are the earliest to mature in autumn, and the harvest of chestnuts is bound to be great in the year, so it is used to announce the temple as a sign of auspiciousness.Lu Jiannan, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, was famous for his love of chestnuts. Every morning when he went to court, he always kept a bag of cooked chestnuts hidden in his sleeve. He peeled and ate them as he walked. up.In the 20th year of the Republic of China, I served in public office in Hankou. At that time, Mr. Xie Enlong, deputy director of the Bureau of Statistics and Taxation, was very free and easy-going, easy-going, informal, and he always walked to the public office every morning. Peeling, sometimes when I come from the opposite side with a freshly baked sweet potato, he thinks I am the same.One day we were walking and chatting, and he suddenly asked me, he didn't sign Mu Nan, but if you know the source, I was passed by him at the time.He later said that Lu Jiannan was addicted to chestnuts, and once the candied chestnuts were on the market, he would eat half a catty of them every day, and they would not stop until they were out of the market.He has the same hobbies as Fang Weng, that's why Mu Nan was chosen as a separate agency.From this conversation, I realized that Lu Fangweng is actually a fellow who loves to eat chestnuts!

Chestnuts are also a kind of fruit produced in the mountains in the north, and chestnut trees are planted all over the mountains and plains in the Xishan area of ​​Beiping.Southerners call chestnuts "chestnuts", and all the sellers of fried chestnuts in sugar in the Yangtze River area call for Liangxiang fried chestnuts in sugar.People who were born in the north, nine out of ten, don't know how famous the chestnuts in Liangxiang are.One year, the author went to Zhuozhou on a business trip, passed by Liangxiang, and learned from a local gentry that the chestnuts produced in Dongdawa in Liangxiang have five buds per bud, which are small and sweet.A failed candidate returned to the south, passed by Liangxiang, brought a lot of chestnuts back, and started selling sugar-fried chestnuts with Shutong in Pudong, Shanghai. Since then, the business has become more and more prosperous.Because he bought his chestnuts from Liangxiang, he used Liangxiang chestnuts as a market recruit. From then on, everyone followed suit and called for Liangxiang chestnuts."Tongsanyi" outside the Qianmen of Beiping is the largest dried fruit shop in Beiping. According to their shopkeeper, they have to buy at least 20,000 catties of chestnuts in their cabinets in one autumn to meet the needs of sugar-fried chestnuts.Store sales are always in batches of five or six hundred catties, and the goods are purchased from the Shanhuo House. They have never been purchased in Liangxiang, and no merchants in Liangxiang have come to sell them on the counter. Probably all the chestnuts produced in Liangxiang have been shipped to the south.

Beiping sugar-fried chestnuts belong to the unique business of dried fruit shops. In the early years of Beiping, everyone had a kind of business ethics, and it was despised by everyone to do business in advance.It's not like doing business now, as long as there is a line of business that makes money, everyone will rush to follow it like a swarm, and they will not stop until the stinky street.In fact, sugar-fried chestnuts also have some tricks, not just anyone can do it.First of all, the fuel used to stir-fry chestnuts with sugar is not charcoal or firewood, but the waste reed mats removed from the ceiling. According to the person in the dried fruit shop: "The waste reed mats are flammable, the fire is strong and the smoke is less, and there is no smoke to burn the seeds." Roasting chestnuts The sand used is preferably old sand. If you use new sand and add more sugar, it will be completely absorbed by the sand, and the chestnuts will not be sweet enough, so the used sand for the dried fruit shop should be reserved for the first time. Use it in two years.Stir-frying sugar and chestnuts is a hard work. You must use a strong man with a strong hand, and you must have a long-lasting, ten-pound shovel. Infuse the syrup to get it just right.At the end of the year, it will be popular, and it is necessary to give the speculators a spot, and even the little Liba who helps to light the fire has to be embellished!Stir-fried chestnuts in sugar must be fried manually, so that they feel soft, fragrant and glutinous, and taste like sugar.Back then, there was a pastry shop called "Bin Lai Xiang" near Xidan archway in Beiping. Seeing that Yu Gaozi shop next door was making money, he wanted to sell sugar-fried chestnuts, but he was afraid that others would laugh at him and run away to do business, so he Use a blender to stir-fry (roughly the same pot as the current stir-fried pork floss) to show the difference and prevent others from gossiping.At the beginning, everyone looked at the freshness, and bought a half-pound to taste it. After eating it, it felt that it was not as soft and delicious as artificially fried, and the sugar content was uneven. It disappeared in the second year.

In the past, there was a chestnut king Xinfaxing in Shanghai. Every year, sugar-fried chestnuts went on the market, and some wealthy people often bought them and took them to Nanjing to give away.One year, Li Ruijiu and I passed by the gate of Xinfaxing. The boss Hu Asi took us in to eat candied chestnuts. Yes, what's so strange, who knows that after eating, the fragrance is like osmanthus, and the fragrance remains on the teeth and cheeks. It really has a special taste. Hu Asi said that he accompanied his friends to Hangzhou to visit the West Lake a few days ago, and happened to catch up with Wangzhuang to pick osmanthus and chestnuts. , He brought back twenty or thirty catties, fried them and ate them, and the aftertaste was sweet-scented osmanthus.When drinking Zhuyeqing, use it to accompany wine, the aroma is stronger, so I am reluctant to sell it, so I stay and taste it slowly.The scent of osmanthus seeds is just when the chestnuts are fruitful, giving birth to fragrance and elegance, and the natural soft fragrance is tangy to the nostrils.

Before the Anti-Japanese War, there were aristocratic families in the old capital, and there were some sons and sons who were idle all day, eating, drinking and having fun. Someone gave them a common nickname, "Eight Young Masters", and one of them, Yin Da, was even more tricky and weird.When he eats candied chestnuts, he has to pick the dried fruit shop in Luxi that faces east. He said that autumn is cool and the wind blows from the northwest. The sugar is delicious, and it is fried against the northwest wind. The fire is flickering, of course it will not be just right.At first everyone thought he was just talking, but one day the servant was lazy and didn't go to Zeng Shengyong on the west side of Xidan archway to buy it, but bought it from Jushengde on the east side of the road.He peeled one and tasted it, and immediately realized that it was not from Lucy's Dried Fruit Shop. From then on, everyone called him "The King of Chestnuts", and he never doubted it.

According to some old Beiping: "Since Mr. Zhu Shunshui in the Ming Dynasty traveled eastward and spread Chinese cultural relics to the three islands of cherry blossoms, the Japanese were very interested in chestnuts, so chestnut products were passed on to them one after another. Now Japanese yokan and chestnut cakes , The chestnut sugar was left by Mr. Zhu." Li Xuchang, a fortune teller, loved chestnuts most during his lifetime. The author was in Shanghai one year, and he invited me to Feida pastry shop on Xiafei Road for afternoon tea.Feida's chestnut cake with whipped cream was considered the most fashionable and expensive pastry in Shanghai at that time.Celebrities Li Zufa and Tang Ying's couple also think it is a good after-dinner snack.After I tasted it, although the chestnuts are pine and beautiful, the spice is too strong, which has lost the original flavor. Everyone praises it, and I don't want to spoil the scenery too much.Later, when Xuchang came from the north, I invited him to eat butter chestnut noodles at Xieying Western Restaurant. It was sweet but not greasy, delicate and moist. Those who came from Nanyou and North to taste it all called it a delicacy.Although I have eaten chestnut cake a few times since I came to Taiwan, it was either too sweet or greasy in the mouth.One time I bought a cake at Meijiamei. I thought it tasted good except for being slightly sweet. I put the unfinished cake in the freezer and ate it the next day. I was pregnant with the frozen fruit, which tasted like ice. Don't have a flavor.You can’t eat butter chestnut noodles here, so using this as a food substitute can also satisfy your cravings. Those who are addicted may wish to try it.Peel off the hard shells of the endless sugar-fried chestnuts, and dry them for three to five days before eating, and the sweetness will also increase.Famous doctor Yang Haoru said: "Elderly people can also suppress wind-fire cough after eating it." Therefore, as long as Xianci had fried chestnuts with sugar, he always peeled a few and put them in a small porcelain jar by the bedside to suppress coughs at night.Now the sea and the sky are far away, the tomb has been arched early, and there is no way to worship. When I think of the scene of peeling chestnuts with my attendants in the past, my eyes are always dizzy and my nose is sour, and I feel sad. Among the fruits, the author prefers persimmons. The origin of persimmons is the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan in the Yellow River Basin. Not only are the yields abundant, but the quality is also good. Persimmons are still produced, but the further south they are transplanted, the climate and soil are different, the earlier the ripening period is, and the smaller the persimmons are.Since persimmons are produced all over the country, the names vary from place to place.The original name of persimmon is "Zi". Persimmon is a common name. It is called "Junqianzi" in Materia Medica. "South persimmon", "Gaozhuang persimmon", "Clove persimmon", "Green persimmon", "Water soaked persimmon", "Lantern persimmon".According to the persimmon meat, there are crisp persimmons, soft persimmons, and persimmons in clear soup.There is a proverb in the north that goes: "Red dates are in July and pears are in August, and persimmons are on the market in September." After autumn dew and frost, around Chongyang, crisp and soft persimmons will be on the market one after another.Persimmons are heavy and soft, and they cannot be picked until they are ripe on the tree.Crisp persimmons should be picked as long as they turn slightly yellow, and soft persimmons should be picked when they are half green and half red.Such half-ripe persimmons have a bitter taste and cannot be eaten. They were buried in lime piles and called "漤" to remove the astringency before they can become delicious fruits.Recently, some people have studied using calcium carbide to keep warm and promote ripening, but it seems to have a pungent calcium carbide smell.There is a persimmon tree in the house, which was hand-planted by the ancestors and aunts. It is not only the famous red persimmon of Dongling, but also grafted with black dates. , Benguo Xuanzhu, when autumn is getting stronger, the soft red pieces are as bright as frosty maple, and it is time to pick them.The fruit is big and vermilion, because it is an old tree with many years of twins and galls, and the stack is abrupt.One year, the author followed the sea to the south and went to Shanghai to visit relatives. I specially chose a basket with a strange shape as a gift. Those who got it regarded it as a rare fruit. When the skin of this kind of persimmon turned yellow, it was immediately picked from the branches. It hangs on the wall of the "cold house" in the north where no one lives and no fire, and it will gradually mature and turn red. When eating, slowly remove the persimmon stalks, dig it with a small spoon, and suck the meat, like drinking sweets. Honey, like chewing ice cream, moistens the throat and quenches thirst, clears away troubles and clears the heart, is like cold fragrance and condensed jade, refreshing, I call it persimmon ice cream.The author was naughty and easy to handle, so he poured the whole persimmon clothes into cold water, put the persimmon stalks back to normal, put them in the yard after they were frozen solid, and then put them back in the original place. For laughs.In the blink of an eye, it was half a century ago.I am afraid there are still many old friends who have eaten this kind of Qingshui persimmon in Taiwan now! In addition to being eaten fresh, persimmons can also be eaten as dried persimmons.Peel the persimmons and press them, put them in a ventilated and sunny place, and let the sun and wind blow them until they are half dry, then put them in a jar and compact them until they are covered with hoarfrost, then take them out, wear them with hemp rope and press them tightly, and it will become a persimmon. A bunch of persimmons.The persimmon cake in Caozhou, Shandong is also called "Geng cake". The persimmon cream on it is effective in treating aphthous ulcers, and it works like a god.Materia Medica said: "Persimmon is sweet and astringent in nature, moistens lungs and relieves cough, intestinal wind and hemorrhoids, clears heat in the heart and lungs of Shangjiao, and treats sore throat and tongue." It can be seen that persimmon is indeed quite effective. Persimmon frost can cure mouth sores, so there are persimmon frost sugar slices for sale, and dried fruit shops in the north sell them by the catty.Persimmon sugar slices are very sweet, sweet and cool in the mouth. If you put them in a cool place and seal them with porcelain, they can last for years without changing their taste. Analgesic effect.This kind of persimmon frosting candy is only sold in the provinces of North China. People from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces who have traveled to the north, take persimmon frosting candy as a gift to relatives and friends. It is more popular with friends in the village than giving fine candied fruit from Kyoto! Persimmons are rarely eaten cooked except for raw.Before the Anti-Japanese War, the author passed by a pastry shop called "Jinxiangzhai" in front of the Drum Tower in Xi'an. The staff shouted that the freshly baked persimmon pulp was delicious and sweet.I have only heard of it but never seen it before, and it is unheard of to use persimmon pulp as stuffing, so I naturally refused to give up the opportunity to try it.This kind of bopi is made by mixing ripe persimmon pulp and eggs together, rolling it into a cake crust, peeling the sweet almonds and walnuts, crushing them together with rock sugar and green silk, making sweet fillings, wrapping them flat, and using light oil Roast it over a low heat and eat it while it is still hot.After I ate it, I suggested to his boss that the chestnuts in Xi'an are big and sweet. If you grind the chestnuts into flour and mix them in the flour, the taste may be better. I named him "Sanjie Cake", and the boss readily accepted it. Promise to try it.At that time, I thought I had said what I said, but after the war of resistance against Japan, I heard Mr. Lei Xiaoshi (Lei from Shanxi, whose name was Shihua, who was the general manager of Beipiao Coal Mine at the time) talk about Xi’an Jinxiangzhai’s three heroes at the Beipiao Coal Mine. The cake is very delicious, and the name is more elegant than Tai'an's number one scholar cake.Unexpectedly, the owner of Jinxiangzhai would keep his word, not only sell Sanjie cakes, but also become famous, which is really unexpected.