It can also be eating tea, which can be understood as drinking tea. In the south, it means eating tea restaurants. Leggy Brother | Songyang | Tea
I prefer the term tea over drinking tea. A sentence of "go eat tea" is somewhat generous and free spirited.
Speaking of which, eating tea is still an ancient name. According to the "Tea Classic", the most popular way of "eating tea" in the Tang Dynasty was to bake and broil tea cakes on fire, grind them into powder at a certain temperature, and then cook them in water, mixed with ginger, onion, orange peel, dates, mint, etc., and then eat them when they become Congee.
This kind of tea Congee has not been tasted yet, but it really became a tea trip when I arrived in Songyang.
The first one to see is Brother Legs. Leg Brother has a dedicated tea shop in Songyang, not a teahouse, but a restaurant.
As soon as I walked into the restaurant, I saw several smoked hams hanging in mid air.
Leg Brother's skin is dark, not much whiter than this ham. He stands at the entrance of the restaurant, and whenever someone stares at the ham, his eyes light up: "Smoke it with tea, slowly smoke it, slowly smoke it, hang it behind the stove, it's amazing!"
Leggy Brother introduced his tea smoked ham to many people like this. His green tea restaurant serves tea as a dish. The restaurant is surrounded by blue brick walls to create a simple courtyard.
Light green, deep green, emerald green, ink green, hazy green, fresh green, gentle green... On summer days in Songyang, you can see many colors of tea. The tea color is spread out on the dining table and made into green tea noodles, green tea glutinous rice balls, green tea sauce stewed tofu soup, green tea pastries, tea lamb chops, tea shrimp, and green tea dumplings. Stir fried lilies are sprinkled with fresh tea leaves for embellishment, and the tea is diverse, making it a vegetable and rice. There is another dish of smoked ham with tea leaves. There is no trace of tea, but when you smell the aroma of tea, it is sliced ham meat smoked with tea leaves and dried bamboo shoots in a rolling pot. The aroma of tea and meat permeates together, and everyone shouts, "Let's have a piece!"
Sandwiched between the chopsticks is Brother Lu's tea smoked ham.
Leg Brother is a local of Songyang. When I was a child, in the old house of Songyang, the old stove was burning for years. Outside the old house, there were mountains, green fields, and some ancient tea trees hidden in the green fields. At that time, the tea fields and mountains were not as neat and tidy as they were. At that time, the meat also had to be stored for a long time. Villagers used to hang the local indigenous pork behind the stove. Whenever the stove caught fire, smoke swirled around, causing the pork oil to drip and the aroma to overflow.
In the hands of Brother Legs, he exchanged the smoked firewood. Every spring and autumn, tea farmers prune their tea trees to ensure that their tender leaves are more lush. The pruned old tea branches were collected by Brother Legs as raw materials for bacon. In Songyang, more than half of the people are engaged in tea related activities. Tea is everywhere in Songyang, and there is no need to worry about tea branches.
Leg Brother specializes in smoked pig legs, a type of two black local pigs produced in Songyang, with the hind legs selected. A hind leg undergoes a process of salt, shaping, smoking, fermentation, flipping, and sun washing, which takes about a whole spring, summer, autumn, and winter. That's how Brother Legs got his name.
Of course, I thought the most delicious thing that night was the green tea noodles. The aroma of green tea and the soft and sticky noodles made my mouth and teeth fragrant. Grass White and I, sitting on the side, lifted the green tea noodles with chopsticks and ate two large bowls together. The green tea dumplings on the back are the best looking, placed on a plate, as green as a thousand peaks.
There is also a green tea pudding, which is fried in oil and mixed with tea powder. The dark green pudding is wrapped in brown sugar, which tastes sweet with a slight bitterness. It is wonderful and reminds people of four words, mixed with sadness and joy, but always filled with joy - when it comes to eating, there is no time to hurt spring or autumn. Or maybe it's just over cooked.
In fact, using tea as a spice is common.
Fried Shrimps with Longjing Tea in Hangzhou has a long history. It is said that it was a famous dish that Qianlong ate when he went to Jiangnan. Soak the tea in boiling water to create a fragrant aroma, then mix the tea with the marinated shrimp and cook in a pot. There is a dish in Yunnan. Fried pork ribs with fresh mint leaves, while those from Songyang are replaced with fresh tea leaves. The aroma of tea is milder than that of mint. Fried fresh tea leaves are crispy and crispy. We ate with a creaking sound. Eating it out loud gives it a unique flavor.
Pickled tea is often eaten in Yunnan. Go to the mountain to pick fresh tea leaves, wash them and dry them in the sun. Then, manually knead the tea juice and marinate it with spicy seasonings such as chili peppers and salt. Put it in a clay jar and take it as you please. However, as long as Yunnan people have chili peppers and salt, they can dip it into everything to eat. A friend from Dehong Mangshi often eats chili peppers and salt dipped in potatoes and rice cakes, as well as pineapple and cantaloupe.
People from Jiangnan eat tea gently. Jiangnan person Qiaohui sprinkled a spoonful of white sugar in a cup of clear tea, saying that it would not be bitter.
Young Qiaohui teaches tea art in Songyang and has been busy with tea related matters since graduating and returning to her hometown of Songyang. Adding sugar to clear tea has been a way for women in Songyang to enjoy tea for thousands of years. It can be seen that the people of Songyang add a little sweetness to the base color of their tea. Introducing tea into dishes, and vice versa, is to restore some bitterness in terms of color and aroma.
Tea has such power. Qiaohui said that she originally wanted to take root in a big city, but little did she know that as soon as she graduated and came back to make tea, she wanted to make it permanently and do it well.
Going for tea, the most famous is the famous case in history about meditation:
A monk came to Zhao, as recorded in the "Five Lights Meeting Yuan": Zhao Zhou was a Zen master. The master asked the new monk, "Have you ever been here?" The answer was, "Have you been here." The master said, "Have tea." The new monk was asked, "Have not been." The master said, "Have tea." The backyard master asked the Zen master, "Why did you ever go to Yayun to have tea, but not to Yayun to have tea?" The master summoned the courtyard master, and the master agreed, "Have tea."
Whether guests arrive or not, just eat tea with a calm mind. The people of Songyang understand this very well. There is no more ordinary way to sprinkle tea over a food pot.
On the day of our return journey, we arrived at the Damushan Tea Garden in Songyang. In the scorching sun, we followed a fork in the road and entered a small restaurant called Coarse Tea and Light Rice. A dish for lunch is steamed crucian carp with fresh tea leaves. The fresh aroma of the tea seeps into the tender and white flesh of the crucian carp, making it fragrant, fresh, and soft and sticky.
The female shopkeeper is thin and pure, saying that fresh tea leaves are picked from her own tea garden, and the fish ingredients are mixed by her own husband. When asked by the neighboring table, does your house sell tea? The shop owner said, yes, yes. My companion bought two crucian carp from the shop. Before departure, the female shop owner had changed the small table to brew and taste tea for the neighboring guests.
Cao Baixin was overjoyed as she pulled out a small Songyang soil tea from the wilderness and prepared to plant it in her own courtyard. She waited for the tender leaves to bloom next year, hoping to make a fresh tea steamed crucian carp.
