天作美食

GOD GIVES THE FINE FOODS

Behind these Famous foods, thereare storys like “scoring a lucky hit”. It seems that the delicious from Zhenjiang is a sudden extra blessing given by the god temporarily. Luckily, people in Zhenjiang are good at persisting, and they turned the”accident” into a tradition that has persistedfor thousands of years.

Text by Brooke Translation by Bian Jiajin Photos by Zeng Jian

There is 3-Strange in Zhenjiang: in the noodle pot floats the pot lid; the spiced pork is not a meal; the vinegar will not decay. These are all about foods.鎮(zhèn)江有三怪——面鍋里飄鍋蓋、肴肉不當菜、香醋擺不壞，都與食物有關。

提到鎮(zhèn)江的美食，離不開地利，更離不開天時。很多代表性美食的誕生，背后都有一個﹃歪打正著﹄的故事。仿佛鎮(zhèn)江的美味，都是上天突然賜予的意外之福。幸運的是，善于堅守的鎮(zhèn)江人，把這些一時的﹃巧合﹄，變成了留存千年的堅守。

Pot-lid noodles need to be ?quick strips“, repeatedly pressed into thin noodle wrappers and then cut into strips.鍋蓋面要用 “跳面”，反復擠壓成薄薄的面皮，再用刀切成面條。

From the North to the South and the East to the West

The most popular breakfast in Zhenjiang must be the noodle stands deep in the smack streets and alleys.

In the hot iron pot, with heavy smoke above it, fl oats a small boxwood lid. The skillful chef puts the quickly pressed thin noodle peels into the pot with a thick bamboo stick according to the order given by customers. Peels line up and neatly squeeze under the small lid one by one, without disturbing each other or jumping into the queue. A few minutes later, the cooked noodles are put into the special soup secretly created by the chef, being dressed with the sides chosen by the customers— some are pork kidney pieces, some are tofu strips; sometimes fresh fi sh, single or a mixed choice. In the steam from the bowl are mixed the strong soybean sauce and the smell of herbs. The foodies cannot wait to tuck into a bunch of noodles. Soft and hard are well balanced there, chewable and elastic, and juice and spices are totally locked into the noodles. In the Wu area, where porridge is the main breakfast, Zhenjiang is the only one where noodles can dominate This is also because Zhenjiang geographically lieson the border of the north and south.

Judging from the look of Zhenjiang food, it takes its purity and simplicity from the Northern, without a sophisticated way of cutting or complicated skills. But among Huaiyang cuisine, it stands out for its fresh and tenderness of the river foods.

River foods in Zhenjiang are delicious. Since Zhenjiang is located downstream on the Yangtze River, the river is wider and the water is deeper, rich in fi sh and algae providing the fi sh with a great environment. Thus, reeves shad, catf i sh and coilia ectenes are the heaviest and freshest foods in this area. Besides, the fattest and most tasty fi sh swimming back to the river from the sea during oviposition such as puffers are those swimming back into Zhenjiang area. The local puffer fest in every spring also attracts a lot of food lovers.

Stick to the convention

Two pieces of spiced pork, a basket of crab roe soup dumplings, a bowl of white soup noodles, dipped into Zhenjiang vinegar with thin ginger strips at side and a cup of local ”Jin Shan Bud“ tea—Wu Rongsheng, the inheritor of making ”crystal spiced pork“, the nonphysical cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province, said that, many old people in Zhenjiang eat like this in Yanchun Mansion for their whole life.

“The master sauce of spiced pork needs to undergo 18 procedures of craftsmanship, and the criterion of choosing the raw materials has never been changed in Yanchun Mansion during the past 120 years, ”said Wu. Many customers come here every day, and they can tell the quality of this old brand by the fi rst sip.

1.“Crystal Spiced Pork” and “Crab Roe Soup Dumpling” of Yanchun Mansion have been listed into provincial intangible cultural heritage.宴春樓的“水晶肴蹄”和“蟹黃湯包”都被列入省級非遺。

南北與東西

在早餐以湯飯為主的蘇吳地區(qū)，唯有鎮(zhèn)江以面食占了主兒。

鎮(zhèn)江的早晨，最熱鬧的一定是小街小巷里的鍋蓋面攤。一口燒得冒熱氣的大鐵鍋里，飄著一個黃楊木做的小鍋蓋，手腳麻利的老板，把用粗竹竿跳壓好的面皮切成細條，依照客人點餐的順序放進鍋。一坨坨面皮就像排好隊似的，依次鉆到小鍋蓋下。幾分鐘后，煮好的面條被放入老板秘制的湯料里，然后被澆上客人自選的澆頭——有的是腰花，有的是干絲，有的是時魚，可以單選，也可以混合。空氣中夾雜著濃郁的醬油香和中藥香，食客們迫不及待地夾起一柱面條，軟硬恰當，耐嚼有勁，鮮香入味。北方人把吃面的習俗和做面的技藝帶到這里，又在當地找到合適的食材做成湯頭和澆頭。南北食物在同一個碗里相輔相成，形成了獨特一味。

在外形上，鎮(zhèn)江菜也帶著北方的樸實。不苛求刀法的精妙，也不推崇復雜的技藝，在淮揚菜系中，以嬌嫩、鮮美的江鮮讓人驚艷。據說，當年蔣介石與宋美齡焦山相會，在船上享用過剛剛捕撈上的鰣魚，其鮮美滋味讓宋美齡直到晚年仍念念不忘。

鎮(zhèn)江的江鮮好吃，與地處長江下游與京杭大運河交界的位置相關。長江從西到東一路奔向大海，到達鎮(zhèn)江地界，江寬水深，蟲藻豐富，給魚類提供了良好的生長空間?！伴L江三鮮”鰣魚、鲴魚、刀魚尤以鎮(zhèn)江地區(qū)的最為肥美鮮嫩。此外，從海里洄游江里產卵的魚類例如河豚，也以能到達鎮(zhèn)江的最為強勁有力，吃起來也最為鮮美。鎮(zhèn)江揚中每年春季的河豚盛宴，都吸引了不少食客前往。

百年堅守

鎮(zhèn)江百年老字號宴春樓，每天早上都座無虛席。

2. “Crystal Spiced Pork”水晶肴肉

3.“Large meatball with crab roe”蟹粉獅子頭

4. Puffer in red sauce紅燒河豚

“來兩塊宴春樓的肴肉，一籠蟹黃湯包，一碗白湯面，蘸點鎮(zhèn)江香醋，就著細細的姜絲，再配上一壺本地的“金山翠芽”，很多老鎮(zhèn)江人就這么吃了一輩子。”江蘇省非物質文化遺產“水晶肴肉”的制作技藝傳承人吳榮生說。

鎮(zhèn)江人幾乎每天早上都吃這幾味。不同的店家會有自己的秘方、做法，讓味道略有差異，但大家對核心傳統，都有統一的堅持。像宴春樓、恒順這樣的百年老字號，更是把堅守制作傳統變成一種職責。 “做肴肉的老鹵，十八道制作工藝，原料的選擇標準，我們堅持了一百二十多年，沒有變過?！眳菢s生說。很多食客幾乎天天來吃，一入嘴，就知道是不是這家老店的出品。

也許，正是因為鎮(zhèn)江人骨子里對傳統味道的執(zhí)著，這些傳統美食得以天天出現在鎮(zhèn)江老百姓的餐桌上，始終保持著鮮活的生命力。

5. Using a small pot lid let the steam out from all sides. Thus the noodles will not be sticky, and the flavor will be better.用小鍋蓋四周透氣，這樣下出的面不容易爛，味道更佳。