If we say that the spring table composed of fresh bamboo shoots, shepherd’s purse, swordfish, and snails are a hollow echo, a fresh and thin valley; Then the table in autumn must be an Ukiyo-e painting of a bustling and crowded farmer’s market.
In this season, oysters in Guangdong, sea eels in Fujian, crabs,
and narcissus in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, chestnuts in Shandong, Chinese dates in Henan, grapes in Xinjiang, pomegranates in Yunnan, and lotus roots in Hubei are all at their most fertile, fresh, plump, and bright times.
The farmers’ market is a gathering of autumn scenery from all over the world, and it is also the best destination to interpret the bustle, marketplace, human feelings,
and the smell of cooking.
Kashgar’s Great Bazaar in Central and Western Asia is the most noteworthy agricultural market in China.
The earliest market recorded in historical data appeared in the Persian Empire around 3000 BC. It is called “Bazaar” in Persian. Today, the word still refers to the oriental market in the English world.
Obviously, the market transaction is an advanced form of barter for small-scale peasant economies. It quickly spread to the world and came to China. In Kashgar, the west gate of China, “Bazaar” has a Chinese phonetic translation: Bazaar.
In 1929, the Swedish Orientalist Gunnar Yalin first saw Kashgar and sighed: “It’s like going back to the Middle Ages from modern times, and back to the scenes set for the film Thousand and One Nights.”
Kashgar’s Great Bazaar of Central and Western Asia has existed for at least 2000 years. It is a vegetable market, but not completely. The Pamirs have nourished the originally dry desert, making it a huge oasis. A bazaar is a place where the surrounding people and merchants from south to north gather. Kashgar has become a commodity distribution center since ancient times because of the Great Bazaar in Central and Western Asia.
Kashgar people like Bazaar. The Uighur proverb says, “Bazaar is the father and Bazaar is the mother.” For the local people, its connotation goes far beyond the buying and selling function of the vegetable market itself. As the book, Kashgar says, “Every bazaar, whether urban or rural, has at least the following functions and contents: commodity fairs, gathering and distributing centers for people and logistics, rural schools, social venues, Maxilaf Theater, sources of news and gossip, food exhibitions, stage for craftsmen, donkey concerts, children’s amusement parks, beggar’s festivals, lovers’ dating places…”
There are more than 4000 stalls and more than 9000 kinds of goods, from Xinjiang’s local specialties, clothing, shoes and hats, and handicrafts, to Iran’s honey dates, Türkiye’s silk scarves… It is the soul of Kashgar, making this ancient city full of vitality, which is full of years and unique cultural marks.
Walking along the street into the Great Bazaar of Central and Western Asia is the best way to immerse yourself in life here. At the door of the copper shop, a master was bending his head and beating the copper in his hand with concentration; Under the mulberry tree, several old Uighur people with white beards are chatting carelessly. Turn into an alley at random, and countless dried fruits will come to your face.
Eating, of course, is one of the most important themes of Bazaar in Central and Western Asia. The third kind: mutton offal, barbecue and spicy mutton hooves are the most popular. Sheep offal has a strong visual impact. The golden face lung is placed under the basin, with bamboo sticks tied around the edge. The rice intestines are surrounded by a circle-like
bamboo weaving in the middle, which is bright and bright. When eating, the shopkeeper will cut small pieces and put them in a small paper box, sprinkling a lot of coriander, which is very tasty.
Kashi Barbecue, with simple seasoning, is nothing more than salt and cumin. What we are confident of is the delicacy of mutton itself. Especially in autumn, mutton begins to gain weight, which is the best time for barbecue. The pyrotechnic atmosphere it creates, the oily meat smell, and the cumin fragrance is the so-called scenic spots in Central Asia.
Spicy Sheep Feet gives full play to the advantages of the local Maigaiti Big Tail Sheep. The hooves are sturdy and cooked at a moderate temperature. They have both soft and glutinous gums and the chewy pleasure of tendons and brains.
The yogurt shaved ice in Bazari is also unique. The Uygur Balangzi, who sells shaved ice, scrapes ice in the cup and adds yogurt, then throws the shaved ice high in the cup and puts it into the cup without leakage. The milk ice thrown into the air like Bai Lian has been thoroughly mixed after several times of throwing, and it is extremely sour after one bite. Around him, the ramen master threw the noodles into the air, and the steamed bun baker quickly pasted steamed buns in the Nang pit. They were oily, fragrant, noisy, and happy!
Roast eggs are a special snack in Bazari in southern Xinjiang. The dining cart pushes ostrich eggs, goose eggs, eggs, wild eggs, and pigeon eggs of different sizes in layers. When you want to eat them, they are put on the charcoal and grill pressed with charcoal ash and slowly burned, roasted outside, and boiled inside.
The seasoning of baked eggs is very complex, including more than ten flavors such as saffron, honey, and maca. The egg beater opens a small mouth, pours out some egg white, and then adds the seasoning one by one, plugs it back into the egg shell, and then bakes it on the charcoal fire. They taste more dry and fragrant than boiled eggs, and sweet and glutinous like pumpkins.
Yes, Uighurs are a natural business nation. They operate Bazaar with local characteristics, rather than a chowder of snacks in the north of the South China Sea.
02
From Bazaar to the market, to the vegetable market, the urban catering trade center has also completed the transformation of the Chinese style in the process of continuous dissemination and inward migration.
The reason why it is a “vegetable” market, rather than a fish market or a meat market, is related to the production center of an agricultural country and more to the Chinese diet tendency.
The land of Jingchu, which is densely covered with water, has always been the hinterland of Chinese civilization. The taste of fresh lakes, vegetables, melons, and fruits is spreading in the vegetable market here.
“Internet celebrity” Food Market, a market near Wuhan Shahu, was originally called Hongxiang Road Fresh Food Market. Before the transformation, it was full of traditional Wuhan citizens’ love for fresh fish, lotus root, vegetable moss, and other traditional ingredients.
Hubei people usually go to the vegetable market early to buy food. People come and go, and it’s very lively. As long as you stand in front of the lotus root stall, the stall owner will ask: Is the lotus root used to make soup or stir fry? Then they will give you the lotus root you need according to the purpose you said.
In Hubei, the lotus root is divided into “stewed lotus root” and “fried lotus root”. The lotus root used for stewing soup will be very “soft”; The fried lotus root is “crisp”.
The lotus root in Hubei is really delicious, and the food patterns are more colorful: dry fried lotus root silk, lotus root balls, lotus root clips, stewed lotus root, hot and sour lotus root dice, fried lotus root strips, and pork ribs lotus root soup.
The authentic Hubei lotus root soup must be simmered with a “Diaozi” to make a unique flavor of rib lotus root soup. “Diaozi” usually refers to the earthen pot/soup pot used to simmer soup, which is the name of the older generation in Hubei. In the past, the beehive briquette stove was used to simmer the soup, the hanger was placed on the stove, the air outlet under the stove was sealed, and then the soup was slowly “simmered” with low fire until the pork of the ribs was very soft and rotten, the lotus root starch and the soup were fragrant.
There are always some “Diaozi” in the vegetable market, so people can directly pack the stewed soup and go home.
The early days of the food market are the most abundant. Of course, hot and dry noodles are not just Cai Linji. You can walk into a small shop at the door of the food market and have good service. The sesame paste in Wuhan is mixed with soy sauce, which is thin but more delicious. Compared with the sesame paste noodles in Beijing, it is characterized by thick and strong alkaline noodles, fresh and thick sauce, and crisp diced radish.
As long as one of the three is missing, it is not authentic.
The second is the bean skin. This unique food, which is extremely rare elsewhere, is really common in the eyes of the Wuhan people. Liang Shiqiu wrote about bean skin. He said that people in Hubei like glutinous rice very much.
Good bean skin must have golden and crisp skin, and glutinous rice should not be given more, otherwise, it will be sticky and choked in your mouth, and it will easily break up.
In addition, steamed stuffed buns, soup dumplings, noodles, and dumplings are worth mentioning. The dumplings mentioned by the people of Wuhan are actually wontons in the Jiangnan area, and they are small wontons wrapped in pork. They have a very strong taste because the meat is mixed with a lot of salt, possibly MSG; A tablespoon of lard should also be put in the soup. The taste is surging. Although it cannot be put on the table, the dock-style food is really delicious.
Heavy oil braised wheat, bean skin, fried buns, hot and dry noodles. When tired, they can rest. When hungry, they can “start” immediately.
As Chen Xiaoqing said, “The food market is the underwear of a city. If you want to get close to a city, don’t look at the squares. It is the time when it is well dressed. Only in the food market can you feel what the city is like.” It is most appropriate to describe the food market in Jingchu, which inherits the farming tradition and has a young western-style style.
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The southeast coast of China may be the last region to accept this form of the vegetable market.
The long coastline and rich products enable most people to eat and drink. Even if they are greedy and want to eat seafood, there is another form of food market: the fish market.
The fishermen hauled the day’s catch onto the dock, while the gourmands selected their favorite seafood with the greatest enthusiasm, the fastest speed, and the most insidious eyes.
It is not a real vegetable market, but a reward book in the era of fishing and hunting.
When the form of the food market finally took the mainstream, it combined with the fish market in the southeast coastal areas to form a new style.
Shantou is the largest port city in eastern Guangdong. When autumn comes, the fishing season begins. At this time, Zhujiang Road Zhuhe Market is definitely the most bustling place.
“Come and have a cup of tea!” I’m afraid that Chaoshan is the only place in the food market where guests are greeted like this.
As a port, Shantou has more people and less land. The people who do business in the food market are all husband and wife stalls and father and son stalls from the surrounding countryside, all speaking the Chaoshan dialect. Even the noisy market, hot and humid air, narrow space, and greasy chopping board can not prevent them from putting on a set of time tea sets and drinking a few cups in their busy time.
Chaoshan people are good at doing business. Even the vegetable traders are always as friendly and warm as their neighbors. Can you refuse the good fish recommended by “neighbors” or bargain with them next time?
Chaoshan people who live in other cities have always said that after living in other cities, they have learned to kill fish and scrape scales, peel corn kernels, peel lotus roots, and other skills and their knife skills have also improved a lot. Previously, in Shantou, the market elder sister did all these things alone.
The fishmonger will ask you how to eat it. The whole strip is steamed, steamed in sections, boiled in thin slices, thick sashimi, and even fish head, skin, meat, and bone are eaten separately. As long as you can tell, the fish girl will help you carefully deal with it, clean it, and place it neatly in the foam box, or even put ice on it, marinate it with sea salt, and send you a piece of southern ginger… Chicken, duck, fish, and meat dishes, all kinds of stalls are so considerate and considerate.
The most interesting thing is to buy beef. If the customer says “just a little”, the butcher will select a tender piece of meat and cut it into thin slices at the angle of vertical meat grain. While slicing, he will say: “Look at how much you want, and stop when you have enough.”.
Chaoshan people cultivate fields like embroidery, and so do they do business.
In the Zhuhe market, this is an unadorned picture of life in Chaoshan. Grandparents (grandparents) will talk about “volume” (bargaining price) in Chaoshan dialect with the stall owner because of the difference of a few cents, and will also smile for the stall owner to send more things. They will also discuss how today’s ingredients are suitable for cooking at the booth. The old Chaoshan dialect is full of expectations for life and the future.
There is not only a strong Chaozhou-style human flavor but also a traditional and fresh Chaoshan flavor.
Gu Long once said, “If a person is desperate and wants to be short-sighted, let him go to the vegetable market.” This move is especially effective in the Chaoshan food market. It embodies the simplicity of the coastal people and reflects the fishermen’s wisdom in facing the unknown.
END
Today, when people living in big cities in China think of buying food materials or groceries, most of them will pick up their mobile phones and open their apps. The most active and industrious people can probably only drive to a big supermarket, where they have fixed shelves, fixed brand goods, and basically fixed prices and products. They can select and settle accounts by themselves.
It is fast, convenient, safe, and hygienic, but I always feel that it lacks some humanity.
Some people will say that this is the inevitable result of a fast-paced life, but the pace of life may be just a choice. There should always be a place in the city where you can slow down and experience the temperature and fun of life.
In autumn, when everything is prosperous and plump, you can come to the vegetable market. In this romantic place that has been hidden in the marketplace for thousands of years, you can feel the local culture and customs concentrated here, and feel the different hubbubs of the marketplace and the simple joy of living.
