Chapter 5 lettuce in time

Lettuce with a faint bitter taste, it always enters my memory in winter, and now I can see it in other seasons, but only in winter, I would like to eat lettuce, it seems to have a kind of cool and pleasant feeling in winter. Melancholy, and in the dry and cold weather, it conveys the unpredictability of life and the bitterness that cannot be swayed. In the mountain towns in the south, the lettuce is green in the gray winter.In the south, or in the middle of Mufu Mountain, in winter, the sky is always gray, creating a seasonal depression. In the morning, there is milky white mist, and willows, poplars, neem

Trees, sycamores and paulownia trees have all lost their leaves, while camphor trees, holly trees and osmanthus trees are green.On the bare branches of neem and paulownia trees, sparrows or starlings often perch on them. When you look at them suddenly, you think they are fruits hanging on the trees or remnants of leaves. There are many small rivers around the town. There is a small river flowing down from Dongjiakou in the deep mountain through Yinzu. I call it Tongshankou River. The water in the early years was clear and transparent, and the moonlight was reflected at night, with silver waves.In the surrounding villages, there are dogs barking, that is the coolness of a river.On sunny days, the sunlight in the small town is a bit reddish, like copper, which is warm and warm on people's bodies. However, the grass in the four fields is withered and yellow, and the trees and bamboos on the mountains have dark green leaves, which look uninspiring.In relatively deserted winter, the lettuce grows lushly green in the vegetable field. In the vegetable garden of the neighbor in front of the house, the lettuce is the most tender green, with garlic and laver moss growing on the side.When I first arrived in the small town, I also planned to plant a vegetable garden. I asked my neighbor Zheng Jie to dig a vegetable garden. Zheng Jie told me, what kind of vegetable garden do they dig, should we harvest it after they plant it.I thought, yes, it is troublesome to water the vegetables.I haven't collected it since then, can I handle my colleague's dishes?It is no longer like when I was in the geological team, if I want to eat vegetables, I go to the vegetable field to pick them by myself.

Life in a small town exudes a bitter taste.The time is very long, everyone is lazy, only the sound of the cannon blasting on the mine is intense, the earthquake shakes the mountain, the birds fly, and then it returns to quiet and distant.When winter comes, lettuce is sold on the street. There are two types of lettuce sellers. One is professional vegetable sellers. They often purchase large quantities of vegetables from cities and sell them in small towns. Their vegetables are also clean, bright and attractive. It's very expensive, and it looks like it can't be sold out. Bargaining is a penny-by-penny concession.The other category sells surplus vegetables for farmers. Their vegetables are packed in their own vegetable baskets. The vegetables are washed very clean, but they are messy. In a basket of scattered lettuce and garlic, there may be one or two white radishes and a pinch of parsley. , They didn't seem to have a commercial proposition, they sold some vegetables at will, and then bought some daily necessities from the small town to go home.I like to buy the latter's vegetables. Their vegetables are all grown with farmyard manure, and they have the taste of vegetables.

When I bought lettuce from the farm, I chose the one with shiny leaves or purple veins. The lettuce with gray and white leaves seems to be a bit bitter, but the lettuce with shiny leaves is somewhat bitter and has a touch of sweetness inside.The lettuce is divided into leaves and bamboo shoots and stir-fried. The lettuce leaves are blanched in dry water, heated up in oil, and quickly fried in a pan. Put some spicy bean paste, in fact, to mix the bean paste in the pot.You can also heat up the oil, fry the red peppers, and fry the dry aroma of the red peppers, then put the lettuce leaves down, put some salt on it, and use chopsticks instead of a spatula to stir quickly.The lettuce leaves fried in this way are really more flavorful than the lettuce I ate in the city.

At least in the area at the middle foot of Mufu Mountain, the stem of lettuce is called lettuce shoot, and it is indeed in the shape of a bamboo shoot.Lettuce shoots with glossy leaves are thick and short, with densely curled leaves, wrinkled leaves, irregular and thick skin.The peeled bamboo shoots are like green jade, tender and transparent like jade.Stir-fried lettuce shoots, cut into slices and stir-fry, put less oil and salt, the faint bitter taste, soft when picked up by chopsticks and crisp in the mouth, the taste is just like life in a small mountain town in the south.Sometimes, I also shred the lettuce, shredded and fried lettuce, which has a delicate taste.Or add sliced ​​meat and pork liver. In a small town, buy black haired pork that weighs 100 catties. This is a local pig raised by a farmer. This kind of pork is delicious.Slice the pork very thinly, put it on a plate, sprinkle a little water, grab a pinch of starch and mix well, heat up the oil, lightly pop the meat slices, put them on a plate as soon as it is cooked, and set aside, the color of the meat is from the inside to the outside Pale red and gradually white.Stir-fry the lettuce again, when the lettuce is almost ripe, put some green garlic, the green garlic should be purple-skinned, cut into garlic sections obliquely, when the garlic is almost ripe, throw in some meat slices, stir-fry together, you can put some water in it, it is best to mix some starch in the water , not too thick, so that the water will become juice in the pot, and the taste of lettuce and meat will be stronger.

My bitter lettuce is fried, or with sliced ​​meat, or with pork liver, with green garlic, or with dried red pepper. The taste of life in the ordinary mountains.Sometimes, fry a small dish of peanuts, pour two taels of white wine, and listen to the chirping of sparrows outside the window, and drink slowly.In the southern winter, lettuce also represents a mood.