"Tofu flower" is a flavor snack in Gusu, and it is a good breakfast with good quality and low price. 1985 10 In October, when Mr. I.M. Pei, a world-famous architect and Chinese American, visited the ancestral temple in his hometown of Suzhou, he ordered "tofu flower" from Gusu for breakfast. During the dinner, Mr. I.M. Pei was very happy and laughing. Why is he so partial to Gusu's "tofu flower"? This is because it has the local characteristics of Gusu. Gusu's "tofu flower" is a kind of bean product, which is more tender than stewed egg juice. This bean product is usually made in a round barrel with a height of about 65 cm and a diameter of about 50 cm. When making, the soybean milk is poured into a barrel for molding; Then, with a very flat copper spoon, scoop the absolutely tender tofu into a prepared soup pot mixed with water, salt and soy sauce. Stew the soup pot slowly, and the tender tofu slices will be cooked in the soup pot for a while. Because the oven temperature is just right, the tenderness of cooked tofu slices will not change at all. Smart vendors in Gusu put spices such as mustard tuber, dried shrimp, shredded eggs, monosodium glutamate and garlic leaves in white porcelain bowls with blue edges open. Put the tofu slices cooked in the pot into a bowl filled with soup and water. Finally, the vendor deliberately dropped a few drops of sesame oil into the bowl. When you pick up the steaming blue-edged white porcelain bowl, the smell comes to your nose. Pieces of white tofu float up and down in the soup in the bowl like petals as white as jade, which is very touching. At this point, you can appreciate the clever meaning of the word "tofu flower". Gusu's "tofu flower" is delicious and elegant, and it melts in the mouth. Men, women and children like it. In the old days, the "tofu flower" in Suzhou was generally peddled by vendors with a burden called "tofu flower bear". The front shoulder of this "bean curd bear" consists of a desktop, a soup pot, a stove shoulder seat and a semi-hexagonal three-dimensional seasoning seat inlaid with glass. The back shoulder is a round barrel filled with tender tofu. Gusu's "tofu flower", the peddler selling it is very strange; There is only one word "bowl", which is similar to the word "bowl" in Wu dialect; When shouting the word "bowl", vendors often drag a long, melodious drawl: "Eat up (bowl)-". For Suzhou people, the word "bowl" called by vendors is a household name; This is a hawker greeting diners to return the bowl of "tofu flower" in time, but for foreigners who come to Suzhou for the first time, they don't know what this is about.