Ningdu spinach

When visiting Ningdu or dining in Ningdu restaurant in other places, cold spinach is an indispensable appetizer, which is often added after eating the last one, eaten at noon and then eaten at night. An authentic Ningdu person, whether he is a farmer who has been farming endlessly or a salaried worker who goes to work in an institution, always eats and lives at home, or often goes to hotels to receive entertainment, and likes to eat cold spinach when eating. People in Ningdu work far away and return to their hometown, and the first dish they order is often water spinach. Foreigners who have eaten Ningdu cold spinach often prefer this dish when they arrive in Ningdu or Ningdu restaurants in other places. Water spinach, also known as Ipomoea aquatica, is not unique to Ningdu. It is planted in most parts of southern China, but Ningdu people have great ingenuity in preparing water spinach. Excellent raw materials are the source of delicious food. Water spinach can be seen everywhere, and the water spinach used for cooking in Ningdu is different from that in other places. Most of the water spinach used for frying in other places is the kind where the seedlings grow upward and the stems are thicker and can grow into tens of centimeters. Ningdu people call it Ziqi. This kind of cooking is rarely used in Ningdu. This kind of water spinach has big stems and leaves, and it doesn't have that crisp taste. People in Ningdu generally choose the kind of water spinach that crawls on the soil. This kind of water spinach is mostly a new bud from the stem of a vine that crawls on the ground, usually only a few centimeters long. Ningdu calls it a dragon or a vine. This kind of water spinach may be very fresh and crisp because it clings to the soil. Choose the most "indigenous" way to choose vegetables, and cooking is also the most primitive "indigenous" way. Wash the vegetables one by one, cut the vegetables without a knife, and pinch them with your fingers section by section, lest the blade cut off the freshness of the vegetables. What's more unique is that in the cooking process, you don't have to fry in a pan, you don't put a drop of oil, but you mix peppers. Ningdu cooking water spinach is simply to boil a pot of water, put the green pepper in the water to cook or put it on the fire to cook, and then pour the pinched water spinach into the water to cook for a while and then pick it up. At this time, put the cooked or roasted peppers into an ochre earthenware pot with deep grooves, add salt and garlic, grind the peppers with a polished stick, then put the cooked water spinach into the earthenware pot and stir with chopsticks, so that the ground pepper and salt can be integrated with the water spinach. In this way, without putting a drop of oil, without moving the pot head and spatula, a cold spinach came out of the bowl fresh. Native dishes and rustic methods make you taste the unique original natural flavor, fresh and spicy, appetizing and delicious.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)