When a friend on Hunan Satellite TV asked me about the fly restaurants around Wuhan universities, I remembered that all major universities have their own "degenerate streets". "Fallen Street" is generally in the urban village or small street next to the university, where restaurants and stalls, Internet cafes (now less), small bookstores, small hotels, etc. are gathered, and the youth of students is here. Fancy years, yes also.
1 Ming and Qing culture in hot dry noodles
Wuhan University with spring cherry blossoms and autumn gui and the turquoise east lake make tourists linger. But what they did not expect was that between the two, there was an enclave, East Lake New Village and Scenery Village, which were completely independent of the scenery.
During the years of studying at Wuhan University, our graduate students did not live on campus, but in the third ring student apartment outside the campus, on the south side of The Scenery Village. When I was a student, I had limited money and food in my hands, and the world of delicious food was still very narrow, unable to widen its boundaries.
Remember, there is a hot dry noodle in the wall around the corner of the third ring apartment, which is a stall in front of the small supermarket, without a name, and over time, everyone will call it "three ring hot dry noodles". Like countless breakfast restaurants in Wuhan, small businesses, sell early in the morning, and queue up from time to time.
Usually when I go to the tutor's house for class, he will let us bring a bowl of hot dry noodles by the way, eat a bowl of hot dry noodles, and he will talk with slightly fat curly hair and large border eyes! The cultural history of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties unfolds slowly after a bowl of fragrant hot dry noodles. Folk culture and elegant culture, in this way, wonderfully met.
As an aside, the tutor was a disciple of the famous historian and philologist Zhang Shunhui, who was not interested in fame and fortune, was a professor who had been marginalized by the system, but had published several books and written books. We often fight for him unfairly, but people don't care, "I'm just a wild crane, I don't want to mix with those things, I'm tired!" ”
At that time, as a foreigner, I was resistant to hot dry noodles.
The trek from the Third Ring Apartment to the Wuhan University campus is to cross the entrance of Donghu New Village and Wuhan University, which can only accommodate one person to cross. At the side of the fruit stall at the small entrance, there is a PangJi hot dry noodles. That was my first exposure to hot dry noodles.
That summer, in the fiery river city, I gave a little snow and A bowl of hot dry noodles with my classmates. He looked at me clumsily and reminded me, "Add some sherry and capers, and mix them together to eat them." ”
Listening to his words, the first time I ate hot dry noodles, I carefully picked and mixed, even if the electric fan was blowing, I was still sweating, and the sesame sauce was full of aroma. Surprisingly skilled, I sprinkled the noodles on the table, the weather was hot, the noodles were dry, and the bowl of noodles made me embarrassed. Where is our Shandong noodles delicious, but why is the teacher so happy to eat? I don't understand!
Ten years later, I got used to life in Wuhan, and every two days I had to come to a perfect match of hot dry noodles + noodles + eggnog, and I felt that I had become a loyal fan of Wuhan prematurely, and I could no longer leave.
I also know that the Hated Pang Ji Hot Dry Noodles and the Mentor's Favorite Three Ring Hot Dry Noodles are representatives of the good street and alley school in Wuhan, and they began to pay respect to those who made a living from it. Wuchang's hot dry noodles are mostly handled by outsiders, while Hankou's hot dry noodles are made by locals, the former is Wuchang drifters, trying to eat a mouthful of rice; the latter is Hankou indigenous people present the feelings of serving the old neighbors, more and more deeply meaningful.
As for the birth of Wuhan hot dry noodles, it was at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, which belonged to the end of the era loved by the tutor, but I have been listening to him talk about cultural history, and the task of food history will probably be handed over to our generation of students.
It has to be said that with the reform of Cai Linji, low-cost black sesame seeds impact traditional yellow sesame seeds, Wuhan hot dry noodles have lost the most basic aroma! Now the tahini, count as a ball! Is it a bit unexpected for a foreigner like me to do these things that dig deep into Wuhan's food culture?
This year, on a whim, I rode a shared bicycle, crossed the East Lake, wore Wuhan University, and ran in the morning, just for this bowl of three rings of hot dry noodles hidden in a small corner, uncle into the pot quickly fished out, a sister-in-law seasoning, add sesame sauce, pour brine, give a little red oil, sprinkle with diced radish and capers, a bowl of noodles became, before and after only a minute. Another sister-in-law is looking for change to give mung bean paste...
Come to the bowl of hot dry noodles, nestled on a small stool in front of a small shop next to it, sweep it three times five times and divide it by two, the sesame sauce is a little sloppy, but it is stronger than the average black sesame hot dry noodles, drink a cup of mung bean paste and leave. What happened to the self-satisfied mentor now, I have been floating in the zero, did not ask him, I did not want to touch those past events, let it sprout in the bottom of my heart and grow freely.
2 Fat brother's stuffed dumplings, double hi teppanyaki
Day and night in Donghu New Village, a narrow small gate connects Wuhan University with the outside world. The main road of this urban village, where a large number of people gather, is a small alley, and there are often traffic jams. This is a paradise for illegal buildings, how many people live? I haven't found any specific statistics, it's like a sea.
On this big tree, there are many perches, many renters, many young students staying overnight, restaurants, small shops, Internet cafes, game machine shops, newspaper and magazine stalls, which are branches and leaves; a Chinese businessman at the mouth of the village provides massive goods at a low price, and the Grand Hyatt Holiday Hotel and the LuojiaShan Public Security Police Station next door give this area majesty, which is the foundation of the big tree.
Aerial view, will be shocked by this dense area, through the middle, is even more jaw-dropping, kissing building alleys and alleys subnetwork lines and wires crisscrossed architectural patterns, sunny days often can not see the sun, only smell fried vegetables greasy and thousands of portals in the complex atmosphere of breaking into the street. On rainy days, rainwater and sewage flow everywhere.
During the day, it is silent, and office workers walk to the three towns of Wuhan. As night falls, it is lively, and the returning crowd unloads its fatigue and looks for their own entertainment. This is a temporary resting place. They have been there, and they will eventually leave.
Fortunately, those steaming affordable meals, from spicy hot, stir-fried restaurants, fruit stalls, dumpling restaurants, rice noodle shops, glutinous rice wrapped fritters, egg cakes to yellow braised chicken rice, box lunches, cold pot fish, are warming the stomach of foreigners. Among them, there is the fat brother dumpling restaurant that I love the most.
I've been eating fat brother's dumplings for many years. About eight or nine years ago, his first façade was on the street of Donghu New Village, the location is a bit off, next door is a haircut or laundromat, I can't remember. The first time I ate it, I liked it, the dumpling skin was chewy, the filling was very solid, like a meat ball, especially the lotus root dumplings, you can eat the feeling of Shandong dumplings, and then evoked my nostalgia. Dumplings dipped in balsamic vinegar, just a garlic clove to eat, spicy and crispy. You can also ask for a bowl of dumpling soup to drink, called "original soup original food". There are also fried dumplings, which are crispy and crispy at the bottom, which are a little more expensive than dumplings, and are highly respected by students.
Later, the business improved, and the fat brother took over the storefront next door, opened it into one, and added brine vegetables, mung bean soup and so on. At this time, the fat brother rarely cooked, and the kitchen was handed over to an glasses master. Through a small wall hole, the glasses master handed the prepared dumplings to the waiter, and the diners waiting on the table on the side could not resist the temptation of the dumplings, prepared the dipping sauce, and feasted on it.
Later, he moved the shop to the main alley of East Lake New Village. The storefront was previously an Internet café, scientific and technological changes, the Internet café business was dismal, turned into catering, the business area expanded, and accidentally became an Internet celebrity dumpling restaurant. The new site is two floors above and below, and the glasses chef makes dumplings. Two or two celery two two shiitake mushrooms a bowl of mung bean soup, twenty-seven yuan, I ate it.
Fat brother is a Xiangyang native, and he said that his dumplings are also Xiangyang taste. Although Xiangyang is Hubei, it is integrated with Nanyang, which also belongs to the Nanxiang Basin, and the northern atmosphere is much heavier than that of Wuhan, famous for beef noodles and rice wine, I did not expect that dumplings can also be done deeply to my heart.
Fat brother, in fact, not fat, wear a sports hat, very good figure, like to play ball, do not know whether there are six abs. Seeing the group photo of him and the students of Wushu University on the wall, his face gradually had vicissitudes, and the students around him, stubble after stubble, were still young and moving.
Well. Fat brother is old, I am old.
If fat brother dumplings are boiled out of the old Internet celebrity, then Shuangxi Teppanyaki is a relatively young new Internet celebrity.
Seven years ago, in the alley opposite the current site of the Fat Brother Dumpling Restaurant, a middle-aged couple opened this double happiness teppanyaki. As soon as the night came, the queue began, and all six tables were full, and the table had to be overturned several times at night. When Shuangxi became famous, I stopped mixing in Donghu Village and said goodbye to Wuhan University early, but occasionally when I wanted to eat fat brother dumplings one day, I accidentally bumped into this Internet red shop and walked in.
Waiter tips can scan the code order, did not find the previous netizens recommended rice cakes, so ordered beef, rotten bamboo and cabbage, slightly spicy and coriander, one person to eat enough!
When the aunt brings it up, she will prompt that the iron plate is very hot, be careful! Rice, do you want to serve it now? The service was sweet! The beef is extremely tender and should have been pickled. The rotten bamboo tasted and sucked up the teppanyaki juice. Heavy in taste, water is needed. It was later discovered that hot dry noodles could also be added...
The small shop uses mineral water bottles with crimson moon flowers, and I don't know who is so careful. The waiter just happened to ask, and the aunt said, "Your father made the trick..." The young students on the side were discussing the problem of whether they had enough credits in the semester, and the young men and women on the other side were complaining about each other's newly working companies, all kinds of strange regulations, all kinds of gossip.
Dinner for two people, but 40 yuan, this is a youth supper that belongs to the students, belongs to the time of those young people who have just graduated, the price is cheap and beautiful, what is there to be picky about?
3 Happy head fish and fishing villages where the scenery is no longer there
Before I graduated, I would sometimes climb to the roof of the third-ring apartment building and look to the east. East Lake is far away, sparkling, occasionally a boat paddling through to leave a wave mark, the farthest is a line of pine forest, solemn. Turning to the north, there is the scenery village, which is jokingly called China's "Rio de Janeiro", and it is unimaginably unbearable under the glory. A huge camphor tree is at the three forks of the scenery village that protrude into the East Lake Scenic Area, and the traffic police stand under the tree, directing the bustling traffic.
Scenery Village, at first it was a small fishing village. Its architectural colors are mottled, blue and bright yellow tones are dominant, a bit of ancient Greek blue Aegean coast architecture feeling, do not know that there are tens of millions of people living in it, with their own hidden rivers and lakes. Some landlords have a five- or six-story building and can enjoy it for a lifetime just by collecting rent. Tenants live here to avoid the high rents in the city, after all, a single room is only three hundred yuan. Those fruit restaurant barbershops rely on these landlords and tenants to survive. These people weave a huge social network.
At night, facing the East Lake, the lakeside shop set up a table, the barbecue stall came out of nowhere, drank wine and skewers, and loved the happy head fish on the wine table. At that time, I was still curious, why should the crucian carp be called a happy head fish?
Later, I watched the "Urban Tea House" that Wuhan people like to see, Lu Ming's small science popularization, said why crucian carp is also called Xitou fish in Wuhan, and finally solved the puzzle...
One of the most interesting is that because the previous people could not read, crucian carp could not write, so they had to write a "ji" fish. As a result, when encountering more illiterate people, the other party will carry out their own interpretation, this "Ji" word is very similar to the upper half of the "Hi" word posted on the happy event, this, is not the "Happy Head Fish"? Thus, the saying "Happy Head Fish" spread like this...
Another theory is that crucian carp likes to drill into the silt under the surface of the water, likes the soil, and the "soil" makes a "head" (three sounds) sound, so the "happy earth fish" evolves into the "happy head fish".
It seems that there is a place called Hi Head Shell. And there is a pause after the cloud, "Happy head fish on the water - Ken board." ”
Therefore, whenever I encounter a happy head fish, I will think of the barbecue by the East Lake and the explanation of Teacher Lu Ming.
In addition to the happy head fish, there was also a car wash on Donghu South Road next to the scenery village, and the gesture of inviting and intercepting the passing vehicles, but most of the vehicles ignored their warm invitations and passed by... The East Lake area near the scenery village is often stinky, and people who eat barbecue here do not seem to care, such "good wind" smoked diners are drunk and eat happily...
This area is on the east side of Wuhan University, and now with the urban transformation, it is in a wave of relocation. The construction of the Optics Valley Bridge across the East Lake disappointed the landlords in the village, who did not get a high demolition fee. At the same time, breakfast and supper restaurants, fruit stalls and barber shops, various hotels, kissing buildings, and crisscrossing the network of wires have all come to the crossroads of destiny, just like this locked bicycle, losing the freedom of movement, can only wait to be slaughtered, and the scenery village has completely declined...
4 Edamame, barbecue and rice wine life
After walking through South Donghu Road and along Bayi Road, ten years ago, I found that everything has changed today. The Optics Valley Bridge was built, the passage of the south gate of Wuhan University was built, and the surrounding bookstores and restaurants were all gone, replaced by Lawson, today, small fresh milk tea shops, home-cooked restaurants, etc. The best preserved may be the only one on guangba road!
Guangba Road is a street that connects the south three gates of Wuhan University with the main gate of Huashi, and is planted with tall Fatong. Very early on, it was the famous red light district. Later, clothing, catering, and bookstores replaced those rouge gouache and flaming red lips.
During the day, I like to go to the Tianjuan Bookstore to read books and eat Zhao Ji strange noodles diagonally opposite. At night, I will eat a edamame sister-in-law near the intersection of Guangba Road, edamame, screws, brine root, potatoes, small fish, ducks, peanuts, and then pick up a few skewers. Edamame sister-in-law is actually selected in general, now think back, that is, eat a late night without closing the youth, edamame brine barbecue, in the winter hot a pot of Fangxian yellow wine, is a good years.
The one I remember most vividly is that at the time of graduation, in the early winter night, I went with my friend to the Qintai Concert Hall to see a Schubert nocturne by a certain player, and I was sleepy when I knew nothing about Western classical music. When the concert hall came out, we came to the edamame sister-in-law, and everyone drank a pot of boiling hot yellow wine to drive away the cold, and ate a barbecue and plucked edamame, not much to say, but unforgettable. Later, this friend went south to Shenzhen and went to Iraq, so there was less contact.
The strange thing is that after four or five years, I actually fell in love with Western classical music and indulged in the Schubert piano music of the German musician Jia Ran... At the same time, he also began to do urban cultural research on Wuhan food self-media, and learned that Edamame's sister-in-law was originally called Li Yuanfang...
In the middle of Guangba Road, in the early years, there was a Yonghong barbecue, the meat tendon was wonderful, the outside was burnt and tender, especially with a little fat to be roasted to flow oil, every time you go, you must order, and then eat such a good meat tendon, there is only the Hongqi Canal Road PinNa barbecue.
Diagonally opposite Yonghong Bbq is a Chongqing Wushan grilled fish, two three people order a grilled fish, ask for a few stir-fry dishes, or drink wine. Later, I had no intention of walking to a grilled fish restaurant next to Wuhan University of Technology and learned that the two were actually relatives, which was fun. Later, Yonghong dismantled, grilled fish is also a long time has not eaten, do not know whether it is still there ...
There are departures and there are also comings.
The owner of the delicious fragrant bean skin, the only woman in the master of wuhan to make bean skin. At first, she worked as a chef at the Houhualou Sweet House in Hankou, but then her husband disappeared and she supported the family by herself. This is really a Wuhan woman, like Lai Shuangyang who sells duck necks, holding up half of the sky!
Make bean skins, cut, turn the pot, all in one go! Beef bean skin, beef full of diced beef. Three fresh bean skins, there are squeezed vegetables, rotten bamboo, although not the traditional practice of the old Tongcheng, elegant and beautiful, but injected with the pepper of Wuhan women, quite creative, in Wuchang a variety of bean skin shops, it is worth trying. Today, the hostess has retired, and her son has taken over and started a new round of inheritance.
In addition to Wuhan University, the streets around Hubei University, the Huquan Night Market in Huashi, and the East and West Courtyards of Wuhan University of Technology are also similar to each other - ten years have passed, the city has changed, the Internet trend has changed, these "degenerate streets" are disappearing, and I am still a wanderer in this city, still walking alone in the winter night... Just like Wu Yufei sang, Lin Ruoning's words, "Open your eyes and dream / Ask you what is the use of sending me home..."
Author: Shu Huai
Photo: Shu Huai, Network