When Cantonese people go to a Guangxi restaurant and see a “snail,” they often don’t know what it is, but it’s actually a common clam in Guangdong. Biologically, snails or shells belong to the phylum of mollusks, collectively called shellfish. The Guangxi people, in turn, call them “snails”. When you go to the market to buy a pound of snails, you often have to buy another pound of piper betel and stir-fry it with the snails, which is the authentic Nanning flavor.
Piper betel, or Piper sarmentosum Roxb, is a herb of the genus Piperaceae in the Piperaceae family, and is considered an herb. In addition to stir-fried snails, it can also be minced and stir-fried, or fried in its original leaves. Old Nannings know this stuff. It’s not surprising that young people don’t know about it if they don’t cook, but if they don’t put it in a dish they should, most of them will eat it as if it’s missing something.
People in Zhanjiang call it “clam piper” and use it to make clam piper rice and clam piper dumplings. The Cantonese believe that clam piper nourishes yin and is good for women, but the taste is second to none.
I ate piper pseudo-piper, not caring about its medicinal value, but finding its flavor unique and appetizing. In the past two years, I have occasionally had to travel from Guangzhou to Nanning for family reasons. I took the high-speed train there in the morning, ate noodles for lunch, and in the afternoon, when I finished my business, I went to the market to buy a large piper betel and brought it back to Guangzhou to fry some piper betel for a midnight snack. This is not as good as flying from Hong Kong to London to feed the pigeons, but it’s a really interesting life.
It’s a different taste to fry the nail with perilla or Jin Bu Chang. Jin Bu Chang, called the Nine Storey Pagoda in Taiwan, is a type of basil. If you go to the market and buy a bag of thin shells from a Chaozhou stall, you will get a big handful of Jin Bu Exchange. The thin-shelled clam, known by its scientific name, is shaped like an animal kidney, but is as small as the end of the thumb. The shell is extremely thin, with little meat but tasty, and after eating one grain, the shells are piled up and not full, just like a snack, so it is also called sea melon seeds.
It is also an important edible herb in Southeast Asia. Thais use it in yellow and green curry, but Thai Holy Basil is more commonly used in other dishes, which has a stronger flavor and is not the same as Thai Basil. When Vietnamese people eat noodles, there must be gold on the table. They put a big handful of it in the soup, squeeze lemon juice, and put a few grains of millet in it.
Yunnan people eat beef and rice noodles with mint leaves. Like basil, there are many kinds of mint. I bought mint in the supermarket, but it smells good, tastes strange, and would probably be better used for making water. Mint is a herb that humans have been using for a long time, and is still the main gum flavor. I like to mix it with tempeh (from Guizhou and Yunnan) for a refreshing, spicy flavor that bounces off the tongue and is perfect for relieving boredom.
Basil, basil and mint are all members of the Labiataceae family. A common edible plant belonging to the same labiataceae family is also Vitex agnus. However, the “mustard” eaten in Henan and other Central Plains regions is actually basil, a genus of basil, with a common name of sparsely populated basil, which is not really mustard.
The true brassica leaves have serrations and are mainly used for medicinal purposes; the so-called “brassica” we usually eat has smooth leaf edges and is mainly used for food and essential oil extraction. When you go to Henan Noodle House in early summer, order a big bowl of lamb noodle with braised pork and a plate of cucumber with wasabi, you will sweat profusely and feel refreshed.
Wasabi tastes a bit like wood ginger, but wood ginger is a member of the Camphoraceae family, also known as mountain pepper. Fresh wood ginger can be used to mix with roasted green peppers, stir-fry meat or as a dipping sauce. People in Guizhou know how to eat wood ginger seeds, squeeze it into oil and put it in cold dishes or sour soup fish to invent a strange and unique flavor. If you ask your boss for more wood ginger oil, you’ll be treated like a country bumpkin.
With these herbs, you won’t be lonely when the meat, shellfish and fish are in the pot.
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