People have completely different feelings about food in different time and space. The so-called “not tired of eating fine, not tired of fine food” means that material needs have been greatly satisfied for future luxury needs. The memories of taste buds tend to like the new and dislike the old. No matter how finely crafted a delicacy is, if it becomes your everyday home-cooked meal, you will be tired of it. The taste buds are after the “exotic taste” instead of the “same taste”. However, it sometimes “likes the old and dislikes the new”, because the food eaten in a special environment will give a deep special mark to the taste buds.
Perhaps, when you enter a luxurious restaurant for the first time, you are shocked by the exquisitely crafted dishes. Perhaps, the luxurious ritual and high-end courtesy service make you forget the memory of your taste buds, and you only remember the space. The oppression of you. On the contrary, the special dishes and noodles you occasionally eat in that kind of “fly restaurant” will make you unforgettable for a lifetime. Therefore, the memory of taste buds is often the hunting of food “odors”, rather than the attention to occasions and rituals.
The deepest taste bud memory is my 16-year-old “hunting” behavior when I went to the countryside to jump in the queue.
After I steamed the fragrant belly I brought from Nanjing, I asked the neighbors who were “running rice” with their rice bowls to taste it. They couldn’t taste the food made of what kind of raw materials. They were just surprised that “there is such a thing in the world.” Delicious stuff”! They have spent their whole life in rough tea and light rice. They have never experienced the cooking process of “not tired of eating fine, not tired of fine”. They often imagine the “odor” of the food in the city like Ah Q, even if it is going to a market town to eat a plate of fried meat. Silk, all lament the chef’s exquisite craftsmanship, because it is a completely different flavor. Food in the city is not only a capital to show off, but also a wonderful sense of taste buds traveling. This is the “urban-rural difference” in the eyes of the country people. And when an “urban man” tastes the original food in the countryside, his taste bud memory will also have an eternal freeze.
When the barley was yellow, when I tasted the batter made with Yuanmai (a type of barley) flour for the first time, I was surprised why the local farmers used it as feed for “strong pigs”. That special smell lingered between my teeth for several days, so much so that I could not forget it for decades. Holding a bowl of thin Yuanmai paste in one hand, steamed buns or burritos in the other hand, boiled pickles or shredded kohlrabi with small fish, this kind of rough country delicacy has become the eternity of Subei Plain on my taste buds. memory. What is “lovesickness” and “homesickness”? Perhaps the memory on the taste buds is better than the lyrical expression of thousands of words.
In the autumn harvest season, I tasted the rice porridge cooked with new rice “Nongken 58” for the first time, and the fragrance remained in the memory of my 16-year-old taste buds. I can’t describe the taste of “heavenly things” left in the teeth. In order to taste the taste of “new rice” every day, I use the grain supplied by the grain control in the first year of the educated youth’s going to the countryside-mature rice in the old age—— I exchanged “new rice” with the folks, and some neighbors said I was stupid. Because “new rice” has high water content and extremely low rice output rate, for the hungry farmers at that time, eating full rice was the number one event in their lives. “New rice” is delicious, but can it be hungry? ? This may also be the “difference between urban and rural areas” in another perspective. Since leaving the countryside, I have never tasted the taste of “new rice” anymore. Although the logistics is very developed now, the “new rice” is constantly flowing to people’s dinner tables, but the smell of the “new rice” in the past can no longer be found. Is there a problem with the variety or the memory of the taste buds? ? I don’t know. In the annual ring of time, I look for the “homesickness” and “lovesickness” of the past; in the vast space, I am looking for the coordinates of the city and the countryside-the memory of taste buds is unpredictable in the interlacing of time and space. It is the occurrence of food genes. Is there a sudden change, or is the human perception of nature gradually sluggish?
In the past 20 years, people have crawled out of their appetite for food to find the taste of farmer’s cuisine in the past, but it is difficult to gain something, because it is difficult for people to understand that the philosophy of food is the dialectical relationship between people and the living environment.
The place where I jumped in was the Baoying Water Village written by the writer Hu Shiyan. The song “Nine-Nine Sunny Days” will bring us into that red age with all the ups and downs.
Cigu is a well-known aquatic product in Baoying Water Town. Nowadays, the noodles are braised with small Cigu and pork belly. The bittern of the oil passes through the surface of Cigu and reaches the texture of Cigu. Many people in the city think that meat is not as good as Cigu. The conclusion of eating. As everyone knows, the old aunt was the staple food that people used to spend the spring famine. Every day, I put on a small half pot of oil-free and odor-free clear water, so that the tongs were filled with complaints, and the sourness of the aunt was the sourness of the aunt, even if it was a non-polluted ingredient. The memory it leaves on your taste buds is also bitter.
Don’t think that farmers in the water village can eat fish every day without meat. In fact, except for marriage and festive hospitality, they usually don’t eat fish and shrimp, especially crabs, and no one cares because they have no meat because of fishy. I usually don’t eat fish and shrimps. First, they need to use hot oil to get rid of the fish and shrimps, which is not affordable for ordinary people. It’s a huge bonus to earn a subsidy for the family. Only the remaining small fish and shrimps will be taken home and boiled together with the big pickles, so that the pickles will become crispy. If you add an appropriate amount of oil and sprinkle a handful of garlic when you start the pot, it must be The porridge is served with good side dishes. At that time, a popular local cooking trick was “a lot of oil is not bad for vegetables”. However, who has the oil? At that time, the amount of oil used was the touchstone for measuring the wealth of a family.
Another dish that is derived from this dish, which is not served on the table, will remain in my taste buds memory forever, and it has also become a home-cooked dish in my recipes. Stir the crucian carp with oil until it is browned and bubbling, then braise it in brown sauce. Then pour in the stir-fried large pickles or potherb mustard. When it is cooked, place it in a large bowl and freeze it in cold weather. The fish and pickles are delicious You can have both! To this day, I occasionally cook to relive the memories left by my taste buds of the past.
Perhaps, during the evolution of human diet, it has gradually been surrounded by a stepped “differential pattern”. In different time and space, whether eaters are eating culture or satisfying instinctive needs is indeed a question related to the philosophy of survival.
