Beijing sauce melon, not ordinary pickled cucumber. Beijing sauce melon is made from a kind of vegetable melon sauce called Badaomei. Because there are eight black lines on the melon, it is called eight eyebrows. The mouth of the eight-way eyebrow melon is thick and thin, shaped like a melon, and it is a melon specially used to make pickles. In the past, there were many planters in Handan, Hebei Province, and there were also farmers who planted this kind of melon in the Area of Dahongmen Nanyuan in Nancheng, Beijing, who did not eat it, but made pickles for the supply of pickle factories.
The oldest sauce garden in old Beijing, with the most varieties, the best quality and the most famous sauce garden is the Liubiju Sauce Garden in the grain store street outside the front door. As early as the ninth year of Ming Jiajing (1530), this sauce garden was opened. It has a history of more than 480 years.
Liubiju was founded by the three brothers of the Zhao clan of Linfen, Shanxi, initially as a small liquor store, and later operated chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar. Six commodities are the daily necessities of the people. Therefore, some people think that this is the origin of the name "Liu biju". Some people also say that this shop is a partnership of six people, the original name is "Six Hearts Residence", and later pondered that the six hearts and eyes are not good at business, so they added a skim to the word "heart" and became "Six Must Live". Some people also say that "six must live" means "millet rice will be qi, qu and woe will be solid, cups will be clean, ceramics will be good, fire will be obtained, water springs will be fragrant". It is not clear which of the more reliable claims is available. It is rumored that the plaque of Liu biju was written by Yan Song, a traitorous minister of the Ming Dynasty, and this statement is consistent. However, Liubiju encountered fires twice in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and by the time of the second fire, the plaque had been burned. The plaque we can see today is undoubtedly written by later generations.
The pickles made by Liubiju are diverse and have excellent texture. Sweet sauce eight treasure melon, sweet sauce eight treasure dish, sweet sauce manna, sweet sauce black dish, white sugar garlic are very famous. The pickles made by Liubiju are bright in color, salty and sweet, and crisp and delicious. In 1900, Liu Biju was burned to ashes in the Boxer Rebellion in the Dashilar area. It was rebuilt the following year.
There are many famous sauce gardens in Beijing. The original Tianyuan Sauce Garden in the south of Xidan Road was opened in the eighth year of Qing Tongzhi and is a sauce garden for Baoding pickles. Its famous product is "Osmanthus sugar ripe mustard". After I joined the work, I had the opportunity to pass by Xidan and would go to Tianyuan Sauce Garden to buy some pickles for my parents. As soon as you enter the door, the unique aroma of pickles fills the entire hall, and the sauces in various pots and pans are seductive and dazzling. The busy figure of the salesman turning backwards from time to time, the customers are endless, and there is a queue to buy things, but there are fewer people at different times. I often buy "sauce eight treasures", which have peanuts, cowpeas, lotus chips, cucumbers, etc., especially the sauce radish is cut into a plum blossom shape, which is very interesting, and it feels wonderful to pick up a piece of pickle like a flower and put it in my mouth. There is also the "cooked knot" that the mother loves to eat - Tianyuan "osmanthus sugar cooked mustard", that is, the mustard head (sauce water knot) steamed with good sauce, the appearance remains unchanged, but it is soft and sweet to eat. My mother liked to eat rice porridge and enjoyed eating it very much.
Tianyishun Sauce Garden was originally opposite the north gate of Dong'an Market, which is a halal sauce garden, and the products are sauce black vegetables, sauce peach kernels, and sauce wrapped melons. In 1930, it was taken over by Ding Ziqing, the boss of Donglaishun, who changed his original name from Tianyicheng to Tianyishun. There are also many sauce gardens in the capital, after which they have basically become state-run. The pickle industry is under the jurisdiction of the Second Commercial Bureau, some have changed their names, and some still use old brands. Pickled soy sauce melons are common in various sauce gardens and can be bought in cooperative oil and salt shops in various urban areas.
Stir-fried sauce melon is a Small Dish in Beijing that has been passed down for many years. Sauce melon belongs to pickles, sauce melon is salty, but when stir-frying can only be washed, can not be soaked, soaked sauce flavor is not interesting. In order to neutralize its saltiness, it will be mixed with some ingredients to remove saltiness, such as sprouts, soybeans, etc., which are usually made and enjoyed by the general family during the Spring Festival. Before the festival, every household, whether poor or rich, must prepare some New Year goods, the New Year! There are fried foods: meatballs, vegetarian balls, pine meat, etc.; steamed food: rice cakes, steamed bread, flower rolls, bean buns, sugar triangles, etc.; meat: sauce meat, stewed meat, square (stewed in white soup, semi-finished meat), chicken, duck, fish, etc., and then there are old Beijing-style side dishes, such as mustard duner, bean paste, vegetarian assort, stir-fried sauce melon, etc. Even if you are not in a good situation, you have to prepare some rice cakes, stew some meat, stir-fry some bean sauce and other small dishes. The main ingredients of the bean sauce are carrots, potatoes, water lumps (pickled mustard heads), dried tofu, soybeans, etc., and Hanmin puts meat skin in it, similar to meat skin jelly.
Because of its unique flavor, stir-fried sauce melon is quite resistant to storage, not only the New Year's Festival, the housewife will show her skills, the family will go out to travel far away, and it will also be carried or mailed as a gift that condenses the family affection of the homeland.
In the 1950s and 1960s, an older sister of the Ben family responded to the call to support the construction of the northwest and went to Yinchuan to teach. One day I wrote to say that I was pregnant and wanted to eat Nan lai Shun's fried cake and wanted to eat her mother's fried sauce melon. After hearing the news, her mother immediately tried to find ways to handle it, although life was overstretched and materials were extremely scarce, and no matter how difficult it was for a mother, she also had to try her best to satisfy the children who were struggling hard in the great northwest. Her own daughter will not easily open her mouth until she has to. That night, a small package with a mother's love was delivered to my house and entrusted to my father, who worked at the post office, to mail it.
More than forty years ago, when I was seventeen years old, I went to Yanqing, a suburb of Beijing, to join the team. Before leaving, in addition to the beef fried sauce, my mother also fried the sauce melon and filled me with two bottles to bring, which were the kind of large glass bottles that could be filled. Located outside of Yanqing, the weather is cold, and the stir-fried pickles such as stir-fried sauce melons are not easy to spoil and can be eaten for a while. In the days of lack of oil and salt, it is undoubtedly a delicious dish to accompany the meal.
The mother's stir-fried sauce melon is mixed with sprouts and soybeans made from broad beans, dried tofu that is rarely seen at home on weekdays. I didn't pay attention to how busy my mother was, and when I arrived at my destination to pack my bags, I saw the bottom of the box wrapped tightly in bottles and cans...
Later, I had a daughter. When my daughter grew up, she traveled far and wide to study abroad, and only then did I truly understand my mother, and I understood the concern and love of an elderly wanderer who had traveled far away, and this feeling may be just to make a home-cooked meal for you to taste or make a very simple food to accompany you on the road. However, this seemingly ordinary scene, the "love" contained in it, went straight to the heart, forever.
I am far inferior to a loving mother—the softness and delicacy of a woman's nature, but I can pluck out the weight of that love, just as I can read a movie shot. A movie starring Japanese actors Momoe Yamaguchi and Yukazu Miura, the name is not remembered. The man went to war, and the sick wife lay on the tatami mat waiting for her husband to return. The wife's parents braved the snow to visit their daughter. As soon as she entered the door, the mother carefully took out the cold rice ball wrapped in her bag and sent it to her daughter's mouth that could not open her mouth...
This is the heart of a parent! It's the whole world.
Where I cut in line, counting my total of four young people, all of them are young men. Before, neither of them nor I knew anyone. The fate of going to the countryside together came together.
Initially, from time to time, I took out the food my mother had brought me and shared it with the four of them. "Wolves have more meat and less meat", within a few days, two bottles of fried sauce and one bottle of sauce melon went down. The last bottle of stir-fried sauce melon left. I have a selfish heart, a mother's love for exclusive, and I deserve it. As a "child", I also have a reason that they eat what I bring, but I never eat them. I'm interesting enough! already.
My mother made it for me, I can't just eat it all! I finished eating and didn't think about it anymore. The last bottle was left in the suitcase and not taken out for a long time. When I miss my mother, take it out to see, and the bottle has dripped tears of thought.
Before the Spring Festival last year, I went to a Tianyuan pickle sales point in Malian Road to buy soy sauce melon, and as a result, the salesman said, it was gone. Sold out. Ming'er, come again, come early. The saleswoman went on to say that it was almost the New Year. All come to buy soy sauce melon. interesting! I didn't expect that now in the New Year, there are so many people frying sauce melons. Maybe chicken, duck and fish eat too much meat.
Do you want to change your taste, or like me, to trace the shadow of Beijinger life? Both.
The next day, go again. You don't have to say, you have to say the old brand, really well pickled, clear texture, fresh and elastic, smell before getting to the nose, the sauce is as fragrant as before. Ask the price, twelve yuan a pound. One pound of pickles, twelve! Yes, then buy too. Two, more than thirty pieces.
I haven't seen how my mother does it, and I will. How, I don't know, the mother's womb with it. The sauce melon is fried, colorful, colorful and fragrant. I tasted it, but I couldn't eat the taste of my mother's fried. Think about it, not all of them are exclusive, but they can also be entertained. Some people say that eating something too salty is not healthy. be. However, eating a little once in a while is not a big problem. Reliving the old life is also a spiritual need.