Chapter 43 Beiping's Red Cabinet·Smoked Fish·Fried Gluten

When it comes to fried gluten with smoked fish, it can be said to be a unique snack in Peking.Those who sell this kind of snacks only carry a small cabinet painted with bright vermilion on their backs at two or three o'clock every afternoon, and sell them along the street.Although they call smoked fish fried gluten, in fact, the northern yellow croakers are on the market at the end of April and early May. They smoked a few yellow croakers and skewered them with bamboo sticks, and sold them one by one to meet the occasion. Outside of the scheduled day, you need to buy fried gluten on weekdays. Nine times out of ten, you will be sold out.Later, some red cabinets did not often fry gluten at all.To be honest, although this kind of gluten is smoked well, the taste is too bland. If you add a few strips of this kind of gluten when cooking eggplant with edamame, it will be enough.Because they carried red cabinets, old Beiping called this business "red cabinets".Except for smoked fish, gluten and egg slices, the other foods they sell are various and varied, but they are all from pigs.

They go down the street every day, and pork liver is the best seller. The cooked pork liver is marinated and then smoked. Although the taste is light, it is plump and fresh, and after chewing carefully, it has a slightly sweet taste.He used Huai Li's flashing large knife to cut the pork liver into paper-thin pieces, and served it with wine. Although it was not a rare treasure, it was slightly sweet, plump and refreshing. In those days, every household in Peiping had to have one or two puppies, or long-haired raccoon dogs. These cats and dogs loved to eat the pork liver sold in the red cabinet and mixed with minced rice.Some people even set a rule with the smoked fish seller, how much pork liver will be sent every day to support their favorite things, and it will continue all day, rain or shine.

Pork head meat is the main meat they sell, and it is cooked with the noodles they sell. When the wine is just enough to drink, two slices of fire and pork head meat are served. Yuanxiu jade food. The way they smoke the small belly is also different from the ones sold in Hezi shop, because although the smoked fish seller is a small business, it has been smoked and marinated in large quantities by the same pot guy (also known as the workshop in Beiping) from ancient times to the present.When it comes to making smoked meat and food, brown sugar or tea leaves are mostly used in the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins, and only sawdust is used in the Yellow River basin (there were no foreign saws and chainsaws in the early years, and all major wood factories in Beiping employed several "large saws". , prop up the logs or wooden beams in half, one person stands on top of the wood, and one person stands on the bottom of the wood, you pull and push, and after a while there will be a lot of sawdust on the ground).It is said that what kind of tree sawdust is used to smoke fish, and there is still a lot of attention!The best is elm, otherwise it is fir; willow has a green smell, and poplar has a bitter aftertaste, and the bacon in the pot is not used.

People in Peiping drink late wine, which is the so-called night snack now. In winter, they buy lamb head meat, tendon, and sheep eyes for wine. Friends who are more extensive like to eat donkey meat or Qian'er meat.In summer, friends who drink dinner like to buy some pig ears on the red cabinet to go with the wine.The bones of their smoked pig ears are crispy and the skin is rotten. The saltiness is moderate, and it is most suitable for low consumption.Back then, there was a reporter named Zhang Zuigai who worked for nothing every night, smoked pig ears for 20 cents, ate and drank while writing articles.

Eggs are called chickens in the dialect of Beiping. Generally, cooked vegetables are sold, either boiled in salt water or stewed in brine. If you want to eat smoked chickens, only the chickens sold in red cabinets are the only real smoked chickens. Peiping people pay attention to eating fried chicken, but their smoked chicken is so small that it is almost the size of a pigeon egg.If you ask them why they choose such a small chicken for smoking, they still have some excuses. They think that smoked chicken is first boiled and then smoked. The chicken is too big to be smoked through, and it will not taste good if it is grilled.There may be some truth to what they say.At that time, when the modern poet Lin Gengbai was in Beiping, he would go to Zhou Zuoren’s Kucha nunnery once or twice a month to discuss poetry and papers. Baoding Prefecture specialty "smoked chicken sausage" to go.The Kucha Temple has a lot of various teas. Brew a pot of tea, roast the smoked chicken and add a piece of chicken sausage. I think that sipping bitterness and sweetness like this is more satisfying than eating a table of delicacies from mountains and seas.

Back then, there was a pot shop selling smoked fish and fried gluten in the Makala Temple in Beiping. When Yu Zhenfei, a famous Kunqu opera artist, came to Peiping from Shanghai and joined Cheng Yushuang’s Qiusheng Club as a small student, he lived in the Makala Temple and sold smoked gluten with a group of people. The pot of fish friends become close neighbors.Yu Xiaosheng accidentally discovered that the smoked chicken in the pot has a special smell, which has never been tasted before, and it may be a strange smell.One day, Cheng Yanqiu visited Yu's residence. Cheng's drinking capacity was well-known in Liyuan Xing, and it would be a shame to have wine and no food when you drink together.Yu Wuer had an idea, went to Guohuo temporarily, and cut some cooked food to serve with wine. It happened to be just in time for the prawns to be on the market. Occasionally, a few pairs of prawns are smoked for sale. Most of them are ordered by acquaintances, and it is difficult to supply them in stock if they are not acquaintances.After Cheng Yanqiu tasted it, he thought that the smoked prawns served with wine were more delicate and fragrant than Liangyixuan's boiled prawns.Since then, the smoked prawns on the red cabinet have been popular for a while!

Those who sell smoked fish also sell bitter intestines for takeaway. Some cats and dogs, if their pets are used to feeding bitter intestines, if they catch up with the continuous storm, the smoked fish sellers don’t go down the street, kittens and dogs They are also picky, and don’t eat without bitter intestines, so they have to ask their masters to ask for advice and go to the pot to buy bitter intestines.At that time, Jingjin Shaoshan, a monkey and a pug were all accustomed to eating bitterness, so they had to brave the wind and rain and move their bottles to teach them.Therefore, Duracell knows all about the pot guys who sell smoked fish in Peking.

Although we don't know who is the ancestor of the smoked fish business, but in terms of industry rules and loyalty, it is indeed the end of the world.First, there is a fixed quota of how many red cabinets a potmate has. If you want to participate, you must fill in the blanks.Second, in the cabinet selling smoked fish, you can say that there are all kinds of pig offal, except that kidneys are not sold. It is said that it is a rule left by the ancestors.In the old family of Beiping, there is a family called Zhong Yang's family. It is said that he supplied all the clocks and watches used by the inner court in the Qing Dynasty.Before the Anti-Japanese War, there was a son of his family who liked to draw lots. As long as there was a call in the alley selling smoked fish, he would definitely call the smoked fish seller to the gate or outside the second gate, and draw two tubes of real and fake Wuer, big or small.One day on a whim, he wanted the smoked fish seller to smoke two pairs of pork kidneys. Although he was a very familiar customer, he was out of line. Uncle Yang promised to give him another gold watch with a stuffy case. Not agreeing, which is a good testament to how strict the family's rules are.Third, the knives used to cut meat for selling smoked fish are thin and large with a round front and rear. Think carefully.If it is handed over to the sharpener who sharpens the scissors and knives, it is a serious violation of the rules and is regarded as a taboo.Fourth, every pot guy comes out of the red cabinet and yells in the street. Each pot guy has a different taste. Once they hear it, they will know which pot guy it is, and they won't be confused.There is a Hua Ziyuan in Peking who talks about opera fans, and sometimes there are two stand-up comics. He can separate the voice of selling smoked fish into more than ten kinds of long and short low-pitched tones. This piece of stuff may have been lost in Taiwan. La.

All in all, the red cabinet sells fried gluten with smoked fish. Although there is no way to reconcile Ding Nai cut cooking, when friends of three or five get together and mention fried gluten with smoked fish, there is still a bit of nostalgia!