寫出來的一桌好菜讀出來的人間滋味

◇ 文|田 東

寫出來的一桌好菜讀出來的人間滋味

◇ 文|田 東

我是個嘴饞的人。曾向朋友夸耀，從南到北，幾乎沒有不吃的。前幾日讀汪曾祺先生的《受戒》，讀到了高郵咸鴨蛋，饞得直流口水。正好旁邊有本先生的《人間滋味》，一翻開，更是合不上了。

這哪里是本書，分明就是一桌子有溫度，有知識，有美味的精美菜肴。非得坐下來細細品嘗一番不可。

國人吃宴席，先上冷盤，再上熱菜，完了還有甜點和水果?！度碎g滋味》這本書，雖是先生不同時期的文章輯成的，卻也規整有序，先素后葷，縱論古今文人的吃喝文化，續以華夏神州四方食事。讀著滿口生津，恨不能立馬把里面的美味都吃上一遍。

以簡短明快的語言，描寫一件事物或一個場景，這是汪老先生的“拿手菜”，在這些美食小品文中更見真章。開篇《五味》中寫：“延慶山里夏天愛吃酸飯。把好好的飯焐酸了，用井拔涼水一和，呼呼地就下去了三碗?！币痪湓捑桶央y以下口的酸飯寫出了點誘惑力來。

寫北京豆汁兒時，先生說到他北京的同學請他喝豆汁兒，“他帶我去到一家小吃店，要了兩碗，警告我說：‘喝不了，就別喝。很多人喝了一口就吐了?！叶似鹜雭?，幾口就喝完了。我那同學問：‘怎么樣？’我說：‘再來一碗?！?/p>

爽快！

看到這兒你會不會也想來一碗？

As a foodie,I once assured my friends that I have nearly tasted all kinds of cuisines in China.A couple days ago,I was reading Wang Zengqi’s Ordained when salted duck eggs in Gaoyou greeted my eyes.Another book beside me was his A Taste of Life,which totally attracted my attention.

It is more of a fancy feast tempting my taste buds than an ordinary book.

In China,hot dishes usually come after cold ones,and then dessert and fruit.A Taste of Life,though written in different periods,yet perfectly arranged.When appreciating China’s profound eating and drinking culture in this book,I wished these delicacies were right within my reach.

Mr.Wang is quite a master in writing,for his essays about delicacies are of powerfulevidence.His Five Flavors reads,“Folks who live in Yanqing Mountain have partiality for sour rice.First,seal up the cooked rice until sour smell gives off,then add some cool water from the well and mix them together,three bowls in a row is merely a piece of cake.”I totally surrendered to these plain yet appealing words.

One day,his friends treated him a bowl of fermented soya-bean milk in a snack bar,“Don’t push yourself if you don’t like it.”His friend kindly reminded him.He took the bowl and drank up soon.“So?”asked his friends.“One more,please.”He answered.

Terrific!

Do you want to have a try?

更誘人的是遍布書中的美味。從汪老爺子家鄉的炒米，焦屑（鍋巴碎末），咸鴨蛋、茨菰湯、野鴨、斑鳩、到幾乎大江南北都能吃到的薺菜、豆腐、蘿卜、馬鈴薯。從獅子頭、東坡肉、火腿、夾沙肉到白肉火鍋、手把肉、鱖魚……有的寥寥數語，有的長篇大論；短文如猛火爆炒，長篇似慢火清燉，最后出鍋裝盤上桌的，都是一份美味。

不信？

我們隨便挑兩樣嘗嘗。

先來個蘿卜爽口——“心里美蘿卜是北京特色……蘿卜都是一個一個挑選過的，用手指頭一彈，當當的；一刀切下去，卡擦咔嚓的響?！?/p>

再來份干絲提味——“一種特制的豆腐干，較大而方，用薄刃快刀片成薄片，再切為細絲，這便是干絲。講究一塊豆腐干要片十六片，切絲細如馬尾，一根不斷。最初似只有燙干絲。干絲在開水鍋中燙后，潷去水；在碗里堆成寶塔狀，澆以麻油、好醬油、醋，即可下箸?！?/p>

或者來個老先生自創的塞餡回鍋油條下酒——“油條兩股拆開，切成寸半長的小段。拌好豬肉（肥瘦各半）餡。餡中加鹽、蔥花、姜末，加少量榨菜末或醬瓜末、川冬菜末，亦可。用手指將油條小段的窟窿捅通，將肉餡塞入、逐段下油鍋炸至油條挺硬，肉餡已熟，撈出裝盤?！日ù壕砦兜篮??！?/p>

Cuisines in this book are another allurement.From parched rice in Wang’s hometown to rice crust,salt duck eggs,arrowhead soup,wild ducks,various kinds of vegetables and meat…You name it! Some are written in detail,some just a few lines.Anyway,they all have their own strengths and specialties.

Believe it or not？

Let’s start our culinary journey.

First is watermelon radish,a specialty in Beijing.Every radish is carefully selected,and you may hear sweet and pleasant melodies with only one flip or cut.

Would you like to try dried bean curd threads? Its recipe goes like this: divide square-shaped dried tofu into 16 pieces,and threaded the pieces into thin yet firm stripes.Put the stripes into boiled water and add some sauces to penetrate those drained stripes.Then the dish is ready with perfect combination of color,aroma and taste.

How about fried bread stick stuffed with minced pork?Here comes the recipe: first you need to prepare some minced pork,and evenly stir it with such sauces as salt,minced scallion,ginger,and pickles.Then cut fried bread stick into several segments,cram the mixed pork into these segments.Finally fry these stuffed segments until they got stiff….It tastes even better than fried spring rolls.

書頁翻動間，吃一口搭配薄荷葉的石斑魚，來兩嘴蒙古的手把肉，叫上一碗云南的米線，再喝兩口豆汁兒，抹一抹嘴，聽老爺子擺一下唐宋古人吃喝的龍門陣，或者去昆明打個望，瞧瞧老爺子讀書時的各種美味，那感覺，不僅口齒留香，還有一股歲月的味道。

這也是本書取名《人間滋味》而非《人間美味》的原因之所在吧。

滋味，是有穿越時空的歷史感的。就好像汪老爺子在字里行間不時慨嘆的那樣，“我很想喝一碗咸菜茨菰湯”“自離家鄉后，我沒有吃過這樣好吃的蘿卜”……偶爾閃現的這些句子，乍看是大白話，甚至有一兩篇文章，如《沽源》《故鄉的元宵》，沒有直接描寫具體的食物，可字里行間的鄉愁就如同鹽，讓這本書讀來更有滋味。

This book presents you perfect visual feast.You can enjoy grouper matched with mint leaves,hand grilled meat in Mongolia,rice noodles in Yunnan,and fermented soya-bean milk,or appreciate those eating and drinking culture in Dang and Song dynasties.You can also go to Kunming and taste those exquisite delicacies during Wang’s school days.It is not only a taste of flavor,but also a taste of times.

That’s probably why this book is named A Taste of Life rather than A Taste of flavors.

Spanning through time and space,tastes possess their own history.It is like,now and then,Mr.Wang sighed with feeling that “I really want to have the Arrowhead Soup with Pickles”,“I’ve never eaten such a delicious radish since leaving home”….Although those occasionally flashing sentences are very simple and some articles,such as Guyuan County and The Lantern Festival of My Hometown,are even not describing specific food directly,the nostalgia reveals in between the lines just like salt rendering this book with more flavor.

書里還有一種鹽，那就是汪曾祺老先生和文人們的食事。

寫菜寫吃喝，對美味的臨摹，對童年美食的追憶，這些我們也可以寫，然而與各式文人在美食上的交際，卻是獨一份兒的經歷。

這就好比獨門秘方或者獨家菜品了。

看到老先生和林斤瀾鉆進樂山的街邊小店，只為一碗豆花飯，兩人在武夷山吃著蒜苗拌的豆腐；或是他為美籍華人女作家聶華苓親自下廚做煮干絲，你會不會和我一樣，感嘆文人的日常生活和我們一樣又不一樣。你別說，好吃之人一般廚藝都不差，汪老先生的手藝更是蜚聲海外：剛招待了美國的客人，一位臺灣女作家去北京，又點名要他親自做頓飯。老先生給她燒了一個小蘿卜，女作家贊不絕口。那味道想來不會差——最好時候的蘿卜加上干貝一起燒，不好吃才怪呢！

There is also another kind of salt in the book,that is,the stories relating food on Wang Zengqi and his literati friends.

Everyone can write down their experiences of enjoying delicious food,impressions to tasty food and memories of childhood delicacies,however,the communication on gourmet with various literati is unique.

It is just like the special recipe or exclusive dish.

Reading the scenes that Mr.Wang and Lin Jinlan came to a corner store in Chongqing only for a bowl of Bean Paste Rice and eaten Tofu Mixed with Garlic in Wuyi Mountain,or Wang cooked Braised Shredded Chicken with Ham and Dried Tofu by himself for Nie Hualing,a Chinese-American female writer,will you,just like me,wonder that the daily life of intellectuals is seemingly the same with us,but somehow different.Foodies are usually adept at cooking,Mr.Wang’s culinary skill is even renowned overseas.Just seeing an American guest off,he had to serve another Taiwanese female writer who came to Beijing and would like to feast on his cooking skill.In the end,Mr.Wang cooked a braised radish for her,being made from the bestradish with dried scallop,this cuisine was no doubt winning a full compliment.

這本書2014年4月就出版了，今年5月還印刷了一次，書的前面部分還有汪老爺子手繪的十來幅畫作。就一點遺憾，天上飛的，水里游的，地上跑的，地里長的，各式美味說了這么多，連煙都寫了洋洋灑灑一大篇，怎么就沒一篇關于酒的呢？

不過書里冷不丁的小驚喜彌補了這種遺憾。

在《葵?薤》一篇中，老爺子引用《植物名實圖考長編》作者、清代文人吳其濬的話，說葵就是冬莧菜。那么冬莧菜又是什么呢？老爺子在武昌餐餐都吃，綠色的葉菜，吃到嘴里滑滑的，在武昌的街頭見到過：葉片圓如豬耳，顏色正綠，葉梗也是綠的?？吹竭@里我總覺得眼熟，上網一查，就是我們重慶人口中的冬寒菜。

按汪曾祺的說法，“葵本來是中國的主要蔬菜?！对?邠風?七月》‘七月烹葵及菽’……后魏《齊民要術》以《種葵》列為蔬菜第一篇?！醯澋摹掇r書》還稱葵為‘百菜之主’”。原來，我喜歡吃的冬寒菜還有這么輝煌的過去。

還有，汪曾祺去內蒙古的時候，在草原上看到一種植物，葉子細而長，下有鱗莖。這就是薤。而這種植物的鱗莖，在湖南湖北江西四川一帶成為“藠頭”。老爺子特別加了一句，“藠”音“叫”?！八婎^”是我經常買來泡泡菜吃的，原來早在漢代，就有詩歌對其進行歌詠。

汪老先生也留著一手，有的食材在不同時期、不同地域的演變，他并沒有寫出。比如，他提到一種叫?嗤魚的魚，“頭扁嘴闊，有點像鲇魚，無鱗，皮色黃，有淺黑色的不規整的大斑。無背鰭，而背上有一根很硬的尖銳的骨刺。用手捏起這根骨刺，它就發出?嗤?嗤小小的聲音?！崩蠣斪诱f這種魚汆湯，湯白如牛乳，所謂“奶湯”。約莫覺得這魚我吃過，上網一查，“?嗤魚，學名黃顙魚，又名黃臘丁?！?/p>

這種美妙的發現，相當于一頓大餐呀。

Being published in April 2014,and reprinted this May,there are also a dozen paintings produced by Mr.Wang in the previous part of the book.It refers different kinds of delicacies from birds,fish,poultry to vegetables and even cigarettes,the only regret is that no article gives a portrait to wine.

Fortunately,some abrupt yet unexpected surprises make up for this regret.

In the passage of Hollyhock ? Chinese Allium,Mr.Wang cited from Wu Qijun,a writer of Qing Dynasty ,that hollyhock is exactly curled mallow.So what is curled mallow? In his book,Mr.Wang described that he once eaten it in Wuchang,it’s round leaf just like the ear of a pig,its leaves,even its stalk,are of pure green.Reading that,a familiar sense flashed to my mind,then,to my surprise,I found it is also called Chinese mallow by our Chongqing people.

According to Wang,“ Hollyhock once，being called as‘King of the Vegetables’was the major vegetable in China.It appeared in many ancient masterworks,such as The Book of Songs,Essential Techniques for the Peasantry,Agricultural Books and so on.What a surprise that my favorite Chinese mallow have such glorious history.

Besides,when he went to the Inner Mongolia,Wang saw a kind of plant that grows thin and long leaves and bulbs below which is known as “Chinese Allium”in Hunan,Hubei,Jiangxi and Sichuan Provinces.As a matter of fact,early in the Han Dynasty,the Chinese Allium which I often purchase to make pickles had been written into poems.

The evolution of some ingredients in different periods and regions are not indicated by Mr.Wang on purpose.For example,the yellow head catfish,it has “flat head,wide mouth,yellow skin and irregular light black spots.Instead of scales and dorsal fins,there is a very hard and sharp bony spur on its back,through pinching which the fish will make a little warning sound”.Mr.Wang depicted that the soup of this fish is as white as milk,so,it is also called as “milk soup”.Indistinctly thinking that I’ve eaten this fish,therefore I searched for it on the Internet and realized that the yellow head catfish is just the yellow catfish.

This wonderful discovery is no less than a hearty meal for me.

A Taste of Book，A Taste of Life

Article | Tian Dong