Hubei Laifeng, 3 March (ZXS) -- Topic: Tujia oil tea soup: Delicious mountain water relieves all kinds of homesickness

China News Agency reporter Guo Xiaoying

For the Tujia people, a bowl of oil tea soup with a strong nostalgic taste warms the body to the heart.

In an old wooden house in Group 5 of Shemihu Village, Baifusi Town, Laifeng County, Hubei Province, Peng Dabing, a 74-year-old man from the Tujia family, set up "three feet" in the earthen fire pit, put an iron pot, added firewood to the stove, and began to make oil tea soup to entertain visitors.

I saw him pouring lard into the pot, and pouring coarse tea after the oil was hot. The tea leaves are put into the pot, and the leaves are instantly stretched, accompanied by the sound of "prickly la prick", releasing a strong burnt fragrance.

"Oil tea oil tea, that is, to have a lot of oil, but also to master the heat, the fire is small and the tea leaves are not cooked, and the fire is large." Peng Dabing said while stir-frying, and the tea fragrance was overflowing all over the house.

Afterwards, Peng Dabing poured water into the pot, added salt and garlic seedlings, scooped the soup into the bowl after the water boiled, and then put the "fried goods" such as rice flowers and dried tofu into the earthen pottery bowl one by one.

"Don't panic, be careful to burn your mouth, drink slowly." Peng Dabing said that the oil tea soup that had just come out of the pot was very hot, but the heat was covered by lard, and he couldn't see it, so he drank it suddenly, burning his mouth at light, and burning his tongue at worst. The Tujia proverb says: "The lard soup does not make a splash, and it burns the stupid son-in-law." ”

The guest followed the host, picked up the bowl, held it in his hand, blew the oil layer open, and drank it gently in a circle. The fragrance of tea, the freshness of rice flowers, the tenderness of garlic seedlings... A bowl of soup, a variety of flavors, all in your mouth.

Camellia soup is a traditional food loved by the Tujia people. Qing Tongzhi's "Xianfeng County Record" recorded: "Oil tea: rotten and cut into pieces, fine tea, yin rice each with ointment, boiled, dry and wet, people either to enjoy guests, or to self-worship, there are no more days to eat, then faint." "Qing Tongzhi's "Laifeng County Record" also has a similar record: the native people fried soybeans, bao grain, rice flowers, tofu, sesame, green plantain and other things, took water and oil, boiled tea leaves for soup and brewed, and paid tribute to the guests, known as oil tea.

In Baifusi Town, oil tea soup is both a drink and a soup to accompany meals, and everyone loves to drink it. Therefore, there is a folk proverb: "If you don't drink oil tea soup, you will panic in your heart; Three meals a day, three bowls, do the work hard. ”

Simple ingredients and simple methods make people touch the essence of the simple life of the Tujia people at once.

Baifusi Town is located in the southernmost part of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and is a place where three provinces are stepped on. The Tujia people live in the stilt building, eat large pieces of meat, drink large bowls of wine, cook pots of rice, drink oil tea soup, sing mountain folk songs, and speak Tujia language. When they put down their farm tools, they will dance a simple and rough hand-waving dance, release the joy in their hearts, and express their endless love for this landscape.

"The taste of hometown is always the deepest memory, and we Tujia people, no matter where we go, we think about the oil tea soup of our hometown." Xie Yongzhou, the first secretary of Shemi Lake Village, said that for the Tujia people, oil tea soup is a delicacy, but also a family dish.

Thousands of years have passed, and the oil tea soup has not been replaced by a variety of fine wines and drinks, but has been passed down from generation to generation. The Tujia people project all the hometown feelings into the oil tea soup, and through the precipitation and fermentation of the years, it turns into all kinds of nostalgia on the tip of the tongue. (End)