when I first came to Beijing, I knew nothing about eating. I thought I had tasted roast duck and bean juice, even if I knew the authentic taste of Beijing. Later, I liked to follow Chen Xiaoqing's Beijing food column in TIME OUT, and I thought I could visit authentic restaurants in Beijing. Now that I think abOUT it, both methods are too out. Beijing's food culture can't be covered by Yao Ji's fried liver, Qingfeng steamed stuffed bun and Quanjude. Even the essence of authentic Beijing food is not in restaurants, but should be found in the kitchens of ordinary people.
the character under the imperial city root
This is my biggest feeling after reading Cui Daiyuan's book "Jingweier": it is said that food is in Guangzhou, but it is not in Beijing. However, the eating culture of Beijingers has a unique taste different from that of the south, reflecting the unique character of people living under the imperial city root. To put it bluntly, one is "poor" and the other is "exquisite". Therefore, to say that Beijingers are "poor and fastidious" in eating, I agree with both hands.
what is "poverty"? This doesn't mean that Beijingers can't afford high-end food, but that authentic Beijing food is often ordinary and delicious. Speaking of it, this feature has some historical origins. For 3 years in the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners' children who were in charge of eating, drinking and having fun in Beijing had been receiving money and food according to the four seasons. But after the end of the Qing Dynasty, the life of the flag bearer went from bad to worse, and the food became cheaper and more common.
Although "poor", Beijingers are still "fastidious" in eating. The sharp taste developed by the children of the Eight Banners over the years has not changed at all because of the Revolution of 1911 and the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The fallen playboy seemed to say, "I'm not rich at first, but I still have to eat out!" " As a result, savvy Beijing vendors have figured out all kinds of foods with cheap raw materials, exquisite workmanship and unique flavor to meet the needs of this consumer, and by extension, they have gradually cultivated the tradition of "not paying attention to ingredients and paying attention to eating methods" for old Beijingers.
"How to cook" and "How to eat"
No matter the snacks or the top dishes in Beijing, the materials are bland, but the cooking is meticulous and gratifying. For example, pea yellow, the best peas are ground into fine mud, cut into bright small pieces, served cool in a plate, and tasted refreshing when viewed simply, which is typical of "delicious but not expensive". However, to turn the plain peas into a dish of pea yellow, this process can be very particular.
First of all, the peas should be washed and soaked in water for three times. The soaked beans should be boiled in a copper pot with a little alkali, carefully screened with a sieve and then returned to the pot for stir-frying. This fried bean paste is also very particular. First of all, the shovel should be made of wood instead of a shovel, otherwise the peas will turn black if they stick to the iron. It is also very important to control the heat, otherwise the bean paste will not coagulate into pieces, or it will be fried too old and cracked. After the fried bean paste is poured into a tin box half an inch high and dried thoroughly, it is cut into squares the size of a finger's belly, and this pea yellow is considered to be finished. Beijing diners' fastidiousness about "cooking" can be seen.
As the old saying goes, you never tire of eating fine food, and you never tire of eating fine food. Beijingers not only love to ponder how to cook food, but also pay attention to how to eat it. Take fried tripe as an example. Beijingers never eat fried tripe on the big market. There are only twenty pieces of fried tripe on the small plate, one plate after another, in order to eat it while it is hot, and when it is cold, it will come back to life and it will be hard to chew. Moreover, if you want to eat fried tripe, you should first choose something that is not chewy, such as a belly plate, and then eat the tender and chewy part of the meat. Only in this way can the delicious and tender taste of fried tripe be carefully tasted. This realm naturally requires the quality of the diners themselves.
Memory is another kind of "salvation"
Beijingers are like this. No matter how bland the dishes are in the eyes of ordinary people, something different can always be figured out. There is a dish called "airball", which is mysterious at first glance. After all, it is actually an ordinary fried egg. This humble fried egg has a lot to offer. It is said that there is a restaurant in the food market outside Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, which specializes in frying eggs since the harvest, but the fried eggs at that time were only made of egg white, and as a result, the egg yolk was preserved and "transformed" into "three non-sticky" without sticking to dishes, chopsticks and teeth.
There are many legends about this "three non-stickies". One saying is that "three non-sticky" was originally called "soft yellow food", and the former was named by Zhang Peilun, Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, after eating at the banquet. There is another saying that is more romantic: the poet Lu You and Tang Wan are in love, but Lu You's mother has always disdained this daughter-in-law, so she was given a difficult problem in public, asking her to make a dish that "noodles can't bite the noodles, eggs can't eat the eggs, look at the salt, taste it very sweet, and don't stick chopsticks or plates".
This is a topic that is deliberately difficult, but with Tang Wan's careful cooking, it has made a famous dish widely circulated in later generations. However, how many people can understand the historical origin and cultural connotation of these most common home-cooked dishes in Beijing now? Cui Daiyuan is not optimistic about this at all: "Those authentic craftsmanship, pure taste, and exquisite gadgets that have been pondered for several generations have unconsciously become cultural heritage." I'm afraid it's not reliable to save the cultural heritage just by eating, but at least we can remember the meaningful taste of old Beijing through the study of eating. Who says that memory is not another kind of "salvation"?
("Jingweier" by Cui Daiyuan Sanlian Bookstore, 29 edition)