Food: Starting with Wonton Noodles

Liao Boxuan's ancestral home is in G City, but he did not grow up in G City.

His family had settled in the provincial capital since his father's generation.

But now Guangzhou has changed so much that he thought of returning to G City to find his roots.

Big cities have their prosperity, and small cities have their leisure.

He especially misses the memories of the old era that G City still retains.

The arcade areas of Guangzhou have long been transformed into modern spaces, making it impossible for him to find any trace of his childhood memories.

On the contrary, the arcade streets of G City are gray and cracked from the erosion of time.

The streets and alleys still exude a strong local flavor, allowing him to feel the spirit of an era that is growing old alongside him.

How can an old person not have old friends, old streets, and old dogs to grow old with?

Now that I have neither old friends nor old dogs, it's not bad to occasionally look at the old street that is almost collapsing.

Of course, what he liked to see most was the traces of the fishing villages still preserved in G City.

In earlier years, in order to encourage the Tanka people to move ashore, subsidies were provided for the repurchase of the boats used by the Tanka people.

Today, the rivers and lakes of the Lingnan region no longer have the rows of boats belonging to the Tanka people.

The scene of Tanka men cooking porridge and selling fish at the bow of their boats and Tanka women washing their hair at the stern on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary can now only be seen in documentaries.

Chen Mingyuan once asked him, "Why do people in Lingnan call dating 'paiduo'?"

Even the local people from Lingnan who accompanied and took care of him couldn't answer the question, and he suddenly realized that times had changed a lot.

Liao Boxuan replied: "Two boats moving side by side is called 'pai' (拍), and one boat towing the other is called 'tuo' (拖). Living on the water is risky, so friendly Tanka people will tow their boats together and go out to sea together."

"When two Tanka families are preparing for a wedding, their boats will go out to sea together for a period of time to get to know each other and test whether the two families are compatible and in sync. If they are suitable, they will get married after a period of dating. So gradually, people in Lingnan have come to use 'paidao' as a euphemism for dating."

The old town of G City is situated on the river that connects to the sea. Along both sides of the river, the Tanka people still live on their boats.

Although Liao Boxuan can no longer live on the boat, he still finds a different kind of enjoyment in standing on the shore and watching the world go by.

Unfortunately, G City doesn't have the variety of delicious food that the Tanka people used to sell from their fishing boats. Even the restaurants on the seaside rafts are mostly overpriced and exploitative.

He doesn't lack the money, but like a fly, it has no real impact, yet it's disgusting.

So the wonton noodles that Zhou Yu cooked instantly transported him back to that era, and he was quite moved.

I want to see what other traditional dishes Zhou Yu can make.

Yesterday, Chen Mingyuan came back and we agreed on two dishes: Dinghu vegetarian cuisine and Huguo cuisine. He was slightly disappointed.

It wasn't that he was being picky about what he couldn't eat; it's just that he'd eaten so many delicious foods over the years, and coincidentally, these two dishes were the ones he'd eaten the most often.

Liao Boxuan said to Chen Mingyuan, "The preparation of Dinghu vegetarian dishes requires three kinds of mushrooms and six kinds of fungus. Sometimes, to pursue tradition, nine kinds of bamboo shoots and one kind of mushroom are added. Just soaking these mushrooms takes half a day, so there is no need to rush."

Chen Mingyuan was somewhat surprised: "Huh? I thought vegetarian dishes were simpler to cook since they're all vegetarian. Are the Protectorate Dishes this complicated too?"

Liao Boxuan joked, "The 'Protect the Nation' dish is quite simple; all you need is a high-speed blender. Just blend the taro and sweet potato leaves separately into juice, then simmer them briefly. The only problem might be arranging it in a yin-yang symbol when serving it."

Chen Mingyuan sensed the teasing in Liao Boxuan's words and asked, "Mr. Liao, do you not like these two dishes?"

Liao Boxuan was silent for a while, then said, "No, it's just that thinking about how you asked him to make it more traditional reminded me of some memories. In the past two years, I've often been invited to eat these two dishes, and everyone says that their version is very traditional and authentic."

"But basically they're all getting more and more fancy, either adding all sorts of mushrooms or trying to come up with all sorts of fancy designs. But since you said he's also very young, I guess he'll end up making this traditional version, so I'm a little disappointed."

"How about we change to two different dishes?"

"No need," Liao Boxuan said. "Preparing the ingredients for Dinghu Shangsu is quite troublesome; why make things difficult for a young man?"

......

Now that the three types of mushrooms had been soaked, Zhou Yu first washed the northern and southern mushrooms, removed their stems, mixed them with peanut oil, and then simmered them in boiling water for fifteen minutes.

After rinsing the soaked bamboo fungus clean, continue to soak it in spring water for another thirty minutes.

Once the vegetarian broth is ready, soak all the other mushrooms for the required time, then clean and prepare them.

Just then, Chen Mingyuan called: "Zhou Yu, we've arrived. Which private room are we in?"

After telling Chen Mingyuan the name of the reserved private room, Zhou Yu said to Sun Zhigang, "You know Chen Mingyuan, could you go and pick him up for me?"

Sun Zhigang nodded and left the kitchen, while Zhou Yu continued the final stewing of the Dinghu vegetarian dish.

He soaked the chopped raw bamboo shoots in plenty of peanut oil until they were thoroughly cooked. Then he deep-fried various mushrooms, along with their roots and soft stems, and scooped them into a bowl.

Pour the stewed vegetarian broth into a bowl, season it slightly, and then simmer for another five minutes.

After simmering, Zhou Yu began to prepare the final plating.

He took a large bowl and first arranged the shiitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, elm ear fungus, yellow ear fungus, bamboo shoots, and white fungus in the shape of a sunflower.

Then fill the bowl with the remaining ingredients and steam for another 15 minutes.

After steaming, invert the bowl onto a plate, add the rinsed snow fungus and osmanthus fungus to the broth, thicken with the original broth, and arrange the vegetables around the bowl.

With this, Dinghu Shangsu is complete.

Compared to Dinghu vegetarian cuisine, Huguo cuisine is much easier to prepare.

After Zhou Yu boiled water in a pot, he added a small amount of baking soda and then blanched the sweet potato leaves in the boiling water.

After removing the sweet potato leaves, rinse them thoroughly with clean water to remove any remaining baking soda.

Squeeze out all the remaining water from the sweet potato leaves by hand, then chop them up and set aside.

After taking three ounces of soaked straw mushrooms, I cut them up, first sautéed them in hot oil until fragrant, then added Dinghu vegetarian broth and simmered for five minutes. Finally, I took out the straw mushrooms and set them aside.

Seeing that Zhou Yu was about to start stir-frying the chopped sweet potato leaves, Zhang Rong couldn't help but ask, "Master Yu, won't stir-frying them like this not look as appealing?"

Huguo Cai belongs to Chaoshan cuisine, but this dish is quite famous in Lingnan. Although Zhang Rong is a chef specializing in Cantonese cuisine, he is also familiar with it.

Zhou Yu's preparation of Dinghu Shangsu can be said to be a different style. Although the ingredients are relatively simple, the true flavor remains unchanged.

However, when Zhou Yu was preparing the dish to protect the nation, his cutting of sweet potato leaves appeared rather perfunctory.

It's worth noting that Chaoshan chefs sometimes use high-speed blenders to cut sweet potato leaves finely enough.

Even though a kitchen knife can't cut that finely, it shouldn't be done so carelessly.