优雅的苏菜

优雅的

Elegant Jiangsu Cuisine

文/朱琳 By Zhu Lin

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孔子学院 总第41期 2015年11月 第6期

The Tao of Cuisine

金

食天堂！

秋十月，江苏省的省会——六朝古都南京（古称“金陵”）被细密温柔的桂花香包裹了，这种一闻就想吃的甜香味道，在江苏人的巧手中

苏菜饮食文化的发展也是如此。苏菜起始于南北朝、唐宋时，经济发展推动了饮食业的繁荣。明清时期，贯穿中国南北的京杭大运河串起“淮、扬、苏、杭”四大名城，除了杭州，皆在江苏，长江也从南京穿城而过，因此苏菜南北沿运河、东西沿长江迅速发展，淮扬菜、金陵菜、苏锡菜、徐海菜等地方风味菜肴融合，荟萃而成中国四大菜系之一——苏菜，成为中国“南食”的两大台柱之一。

变成了各种美味：桂花酒酿元宵、桂花糯米藕、桂花糖芋苗、藕粉桂花糕、桂花松子糖，当然，还有南京人最爱的桂花鸭。瞧，仅小小的桂花就能在餐桌上“七十二变”，江苏不仅是美丽的沿海大省，也是美味聚集的美

任何一段古老文明，都必然孕育于一段大河流域，

Confucius Institute VOLUME 41 | NO.6 NOV.201553

食之有道

方水土养一方人”，作为鱼米之乡，江苏物产丰饶，饮食资源十分丰富，富足的水土酿造出美味佳肴，让这里的人们生活得

有滋有味。菜系风味也和这方土地的性格一样，清新、平和、豁达，不急不躁。这里讲究刀工的精致和摆盘的优雅，至于口味只要一口就足以征服你挑剔的味蕾。淮扬菜、金陵菜、苏锡菜、徐海菜等地方风味菜肴各有风采，随着南船北马的交流，菜系已经相互融合，这里先说说最令人嘴馋的金陵小吃。

“轻轻提，慢慢移，先喝汤，后吃皮，千万不要急！”这可是吃金陵汤包的口诀。汤包必须现蒸现吃，一旦冷了，肉馅干涩，皮吸足汤不仅汁容易破损，而且汤包没有汤就走了味道。小笼包讲究汤汁，要提前把高汤凝成透明的肉冻，切碎了拌在包子馅里，一蒸就化成汤水，成就一款好汤包。汤包皮薄如纸，大小如鸡蛋，提出来放在醋碟子里，轻轻一吸，满嘴鲜美的汤汁，弄得不好就会将饱满多汁的汤水溅一身。想知道自己的优雅等级吗？来参加吃汤包考试吧！

作为江苏的省会，各地的小吃在这里争奇斗艳，其中夫子庙更是南京小吃的大本营，汤煮干丝、酥油烧饼、牛肉锅贴、回卤干、梅花糕、糖粥藕等都是百姓的最爱，既

可作为填饱肚子的主食，也可作为茶馆消遣的小吃。干丝是特制的豆腐干，切丝经清水或鸡汤煮熟后加麻油、酱油和作料，就成了鸡肉干丝、春笋干丝、冬菇干丝等不同风味。南京烧饼以“蟹壳黄”名头最响，它形如螃蟹壳，层层叠叠蕴了鸭油或酥油、花椒面儿，薄而脆，酥且香。“糖粥——藕！”吆喝声中带着甜糯的，就是小孩子馋得流口水的糖粥藕，糯米粥中加红糖，另用煮出红褐色的藕段切成薄片，与粥拌食，清香开胃，美容养颜。

若用一个字代表南京的特产，那必然是——鸭。超市有各种真空包装的鸭胗零食，大街小巷遍布的卤菜店也少不了桂花鸭、烤鸭、酱鸭舌……桂花鸭即盐水鸭中的上品，是南京特产的一种传统卤菜。盐水鸭一千多年前就是金陵美食，一年四季都可以制作，但桂花盛开时制作的口感最佳，所以被誉为“桂花鸭”：略带桂花的清雅香气，鸭肉醇厚鲜美。鸭血粉丝汤也是南京著名的风味小吃，用鸭架小火熬制成汤，加入鸭血、鸭肠、鸭肝和粉丝制成，撒上一把翠绿的香菜，乳白的汤丰富的食材，十分鲜香。这正是苏菜的风味：清新味美，鲜香酥烂，浓淡适口，咸中带甜。

很多人在品尝过金陵小吃后感叹：好吃得没得命啦！意思是说，太好吃了，哪怕不要命也值得啦！

盐水鸭Salted duck

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孔子学院 总第41期 2015年11月 第6期

The Tao of Cuisine

淮扬菜是苏菜的代表派系，发源于淮安、扬州一带，曾为宫廷菜，因作为共和国“开国第一宴”而名扬天下，至今国宴中的大多数菜肴仍属于淮扬菜，除了“开国第一宴”的淮扬菜，颇具特色的家宴也别有风味。自古以来，传统的淮安女子都必须自幼学习烹调技艺，掌握几招绝活，因此亦称国菜。淮安、扬州一带多水少山，既不生海参鲍鱼，也不出燕窝山珍，没有珍贵的食材或特殊的地貌，但勤劳智慧的人们就地取材，精工细作，水的灵气、人的智慧，让“虾兵蟹将”们名扬天下，“山药蒲菜”等水草野蔬也走上国宴餐桌。淮扬位于长江北岸，紧挨京杭大运河，是连接南北西东的重要交通枢纽，自古以来就是富庶的鱼米之乡，菜系得到极大发展，融合南北做法，十分讲究摆盘，刀法细腻，口味清淡，“以味为核心，以养为目的”，善于用寻常食材做出惊人的美味。淮扬菜的食材都很普通，但做功精细，将舌尖上的美味淬炼到极致。毫不夸张地说，淮扬菜是最能考较厨师水平的菜系。淮安特产长鱼，也叫黄鳝，一尺来长、手指粗的长鱼，在淮安竟能被做成“全鳝席”，多达108道菜肴，味道各不相同！对食材的爱惜与厨艺的苛求，成就了淮扬菜的经典与美名。难怪，清朝时淮安的官员、亲友之间最流行的不是送礼，而是“送厨子”——推荐熟悉的淮厨，作为联络感情的上选之举。 淮扬菜的风格如小家碧玉，清新自然，偶尔也有霸气的菜肴，比如蟹粉狮子头。猪肉和荸荠用刀斩成细末，加入蟹肉做成大苹果一样的大肉丸，口感嫩滑、肥而不腻，红烧、清蒸、水氽、油煎都可以，因为它大而圆，被夸张地称为狮子头，一只盘子刚好能装得下一只狮子头。当然，也可以做成鸽子蛋大的小肉丸子，然后化个妆——滚上糯米，清蒸后糯米晶莹剔透，状如珍珠，饱含肉汁的浓香，就秀气地叫“珍珠圆子”了。素菜也可以吃出肉味，你信吗？来尝尝大煮干丝吧！大煮干丝又称鸡汁煮干丝，刀工要求极为精细——豆腐皮切出的干丝细可穿针。配料为鸡脯丝、虾仁、火腿等，按季节不同而有变化，多种配料的鲜香味经过鸡汤烹调，融合到干丝里，每一丝都清爽鲜美，满口盈香。这可是淮扬菜系中的看家菜。看似平淡无奇，却让食客充满惊喜、赞叹与感恩，也许这正是美食所传达的文化与情意。以便当家理厨后让一家人餐饭无忧，这使得家常菜点异军突起，与官厨、肆厨三分天下。家常菜肴中，我最爱的是锅巴。小时候都是用土灶大锅烧出一锅米饭，外婆总喜欢添几把火，将米饭盛出来，就见到一层香喷喷的锅巴糊在锅底。小火略烤两分钟，贴着锅沿向锅巴边上滴一圈油，嗤嗤嗤的油煎声中，锅巴就轻轻松松地和锅分离开了，锅铲轻轻一铲，一个像大草帽一样的大锅巴就出锅了！若是再撒上一小把白糖，那油亮亮、酥脆香甜的“大草帽”很快就被孩子们抢着吃啦，米饭反倒无人问津！外婆手巧，炸肉圆子时喜欢加点芝麻，肉香之余又添芝麻的脆香。有时候，外婆会焖烧一锅各种小杂鱼，在锅沿上贴一圈现和的面糊，用鱼汤不时地浇面糊，待鱼熟了，面糊也变成了面饼：一面脆香，一面软糯，浸透了鱼汤，比小鱼更加鲜美。这寻常美食，就是小鱼锅贴。乡村的河边随处都有约一人高的蒲草，会长出像话筒一样的蒲棒，也叫水蜡烛。初夏时节，使劲拔出蒲草，剥去外层的皮，白嫩的根茎就是“蒲菜”，和虾米一起清炒，就是大名鼎鼎的“开洋蒲菜”。外婆喜欢用蒲菜烧汤，或撒点面粉、豆腐做成蒲菜羹，满足了我幼小的胃，也一直温暖着我的心。晒干的蒲草可以用来编草鞋、蒲包、坐垫、斗笠蓑衣；蒲棒晒干，点燃后的烟熏是天然的蚊香，小孩子们握着蒲棒玩耍，不必担心蚊虫叮咬。你看，食材的每一寸都不浪费，或食用或使用，绝不辜负水土养育的恩情。淮扬菜的原料多以河鲜、家禽、寻常蔬菜为主，无论是高级餐厅，还是家常厨灶，烧出的都是清鲜而略带甜味，可谓触手可及的美味。发展至今，淮扬菜系也在不断创新，洪泽湖的大螃蟹已经横行天下，盱眙的小龙虾也风风火火闯九州，小鱼锅贴也游到了唐人街，淮安还建立了“中国淮扬菜文化博物馆”……或许，美食与文化，本就是密不可分的，所以才让我们回味无穷。Confucius Institute VOLUME 41 | NO.6 NOV.201555

食之有道

藕粉桂花糕

Lotus root starch osmanthus cake

gentle sweet scent of osmanthus blossoms. Such an inviting fragrance has been incorporated in a variety of dishes as a re-sult of the ingenuity of the people of Jiangsu. Among others, sweet dumplings in osmanthus-fl avoured fermented rice, os-manthus-fl avoured steamed lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice, taro in osmanthus syrup, osmanthus and lotus-root cake, and osmanthus and pine-nuts candy are all very popular. Of course, there is also osmanthus-fl avoured duck, which is the favourite dish for the people of Nanjing. See how osmanthus blossoms, a tiny fl ower, can transform itself into such a vital and marvellous ingredient and help create so many dishes. This proves that Jiangsu is not only a beautiful coastal prov-ince, but also a gourmet paradise.

The origins of all ancient civilizations can be traced back to the basin of a mighty river, so can the birth of food and drink culture in Jiangsu. Jiangsu cuisine established itself during the period of the Northern and Southern Dynas-ties; during the Tang and Song Dynasties economic devel-opment spurred the growth of China’s food industry; during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal linked northern and southern China, connecting the four famous cities at that time: Huai’an, Yangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Except for Hangzhou, all of the other three cities were located in Jiangsu Province, and the Yangtze Riv-er also ran through the city of Nanjing. Thus, Jiangsu cuisine spread rapidly via the Grand Canal and along the Yangtze River. Local cuisines, such as Huaiyang (short for Huai’an and Yangzhou) cuisine, Jinling cuisine, Suxi (short for Suzhou and Wuxi) cuisine, and Xuhai (short for Xuzhou and Haizhou) cuisine, merged and blended to become Jiangsu cuisine, one of China’s four major cuisines that have come to dominate the culinary heritage of China and one of the two great pillars of “Southern Food” in China.

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n golden autumn, Nanjing, the provincial capital of Jiangsu Province (once known as Jinling, the capital of ancient China for six dynasties), is suffused with the

Truly delicious Jinling snacksabled its people to live an easy and enjoyable life. The charac-teristics of Jiangsu cuisine are also similar to the temperament of the land-fresh, balanced, tolerant and patient; requiring pre-cise knife skills and exquisite style of food presentation. As far as fl avour is concerned, a single bite of the food is suffi cient to conquer anyone’s taste buds. The sub-regional Huaiyang, Jinling, Suxi, and Xuhai cuisines all have their own character-istics, but as a result of historical movement of people, these cuisines have taken on each other’s traits. Let’s start with the most mouth-watering of them all, Jinling snacks.

“Lift gently, move slowly, drink the juice leisurely, and eat the wrapper lastly.” This is the knack for eating Jin-ling-style tangbao, or steamed soup buns. This particular type of bun tastes best when eaten straight out of the steamer as it will not taste as good when it cools down. This is because the bun fi lling will become dry and taste not as smooth once the wrapper absorbs the juice from the fi lling; moreover, the wrapper then tends to break easily and it just won’t hit the spot when the soup inside is gone. In order to make the buns juicy, it is necessary to prepare transparent meat jelly from con-centrated stock. The jelly is then cut into small pieces before being mixed into the fi lling. When steamed, the jelly in the fi ll-孔子学院 总第41期 2015年11月 第6期

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n a sense, we are what we eat. As “a land of fi sh and rice”, Jiangsu is richly endowed by nature with an abundance of foodstuff, ideal for creating its superb cuisine that has en-

The Tao of Cuisine

ing melts to make the soup bun. The perfect bun is egg-sized with a paper-thin wrapper. When eating a soup bun, you can lift it with your fi ngers or chopsticks, and place it in a vinegar saucer. Then the juice can be sipped from the bun, fi lling your mouth with fl avour. If you don’t eat it right, the soup will spill all over your clothes. Do you want to know how refi ned you are? A soup bun eating test will let you fi nd out.

As the capital of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing is where snacks from around the province try to outshine each other. The Confucius Temple neighbourhood in particular is the go-to place for Nanjing snacks. Shredded dried-tofu soup, crumbly sesame-seed cake, fried beef pot-stickers, deep-fried tofu in chicken soup, plum fl ower pudding, sweet lotus-root porridge, etc. are all local favourites that can be eaten as main meals or as light snacks in a tea house. The shredded dried-tofu soup uses a specially prepared dried-tofu. After it is sliced and boiled in water or chicken stock, the shredded tofu can be sea-soned with sesame oil, soy sauce and other ingredients to pro-duce different varieties of soup, with such fl avours as chicken, bamboo shoot and black mushroom. Among all the different varieties of sesame-seed cakes in Nanjing, Yellow Crab Shell is the most acclaimed. Shaped like a crab shell, with layers of pastry seasoned with duck/pork lard and ground pepper, this cake is thin and crispy, and smells great too. When you hear the sweet and silky call of a street vendor: “Tang zhou…ou!”, that means they are selling sweet lotus-root porridge, a favour-ite among children. Sweet lotus-root porridge is glutinous rice porridge mixed with brown sugar and served with thin brown Confucius Institute VOLUME 41 | NO.6 NOV.2015

slices of boiled lotus root. It is aromatic, appetising and helps to maintain one’s beauty and youth.

Undoubtedly, the duck is the most representative of all Nanjing specialty foods. All kinds of vacuum-packed duck gizzard snacks are sold in supermarkets, and delis found on al-most every street corner will stock osmanthus-fl avoured duck, roast duck, stewed duck tongue in soy sauce, etc. As a tradi-tional salted meat, osmanthus- fl avoured duck is the best of all salted ducks in Nanjing. Boiled salted duck has been a regional delicacy in Nanjing for more than a thousand years and can be made throughout the year. However, the salted duck tastes best when made during the osmanthus blossom season. That is why it is called osmanthus-fl avoured duck, for you can taste the sweet scent of osmanthus blossoms in the delicately fl avoured duck meat. Duck blood vermicelli soup is also a famous local snack in Nanjing. Duck bones are fi rst stewed on low heat to make a soup, then duck blood, intestines and liver, and vermi-celli are added to the soup. It can be further embellished by a handful of green coriander to complement the cream-coloured soup, adding to the fresh aromas. This is typical Jiangsu cui-sine: fresh and delicious, aromatic and tender, with well-bal-anced fl avours and hints of sweetness in an otherwise savoury dish.

After trying Jinling snacks, many people exclaim: “Jinling snacks are worth dying for!” What they mean is that Jinling snacks are so delicious that they are ready to give up every-thing to eat them!

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食之有道

Huaiyang cuisine: the very fi rst state banquet in celebration of the founding of the People’s RepublicA

s an epitome of Jiangsu cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine originated in the areas surrounding Huai’an and Yang-zhou, and featured on the menu of the royal courts.

use of ingredients and strict requirements for the skill of the chef both contribute to the prestige and popularity enjoyed by Huaiyang cuisine. It is no wonder that, in the Qing Dynasty, recommending good chefs, instead of giving gifts, was a common practice in Huai’an among offi cials, relatives or friends.

Huaiyang cuisine is fresh and natural, like a pretty girl of a small well-to-do family. Of course, it also has some grand dishes, and a typical example is Crab-fl avoured Lion’s Head-a large meatball. To prepare the meatball, pork and water chestnuts are fi nely diced into mince, and crab meat is then added. The ingredients are mixed and rolled into a large meatball the size of a big apple. These meatballs are tender and smooth, rich but not greasy, and can be cooked in different ways: braising, steaming, quick-boiling and frying. Owing to their large size and round shape, they are known by their nickname Lion’s Head, and usually occupy a whole plate by its own. And, of course, smaller meat balls, the size of a pigeon egg, can also be made. These can be embellished by a roll in glutinous rice before steaming them. When they are served the rice is saturated with the aroma of the meat and appears translucent looking like a layer of pearls, as befi tting its poetic name-Pearl Meatballs.

Can you believe that a vegetarian ingredient can be cooked to taste like meat? Have a taste of shredded dried-tofu in chicken soup, a dish that is very demanding on knife work-the shreds of dried-tofu are so thin that they can be pulled through the eye of a needle. The other ingredients of the soup are shredded chicken breast, shelled fresh shrimps and ham, depending on the season. The fl avours of the different ingredients are brought together with chicken soup and are absorbed by the tofu. As a result, each strand of tofu is delicious and refreshing in taste. As a signature dish of Huaiyang cuisine, shredded dried-tofu in chicken soup looks ordinary, but brings surprise, admiration and gratitude to guests at the dinner table. This is perhaps the very philosophy of gourmet cuisine-bringing culture and tender feelings to the dinner table.

孔子学院 总第41期 2015年11月 第6期

Huaiyang cuisine became world renowned for being served at the very fi rst state banquet at Beijing Hotel in celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Even today, most dishes served at state banquets can be identifi ed as Huai-yang cuisine, so Huaiyang cuisine is also known as the nation-al dish of China.

Situated in a region with more rivers and lakes than mountains, Huai’an and Yangzhou do not produce such delicacies as sea cucumber, abalone, edible bird’s nest or other wild foods. Despite this, the local people have used their ingenuity to make full use of local ingredients and, by employing intricate cooking techniques, have turned the common shrimps and crabs into widely recognized dishes and made Chinese yams and edible wild herbs feature on the menu of state banquets.

Located on the north bank of the Yangtze River and right next to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Huai’an and Yangzhou are at an important crossroad. This area has been renowned for its plentiful agricultural produce since antiquity, and its regional cuisine has evolved signifi cantly, drawing on the strengths of schools of cooking from the north and south of China. The cuisine is known for its refi ned presentation, delicate knife skills, and light taste. It focuses on the fl avours of the ingredients with the aim of maintaining good health. Huai’an and Yangzhou chefs excel in making delicacies using ordinary ingredients.

The ingredients for Huaiyang cuisine are very common and easily available, so it is up to the chefs to maximise the fl avour of the ingredients with their culinary skills. It is no exaggeration to say that Huaiyang cuisine is the most effective test of a chef’s competence. Long fi sh, or rice-fi eld eel, a specialty of Huai’an, can grow to about one foot long and as thick as a fi nger. Amazingly, this small eel can be used to make an eel banquet in Huai’an, with as many as 108 dishes, in different fl avours and all containing the eel. The care in the

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The Tao of Cuisine

Grandma’s Rice Crust Straw Hat盱眙小龙虾Crawfi sh

learn cooking skills at an early age and master several unique dishes so as to take good care of their own family when they start their own family. As a result, homemade dishes have gradually come to the fore and are in no way inferior to those prepared by court or restaurant chefs.

Among all the homemade foods, my favourite is rice crust. During my childhood, rice was usually cooked in a large cauldron or pot on top of an earth stove. At the very moment the rice was ready, Grandma would always stuff some extra fi rewood into the stove to make the bottom layer of the cooked rice a little burnt. When the rice was taken out of the cauldron, a layer of aromatic rice crust would appear at the bottom. It would be left in the pot for about two minutes on a slow fi re and cooking oil would be dropped along the rim of the rice crust. As the oil sizzled, the rice crust would separate from the cauldron and with a slight nudge, it would come out in the shape of a big straw hat. Grandma then would sprinkle a spoonful of white sugar on the crust, and the children would fi ght over the shiny, crisp, fragrant and sweet “big straw hat”, and soon it would be gone. None of them would show any interest in the bowls of rice.

Grandma was an ingenious cook and she often placed sesame seeds on the meatballs before frying them, making the meatballs even more delicious with the aroma and crispi-ness of the sesame. Sometimes, while stewing a pot of small fi shes, she would paste a ring of dough along the inner edge of the pot, and the fi sh stew would splatter over the dough from time to time. When the fi shes were cooked, the dough would become pancakes or pot-stickers, of which one side would be crispy and delicious, while the other side soft and glutinous after being saturated in the fi sh stew. In fact, the pancakes were even more delicious than the fi sh stew. This homemade dish is known as Small Fish with Pot-stickers.

Cattails as tall as a man can easily be found along the river bank in the Chinese countryside. As they grow micro-phone-like spikes, they are also nicknamed “water candles”. In early summer, if you pull out the cattails and peel them,

you will be left with their white tender roots known as pucai. When cattail roots are stir-fried with dried shrimps, it be-comes the famous dish Cattail Roots with Shrimps. Grandma liked to make a soup with cattail roots, adding some fl our or tofu. The soup satisfi ed my small stomach and has kept my heart warm over the years. When dried, the cattails can be used to weave sandals, bags, mattresses, rain hats and capes. The dried cattail spikes, once lit, become natural mosquito-re-pellent incense. Playing with dried cattail spikes, the children would be safe from mosquitoes. So you see, every single part of this ingredient can either be eaten or used without any waste. That is how we should show our gratitude to the land that feeds and clothes us.

The ingredients of Huaiyang cuisine mainly consist of freshwater produce, poultry and ordinary vegetables. Whether cooked in a fancy restaurant or on top of a kitchen stove at home, these delicious dishes are easily accessible and are always refreshing with a hint of sweetness. Huaiyang cuisine continues to innovate to this day, while its infl uence has spread afar. Crabs from Lake Hongze and crayfi sh from Xuyi County of Huai’an City have become popular across the whole of China, Small Fish with Pot-stickers can be found in China Towns abroad and even the National Huaiyang Cuisine Cultural Museum opened in the City of Huai’an. The list goes on. Perhaps, the reason why we reminisce about the fl avours of food is that it has always been inextricably linked with cul-ture.

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n addition to the aforementioned Huaiyang cuisine, house-hold banquets in Huai’an are also known for their distinc-tive styles. Since antiquity, Huai’an women have had to

Confucius Institute VOLUME 41 | NO.6 NOV.201559