It's only an hour and a half drive from Shanghai to Suzhou, and Suzhou has become a treasured place for us to walk on weekends. Speaking of Suzhou, I stayed here for four or five years twenty years ago, and I revisited the old place in the past two years, lamenting that the city has changed its old appearance. The pillow river people's homes with small bridges and flowing water have long gone; the deep house alleys of Liu Feng xizhao have been renovated. In its place is the hustle and bustle of traffic congestion.
Fortunately, there are still memories between the tongues to reminisce. This time I came to Suzhou, just in time for the hot day in May, and the daytime temperature was as high as 37 degrees. This kind of weather is outdoors, no matter how much fun it is, it is better to slow down the rhythm and feel the atmosphere of life in this city. I discussed with the children, shopping and eating, supplemented by play. Guanqian Street is the most prosperous pedestrian street in Suzhou, not long, but all the famous restaurants and traditional food restaurants are concentrated here. Suzhou people are known as "white phase mysterious view, eat eunuchs to make trouble". XuanmiaoGuan and Eunuch Lane are in the center of Guanqian Street.
Guanqian Street Exit
Occult view
Our hotel is next to Guanqian Street, the old five-star hotel, but the furnishings are old, but the geographical conditions are really convenient for diners. Out of the hotel, walk for two or three minutes, there are restaurants all over the place.
01
Huang Tianyuan's cake
I remember when I was a child, my father once told me about the interesting things about going to Shanghai on a business trip when I was young. My father was a techie and traveled a lot for work reasons. At that time, he was young and not yet married, so whenever he went on a business trip, his colleagues in the unit asked him to bring something. At that time, Shanghai goods were very fashionable.
I remember that once people asked him to bring Shanghai cakes, with twenty pounds. My father wore it in a net pocket, a few in front and a few in the back, and a few on his shoulder in the middle. Many locals looked sideways and said, "The country house is ning." It is the Shanghainese word for "countryman", which means a bit contemptuous.
My father was young, carrying twenty pounds of cakes, and helped others buy all the way. Carrying his bulging luggage, he finished Nanjing East Road and went to the long-distance bus station to take the bus back. When I came back to see, the front and back pieces of the really good shirt were all wet with lard oozing from the cake. Both of my children love sticky food. When we came out of the Xuanmiao Temple, there was a Huang Tianyuan next to us. Huang Tianyuan is a long-established cake shop in Suzhou, Suzhou is famous for cake dumpling tea, but because I have a bad stomach, I have only bought it once in Suzhou for a few years.
We looked through the glass window, and the pastries in those boxes, which were larger and thicker than before, were now much more beautiful and small, some pink, like rose fillings inside; some white, like hemp seed fillings; some were strips, some were flower-shaped, and it looked very tempting, and the children were clamoring to eat, and I bought them a piece. I wanted to find a place to sit down, only to find that this Huang Tianyuan only had a window facing outside, and there was no place to eat.
I remember that there was a Huang Tianyuan on Guanqian Street in the past, there were two storefronts, which had about a dozen tables, and in the summer, with an electric fan on, you could sit down and order a cup of herbal tea with cakes to eat. It is now estimated that it will give way to newer catering.
Back to the hotel to taste, and Shanghai's old-fashioned cake dumplings, Ningbo's tangyuan, are made of lard, compared to the white cakes in Qidong, Jiangsu, less sticky teeth. The cake ball is sweet and sticky, and the food hurts the stomach. The rest is brought to Shanghai, steamed before eating, and paired with children to make breakfast.
Old Suzhou people's sweet glutinous "rice road"
02
Songhe Tower and Deyue Tower
Diagonally opposite Huang Tianyuan is the Songhe Tower. Songhe Tower is a long-established restaurant in Suzhou, and it is said that it was founded in the second year of the Qianlong Dynasty. Originally, Matsuzuru Tower was a small noodle restaurant, which later became a famous restaurant in a high-rise building. It is said that Qianlong went down to jiangnan and made a big fuss about the Songhe Tower in Suzhou.
New store in Songhe Tower, Guanqian Street
In the "HuaijiangNan" of the early Shen Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, there is "the bright moon lights illuminate the head of the building, and the elegant seat is listed in the treasures", which refers to the Songhe Tower. Just before dinner, we entered the Songhe Tower. There are no seats downstairs, climb up the stairs, the upstairs hall is very open, the rows between the tables are very open, there are not many diners, and the environment makes people feel comfortable.
According to the taste of the child, we ordered the famous squirrel cinnamon fish, lettuce fish fillet soup, and ordered crystal shrimp for the father who loves to eat shrimp, ordered more shallot oil noodles that she loved to eat, ordered plum blossom cake for meat, plus a vegetarian dish, squirrel cinnamon fish taste decent, crystal shrimp is fried from river shrimp, not one of the three white shrimp of Taihu Lake, but also delicious and delicious.
Squirrel cinnamon fish
Lettuce fillet soup
The lettuce in the lettuce fillet soup is fresh, this so-called "thousand miles of lettuce, unsalted so-called lettuce" lettuce, we have eaten several times in Japanese restaurants in Shanghai, are bottled, poured out and processed, eat a little sour. And this time, I tasted fresh lettuce that is really "soft flowers and young leaves out of the water, and small pickings lightly hide the vitality". Songhe Tower service is also good, and after the meal also sent a full plate of fruit. The next day's dinner was at the Deyue Building, which is across the street from the Songhe Tower. Because the night before I told the children that Deyue Lou had made a movie, Duo duo and meat meat wanted to see how the restaurant that had been on the movie was delicious.
Deyue Building (Guanqian Street Store)
Deyue Building is also downstairs without seats, but there is a long table outside the door to sell snacks, which is more lively than yesterday's Songhe Tower. Look at the appearance of the building, deyue building cornices, antique, walk in, it is the meal, guests are full of seats, watch its behavior and listen to its words, there are many locals.
Stairs of the Moon Building
The hall on the second floor seems to be divided into two by the stairs, which looks smaller than the hall of the Songhe Tower, and there are more tables; there are chopsticks on the table, and there is a row of old-fashioned red hot water bottles on the table on the side of the hall; the waiters are not as exquisite as the Songhe Tower, and they are all elderly Suzhou old aunts and old tooth uncles; when serving, the names of the dishes and the names of the chefs are sandwiched with wooden clips, which seems to retain a lot of the previous restaurant traditions. When we looked at the menu, the price was similar to that of Songhe Tower. Ordered oil eel paste, moon chicken, cherry meat, etc., may be more during the day, the children's appetite is better than yesterday, eat more. The dishes are all salty and sweet authentic Su Bang dishes, and they are all well fried.
Cherry meat preparation (Image source network)
Moonchild Chicken
Ring oil eel paste (image from the Internet)
Ringing oil eel paste is fried and served, there is no "flat land thunder" interest. The year before I took meat to Suzhou Dongshan, ate at the Dongting Restaurant in Dongshan Town, the sound oil eel paste of that family is very good, fresh but not fishy, laid under a layer of fine ginger shreds, sprinkled with a layer of white pepper, sauce and pepper flavor complement each other. Although the taste is slightly spicy, it is spicy and appetizing, and the meat is eaten in half a bowl.
03
Noodles from Suzhou
The hotel's breakfast is really not flattering, plus the children are fond of noodles, how can we miss Suzhou's silver wire noodles?
The next morning we decided to go to Guanqian Street to eat noodles. Dad was still worried that there was no morning market, and when he walked to the center, he found that the noodle restaurants had opened early.
Suzhou people eat porridge at home for breakfast and noodles when they go out. Bottle round zi "Suzhou bamboo branch words" cloud: three fresh noodles are busy, the door of the tavern is crazy all day. "That is, the noodle shop camps the morning market, and the tavern does not stop all day long.
We chose the most prestigious Zhu Hongxing, walked in, and there were many local diners inside. Suzhou noodles in terms of toppings, there are many kinds, we ordered fried fish noodles, two parts of braised meat noodles, eel paste noodles, served up to four bowls, soft meat and soup wide, this is how much to find. Let's talk about soup. Our hometown in Suzhong is delicious fish noodles, that is, white soup noodles. First use the fish bones to boil the white soup noodles, and then fish in the noodles, the flavor is overflowing. And Suzhou's noodle soups are all colored. But this color is exquisite, not the color of soy sauce. Instead, the rock sugar is dissolved and put into the pork belly to fry the translucent red color.
Let's talk about noodles. The raw noodles used in Suzhou soup noodles are silver wire thin noodles, thin and long, tough and refreshing, cooked for a long time without paste, and the strips can be counted. The noodle soup is drained and neatly placed into the soup, the soup is clean and refreshing, sprinkled with green onions, it is really full of color and fragrance.
Gangnam traditional silver wire fine noodles
Later, when we came to leave, we also wanted to buy some date cakes and dried tofu from Caizhizhai ( ) , but we couldn't find the Tsai Zhizhai that was across the street from Xuanmiaoguan.
04
Write at the end
Traveling with a baby, eating is a big part. We are generally more casual, follow the attractions, play well, and find a place to eat nearby. So much so that when I recalled, I forgot what I ate and what I tasted.
This time, I did a lot of homework for eating. In the process of eating, savor the food, and have leisure to observe the city's customs and the behavior of diners. This kind of daily life is also an important life experience for children.
Come to Suzhou, don't miss the traditional food of Suzhou