A bowl of Yulin rice noodles contains the mountains and rivers of Lingnan

Written by Wei Shuihua

Header image | TuChong Creative

Delicious, often appears in life inadvertently. In the travel observation reality show "New Travel Notes", Zhang Ruoyun's shot of chewing a carambola on a green train to quench his thirst is impressive: there is no close-up of the details of the fruit, no description of the taste, and the simple three words "really delicious" reminds people of countless details about life, about the market, and about the fireworks. The dragon head pours down the longevity cup of the wine guest, and the host smiles at the red rose. Drink a morning tea, eat a hot pot in the hall, eat a handful of barbecue in the lively night market, and drink a big bowl of soy milk in the early morning breakfast stall. These inconspicuous details in daily life have become people's extravagant desires and goals when imagining normal life during the repeated epidemics. This is also the reason why the "New Travel Notes" that travels life and sees the ordinary stands out in this special period.

No.1

Market life is a straightforward understanding of social interaction for many people, and a simple memory of the growth process. In the fifth episode of "New Travels", Wang Yanlin, Huang Zitao, Lin Gengxin, Yue Yunpeng, Zhang Ruoyun, and Chen Feiyu formed a new travel group and took the green train on the Lizhan Line from Zhanjiang, Guangdong to Yulin, Guangxi. In this city with a strong Lingnan style, they witnessed the ordinary but real power of life.

Photo by Zhang Lei

In a land of infrastructure construction, high-speed trains have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. The Lizhan Line, which still runs green trains, is increasingly showing signs of aging and has become a marginalized line in the transportation network. However, its nostalgic temperament and the Lingnan style along the line have created another kind of charm.

Yulin is called "Yulin" in ancient Chinese books. As the name implies, where there are mountains and rivers, lush forests naturally grow. In fact, today's Yulin is adjacent to the South China Sea in the south and Southeast Asia in the back, and is a famous transportation hub. The hustle and bustle of people in the trade and logistics, and the simple farming tradition based on the fertile mountains and rivers, together create its human touch and market flavor.

At the other end of the Lizhan Line, Hechun Town, Zhanjiang, is a famous "hometown of hundreds of fruits". The wind from the South China Sea and the land of the Leizhou Peninsula nourish this warm land. People work here endlessly, and tropical fruits such as pineapples, carambolas, guavas, mangoes, etc. are shipped from here to all parts of the country every year. A track with green trains running on it connects real life on one end and the life we ​​yearn for on the other.

On the green train, the new tour group met Shi Po, a "porter army" from Zhanjiang. The young and strong Wang Yanlin, Yue Yunpeng and others could not carry the hundred-jin load of fruit, but the seemingly weak Shi Po could lift it easily: decades of training have given her a pair of strong shoulders.

Sweet fruits are therefore given additional emotions. The destination of Yulin, where Shi Po took the green train, shows the attraction of a hub city to the people in this detail.

No.2

Arriving in Yulin, the new tour group received the task of helping Shi Po sell fruit. The stall was set up near the Yulin Long-distance Bus Station. There were crowds of people.

Wang Yanlin, who is from Liaoning, was selling fruits in Northeastern dialect, calling out "Ge Bao Ge Tian", but passers-by told him to "sell them in our dialect".

Countless migrant workers, vendors and tourists have to follow the character and culture of this city, which is the unique and beautiful part of Chinese market culture. Near the fruit stalls, there are also stalls selling barbecue, fried skewers, sweet soup, stewed food and sushi, which weave a long street with delicious mixture and lingering fragrance. Compared with those so-called "food streets" that are neatly planned, this purely wild food street can better mobilize the emotions and appetite of tourists. They are the flavors deeply rooted in the genes of this city.

People from all over the world provided their own elements for this flavor. Soon, the Zhanjiang fruits brought by the new tour group were noticed by many people, and the sweet carambolas became popular in the market.

As they won the game, Yue Yunpeng and Lin Gengxin used the proceeds from selling fruits to look for food on the streets of Yulin: rice noodles. In Guangxi, a province known for its rice noodles, soft and glutinous rice noodles made from rice are the staple food of the people. People always like to attach special meanings to their favorite things to prove their importance, and food is no exception. Among the "Four Major Rice Noodles in China" selected by netizens, Guangxi rice noodles alone occupy three positions.

In fact, rice is different from other grains. This grain, which naturally carries the fragrance of jasmine, only needs a little boiling to fully expand, obtain a soft texture and incomparable fragrance. This is an advantage that wheat that needs to be ground into powder and deeply processed, or yellow rice that needs to be cooked for a long time and added with auxiliary materials cannot match. Therefore, southerners have always eaten rice by boiling it in a rough way. The "Records of the Grand Historian" records that "the land of Chu and Yue is vast and sparsely populated, and rice and fish soup are the mainstream way of eating in the south before the Western Han Dynasty.

The change came from the frequent wars in the Central Plains during the late Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, and the Jin Dynasty. A large number of aristocratic families fled south to avoid disaster. The great development of the south in Chinese history began from this; the history of eating rice noodles, which spread throughout Guangxi, also began from this. From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, grinding and deep processing of rice is obviously a superfluous act - the original rice grains can be directly cooked to obtain an excellent taste, and grinding and shaping them with great effort cannot improve the taste. However, it is not difficult to come up with a guess about the shape of noodles, steamed buns, dumplings, and dumplings in the Central Plains: perhaps after the ancestors came to the south where wheat and yellow rice were less grown, they missed the food of the Central Plains, and used local materials and rice as raw materials to make rice versions of noodles, dumplings, steamed buns, and dumplings, that is, rice noodles, glutinous rice balls, and cakes.

In Yulin, people like to entertain guests with beef jerky. The most common rice noodles in daily life are naturally paired with beef jerky. Yulin beef jerky looks a bit like beef jerky in the north, but the production process is much more complicated. Yulin beef jerky is mostly made from yellow cattle hind legs. After being marinated and dried for one or two days, it can be mixed with licorice, cloves and other condiments and stir-fried over high heat.

After adding beef brisket to a bowl of vegetarian noodles, the slightly dry beef brisket begins to "swell" and oozes out bits of oil under the soaking of rice noodle soup. Wrap the beef brisket with rice noodles and put them into your mouth. The round and chewy rice noodles, after fighting with your lips and teeth, release the aroma of rice. The beef brisket filled with soup has a delicate meaty texture, and the more you chew, the more fragrant it becomes.

In addition, Liuzhou snail noodles, Guilin rice noodles, Nanning Laoyou noodles, Binyang sour noodles, Beihai seafood noodles, and Wuzhou Shangtang noodles can all be found in Yulin. The rich toppings and varied cooking methods reflect the rich rice culture nurtured by the people of southern China and the complex ecology under the impact of diverse cultures.

The various kinds of fans that Yue Yunpeng and Lin Gengxin “can’t eat enough” are a vivid portrayal of Yulin’s food world.

No.3

In fact, "The New Journey to the West", which is based on the story characters and values ​​of "Journey to the West", one of the four great classical Chinese novels, and provides a modern and innovative interpretation. It allows the protagonists under the spotlight to go deep into the human world, explore various lifestyles, and feel every ordinary but real life power.

The six guests spread their different lives in front of the audience in various parts of China, conveying the positive values ​​of ordinary people in ordinary and complicated lives. In the second episode, Huang Zitao and Chen Feiyu worked until the early morning and ate a Cantonese box lunch at the construction site, and Huang Zitao and Chen Feiyu slept in a fast food restaurant, all of which showed that many people have a hard time surviving for a full meal;

In the fourth episode of Chaoshan Station, the home-cooked dishes made by Chaoshan people for the new tour group showed that the people of this food capital are never tired of eating. In contrast, the artists wanted to eat but did not get to eat the authentic Chaoshan beef balls at the Guangdong Long-distance Expressway Service Station, which brought the city that was once worshipped as a god to a place that we are closer to and more familiar with.

From the perspective of cooking, these flavors are certainly not as exquisite as the bonsai at the banquet; but their value lies in the fact that they are the mountains and rivers that we come into contact with every day, deeply connected with the land and life. The most moving thing about eating is definitely not just the wonderful show of skills and the meticulous selection of ingredients, it reflects the carrying capacity of each piece of land, the inheritance of each family and the communication of each person's values. As Wang Zengqi said, food from all over the world is just a bowl of fireworks.