Frozen Pears

◎黑龙江省大庆市林甸县第二中学 李梓嫣 指导教师：闫 明

冻梨是东北地区独有的水果，是将普通的白梨冰冻变成乌黑色而来。它汁水丰富，口感冰凉绵甜。

Are there black pears in the world? Have they gone bad? No, no, no, they are special fruit in Northeast China—frozen pears.

After November, the temperature in Northeast China will drop to zero degree or even lower.And the temperature will rise again until March or April of the next year.Such a long winter makes the Northeast a natural refrigerator.In such environment, people here have the custom of ice and snow diet.A typical example is frozen pears.

The custom of eating frozen pears in Northeast China has a history of at least one thousand years.The Khitan(契丹) people of the Liao Dynasty had the habit of eating frozen pears.According to documents(文献),after they picked pears in autumn, the Khitan placed them in the cold outdoors, covered them with snow,froze them, and thawed( 解冻) them.Did this several times.The frozen pears were ready.

How should we eat such hard pears? In Northeast China, frozen pears are generally soaked(浸泡) in cold water or directly thawed at room temperature.Frozen pears are rich in juice and they taste sweet and cold.

2023, with the popularity of Harbin, more and more southern tourists came here to travel.In order to suit the taste of southerners, northeasters developed many new ways to eat frozen pears, such as frozen pear osmanthus tea(冻梨桂花茶).Frozen pears are cut into slices and put into a flower shape.Some osmanthus flowers are put into it.After being poured with pear juice, frozen pears will bloom.Because osmanthus flowers are a kind of food that represents the south, frozen pear osmanthus tea is regarded as integration(融合) of the North and the South.