I thought, if you enter the valley of Emei, Sichuan, you should choose a temple to stay. Watching the sunrise in the morning, watching the Buddha's light in the evening, enjoying the sacred lamp in the sea of clouds, and waiting for the golden dome to rise ... The complicated mood will be refreshed, the stagnant qi and blood will be smooth, and the thoughts will be clearer than before.
the night at the top of the mountain is quiet, even if there are occasional birds singing and insects singing. I have a lot of associations, so I can't sleep. Therefore, wandering alone in the mountains for a long time has gradually aroused a strong appetite. At that time, I really wanted to taste a vegetarian meal in the Buddhist temple. However, it is impossible to find a place to eat in this situation because of the deep midnight, the hazy road, the early closing of the mountain gate and the lonely lights in the secluded path. Therefore, I had to sit next to a bamboo grove, hold a cup of semi-cold green tea, and recall the delicious and elegant Emei vegetarian diet, so I can make spiritual food.
It's not surprising that Sangu liu er and tofu vegetables in Emei vegetarian menu are also common in other vegetarian restaurants in Foshan. Only one vegetarian dish has aroused my interest, and this is the snow konjac pioneered by the monk Emei. Sichuan people have been frying vegetarian dishes with konjac for nearly a thousand years. Sun Guangxian, a writer in the Song Dynasty, wrote "Stories about a Dream in the North", which recorded that Sichuan officials had started to make various pictographic dishes with konjac and flour in the Tang Dynasty.
I remember that when I first met this product, my first feeling was that this kind of food contains the word "magic", which is naturally a bit weird. I have always been used to reading before swimming. I once knew the origin of the ingredients in the Food Code-this Araceae plant has other terrible names, such as Snake Six Valley, Ghost Head, Ghost taro and so on. Facing a plate of konjac, asking for details surprised me even more! It turns out that Amorphophallus konjac is rich in alkaloids and toxicity, and it must be treated with heated alkali water or lime water before it can be eaten.
I asked while eating, and suddenly I had some philosophical thoughts. The process of making konjac tofu is rather bizarre-when the dried konjac powder is put into the pot and boiled, people can't imagine adding lime water to make it fully absorb and expand, then adding rice flour to stir well, and after the juice is cooled, it becomes light brown "tofu". Even so, Emei monks will continue to "temper" it, put konjac tofu under the ice and compact it, and finally become a delicious fitness food-Emei Snow Konjac. This experience is quite like a poisonous demon in the mountain being surrendered, guided and trained by a wise man, and finally becoming a good kind and being used by people. The vegetarian products made by Amorphophallus konjac in Emei remind me of many causal effects in the world ... Thinking of this, I suddenly saw a ray of morning light looming between the pine forest and the sea of clouds. I still feel full after a sleepless night.
second, Dinghu shangsu
"Eat in Guangdong" has long been an advertising word for tourists. Later, I don't know who added, "Guangdong people dare to eat anything." I have bluntly said that this statement not only has a sense of "adding feet", but also reveals a relatively crude concept of eating. It should be noted that any upright animal that dares to eat food is still like modern people?
when Tang Xianzong was in office, Han Yu, who was born in Henan and made an outspoken mistake, was banished to Chaozhou. After the new official took office, he found that Lingnan area was still in a wild place, and most of them ate ferocious and weird things, such as horseshoe crabs, oysters, toads and snakes. As a result, the old man ate some with trepidation and reluctance, endured stomach discomfort, and wrote an article "eighteen coordinated laws of eating in the south at the beginning of the year", which highlighted the fear between the lines: "The horseshoe crab is as real as Huiwen, and the bones and eyes are negative. Oysters stick together as mountains, and hundreds of them are born separately. The tail of a cattail fish is like a snake, and its mouth and eyes do not match each other. Zhangju vest column, fighting with strange self-presentation, the rest of the dozens, it is amazing. I'm here to resist demons and cook from the south. The smell of urine starts from Vietnam, and the mouth swallows and sweats. " This tough man, who once served as a supervisor of the imperial censor and later followed the rebellion of Pinghuai and Xixi in Pei Du, could not help but feel cold sweat and blush with fear in the face of the horseshoe crab like a military commander's official hat (Huiwen), the octopus with a snake-like tail, and the strange octopus and shellfish.
Imagine, as a tourist who wants to see the beautiful scenery, it is strange to swallow these elves in his mouth. Can he calmly feel the wonderful beauty of the temples and pavilions of mountains and rivers?
Therefore, I have traveled to the Pearl River Delta alone for several times, trying to find delicious food. A famous dish that I've been longing for for for a long time, but I haven't been able to taste it so far, is Dinghu Shangsu, a famous dish in Dinghu Mountain, Zhaoqing, Guangdong.
Dinghushan is one of the four famous mountains in Guangdong, the Qingyun Temple in the middle of the mountain, and one of the four famous temples in Lingnan, which shows that its scenery is incomparable. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in order to make many pilgrims appreciate the unique delicacy of mushroom food in the mountains, the old monk in the temple cooked a vegetarian dish named Dinghu Shangsu with three mushrooms liu er (namely, North Mushroom, Fresh Mushroom, Mushroom, Snow Ear, Yellow Ear, Stone Ear, Auricularia auricula, Osmanthus fragrans and Ulmus pumila). After hundreds of years, this vegetarian dish has become more and more perfect under the continuous development and processing of many chefs, and now it has enjoyed a high reputation in many countries in Southeast Asia.
On that day, after I had a swim in Tianxi, Yunxi and Tianhu alone, I saw that the dusk was sinking, the silk rain was swaying, the tourists on the mountain road were gradually scattered, and I looked up to the peak halfway up the mountain in Tianxi Scenic Area. A waterfall poured down from the cliff mouth more than 4 meters high and roared into Longtan. Bird's-eye view, trees and dangerous paths are hidden in the depths of Shan Lan. Where should we go next? On the occasion of the cold rain in the deep mountains, who should stay overnight? I asked myself silently, feeling very lonely and helpless, and inadvertently came to the front of Qingyun Temple when I suddenly walked.
it may be quite poetic to spend the night in the mountain temple. The wind and rain hitting the leaves in the forest and the lonely night talk will not only remind people of the wonderful plots in ancient books, but also have a sense of cleansing their mood. A young chef who made a special trip here to learn the cooking method of "Shangsu" endorsed under the corridor and met me unexpectedly. In the face of the night rain in the mountains, we made a cup of tea and talked softly. Under my question, he vividly introduced me to the process of cooking "vegetable on Dinghu Lake" ... < P > It turns out that making this dish is very complicated, and it is necessary to blanch the snow ear, osmanthus ear, elm ear, yellow ear, fresh mushroom bud, bamboo shoots, fresh lotus seeds, silver needles and tender stems of green vegetables before soaking them in cold water and frying them. After several times of blanching, draining, stir-frying and frying, the white fungus, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and fresh straw mushrooms are arranged in sequence at the bottom of the big soup bowl, and then the remaining raw materials are filled in the bowl. Then, the big soup bowl is buckled on the big plate to form an undulating mountain forest shape. When the oil is hot in the pan, evenly add monosodium glutamate, refined salt, white sugar, umami soup and soy sauce, then boil, shape the raw materials in turn, and sprinkle the wet powder on the plate.
"When I saw the vegetarian food on Dinghu Lake with elegant color, fresh and smooth taste and overflowing fragrance, I thought of the old adage that' a hundred flavors are not as good as the original flavor'." The young chef said with a dignified expression.
until I went down the mountain the next day, I didn't see the appearance of vegetarian food in Dinghu either. However, I don't know why, for several years, the name and practice of this dish have been deeply preserved in my memory. When I think of it, I think of the ever-changing smoke clouds between the cliffs, the rain in the Zen forest and the lonely night talk, and I imagine the color of Dinghu Lake with great taste. If I have the chance to visit Dinghu Mountain again, I really want to taste it.