Chapter 16 Huzhou plate lamb and rice dumplings

In Beiping, I am used to eating the big-tailed fat sheep at Xikou. Whether it is fried and grilled, or even dumplings made of mutton, or baked meatloaf, I only feel that the suet is sweet and plump, without any feeling of fishy and greasy.Later, I ate lamb at Dayalou in Shanghai, and another time I ate braised mutton noodles with skin. Although it was cleaned up, I saw the pores on the skin and immediately thought why southerners like to go to Beiping to buy noodles. What about sheepskin?Dare they eat the sheepskin. Due to the variety of aquatic plants, the mutton in Shanghai is barren and fat-free. No matter how it is cooked, it is not bland and tasteless in the mouth, but the aftertaste is a bit fishy.So I have lived in the south for several years, and I have never been interested in southern mutton.

Once, the same family friend Ye Manyun had a drink in Shanghai Hongchangxing, and he wanted to eat boiled mutton.I said that the south is full of goats, there are no big-tailed sheep, and the mutton is strong and tasteless. Although I am from the north, I really lack the appetite for mutton that is too strong.Ye is from Nanxun, Huzhou. He said: "Your uncle Qiuchen went to our Huzhou mansion in the early years of Guangxu. You were not born at that time, but you always heard from your family that Huzhou mutton is fresh and not smelly. It’s comparable to Peking’s mutton!” The ancestor Qiu Chengong, who was an official in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou and other places in Zhejiang Province, once donated eighteen kinds of books collected by Hong Liang Jijuan Shige, a great scholar in Qing Dynasty, to the owner of Xiaolianzhuang in Nanxun, and included them in his Jiayetang series.Later, although after several wars, many of the isolated copies in the sea were scattered and lost, but I heard that the books in the Juange Pavilion were safe and sound. I had long wanted to have the opportunity to visit Huzhou, but I never made it.Now that there is brother Manyun who knows the way, he took the time to take a trip to Wuxing.Before I came to Wuxing (Huzhou), I only knew Hubi Huimo. Huzhou’s brushes are famous all over the country. Huzhou’s silk floss is light and warm, and silk floss is a masterpiece of local women. I haven't paid special attention to it.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was called Huzhou Prefecture. After the abolition of the government in the Republic of China, Wucheng County and Gui'an County were merged and renamed Wuxing County.There is a small town called "Shuanglin" in the county, and the locals call it "Eating Wharf".This eatery is not a busy and well-prepared teahouse or restaurant in the town, but a row upon row of snack bars, each with its own unique flavor and cheap price. It is beyond the imagination of foreign guests from all over Shanghai.People in Huzhou boast that the flat mutton in Shuanglin Town is moist and fragrant, smooth and not greasy.

The sheep raised in Shuanglin Town are called Hu sheep.The general households have the habit of raising Hu sheep, more or less always have to feed three or five sheep, keep them for their own food, or sell them to mutton shops.As for the large households that specialize in raising Hu sheep, it is not uncommon to raise thousands or eight hundred sheep, because the sheep in Shuanglin Town, in addition to supplying "Shuanglin" and "Wuzhen" for consumption at the wharf, also have to be transported and sold in large quantities to other places. !The local elders said that the Hu sheep in Shuanglin are actually a breed of northern sheep, which were transplanted to the south of the Yangtze River when the Yuan Dynasty ruled the Central Plains.Because the waters of Taihu Lake are fertile and the vegetation is clear, Hu sheep grow up in this kind of cave, eating green lucidum and sipping jade dew, how can the mutton not be plump, sweet and fresh, and people praise it for its taste.

Shuanglin's flat mutton is made by adding ingredients to the boil. It looks a lot like the crystal lamb in Tianjin Zuibailou, but the taste is completely different.There is a mutton shop in the town called "Dai Changsheng". This business has a history of more than 100 years, and it is the largest mutton shop in the town.His family has passed down an unwritten rule from the previous generation that only twenty Hu sheep are slaughtered every day, and no more will be killed. The market opens early every morning, and the pots are probably empty and clean when they are sold until almost noon. Customers had no choice but to return empty-handed, please be early tomorrow.

Regular local diners sometimes plan to invite non-local guests to eat Dai Changsheng mutton, and they must make a reservation in advance, otherwise they will inevitably be disappointed if they go late.Brother Ye Manyun, my friend, is from the Yejiabin family in Nanxun, and has been married to the Dai family for many years. Therefore, during the trip to Shuanglin, I ate top-grade mutton and watched their cutting and cooking process. Dare to cook mutton does not use a metal cauldron, but a special flat-bottomed rectangular stone trough, which is shaped like the stone coffin used as an outer coffin in ancient times.Cut off the head and tail of the slaughtered sheep, cut off the limbs, scrape off the wool, divide the whole sheep into two pieces, and use the thinned wide bamboo slices to make the mutton slices flat and put them on the table. In a stone trough.Put four (eight pieces) in the big stone trough, and two (four pieces) in the small stone trough. Each family has a secret recipe for the ingredients used, and each family has a secret recipe. (It is said that pine, fir, elm, birch, and different kinds of meat are used for cooking. Of course, the meat cooked has different aromas. The gourmets in the town will know which one it is when they taste it).The stone trough is thick and heavy. Although the firewood is dry, because the heat transfer of the stone kettle is slow, it is called cooking. In fact, the stone is solid and thick, and it does not seep oil and is fresh.Every day from dusk to dawn of the next day, the skin is simmered until crystal clear, the meat is simmered so smooth, fragrant and moist, with a rich aroma, crisp and tender.Grooved and broken bones, placed on a white case, the winter is cold, especially in the early morning. The hot mutton just out of the pan will soon become the well-known flat mutton that looks like wisps of ice, crispy and melty.Brother Manyun said that once before dawn, he went to the store and asked his relatives to catch an early boat to Hangzhou. Just in time for the mutton to be out of the pot, he took freshly baked straw-shoe-soled biscuits and ate hot mutton. It was fat, sweet and delicious. , this morning meal that can be met but not asked for is something he will never forget in his life.

In addition to the local specialty of mutton, Huzhou zongzi is also well-known throughout the country. In addition to the roasted meat zongzi sold in Taipei, some of them are Taiwan-style. In addition, the zongzi sold in restaurants such as Jiuru are almost all called Huzhou zongzi. This can prove that Huzhou rice dumplings are widely spread. There is a famous tea shop in Huzhou called "Chu Dachang". It is said that Chu's family started selling rice dumplings, and then opened a tea shop.In Huzhou, Boss Chu’s zongzi is also a must. Maybe no one knows about Chu Dachang, but everyone knows about Boss Chu.Boss Chu originally peddled sweet rice dumplings with lard and bean paste on the river street at night. The rice dumplings he made were carefully picked and never mixed with gravel, and the bean paste was washed finely. greasy.In particular, the tightness of the zongzi wrapping is just right, the glutinous rice is soft and not mushy, the part near the bean paste is not caught, and the part near the leaves of the zongzi is not sticky. This is something that other zongzi cannot do.Because the business is getting more and more prosperous, they added chestnut chicken dumplings, ham and pork dumplings later. Although they trained a group of people to wrap sweet and salty dumplings, there are often long queues at the entrance of his tea shop every New Year's Eve!

I have worked with Brother Mandiu in Shanghai for many years. He always visits his hometown twice a year, and every time he returns to Shanghai, he fills up a basket with big and small bags, all of which are food.In addition to the flat mutton from Dai's old shop and the zongzi from Boss Chu, there are also black sesame crisp candy from Guixiang Village, walnut cloud cake from Daoxiang Village, and mincemeat cake from wild water chestnuts.Everyone says that Suzhou tea food is delicate and exquisite, but the taste of the above tea food seems to be slightly inferior to that of Huzhou Shangjue.At present, Xiasanfu in Zhejiang Province (Huzhou, Hangzhou, and Jiaxing were formerly known as Xiasanfu in Zhejiang Province), there are many people who travel to Taiwan. When you think of the smooth and not greasy flat mutton and the exquisite and rotten meat dumplings, you are not friends who are addicted to food, but also friends. Can't live without the thought of water shield perch!