Chapter 23 White Soup Noodles and Wild Duck Rice

Germans pay the most attention to this morning meal every day. They think that there is more than ten hours between dinner on the first day and early morning on the next day. It is conceivable how the wear and tear will be.Nine out of ten people in Taiwan have the habit of eating breakfast.People who are more Western-style can't do without eggs, milk, cheese, and bread early.Most people's breakfast is nothing more than sesame seed cakes, deep-fried dough sticks, steamed buns, soy milk, porridge and so on.The author has always advocated eating breakfast, and it should nourish the hungry. After a long time in Taiwan, every time I eat breakfast in winter, I think of the white soup noodles in the mainland.During my sojourn in Yangzhen, I did as the Romans do, and went to the teahouse for breakfast every day.Although there are many kinds of dim sum in the teahouse, some of the friends who went with me ordered dumplings, and some ordered pot cakes and siomai, but I must have a bowl of white soup noodles.However, the types of noodles and toppings change every day, so you can change the taste to avoid getting bored.

As the name suggests, the white noodle soup must be the soup with thick Yuzu pulp.The original soup for boiled white noodle soup is to boil chicken and duck bones, crucian carp, eel, pig bones, and ham feet in the soup.According to Chen Buyun, the owner of Fuchun Tea House, cooking this thick soup is called "hanging" in culinary terms, and each has its own secrets.Some put sheep intestines separately, and some sew the first-class shrimp in the cloth bag and cook together in the pot. After the soup is cooked, the shrimp bag is removed.There are many techniques and methods, and the white soup noodles in each noodle shop has its own unique flavor.There is no way for ordinary families to imitate it, so if you want to eat high-quality white soup noodles, you must go to a teahouse to eat it. This is the reason.

Good friends think that white noodle soup is unique to Yangzhou. When I was in Yangzhou, Xu Yunpu, a senior acquaintance, always invited me to Jinkuiyuan in Qinglian Lane, and invited Li Zhenqing, the rich man of Jinkuiyuan, and Pan Xijiu, a salt merchant, to have morning tea.Xu Yun always knew that I love white noodle soup, so he took care of Li Zhenqing on the stove in Jinkui Garden on the first day. Plump but not greasy. Pan Xi is always a well-known gourmet expert in Yang Town. After two glasses of morning wine, he was very happy and asked me if I had eaten such delicious white noodle soup.I said: "The noodles in soup in Dadong Restaurant in Taixian County and the crispy fish stew in Fanhualou in Zhenjiang are all boasting that they are overwhelming in taste, but they seem to be slightly inferior to today's white soup noodles. But the year before last, I was at Zuixian in Anqing. Once I ate grouper liver fish slices and double-poured white soup noodles, it seems to be indistinguishable from Jinkui Garden's jade food, but it seems to be more beautiful." Pan laughed loudly after hearing this, thinking that I knew the taste.Pan said: "Bai Tang Noodles is a nickname given to it by the people of Yangzhen. It originated in Anhui Province and was researched by Mr. Wu Yingji from Guichi, Anhui Province. Anqing is the birthplace of white soup noodles, authentic French milk, can it be worse? In addition to the unique method of hanging soup, white soup noodles have more than 20 names. Soup noodles There are inch soup, wide soup, whole chicken soup, and miscellaneous. The size of noodles can be divided into full noodles, wide noodles, narrow noodles, a nest of silk, buckle noodles, Dalian, medium bowl, heavy two, three nerds, and noodle knots. Cooking noodles can be divided into clear water, pot pickling, and big boiling. In addition, the cooking methods are divided into brine, dry mixing, simmering noodles, fried noodles, pot noodles, crispy noodles, two-sided yellow with juice, crossing the bridge, free oil slick, Mianqing, Mianhong, and Konghong are all kinds of famous dishes. As for the toppings on the surface, there are as many as fifty or sixty kinds of toppings. Customers often order ham, which is divided into middle waist, feet claws, and bench piles; meat dishes are divided into glasses and jade belt hooks. , sky lantern sticks; there are crispy fire (crispy eel ham), crispy eel, chicken fire (chicken ham), chicken crispy (chicken crispy eel), chicken shreds, chicken breast, chicken wings, chicken feet, chicken skin, chicken diced , chicken liver, stewed duck, duck tongue, duck waist, kidney flower, shrimp, shrimp waist skin car claw, shrimp car claw, crab roe, crab meat, car claw, crispy fish cinnamon oil, crispy fish soft pocket, crispy fish crispy, Crispy fish fillets, fried fish fillets, crispy fish stew, saury, smoked fish, grouper liver, pheasant, wild duck, wind chicken, cured duck, salt water feet, crystal feet, big meat, split meat, lamb, lamb paste, winter bamboo shoots, snow Bamboo shoots, pickled pork shreds, sweet and sour gluten, three delicacies, five diced, sesame sauce, Chinese toon, chrysanthemum chrysanthemum, celery, wolfberry, artemisia and other meat and vegetable toppings, it can be said that the five elements and seven fragrances have their own flavors. There are a dozen or so guests, all kinds of tricks, all kinds of hobbies. The waiters waiting at the entrance of the hall are all well-trained. What kind of noodles, how toppings, there is absolutely no error. At the same time, both hands can hold eight bowls with one arm: two bowls in the left hand, one bowl on the top, one bowl in each hand on the left arm and elbow pad, five bowls in the left side; two bowls in the right hand One bowl, one more bowl, a total of eight bowls. This way of serving is also famous, called the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea. They go up and down the stairs, step down the steps, and step over the threshold easily and neatly, without spilling the soup or shaking the noodles. Ji Gongfu is absolutely impossible. I am old and my memory is not good. I can only name fifty or sixty kinds of toppings. A few years ago, there was an old waiter in Wenyuan, Yinshi Street, who could report nearly a hundred kinds of toppings in one breath. The names of the dishes reported for cross talk are so exciting!" Hearing Pan Xilao's words, I didn't expect that there are so many allusions to the white noodle soup!

Back then, when the white dew was frosting in the mainland, and the cold was coming through at the beginning, it was time to eat wild duck rice at the right time.When I first arrived in northern Jiangsu, I still had no idea about the local customs. For all friendships, if the males are outside for the eunuchs to do business and study, there are no official guests at home, and the in-laws from far away cannot entertain wine and meals, so they will send a few gifts. The dishes are ordered to his residence or hotel to show the friendship of the landlord.When I went to Tai County, I lived in the old house of Dalin Bridge. The Zhi family in Tai County is a rich family. When it comes to wisteria flower frame (place name), the branch gate of the Zhi family is known to everyone in the local area.Shexia and Zhifu are old relatives, and Zhisan's old lady sent someone to deliver two dishes and two dishes and a pot of wild game rice.When the dishes were delivered, a friend Jin Tuozhai was present. He said: "The Wabao wild duck rice in Zhifu is the most famous in Quantai County. The wild duck rice in Zhifu must be cooked by the third wife herself. The size of the wild duck is not suitable for fat and thin. She doesn't cook according to the standard, and she doesn't cook when she's not in good spirits, so you can eat Zhi's wild duck rice, which is a real blessing."

That night, I took wild duck rice for dinner. The rice was selected by Zhijia Tian Kezi (tenants, Taixing called them Tian Kezi). It was waxy but not sticky.The crispy skin of wild duck meat is tender, plump but not oily. It is a wonderful delicacy when paired with green rapeseed. It has a clear and delicious taste.The praise of Jintuo Zhai is not a false reputation.Ever since I ate this delicious wild duck rice, I heard that Hailingchun’s wild duck rice is also good. When I went there, it was not the right time for the wild duck to escape the cold, so I couldn’t eat it. Later, some friends from Yangzhen opened an exquisite restaurant on Zhejiang Road, Shanghai. I worked in the morning and evening. Although I passed by the restaurant from time to time, I never patronized it.One day, there was a post in the door of his house that we added wild duck rice. This kind of delicacy has not been tasted for a long time, so he sat down and ordered a wild duck rice to try.The plumpness of the duck is not inferior to that of Northern Jiangsu, and the rice is stewed so juicy and delicious. Instead of using Shanghai rice, it is more refreshing and palatable to use indica rice. Unfortunately, the brassicas (commonly known as rapeseed) used are not from the countryside in Northern Jiangsu. It is fresh and tender when picked and eaten.

Ever since I came to Taiwan, I only heard from my hunting friends that I went to hunt wild ducks, but I have neither seen nor eaten them.One year I went to visit friends at the Huwei Sugar Factory and stayed in a noble hotel. I happened to meet three old generals, He Jingzhi, Bai Jiansheng, and Yang Zihui, who also stayed at the guest house.Yang Hui used to be funny, so he drank a few cups of Yishou wine that night, and talked happily after drinking.His wife at the time was a graduate of National Taiwan University and was in the same class as the little girl, so he joked and called me little old uncle.And it is said that He and Bai got up late, and he returned with a full load, maybe they are still lying high in Longzhong.Sure enough, when everyone was having breakfast the next day, Elder Hui had already returned with his spoils—three bamboo chickens and seven or eight wild ducks.The wild ducks he hunted seem to be much smaller than those seen in the interior.For the wild duck dinner at noon, I went back to Douliu to have something to do, so I couldn't taste the delicious food, and it was a pity to miss a delicious meal.

A few days ago, a friend who was good at fishing and hunting heard me say that the wild duck rice was delicious. He hunted a few wild ducks, plucked their feathers, cleaned them up and delivered them.After revealing the original shape, the wild ducks of Ganqing are not much bigger than pigeons, with a layer of fat under the skin, big bones and few bones, which seems to be different from the wild ducks in the mainland in the early years.I think the wild ducks crossing Hainan to escape the cold are naturally malnourished.This young wild duck, relying on its prime of life and strength, is already extremely lucky to be able to save its body.Looking at the ducks, I couldn't help but feel sad, and my appetite for wild ducks disappeared.