Enchanting Beidu Fish (Originally published in Chinese Food Geography)

You'd be hard pressed to find Beidu on a map.

But Beidu and Beidu fish are resounding names in jianghu cuisine.

Beidu is in Qijiang County under Chongqing Municipality. Qijiang, before, only know that it produces coal, what other products do not know. Later, what made me remember Qijiang again was the Rainbow Bridge collapse in 1998.

Now, with Beidu fish in my mouth, Qijiang has deepened its impression in my mind.

Enmity Beidu fish

⒈ from Qijiang to Beidu, the shepherd boy pointed to the apricot blossom spring

Qijiang is 37 kilometers away from Chongqing, the whole is a highway with excellent road conditions.

Through the windows, look at the new rain just clearing the landscape, never thought the scenery along the way is so beautiful. The mountain ranges are spread out to our eyes, the mountain mist around the mountainside, vaguely visible in the hollows of the village. Some mountain ranges have patches of clear-colored pine trees, spectacular and charming. I wanted to stop and take some pictures of the scenery, but unfortunately the light was weak, so I planned to do it on the way back.

It only took about thirty minutes to get to Qijiang County. When you look at the streets, you can easily see the Beidu fish restaurants. Local residents say the larger Beidu fish restaurants here include Qijiang Chun and Fish Fragrance Chun. A truck driver knows that we are here to interview Beidu fish, very warmly said, Beidu from the county has only sixteen kilometers, across the bridge on the right, the road is not bad. Thanks to the master, we continue to the north of the ferry traveling.

Beidu is a small town with fascinating scenery. A bridge connects the two sides of Beidu, and the Qijiang River flows under the bridge.

I've been to many towns with rivers, bridges, and great food, such as Tai'an, such as Kouxi, such as Laifeng, such as Yuxi, such as Jiangkou, such as Su Ji ...... The Beidu in front of me has similarities with them, but also has a distinctive difference, which is quiet, clean, and seldom polluted, and there is no slag flooding the river, nor dead pigs and cats, and the river is very quiet. There are no dead pigs or cats on the surface of the river, and the fishermen have set up a big pocket net of one square meter in the migratory water, and you can see the beautiful curves of the anglers' rods under the shade of the trees on the riverside. The bank is full of luxuriant trees and bamboo forests on both sides, as well as endless green mountains, and the sky is far away and misty.

What intrigued me was the fact that the Beidu Bridge is the dividing point between Qijiang and Jiangjin. On this side is still Beidu Township in Qijiang County, and on the opposite side is Pengqiao Township, which is part of Guangxing Township in Jiangjin County. Before the bridge was repaired, it all relied on a dock to ferry people to and from the so-called Beidu, hence its name. Although Pengqiao belongs to Guangxing of Jiangjin, it is 20 miles away from Guangxing, no matter it is production and trading or daily life, it is not as convenient as Beidu which is separated by a river, ---even Qijiang county town is closer to Pengqiao than Guangxing, only 14 miles away. Therefore, Pengqiao people sometimes feel that they are more like Qijiang people, or simply Beidu people. So much so, that the first Jianghu dish in Pengqiao was named "Beidu Fish" by diners, and they were happy to accept it, not to theorize about it.

Till now, there is no famous Beidu fish restaurant in Beidu Township. But the people of Beidu are hospitable and will answer questions and give directions without ambiguity. In the Qijiang territory of the bridge asked the man selling cigarettes, where the earliest Beidu fish restaurant, the enthusiastic man pointed to the other side of the river and said, in Pengqiao, the oldest is Qihechun, as well as Yingfenglou, Fish Xiangchun.

The man's directions brought us into the mood of an old poem: "Ask the winemaker where he is, and the shepherd boy will point to the apricot blossom spring."

Fish stores with Beidu Fish signs abound on Pengqiao Road, with a variety of names, but all with the theme of proving themselves to be the oldest, the most authentic, the first or whatever. Needless to say, there has long been a battle for name-righting going on here, and as in many of the places I've traveled to where jianghu cuisine was invented, everyone is stirring in the chaos.

In the restaurant industry, names of places and fish can't be trademarked, so it's hard to get exclusive legal protection for the birth of a new dish that combines a place's name and a fish's name. Fortunately as long as the founder did not leave the place and did not go out of business if the local will give the founder a name to confirm who is the first, who is the most authentic. Folk don't play the trick of the swordsmen and officials calling a stag a horse, folk speak from their conscience and justice. Unfortunately, if outsiders passing through the area, how much leisure and energy he first to investigate who is the first?

Peak in Pangqiao, unanticipated encounter with country cooks

In the process of asking local aborigines who was the founder of the Beidu fish, we found a family on the street was holding a funeral service.

A huge plastic sheet was set up as a trellis, with a dozen tables set up underneath, and the country cook and his men were busy with their best nine bowls - China's most rustic countryside feast. This kind of folk food event is rare, and we immediately decided to interview and film the cook first.

Just as we were setting up our cameras and preparing to take pictures, a vigorous and hearty old man took the initiative to welcome us and asked if we were journalists from a food magazine. In fact, he asked knowingly because he had long seen the words "China Gourmet Geography" printed on our body shirts. I said we had come to Beidu because we wanted to interview the inventor of Beidu fish, and the old man said kanchly that he was the inventor of Beidu fish, and that his store was in the neighborhood called Yingfeng Lou.

I said, no way, some people say Qihechun is the founder of the Beidu fish.

The old man was a bit agitated, but quickly got his emotions under control. He said, "In that case, you can interview here first. I'm a relative of this family, I'll go talk to the host family to make it easier for you to start your work. Please come to my store when you have finished your interviews, okay?"

I remember a month ago, we had an interview in Gao Miao, an ancient town in Hongya, Sichuan. There, we met a middle-aged man in his fifties. When we asked him what days were the hottest in Gao Miao, his answer gave us a shock. He said that the hottest day is when someone dies, especially when a local respected person dies, which is even hotter than any festival. Because of the death, neighbors, family and friends will be gathered together, so that everyone can be together to focus on communication.

Originally, in townships and villages, people tend to treat red and white weddings as a pure and simple social event. It's not as form-oriented and deliberately mournful as in the city, and even if the relatives of the deceased are still steeped in grief, they don't give a cold shoulder to the guests who are rowing and guessing and smiling at their own funerals. The family we saw today doing the funeral service did not interfere with those who shouted and guessed in the funeral hut.

I approached an old man at the wine table and asked him to show us where the village cooks made the food. The old man enthusiastically took us to the kitchen of the family next door, where the countryside cooks operate. There were mostly women in the kitchen, and after inquiring, I found out that the chef was a woman and there were four other cooks, all women. Everyone in the chef's command to do their own thing in an organized manner, when a dish is finished and divided, the men and women who help the chef with a kind of rectangular shallow wooden case to bring the dishes to the table in the funeral hut to go. According to the chef, they make a three-day feast for the family, 26 tables at noon on the first day and 24 tables at night, 30 tables at noon on the second day and 24 tables at night, and 15 tables at noon on the third day and none at night. The dishes are what they call nine bowls, namely, the first bowl of sugar vat meat, two bowls of wine and rice, three bowls of sandwich meat, four bowls of roasted white, five bowls of vat bones or vat incense bowl (glutinous rice kneaded into a poop and fried, and then cut into small pieces of steam), six bowls of pierogi, seven bowls of pork, eight bowls of vegetables, nine bowls of stewed vegetables.

After interviewing the village cooks, I went to the spiritual hall to interview the masters who perform the rituals, that is, the kind of people we often see in Hong Kong movies dancing with wooden swords, throwing paper money and drawing spiritual talismans. There was a bit of difficulty because they thought that journalists were against practicing feudal superstition and were wary of us for fear of exposure. It took me a good deal of time to squeeze some information out of them like toothpaste. The practice here is a group of five people, the leader surnamed Yan, people call him "master altar". Yan main altar to do this kind of super-dead thing has been more than ten years, is with his father's generation to learn. They do the deeds of the line have Chuan gongs, Chuan drums, cymbals, conch, the Division knife, tokens, Taoist hats. As we arrived here the dead have been buried, there is no opportunity to see them on-site magic, coupled with the Yama altar has concerns, the interview will not be able to go deeper.

At this time, from under the mourning shed came a red-faced man because of drinking, he said loudly to us: "reporter friends, you interviewed the cook, also interviewed the main altar, how not to interview the dragon pole?"

We were confused: "What do you mean by the one who carries the dragon pole?"

The people around us laughed in unison when they heard us ask this question. Someone said, "The ones who carry the dragon poles are the ones who carry the coffins to the cemetery, and they sing beautiful songs."

There were eight strong men sitting at a table in the funeral parlor, all of them drinking and red in the face. They are the ones who carry the dragon poles. On the way to carry the dead to the cemetery, to carry while singing. One of them sings, and the others sing along, so that lifting the coffin is powerful. A medium-sized man said that he was the lead singer, and the other seven were the followers. Probably to confirm his words, the man actually sang. We have not heard what he sang, the next seven men have sung along.

The lead singer was soaring, and the chorus was so majestic that the eight men's voices startled us, and we never imagined that their combined voices would be so eardrum-shattering.

These simple men were still a bit shy in front of the camera, but their voices stayed in tune and high, and they didn't let their shyness dampen their voices for a minute. To be honest, I thought they would sing for a few minutes at most, but I didn't realize it would be 40 minutes. Although I really like this kind of folk original sound which is usually hard to hear, unfortunately, I didn't even understand a word of the lyrics. But we respect this group of men, they have the beginning and the end, carrying the coffin to the cemetery has been sung for a long time, and now still do not compromise for us to finish the song. This is not only respect for us, but also reflects a folk spirit of dedication in its most simple form.

Wu Wenchao and Wu Rongwen

When we arrived at Yingfenglou, the old man Wu Wenchao, who had taken the initiative to greet us in the funeral hut, had already prepared a few bamboo chairs outside the store, waiting for us to interview him.

It was twenty-five years ago──

In 1980, the Jiangjin Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce issued a collective license for a sideline restaurant to Guangxing. Wu Wenchao, then a barefoot veterinarian in Pengqiao village, volunteered to get the license from the township, paying less than 100 yuan a year in management fees to the township. He opened a small store on the side of the road next to the ferry, selling side dishes and snacks, named "Pengqiao Roadside Food Shop". Store name is very simple, the signboard is correspondingly very simple, is a two square meter square with two wood clip a piece of felt made of cattle, black background and white characters, but also eye-catching. Soon, Wu Wenchao found that more passers-by, in addition to the snacks added a new home-style fried dishes and wild river fish, business is booming day by day.

The Qi River was not yet polluted, and there were many types and quantities of wild fish, such as grass carp, catfish, carp, crucian carp, yellow chili ding, as well as the more valuable warabi (a very tasty fish with a body as long as that of a ribbon fish, a head as sharp as that of a rat, and scales as fine as that of a chub). When he first started making fish dishes, Wu Wenchao followed the most traditional approach: whole fish braised, homemade flavor and bean flavor, both of which are salty, fresh and spicy. But the tired coach drivers have asked for more exciting flavors, so Wu Wenchao launched a typical Jianghu cuisine style of spicy fish. What's interesting is that Wu didn't stop there - most jianghu restaurants stick to their main flavors for at least five years before launching other flavors and gradually forming a series, but Wu Wunchao felt from the start that there should be more flavors for diners to choose from. He has stuck to traditional flavors such as tilefish, crispy fish and bean-flower fish, in addition to home-style fish, bean-flour fish and spicy fish.

There are more and more diners, and Wu Wenchao, who is happy in his heart, did a simple thing: he put up a ladder and added the word "fish" in the blank space next to the words "Pengqiao Passing Food Shop". Who would have thought that this is a simple move, has laid the "Beidu fish" for more than twenty years of immovable jianghu status? Until 1989, Wu Wenchao up a new building, his son Wu satellite only now this sounds very relaxed store name "wind building".

In 1984, Wu Wenchao developed his own pickled fish in addition to Zou Kaixi, and in 1988, he introduced tomato fish. To date, his family's Beidu fish are spicy, pickled vegetables, tomato-based flavor, and can be a fish three eat, that is, a fish (weight must be two pounds or more) three flavors. This is so different from the unique flavor profiles of most Jianghu cuisine that when I first met Wu Wenchao, I was surprised to see a whole bunch of fish on the business card he handed me-even Tai'an fish. Wu Wenchao says he can make it if the customers want it. But who, I thought, would come to Pengqiao to eat tai-an fish?

As for the name "Beidu fish," both Wu and his son say it was coined by customers in 1983. It was mainly long-distance bus drivers, who tended to say, "Go, go to Beidu to eat Beidu fish." And Pangqiao people think there's nothing wrong with it. In addition to Pengqiao people's self-perception, everyone thinks that since it's fish, it's better to have the word "ferry" than "bridge", which reminds people of Chongqing's famous dock culture. The name "Beidu Fish" is definitely louder than "Pengqiao Fish". Therefore, all the fish sellers in Pengqiao only fight over who is the first one, and no one comes between Beidu and Pengqiao to correct the name. This is very different from the regional dispute between Ball Creek and Fish Creek. In the two creeks, people are not only fighting for stores, but also for land.

When he thinks back to the Beidu fish scene from 1986 to 1998, Wu Wenchao's eyes gleam. He said that at that time, he provided him with fresh fish fishermen a supply of more than two dozen, every day in his wind building behind the Beidu River side of the mooring of more than two dozen fish boats, those fishermen and he signed a supply of "life and death" contract.

I asked, why Beidu fish business was booming, and today there is actually no one to eat fish? Wu shook his head and said: "Beidu is Sichuan, Chongqing and Guizhou must pass through, before, Sichuan and Chongqing to Guizhou's car, Guizhou to Sichuan's car, must pass through Beidu. The fish I made tasted good, and there were many varieties, such as bean fish, crispy fish, spicy fish, pickled fish, tomato fish, boiled fish, each fish is delicious, plus the use of the Beidu River newly salvaged wild fish, so business was good. However, in 1998, the year the Qijiang Rainbow Bridge collapsed, the highway from Chongqing to Guizhou opened, and we had very few cars coming and going on the old Sichuan-Guizhou Road here, and business went down the drain."

For us, the signboards "Beidu Fish First" or "Authentic Beidu Fish" and "Old Shop Beidu Fish" are hung in every house here, and Yingfenglou is not exempt from hanging a "Beidu Fish" sign. What do you think of this phenomenon?" The old man was a bit agitated: "I can't help it if other people want to take it that way, but there is a family called Qihechun that actually makes small moves in the township and buys some township cadres to give him certificates to prove that he is the first oldest Beidu fish restaurant. He is the first Beidu fish old, but also spend money to ask a language teacher to write him Beidu fish 'positive history'." Said here, the old man indignation, got up to go to his bedroom, took a piece of paper full of writing back to us, above is the township out of the certificate, said to welcome the wind building authentic Yunyun ......

Wu said, in 1982, his neighbors, also his elders Wu Rongwen, see his fish restaurant business is booming, then to the township to put forward, the willing to pay a management fee to the township to **** with him for a license. The township agreed, and split the license in two: Wu Wenchao for the first door, Wu Rongwen for the second door. Wu Wenchao was older than Wu Rongwen, but of lower seniority. Wu Rongwen first started a handmade candy business, which did not make much money, so he followed Wu Wenchao to learn the craft of fish making.In 1983, Wu Rongwen's eatery was opened. Because of the round door in front of the store, it was called "Round Door Eatery". (The following year, the name was changed to a more elegant name: Qihechun. This was a later story.) After the opening, Wu Wenchao often went over to help, not only occasionally for the other side of a little money for food, but also to teach each other to do fish, the so-called "teach a man to fish, not as good as to teach a man to fish". From then to later, two Wu in Pengqiao call the wind and rain, the North Ferry fish business to do a thriving. Locals see his two homes outside the parking to eat fish people car line up long, envious, but also have broken down the walls to open stores, selling fish.

In February 1991, Yingfeng Lou and Qihe Chun both from the collective to private. According to the two business are good, should be peaceful, but unexpectedly the jianghu storm evil, the ground start a thunderbolt. One day in the nineties, someone invited Wu Wenchao a friend to go to the Qihechun fish, during the meeting, Wu Rongwen to the guests to show a book of Pengqiao township history, which explicitly said that the founder of the North Duo fish is his own. This friend was shocked, and after the meal informed Wu Wenchao of this. Wu Wenchao is not slow, immediately go to the township theory, ready to make a fuss. It turned out that this township history has just been printed out, has not yet been issued, because of which involves Wu Rongwen, they first gave him a sample book. According to the township explained, the pen Beidu fish this part, is Wu Rongwen before a teacher. After Wu Wenchao's request, the township admitted that the book was not true after some investigation, and the township history, which had been printed in thousands of copies, was canceled.

"He Wu Rongwen was opened in 1983, I was opened in 1980. 1983 I taught him how to make fish on the stove, and I also gave him money and food when he opened. How could he be the first one in Beidu fish? If he, Wu Rongwen, dares to say that he is the founder of Beidu Fish and that I am pretending to be the first, this is surely nonsense. I take all legal responsibility for what I said." After saying that, Wu Rongchao signed his name on our interview book to prove that he was telling the truth.

Wu Wenchao is 72 years old this year, is now retired to enjoy, no longer manipulate the shovel to go to the pot side of the stove side. Knee has a son and two daughters, the son in Chongqing Nanping store, two daughters had store in Deyang. For some reason, the Deyang store just one year loss of more than nine hundred thousand, has been closed. Now, the old man also has 8 directly-managed stores under his banner and 16 franchises, spreading across Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Zhejiang.

Before leaving Pengqiao, we purposely go to the Beidu bridge to shoot the scenery. At this time, a young man ran to let us go to interview the fish fragrant spring, he said the fish fragrant spring is the first Beidu fish. Unexpectedly, an old villager came when he said this, and he interrupted the young man: "Who said Fish Fragrance Spring is the first one? Not even Qihechun, not to mention Fish Xiangchun! The first Beidu fish is Wu Wenchao! Who doesn't know that?"

The young man was a bit annoyed and argued with the old man. The simple old man in the argument with the young man's voice raised very high, the blood veins on the neck also bulged. We dissuaded them from arguing, fearing that they would hurt their peace because of this.

Most regrettably, several times were unable to contact Wu Rongwen himself, many doubts can not be confirmed.

Sung Beidu Fish Decline: The Story of the Red Carp

During Beidu Fish's hottest years, 1986 to 1988, there were dozens of Beidu Fish restaurants in the city of Qijiang and the township of Pengqiao, and Pengqiao was the most popular one: from the small river at the end of the town to the area around Zaba at the mouth of the bridge, there was a whole bunch of roadside stores selling Beidu Fish. Most of the customers were drivers, and the 210 National Highway, which leads to Guizhou, Guangzhou, and Guangxi, is the main sea route to Beihai. In those years, the driver is hard, but the income is not low, and often have the buyer side of the owner of the buyers, from time to time can be more rich buyers invited to eat and drink. Some upstart fish restaurants took advantage of the drivers in order to compete with the old stores. Most of these stores are concentrated at the end of the street, are in front of the store put a few benches, so that some red and green "lady" sitting on it, waiting for passing cars, once over, they will be in the name of soliciting business, get up and block. Drivers did not think there are accompanied by alcohol, they will be happy to be seated, after the meal, Ms. implied that you can also go upstairs "rest". There are always drivers can not stand the loneliness of the journey, can not help but "rest", the price is a meal at a very high cost. This is fine, but do not want to end up one day, a driver went up just intended to "rest" when the boss and his partner broke into the door, said to molest the boss's girlfriend. So, fights, knives, killings, but the foreign drivers which is the rival of the small river flat people, a call, hoes, stretcher, steel pipe on, once Qijiang Power Plant drove a car to fight, but also returned in defeat. Beidu fish began to carry the name of the black store, passing vehicles are known: Xiaohepian parked car.

It is said that the black store began in the hometown of Laifeng fish -- Bishan County Laifeng town. Numerous followers of the Laifeng fish restaurant distributed in the town end of the town, forcibly blocking the car to eat. Because of their heavy lipstick, the ladies recruited by the owners are called "red-mouthed carp". If the owner says to you: "Do you want to eat red mouth carp, all of them are one catty, seven or eight taels? It means: all the ladies here are seventeen or eighteen years old. The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers," he said. "The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers," he said.

The driver no longer stopped, but the ladies began to take the initiative under the direction of the boss. If you don't stop, I'll stop. They are divided into three ways: first in front of the car to stop a few people, and then in the right window next to the footrest to stand two people, the left window hanging two people, but also hand to grab open the steering wheel. Finally, one day, a driver's heart, eyes closed, siren forward hard: I do not believe that you really do not let open ...... There was also a time, in Pengjiawan creek ditch bridge, a few young lady hanging on the car, forcibly move the steering wheel, the results of the car flipped down the ditch ......

Death of this many people, the black store owners retribution finally came. With the ambush of a few ringleaders, those black stores also disappeared. But the burden of fame suffered by Beidu Fish was hard to get rid of for a while.

From Chongqing to Qijiang that morning, when we have to cross the Nanping toll station on the Chongqing-Guizhou highway, found that the car did not have much oil, they asked the toll collector what place can be refueled, replied that fourteen kilometers ahead of the Nanquan can be refueled. To Nanquan, we found that Nanquan gas station is not even in the highway, to be out of the highway to refuel, causing us to give more than fifteen yuan of Chongqing Municipal Road and Bridge Tolls. The gas station people said, Chongqing section of Chongqing Yuqian highway are not set up gas station. We would like to remind our friends that if you drive on the Chongqing-Guangzhou Expressway, it's best to fill up before entering the Nanping Toll Station, so you can avoid unnecessary trouble.