Zhejiang Weekly Journal 丨 The Taste of Mountains and Seas in “Hehe” Culture
Over 1,200 years ago, the poet-monk Hanshan secluded himself in a tranquil cave on Mount Tiantai. How did he secure food and sustenance? Solutions could always be found.
“Basket in hand, gathering mountain herbs; cage carried, returning with fruits plucked. On a grass mat spread for a vegetarian feast, pecking at purple lingzhi mushrooms. In clear ponds, washing gourd ladles and bowls; mixing and boiling into thick or thin porridge. Facing the sun, wrapped in furs, sitting; leisurely reading poems of the ancients.” This depicts a life picture free from strife, relaxed, and serene, radiating the warmth of wild natural delights and the color of earthly hearth smoke.
The hearth smoke of everyday life is the most vivid footnote to the culture of harmony. It manifests not only in the transmission of ideas but is also deeply embedded in the daily diet of common folk.
During the three large-scale population migrations in Chinese history, scholar-officials and commoners from the Central Plains chose places to settle, gradually taking root in Taizhou. The southward migrants and their descendants brought northern grain cultivation methods and cooking techniques. Their ideas collided with and experiences were shared with the indigenous people of Taizhou, forming a unique wisdom of agricultural civilization.
In the mountainous northern Taizhou, farming follows solar terms, and customs revere the seasons, adhering to “eating sprouts in spring, melons in summer, fruits in autumn, and roots in winter.” In the coastal southern Taizhou, many residents trace their origins from Fujian and Guangdong, leaning more towards seafood. Folk sayings like “Xue Li Mei(little croaker) in January, mullet in February, pomfret in March, Chinese herring in April, harpadon in May, mudskipper in June, razor clams in July, crab in August…” are widely circulated. These emphasize living off the land, harmony between nature and humanity, and eating only what is in season, highlighting the life wisdom of coastal people.
During my university years, upon returning to campus after winter break, a female classmate from Pingqiao Town in Tiantai County would always bring a snack called “Yang Jiao Ti” (“Goat Hoof”). True to its name, it was made from fermented sweet flour baked until crispy, releasing a mouthful of wheat aroma with each bite. From Yuhuan Island, I brought fried hairtail, coated in rice flour and carrying the briny freshness of the sea. For a welcoming bowl of noodles, a classmate from Linhai’s Dashi village had her mother cook Linhai “Mai Xia” (“Wheat Shrimp”) for me, with ingredients like shredded radish, lean pork, and marinated pork liver; the stewed wheat strips and marinated flavors created a rich aroma I still crave. When the Dashi classmate visited my home, my grandmother cooked seafood rice noodles for her, topped with crab, shrimp, and pomfret. She said that bowl of seafood noodle soup was a taste she would never forget.
On Taizhou’s 10,000-square-kilometer land, diverse cultures like farming, fishing, and merchant cultures intermix and learn from each other. At the tips of chopsticks and the bottoms of bowls, culinary fusion is omnipresent. Local flavors, dialect customs, and historical memories weave together into a taste map of harmony between mountain and sea.
After the first purple sweet potato flower bloomed on Taizhou soil, sweet potatoes introduced from Fujian gave rise to the delicacy “Shan Fen Yuan” (“Sweet Potato Flour Balls”). Sweet potato flour is kneaded with cooked sweet potato into a warm dough, shaped into nests, stuffed with ingredients like pork belly, shiitake mushrooms, dried eel, dried tofu, turnip, fresh bamboo shoots, then steamed into amber-colored, plump dumplings, offering a smooth, tender, springy bite bursting with savory juice. Here, mountain and sea reunite, a vivid testament to the compatibility and assimilation of dietary customs and cooking techniques.
“Shi Bing Tong” (“Pancake Rolls”) is even more a legendary dish that “encompasses everything,” a single wheat wrapper capable of rolling up “mountains, rivers, and seas.” The freshness from rivers, lakes, and seas combines dynamically with seasonal vegetables from the fields. Countless ingredients like eel, pomfret, shrimp, razor clams, bean sprouts, potato, chives, onions—regardless of abundance or simplicity—can be wrapped in the crepe, harmonizing meat and vegetables into a spectacle of myriad forms.
Different areas of Taizhou have various names for this dish: Yuhuan, Wenling, Huangyan, and Jiaojiang call it “Shi Bing Tong” (or “Xi Bing Tong”) or “Mai Bing” (“Wheat Pancake”); Linhai calls it “Mai You Zhi” (“Wheat Oil Wrap”); Tiantai calls it “Jiao Bing Tong” (“Dumpling Crepe Roll”); Sanmen calls it “Mai Jiao” (“Wheat Fold”). Local ingredients vary, but the core remains consistent—wrapping various dishes in thin, pliable wheat wrappers. Shi Bing Tong is deeply ingrained in Taizhou life. There are customs of eating it during holidays like Beginning of Summer and Dragon Boat Festival. It’s even tied to one’s sense of existence, as reflected in the local saying, “Zhuxia wu maibing, bai luo zuo shiren” (If you don’t eat Mai Bing on Beginning of Summer, you’ve lived this life in vain).
“Jiang Tang Mian” (“Ginger Soup Noodles”) is a classic exemplifying “a bowl blending mountain and sea.” Its soul lies in ginger soup simmered for hours, strictly following traditional methods: select local ginger, soak in yellow wine and sun-dry, then simmer for hours when making noodles. Pork, sausage, sun-dried shrimp, etc., are stir-fried in lard, then ginger soup is added to stew. Fresh small white shrimp, clams, and other seafood follow, with Taizhou rice noodles making the final appearance. The spicy, warming ginger soup originates from the health wisdom of farming culture, used to dispel the damp cold of the coast; the seafood pairing reflects the umami pursuit of marine culture. This combination initially stemmed from dietary needs for postpartum recovery, but has evolved into a beloved local snack. Within its practical function of dispelling cold and protecting the body lies the traditional philosophy of “balancing yin and yang” and “harmonizing food properties.”
The above dishes are but a glimpse into Taizhou’s flavors, yet they reflect the profound spiritual depth of Taizhou’s culinary culture of harmony.
Today’s Taizhou cuisine is vibrantly innovative, enthusiastically writing new chapters of the harmony culture. Traditional Jiang Tang Mian now incorporates premium seafood like yellow croaker and blue crab. The ancient Shi Bing Tong adds preserved eggs and peanuts to enhance flavors within flavors. Mai Xia, originating from the Southern Song Dynasty, has evolved from a simple filling noodle dish to one cooked alongside mountain and sea ingredients.
New dishes born from mountain-sea collaboration continuously emerge: “Sha Suan Dou Mian” pairs deep-sea anemone with noodles made from sweet potato starch (“Dou Mian”), where the intense seafood umami complements the smoothness of the mountain flour noodles. “Hairtail Rice” uses local hairtail with plump, fatty meat, stir-fried or braised with rice. The fish fragrance permeates the rice, each grain coated in the sweet, savory hairtail broth, supplemented with pork belly, carrot dices, shiitake mushroom dices, water bamboo shoot dices, etc., creating rich layers of texture—an innovative version of my childhood memory, Yuhuan’s savory rice.
Taizhou’s innovative cuisine also more creatively integrates local produce, history, and culture into dishes, such as the imaginative “Orange Fairy Steamed Chicken” and “Orange Hues Abound,” or seafood extravaganzas like the “Hairtail Banquet,” “Yellow Croaker Banquet,” and “Opening of Fishing Season Thousand-Person Banquet”… While protecting cultural roots, Taizhou cuisine continuously absorbs new elements, enriching itself and stepping into the new realm of mountain-sea co-creation.
Clouds lush and green, waters calm and placid. Shide, the monk who also secluded on Mount Tiantai, recorded in his Twenty-Four Poems gathering local materials and preparing huangjing . “Frequently boiling on the stone stove and pot, long steamed in the earthen steamer, its aroma becomes precious.” Every wisp of smoke carries the idea of symbiosis between humanity and nature. The Eastern wisdom within the spiritual genes of the “Two Sages of Hehe” has a long and profound legacy.
Translator：Jiayang Lin