There is no doubt that snacks in the north are rough, even in the capital Beijing. However, this roughness is suitable for poor people like me, but it also gives birth to some intimacy. The reason is nothing more than growing up eating rough food. For exquisite food, it gives birth to a strange and inaccessible feeling. Holding these rough snacks, it seems to be home, and the whole person is sitting there lazily, both physically and mentally settled. Xue's Poem of Yanjing Snacks is a vivid description of Beijing snacks in Qing Dynasty. After reading it, it seems that vendors selling along the street came to the front, and hot snacks were in front of them.

fermented drink made from ground beans

"Dregs can actually make porridge, and the taste of old pulp is thin and thick; Regardless of gender, sit together and taste sour and salt. " Note: Bean juice is also called green bean paste. It tastes sour and bitter, and can be eaten raw or cooked. Cooked peddles along the street and eats pickles. The taste is sour and salty, and the people who eat it know it. It can be described as exquisite. Nobody sells bean juice along the street now. If you want to drink, you must come to the store. At that time, people who sell bean juice should not have to shout. Before gaining a foothold in the alley, uncles and aunts should have been holding big white porcelain bowls and ready to make bean juice. Soybean juice was originally the leftover of mung bean starch production. It is sour after fermentation, but it has been developed into a famous snack by Beijingers. Old Beijing drinks bean juice mixed with shredded pickles. Inby's son is similar to a fried dough stick, kneading the dough into a circle before frying it, but not as thick as a fried dough stick. He is a fragile man. Shredded pickles are prepared by scribbling pickled pickles into shreds and lazily placing them on a white platter. Is the bean juice delicious? Liang Shiqiu's "Elegant Houses Talk about Eating" said: The beauty of bean juice lies in the rancid smell in the acid. Second, when it is hot, you can only drink slowly, not gulp. Third, spicy pickles make the tip of the tongue numb. The more you drink, the hotter you get, and finally you sweat. When I was drinking bean juice in a snack bar in Beijing, there was a sour taste at the entrance, but it was not strong, but it felt sweet when it flowed down my throat. The bean juice that day was not very hot, but it was very warm. Pickles are not spicy either, but they are dead salty. It seems to be far from the bean juice of Liang Shiqiu's era. But I think old Beijing is still inseparable from bean juice. Take a sip of bean juice in the morning and chew crispy inby. After being sour and salty, a day is the real beginning.

Boiled sweet potato

"Sweet potatoes spread far and wide, and there is no danger of drought in the Central Plains. You must know that the taste is only the bottom of the pot, and there is nothing wrong with a mouthful of residue. " Note: Boiled sweet potatoes in Beijing are sold for a long time. The speed of other things is mostly the first, and the only beautiful thing is the residue. Moreover, the cooking time is too long. The so-called pot bottom is as sweet as honey and as rotten as mud, which is especially popular with foodies and doesn't care about leftovers. Sweet potato itself is a very cheap thing in the north. Cooking sweet potatoes requires eating the bottom of the pot, which can be said to be a very popular snack. At present, there are very few boiled sweet potatoes in a large pot, which is basically invisible. You can occasionally see baked sweet potatoes in the street. In winter in the north, it is still warm to see the baked sweet potato stalls. The stall owner usually wears a shabby green military coat and holds a rusty abandoned petrol tank in his hand. In the iron drum, the charcoal fire is extinguished, and the sweet potato is simmering inside. Occasionally, I heard a slight crackling sound, which was the sound of cracking on the surface of baked sweet potatoes. Before I got to the front, I heard the sweet potato seller shout, "Bake sweet potato, bake sweet potato, and buy it while it is hot." The shouts accompanied by the aroma of roasted sweet potatoes floated with the cold wind, which was very attractive. At this time, I bought a baked sweet potato and held it in my hand. It was hot and hot, so I took a bite against the wind without peeling it. Hey, it's so hot that your mouth is skinned. And the juice of sweet potato in it is so sweet that you have to bite off your tongue. Alas, I miss the baked sweet potatoes in winter in the north.

roast mutton

"Thick smoke makes me cry, and the light of firewood makes me drunk. A plate full of food and rent, like a barbarian. " Note: under the iron grate, burn firewood, cut mutton, dip in soy sauce or marinated shrimp oil and bake on the grate. Liang Shiqiu's Elegant Room talks about eating: Zhi Zi, the barbecue in Zhengyanglou, is only one foot in diameter. It is placed on the four tables of the Eight Immortals, all in a small yard, surrounded by four benches. Three or five people gathered around a table, raised one leg and stepped on a stool, eating and laughing while baking. Beijing is close to the northern minority areas, and the diet is also contaminated with the flavor of many ethnic minorities. This situation of eating roast mutton with your legs on a stool is really bold. Think about it, the charcoal fire under the roast child slowly turns from black to red, and the hot temperature approaches you. I want to burn you playfully. The mutton on the barbecue slowly turned from red to black. The spicy taste of cumin, the smell of sheep fat, and the sound of people around eating barbecue and swallowing saliva. All this slows down the time, and you can't help rolling the barbecue on the grill with long chopsticks to make it cooked quickly. It won't pay attention to you during the barbecue. At this time, it was almost evening. Looking at the lighted lamp in the yard, I feel that life is very beautiful, and this moment is worth remembering slowly in the future.

Plum syrup

"Plum soup is sweet and sour, and cool in June. It is rare to sweat in the sky and smell the width of the copper lamp. " The main raw materials of sour plum soup are dark plum, hawthorn and rock sugar. Black plum hawthorn is like two naughty children, responsible for making sour taste, and rock sugar is their parents. After washing, they took them home honestly. Liang Shiqiu praised the sour plum soup in Beijing Xinyuanzhai, saying that his secret is more rock sugar, thicker plum juice and less water. What is the secret of these words? This is the same as not saying them. In fact, the secret of sour plum soup is that it is a very suitable drink for summer. Summer in the north is bitter and hot, so hot that I have no appetite. At this time, I want to drink something cold, sweet and sour, and sour plum soup is the right way. Moreover, sour plum soup is suitable for drinking on the roadside, not for going to an old shop like Xinyuanzhai. I get thirsty when I walk. Seeing someone selling sour plum soup, I ran up and brought a bowl to drink. The summer heat has suddenly eased, and cicadas are not so noisy. Or when enjoying the cool under the tree in the yard, there happened to be a passer-by selling sour plum soup and quickly ordered a bowl. Watching bees fly between the branches and leaves of the big locust tree while drinking water, and watching ants walk with small bones, I feel relaxed and carefree.

Writing Beijing snacks in the Qing Dynasty in Yanjing Snacks is very street-like. The author must be a person who often walks around the street. Walking in the hutongs of Beijing, he heard the shouts of selling bean juice and baking sweet potatoes, smelled the sweetness of sweet potatoes and the sour taste of bean juice, and would definitely ask for a bowl of bean juice and eat a piece of sweet potatoes. Holding bean juice and sweet potato, he has been watching the snack man carefully to see how he ordered gray bean juice from the stall and spit out a bowl of sweet potato. Sometimes he will chat with these guys and share their happiness and sadness. The person who wrote this book is really interesting in life. Because of him, one or two hundred years later, we can still feel the snacks on the street at that time and really touch the history and people at that time.