Bud bud, listen
Sell cute again and I’ll eat you!
In spring, everything revives and plants sprout. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, this "sprout" is "bud". From Saibei to Lingnan, from Shuomo to the seashore, as long as there is a spring breeze, there are traces of "buds". As the initial embryonic form of plant stems, leaves or flowers, "bud" is pregnant with life and hope, and embodies the creation and imagination of nature.
You see, the word "bud" means "grass" with the word "tooth" under it. The ancestors who created the word used the way of knowing and pictophonetic to represent the toothed larvae of vegetation germination. What an image! And spring is the child who "shoots and learns rain". Buds, like green "raindrops", "landed" on the earth before the first spring rain came. Falling on the branches, "splashing" flowers, falling into the mouth, into a series of delicious food.
Spring is really the season to eat buds!
People in China eat buds incompletely, and they are hungry for life.
Cartography/Shao Tianrui
People in China eat buds, which is the "spring limit" in home cooking.
Spring is always late in Saibei snowfield, but the new green is the first to appear on the plate. The tender thorn buds with soft burrs were blanched by hot water and turned into the "CP" of sauce dish, dumpling stuffing and scrambled eggs … Northeasters eat buds in spring, and what they want is that "thorn" shock.
Thorn bud is the bud of Acanthopanax senticosus. Also called thorn old bud, thorn dragon bud. The bark of Acanthopanax senticosus can be soaked in wine, and the seed is the well-known Schisandra chinensis. The tender thorn bud has high nutritional value and is called "the king of wild vegetables". It is sweet, refreshing and mellow, and has a unique fragrance similar to Toona sinensis bud.
The tender buds in the vegetable market: with the morning dew in spring.
Photography/Wanrui
Speaking of Toona sinensis bud, it is the most beautiful spring "top card" in North China and even the whole country. As the tender bud of Toona sinensis, it can be cold-mixed, fried eggs, and even chopped into noodles, so that every "snow strip" is hung with "broken gold" in spring, and its mouth is full of spring.
Toona sinensis bud is a "literary youth" in spring bud. "Zhuangzi’s Happy Travel" said: "In ancient times, there were big toons, taking 8,000 years as spring and 8,000 years as autumn." Modern congratulations to the elderly also say "Chunshou". Taking a bite of Toona sinensis is also blessed by nature with good luck. When I attended the birthday party for my elders, I once ate a "Longevity is better than Nanshan Mountain", which is a rockery made of potato chips and sprinkled with fresh Toona sinensis. The taste is fresh and unforgettable.
Cold Toona sinensis buds, the light of spring in home cooking.
Photography/Wanrui
There is also a "female literary youth" in the spring bud, that is, Lycium barbarum bud. When I was a child, my relatives had a Lycium barbarum tree. I used to pick fresh Lycium barbarum fruit on it. I watched A Dream of Red Mansions during the holidays, and found that there was a description of Baochai eating fried Lycium barbarum buds, and it was also pestering adults to follow suit and fry a plate. The taste was a little bitter, and it was probably elegant.
Later, when I went to college, Ningxia students also took us to bask in Lycium barbarum buds, and it was quite interesting to boil water to drink. In fact, eating Lycium barbarum buds has a long history in China. In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi’s "Agricultural Administration Complete Book" said that Lycium barbarum buds "go out of Ganzhou, but they will not be harvested for two years." Wang Zengqi, a writer from Jianghuai, is also in Amway in Eating in My Hometown. The medlar buds are "very fragrant" with soy sauce and vinegar, which makes the medlar buds "salty".
Lycium barbarum bud and Lycium barbarum flower: Daiyu enjoys flowers and Baochai eats buds.
Photography/Li Zhentai
If Lycium barbarum buds eat elegance, then pepper buds make your tongue "win hemp". In Longnan, Gansu province, which is rich in pepper, pepper buds are the "group pets" of home-cooked dining tables and farmhouses. The bright bud tip on the plate, with a touch of pepper and sesame, makes every taste bud "stand up".
Pepper buds can be cold and stir-fried. I once ate a different way of eating: stewed fish with pepper buds, and stewed it together with pepper stalks. The pepper buds are tender and the stalks are soft, which is similar to the taste of reed stalks. If you bite the fibers of the stalks and suck the juice inside, the pepper will smell like Shan Ye. This is also the "dream linkage" of buds and stems on the tip of the tongue.
Deep-fried pepper buds make your tongue "win hemp".
Figure/worm creativity
Spring is the season when catkins fly. In Shandong and Henan, there is also the habit of eating willow buds. Next to the sharp buds of willow leaves, pinch out a small handful, blanch it to remove bitterness, mix it with sesame oil, and put it in a white porcelain plate, which feels like a weak willow supporting the embankment. Pick up a pinch lightly, sip it gently with your tongue, and it will be crisp and rotten.
As a "pancake province" in Shandong, willow buds naturally spread pancakes. Beat two eggs on a pancake covered with broken willow buds, and it will become "two orioles singing green willows". When the egg liquid is evenly spread, the pancake is crisp, the yolk is fragrant, and the willow buds are tender. Under the triple blessing, it seems to swallow the spring day in one gulp. It is said that Tomb-Sweeping Day ate willow bud pancakes to commemorate Jietui. According to legend, the old willow tree that he held a tree to celebrate the festival later came back from the dead and was named "Qingming Willow" by Jin Wengong. From this point of view, there are cultural similarities between Liu Ya Pancake and Youth League in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
Green shoots in the plate, waiting for you to "flop".
Cartography/Jiuyang
In Guangdong, which pays attention to health, mulberry buds must be eaten in spring. The lavender mulberry buds and lanterns-like mulberries set each other off and become interesting, and mulberry bud is as soft as mulberries, which melts in the mouth, tender and slag-free. I once ate a cold mulberry bud in a restaurant in Guangdong, surrounded by a circle of mulberries and purple fruit buds, adding softness to the softness, giving the beauty of spring an image.
Guangdong locals will also use mulberry buds to make sliced meat soup, which is also smooth, tender and fragrant. Pink pieces of meat wrapped in glutinous rice are "dead" in mulberry bud, like the cartoon "Ha ha Jing Hua Yuan" (adapted from Li Ruzhen’s novel in the late Qing Dynasty) that I watched when I was very young, and the scene of a silkworm girl lying drunk on mulberry leaves in the silk country.
Mulberry buds and mulberries: small hands holding lanterns.
Photography/Li Zhentai
The story background of "Jing Hua Yuan" took place in the Tang Dynasty. There is a "Dahuanguo" in the legendary biography of Nan Ke Taishou, which is an ant hill under a locust tree. In reality, the buds of Sophora japonica are really edible, and they are very common in Shaanxi. The buds of Sophora japonica are slightly bitter, not as sweet as Sophora japonica. They can be served cold or fried, but they are slightly toxic. You should not overeat because of your appetite.
However, the Tang Dynasty gourmets more than 1000 years ago didn’t think so much. When Li Gongzuo wrote the biography of the satrap of Nanke, he should have eaten a lot of Sophora japonica buds before he had a dream of Nanke. Otherwise, how could there be a magical imagination of "enjoying a great country in Huai"? Although Sophora bud is a "spring-limited" side dish of human beings, it is indeed a feast for small ants!
Fried locust tree buds with eggs, the "dream of Nanke" in the plate.
Figure/worm creativity
People in China eat buds in spring. Where are the most exotic food customs?
In spring, the sprouts in the home-cooked dishes are full of freshness, which also solves the trouble of "lack of appetite in spring and autumn". In some places, the buds can not only stimulate your appetite, but also refresh your spirit. It seems to remind you that spring is coming!
I have eaten mango buds in Yunnan. Just picked from the tree, sour green mango buds, simply cut a few petals and mix them with heavy spices such as Chili powder and garlic paste, which makes your taste buds bloom first. Once the acid enters the soul, it stays between the teeth, and spring can be so vigorous.
Green Mango Bud: Get excited, spring is coming!
Photography/Li Zhentai
In Guizhou, which is adjacent to Yunnan, eating buds is a "knife edge licking blood". In Pu ‘an, Guizhou, there is a poisonous Polygonum multiflorum Thunb, but the tender bud is a local delicacy. For local people, eating Polygonum multiflorum buds is as common as eating Toona sinensis buds. The cold Polygonum multiflorum buds in the small restaurant are the "hard currency" on the tip of the tongue in spring.
In Guangdong and Guangxi, bud and wenwan can also be related. The sandalwood with a string of hands can also be "coiled" on the tip of the tongue. Sandalwood buds are slightly bitter, so they should not be eaten raw directly. They need to be blanched with hot water, and then added with oil and salt for cold salad or stir-frying. The buds of the sandalwood tree are tender and smooth, which seems to coat the tip of the tongue with a layer of "patina" when eating.
Stir-fried qu qu bud, oily with high light.
Figure/worm creativity
Sandalwood buds can be eaten, and the "neighbors" of sandalwood trees also have something to say. There is a tree in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which appears in the Book of Songs together with the sandalwood tree: "There is a sandalwood tree, and its lower dimension is slim." This "peach" is also called "peach", and the scientific name is Broussonetia papyrifera. When the buds grow to the length of the little finger, it is the best time to enjoy the taste. As soon as the hot water is boiled, it will not lose its fragrance. When it is wrapped in flour and steamed in the pot, the children next door will cry. Broussonetia papyrifera shoots have a high appearance rate in the Book of Songs. "Yellow birds and yellow birds are not gathered in Yi", which means the "spring outing picnic" of yellow birds on Broussonetia papyrifera.
In Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, in spring, the cypress trees all over the mountains spread branches like "Panlong", and the green "Long Lin" on it is the cypress bud called "tender and pretty bud" by the locals. This kind of magical bud, which looks like a myth from Game of Thrones, is a local specialty dish, even included in the Herbal Medicine for the Relief of Famine in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty. Longbai buds can be stewed, fried, steamed and mixed, and can be made into cans to permanently "seal" the perishable spring scenery.
Peanut bud, stir-fried in the pot, is crisp and shiny.
Photography/Liu Zhong
In Henan province, a kind of lilac strip-shaped floret is often opened in the wild and on the roadside, and its leaves are a bit like dandelion leaves, so it is also named echinacea. Its tender buds can also be eaten, called thorn buds, and its scientific name is thistle. Fresh spiny buds can be eaten without blanching, and the cool taste is a bit special, and the taste is quite like "dark drink" black pine root beer.
In my hometown, Heilongjiang, there is a kind of Artemisia bud growing in the Daur nationality gathering area. Although it bears the word willow, it has nothing to do with willow. This kind of fresh bud can be dipped in sauce and mixed with cold dishes, while the dried Artemisia buds can stew fish. I used to be a guest at a friend’s house of Daur nationality. The secret of their delicious pot-stewed river fish is to put dried tarragon buds into the pot when using it.
Stewed spareribs with Artemisia argyrophylla with Daur characteristics are simple and bold.
Figure/worm creativity
The Daur language of Artemisia scoparia is called "Kumule". The Daur people also have the "Kumule Festival", which specially set up a festival for Artemisia annua, because it is said that Artemisia annua helped Daur ancestors through the famine years. As far away as the snow country in Saibei, the Artemisia selengensis bud has also had a dream linkage with the lush south of the Yangtze River. According to historians’ research, Su Dongpo’s "Artemisia selengensis" is the "Artemisia selengensis" in the puffer fish’s desire to go up, which is Artemisia selengensis bud. The ancestors of ancient Yue, Jiangsu and Zhejiang also used Artemisia selengensis bud to detoxify puffer fish. If Su Dongpo knew that Daur people thousands of miles away stewed river fish with Artemisia buds, what kind of poem would Su Dongpo write?
China people’s survival wisdom is concentrated in the dishes made by Bud Bud.
If the survival laws of nature are concentrated in buds, then the survival wisdom of China people is concentrated in the dishes made of buds. Take the most common bean sprouts as an example, there are also different "genres" such as mung bean sprouts, soybean sprouts, pea sprouts and black bean sprouts.
Bean sprouts: Give me some color and give you a delicious meal.
Figure/vision china
Black bean sprouts are "heterogeneous" in bean sprouts, and there is even a "dark dish" of "black bean sprouts and sauerkraut stewed with blood sausage" in Northeast China. I once ate it in middle school. Needless to say, the thick sauerkraut and the bloody sausage were really endowed with the finishing touch by the crisp and fresh black bean sprouts.
In Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan, one of the tea tree hometowns in China, there is a tradition of eating tea tree buds directly. On the tea mountain in the spring night, the lush tea forest is like a miniature universe, each tea tree is like a "space station" and the tea bud is like a pocket-sized "space shuttle". The locals directly fry the eggs with tea buds. When the golden eggs are spread out, it is the "space shuttle" version of tea buds "flying over the solar system".
Stir-fried sunflower buds in oyster sauce, spring version of "sea and land fresh"
Figure/worm creativity
Along the land of China, we can also eat peanut bud in Jiangxi, walnut buds in Gansu, alfalfa buds in Gansu, poplar buds in Henan, cattail buds in Shandong, magnolia buds in Beijing, buckwheat buds in Shanxi, radish buds in Anhui, Rhus chinensis buds in Guangxi, and twin buds in Yunnan …
China people eat buds, eat fresh fireworks in spring, and eat a portrait of their hometown. One bud after another makes spring returns, and one bud after another makes people full of vitality. However, the practice of budding or homely or novel also reflects the simple but vigorous creativity of China people.
Every slender bud is a beautiful stroke. People use plates as manuscript paper and "read" it in spring gourmet prose …
People who choose Toona sinensis buds and thorn buds in the vegetable market.
Photography/Wanrui
Text | Luming Literature Valley
Photo Editor | Binglingdu
Map Editor | Shao Tianrui
Cartography | Jiuyang
First picture of the article | Liu Zhong
Article Cover | Picture Worm Creativity
