第四集 时间的味道

第四集时间的味道

Time is a friend of food, but also it’s enemy. New technologies can help preserve food, while traditional preservative technique may create different and even more tender flavors, through salting、air-drying、stewing or smoking procedures. Today, the relative traditional foods still influence the Chinese diet, and preserve the unique feeling of the Chinese to watch flavor and the world.

The old Hulan river flows gently on autumn morning. Originating from the Lesser Khingan Mountain range, it winds its way through

The Songhua river. Kinsuhi lives in Beijing, to her, hometown means nothing, but the pickles she misses the most. The mother flora the cabbage seeds in July, when the hottest season over year begins, the high quality plants also the perfect ingredient for making kimchi. Today, King is to learn how to make kimchi for the very first time.

Korean like to celebrate festivals with ??tiok, a kind of rice cake. The steamed glutinous rice flour will be pounded until turning mote to sticky. The combination of sweet soft tiok and fresh kimchi is unmatched. Women villagers will go to every household to help make kimchi. The spicy fragrance has permeated the small yard. Every household in this village has a cellar. Lactic acid ferment quietly, half a month later, the fresh cabbages will turn into tasted kimchi.

People will never give up their desire for fresh food, but they are likely prefer to pickled food as long as they accept flavor. And the affection for it will grow as time goes by.

Kimchi is the main dish the dinner.

Kimchi products vary a lot, even the same kimchi product may taste completely different: fresh when cool and tender when hot.

And Korean house wives are always proud of their cooking skills.

When kim’s parents are busy pickling vegetables, people reside in 4000 kilometers away are fascinating

with anather flavor in the early autumn.

The different climate and different geographical conditions in south china have created different cuisines

and different fresh keeping methods.

Cured meat is popular in winter. The curing process was originally invented to prevent fresh meat from rotting

in southern weather. Today the cured food of here is served at banquet.

Clay pot rice is also a classic dish made with cured meat.it’s a complicated and ordure task to cook clay pot rice which requires precise control of heat. Traditional clay pot rice is made in the clay pot with rice that was harvest between 3 and 9 month earlier. Cook the rice over a really high heat first, then put the pot on a charcoal stone to ensure the juice from the meat seeps into rice thoroughly. The pot and sticky dish is the most proper choice in winter.

Tian’s family runs a cured meat shop. Every morning,

he is the busiest one in the shop. Tian has been engaged

in the business for ten years. And the shop named Hexing has history of 60 years. Today, Tian manages this shop with his father and uncle.

Nearly all the elders in HongKong can hardly resist the dainty flavor of Nanan cured duck.

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Thanks to a fleshy vomer and crispy texture, it’s a perfect material to cook the taro cured duck pot. In autumn and winter, tian’s shop looks like a cured meet expo. And the most famous product is their self-made sausages. The production workshop was set up not far from the shop in the hongkong island in order to facilitate quality management. The whole production process still remains manual. Not until one year after produced can the casing of sausages be used. Rake is used to break holes and casing over the fill of meat to squeeze the air off. Only the experienced workers can smoothly complete the process to bind the sausages with ropes. Sausages used to be sun dried before being stored. But the growing humidity has made it hard to dry them in the natural way, so the bacon process was introduced. A week later, appetizing smell has permeated through the factory. ‘’

The cured meat and the Chinese traditional flavor. At a remote place on the Chinese mainland you can

experience a more ancient an aboriginal tase. Xiangxi is located in where China’s eastern and western part meet. Mountains here are dangerously steep, while transport is inconvenient. ‘A ccording to miao traditions, all girls can inherent the silver ornament. The whole set of ornaments was passed down from my mother,’

Longyi was born in this remote village and she’s been eager to see the outside world since childhood. In lunar August white flowers are blossoming, it’s time to make soused fish. Longyi’s brother is making a barrel used to store the fish. A barrel is usually made of hard firry wood. And through strict procedures, it’s hooped with bamboo strips to prevent salt corrosion. Rice Flower colored is raised in padding field, it feeds on rice flowers so it was named after the flower.

Frying glutinous rice is the first step in making soused fish. The fried rice is an indispensable condiment.

A heavy stone is put on top of the fish, pounder in layers in the barrel. They’ll be edible one month later. Longyi feels her heart can be purified every times she returns.

‘we all like riding motorbike,we enjoyed it especially when there was no road. I studied hard, because I knew why I should study hard. I must go outside. No pains no gains. Soused fish and cured meat were a great help to us during our school years. Mom used to cook a huge bottle of soused fish for us. You can add soybeans in the fish and radish cubes in cured meat. Then take them with you to school.’

It’s cold in winter in xiangxi. Before winter arrives every household in the village will make smoke meat.

Xiangxi is rich in timber and best for smoke curing, fuel is hard wood, such as tea-trees or strawberry-trees. During cooking, the salted cutlers are hung over a caldarium, commonly seen in the kitchens of Mao, epiphysis、pine cons and orange peels are added into the fire place, continuously to give the smoke to meat-it pleasant smell.

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The best place of storage is the paddy heap in the barn,

because it’s dry and sun proof. Before cooked the smoke meat has been burnt on the surface to chark on fire. And clean with water in which rice had been winsd . Smoke meat fried with raddish strips is one of the most commom dishes on the miao table.

To the Miao ethnic groups, soused fish and smoked meat are more than just food, they are part of their life and memories to be remembered by history.

soused fish and smoked meat have accompanied the miao ethnic girl even if she has had a new world.

Huizhou is the birth place of hui merchants and Huizhou culture. In ancient times, local residente had to leave the small but popular Huizhou to make a living far from home. The food they carried they would made it through air drying and smoking processes were easy to preserve during the long trip. For example, laba toufu is as hard as discus but it can be preserved for quite a long time. But food will always go bad. Unexpectedly, rotten food created a new flavor. Stinky dishes like smelly toufu and harry toufu have become something that distinguish hui cuisine. Chinese perch is a kind of fresh water

fish native to china. And the thrifty and intelligent Huizhou people invent the magic of cooking the fish to curing or fermenting prossesses.

Slice salted pork is another classic dish of hui cruizine. Cut the salted meat into slices and place them on a camphorwood board without smoking. Wait until the board thoroughly drains the grease from the meat. This way the pork will taste refreshing.

Today in Huangshan mountain area, you can still see hams and salted meat being hung and sun-dried in the yards of local farm house.

Shake Ye thinks his hometown produce the best ham in the world. Of course, he also knows Jin Hua in Zhejiang ,not far from Huizhou ,has a better-known ham product famous for its nice color, pleasant romer and fresh taste.

Jin hua ham is usually divided into five parts. Shangfang literally the upper part is the best.

It’s an indispensible ingredient for making Braised Ham in Honey Sauce, a traditional dish in Jiangsu and

Zhejiang. It’ll take a cook much energy and time to finish the high cost dish. But the sweet salty taste is truly incomparable. Zhongfang, the middle part, can be shredded and cooked with tendons and sea cucumber into a very high end dish served at traditional banquets. The other three parts—ham shank, ham floor and ham grace could be used for cooking soup. The broth that is cooked with jinhua ham compose comes a basic ingredient of dishes popular in Jiangsu Zhejiang and Guangdong. Natural conditions influence the

traditional technique of ham making. Mountain’s surrounding Jinhua city create a perfect natural environment for the production. So someone has suggested the ham develop from the Hui dish ‘sliced salty pork’. But some legend show that the ham originated 1000years ago in song dinesty and was usually used to feed the army . today modern equipment has been introduced from europ to produce the ham. The new product that in cooperate Chinese and western flavors have been worked out. Every pig leg is to be massaged to ensure smooth aspiration and thorough fermentation of the meat. The control of the

temperature and humility are important to make the meat properly salted. The reduced content of salt will contribute to a healthy diet. After a 30 month’s fermentation in cellars the meat fonally turns the ham into ham with a strong aroma. Ham dish’s also been improved. The process less salted ham slices meet the demand of health. The new ham products that can be eaten rare provide the traditional diners with the opportunities to experience flavors from abroad. Jinhua ham is progressing just like the city where it’s produced.

In the big cities like shanghai, people better cherish the memory of traditional food. SanYang southern product shop is well-known among the elders in Shanghai, almost all the dry food product from Jiangsu and Zhejiang can be found here.

During the spring festival in 2012, 30000 jinhua hams were sold out of here. Each of them was produced in the traditional way. ‘I don’t need hand cream all year around, my hands are always covered of ham oil. I don’t know how many times I need to wash my hands per day. We have enough oil.’ The shop sells cured food that

is popular in jiangsu and Zhejiang. For example, graced duck with soy sauce in Hangzhou, the bacon use while hanghai locals to make Pickled Tuk fresh. The cured yellow croaker that Ningbo citizens prefer. The dried bamboo shoots as one of course as pickled Chinese mustard to be cooked with pork while the xaoxing people.

Groceries like Sanyang southern product shop are somewhat like the museums can memorize the tastes move to Shanghai by immigrants.

In shanghaii if you have not try dishes cooked by Madam Wang, you can hardly call yourself an artful eater. Wang is great at cooking dished from Ningbo saoxing and shanghai. Such as Braised ribs with sauce, stewed shrimp, deep fried butterfish, stewed green bamboo shoots and stir fried crab. ‘fat or thin, all women like new dress, sodo I . as soon as I find a vegetable market, my friends and I would get separated. Where is the woman who tried on shoes just now? go to the vegetable market. I prefer vegetable market.

Wang’s most popular dish is the drunken crab. ‘I’ve loved food since childhood while my parents enjoyed

cooking. Each of the resident has built in alleys can accommodate more than a dozen households. All the households started to cook at the same time. When I was young I usually visited neighbors to see what they are cooking. I watched and learned from them.’

People in jiangsu and Zhejiang have gotten use to preserving food in wine since ancient time, which later became a cooking method. Besides drunken crabs, drunken shrimps are also the favorite dish of local diners.

‘The dirt here we have to brush them clearly. Look,

it’s bright red, very fresh. When it’s done, all this part will turn black. The black the better.’ Liquor

can help forth crab to spit out the dirt. Every cook

has a unique way to season dishes. Besides millet wine, wang also has some other secret methods. ‘rasioy is vary from person to person. It totally depends on my judgment. The most important thing is to make the aroma float out.’ It’s also very important to seal the container well. ‘Shanghai people like pickled food. Delicious pickle pig feet, and chicken wings are great appetizers.’ The key thing of making pickled food is

the vinasse extracted from millet wine. ‘the

vessels containing pickled food should be placed in shady places. It can’t be opened until ten days after sealed up.’Ten days later, wang’s dish is finished. Pickled and drunken are all refer to as a method of using wine. It not only provide the method for preserving food, also creates a mellow flavor. Dehydration can play a similar role in making dried scallop and mushroom. Strong aroma will be released only after a thorough Dehydration. Dried laver is widely consumed in China. Various Fujian snacks are all cooked with it.

Xiapu ,the oldest town in eastern Fujian, has many natural harbors along its coastline. the sea has become a natural laver farm.

Linrenzhuo, a fishermen in xiapu, is going to erect some more bamboo posts in his farm. When I was eighteen, I began to learn how to plant laver from my dad, now it has been 28 years.’The preliminary procedure aims to hollow the just filled bamboos to make it easy to erect them at the sea bottom. Wind and waver may make it more difficult. Each bamboo is at least 16 meters long; it is not easy to accomplish this task in the sea.

Lin patrols his farm every day. When the tides ebb, the nets emerge. Young laver plants can enjoy sunshine and undergo photosynthesis. When the tides rise, the sprouts absorb nutrients from the water. The tides repeatedly rise and fall, and harvest season finally come again. The release of laver flavor totally relies on baking. Heat lead to the transformation of its pigments and cells. It’s why laver plants become more fragrant after being baked. The harvest season ends, but Lin’s work continues. Here nature and human beings have jointly created a clad scope of natural scenes. 3930

At 5 am the fishermen in Kouhu town Yunlin county are waiting for the most important moment in the year. Mullet roe is a specialty in the area along southwestern coast Taiwan, looking like a China’s ink stick, it’s called Karasumi, richly “Tang ink”in Japan, the Japanese also see it as one of the top delicacies in the world.

Over the past 3 hundred years or more, mullet roe was always one of the most available sea products in Tiwan.

Around the winter solstice, adult mullets would breed in the waters of the southwest coast of Taiwan after a long trip from the sea area of the north coast of the mainland. Captivebreed breeding of mullet has emerged in the past ten years. The mullet harvest season is also called the golden season. Mullet take three or four years to mature, there roe are big and taste good. Now it has been the largest roe production area in Taiwan. The fresh mullet roes will be salted four to five hours before fest in order to squeeze out the water. After been dehydrated in the open air, they will turn into the mullet roe products with expected firmness or color. Mullet roes can be cooked in various ways, while the original taste can be best retain out their roasted in the traditional way. Rice wine should be sprayed over the roes before roasting. The roasting time is important. Insufficient cooking would ruin the taste. The fragrant will float out when both sides turn golden. Just after taking a bite, you can feel an extremely fine texture. The slightly spicy radish and fresh garlic sprouts will enhance the fine texture of mullet roes. Many restaurant serve innovative recipes so far to

cook mullet with vegetables and mullet meat.

Some gourmets once asserted food cooked without salt taste the worst in world. In fact, salt has not only helped in food tenderness, but also provided the most popular method for preserving food.

Scholars once inferred that human’s history has always developed, accompanied by the smell of salt. Taiao, a remote island in the South China Sea, was once famous for the production for sea salt. Various home-made soused fish make up the majority of local specialities and contribute to the continuation of the legends about local delicacies. But as an entire generation ages, but as the whole generation ages, the ancient flavors fade away. The locals are more proud of shrimp paste and shrimp sauce, and salted fish. And shrimp paste is always an excellent ingredient for making fried dished and steamed meat.

This time honored shop has seen four generations of managers. 76-year-old Guo Shaofen, is Taiao native, and has 50 years experience in making shrimp sauce. ‘the fishing season begins on the lunar April the eighth.

Compared with each other, shrimp paste is more delicious while shrimp sauce is tenderer. Shrimp paste should be sliced before we eat it. Both the paste and sauce are made with only salt and shrimp by simply drying the minced ingredients on bamboo sieves. No matter how sauce shops developed in other places, the ancient grocery and the declining fishing village still operates at its own pace. ‘we used to produced three kinds of shrimp products, shrimp paste, shrimp sauce and salted shrimps. Not every one like salted shrimps due to its high amount of salt. We’d actually compliment salty soy bean milk best. And chaozhou people have made it a crispy condiment by frying it. The old vat could contain almost three tons of shrimps paste in the past. Today guo shaofeng manages the shop with her son.

Guo married Mr Zheng at 20, and since then she has participate in the management until Zheng passed away in 2011.

It’s said the most idea to appreciate sunset at Taiao. Here, natural sceneries are not everything.

In the winter, king shunxi planted the seed she brought

from hometown at her Beijing home. Her refrigerator has also been crammed with various hometown foods.

It is the taste of salt, mountain, wind and cloud ,and also the taste of time and love . In a long time, it has incorporated people’s affection for their homeland and people as well as human’s virtue of thrift and perseverance. After passing by, the tip of tongue, they combined with the taste which is deep in the heart.