舌尖上的美食 第23期:丽江头醋 Seasoned Rice Vinegar

“Three-miles” Seasoned Rice Vinegar“三公里”的丽江头醋

Hundreds of vinegar jars were lining up in Zhang Sui's backyard, a manifesto of his family's devotion to vinegar making which lasts more than one hundred and fifty years. Among six generations, women instead of men were in charge of vinegar making. The name of the vinegar "Three-mile" might seem confusing and irrelevant, but it embodied profound e all, when Zhang Sui's ancestors made the vinegar for the first time, they were told by the neighbors that the odor could be smelt beyond three miles. As a result, residents who were fascinated by the scent flocked to his ancestor's house and enquired if they could take a bowl of vinegar home. In addition, virtually the name indicated Zhang Sui’s family’s long-lasting love for vinegar making which Zhang Sui's mother, a lady of sixty years old, exemplified. “Those vinegar jars are part of my life. I cannot imagine a life without them. My mother's mother can lift them up even when she was eighty years old.”She said with excitement. To the family, perhaps, making vinegar had already become a way of life.

“三公里”丽江头醋由玉米和大麦纯粮酿造的，但是“醋根”是张家的。当家的叫张岁，他家是制醋世家，男的行医，女的做醋，六代人150多年衣钵相传。张岁的母亲说舍不下那些酿醋的老坛子，它们釉厚胎薄，翻糟轻便，她说：“我婆婆的婆婆80多岁时还能搬动它们”。可见他们对酿醋的感情深厚。