The anchor reads the classics and accompanies you to say good night, hello everyone!Here's a lightning night read. I am Wang Shuqiu, the anchor of Muping District, and the article I share with you today is Liang Shiqiu's "Sour Plum Soup and Sugar Gourd" (excerpt).
Drinking sour plum soup in summer and eating sugar gourd in winter is something that everyone can enjoy regardless of class in Beiping. But there is also a difference between fine and coarse. The sour plum soup and sugar gourd of Liulichang Xinyuanzhai are particularly exquisite, and they are very different from other places or street vendors.
Xu Lingxiao's "Hundred Words of the Old Capital" has this record about sour plum soup:
The ice of summer days, with ice plum soup as the most popular, streets and alleys, the door of dried and fresh fruit shops, you can see the wooden eaves banner of the four characters of "ice plum soup". Some of the black characters on a yellow background are very workmanlike, and they are like the curtains of the restaurant, so that the hot people in the past can quench their thirst and be attractive. In the past, the elders of the Beijing Dynasty, the distinguished guests were elegant, and they often had to go to the Liuli Factory to visit the bookstore, taste the bone Dong, test the version, and spend a long time. The weather is hot and the mouth is dry, and the plum soup of Xinyuan Zhai is used to quench thirst.
Xinyuanzhai shop is very small, only two small facades, the street is the old glass doors and windows, wiped spotlessly, a black lacquer gold plaque on the lintel, the shop is clean and simple, authentic Beiping style decoration. There is a big black lacquer wooden barrel on the right hand side of the door, there is a big white porcelain jar inside, the outside of the jar is full of broken ice, the jar is sour plum soup, so it is called Bing Chill, the ice of Beiping is dug from Shichahai or the moat and hidden in the cellar, the grass sawdust can be seen in the ice, and the mud and sand filth are not avoidable, and it is not allowed to be drunk in the drink. The famous "ice bowl" of Shichahai Huixian Hall, lotus pod, peach kernel, almond, water chestnut, and lotus root are all placed on the ice cubes, and the diners do not think it is dirty, which is really incredible. Some people even put ice cubes in the sour plum soup!The ice of Xinyuanzhai is much smarter. Because there are many large cans of Xiaoice, it is cool to drink. The secret of the success of his sour plum soup is that there is more rock sugar, thick plum juice, and less water, so the flavor is strong and sweet. The upper bite is cold, the sweet and sour are moderate, and it is like pure mash in the mouth, and it is reluctant to swallow. Very few people can stand there and drink that little bowl and no more. When I returned to my hometown after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, I took the children to Xinyuanzhai, and I allowed them to drink as many bowls as they wanted. They finished seven bowls in a row before they stopped. Every time I go to drink, it's not to quench my thirst, it's to quench my cravings. I don't know why no one uses their brains to make Xinyuanzhai's sour plum soup canned and sold everywhere, while "Coca-Cola" is rampant everywhere.
Xinyuanzhai also sells sour plum marinade and sour plum cake. Brine water can be used to make sour plum soup, but in any case, it should not taste as good as standing next to the barrel and sipping it. I myself tried to make it at home, bought black plums at the pharmacy and bought large pieces of rock candy at the dried fruit shop, but it was still difficult to achieve my wish. The shopkeeper of Xinyuanzhai is surnamed Xiao, a group of kind, I once asked him why he couldn't imitate it, and he replied very well: "Please come and drink, don't bother yourself." ”
Xinyuanzhai also sells candied fruits, rock candy, and sugar gourds. Sugar gourd is the best. There are three types of Beiping sugar gourds. A kind of maltose, Beiping dialect is syrup, can make a large string of red sugar gourds in the mountains, can be up to more than five feet, this kind of big sugar gourd, the New Year's factory sells the most. Maltose-coated apricots (green apricots that have not grown) are very delicious, but they are not good when made of sugar gourds, especially in the mountains, which are often rotten or have insect feces. The other is a layer of frost that is mixed with white sugar and sticked, and after it is cold, it has another flavor. The authentic is a rock sugar gourd, a thin layer of sugar, transparent and bright.
I haven't eaten sugar gourd since I left Beiping, and I really miss it. Recently, a guest came from Beiping, and when it comes to sugar gourds, it is said that this kind of food that does not belong to any class in Beiping has almost disappeared. He said that we have nothing to try to make in our own homes in Taiwan, and although there is no red in the mountains, there are many kinds of other fruits, which are dipped in rock sugar juice, put on a glass plate coated with oil, and sent to the refrigerator to freezeHe said he would invite me to taste it when he made it, but so far there has been no follow-up, so I don't know what the outcome will be.
About the Author:
Liang Shiqiu, formerly known as Liang Zhihua, was born in Beijing on January 6, 1903, in Hang County, Zhejiang. Pseudonyms Zijia, Qiu Lang, Cheng Shu, etc. He is a well-known modern and contemporary essayist, scholar, literary critic, translator in China, and the first authority to study Shakespeare in China. In his lifetime, he left more than 20 million words of works in the Chinese literary circle, and his collection of essays has set the highest record for the publication of modern Chinese prose works. Representative works "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" (translation) and so on.
Anchor Profile:
Wang Shuqiu, host of Muping District Rong ** Center.