Seasoned Fresh Vegetables: You can season and eat cabbage heart, kohlrabi, turnip, and cucumber. Wash the fresh vegetables, shred them (slice the cucumber), and add an appropriate amount of salt, dried ginger powder, pepper, MSG, chicken essence, vinegar, and soy sauce (choose seasonings to your taste—you don’t have to use all of them). Drizzle with sesame oil or butter and mix well. When seasoning, you can add shredded or sliced red, green, and yellow vegetables...
To make pickled flower-crushed vegetable, peel and cut kohlrabi into large chunks, sprinkle with an appropriate amount of salt, and let it ferment for half a month until slightly sour. Peel and wash yellow carrots, remove leaves from celery and wash them, and remove stems and seeds from large red chili peppers. Finely shred all the above ingredients. The proportions should be mainly white kohlrabi, followed by yellow carrots, with red and green as accents. Mix in an appropriate amount of salt to blend evenly. Pack...
To make fermented pickles, you first need to prepare the pickling sauce. Take the filtered residue of the sauce (it’s even better if you grind unfiltered fermented soybeans), add salt, chili, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel seeds, dried ginger, and other seasonings, then simmer in a pot of water until it becomes a thick, paste-like consistency. Let it cool before use. Peel the hard skin off kohlrabi (or you can also use turnips, white radishes, etc.), cut them into large chunks, wash and drain the moisture...
Pickled vegetables are the main side dish that people in Fugu eat with breakfast throughout the winter. The entire winter's supply is pickled all at once in autumn. First, the turnips are scrubbed clean along with their leaves after trimming off the fuzzy roots. The roots are shredded, while the leaves and stems are chopped. A small amount of red or yellow carrot shreds can also be added for color, along with some red and green chili peppers. Salt is added and everything is mixed well. The mixture is then placed into a crock or jar...
Sour bitter greens—known medicinally as Patrinia scabiosaefolia, this is a wild plant of the Asteraceae family. It has various benefits such as clearing heat and detoxifying. These greens can be found all over Fugu. In the past, people relied on them to survive lean times, but now they’re used to enrich daily life. They can be stir-fried or prepared fresh. Sour bitter greens are a traditional way farmers in Fugu prepare them. The collected bitter greens and sweet sowthistle (two...
In this dish, the term "苜蓿" (mùxu) is sometimes written as "木须" (mùxū), but it refers to eggs. In earlier times, people avoided using the word "蛋" (dàn, meaning egg) out of superstition (in Fugu, the number 1 is called "蛋"). They would not say they were eating eggs. Two or three eggs are cracked into a bowl, seasoned with a little salt and cooking wine, and the yolks are beaten. The wok is heated with oil until very hot, then the eggs are poured in and stirred to break them up. Once the eggs are cooked, they are removed from the wok. Next, the wok is reheated with oil until about 70% hot, then...
Melon tendon, also known as melon tendon meatballs, is a local specialty dish from Fugu. In the past, Fugu produced a lot of winter melons, making it a convenient and affordable ingredient. The winter melons are washed, cut into chunks, and their inner flesh is scooped out before being steamed. The cooked melon flesh is then scooped into a container, mixed with an appropriate amount of flour and sugar, and stirred evenly—do not use too much flour, as that will make it tough and unpalatable. Using your left hand, squeeze the mixture into small balls (similar to squeezing meatballs) and deep-fry them in hot oil until cooked. Serve on a plate. Alternatively, you can briefly simmer them in a sweet syrup, which will give them a glossy sheen and a sweet, tender flavor.
Shredded Yam with Crispy Threads In Fugu, people call potatoes "yam," not Dioscorea opposita. Peel and wash the potatoes, cut them into chunks with a diagonal cut, then deep-fry them in oil until golden brown and set aside. Heat a little oil in a wok over the stove, then add a large spoonful of white sugar. Keep stirring continuously with a spoon until the sugar melts into a syrup and turns slightly red. Immediately add the hot, fried potato chunks and quickly stir to coat them evenly with the syrup...
Both mung bean sprouts and black bean sprouts can be stir-fried. Remove the husks from the sprouts by winnowing, then blanch them in boiling water until just cooked—do not overcook. Immediately transfer them to cold water to cool; do not let them air-dry. Otherwise, if the heat isn’t removed promptly, the sprouts will overcook and lose their flavor. Scoop an appropriate amount of sprouts into a container, shred red carrots, and cut leeks into sections…
Braised Bean Sprouts should be made with black bean sprouts. Remove the husks from the black bean sprouts, wash them clean, and braise them just like other mixed vegetables — they can be cooked together with potatoes, tofu, meat, cellophane noodles, and more. To braise, first sear the meat, then stir in diced potatoes and simmer briefly before adding the black bean sprouts and mixing well. Add the tofu, sprinkle in a small amount of soy sauce and a bit of seasoned flour, and when nearly done, add the cellophane noodles and simmer briefly, stirring until everything is evenly mixed…
Stir-fried Bean Sprouts Growing bean sprouts takes quite some time, so farmers don’t eat them often. They grow some during festivals or holidays to add variety to life. Remove the green husks from the mung bean sprouts by hand, then rinse clean. Heat an appropriate amount of oil in the pan, sauté with scallions, garlic, ginger, and vinegar to release their aroma. Add the bean sprouts, followed by an appropriate amount of Sichuan peppercorn powder and salt. Stir and toss until just cooked. Add a small amount of MSG and chicken essence, mix well, and it’s ready to serve. You can also add a little...
There are two types of Yellow Cabbage. One is made for winter storage: boil the cabbage, squeeze out most of the water, then spread and let it cool. Layer it in a ceramic jar, add a small amount of salt, and press it down with a stone. After several days, when the cabbage turns sour, it's ready to eat. It can be stewed with potatoes or other vegetables, or chopped up as a topping. The other type is made in summer using turnips or other fresh vegetables...
Earth snails, also known as di luo er, are small, white, screw-shaped underground tubers about an inch long, crispy, tender, and slightly sweet. They can be fried, soaked, or pickled. Frying consumes a lot of oil and is considered more extravagant, so soaking or pickling are more common methods. Similar to making kimchi soup, ingredients such as salt and chili are boiled in water to make a broth, with an appropriate amount of vinegar added…
Rutabaga Rutabaga plants resemble sunflowers and produce small yellow flowers. The edible part is its underground tuber. Wash the rutabaga, add an appropriate amount of salt, place it in a container, and press it with a stone for half a month before it can be eaten. It can also be pickled together with soft pickled vegetables. It has a uniquely tangy, sweet, crisp, and tender flavor. …
Bowl Carving: Made by steaming buckwheat juice in small bowls and served with a special vinegar sauce, it is a beloved local snack.…
Buckwheat is a crop with wide adaptability and a short growth period; it is one of the three major superior nectar source crops and also a good food-medicinal plant. Buckwheat is highly adaptable, tolerant to poor soil and drought, and can grow well on newly reclaimed and infertile land. It plays an important role in increasing multiple cropping indexes and maximizing land productivity, and is known as...
Pumpkin seeds are highly effective in killing parasites in the human body, such as pinworms and hookworms. They also have strong effects against blood fluke larvae, making them an excellent dietary remedy for schistosomiasis. Eating about 50 grams of roasted pumpkin seeds daily can effectively help prevent and treat prostate diseases. This is because pumpkin seeds are rich in fatty acids, which help maintain optimal prostate function. The active compounds they contain can reduce early-stage inflammation of the prostate and may also help prevent prostate cancer. Additionally, they are abundant in pantothenic acid, which can alleviate stable angina and contribute to lowering blood pressure.
Pressed Flower Pork typically uses pig’s head meat. The pig’s head is cleaned, boiled, deboned, and then braised until flavorful. It is cut into small chunks about an inch in size, reheated, and then wrapped tightly in muslin cloth while still hot. The wrapped meat is placed in a suitably sized basket and pressed under a heavy weight to squeeze out some of the fat. Once cooled and solidified, it is set aside for later use. When ready to eat, it is sliced thinly and arranged on a plate. If made using pig’s ears, it is called Layered Crisp…
The Dragon and Tiger Battle is a traditional local dish. In earlier years, when fish farming was rare in the area, locals would make the most of an occasional river fish by preparing enough for relatives and family to enjoy. First, the fish is cut into chunks, coated in batter and deep-fried (prepared similarly to braised fish in soy sauce), then set aside. Pieces of roasted pork belly are sliced into thick slices about the width of a chopstick, and these are combined with the fried fish chunks in a seasoned broth that has been simmered with Sichuan peppercorns, ginger slices, pepper, star anise…
The method for making sliced chicken is the same as that for stir-fried pork slices, except that the main ingredient is chicken breast. Chicken breast is more tender than pork. When slicing, be sure not to cut across the grain and sever the meat fibers. Otherwise, the chicken will fall apart upon cooking and won’t hold its shape. Sliced chicken can be stir-fried alone or combined with other vegetables.…