Chapter 25 From Gansi to Xinghua Village

Although Zhenjiang and Yangzhou are located in the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River, they are similar in terms of customs, language, customs, and diet. "Wrap water in the morning and water in the evening", which means drinking tea in the teahouse in the morning and taking a bath in the bathhouse in the evening.From the Lixia River in Jiangsu Province to the Xiliang Mountains in Anhui Province, there are two habits of wrapping water in leather and wrapping water in water. When you go to a teahouse to drink tea and eat breakfast, you must come to a customer of Gansi. The food in Yangzhen is very particular about Gansi!A few acquaintances went to the teahouse to have morning tea. They said to the factory that they were members of their own family and there was no need to be polite. Most of them just scalded the dried shredded silk. scent.If the guest invited is an elder, in order to show respect and courtesy, then it is called a guest boiled dry silk.People in Yangzhou are very particular about eating dried shredded rice. The first thing a young apprentice goes to a teahouse to learn about it is to learn how to cut dried shredded rice.At first, the dried silk from Lvyangbu Tea House outside the North Gate was the best, and the dried silk from Jingui Garden on Dongguan Street, Jinkui Garden on Qinglian Lane, Yingchun Garden on Shisanwan Bay, and Jinfeng Garden on Quekou Street were all of a good standard. The silk is kept perfect, and Fuchun's dried silk, no matter it is boiled, is not only unique in the town but also famous all over the country.

Dry silk is a kind of dried white tofu. There are at least a hundred tofu shops in Yangzhou and outside the city. Hu Guohua, the owner of Jucaiyuan, said: "There are more than one hundred tofu shops. Jintuozi' and 'Wang Sifang' can be used. If you strictly select the dry beans from other families, they are not suitable. This kind of white bean stems originated from Anhui, so the real name is Huiyu, who immigrated from Anhui in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The method was brought to Yangzhou. The knife for cutting dried shredded silk is a specialized skill. A piece of dried shredded rice must be cut into at least thirteen pieces, and an expert can even cut out 19 or 20 slices. The cut dried shredded rice, Long and short, thick and thin, they are all neat and neat, and there are sprouts on the top, bottom, left, and right sides of a piece of dried tofu, so-called "heads" in the jargon, all of which are discarded." It shows how those famous teahouses value dry silk and spare no expense!

The old residents of the Yangzhou aristocratic family go to the teahouse to drink tea every day. It seems that everyone has a fixed seat in the teahouse. There is an account in the teahouse. Accounts can also be postponed and owed, but only the maid's account and the morning tea money in the teahouse must be settled immediately as soon as the account slip comes to the door, otherwise after the New Year's Day, once it is spread outside, people will not be able to pay attention to it. It's called the name locally.Therefore, the waiters in the teahouse are very clear about the wealth and status of the tea customers who have accounts.For example, if you serve mixed dried shredded rice to a well-cooked tea customer who is particular about ostentation, there must be a small bowl hidden behind him, a small bowl of ground sesame oil, mixed with three seasons of autumn oil, and poured on the dried shredded rice, he said it was specially prepared for his old man. Not only the faces of the guests are radiant, but also the host is full of face.But in the coming New Year's Eve, I will have to spend a little more money on small bills.

As for boiled dried silk, there are many famous ways, as far as the author knows, there are crispy scales (people in Yangzhen call eel mackerel), crispy fire (scaled fish ham), crispy fish with marinade, crispy fish crispy, crispy chicken, chicken fire , chicken shreds, chicken breast, chicken wings, chicken skin, chicken diced, chicken liver, kidney flower, shrimp, shrimp waist, clam claw (Lixiahe specialty), crab roe, shrimp crab, clam crab, etc., can be called variety.I'm not a frequent diner, so I just don't understand those tricks. The three sisters of the Liang family, including Liang Saizhen, who used the red dancer to act in a movie, as well as sisters Yan Yuexian and Yueshan, were all deeply interested in Yangzhen's morning tea.From time to time, Zhou Jianyun, Xu Xinyuan and other people from the film industry accompanied Jiang Mi to Fuchun Tea House to have a big meal.They said that the dried shredded silk for morning tea in Shanghai and Nanjing is either thick or hard, while Yangzhou dried shredded silk is particularly soft. Liang Saizhen likes boiled dried shredded chicken skin the most. Xuan Jinglin once laughed that she would get fat if she ate too much. It doesn't matter if you add a few points to the dry silk.Yan Yuexian was graceful, luxurious and glamorous before she took up her hobby. She was dignified and crafted as a gourmet expert. She has been fascinated by her ears and eyes, and she is also very expert in the way of eating and drinking!She is a frequent visitor to Fuchun and Jinluoyuan in Yangzhou, and her tea must be called crispy dry silk. She said that the eels of these two families are fried crispy and crispy, and the ham used is homemade in Yangzhou. Crisp is far above Xuanwei and Jinhua, so she especially appreciates these two crispy dry shredded rice, and never tires of eating it.

Later, I asked Xu Shaopu and Zhou Hanbo, two famous drinkers, and they said: "The hams used in several famous teahouses in Yangzhou are all produced by the 'Yang Senhe Ham Shop' on Caiyi Street. Ling Wenyuan brought a few hams from Yang Senhe to Beijing to give away. People who had eaten them were full of praise. Since then, his ham has been well-known in the north and south. The five Yang brothers worked hard to manage the cooperation and division of labor, selecting legs, trimming them, and marinating them. He specializes in cooking, cooking, and knife skills. There are always two to three thousand pieces in stock in the store. The ham is marinated for a year, and half of it is reserved for the store, and the remaining half has been pre-ordered by restaurants in various provinces. Of course, the ham will never be re-cooked if it is less than a month old, but there is no ham that has been aged for more than two years. Only then did I know that Yang Senhe's ham is indeed different, and Yan Yuexian's favored eyes also have their own origins.

No matter whether it is mixed, boiled, souped or boiled, the restaurants in the north do not have the dish of dried shredded rice.One year, on the 40th birthday of brother Xu Shaopu, he came from Yangzhou to visit Beiping to avoid his birthday. I invited him to dinner at Dongxing Building.Shaopu ordered a boiled dried shredded chicken, which made the waiter's hair wet and he was at a loss.The waiter knew that the guest officer who ordered Gansi was our guest of honor, so he dared not say no. Later, I secretly told him to go to the Huaiyang Restaurant near Xila Hutong to order a customer of Chicken Huogansi, and this problem was solved.

Yangzhen's dried silk is well-known across the country, but I actually ate soft, light and delicate dried silk in Anqing, Anhui.One year when I was in Anhui on business, Sun Dongchen, the manager of the Salt Affairs Office in Anhui, invited me to Xinglongju, a teahouse in Zitongge, Anqing, for morning tea. , I think Anqing Yizhichun's glutinous rice shumai, Fuchunyuan's crab roe soup dumplings, and Jiang Maoer's original soup dumplings are all famous snacks. Why did he invite me to have morning tea in an unremarkable corner of a dilapidated building!Unexpectedly, the tea bowl is made of white ground blue and white fine porcelain tureen, and the tea is made of top-quality Liu'an melon slices, but this cup of tea is no longer prepared by ordinary teahouses.The dried shredded silk is mixed with golden hook, bamboo shoot tips, and cloud legs. The dried shredded silk is soft and tender, which is only better than Yangzhen's dried shredded silk.I have always heard that the dried silk from Yangzhen came from Anhui, and the proof that the dried silk eaten today is not false.

Cao Dajing, the owner of Xinglongjudian, is very elegant. He was originally from Guichi, Anhui. He was a scholar. It is said that his family moved to Anqing in the late Ming Dynasty and early Pu. Because of the seven unique poems of "the rain falls during the Qingming Festival" written by Du Mu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, it caused a lot of controversy in later generations, and almost all of the wine-producing areas in the country have an Xinghua Village.Compatriots from Anhui said affirmatively that Xinghua Village is near Xiushan Mountain in Guichi, Anhui Province. There is an ancient well in the local area, and the words "Huanggong Qingquan" are engraved on the fence of the well.Since the Song Dynasty, the local elders have emphasized that the original Xinghua Village is indeed in Guichi.During the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty, the prefect Yan Yuanjing specially built a pavilion in the village, and inscribed the poem "Where the shepherd boy pointed at, Du Laojiu wrote a poem. Red apricots add spring, and the yellow furnace recalls the old days".According to historical research, Du Mu served as the governor of Chizhou during the Huichang period of Emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty (Guichi used to belong to Chizhou Prefecture). Probably because of too many disputes, Cheng Fangchao drew this "Apricot Blossom Spring Rain Picture" to prove the historical facts of Xinghua Village.There are many inscriptions on this hand scroll, and the wonderful thing is that in the inscriptions, Sun Zhuo was ranked second in the year of Kangxi Jiwei, Mei Liben was ranked second in the year of Qianlong Dingchou, and Ling Taifeng was ranked second in the year of Jiaqing Dingchou.It is a coincidence that the four are both the second place in the list and the same are from Anhui.The owner of this painting hadn’t noticed it before, but after I explained it to the truth, he was so happy that he let me go for a visit to Baogong Temple and eat Baohe shredded radish and crucian carp soup before letting me go.The fate of this passage made me eat Baohe crucian carp, so I never forget it.

The author brought a chef Liu Wenbin to Taiwan. He is from Yangzhou. He cooks several famous dishes in Yangzhou to a high standard, but I have never seen him make dried shredded rice.One day he readily came to report that he and his younger brother—Liu Dahuzi from Yinyi (Yinyi is still open in front of the train station)—were taking a bath in the happy pool in the second section of Zhongshan North Road, and found that there was a noodle shop nearby. Some people will do Huigan.After their guidance, one dried seed can be sliced ​​into nineteen slices, and it can maintain the Huigan style, and the more boiled, the more tender it will be without erosion.According to Chef Liu: "Dried silk absorbs salt very quickly, so salt can only be added when the pot is ready, even ham should be put in later, otherwise, no matter how good the dried silk is, no matter how fresh the soup is, if the taste is heavy, if it exceeds the palatable saltiness, the dried silk will be too salty. It loses its color, and you can’t taste the original taste.” Recently, I have eaten dried shredded rice from several Huaiyang restaurants, and it seems that they are not tasty enough no matter how hot they are boiled.Since Chef Liu died of illness last year, it is now impossible to ask for a refreshing and delicious dried shredded rice.