The first is the influence of freshness: cities are not as fresh as rural areas.
This freshness is not only whether the leaves wither, but also the consumption of sugar and water in vegetables. Vegetables will not die immediately after they are picked, and cells are still consuming nutrients, while sugar and water are consumed the earliest, so the vegetables that farmers pick and fry now are often sweeter and crisper.
Then there is the question of growth cycle (maturity).
Let's just say that the apples on our own tree were given to our teacher, and she said that we couldn't eat them unless they were red. There used to be an apple orchard in my aunt's house, and the apples sold were particularly beautiful. Why? Apply the medicine two days in advance to ensure the beautiful color. The apples on our own trees may still be blue and red when they are picked in late autumn. In fact, many vegetables and fruits bought in the city are not mature at all, and there is not enough time to accumulate flavor substances, such as tomatoes, pumpkins, bananas, oranges, apples and melons. They just look familiar, but they are not familiar at all. They are all for the convenience of transportation and storage. It's strange and delicious. Who will pick it if it's not cooked at home? When cooked, you can smell a particularly fragrant smell. I am a northerner, and the oranges I ate in Changsha have subverted my senses for more than 20 years. It turns out that naturally cooked oranges are so sweet and tender that you can't wait to think about them.
There is also the factor of eating experience.
Take sweet potato as an example. To get the best taste, it is necessary to accumulate enough starch and sugar in sweet potato for a few days, and then dry it on the dry ground for a few days to promote water evaporation. Some starch will be converted into sugar, which is best when the skin is slightly wrinkled. Another example is watermelon. The best eating time of different varieties varies greatly. Xin Jing No.1, the medium-sized watermelon with thin and crisp skin, is the best when it is just ripe. Long watermelons with light green patterns (varieties can't be remembered) are best when they are just ripe, while large and crisp watermelons with green patterns on the market are best when they are ripe neither too early nor too late. These varieties may be confused at first glance, not to mention the differences in food maturity.
In the city, who has enough experience to judge the ripeness of melons? Where is a convenient way to choose the right maturity? Some people even say that knocking on watermelons to judge maturity is pseudoscience, which is really ignorant. A lot of things are like this. Time, color and climate will profoundly affect the taste of food. These things need long-term experience, and many modern people can't even tell the species apart. How can we know these subtle differences?
Finally, variety is also a factor that cannot be ignored. It is not appropriate to compare different varieties of the same species.
Take Chinese cabbage as an example. There are many varieties of Chinese cabbage. The Chinese cabbage planted in our family last year is tender and sweet. I asked my mother, and she said that the seeds she bought this year were very expensive. 9 yuan a small bag, small but delicious. Ordinary Chinese cabbage seeds are only one pack in 2 yuan. However, many varieties of cabbage grow very big. If sold, of course, you have to plant a big one to sell more money. If they want to eat for themselves, they are willing to take the land to grow small and expensive cabbage (land is also a scarce resource in rural areas now)
In this way, it is really difficult for urban food to catch up with rural food.