Chapter 6 Preserved fruit · Candied fruit · Hangla jujube

In the early years, friends from the south went to Beiping for business or sightseeing. Before leaving Beiping, they always brought some special local products of Beiping back to relatives and friends.Most of the stationery you buy is copper rulers, electroplated ink cartridges, and copper stamps with finely carved and carved buttons.There are at least eight pieces of snacks to buy, roll crisps, chrysanthemum cakes, small fried food, and Sachima.If you want to buy some delicious snacks, nine times out of ten you have to go to the dried fruit shop, buy some preserved fruits, pack them in boxes, and take them back to your hometown as gifts. They are the most popular local products in Peiping.

The dried fruit shop in Beiping was originally mainly selling preserved fruits, so it was called dried fruit shop.Preserved fruits include preserved peaches, apricots, pears, apples, candied dates, pitted and pine nuts, and walnuts.What dynasty began to have preserved fruit, and now it is hard to test.Old Beiping said that some people invented preserved fruit in the last years of Ming Dynasty.Later, someone researched ancient books and found that it existed during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. It is well known that Yang Yuhuan, the favorite concubine of the Emperor Ming, loved to eat lychees from Shu. He took the stagecoach and took the journey.In Du Mu's poem, "a concubine who rides the world of mortals laughs, but no one knows it's litchi."Up to now, there is still a kind of lychee produced in southern China called "Concubine Xiao", which proves that it was true at that time, otherwise the famous lychee would not be named Concubine Xiao.

Litchi is a kind of fruit with high water content, high sugar content, and not durable for storage. Although Chang’an is not far away from Shu, the post-horse is in a hurry to deliver it to the Imperial Palace. There is such a record in "Daguan Herbs compiled by Jingshi Leichi": "Fu Tang Sui paid tribute to Baibao lychees, and fried lychees with honey..." Baibao is dried lychees, and honey fried is candied fruit, that is to say, in more than 1,300 years In the pre-Tang Dynasty, there were products such as candied fruit.Going back further, according to the records of "Three Kingdoms", it was even earlier. "Wu Zhi" Sun Liang's biography said: "After the light came out of Xiyuan, he ate raw plums, and sent Huangmen to Zhongzang to get honey-soaked plums. ".From this point of view, isn't it more than 1,700 years ago that we would have candied fruit and desserts?As for what the original preserved fruit looks like, some people say that it is the same as the fruit. It is not peeled or cored, but the water is filtered out, so it can be stored for a long time without fear of mildew.Since the progress of the times, preserved fruit has become the top jade food through the imperial dining room, and then it has become a fine dessert.

Before 1913, Panama held an international commodity competition. Beijing Longjing and Shaodong Yuguozi shop had very novel ideas. He wanted to send the preserved fruit from his cabinet to the competition.But the old shopkeeper was too conservative and rigid, and he was unwilling to say anything, forcing the young boss to have no choice, so he discussed with Jushun and the dried fruit shop in Dashilan outside the front door, and he took a few catties of each preserved fruit made by Longjinghe. With Jushun and Mingcha, I personally sent them to the Panama venue for the competition.The jars containing preserved fruits are rough pottery with green glaze, and the canned products of "Telmon" with the beautiful trademark "Dianhong in the green bushes" and the Japanese pickles with the label "Fushenzuke" with a smiling face like Maitreya Buddha are placed together, which is crude. Not to mention clumsy, but also a little rustic.However, according to the evaluation results of the international judges, in addition to the fruity aroma, the preserved fruits on display are also full of the high-end flavor of oriental food.At that time, Chinese preserved fruit immediately became a kind of precious food recognized by the world. Jushunhe also won the gold medal of excellence awarded by the conference because of a mistake. It was too late for Longjing and the old shopkeeper to regret it.Since then, Chinese preserved fruit has been sold well in Japan and Southeast Asia. Until now, there is no country in the world that can produce preserved fruit that can last for a long time without adding preservatives like China.

It is said that a food company in a European country once sent a special person to China to learn how to make preserved fruit, but it has not been successful.It is not known if there is a problem with the temperature and humidity in Europe, or if we cherish our own broom and keep it secret. The average household in Beiping is very old-fashioned, and every family has to light a fire to keep out the cold in winter. Although the stove is equipped with a chimney and burns lump coal, it is safe and clean, but nine times out of ten, they would rather burn coal pellets than install a stove. Yangstove (the one that burns lump coal with a chimney is called a Yangstove in Peking).Therefore, if you often eat some candied fruit, not only can the gas be relieved throughout the winter, but also you will not feel dry mouth.

Candied fruit can also be called "honey fried". Although the pulp is marinated in sugar juice, it is a great creation in the art of Chinese sugar food. There are other tricks, not everyone can do it.The main raw materials of candied fruit products are two acidic fruits, Hawthorn and Wenpu, in addition to Begonia and Shanlihong.In addition to setting up stalls for business, fruit sellers in Peiping are also called "Guojuzi" on a slightly larger scale. All candied foods are sold in Guojuzi.On the long table of the fruit bureau, there are about three feet of big blue and white bowls on white ground, half of which are covered with red lacquered wooden lids, and half of which are covered with glass bricks. Seeing that friends bring it, young and old are welcome, it is not rich but not cheap, it is very decent, and it is quite cheap to keep it for personal use.

At that time, the financial tycoons Zhou Zuomin and Tan Danya, two winter treats, must have candied fruit Wen Pu mixed with tender cabbage heart wine, fat dyed light red, cool and fresh, good-looking and delicious, and later even Xiehe Hospital Several foreign doctors have also learned that when they go to a restaurant for a drink, they first order Wen Pu mixed with shredded cabbage to drink. The term "hanglazao" I didn't understand why it was called "hanglazao" at first. Later, Lu Tengjiu of Dingxing County (Lu Chuanlin Zhesi, a scholar of the late Qing Dynasty) said: "Lazaoer is dried jujube first. Pick out the jujube pits, and thread them one by one with thick twine, each with sixty, eighty, or one hundred grains strung together. Both it and the drunken date are special products in Dingxing County, Hebei Province, but the drunken date is After leaving the wine, it is not durable to store, so not many people know about it. As for the hanging dates, most of them are sold in Pingjin at the end of the year. Yes, the name of the market is Zhang."

As soon as the twelfth lunar month arrives in Beiping, there will be people selling hanging jujubes on the streets.Li Xiushan (Chun), one of the Beiyang warlords, was obsessed with eating this kind of dates. According to his son: "When the old man eats hanging dates, no matter how crisp they are, he should roast them hot and serve them with a bowl of cold sweet wine. It is said that this way of eating can eliminate phlegm and qi, but whether it is effective or not is not known because there are no hanging jujubes here.But back then in Beiping, the old lady who slept on the hot kang in winter always liked to put a few jujubes next to the edge of the kang. She said that when she coughed in the middle of the night, she chewed slowly with a jujube in her mouth. It can also suppress the cough.