Riding the wind of rebirth

Because of his writing, Zhou Zhi studied both "Suiyuan Shidan" and "Xingyuan Lu", two books with completely different styles.

For example, the "Two Methods of Cooking Knife Fish" recorded in "Suiyuan Shidan" states: "Knife fish is best steamed in the same way as shad, with honey wine and light soy sauce on a plate. No water needs to be added. If you find the bones too many, you can use a very sharp knife to scrape off the fish fillets and remove the bones with tongs. Simmer it in ham soup, chicken soup, or bamboo shoot soup for an exceptionally delicious flavor. People in Nanjing, fearing the many bones, would deep-fry it until it was very dry before pan-frying it. There is a saying: 'A hunchback who tries to straighten his back will not live.' This is what it means. Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife to diagonally cut the back of the fish to break up all the small bones, then pan-fry it until golden brown, add seasonings, and when you are about to eat it, you will not even know there are bones: This is the method of Tao Da Tai from Wuhu."

It seems to be written in great detail, but if you try to make it entirely based on it, you'll find that it's basically superficial. It's written from the perspective of the "viewer" rather than the "operator," and the details are not expressed.

The *Xingyuanlu* also contains a recipe for "Drunken Fish": "Clean fresh carp, marinate for two days, turn it over and marinate for another two days, then wash it in brine. Rinse it with clean water and let it dry. Wash it in liquor and put it in a jar. Place some peppercorns on each layer of fish, pour in rice wine to submerge the fish by about an inch. Then add about half an inch of liquor. Cover the top with peppercorns and seal the jar with mud. The total amount should be seven-tenths full of fish, two-tenths full of rice wine, and one-tenth full of liquor. This will make it very satisfying. When eating, take the bottom layer, add finely diced pork fat, peppercorns, and scallions, all finely chopped like paste, and stew until very tender. It is truly a delicacy!"

Any housewife or home cook can basically replicate the recipe by following this recipe. Moreover, the record is full of details, such as eating from the bottom layer, adding lard during cooking, and clearly specifying the steps and the amount of various ingredients. Only someone who has actually done it can truly appreciate the details, making it "operable" for readers to replicate.

The book "Xingyuanlu" also records the Li family's gluttonous improvements to food. Due to his official position, Li Huanan recorded a considerable number of Jiangzhe dishes in the book. However, in many of these records, we can see his attempts to modify them into "vegetarian dishes." For example, the "method of cooking bird's nest" describes it as follows: "Use cooked meat to make very fine meatballs, add mung bean flour, soybean oil, peppercorns, wine, and egg white to make meatballs that are as long as bird's nests. Soak and wash the bird's nests, tear them into pieces, stick them to the outside of the meatballs, wrap them tightly, and scald them in boiling water. Take them out immediately. After all the meatballs are cooked and scalded, use clear meat broth as a sauce, add a little sweet wine and soybean oil, boil them in the pot once or twice, then put the meatballs in and boil them again. Remove them from the bowl, sprinkle with pepper powder, chopped green onions, and shiitake mushrooms. It tastes very good."

Adding Sichuan peppercorns to meatballs is a common practice in Sichuan cuisine, typically used only for deep-fried meatballs. It's completely absent in other regional cuisines. This dish, however, incorporates it into the meatballs, then coats them with bird's nest before simmering them in boiling water to set their shape. Finally, a separate broth is prepared and served with the meatballs. This method is consistent with the preparation of many broth-based dishes in modern Sichuan cuisine. The original record seems to better cater to the Sichuanese preference for rich, spicy flavors.

Li Laosan shook his head: "This is the first time I've ever seen someone sprinkle Sichuan peppercorns into bird's nest. Is this still done in Sichuan?"

“The last pepper powder is probably black pepper.” Zhou Zhi pondered for a moment: “If it were black pepper, it would make perfect sense. We still usually put peppercorns in soup, but people who are particular about it usually take them out afterward, just to enjoy the flavor in the soup, and they don’t want to bite into them when they eat the rice.”

"Maybe Old Li has a stronger palate," Li Laosan joked.

“Not only Old Li, but Young Li is also a glutton,” Zhou Zhi said. “It is said that there were no mandarin fish in Luojiang before, but later a dish called ‘Wenjiang Mandarin Fish’ came about, which is related to him.”

"It is said that when Li Diaoyuan was an examiner for the imperial examinations, a friend invited him to eat mandarin fish. Li Diaoyuan thought the fish was very delicious and said that there seemed to be no such fish in the Wenjiang River in his hometown."

“My friend said this was easy; if you could match the first line of my couplet, I could give you fish fry. So he took him to the pond and recited: ‘Green grass fish in the green grass pond, fish playing in the green grass, green grass playing with fish.’ Li Diaoyuan couldn’t match it at first and was very ashamed.” “Half a year later, Li Diaoyuan went to the countryside for a spring outing and saw a young girl with yellow flowers in her hair walking in a field of rapeseed flowers. He was immediately inspired and replied: ‘Yellow flower girl in the yellow flower field, girl playing with yellow flowers, yellow flowers playing with girl.’ He immediately ran to his friend’s house, exchanged the second line for 1,800 fish fry, and then quickly sent them to the Wenjiang River in his hometown.”

"The mandarin fish then multiplied here and became a local delicacy."

Mai Xiaomiao turned to a page in "Stories of Couplets": "This story is in this book too!"

After finishing that, she turned to another story: "Elbow, I don't understand this part. The character for 'ice' also has two dots, right?"

Zhou Zhi took the book to the counter to pay, took the couplet story from Mai Xiaomiao's hand, and saw the story recorded on it.

This book is structured around Li Diaoyuan's experiences from childhood to adulthood. The story tells of his first trip to Chengdu, the provincial capital, for the imperial examinations. He sought lodging for the night, but the innkeeper refused him because the rooms were full.

Li Diaoyuan noticed that there was an empty side room, so he inquired about it, saying, "I have a side room." The innkeeper replied, "Once upon a time, a scholar stayed at this inn and saw a beautiful young woman inside, both talented and beautiful. While pouring wine, he wanted to take her as a concubine. The woman said, 'If you are exceptionally talented, I will submit. I have a couplet for you to match: "Icy wine, one drop, two drops, three drops."' The scholar pondered deeply, staying up all night, but could not come up with a matching line, and died of anger in his room. Since then, his restless spirit has lingered, chanting 'Icy wine, one drop, two drops, three drops...' repeatedly throughout the night until the rooster crowed. As a result, no one dared to stay in this room."

Li Diaoyuan said, "What is there to fear? I will stay here tonight and rid you of its vengeful spirit!" That night, at the third watch, a mournful voice indeed wailed, "Cold wine..." Li Diaoyuan immediately replied, "Lilac blossoms, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands!"

From then on, the spirit of the poet disappeared, and his room continued to accommodate guests as usual! Thus, Li Diaoyuan's name became famous throughout Sichuan.

Zhou Zhi laughed and said, "Nowadays, books are printed using simplified characters. The character 'ice' in simplified characters uses the current font, but in ancient times, a more common way to write 'ice' was to add a dot above the short horizontal stroke on the left side of the character 'water'. So in the traditional characters of that time, 'ice cold wine' corresponded to one, two, or three dots. And the traditional character 'ten thousand' also had the grass radical in ancient times. So the lilac flower and the upper part of 'hundred, thousand, ten thousand' perfectly match, hence the name 'hundred heads, thousand heads, ten thousand heads'."

After speaking, he took the pen from the salesperson and wrote the couplet in traditional Chinese characters on the back of the receipt. Everyone immediately understood: "Truly a perfect match!" (End of Chapter)