[ Eating Tea]

eat tea

During the epidemic,

Hangzhou has few people.

I visited the West Lake alone,

Went to the tea village near Longjing,

Use the strength of a sip of tea to

Feel the whistling wind,

The nose hair is turning green.

Let's not rush to joke about the joke once circulated in Hangzhou: "The last person who was able to break out of the siege and go to Hangzhou to drink tea while the Yangtze River estuary was Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty."

I stayed next to the tea field on spring night. Behind the tea table in the room of Fayun Anman Hotel, Mr. Banqiao's words were read. Smoky willows and magnolia blossoms add fun and pick up my pen. My habit of practicing calligraphy sometimes before going to bed at home can be continued here. My mind is as calm as raindrops falling straight on the tea mountain. I would go picking tea early the next morning. I thought about the Longjing Lingyin production area where Fayun Anman was located. It was recorded in the Tea Classics of Lu Yu, the tea saint of the Tang Dynasty. It was one of the best Longjing tea production areas in China. I told myself that it was time to stop writing and go to sleep.

The next morning, I got up early and was awakened by the wind in the tea garden.

When Longjing asked about tea, there was actually no need to ask.

If you have really been here, you will understand,

What does it mean to forget favors and insults?

The old farmer bowed to protect a large iron pot passed down from his family. Each Longjing soak had to be stir-fried three times. Build a wood stove at about 80 ° C. Use the dexterity of your palm to press, shake, and dance. The temperature in the pot can reach above 200 ° C. The three inches of clear air in the core of the tea leaves are slowly forced out by this soft version of the "iron sand palm". This is called "green killing". Then put it into the pot and continue to fry. The green and yellow tea leaves are completed in the "brilliant pot" to complete the preliminary shape. Fresh leaves are picked four times every spring. The first tea collected before the Qingming Festival was called "pre-Ming tea", and because of its shape, it was called "lotus heart". Picking before the rain is called "tea before the rain", also known as Erchun tea, and called "flag gun". There are "Gu Yu Tea" and "Sparrow Tongue" in turn.

No matter which time, the last step of Longjing fried tea is to "bump the head" to make Longjing's shape flat and perfect. I smelled the aroma of pre-Ming tea that turned from moist to fluffy, like tea soup bathing all over the body, soaking in the glass cup again, and the tender leaves were all blooming in the floating gentleness. It's for sure to try something fresh, but the key is my heart. I ran all over the mountains, my hair could be lifted up, and 100,000 "I want" words flew out.

Tea farmers are polite, with plenty of tea and oily vegetables. A soft whisper like me can taste wolves and tigers in my eyes. The matter of tasting tea is a bit controversial. Even if the pre-Ming Longjing tea picked up by the plain faced girl with her lips, not everyone agreed to drink it. Although the aroma is soft, the amino acid content of tea picked in the early Ming Dynasty is not comparable to that of Longjing tea picked in other periods of time in Longjing, like a bowl of vegetarian chicken soup. Some people like to kill them in a few bites, but they want their thirst to disappear instantly. Of course, I also understand that some people like to sip slowly, and have finished playing a romance drama in their minds without touching the tea soup. However, if it were not for the soaking method of making the soup, after soaking for a long time, the Longjing tea soup would become thick, thick and astringent, making it easy for people to drink it and even have an affair with tea drunkenness. This "drunkenness" would come faster than alcohol. My favorite tasting method, rationally speaking, determines the intensity of the food based on the stomach-filling food; without principle, it is said that less tea can make you sweet and comfortable, and more tea can satisfy the addiction of old tea customers.

In most local tea houses in Hangzhou, the price for a cup of Longjing is for the seat and the price for an afternoon sunshine. It is usually a standardized tall glass and a large handful of Longjing. The boiling water is boiling water and it is boiling water. If I can't drink it quickly, I will give up after taking two mouthfuls for fear of stomach pain. "Please give me a cup of cold boiled water and mix it with...","Less tea will be fine." People who drink tea together usually infect each other, and they calculate the white-eyed area of the aunt's eyes to make small requests. This way, the tea will not be wasted! Not like this back and forth, I often swim between tasting tea and loving tea. Time in a teahouse is measured by the time spent chatting with the people you like, and then the necessary factors for changing the way you drink tea are considered. Whether it is slow or passionate, whether it is a little European woman with a soft chest or an old tea customer who relies on Ma Wan Yan in his heart, you can all be accommodated by a cup of tea at this moment.

I have always agreed with what tea maker Teacher Pang said,"Only by following the correct rhythm of the teacup and diet structure can we live a long life." Some old tea customers prefer melon slices or single fir, and some people only think that drinking Longjing before the Ming Dynasty is high-class. If you take a slow bite, then the aroma of fried rice from Longjing before the Ming Dynasty will last longer. Teacher Pang said that looking at the essence, there is no need to worry about those. The "drinking" is all the habits of local people.

During the Song Dynasty,

Drinking tea and eating is all a play.

Slower than slow.

In October of the 21st year of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty went to the house of Zhang Jun, Prince of Qinghe, for dinner. Zhang Jun was once granted the title of Prince of Qinghe. Today, the entire Qinghe Square, which is extremely prosperous in Hangzhou, originally belonged to his family. This grand banquet, whose name has dropped down in ancient history, has full color and color. It is simply called the "Song Banquet". Zhao Gou's father was Zhao Ji, an artist among emperors. In addition to creating the "thin gold body", his father was the first person to "order tea". The "Daguan Tea Theory" written by Huizong of the Song Dynasty is really more beautiful and melodious than the tunnel leading to Li Shishi's boudoir: stir the tea paste, gradually brush it, light and heavy hands, and turn your fingers around your wrists, and go up and down thoroughly, like the beginning of fermentation. The surface of the fermented tiller, the stars and the moon are shining, and the life is bright. Dividing tea is even better, it is simply "pulling flowers".

It is not difficult to understand that at that time, tea was food, medicine, and a touch of green from folk art. People in Jiangnan never say "drink" when drinking tea, but "eat". My friend Lu, the gourmet landlord, often makes jokes about the dialect of tea drinking between Hangzhou people and Shanghai people. The former is "making tea in a pot and eating it", and the latter is "making tea in a pot and eating it." I can understand both dialects. If I happen to have a mouthful of Mingqian Longjing in my mouth at this time, it will be more lonely than fireworks when it comes out.

Changing "drink" to "eat" makes Jiangnan people very serious. Hangzhou people say "drink tea", retaining the pre-Tang saying "eat tea". Zen Buddhism practices meditation. Sitting for half a day is very strenuous and supplements it by eating tea. That is not brewing tea, but boiling or frying tea. After the tea cake is ground into powder, various orange peels, dogwood, mint, and cinnamon are added, and onions, ginger, and salt are added to boil together. It looks like porridge. This is a typical way for Tang Dynasty aristocrats to drink tea. The year before last, I went to Japan to see the Shokura Temple Exhibition, which confirmed this point. There was no tea in the cultural relics there, and "cakes" were included in the category of Chinese herbal medicine. In the Song Dynasty, people began to eat "stir-fried vegetables" because of the iron pot technology, but it was not until the Ming Dynasty that there was "stir-fried green" tea leaves. During the Kamakura period, Zen master Rongxi went to the Song Dynasty twice to study Buddhism. The method of "Eating Tea to Maintain Health" was spread to Japan, and today's matcha gradually emerged. Fujian's "Lei Tea" is also a relic of the Tang Dynasty.

Tea drinking in the same line was briefly divided in the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongolian people, who were mainly nomadic, lacked interest in frying and ordering tea in the Tang and Song Dynasties, preferring to drink butter tea, medicinal tea, or loose tea. Our current Longjing tea actually originates from the early Ming Dynasty. The pragmatic Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the ban on making Longfeng Tuan tea and abandoned ordering tea. All localities paid tribute to loose tea: "Taizu put great effort on the people and stopped making Longfeng Tuan and illuminated every place., pick buds and advance." Scholars also believe that compared with the cumbersome method of ordering tea, the method of making tea and drinking is "extremely simple and well-prepared, which can be said to bring out the true taste of tea."

But I would rather say that "eating tea" is given by "Longjing Shrimp". In April, hand-peeled river shrimp and stir-fried Longjing tea fresh leaves, and lightly touched rose rice vinegar. Every bite tasted Hangzhou. In fact, the earliest young leaves of Longjing before the Ming Dynasty were not so much tea as vegetables.

After the grain rain, Longjing will get old, have more catechins, and the tea will taste strong. But nowadays people in Jiangnan generally prefer light. Before the Ming Dynasty, tea was valuable in its freshness and tranquility. Guyu tea is preferred by old tea customers, so the rich food from Chashan farmers is more suitable to mix with. As tea maker Teacher Pang said: "Green tea mixed with white meat is a kind of taste interaction. The rainy season is very wet and stuffy, and the aroma can enlighten you. When we eat so many fine dishes, we drink light green tea."

Teacher Pang's "He Teahouse", an old brand of exquisite tea, tea and food in Hangzhou, stands near Lingyin Temple, next to the path beside the century-old camphor trees. I love to chat with her, eat her home-cooked dishes, and order Longjing chicken soup and Longjing shrimp in spring. Eat Pu 'er braised pork in autumn and serve with rice. The aroma of tea overflows with a mouthful of oily pork. Sure enough, the complexity of dried plum vegetables is no different from that of tea, and it has the aroma of tea blended with rare plums. Take another bite of spring bamboo shoots at this time. It is crispy and juicy, just fresh.

Teacher Pang said that gourmets must know how to eat. Whether they are Weng Huidong, Xu Ke, Zhang Dai, etc., they can eat and drink, but they will live a long life. "Zhang Dai lived to the age of 93. Shaoxing is also a land of fish and rice. There is no one in Yuezhou who knows how to eat better than him. Yuan Mei's life of eating and drinking was written in the book "Suiyuan Food List". There is a chapter on tea and wine. When literati and bureaucrats came to eat here, Yuan Mei personally cooked tea for them. Aristocratic friends said that they only knew what good tea was. The scholar-officials did not lack good tea, but they were not good at making tea. Yuan Mei was a drunkard and a prostitute who was born out of eating and drinking. Hundreds of years ago, Yuan Mei lived to 82 years old, and Xu Ke, who used some water methods, lived to 83 years old. In 1949, China's average life expectancy was 40 years. Nowadays, technology is so developed, how can we only die? It's not a problem, it's a problem of method. The experiences of these people are worth learning from. Learn from others and not delay our own happy life."

When talking about Longjing shrimp, we can't help but mention Aixinjue Luo Hongli, Ambassador of Hangzhou Food Promotion. Legend has it that when Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty went to Jiangnan, he specially went to Hugong Temple in Shifeng, Hangzhou to drink Longjing tea. A tea-picking peasant woman cooked potluck for him, who was visiting in disguise. However, she accidentally saw the royal brocade under the cloth clothes and was so scared that she used the newly picked tea leaves as a dish and fried shrimps. Longjing was delicious, and Qianlong was happy and sealed the eighteen tea trees in front of the temple as "Imperial Tea". There is also a folk saying that he did not eat Longjing shrimps and only brought tea back to the palace. The royal chef was a Dongpo fan. One day while frying the "jade white shrimps", he was inspired by Su Dongpo's "Looking at the Jiangnan" in "Don't think of the old country for old friends, and try new fires to test new tea, and take advantage of the years with poetry and wine." That was why he had this world-famous Hangzhou dish.

When tea is put into vegetables, we still need to start from ancient China. The Compendium of Materia Medica says: "Tea is bitter and cold, and the yin of yin is the most powerful thing to reduce fire. Fire is all diseases. When the fire falls, it will be clear." Taking the publication of Lu Yu's "Tea Classics" as a milestone, not only did a craze for making, tasting, and talking about tea rise in the north and south of the Yangtze River, but even the Uyghurs in the Western Regions and Central Asia were deeply influenced. The interest in tea in the Tang Dynasty was due, on the one hand, to the prosperity of the tea industry in the Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, to the special dietary structure: "With the fishy meat, it is not necessary for tea; the heat of highland barley is not necessary for tea.";"The barbarians love cheese and cannot use tea, and they are sleepy and sick."

In fact, so are we. Teacher Pang said that people in Jiangnan used to only eat freshwater fish, shrimp and rice. Today, logistics is moving on a large scale and productivity is highly developed. In the past, fish and shrimp were caught once a year, pigs were slaughtered once a year, and chickens, ducks and geese grew up a year. Nowadays, productivity is advanced, and you can kill pigs and eat meat every day. If you eat so much, you must drink green tea well and oolong tea appropriately, otherwise it will be difficult to transport it.

For a gluttonous person like me, Teacher Pang's golden rule of drinking tea rings in my ears every time before eating: "Our teacups should follow the dietary and health experience left by the ancients, and change due to changes in the table: freshwater fish and shrimp After drinking green tea (Traditional famous green tea: Longjing in West Lake, Maofeng in Huangshan, etc.); Oolong (Wuyi Rock Tea in northern Fujian, Tieguanyin in southern Fujian, Chaoshan Phoenix Dancong, and Taiwan Gaoshan Oolong are all famous oolong teas); You need to drink black tea for rich meat (Yunnan Pu 'er, Anhua Black Tea, Ya' an Kangzhuan are all black teas sold on the border)! As for black tea, we must continue to understand the nature of tea. If you are hungry, you can drink black tea with food. In other words, black tea is unfavorable to digestion after a meal. It will make you feel full and greasy. Westerners have 400 years of clinical experience. They began to drink black tea in the early 17th century. Breakfast tea and afternoon tea were both in a state of hunger."

Of course I like freshwater fish and shrimp, but the contradiction is that a Jiangnan person like me has a sensitive spleen and stomach, and I am most afraid of the "cold" when drinking tea. In the past, white tea and Longjing tea were very careful.

Just like a person drinking tea and eating while drinking, you can slowly understand the essence. The way to drinking tea is too deep. Over the years, Teacher Pang has taught me those drinking methods that are beneficial to my body.

First of all, there is shade. She said: "Don't think that tea is expensive because it is good tea. It cannot be brewed properly and there is no way to absorb it. It will hurt in the long run. People who drink strong tea have calcium deficiency, anemia, and low blood pressure in middle age, especially in old age. Every occurrence of hypoglycemia is very harmful to the cardiovascular system. Because it is not absorbed, it will cause stimulation in the body."

Secondly, avoid cold. Most of the medicines stored in Zhengcang Courtyard were purchased from Yangzhou, China, which is Jiangdong in the Tea Classics. I know that the longer white tea is stored, its flavonoid content will increase, which has health effects, but I have never dared to drink more. Teacher Pang told me about a history: white tea with a cold nature was launched into the market during the Jiazhou period of the Qing Dynasty. In addition to being sold to some European and American countries, the main consumer market is consumed as herbal tea in the hot southern areas. The medicinal white tea, which is used by doctors to treat diseases and save people with the same functions as rhinoceros horns, disperse the lungs and relieve the exterior, clear heat and detoxify ", has the same function and value as rhinoceros horns due to its extreme material selection and production process, which is comparable to herbal tea. It is not the same as the same breath. This is like Pu 'er tea. Three hundred years ago, the Manchu people entered the Central Plains from the grasslands. Their diet ranged from extensive beef and mutton, dairy products to Manchu and Han meals. They could no longer drink tea from tea sold on the edge. Therefore, Pu' er tea was transformed from material selection to craftsmanship and made it a tribute tea to the court. From then on, Pu 'er tea was able to enter the house and become one of the main digestive tea products for the mainstream class with a prosperous diet.

At this time, wild white tea and New Longjing were on each side in the tea spoon on Teacher Pang's tea table. "Remember that light tea goes up, and dark tea goes down. Now I want to give you a special tea for relieving symptoms. Don't look at this white tea as ugly, thick, old and stalked. It will generally warm up your entire shoulders and back meridians. Then, I put the Ming Dynasty Longjing in it. After the beginning of spring, drink green tea in the morning. According to Chinese medical books, the function is to lift the yang and relieve the exterior, while the function of white tea is to relax the lungs, lift the yang and relieve the exterior. If you drink this tea, you will feel the heat in the lungs spreading from here. This tea is so powerful that even female lobular nodules can melt."

Academician Zhang Boli, a famous traditional Chinese medicine doctor, said that "COVID-19 is the son of dampness epidemic." After drinking Teacher Pang's tea, Zeng left a poem and praised it. Every time Teacher Pang said,"Aroma solves dampness epidemic", I listened attentively.

"When I visited Chashan Tea Factory, many people said that their white tea is three years old, five years old, and seven years old is a treasure. I doubt it. I don't believe that your loess will turn into gold in three to five years. But in the past 15 years, the reason why I have not started to operate white tea is that we Jiangnan people can't drink white tea, and I drove away all my guests. But the tea we drink now keeps our stomachs warm and not cold. This is new tea, from last year."

Teacher Pang used boiling water to make white tea. After the temperature dropped by a few degrees, he made the soup, dropped by a few degrees, and then went to make green tea. "White tea is rich in amino acids and is antiviral. That is, we are talking about having a little anti-inflammatory, clearing heat and detoxifying effects. This is very important, and so is green tea at this time of year. Why should we cool down? Because when the temperature is low, its sweet part should be dissolved out, so that its astringent taste and tannins are minimal, but it needs the aroma of amino acids and lipopolysaccharide, and then its digestibility will still remain. Don't soak its irritants out. Soak for a while and let it get out of the soup as soon as possible, and then pour it out."

"You must find the so-called white tea with the same power as rhinoceros horns as described in medical books. Rhinoceros horn is a precious medicinal material that can clear heat and cool blood, detoxify and calm convulsions, and treat spots. There was an archaeological discovery that Lu Dalin, a famous official of the Northern Song Dynasty, dug out of his tomb and actually contained silver needles from Fujian. A silver needle cherished by a dignitary was only used as a treasure in this little way. It was definitely not the white tea that was later drunk as herbal tea among the six major tea categories. It was regarded as a life-saving medicine. It was similar to rhinoceros horns and as precious as a treasure, and it was used as a burial object. After archaeological research, experts determined that it was a silver needle from Fujian."

At this time, a sip of tea soup that was darker than Longjing before the Ming Dynasty had been poured in front of me. I couldn't wait to take a few mouthfuls. My body was sweetly nourished and filled by my throat, and I sighed "It's so transparent!" for me.

Teacher Pang said that "drinking the right tea" allows "the two meridians of Ren and Du are opened, and 80,000 pores are opened", which is like a spring breeze with shins blowing into my body.

🍌

The goddess asked

What tea do you like to drink?

“Even if you are the richest person in the world,

The most successful dignitary on earth,

You will still meet a woman who doesn't love you,

High mountains that cannot be climbed,

And you want to buy things that others don't sell."

--Lawrence Bullock,"Small Town"

Food Bless You!

Consultant for China International Food Expo

Producer of "God's Table"