Brother Zhao Heng's "Old Glutton Essays" is about to be published. He asked me to write a preface and send me the typesetting draft. I am familiar with many of the contents of the book and find it quite interesting.I don't think it is necessary to stick to the style of the so-called "preface". Since this book is an essay, I will also write an essay to supplement certain chapters of the book. I don't know what the author thinks. The light cakes mentioned in the article "Fujian light cakes" are different from the light cakes I have eaten.I remember that there used to be a "Qinglinchun" opened by Fuzhou people between the Osmanthus shopping mall and the Zhonghua shopping mall in the Dong'an market. Patent leather pillows, etc., as well as Fujian food, including light cakes.This light cake is round, more than two inches in diameter, less than one inch thick, with a small hole in the center, dark ocher on the surface, white below, no sesame seeds, and no filling.According to people from Fuzhou among relatives and friends: This is the case with authentic Fuzhou light cakes.When I was a teenager, I bought this kind of light cake at home and cut it horizontally with a knife. It tastes best with meat floss.Since the closure of Qinglinchun, there has been no trace of Guangbing in Beijing.When I was young, I had never been to Fujian. In the past ten years or so, an international academic symposium was held in Wuyi Mountain to commemorate Zhu Zi. When I arrived in Fuzhou, I first wanted to eat all the pancakes and meat floss. The comrade who received us said: Every grain store has light cake.After hearing this, I hurried to a grain store to buy it, but was very disappointed. It had nothing in common with Qinglinchun's Guangbing, it was just a very ordinary, tasteless white flour cake.Later, I asked an old Fuzhou citizen in his eighties, and he said with a wry smile: So the light cakes in Fuzhou are just like what you said, but they have long since become what they are now.

The article "Recalling Jishilin" talks about "clear soup packets" (press, this kind of food belongs to the Russian food system).Although Jishilin's Western food belongs to the British and French system, the business method is relatively simple and cheap, so it doesn't pay much attention to any faction.Jishilin's predecessor was called Economic Canteen, and it was indeed very economical. Each western meal only cost 50 cents (the era when silver dollars were used).The level of food can be scored as a passing grade, and the food given is quite small, but you can eat as much as you can. After changing to Jishilin, the original business mode will continue.Serving small packets of clear soup was an afterthought.It is true that the level of Jishilin clear soup packets is higher than that of Jishilin's whole western food.The source of Jishilin's clear soup packets is as follows: before the Anti-Japanese War, there was a western restaurant in Santiao, Dongdan, with the name "Mo Dielin", "Wangjia Restaurant" on the Foreign Ministry Street, and "Asia" in Dongdan Hutong. It is a relatively high-end and authentic Russian style, with strong characteristics, and the variety and taste are different from English and French styles.All three have clear soup packets. After 1949, the three closed down one after another.It is said that a kitchen clerk of Modielin was later hired by Jishilin, and Jishilin only had clear soup packets.

Beijing's western food factions include English, French, Russian, and German.The first-class British and French restaurants such as: Beijing Hotel, Liuguo Hotel, Xishouhui (in Dongjiaomin Lane, if the original text on the board of the association should be literally translated as "ice shed", because this club was first established by a mat shed artificial skating rink).Other second- and third-rate western restaurants are all British and French, but these three are the most authentic, and they do not accommodate Chinese habits at all.There is another one that is also first-class, but it is more accommodating to the eating habits of Chinese people, so it cannot be said to be authentic, but the quality is high, the raw materials and craftsmanship are very particular, and the facade is also full of Chinese flavor. The five big characters of "Fan Cai Guan" are comparable to the golden plaque of "Neilian Sheng Boots and Shoe Store" on the opposite side.In particular, it is more interesting to keep the old saying "fancai".The German-style ones include German Restaurant and Hanji, which are famous for their hamburger beef and dark beer.In addition to the factions listed above, there is a "Beauty Star Club" in Xiaoshun Hutong, Dongdan, which is American-style. The variety is very simple.We never want anything else, just a whole chicken per person is enough.The latest to appear in Beijing are two Italian-style restaurants.One is a newly built three-story building in the north of East Chang'an Street, named "Olympia", with a cinema downstairs, (that is, the Qingyi Theater that was demolished in recent years), a dance hall on the third floor, and the only restaurant on the second floor at that time. Italian restaurant.Although the same chicken, duck and fish meat, but the method and seasoning are different from those of England, France, Russia and Germany, of course the taste is different.In particular, the noodles are very different from the British and French baked macaroni. The noodles (referring to additional seasonings) are very rich. I named it "Yangzaojiang noodles".After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, another Italian-style restaurant called "Di Huali" was opened on the west side of Nanheyan Road, which is also very good.I was also embarrassed here once, because I was watching a movie at the True Light Cinema with a friend, which was very close to here, so I went here for dinner.I was drinking coffee after dinner and heard that the band was already trying out the strings and setting the tune. When I was about to start dancing in the evening, I didn’t intend to dance, so I wanted to pay the bill. Who knew that my pocket was empty. It was obvious that I was buying a movie. What should I do if I took out my money when ticketing?As soon as I thought about it, I said: You drink coffee slowly here, I repaired the camera in a shop in Wangfujing, now I go to pick it up, and when I come back, let's have a dance before leaving.Although what I said is in the nature of lying, it is true to take the camera.Dadong Photographic Materials Co., Ltd. is a familiar place. Usually, buying film and developing photos is kept in the account. When repaying the money on the New Year's Day, it can be clearly stated that the money is lost, and borrowing some money is also kept in the account.Returning to Di Huali soon, in order to hide that people were waiting here as hostages, they danced once, lived up to this lie, and then settled the bill to pay, and finally there was no leakage.Fortunately, I touched my pockets first. If I called the waiter first and then touched my pockets, I would be embarrassing in person.Among the above-mentioned western restaurants, I still like three Russian restaurants and two Italian restaurants.As for the English and French styles, I like "extracting English".Unless I go to the Beijing Hotel and the Liuguo Restaurant once in a while for a social occasion, I have no intention of going to these two restaurants for dinner. However, the turkey served by these two restaurants on Christmas Eve is still good.

The article "Alienated Mongolian Barbecue" said: "Roasting beef and mutton with iron broilers can be said to be the joint creation of the Hui, Manchu and Han cultures in Beijing." This statement is correct, this way of eating is not Mongolian barbecue.I have been to counties and cities in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang to confirm the first-class cultural relics reported by the localities. I have eaten a whole lamb a few times, and there is no way to slice the meat and roast it on an iron broiler.In the past, barbecues in Beijing were eaten at home. They used pine and cypress branches and lit them in the brazier under the iron burner. After the beginning of autumn, a few square tables are set up in the yard to serve barbecue.Zhengyang Building is not halal, and the restaurants that are truly halal are almost all small restaurants. Of course, they cannot serve barbecue without a yard.Donglaishun is a building built after the second fire in Dong'an Market, and only then is it selling barbecue on the roof.Whether it's on the roof or in the yard, the barbecue is only sold in autumn, and it will be harvested in winter.Zhengyanglou is not only famous for its barbecue, but also serves crabs every autumn. It is also very famous: the crabs eaten by Beijingers come from Shengfang near Tianjin.There is a crab wholesale station in Xiheyan Vegetable Market, Qianmen, Beijing. The largest crabs are two per catty.Zhengyang Tower feeds this kind of crab with sesame seeds for a few days before serving it to customers. It is indeed very fat. The advent of "kebab season" was around my teenage years.But there is no such thing as "kebab season".At that time, there was a small two-story building with a facade on the south side of the "Yiliu Hutong" backed by the river. It was a tavern. "Under the west wall outside the building, a small mat shed was built without doors and windows. Under the shed were two square tables with a brazier and iron broilers, a few benches, and a meat-cutting case. It was not enough for a restaurant, of course. There is no brand name plaque, and the spoken language of the customers is just saying: "Go to Ji fool's place to eat barbecue".At that time, besides "Fool Ji" himself, there was also a meat cutter, a total of two people.At the turn of summer and autumn, when the breeze is refreshing and the lotus is fragrant, eating barbecue on the riverside is such a high enjoyment.In recent years, a building has been built in Lubei. Customers are called to eat barbecue in the room, and customers are not allowed to grill on the iron grill. The waiter just brings a plate of half-cold meat slices from the kitchen without the smell of barbecue. It was tasteless.

The term "Barbecue Wan" did not exist. When I was young, people always said: "Go to An'er Hutong to eat barbecue." A small shed, with two square tables under the shed, two large iron grills on it, a few benches, and a wheelbarrow with a chopping board on it, where the meat is cut.Two brothers run the business.The younger brother is a big fat man, responsible for taking care of the order of customers coming, keeping bicycles and serving dishes and bowls.The older brother has a beard and is responsible for cutting meat and doing accounts.The main thing here is that the beef is well selected and cut well. The iron roast is a wide strip of iron bar that has been aged for a long time, soaked in oil, so it is delicious.After eating meat, you can go to the house and sit on the kang to drink porridge. This is the scene of that day.Now "Barbecue Wan" has become a big restaurant, and customers are not allowed to barbecue by themselves.Like the current "barbeque season", there is no barbecue smell.

The article "Drinking Soybean Juice for the First Time" talked about whether to drink soymilk with pickles or pickled lumps. There was a lot of disputes. The author plans to ask Mr. Yingsheng face to face next time.I'm not addicted to soy juice, but I can drink it. As for drinking soy juice, it's not a matter of who is right or wrong. I should ask what kind of things are piled up on the big disks at the soy juice stand?I can answer the author, there are spicy pickles on the large disks at the bean juice stalls, and there is absolutely no pickles.The spicy pickles I mean are pimples and chili peppers. As for the soy sauce that I buy at home, I can drink whatever I like. There is no question of what should or should not be about pickles.There is a sentence in the author's original text: "I carefully recalled the first time I drank soybean juice, it seemed to be Korean spicy shreds with sesame seeds."In the original text, Mr. Yingsheng said: "It can only be cut into very fine pickled lumps".Press, the pickled pickles sold in the oil and salt shop in the past include pickled mustard greens, and there are two different processes, one is water lumps, and the other is dry lumps, also known as white lumps.The price of white pimples is much more expensive than that of water pimples. Soybean juice stalls serve shredded water pimples with chili peppers. There is no difference in size of pimples.In the past, there was a kind of pickle in the oil and salt shop that was cheaper than water lumps, called "big pickled radish"; eating "horseshoe pancake" with "fried fruit" was the most beautiful "big pickled radish". The word "Fried Fruit" is pronounced in Eryin, which is the sound of Yuan Dadu retained in Beiqu. The term "Jiaoquan" is a new Beijing dialect, and it was only called "fried fruit" in the past.

There is such a paragraph in the article "Random Talk about Eating Duck": "In Beijing, cooked meat dishes were called box dishes in the old days. The origin of this term may have something to do with the examination room of the Gongyuan..." This explanation may be rumored, and I don't know who guessed it.As far as I know, in the past, such as Puyun Building on Zhushi Street, Baohuachun in Jinyu Hutong, Zhengming Building on Di'anmen Street, Tianfuhao in Xidan, etc., many shops of this type sold boxed dishes, including sauced pork, sauced chicken, roasted chicken, and so on. Duck, roast meat, smoked chicken, smoked fish, smoked liver, marinated chicken, marinated eggs, jelly chicken, fish jelly, marinated gizzard liver, etc. There are sliced, stripped, shredded, and a round The wooden drawer, each of the above-mentioned foodstuffs occupies one compartment, and the wooden drawer is placed in a large round wooden box with a diameter of about two feet.The shelves behind the counter in each of these stores are filled with boxes on boxes, occupying about one wall. People also call this type of store "box shop".Residents only need to go to the store to say something, and if there is a phone call later, they only need to make a phone call, and the box will be delivered home on time.In the old play, there is a joke between Huadan and the clown, called "Send the Box". The clown plays the boy of the box shop and speaks Shandong dialect; Huadan plays the housewife of the resident and speaks Jingbai.The language of old Beijing is: "Call me a box". "Box dishes" are good dishes for eating spring pancakes, so there are several kinds that must be shredded, and of course they are also good dishes for drinking.Because they are all served in a holding box, they are called "box dishes".

The "box store" in old Beijing, no matter what building or workshop its name is, in addition to the official name plaque, there is also a plaque of the same size with three large characters: "South style Kui".These three words are commonly used in this line of business.In the past, there was no roasted duck dish in restaurants. "Roasted duck" (roasted duck is a modern language) comes from "Southern Style Kui", which is made with a fire. It is also a long-extinct delicacy.If you want to roast a duck in a restaurant, for example, you want to roast a duck for dinner at Dongxinglou on Dong'anmen Street, so Dongxinglou will notify Baohuachun in Jinyu Alley to send one.Generally, although "Southern Kui" sell roast ducks, most of them have no guest seats.The earliest guests were "Bianyifang" outside Xuanwumen and "Quanjude" outside Qianmen, and "Baohuachun" in Jinyu Hutong.Another way to eat roasted duck at home in the past is "char-siu duck".There was a Huaiyang cook in my family who used a large iron fork with a long handle to light a pile of charcoal on the ground for his barbecued duck. He turned the iron handle over and over to cook the duck on the charcoal fire. Tender, not greasy, really delicious.

When I mentioned "Lu Rou" in the previous article, I thought of "Nanshikui" shop having a kind of "croquettes", which are mainly diced fatty meat. After being fried, they are crispy but not greasy. Boiling cabbage together is a good and cheap winter home-cooked dish.The method of making furnace meat was originally used to burn whole pigs.Of course, you can't use grown-up pigs to roast whole pigs, only small pigs.However, it is impossible for roasted piglets to be sold in the retail market every day, so for daily sales, pork with "three layers of five flowers" is used to make "stove meat".If customers want to buy roasted piglets, they need to make an appointment in advance.

In recent years, there have been articles in the newspapers and magazines talking about the Manchu-Han Banquet. Some said 108 dishes, some said 360 dishes, and some even offered menus. In fact, they are all nonsense, and there are no such regulations at all.According to "Guanglu Temple Records", the main course of Hanxi must be bird's nest, and the main course of full banquet must be roast pig, that is, roast the whole piglet.The rest of the chicken, fish, duck, meat and other varieties are the same as Manhanxi, and there are no rare things, and there are not many varieties.However, in a formal banquet, it is quite grand when serving roasted pigs.The so-called formal banquets, I remember that there were many old rules and habits in my family when I was a child, and the "meeting banquet" for weddings was one of them.Several square tables are used in the hall (round tables are not used for formal banquets), arranged in two rows, with table curtains hanging in front of the tables.The first table in the left column and the first table in the right column are the guest seats and the main seats with the highest seniority, and only one person is seated at each table.Next, there will be two, four, or six people per table.There are several musicians under the eaves of the corridor outside the hall (prepared by Xijiaopu, wearing red tasseled hats and driving clothes), including flutes, sheng, nine-tone gongs and other musical instruments. Serving roast pig is different from serving other dishes.A male servant holds a whole roasted piglet on a big red lacquered oil pan, and bends his knees upwards to express the meaning of offering. There is a receiving table in the hall door, and the male servant cuts the meat face to face with a knife on the receiving table. One serving per table.In the process of offering roasted pigs, musicians play music, and the first guest gives rewards.

The article "Hot Pastry with Radish Fragrance" mentioned Zhimeizhai's stewed sesame seed cakes and shredded radish cakes, but I only heard about them but never tried them myself.By the way, Zhimeizhai was one of the restaurants I used to eat frequently. It goes without saying that the dishes are good, but the delicious dim sum is not limited to the above-mentioned stewed pancakes and shredded radish pancakes.For example, after drinking enough, you still need to eat some food, so you want a small piece of oily scallion pancake. This is the most common food, but after you have eaten several delicacies, this scallion pancake can also arouse your appetite. That's how valuable it is.There are also hot mooncakes served during the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, which is also different.Of course, there are several fillings, the most special of which is grape filling.This kind of moon cake is about two inches in size and one inch thick. The skin and filling are about half.Unlike the popular Cantonese-style mooncakes that have been mutated in recent years, they only know that the skin is as thin as paper and filled with a lot of unpalatable fillings.Zhimeizhai's mooncakes are really unforgettable whether they have good skin or filling.I once asked the first shopkeeper of Zhimeizhai, and I said: Taifeng Building, Dongxing Building, Tongheju and many other Dashan restaurants, why don’t you have these kinds of dim sum?He said: This is left over from the original Zhimeizhai dim sum shop.I asked again: Zhimeizhai is an authentic Shandong restaurant, and all the cabinets are from Shandong. Why is it written "Gusu Zhimeizhai" on the signboard?He said: The original owner quit, and we took over to open the restaurant, but the shop has not been turned upside down, and the name cannot be changed.I just found out that was the case.I have heard that there is an old rule in Beijing that there is a procedure called "shop license" for shop houses. If you change the name, you have to pay a sum of money, and you can change the name only after you buy the "shop shop".I thought that if the location of Zhimeizhai is located, it may need a lot of money, so Zhimeizhai will continue to open like this, Gusu will be Gusu! There are a few sentences in the article "Recalling Huagong": "Zhou Dawen, who was the mayor of Beiping, was very interested in cooking. He once partnered with several friends and opened a Xinyue Western Restaurant near Huagong...soon due to poor management. The flags and drums have died down, but Huagong remains the same..." Press, I am very familiar with these two restaurants. Xinyue and Huagong are opened in the same house one after the other. The grade is higher than that of Huagong, and Huagong only appeared after it was closed.Zhou Dawen was the mayor of Beiping when Zhang Xueliang was in charge of the five northern provinces. The above is what I wrote while reading. Even if I add some spices to this book, let’s take it as the preface.