My hometown Dongshan Island is located at the intersection of the East China Sea and the South China Sea. From a long time ago, there was a well-known home-cooked dish called "Four Gentlemen". To be precise, it's a traditional dish, with soup and vegetables.
The practice of Sijintang is actually very simple: cut the washed squid or dried cuttlefish vertically into blocks along its veins and soak them in warm water. Then put the soaked dried seafood and soaked soup into the pork pieces with appropriate amount of fine fertilizer and cook them together, filter out the floating foam, then break the tofu pieces and cook them together, and finally add garlic pieces to cook the whole pot, add fish sauce according to their respective tastes, and remember to sprinkle "Lingdao" pepper when taking out the pot, so that the taste will be more fragrant and palatable. This is a traditional dish that people on the island can never get tired of eating-Si Shi.
Doesn't it look simple? But I can tell you that this is the taste now, and the ingredients of the improved "New Four Jinshi Soup". Different from the traditional four Jinshi soup making practice and food selection. According to the elders, the four ingredients that the four traditional scholars in the ancient city must choose in the early days are: dried dog mother fish (pickled snake mullet), pork breast with skin, local white tofu and seasonal white garlic (garlic).
As far as dried fish is concerned, it's not simple, but it's actually quite particular. To be a "Four Scholars", first of all, the bitch's chest should be dried with fresh "black dog mother fish" with deep skin color, which grows on the local island reef. If it is produced in the Taiwan Province Strait or the South China Sea and other peripheral waters, the "bitch" and "bitch" (local accent, referring to foreign articles) caught are obviously much worse. Of course, people who are good at cooking in the ancient city even divide dogs and mother fish into "coarse scale", "young (fine) scale" and "brocade scale" according to the shape and color of fish scales, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages by quality, choose the best from the best and choose carefully.
Another example is the choice of pig breast meat, so it is best to choose pig breast meat, which has thicker skin, more fat and less lean meat; White tofu is made of local white tofu; Because the above ingredients can withstand long-term cooking, the characteristics of various ingredients can complement each other and taste fresh and sweet. The choice of garlic segments can be exquisite, which is called "garlic turn", that is, the big white garlic is cut into segments. There is a taboo rural saying here. In the early days, people described a family as "extremely poor" and compared it to a sentence: "Poor enough to cook Yi Deng urine with minced garlic" (lamp urine is the fuel waste left after the green light in the temple is lit). Therefore, the garlic ingredients used in Sizi only choose the garlic white part, and the garlic green and garlic tail parts are abandoned because of taboos.
Island people's "relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on the sea to eat the sea" has been the principle of feeding since ancient times. You don't have to ask for delicacies. Just raise your hand and you can make delicious dishes.
In the early days, people pursued the original flavor of food and were extremely strict about ingredients. Sijinshi soup is both soup and dish. When people entertain relatives and friends at festivals, it is especially warm and proud to serve an orthodox Sijinshi soup. It can supplement high-quality protein, and has the effects of improving intelligence, strengthening brain, clearing away heat and diminishing inflammation, moistening skin, invigorating spleen and tonifying kidney. Suitable for all ages.
With the rapid development of social economy, material life is more colorful, and many traditional recipes have been improved by people's selection of materials, constantly catering to the rhythm and taste buds of modern people. Four Jinshi, an authentic dish of ordinary people, ushered in a new life. In terms of material selection, people make full use of the advantages of island resources, and choose seafood such as eel, dolphin, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, oyster, etc., taking dried seafood as the main material to replace the traditional common dried fish, cooking the bottom soup with pork chops or pork belly, and then adding tofu and garlic slices to cook the delicious Dongshan Island home-cooked dish-four pounds of stone soup.
I've always wondered. Why is such an ordinary people's dish called "four gentlemen" when it is given the name of the dish in college? In this regard, I have consulted many elders. I don't know the origin of the name "Four Scholars", is it related to the selection of scholars in the imperial examination, or is it a kind of hope of the people?
There are different opinions about the origin of the "four sons".
There is a legend here: in the winter of the Qing Dynasty, my hometown island, which was engaged in fishing, was suddenly hit by a bad natural disaster. "There is no farming in the sea" and "the northern ship of merchants' trade was almost sunk by huge waves". The ancient city was depressed and the people were miserable. On New Year's Eve, a large number of good businessmen cut four big pigs in the ancient city and donated a small piece of pork to each family, saying "eat meat for the New Year". People take out the only preserved fish at home that has survived the winter, add tofu and seasonal green garlic, and cook it in a large pot as "cooking". At this time, officials went to the ancient city to express their condolences to the people. The official suddenly smelled the smell of food in the room, looked around and found that it was the smell of a pot of food on the table. After tasting it, he was full of praise and asked why it was a famous dish. Unable to respond, the squire who accompanied him had a brainwave and casually replied, "Four scholars". The "four gentlemen" got their name from this.
Over the years, people on the island have a preference for this soup. "It has been passed down from generation to generation as the name of the four gentlemen", "The four gentlemen who eat good food and eat by the government and the people * * *".
From people's attention to this soup, it is not difficult to imagine that it has the potential to celebrate and hope. Because in the early home island, similar to "big events" such as launching a boat, completing a large building, wedding ceremony, elders' birthdays, opening a shop, and children's academic success, the host family hosted a banquet to welcome guests, which meant "four gentlemen in soup", and everything was smooth and auspicious.
The "Four Gentlemen" soup is full of fragrance before it is cooked, which makes people drool and can be smelled far away in the neighborhood. This dish can be cooked in almost every household in the ancient city of the island. At present, the four-gluten stone has almost become a signature dish in the restaurant stalls on the island, and foreign tourists also know to order this soup. They think this dish is "neutral and realistic", which combines the freshness of the sea with the taste of mountains, is not fierce or wild, and has the cultural characteristics of ancient city meals. The boss in charge of welcoming guests and ordering food said with a smile: After eating my "four gentlemen", I am healthy and promoted to a higher position. My daughter is clever and literate.
I think that the green garlic and white tofu of the four gentlemen does not mean that it is clear; Cuttlefish (cuttlefish) is entrusted with the cultural inheritance of the fragrance of Chinese ink from generation to generation; Pork belly represents all kinds of things in the world ... private thoughts and interests.
My children studying abroad, every time before going home for the holidays, my lover began to plan how to manage the food and make the children eat more palatable. In her subconscious mind and concept, children leave their hometown and go out, just like eating "almost junk food", which is not fresh and has no nutrition. "How can it compare with the seafood on our island?" This is because of her complex about local eating habits, and the dish "Four Soups" will also bear the brunt of her pre-arranged recipes.
"Four Jinshi", the golden combination of four ingredients, nourishes the taste buds of hometown people, and is also the "four Jinshi" of soup, which makes people "better". It carries the memories of hometown flavor handed down from generation to generation on the island. ...
Draft 20 18/06/ 13