Jingxiang’s Travel Notes 020 | Chapter 20 of "Travel to the Northeast": Drinking horse wine, appreciating prints, and eating the imperial banquet master

Chapter 20 of Jingxiang's Travels丨Chapter 20 of "Travel to the Northeast"

Drink horse wine and enjoy the prints, and eat the royal banquet with masters

The first dish served for lunch was "pickled vegetables". The basket of vegetables was all raw, and of course green onions were indispensable. The four sauce dishes come in four different flavors, and I can’t remember what they are called now. You can eat it directly with lettuce and dip it in some sauce. It tastes very good.

I can't name the dishes that followed, but they were all hot dishes, except for the carrots.

The staple food is beans and rice, of course not rice. There is a dish I know, and that is gourd, but their cooking method is braised in brown sauce. Would it be more delicious than stir-fried gourd with pepper? A matter of opinion.

In our place, tempeh has become a basic condiment, but they don't think it tastes good at all. Maybe we are not used to what they think tastes good. It is not easy to taste the delicacies of other places. What is even more rare is the enthusiasm of Inner Mongolian people for hospitality.

"This kind of melon can be made into musical instruments, which is mentioned in the "Three Character Classic"." Facing these colleagues, of course I stick to my profession, which brings me to Chinese studies.

"Ah, yes, earth, leather, wood, metal, stone, silk and bamboo are the eight tones. "The person who casually recited the original text of the "Three Character Sutra" was a male teacher named Wang. —It’s Wang again!

Since they are all teachers of Chinese traditional culture, let alone superficial things like the Three Character Classic and Disciple Rules, even reciting a few paragraphs of the Four Books and Five Classics is a piece of cake. The problem is that this teacher Wang is less than thirty years old, and he has read the "Huangdi Neijing" in college for four years!

The biggest wish of those who engage in Chinese studies is to hope that the younger generation will become interested in this area, so that the essence of Chinese studies can be passed on. Therefore, we have more topics to talk about. How else can we say that Principal Wang knows how to treat guests?

We went from the "Governing a big country like cooking small delicacies" in the "Tao Te Ching" to the "Eating and drinking in moderation and daily life in a regular way" in the "Huangdi Nei Jing". We even forgot about catching a cold. If we hadn't gone to a scenic spot in the afternoon, I'm afraid We couldn't finish talking until late at night.

The Mongolian people are a nation on horseback. Daily production, life, and communication are inseparable from horses. This kind of transportation that can be used without building roads has become an inseparable part of the Mongolian people. When a friend from afar comes, he comes on horseback and has to dismount when he reaches his destination. The Mongolian people offer a welcome glass of wine, which is called "dismounting wine". When the guests are leaving, they are sent off to their horses. The Mongolian people offer a bowl of wine to see them off. This is called "mounting wine".

Although there are not many herdsmen who can't live without horses nowadays, this national etiquette has been passed down. Although only Principal Wang among us is a Mongolian, when we come to Inner Mongolia, this cup of wine is still the reason for them to persuade us to drink.

In Zhalantun, due to a cold and Teacher Bai not drinking, the glass of horse wine was dispensed with. When I arrived in Tongliao, I seemed to be getting better, but my cough and runny nose had not diminished. After a glass of wine, today's cold medicine was in vain. Therefore, the cold lasted for 10 days, and it was cured only after I returned home. .

After lunch, we went straight to the former residence of Queen Xiaozhuang, which is more than 30 kilometers away. This is a scenic spot that was only built and opened to the public in 2012. This was the afternoon of June 8, 2013. I don’t know if no one knew of its existence yet or because not many people liked to see this kind of scenic spot. Apart from a few of us, this scenic spot was a group of students organized by the school.

The main scenic spot of Xiaozhuang Manor is Prince Horqin Darhan's Mansion. Queen Xiaozhuang was born in a noble family in the Horqin Prairie. The mother of the Qing Dynasty was undoubtedly a Mongolian. Marrying Huang Taiji can be said to be a marriage between Manchu and Mongolia. Xiao Manor is actually the place where she gave birth and raised her children before getting married. As you can imagine, the scenic spot is the Darhan Palace which covers an area of ​​60,000 square meters.

This is a restored landscape that is "renovated as before". Since it is not that old, it is not difficult to restore the original appearance of the Prince's Mansion and imitate various supplies. Therefore, in the scenic spot, we mainly learn about the productivity level and the daily life of the noble families during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

From beds to tables and chairs, all the furniture they used in that era was wooden. The difference from ordinary people was the difference in materials and the fineness of decoration. With complex patterns and hollow carvings, how many hours of work does it take to create a large bed? This was the aesthetic vision of the time. Because some of them are cleaners, and some are paid for engraving. It is precisely these exquisite carvings that can prove the owner's strong financial resources.

Today we no longer like those hollow carvings that are difficult to clean, but we have the same way of showing off our wealth - we only need the three functions of making phone calls, surfing the Internet, and sending messages, but we insist on buying the latest version of Apple mobile phone to show off our wealth. If you have money, you can afford it.

The pavilions and pavilions in the garden were not as luxurious as expected, the lawn looked very messy, and there was only one carriage displayed in the stables. These failed to reflect the original appearance of a prince's palace. Probably only that well can still reproduce the scene at that time.

On the contrary, the new modern works look a bit grand – In addition to the history of the palace and the Xiaozhuang exhibits, there are two huge prints on both sides of the main hall, which were obviously made by one person.

Knowing nothing about painting, I stopped to take a closer look. Precisely because I was born lacking the ability to paint, I have great respect for the professional talents I lacked. There are two kinds of people in this world, one is those who do not understand and do not appreciate talents in this area, and the other are those who do not understand but are envious of people with talents in this area, and even have a mentality of worship. I am the latter. Not to mention such a sophisticated art as large-scale printmaking, even if I see other people writing beautiful pen calligraphy, I will still admire it for a long time. Because my handwriting is so bad, I envy others.

Perhaps because the Prince's Palace is too big, just introducing the information related to Queen Xiaozhuang is not enough, so the scenic area added pictures of the ancient life of the Inner Mongolian people and their modern achievements. This kind of irrelevant exhibition can be seen in many scenic spots, which just corresponds to the idiom "if the mink is not enough, the dog's tail will continue".

We went back to the city to eat. Principal Wang asked me if I had ever eaten "big pot"? I couldn't imagine what "big pot" was. Was it a dish or a way of eating? I even thought of Ogedei - The third son of Genghis Khan. Since this is in Inner Mongolia, would it be a dish named after a person like Dongpo Pork?

I could only shake my head.

At this moment, the car had stopped, and sure enough, I saw the three characters "大pot台". It turns out to be a store name! I said this in my heart. However, when I walked into the store, I realized that all my guesses were wrong.

This large pot is placed on the round stove. The large pot is cylindrical and made of pig iron. I suddenly remembered the three large pots I saw at the house of the head of Pu Village in Dunhua. Apart from the fact that the stove was not connected to the Kang, another difference was that the pot lids were made of wooden boards. Doing business is different from having a family. You have to lift the pot lid frequently. Cast iron pot lids must exhaust your employees to death.

Why is there a Korean pottery in Inner Mongolia? Let’s not forget Tongliao’s special geographical location: It borders Jilin Province to the east and Liaoning Province to the south. There are many ethnic groups such as Mongolian, Manchu, Han, Korean and even Hui living here. Just like Chinese restaurants can be found everywhere in Chinatown in the United States, every place where ethnic minorities live has their restaurants. Restaurants with blue fonts or Quranic content on their signboards at the entrance are generally Hui or Muslim restaurants. Most of the restaurants that advertise dog meat are Korean restaurants. If this Daguotai restaurant is not opened by Koreans, it should be designed to attract Korean customers.

There were many of us, so we chose a room with a stove and four large pots. Each pot has different dishes. It is estimated that according to the portion in our hotel, it can be divided into 20 multiple plates. This portion is really big enough.

I secretly laughed in my heart: Once upon a time, in order to regulate the food and drink trend, the reception standard of "four dishes and one soup" was stipulated. As a result, during that time, the four dishes served were all oversized and overpriced. Of course, the Korean-style "big pot table" is not for anti-corruption, but just a feature. Moreover, we do not have a problem with public funds consumption.

In order to show that this is a country restaurant, the room was deliberately covered with newspapers on the walls. Are the dishes cooked in this kind of cooking utensils and environment particularly delicious? It really has something to do with it!

There are two factors that determine whether a dish is delicious. — Ingredients and cooking skills. In other words, the best fresh ingredients and top cooking skills make it delicious no matter where you sit.

In fact, besides taste, whether it tastes good or not is more influenced by your consciousness. If you divide a dish made by a chef into two portions, one portion is served with high-end clean tableware, and the other portion is served with a sterile, mutilated and worn plate, you will find the former very delicious and the latter barely swallowable. .

It can be seen that the dining environment and tableware are also factors that cannot be ignored that affect appetite. You feel that the vegetables you pick from the vegetable field are safe, but when the farmer picks the vegetables from the vegetable field and sells them in the market, you will feel that the vegetables are unsafe. In fact, the dishes are the same.

There is no difference between cooking the same ingredients in a Korean pot and cooking them in a Han aluminum pot (assuming it’s the same chef). It’s just that I didn’t taste their food in the Korean village and stayed there. That anticipation in my mind had a delicious effect.

Two people came in outside. One is Dean Shao of the Academy of Fine Arts (the author of the two prints of Xiaozhuang Scenic Area), and the other is Director Zhao of the Cultural Center. Suddenly, there are two more cultural figures.

I looked at this painter whom I admired in surprise, not because he didn’t have braids like those artists, but because I was amazed at Principal Wang’s wide network of contacts.

7There are both Mongolians and Hans among the individuals, and Mongolians are particularly good at drinking. Although I don’t have the capacity to drink three large glasses, I can’t avoid a small glass. At least I have to show my respect to the painter.

I don’t know what the scientific basis is for traffic police to measure blood alcohol content to determine whether they are drunk, but I know that I will definitely be drunk after drinking one or two liquor, while some people will drink one pound and act as if nothing has happened. For them, one or two drinks is simply equivalent to not drinking at all, but the alcohol content in their blood must reach the standard. Fortunately, I was so drunk that it evaporated quickly. By the time we left the table at about 9 o'clock, there wasn't much of a problem, I just suffered from the cold.

To predict what will happen next, please read Chapter 21 of : Daqinggou has a unique geography, but the style of Mongolian songs remains the same