Beijing has a rich history and fashionable urban charm. It is a city that carries the dreams of countless people.

Speaking of Beijing, the first thing that comes to mind is the ancient Great Wall, Old Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City; the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube; the courtyard houses, and the alleys.

Walking through the alleys, it seems that you have walked into the fireworks world of ordinary people, and also walked into the embrace of the countryside and nature.

In Beijing, Hutongs, famous for their delicious food, warm the hearts of ordinary people.

It is said that in winter, three delicacies hidden deep in the alleys of old Beijing are indispensable: candied chestnuts, roasted sweet potatoes and candied haws.

The traditional snack "roasted sweet potato" in old Beijing looks very ordinary, but it was the most common on the streets in the 1970s and the most popular among the public.

Best-selling author Xiao Fuxing wrote in the book "A Good Beijing∽Kyoto Winter Food" that roasted sweet potatoes are a common food. In old Beijing, selling roasted sweet potatoes in winter has always been a scene.

Nowadays, in the winter, eating roasted sweet potatoes in red stoves with white snow is no longer new. The ugly ducklings of roasted sweet potatoes in gasoline barrels that were once everywhere in the streets have turned into white swans.

In supermarkets, the price of baked sweet potatoes baked in modern electric ovens is much higher than that of gasoline barrels. Wrapped in refined paper bags, it has become a fashionable snack.

The author quoted Xu Xiacun, a writer during the Republic of China, who described roasted sweet potatoes as "fat, translucent, and sweet", exaggerating the taste of roasted sweet potatoes in front of people's eyes.

The author mentioned that another way to eat sweet potatoes is to boil them.

The author believes that the word "penetrating" is more appropriate to describe boiled sweet potatoes. Water complements the sweet potatoes better than fire, and makes the sweet potatoes tender and tender from the inside out.

The old Beijingers in Donghang like to eat sweet potatoes from the bottom of the pot. The water at the bottom of the pot has boiled away and the skins of the sweet potatoes have been burnt. It is like boiling sugar, boiling out the sugar in the flesh of the sweet potatoes.

Indeed, what is concentrated is the essence. This sweet potato is truly top-grade, with both the softness and glutinousness of boiled sweet potatoes and the sweetness of roasted sweet potatoes.

The book says that boiled sweet potatoes are eaten by the poor and are cheaper than roasted sweet potatoes.

In times of scarcity, as a supplement to food shortages, sweet potatoes once became a staple food to feed countless Chinese people.

White potatoes are called sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes in the south.

In the early 1970s, my parents worked in a factory in a mountainous area. At that time, the snacks that left the deepest impression on me were home-made sweet potatoes: dried sweet potatoes, sweet potato chips, sweet potato shreds, sweet potato balls, etc.

Sweet potatoes carry the painful memories of a generation. At that time, in rural areas, it was common to rely on sweet potatoes to support families, at least as a supplement to the staple food.

In my childhood impression, every household would grow sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow and do not need to be taken care of. However, my sweet potato field is in a sandy land on the mountain, far away from home. I occasionally go to take care of it and mix it with other vegetables.

Unlike other vegetables, they often need to be fertilized and watered.

Under the sunshine in early winter, every household is drying sweet potato chips, which becomes a beautiful scenery.

The preparation method is very simple. Wash the sweet potatoes, slice them, cook them in boiling water, scoop them out, and spread them out neatly on a hollow bamboo plate. Then use a rack to support the bamboo plate and expose it to the sun.

To dry sweet potato slices, you need to see the sun early.

On a cold morning in early winter, family members gathered together to enjoy the air-conditioning. They took out sweet potato slices from the steaming pot and spread them out one by one, which also gave them a unique taste.

When the sweet potato slices are 80% dry, turn them over and continue to dry them until they are dry.

The dried sweet potato slices can be eaten directly, or they can be stir-fried with coarse sand or deep-fried. Dried sweet potatoes and sweet potato slices became a traditional delicacy that became popular all over the country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Speaking of boiled sweet potatoes, it was also the dish that had the deepest imprint in that era.

The remaining sugar juice from the sweet potato slices is used to cook the sweet potatoes. After cooking, the layer of roasted sweet potatoes at the bottom of the pot has the sweetest taste. This soft and sweet taste has always been hidden in my childhood memory.

At that time, no one ate the sweet potato seedlings mentioned in the book. They were all used to feed pigs.

In modern times, sweet potato seedlings are considered a treasure. As a health-preserving seasonal vegetable, they are not cheap in supermarkets.

My family also planted some on the roof of the building, which is easy to take care of. Just cut a section of seedlings and insert them into the soil, then apply some fertilizer and water them every day.

It's delicious when it's young, but it tastes bad when it's a little older.

"You should know that delicious food is the bottom of the pot, and it is not unfair to eat the leftovers."

The few pieces of concentrated essence at the bottom of the pot deeply touch distant warm memories, and the full sense of happiness brought by the food has become a special mark of that era.

Nowadays, in an era of material abundance, hunger and poverty seem to be far away from us, and the scene of roasting sweet potatoes in fat gasoline barrels on the streets is also hard to trace.

The sweet potato that is remembered on the tongue of Beijingers is a very common food in everyone's daily life. Baked sweet potato is also simple and convenient to make, you can use an oven or an air fryer.