I'm not a person who loves to eat, and in my opinion, eating is all about keeping alive, not so much talk and depth. But after all, I have eaten for more than thirty years, and there are many foodies around me, so I can't say that I don't have a little experience. Many foreign friends often ask me what I should eat when I come to Beijing, but it is very difficult for me to answer this question. Therefore, I am not good at writing this topic. Please don't laugh at all the foodies in the readership.
The first thing to say, of course, is shabu-shabu.
Shabu-shabu is not actually a specialty of Beijing, as if many cities in the north have it, but it is indeed very common in Beijing. And the shabu-shabu is relatively simple, the pot is supported, the meat dishes are laid out, there is a little wine, three or five confidants sit around the stove, while eating while talking, this should be a common scene for many Beijing masters. It would have been better if it had been a little rainy or snowy, but it's a pity that Beijing hasn't had heavy snow in years.
Shabu-shabu is said to have been invented by a chef of Genghis Khan, and there is no need to dwell on the Internet about it. This way of eating does have the characteristics of nomadic people, it is simple and fast, and it does not have as many procedures as frying and frying. However, I think hot pot should have been available after entering the city, because there were no utensils that could continuously heat heat in that era, and it seemed that there was no need to carry a pot on horseback during the nomadic process.
It's a hot pot for shabu lamb, but this picture is another of my favorite shabu-shabu restaurants, Tianjin Samsung Shabu-shabu. Image from the web.
I remember when I was a child in Beijing, eating "hot pot" and eating "shabu-shabu" were two concepts. "Shabu-shabu" is, of course, what is covered in this article. "Hot pot" refers to a dish made with hot pot, such as "chrysanthemum pot" and so on. When I was a child, I used hot pot for dinner at home- at that time, my family's hot pot was sandy, very heavy, but the advantage was that it was cold and slow - yards of sauerkraut, vermicelli, lamb shredded, kelp shredded, frozen tofu, etc., and when the pot was opened, it was placed on the table in the middle, and the steaming was very appetizing. I don't know if the so-called "chrysanthemum pot" is this way of eating, there are "chrysanthemum pots" and "assorted pots" in the cross-talk "Dish Name", I think my family's eating method is more like a assorted pot. And "chrysanthemum pot" may be the way to eat after autumn, "chrysanthemum" may refer to the season rather than the real chrysanthemum in the pot. When I was a child, there were few restaurants, so when I used hot pot, it was generally autumn and winter, and eating hot pot in summer was actually very guilty now.
Of course, shabu-shabu lamb and shabu-shabu are not a concept either. Now the streets are full of Sichuan hot pot, some are still very famous, and there are also so-called hot pot brands in other provinces. It was a plastic bag flying in the sky and a shabu taxi running underground. Make a recipe for dozens of pages, dazzling. Mr. Zhai Hongqi, a folklore expert, is an old foodie who once had a book called "Old Food Says Eating". In the book, he said that in addition to lamb, the shabu-shabu in old Beijing was only cabbage, vermicelli and tofu. Of course, at present, which shabu shabu restaurant will not only have these kinds of dishes, then it is strange not to close the door, it depends on whether the owner wants to be retro.
"Republican pot" is a kind of shabu-shabu eating method in old Beijing, somewhat similar to sichuan's Jiugong grid hot pot, a large cauldron in the middle of the table, with iron pieces to make a small grid, the bottom is through, each person has a grid, "baked big cake roll big thumbs - each person eats individually." Under the pot is three or five slices of lamb, a handful of vermicelli and the like. The water in the pot is always open and can be eaten as you like. Everyone is convenient and peaceful. It is an economical approach for both the eater and the shop. However, there are also unethical, from the seam under the grid to stuff the chopsticks into the past to eat.
Mr. Zhai also told a small episode in the text. He and an old friend went to a very famous Beijing long-established brand to eat shabu-shabu. Ordered a plate of "cucumber strips," which is the name of a part of the meat on a sheep's body. As a result, the waiter gave them a plate of cucumbers, and Mr. Zhai called the manager and asked, "I want 'cucumber strips', how did he bring me a plate of this?" The manager looked at it and said, "Uncle, don't you want cucumbers?" Is this it? Mr. Zhai waved his hand and said, "Forget it, it seems that you are not old Beijing either." "In fact, this is normal, now that the machine is used to cut the rolls, who still removes the meat?" Not to mention cucumber strips.
