Chapter 79 Soy sauce burnt circle

Beijing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, created its food civilization and popularized its citizen snacks.Beijing is full of gourmet food and snacks.But these snacks are scattered in the streets and alleys. Most of the people who sell snacks are single-handed. After several generations of ancestral inheritance and management, they have practiced many specialties. They are well-known among diners in Kyoto, and everyone knows them. .Diners want to eat that kind of snack, but they can't find it everywhere. They can only eat it when they come across it, depending on their own opportunities and good luck.

In the early days of liberation, Beijing’s food stalls were concentrated in Longfu Temple, Baita Temple, Xisi, Drum Tower, Qianmenwai, Tianqiao, Caishikou, Niujie, Flower Market, Dongyue Temple, etc. They were next to each other, and there were hundreds of them. There are snack bars or food stalls, crowded together, frying, frying, cooking, frying, and grilling everything.The largest snack spot in Beijing is in Longfu Temple. Famous snack bars include Maji Dumplings, Rice Cake Tiger, Baodu Yang, Tofu Brain Horse, Douzhi An, etc. Most of the operators are small vendors, and they are placed at temple fairs or on shoulder carts. Push along the street to sell.

In the old days, all kinds of snacks in Beijing were hard to find in the elegant hall, and it was described as "chicken bits and pieces don't make it to the hall, and you can find wild fragrance by following the sound in narrow alleys."Now, Beijing's food culture with a simple legacy is more and more recognized and recalled by foodies. Snacks have shaken off the folk game legacy and entered the room generously, becoming the gourmet food that people all over the country pay attention to. When I traveled to Beijing, I saw a beautiful landscape for a long time in Beijing’s secluded streets, Quxiang, and courtyard gates, that is, food vendors walk through the streets and alleys with staggered long and short shouts, and the sound and taste are very attractive. People, old Beijingers feel that the local accent is faint and endless aftertaste, and there are some anecdotes or anecdotes overflowing from it.

The most distinctive snacks in Beijing are inseparable from soybean juice and coke rings, which are also my two favorite things to eat. Jiaoquan, also known as little oil ghost, is a favorite snack for men, women and children in Beijing. The crispy and oily taste tempts diners.When Beijingers drink soybean juice, they must eat Jiaoquan, and soybean juice is eaten with Jiaoquan, which has become a label of Beijing snacks.The coke rings are stored for ten days and a half months without deterioration. They are as crispy and fragrant as before, crispy without skin, deep yellow in color, the size of a bowl, shaped like a bracelet, resembling fried doughnuts, and crispy and fragrant, which is memorable.

The production of the focal circle is cumbersome and the labor efficiency is low. Most restaurants in Beijing are unwilling to make it.Beijing’s famous Fried Jiaoquan is Jiaoquan Junwang, who is the master of Nan Laishun. His fried Jiaoquan are all brown and yellow, and the size is average. They are especially fragrant, crispy and crispy. Hard feeling. In the 1930s, the most famous maker of coke circles was Master Wu Dianyuan of Xingshengguan. He made a living from porridge shops, mainly focusing on coke circles.Master Ma Qingcai of Dongcheng Longfu Temple is also very famous. To make coke rings, dissolve salt, alkali and alum with warm water, add water and mix flour to make a dough, knead and press the dough repeatedly by hand, put it on the chopping board for three hours after kneading, then flatten the dough, cut it into five pieces with a knife Centimeter-wide strips, made into noodle blanks and placed on the chopping board, hold one end with one hand, and hold the other end of the noodle blank with the other hand to form long flat slices, about six centimeters thick, cut the noodle slices into four-centimeter-wide strips with a knife agent.When the oil is 50% hot, hold one end of the coke ring with your hand and put it into the oil pan, and then use chopsticks to support it from the middle Open it to make it into a bracelet shape, turn it over after it is shaped, and deep-fry until it is maroon and out of the pan to control the oil, and it will become a crispy burnt ring.

The focal circle of the top grade pays attention to deep yellow color, oily and smooth, small and exquisite.Su Dongpo, a gourmand in the Song Dynasty, once wrote a poem praising Jinghua's focal circle: "Slender hands rub into jade, and deep-frying in green oil makes a deep yellow. The spring sleep at night is not important, and the weight of the beautiful woman is wrapped around the arm of gold." "Compendium of Materia Medica - Gubu" Record: "Add a little salt, twist the rope into the shape of a ring, fry it and eat it." In addition to eating Jiaoquan, Beijingers also like to drink soybean juice, and regard drinking soybean juice as the highest enjoyment in life.It was the first time I drank bean juice in Beijing. It tasted like swill and was hard to swallow. It was comparable to the water in my hometown. It was quite sour and smelly. Get its taste.

Soybean juice has a long-standing reputation in Beijing and Chengde. It is gray-green in color and rich in sour and sweet. It is a popular snack in winter and spring. It is rich in protein, vitamin C, crude fiber and sugar. It has the functions of dispelling heat, clearing heat, warming yang, strengthening the spleen, Appetizer, detoxification, dryness and other effects. According to historical records, soybean juice was a popular folk food in Liao and Song Dynasties.Entering the court in the Qing Dynasty, in October of the eighteenth year of Qianlong, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a decree: "Recently, the Beijing Normal University has a new thing called soybean juice, and I have sent Yi Libu (the minister of the Qianlong Dynasty) to check whether it is clean and drinkable." Drinking in the court and receiving the attention of the royal family, every year from the ninth month of the lunar calendar to the five days after Lixia of the following year, the two dining rooms of the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty will make soybean juice. The emperor and queen drink soybean juice to relieve greasy.According to unofficial records, when Xianfeng Zigong returned to Luan, the two empress dowagers led Tongzhi Emperor back to the palace, and immediately asked the imperial dining room for bean juice to drink.

Some people say that soybean juice is the food of the old banner people. In fact, people who like to drink soybean juice are not limited to banner people, nor are they limited to rich or poor.There is no distinction between high and low customers who drink soybean juice among the people. People who dress decently and eat enemas and mutton sausages at temple fairs are often ridiculed, but drinking soybean juice is not a shame. The poem "Yandu Small Food Miscellaneous" said: "The dross can be used to make porridge, and the flavor of the old pulp is thin and thick. Come and sit together, regardless of gender, and each has a cup of palatable salt." "The taste is beyond sour and salty." , the eater knows it himself, it can be described as exquisite."

The source of bean juice is that when mung beans are ground in the powder room to make vermicelli or dough, after the starch is taken out, the light green and blue scraps are left, which are fermented and then boiled.Soybean juice undergoes a series of processes such as boiling beans, grinding beans, starch separation, and fermentation, and finally obtains starch, soybean juice and pulp.The starch is used for other purposes, the pulp is used as the fermented raw material for recycling production, and the soybean juice is used for drinking and producing mochi tofu.Motofu is made by boiling soybean milk in a large pot, draining the water, and frying it with sheep oil!The bean juice sinks to the bottom, and the dry and mushy mochi is tofu.Stir-fried sesame tofu with sheep oil and a few freshly sprouted green beans are very fragrant, and the appetite will be whetted after eating.

Vendors selling bean juice will bring raw bean juice from the powder room, pick it up to the temple and boil it on the spot.There is a long table in front, and there are four large glass cases, which are spicy pickles, dried radish, sesame seed cakes or horseshoes, and burnt rings.The table was covered with a snow-white tablecloth, and a blue cloth apron was hung on it, with a pattern cut out of white cloth on it, marking the name of Douzhi.In summer, a cloth shed is set up for shade, and the peddler yells at the tourists: "Please, you! There are hot sesame cakes and hot fruits, there are seats inside!"

Ordinary people drink soybean juice, whether it is hot or cold, they drink it with a bowl, and they can't drink it for a reason, only to make fun or fulfill a wish.The cold bean juice tastes like swill when you drink it in your mouth, but it tastes different when you drink it hot. The taste is sweet and sour, and the sour is astringent.Old Beijingers love to drink bean juice. They like to buy raw bean juice and boil it at home. In summer, they go to temple fairs and street bean juice stalls to drink it.There are two types of soy milk sold, raw and cooked. The raw ones are mostly sold with wooden barrel carts and sold together with mochi tofu. Twist twist, spicy pickles.Selling bean juice skewers in the back streets and alleys does not need to be summoned or yelled at. Every day, there is a punctual time wherever the skewers go, and buyers will wait eagerly. Drinking soy milk and eating coke rings must be accompanied by very finely cut pickles. In summer, kohlrabi is used, and old salt water mustard is used, cut into thin shreds, mixed with chili oil, and fried brown and crispy. .According to diners of Shanhao Bean Juice Jiaoquan, a bowl of bean juice with a few Jiaoquan and a plate of spicy shredded pickles can have five flavors: sour, spicy, sweet, salty, and crispy. It has no bitter taste, which is the expectation of life. Beijingers drink bean juice, and there is a conclusion: "Beijing bean juice is the lifeblood of bannermen." It is said that bannermen in the barracks outside Qihuamen (Chaoyangmen) gathered on the street and cried bitterly. It is said that "the bean juice children's room is closed, so you don't want your life?" The banner people call the bean juice the natal food.As the saying goes, the three mouths in Beijing are bean juice mouth, old rice mouth, and stewed shrimp mouth. Once the bean juice is drunk, it will have an endless taste. Those who are not used to eating it will find it difficult to swallow, and even feel sick. owe something.There is a saying in old Beijing, "If you don't drink soybean juice, you can't be considered a real Beijinger", which is based on their preferences. Soybean juice can quench thirst and relieve summer heat in summer, and clear heat and warm sun in winter. Drinking it in four seasons is good for appetizing, invigorating spleen, detoxification and dryness.Drinking soy milk is very particular, and it must be served with coke rings and shredded pickles, so the taste is beyond the food.Famous soy sauce shops include Jinxin Doujuice Shop, Jinfang Snack Shop, Huguosi Snack Shop, Nanlaishun, Niujie Baoji Doujuice Shop (raw soy sauce), Ciqikou Doujuice Shop, etc., which are sought after by diners. Drinking bean juice is very particular, first of all it must be hot, and the heat is best when it is bubbling and bubbling occasionally, then it must be served with very finely sliced ​​mustard greens, drizzled with chili oil, and put on two burnt rings. The main taste is sour, the aftertaste is sweet, the mustard greens are salty, the red oil is spicy, and the crispy and fragrant burnt rings, the five flavors are complete, it is a perfect match!