The taste of Fuzhou in summer, besides the fragrance of jasmine and the acidity of mango, is the sweetness of litchi. When cicadas wake you up from your sleep, the most famous and relatively precocious young corn poppy in litchi spectrum laughs, which is popular in shops and stalls in the streets. At this time, the branches are sweet and sour, but they are not good enough, so they can only be used as new flavors. As soon as the gongs and drums of the Dragon Boat Festival ring, Zengcheng's glutinous rice paste and conghua cinnamon will flood into the market like rouge water.
I am an addict who eats litchi, and I especially like cinnamon. Not only is the meat crisp, glittering and translucent and juicy, but it doesn't ooze juice after peeling. Because the pulp is thick, its core is only as big as red beans. As soon as I entered, I felt the fragrance flowing from my teeth and cheeks. There was a fragrance of osmanthus and roses between ice and sweetness, which was really wonderful. With this fragrance, simple sweetness has rich layers. Even if you eat more, it is only sweet but not sour. The shell of cinnamon litchi is brittle, and the sharp thorns will prick your fingers. Unlike the peel of glutinous rice, it looks smooth and soft. So, nothing is perfect. If you like its taste, don't worry too much about its sharp appearance. ?
Although litchi in Guangdong is good, I still miss litchi in Fuzhou. Litchi in Fuzhou was very famous in its early years. It's not surprising that there are many street shops in summer summer. However, it is not easy for local treasures such as Chen Zi, Lilac and Eighteen Niangs to go on the market. When the peasant women in the morning market pick and sell, they always buy three or five pounds and enjoy them slowly after being chilled. But now it is gradually declining, and it is difficult to find these famous licks on the market. This reminds me of litchi in Xichan Temple. The so-called "cicadas sing in summer rain and early summer, and ancient lychee is red in western Zen" is what I said.
Xichan Temple in western Fuzhou was once famous for its rich litchi. Every summer, litchi is ripe and fiery red, forming a unique scene. Cai Xiang, a famous calligrapher in the Song Dynasty and Fuzhou magistrate, once commented on litchi in Xichan Temple: "Litchi trees occupy a summer, and lotus leaves have no fragrance." Today, there are two precious ancient litchi trees in the temple. Litchi trees with scattered branches cut from these two ancient trees are all over the temple, and the litchi stones produced are as small as cloves, also known as rotten stones. Since the Ming Dynasty, monks have held Yishan Litchi Festival every year, inviting local people to participate. People left many poems about litchi after tasting it. There is a mingyuan pavilion next to the release pool, where famous artists of all ages chant Li. 1937, Yu Dafu, a famous writer living in Fuzhou, left a four-line poem after eating litchi in Xichan. Among them, the famous sentence "Chen Zifang Hong is chewing, and this trip is really litchi" caused a sensation.
I didn't attend the Li Festival in Yishan, but 1987 overlapped with the management committee of Xichan Temple because of the need of fire control work. In the hot summer, the management Committee invited several times to enjoy plum blossoms in the temple. Because it was too hot in summer, others politely refused, and I was the only delicious person who should be invited. It was just dawn that day. After getting up early to wash, I drank a glass of light salt water, and then rushed to Xichan Temple by motorcycle. I walked into the courtyard, and saw the shade of plum blossoms, which confirmed the story of Yishan, "The court is full of 300 litchi trees, and the monument is passed down to Lan Ruo for thousands of years". The attendant said it was unnecessary to come so early, and there was nothing inconvenient at other times. I pointed to the red-cloud fruit on the litchi tree and explained that in the morning, the dew of litchi began to bear fruit, so I picked it before the sun was full, peeled it off and spit it out. It tasted excellent and didn't get angry. This is the ancient method of litchi recorded by Xu Bo in "Litchi Story": "When you enter the forest at dawn in midsummer, you are exposed and immersed in a cold spring. The shell is crisp and the meat is cold, and the color, fragrance and taste remain unchanged. Chew it, it will be like snow. Sweet will enter the spleen and thirst for marrow, which can reach hundreds. "
While speaking, the administrator took me to an old tree surrounded by guardrails, boarded the bamboo ladder, and carefully cut off some lychees that were not scattered in the morning. Eat separately, only feel cool, straight, small and thick, and there is no residue when chewing. The taste is sweet, but the smell is different. I didn't know until I asked, what I just tasted turned out to be the best "Justin" of Lichee in Xichan Temple. Looking back now, I am sitting under a tree in Xu Lai, where the breeze is blowing gently, litchi is as red as a cover, and I feel like eating white and glittering litchi with beads. I don't know who is more elegant than the stories of the ancients.
Along with the litchi in Yishan Temple, there is also the litchi in Kaihua Temple in West Lake Park, the most famous of which is the "Eighteen Niangs" litchi with a history of 1000 years. Cai Xiang in Song Dynasty wrote in Litchi Spectrum: "Eighteen Niang Litchi is dark red and slender, small and sharp, shaped like a horn, like a clove, and very sweet. People compared it with girls at that time. According to legend, Wang Wang, the king of Fujian, has eighteen daughters and loves this product, hence the name. "
Su Dongpo once wrote such a poem, praising: western Fujian is a treasure, sailing across the sea like an arrow. Pale red and soft white, elegant as a beautiful woman's hand. Thin bones and fragrant muscles, just like eighteen niangs. It can be seen from here that this kind of litchi was selected as a tribute of the emperor as early as 800 years ago in the Song Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Ren Huang praised in Fuzhou West Lake Fu: "There are thousands of temples in Danli. Every time you come to Kaihua Temple, you must try it first. Snow frost muscle lilac bone, legendary eighteen Niang. "
Unfortunately, dozens of litchi trees in Kaihua Temple were almost cut down during the ten-year turmoil of the Cultural Revolution. The only remaining "Eighteen Niang" litchi tree is hidden in the rockery outside the wall adjacent to the bonsai garden in Kaihua Temple. Because of its hidden location, it escaped the cultural disaster. Fortunately, many descendants were transplanted abroad, including one in his sixties. My friend gives me a few Jin every year. The shell of the fruit is very thin, it will break when touched, and then it will spit out sweet juice, which has a strong aroma and a little natural game. The slender stones of different lengths also confirm its green nature.
After the initial rest, Li's season has come to an end. Only the burning branches are left, blooming the last glory. Although the core is big and the meat is rich, one side of the soil and water can support one side. In the eyes of many elderly people in Fuzhou, this kind of local late-maturing, soft, glutinous and juicy Sophora branches is full of the taste of litchi in the depths of memory, even more delicious than cinnamon and glutinous rice paste. And this may be what old people often say, each has his own love.
? -Danshuiquan was written after litchi was full.