Dietary Recuperation

A s a famous couplet goes,“China is endowed with rich medical-food culture; Shennongjia is given a variety of health foods.”For a long time the local people here have formed a unique dieting culture.The sweet and sour magnolia berries in summer and autumn can be taken to relieve summer heat by blending with boiled Pueraria water.The stewed chicken with gastrodia elata is a soup locals often make at home.The local people’s living habits of using local materials and supplementing their food with medicine is a vivid manifesto of their dieting culture.There are so many delicacies that integrate medicine with food.There are stewed preserved trotters,stewed bamboo rice with ginseng,crude ginseng pumpkin autumn chrysanthemum cake,medicinal Wuchang Fish,tianma stewed artichoke strips,boiled egg with arrowroot flour,dendrobe cake,mashed autumn chicken,Shennongjia stewed pork with wax gourd,coarse grain cake with mashed tofu,Jiuhu radish cake, and many others.

Gu Qingsheng,a writer,once said,“Shennongjia is gifted to develop a medical-food culture for it has a high forest coverage rate and abundant resources.In addition,many plants here can be used as herbal medicine.In the past, inconvenient transportation caused by vast mountains and dense forests made it difficult for the locals to receive medical treatment;so they formed the habits of using medicine to complement food and maintain health,which later brought out a series of medicinal food with unique local characteristics.”

膳食调理

当地人长期以来形成了独特的膳食养生文化，“药膳文化满华夏，养生美食汇神农”。酸甜的五味子是夏秋当季水果，解暑去暑用葛根煮水服用，天麻党参炖鸡是家家常做的补汤。一饮一食间，生动展现了他们就地取材、以药辅食的生活习惯。还有吊锅腊蹄子、人参炖竹米、地参南瓜秋菊糕、药膳武昌鱼、天麻炖洋芋条子、葛粉养生蛋、石斛养生糕、金秋鸡茸、神农架赛熊掌、粗粮饼懒豆腐、九湖萝卜糕……一道道药食相济的美味，令人垂涎欲滴。

作家古清生说:“神农架森林覆盖率高，资源富集，林下植物多是可以入药的道地药材，做药膳有得天独厚的优势。过去山大林密，交通闭塞，山民看病困难，普遍形成了以药入菜、药养保健的习惯，进而形成了独具神农架地方特色的系列药膳。”