舌尖上的美食 第23期:麗江頭醋 Seasoned Rice Vinegar
“Three-miles” Seasoned Rice Vinegar“三公里”的麗江頭醋
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”麗江頭醋由玉米和大麥純糧釀造的，但是“醋根”是張家的。當家的叫張歲，他家是制醋世家，男的行醫，女的做醋，六代人150多年衣鉢相傳。張歲的母親說舍不下那些釀醋的老罈子，它們釉厚胎薄，翻糟輕便，她說：“我婆婆的婆婆80多歲時還能搬動它們”。可見他們對釀醋的感情深厚。
