The name sweet potato must have its origin. Sure enough, sweet potato did not exist in ancient China, and it was not introduced from abroad until the middle of Ming Dynasty. However, once this kind of food is introduced into China, which has a large population, it grows like a weed in the spring breeze. Can only say that China's national conditions are too suitable for it.
As far as I know, sweet potato is closely related to the history of Hakka people. First of all, Hakkas are guests, of course, they belong to later generations, and the place where they live is remote and barren. This place is best for planting sweet potatoes, sometimes only sweet potatoes can be planted. Think about it, even houses can only be built at the foot of a desolate mountain. How can there be more fertile land for you to grow rice? So, I have to grow sweet potatoes.
Sweet potato is food for the poor, and its life is as cheap as the poor. No matter what you do, it can grow well. When I was a child, I planted sweet potatoes myself. First of all, I have to cut the pickled sweet potato seeds into small pieces and paste them with urine sauce, just like making rice flour meat. After planting these small pieces of sweet potatoes, green sweet potato seedlings will soon grow. When the sweet potato seedlings grow to a certain length, cut them off with scissors, then cut a long sweet potato seedling into small pieces every two or three leaves, and then selectively plant these short seedlings. Don't underestimate these sweet potato seedlings that have been cut into pieces, as if they were fragile. In autumn, each seedling can harvest dozens of Jin of sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are cheap and don't need too much trouble to grow, but the only thing to pay attention to is that they can survive if they are planted in rainy weather. If it is sunny, the seedlings will die.
After the sweet potato survives, when the seedlings grow to several feet long, it is necessary to lift the sweet potato seedlings in the opposite direction, weed and stump, so that the sweet potato can grow fat, otherwise the seedlings will grow roots and be inserted into the soil, and finally only a handful of sweet potato seedlings can be received.
Autumn, crisp and crisp, is the season to harvest sweet potatoes. After a few days, the recovered sweet potato was blown to powder by the dry autumn wind. At this time, it tastes sweet and delicious.
There are many ways to eat sweet potatoes. I like it raw. When I was a child, I ate that kind of raw sweet potato with red skin and white heart and licked my lips while eating. The sweet potato pulp around my mouth dried up and turned into a dark brown circle, which is often nicknamed "Darkmouth Dog" by adults. In the past, the family had a large population and little food, and sweet potatoes contributed a lot. This was an absolute staple food at that time. If the sweet potato harvest fails in a year, the adults at home will panic. And if there is a good harvest, when adults carry heavy sweet potatoes into the house, you can see that although the heavy burden makes people stumble, the pace is steady and practical. In late autumn and early winter, parents usually plant shredded or sliced sweet potatoes almost every night. There are often several loads of dried sweet potato shreds. Throughout the winter and spring, sweet potato shredded rice is the staple food. If the family is rich, the sweet potato shreds in the rice are also mixed less. If the family is poor, a grain of rice needs several sweet potato shreds. At that time, whoever had money or not, just lift the lid of the rice cooker and look at the ratio of sweet potato shreds to rice. In winter, the days are short and the nights are long. I usually eat braised sweet potatoes at home at noon, and sometimes I cook them. Slice white or yellow sweet potato, add potato, and slice. Stir-fry together, then boil, put onions and ginger in the pot. I can eat three bowls at a time.
Dried sweet potato chips are snacks. Stir-fried with sand (even coarse sand) in a large pot tastes like sugar-fried chestnuts on the street, with golden color and crisp fragrance. Fried sweet potato chips are often used in tea in the first month, but now with the improvement of living standards, the sand has been abandoned and crispy, more greasy and less fragrant.
The most common way to eat should be baked sweet potatoes. Baked sweet potatoes are common in the streets and lanes, and the aroma seems to float far away. Someone can follow the aroma through a few blocks, find the source and buy a hot sweet potato. Regardless of sven, chewing in the street, a look of eagerness and greed. When he bites down, the pink tongue often can't resist the burning, and turns around twice at random and swallows it. I suspect that he is eating delicacies. In fact, this way of gorging on the street is in line with the identity of sweet potatoes. If someone buys a baked sweet potato in the street, pinch a small piece with his fine fingers and slowly put it into his lips to make it feminine, then simply go to the teahouse to sip tea.
Speaking of roasted sweet potatoes, I think of Mr. Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged, in which a group of Jae-Il Lee people sneaked out to eat roasted sweet potatoes alone when they were "like there were no documents in their briefcases". I still can't help laughing at that scene, thinking that Fang Hung-chien could only follow the smell of sweet potatoes to find Li behind the corner. Fortunately, Fang Hung-chien had a good heart. Seeing him eating baked sweet potatoes, he quietly led himself away. Otherwise, if he drinks too much, this hot and sticky sweet potato will definitely kill Li.
Recently, the medicinal value of raw sweet potato has been frequently reported in newspapers. Once, I asked a friend who studied medicine, what is the best anti-cancer food? He said the first one was raw sweet potato. I didn't expect that people in China were eager for health, but they ate what they were used to, from snacks to big things, which surprised me. I also thought that there must be a second place if there is a first place, so I asked, what is the second place? The friend replied: cooked sweet potato.