Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 443 Unfair

What is wonderful is not only the dishes, but the historical allusions and humanistic values ​​behind those dishes.

For example, when talking about the dish "bean curd", the content tells the story of who the inventor of tofu is.

In fact, there are many legends about the inventor of tofu, including Le Yi, Liu Chang (Weng Chun), Liu An, Wang Mang, Guan Yu, etc. The most widely known reason for Liu An's invention is based on Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" Record: "Tofu originated from Huainan King".

However, there were actually many Huainan kings in the Western Han Dynasty, namely Yingbu, Liu Chang, Liu Xi, and Liu An.

Among these four people, Liu Chang and Liu An are most likely to invent tofu.

Liu An can be regarded as a strange person. He once "invited thousands of guests and alchemists" and collectively compiled the famous book "Huainanzi".It is precisely because of Liu An's strange events that many people now believe that tofu was invented by Liu An when he accidentally used gypsum to order bean juice when he was refining alchemy on the mountain.

This view is also the mainstream view of the birth of tofu.

But Zhou Zhi raises a question in the book and tells another story.

The question is: Liu Chang Liu Angui is a prince, do you still need to do everything yourself?

The story is the story of Mrs. Piduweng in Sichuan.

People in various industries will enshrine the "Father of Business" of their industry, and this behavior has been passed down from generation to generation.For example, the construction industry will enshrine Luban, the Chinese medicine industry will enshrine Shennong, and so on.

In Pidu, the "Father of Opening" enshrined by tofu practitioners is called "Mrs. Weng".

Who is this Mrs. Weng?You have to find it from the deeds of King Huainan.

According to the records of "Emperor Xiaowen of the Former Han Dynasty" in Volume [-] of "Records of the Former Han Dynasty": "In the winter of the sixth year...in November, the king of Huainan, Chang, found out about his rebellion. In Tushu County, Dao died in Yong, and he said Li."

Where is this Yongdi in Shu County?Pidu Garden Town.

At that time, the king of Huainan was Liu Chang, who was relegated to Sichuan by Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty because of his intention to rebel. He married Mrs. Weng in Yong.

Next, we will turn to the local historical records. According to records, after Liu Chang's death, Mrs. Weng has been guarding Liu Chang's spirit, and after his death, he became an immortal.

There must be miraculous stories behind the miraculous characters. According to legend, when Mrs. Weng was guarding Liu Chang's tomb, she was diligent in offering sacrifices and making offerings every day.As he got older and his teeth became loose, he had to use a stone mill to grind soybeans into soy milk, and drink it after cooking.

Once when serving the offering, I accidentally spilled the soup in the vegetables into the soy milk, and the soy milk soon coagulated into lumps.

Mrs. Weng, who couldn't bear to waste it, tried the congealed soybean milk and found that it tasted good.

So I started repeated experiments and explorations, and finally found the secret: that is to add an appropriate amount of bittern to the cooked soybean milk, and the protein in the soybean paste will coagulate, squeeze it slightly, and cut it into pieces with a knife. This is "bean curd". .

In order to commemorate the merits of Mrs. Weng's invention, after her death, later generations buried her behind the Huainan Temple built to worship Huainan King Liu Chang, and erected a statue of her, standing side by side with Liu Chang's statue in the temple.

It's just that later, Liu An, the king of Huainan, was far more famous than all the kings of Huainan, which led to the fact that the real inventor of tofu was crowned and crowned.

Of course, the story of the dish "bean curd" is far more than that. For example, Zhou Zhi believes that what Mrs. Weng invented was not tofu, but "kidney bean curd". There are reservations among nations.

And the marinade method may not be Mrs. Weng's pioneering work. It is hard to imagine that a woman guarding the tomb would have the energy to do this.

More likely, it is related to the salt metallurgy industry in Yandu.

There, soymilk is an important impurity remover. When added to brine, it can be turned into bean curd, and impurities can be brought to the surface of the solution. After removing them, a clear solution for salt production can be obtained.

Therefore, the method of making bean curd by "lighting stew" is naturally widely used in salt.

If you put the "bean curd" into the wooden frame and press off the excess water, the white and tender tofu will be successfully made.

The "bean curd" in Sichuan cuisine formed a large scale in Fushun, Yandu, and then went all the way south along the Tuojiang River; ".

And along the Minjiang River, in the Jiazhou area, "Jiazhou Tofu Nao" was formed.

Along the Minjiang River, dishes such as "Ma Po Tofu", "Jingyang Bean Chicken", and "Huaiyuan Curtain Silk" have formed, forming the territory of Sichuan cuisine bean products.

There are countless things like this in the book, accompanied by various pictures, the content is full and detailed, the information and pictures are true and reliable, and the story is also very interesting.

When Zhou Zhi entered the County Chronicle Office with a scroll under his arm, godfather Wu Lingjun was sitting in an office chair with his feet on the coffee table, reading the large-format "Sichuan Taste" with great interest.

Seeing Zhou Zhi coming in, Wu Lingjun unexpectedly felt a sense of respect in his heart.

Just reading the book's sophisticated and beautiful writing style, deep storage, easy-to-use allusions and allusions, and the detailed source of a dish, it is hard to believe that it is written by a sophomore in high school.

In fact, about half of the content in it is provided or pointed out by myself, but the other half is elbow's own skill and precipitation.

To put it another way, in the half of what I know in this book, there must be a lot of elbows;

But the half that Elbow knows is all that he doesn't know!
This is the ideological root of Wu Lingjun's awe-inspiring feeling. Heck, this is just his own doing!

With a light cough, the godfather put his feet off the coffee table, turned the book over and threw it on the desk, pointing to the price on the back with his stubby finger: "20 yuan! 20 yuan a book! You say it yourself Don't lose your conscience!"

This is the anger driven by naked jealousy, but Zhou Zhi understands the godfather's mood very well.

They are also playing with pens, and some people can only do things in the county. Except for the official articles published in the county magazine and the county newspaper, they have never even been to Manzhou.

But there are some people's things, and the provincial government is rushing to publish them for him!The remuneration is so generous!

The key is that half of the things in it are what you know!

So unfair!
Zhou Zhi thought that this was a bit of a headache, so he had no choice but to comfort him: "The price is not set by me. It is said that the copyright owner is also relying on others. I will take whatever I am asked to take; I can only take as much as I am asked to take. .There is no half autonomy..."

The godfather stared: "It's so cheap and good-looking! Lao Liu said that he went to the ministry to attend a meeting this time, and the selection of the first China National Book Award has come down."

"So?" Zhou Zhi rubbed his hands excitedly, it was scary to hear it, could it be possible to win such a big prize?

"What are you getting so excited about? You feel so good, don't you?" The godfather was baffled: "This award is initially set for philosophy and social sciences, literature, art, science and technology including popular science, ancient books, children, education, dictionaries and reference books, and ethnic groups." There are nine categories of literary books. Tell me, which category can you write this thing in? Why do you still want to win prizes?"

"Ah, this..." Zhou Zhi suddenly felt that he was in a bad mood, and he really couldn't get into any category, so he muttered, "Cooking can be considered an art...then what do you mean by mentioning this?!"

(End of this chapter)