gray walls, gray tiles, white snow, and red sugar gourds in the hutongs.

The capital in the late 1970s was much simpler and quieter than it is now. The only time you could get something as special as a candy cane was at New Year's.

The city is a place where you can find a lot of people who want to eat.

The capital of the sugar gourd prevalent in the Republic of China period, in the food stores, parks refreshment department or theater theater, sugar gourd is often placed in the glass cover of the white porcelain plate for sale, the production of exquisite, many varieties.

The earliest production and sale of sugar gourds, to count the "Fountain", "Nine Dragons Zhai", "Xin Yuan Zhai" and so on the sale of honey fruit of a few long-established stores. Qing Dynasty literati Ji Xiaolan very much appreciated the "Fountain" sugar gourd production, once wrote a "floating and sinking eunuchs such as gulls, life and death books from the Fountain," the poem, self-deprecating learning can not catch up with the "Fountain" sugar gourd production exquisite

The original site in Qianmen Street and East Liulichang "Nine Dragons Zhai" and "Xinyuan Zhai", selling a single red fruit begonias sugar balls, also very popular with the people. The Republic of China is also the most famous, but also counts the Dong'an market south door of the "Longji" food store production and sale of ice sugar gourds. The golden and shiny icing sugar is pasted on red fruit yam, begonias, oranges and water chestnuts, and in the lighted glass cover, it is colorful and mouth-watering. The cold winds of the Beijing winter, that taste, indescribable.

Later, this feeling slowly turned into nostalgia. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a pair of shoes and a pair of shoes that you can wear. Nowadays, a few of the oldest stores are no longer selling ice-sugar gourds, if you really want to taste the flavor of the old Beijing ice-sugar gourds, you might as well visit the Royal Food Park.

The Imperial Food Garden, as a representative of Beijing's palace preserved fruit, was originally just a workshop making a series of flavorful snacks of sugar gourds, and then due to the unique craftsmanship loved by Emperor Kangxi, was designated as a tribute to the court and given the name of the "Imperial Food Garden", where you can buy the most orthodox Beijing preserved fruits, the past court exclusive so into the common people's homes, and became the most popular and popular food in Beijing. The old palace monopoly has thus entered the common people's homes and become a popular delicacy for everyone to eat. The Imperial Garden, which started out as a candy cane shop, has restored its original flavor!

Hutong Memories

Hutongs are one of Beijing's specialties, with square hutongs and regular courtyards. I remember a line from the revolutionary opera "The Tale of the Red Lanterns", which says: "The scissors are sharpened and the knives are pushed against the kitchen knives." In the prosperous days of Beijing's hutongs, there was naturally a lot of selling and selling, and the ones that are still fresh in my mind are the ice-sugar gourds!

Healthy and pleasing

Hawthorn has the effect of appetizer, digestion, and blood circulation, so the icing sugar with red fruits is the most suitable; moreover, in the cold windy Beijing, a yell echoed in the cinderblock wall and gray sky composed of hutongs, to buy a bunch of red icing sugar gourds, moisturize the eyes and satisfy the taste buds.