The water chestnuts native to the Buddha's country, India, have a navel print in the middle of the round belly, so we call it "Bodhisattva's navel", that is, the navel of the Bodhisattva. This kind of shaped form is very interesting. The people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang call it "dili" or "dili pear". If they call it "dili mines" and "black taro", they are called "black taro", which is purely based on their appearance. It is said that the water chestnuts and citrine mushrooms are not divided among Sichuan people, and the water chestnuts are called citrine mushrooms. What are they calling the citrine mushrooms?

The ancients listed water chestnuts, lily, lotus, and starch as wormwood to distinguish them from melons and fruits. The skin of water chestnuts is purple-black, dark red, etc., with white flesh, sweet and juicy taste, crisp and delicious. It has been known as "underground snow pear" since ancient times, and is one of the "Eight Immortals of Water" in Jiangnan. When Zhou Zuoren talked about sugarcane water chestnuts, peach, plum, apricot and persimmons, he sighed that "fruits are also good for their hometown."

There is a kind of canned "clear water horse hoof", which is a peeled water chestnut, which can be used for canning. It can be seen that water chestnuts can be placed on the table. They are slanted with bird's beak-shaped top buds, and they are flat and small gyros-like things. But last year when I went to Beijing, many vendors have sold candied water chestnuts with bamboo sticks and skewers with honey juice.

Water chestnuts are really the most rural fruit. In the early years, the trees raised in the water grown in the fields, the fragrant lotus roots, peaches, beans, peaches, and peanuts of the countryside were all God’s love and gifts for rural children. The so-called eating radishes in winter and eating melons in summer. After autumn, the children sneaked into the shepherd’s field where the water chestnuts were dried. The water chestnuts were round and lost. The little girl in the village had a head called the "toilet lid" and was also round and lost. She combed a braid in the sky under Feng Zikai’s brush obliquely, which also made the poem by the old man Zhitang more interesting: "Get new clothes for New Year, and the white socks and flowers are all in all; the braids are tied up in the sky, making it clear that a small water chestnut."

I admire Wang Zengqi's method of fiddling with words. I remember reading "The straight round leaves of water chestnuts like green onions" when I read "The straight round leaves of water chestnuts" and the beautiful footprints that Xiao Yingzi stepped on to mess up the heart of the little monk Minghai... It was like seeing a new world. It turned out that words could be used like this? An old man who understood so many worldly loves, sprinkled water chestnuts with ordinary and extremely lively words in the misty water. The "crooked" of the "crooked water chestnuts" alone makes people feel so much fun and childish comfort. Which children in the rural areas of Jiangnan have never "crooked" water chestnuts like Xiao Yingzi? With bare feet, "crooked" in the cool mud, "crooked" to a hard lump, and reached out to touch it. Haha, a round red and purple water chestnut that is not lost!

The large number of water chestnuts was launched in winter. At that time, the withered water chestnuts had already been burned into circles of black ashes. The water chestnuts were called "Pak Bo Navel" here. Rows of people sticking their butts together, and putting their hands into the mud with their hands. The scene was very spectacular. The children carrying the basket followed closely behind the adults who worked collectively, and their feet kept pounding in the mud, searching for fish that had escaped the net, and they picked up a big one, and couldn't help but be sweet and tempting.

Rub the clothes a few times and then put them into your mouth. In the era of economic depression, the villagers had to exchange water chestnuts for two oil and salt money. On a cold night, a light was like beans, and the whole family gathered in front of a big basket, cutting water chestnuts quickly. The water chestnuts that were rotating between their fingers turned from dark red to extremely delicate and pure white. The next morning, teams of people carrying water chestnuts quickly left rows of footprints on the small wooden bridge with thick frost on the way to the supply and marketing cooperative.

When the fields that have planted water chestnuts and then planted rice, they will never be able to grow water chestnuts for several years. When resting in the field, they sit on the ridge of the field and weave this straw raincoat. It is very cool and full of enthusiasm when they are draped on the body. In the swamp puddles, wild water chestnuts grow like fine onions. One stroke and one handful of them, and the beards of the stage characters are hanged on their ears, which can make the children play randomly. The wild water chestnuts are shiny, and the wild hairs are so big that they are very sweet. There is a very heavy "earth paste and dew breath" that the old man Zhitang calls.

Water chestnuts are big, round, sweet, crispy and without residue. The bright red and shiny water chestnuts have a fresh earthy aroma. The water is the most slurry, and the bite is crispy and splattered in the mouth. In addition to eating raw, the old and black commonly known as "copper hoop bodhishou" after being cooked, because of the high starch content, you can wipe the skin off with one touch, and there is a unique sweet and smooth feeling. The air-dried water chestnuts are wrinkled and wrinkled, and the skin is not easy to peel. It is best to eat raw, because the water is removed and the sugar is added, so it is particularly mellow and crisp. Sitting at home in rainy and snowy weather, take a knife to peel the water chestnuts’ air-dried skin, without being anxious, and then put it into your mouth. The crispy, sweet and refreshing taste is the best enjoyment.

Water chestnuts can be cooked into a variety of delicious dishes. The so-called cheap sellers are cheap, and there are expensive offerings. The villagers cut water chestnuts into thin slices and sprinkle with white sugar to entertain guests. It is refreshing and simple. In the cooking skills of the city people, water chestnuts are a good ingredients for making cubes and spicy chicken. Fried shrimps with water chestnuts, with a few touches of light red in pure white, making them more tasteful. There is a kind of water chestnut lion head. Chop the water chestnuts into the minced meat, add egg white, cooking wine, starch, MSG, minced green onion and ginger and salt to make large meatballs. Fry them in the oil pan until both sides are yellow, add soup, add soy sauce and sugar, and simmer over low heat, put them in a blue and white porcelain plate with the heart of the dish, and pour them on a natural, tender and crispy, with sweetness in salty, and red and green contrast, which is truly full of color, aroma and taste.

Water chestnuts are tender and have more fluids, which can treat fever, fluid, wounds, and thirst, and can also prevent the spread of meningitis and influenza. I remember that in the early spring more than 30 years ago, a meningitis spread in the countryside. One day, a team of Red Guards came to us and used a tin tube horn to promote measures to prevent meningitis to the villagers, and also distributed many red and green leaflets. Since then, we ate the fried bacon of Boxima Shepherd's garlic sprouts every day, and ate it until the boxima Shepherd's long buds and garlic sprouts bolted to avoid the plague.

Lentils are easy to raise. No matter how thin the soil is, the soil is fat, and the soil is yang, just make a pier that is the size of a washbasin, put a little fat, and put two seeds on it. On three or five days, the seedlings sprout, shake the tender leaves in the wind, and climb up the fence with slender vines. In early summer, one rain after another will make them accumulate enough strength, circulate and spread according to their shape, and turn the entire fence into a thick green area in less than a few days. Sometimes they even wrap around the clothesline. If you don’t pay attention to climbing the tall treetops and blooming flowers all the way, you can only wait to harvest the old lentil seeds.

In the countryside, lentils always have the deepest connection with the fence outside the half-closed door, especially on a certain autumn day, a fence that falls into our eyes. Just because it is full of lentil flowers and a few chickens that are drilling around, we will suddenly feel the tranquility and warmth of our home. Such fence courtyards are also the home of grasshoppers on summer nights and textile girls on autumn nights. "White flowers and green vines are higher than the house, and the sound of cold insects and gold and stones every night." Thinking of the morning dew and green breeze under the lentil fence in childhood, thinking of the night

The distant cry of summer insects and autumn insects makes me miss and homesickness. If Zheng Banqiao's poem "full of autumn wind lentils" shows a faint attachment to the passing of peaceful years in the rural atmosphere of the farming era; then, as a Qing people, "the clear water ripples from shallow sand, and there are several scattered bamboos and wild families; the most pity for autumn is the sparse fence, and the lentils blooming in the rain" expresses the shallow sorrow of life, just like the loneliness of the lentils blooming in the rain when the curtain is about to end.
Chapter completed!