Chapter 35 white jade cup

Among all vegetables, bitter gourd is the most beautiful. The beauty of bitter gourd is indescribable, it is crystal clear and transparent, like white jade in the sun, even its long oval wart-like protrusions are so delicate, cool and smooth to the touch, it also feels like jade, so I I think the most representative of the beauty of bitter gourd is the jade "white jade bitter gourd" of the Qing Dynasty. The white jade bitter gourd is a representative work of realistic jade carving in the Qing Dynasty. I have always seen its fine and realistic beauty. I think the most moving thing is the carving of this jade. It is indeed an amazing inspiration for him to combine "white jade" and "bitter melon".

In comparison, although the reputation of "Cuiyu Cabbage" is far higher than that of "Baiyu Bitter Gourd", I think that bitter gourd has a texture closer to jade than cabbage, not only in terms of visual, tactile, or sensory. Bitter gourd is commonly known as "Jin Lizhi" and "Grape". White jade bitter gourd shows the beauty of shape, but I think it can't fully express the content of bitter gourd and the taste of bitter gourd.Bitter gourd is also beautiful when cut. Its interior and seeds are bright red, like blood flowing with life. Once I put the cut bitter gourd on a white porcelain plate. The contrast between red and white is almost impossible to express with a brush. .Standing in front of bitter gourd, especially in summer, people feel a sense of coolness in their hearts, and that is just a feeling.

No matter how beautiful the bitter gourd is, it is still used for eating. If you have never eaten bitter gourd, no one would imagine that such a beautiful appearance has such a bitter heart.When I was young, I was most afraid of eating bitter melon, because it always reminded me of the traditional Chinese medicine that was boiled in the corner of the stove. I always thought that if I don’t eat delicious vegetables, why do I have to eat such bitter melons? Sometimes protests are ineffective, and my mother often tells me to eat bitter gourd with a bitter face, saying that bitter gourd can be annealed, but it is actually because there is an overproduction of bitter gourd at home.

I have been addicted to bitter gourd for the past few years. Maybe it’s because I’m old and I’ve experienced a lot of bitter things, so I don’t think bitter gourd is bitter anymore; maybe it’s the beauty of bitter gourd that makes me forget its bitterness when I eat it; I think the most The main reason should be that I found that the bitterness of bitter gourd is neither astringent nor vulgar, but a kind of sweetness in the bitterness, as if a person in middle age recalls the melancholy past of his youth, mixed with bitterness and joy, it is difficult to distinguish . There are many ways to eat bitter gourd. My favorite is "bitter gourd eaten raw" in restaurants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Bitter gourd is cut into transparent slices and dipped in a sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar and minced garlic. It is very strange. Bitter gourd It is not bitter when eaten raw, but fragrant and crispy. It is unique among the greasy dishes on the table, and there is no other dish that can match it.Once I had a meal with the painter Wang Lan. He was also fond of bitter melon. He could eat a large plate by himself. Watching him eat bitter melon was like eating sugar, and it was not bitter at all.There is a restaurant in Jiangsu and Zhejiang that is ingenious and calls this dish "white jade raw", which reminds people of the taste of white jade in the mouth. Eating it in the mouth naturally reminds them of the white jade bitter gourd in the Forbidden City, which is full of beautiful associations.

Painter Xi Dejin also loved to eat bitter gourd during his lifetime. Not only did he know how to eat it, but he could also cook it himself. One of his best dishes is bitter gourd stuffed with meat. Good tendon meat, after the meat is carefully mashed, stuffed into the hollowed out bitter gourd until it is full and firm, or steamed or boiled, has a unique flavor.Once, the painter was entertaining guests. I saw him chopping meat in the kitchen and carefully stuffing it into bitter melon.We jokingly named the painter’s specialty dish “white jade cup”. Now that the artist has gone, his specialty white jade cup has gone with him. I have eaten this dish several times, but I still can’t taste the same taste as before.

Bitter melon is really a strange vegetable, it is the combination of the most beautiful and the most bitter, and this combination is probably the creator's "beautiful mistake".There used to be a sweet and sour drink with the slogan "the taste of first love". I think bitter melon can be said to be "the taste of broken love". Love is beautiful, and loss is bitter, but when there is love, there is loss. There is suffering, and if a person cannot taste the suffering, then he cannot appreciate the beauty in the suffering. We have all eaten bitter melon, but few have seen the bitter melon tree.Last year when I was in the south, I saw a large field of bitter melons growing numerous bitter melons. The farmers were harvesting them. They unwrapped the paper wrapping the bitter melons and picked them, just like picking off white jade from a tree.I stood by the field and looked at the bitter gourds in the basket, and I was suddenly moved. I thought, the real beauty of bitter gourds in life is far more touching than the bitter gourds in the window of the Forbidden City.

I bought a bitter gourd just picked from the field and placed it at home, reluctant to eat it; after a few days, the bitter gourd withered and lost its white jade-like crystal clearness and transparency, and it tasted not bitter at all and lost its flavor .This reminds me of many things in the world. Beauty and suffering go hand in hand. People cannot only want beauty without suffering. So the creation of bitter gourd cannot be said to be a mistake of beauty, it is a small shadow of the reality of life. ——February 16, 1983