The cup is large in Suzhou, and the pot is fragrant
Hengjing, Wuzhong District, Suzhou, known as "Hengjin" before the Republic of China, is located in the southwest of Suzhou, located in the necessary section where Dongting Dongshan, Xishan and Mudu intersect. It is close to Taihu Lake, with four distinct seasons, warm and humid, abundant rainfall, clouds and mist, and suitable light, creating a good environment for the growth of rice, wheat, royal wheat (corn), sweet potato (sweet potato) and other raw materials for brewing. During the Tang and Song dynasties, with the gradual prosperity of Suzhou's economy, the winemaking industry was developed, and there were famous wines such as Luji Song Mash, Qiyun, Qinglu and Shuangrui in history. In the tenth year of Song Xining, that is, in 1077, the liquor tax collection agency set up in Suzhou City once reached 100, with an annual income of more than 7 million yuan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wudi was most famous for its three liquors. Qianlong's "Records of Wu County" records: "The villages of Xinguo, Hengtang, and Lishu are used by the villagers of Xinguo, Hengtang, and Lishu to create brewers, and the people of Hengjin, Xiabao, and Shuidong are also used by brewers. Qing Liu Shangxian's "Hengjin Zhi" manuscript contains: "Shochu is expensive in Hengjin, and water-friendly is also. "Its finished wine is colorless and transparent. The aroma is overflowing, the taste is pure, there is no headache after drinking, and it does not dry up. Among them, "Hengjing Shochu" was used as a tribute to Beijing during the Qianlong period. In the late Qing Dynasty and modern times, there were October White, Du Mao Chai, Hengjin Shochu and so on. Unfortunately, Yokokin Shochu withdrew from the market in the 1950s and disappeared. After rescue, restoration, excavation and research, in the new era of reform and opening up, Hengjing shochu has re-emerged and has successfully applied for heritage. Hengjing shochu was once known as "Wudi Old Wine" and "Eastern Wu Old Wine", and its origin has a legend worth pondering: it is said that one spring a long time ago, a young child was abandoned in the streets of Hengjing, and was adopted by an old couple who were more than half a hundred years old and had a poor family, named "Ah Xiang". The neighbors also delivered grain and firewood to help Ah Xiang's family. Because there are many good people in Hengjing, after a few years, the old couple's family of three can't eat enough grain, and the firewood can't be burned, so they surrounded a grain hoard and piled up the firewood. It was rainy in Suzhou, and it was the yellow plum season, and the grain tun began to emit hot gas. The old couple was afraid of the grain mold and was anxious. The young Ah Xiang was not in a hurry, and said to his adoptive parents, "I have a way." It turned out that Ah Xiang was a wine immortal promoted by Xia Yu's priest Yi Di, and was ordered by Yao Ji, the daughter of the Heavenly Emperor, to test the kindness of the Hengjing people with wine. Ah Xiang quietly turned the grain into liquor. Then let the adoptive parents go to the street to sell. Because the wine tasted pure, it sold out quickly. Hengjing shochu became famous, and the old couple was not happy. So I used coins to buy grain, used grain to make liquor, and then sold and bought... The rich old couple sent wine to the neighbors who had helped him, and sent money to the poor people in the village. Suddenly, one day Ah Xiang disappeared, and he returned to the Heavenly Palace and reported to Yao Ji that Hengjing really had good deeds. Besides, the old couple misses Ah Xiang day and night. One night, the couple had the same dream: Ah Xiang returned and told the secret of the "Koji Medicine Brewing Technique". The old couple made wine as they did, and the altar wine was fragrant. The old couple selflessly taught the winemaking skills to the villagers, and the wineries in Hengjing have since increased. Because Hengjing shochu is purely brewed from grain, sweet and mellow, easy to sell, in the 1930s, Suzhou Qianyi Xingchengji, Nanhao Street WuWan Shun Shaoji, Shantang Street Zhang Signal, Shangtang Street Huiyuan, Nanxin Lu Deshun and other famous shochu stores, all sent personnel to Hengjing to buy shochu. In order to thank Ah Xiang, the Hengjing people built a wine fairy temple. This jiuxian temple was still in place until the Song and Yuanfeng periods (1078-1085), and the incense was very strong. Every year on the eighteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the wine fairy temple red candle is highly burned to toast the wine fairy. Surrounded by colorful lights, a large bamboo pole is erected in front of the temple, and a string of large lanterns is hung, which is full of festive atmosphere. The Jiuxian Temple extended the invitation to the Xuan roll music class to celebrate the birthday of the wine fairy in the form of rap art and celebrate the birthday of the wine fairy. Each restaurant dispatched strong young men, guided by apricot yellow dalin (flag), beating gongs and drums, and carrying the statue of the wine fairy on a parade. Every time you go to a winery, go around for a week, set off firecrackers, and the bosses congratulate each other and say good luck to each other. Then the peers feasted. This custom continued until the early days of liberation. Qing Gu Zhentao's "Wumen Biaoyin" made a record of this: "The Jiuxian Temple was built in Hengjin Town, Qidu Kang, Yi Di, Song Yuanfeng in the second year, and the winemaking industry offered incense. Today, the technicians of Hengjing Distillery have learned through research that the wine brewed by Ah Xiang comes from Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Steamed with glutinous rice, or japonica rice, or millet, or barley, and steamed in an urn for seven days, which is as clear as water, the taste is extremely strong, and the wine is covered with dew." The reason why the "Hengjing Shochu" is of high quality is that it adopts a set of elaborate production processes: select the high-quality rice of Hengjing Real Estate - soaked in pure and clean Taihu Lake water - steamed rice - spread cool - mixed medicine - falling cylinder - fermentation - pressing - natural solid fermentation - crushing - mixing rice bran - Shangjiu (zeng, distillery) - hanging wine - taking wine - sealing the cylinder - storage - more than three years to be finished. Its craftsmanship was recorded in the intangible cultural heritage of Wuzhong District in 2009. Suzhou has always been a consumption city, eating, drinking, entertainment venues abound, restaurants, teahouses, bookstores, hotels throughout the city and countryside, including restaurants, pubs, restaurants, restaurants, restaurants. In the second volume of Tang Bohu's "Complete Works of Liuru Jushi", there is a "Gusu Miscellaneous Song" that reads: "Changzhou Maoyuan Gu Tongjin, wind and material Qingjia people training." Alley ten three hotels, the giant five days a taste of new. Shen Chaochu said in "Remembering Jiangnan", "Suzhou is good, and the liquor store is half Zhu Lou." Chi Ri Fang Bottle opens the sill, and the moonlight illuminates the street. Elegant column delicacies. Zhang Fengyi said in "Drinking Tiger Hill Restaurant", "Flying flowers on the other shore ride and stopping at the Mengu wine passenger ship." Most of the hotel layouts have a curved ruler-shaped counter, and the furnishings inside, in addition to the blue and white or blue-brown and chu-brown wine baskets placed on the support against the wall, there is also a pair of pot stoves for scalding wine and some spare wine serving utensils. The accounting table is placed in the middle of the large curved ruler-shaped counter, and on the accounting table is often a treasurer or accounting gentleman who is in charge of the accounting and collection of money. The young man who sells wine and hot wine stands in front of the pot stove to make wine and add vegetables for customers at any time, and enthusiastically serves customers. The store is decorated with banners and plaques such as "Taibai Relic Wind", "The Cup is Clean and Big, the Sun and Moon in the Pot are Long", "The Stew is Under the Wine, the Wine Is Delivered to the Door", "The Goods are Genuine, the Child Is Not Deceived" and so on. In the past, the hotel sold alcohol, which was not bottled, but "copied" to customers with bamboo terminals. It was a treat to the hotel to watch the guys copy the wine. The lower part of the wine terminal, by the thick bamboo tube as a measuring cup, there are half two, one two, two two, three two, half a pound, 1 pound, the main guest is at ease; the handle of the terminal is a long bamboo strip. The seller stretched the end into the vat, and only listened to the "grunt" sound, and the wine filled the end. Then it was slowly lifted upwards smoothly, and the container brought by the wine seller was quickly flipped, and the wine "grunted" down and flowed into thousands of households. Some hotels are just a few small snacks with wine, such as peanut rice, dried tofu, spicy cabbage, black crisp beans, oil soy beans, oil watercress and so on. Most of the people who drink in this kind of hotel are Li min people, sheng dou small people, peddlers and pawns, and the wine and dishes they buy are also cheap dishes, at most, "flying", "calling" and "jumping" (chicken wings, chicken heads, chicken feet). Li Bai said in "Will Enter the Wine": "The sages of ancient times are lonely, and only the drinker keeps his name." Wang Huan also wrote in the "Yao Feng Wen Banknote" volume 50 "Drinking": "You may as well drink more than three hundred, that is, a generation of people." "Suzhou people have had a love of drinking since ancient times. Qinqi calligraphy and painting poetry and hops are almost the daily life of literati in Suzhou, and it is common for poetry to meet friends and drink and paint. The living standards of ordinary people in Suzhou are also generally better, the quality of life is higher, and if they want to drink, they can go to the hotel to eat, or they can go home and drink slowly. Some raise a glass to drink alone, relax and relieve fatigue; some invite three or five confidants to drink happily. Some are used to entertain relatives and friends, and some are used to worship ancestors. My grandfather and uncle and father loved to drink. Why? There are wine glasses and wine jugs at home as evidence: when living a well-off life, my grandfather bought a large number of household porcelain, including wine glasses, wine jugs, teapots, porcelain cups, magnetic cylinders, porcelain bowls, disks, spoons, sugar tanks, pen holders and so on. Among them, there is a set of 10 small wine glasses, the cup wall is vertical, thin and recognizable, the handle is small, and the hand feels comfortable. The outside of the cup is milky yellow, and a week of gold threads are raised along the mouth. The inner walls are porcelain white and as seductive as cream. The mouth of the cup is round, slightly turned up, and the lips and cup are close to each other, which is a kind of immortal enjoyment. A small wine jug paired with 10 small wine glasses is a match made in heaven. The mouth of the small wine jug is rounded, the ground circle is concave, and three small holes are opened in the inner wall. The outside of the pot is beautiful, with exquisite paintings, green grass, green bamboo, safflower, and 1 dragonfly and two birds. A white porcelain wine jug used to store wine and hot wine is relatively large. The body of the pot and the lid are all white inside and out, without any ornamentation or painting. The button of the lid of the pot is a shou peach, and it also carries two peach leaves, which is his best decoration. It is worth mentioning that the lifting beam of this wine pot is two thin curved hook copper socks, although it has been oxidized and blackened, but it is still flexible. When the pot needs to be lifted, the two hooks are grasped together, and when not in use, spread out and lie flat on the pot surface. What's more, a small raised dot is cast on each side of the pot surface, leaving a gap when the hook copper recline is lying flat on the pot surface, so that the copper reel can be quickly erected and lifted into the jug. No wine, no table. Everyone's life, there are many opportunities to eat wine, life etiquette congratulations on eating Three Dynasties wine, full moon wine, hundred days wine, first-year wine, recognition of relatives wine (admitting relatives); congratulations on marriage to eat new wedding wine, newlyweds to eat a cup of wine, newlyweds to ask for matchmaker wine after marriage; congratulations on the birthday of the birthday to eat birthday wine, birthday wine; apprentices to ask for worship wine, full of teachers to thank the master, congratulations on the scientific expedition to eat the wine in the middle of the wine (now it is the ideal school), make friends to eat the wine, make achievements or get commendations to eat celebration wine, congratulations on promotion and promotion wine In the four seasons of the year, eat the wine of the god of wealth on the fifth day of the first month, eat the Lantern wine on the fifteenth day of the first month, eat the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion wine on the fifteenth of August, eat the ascending wine on the ninth day of september, and eat the new year wine during the Spring Festival; the factory, company or shop is established to eat the opening wine; the house is built to eat the foundation wine, the Shangliang wine, the completion wine, the new house wine, and the house wine is congratulated; some people go far away to eat the practice wine, and some guests come to please receive the wind wine; the gods and ancestors are worshiped with the god wine, and the sacrifice wine is sacrificed... Eat this wine and that wine, some go to the banquet to eat wine, some are to feast on guests. Regarding these customs of eating wine, you can visit the "Wujing Roasted Spring Culture Exhibition Hall" in Guangfukan Shangcun, which will surely give you a satisfactory answer, and also allow you to experience the traditional ancient method of roasting spring winemaking technology on the spot and taste the old Taste of Su-style. China is a country of etiquette, and being a person is about etiquette and exchanges. When you go to a banquet and eat wine, it is always indispensable to send gifts, gifts, gift boxes, gifts, gifts. Bringing a few bottles of old wine is the most suitable, Wujing Hengjing, Wujing Ancient Brewing Spring, Wujing Ancient Brewing SuQing, Wujing Suzhou Flavor are all good choices. But please note that the gift must be given in pairs, otherwise, the good thing will become a bad thing, spend money not to say, and hurt each other's feelings and friendship. Wine can relieve fatigue, health, strengthen courage, self-entertainment, dispel sorrow, cure diseases, and increase the festive atmosphere. In terms of health, sauce wine sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, astringent, from a medical point of view, acid is appetizing, sweet is to moisten the lungs, bitter is to nourish the liver, spicy is to live blood, astringent is to protect the intestine, so drinking sauce liquor in moderation will have a liver protection effect! There are also people who drink too much and hurt themselves, gaffe after drinking, lose their attitude after drinking, drive after drinking, misbehave because of alcohol, run into trouble because of alcohol, be disorder after drinking, lose morality after drinking, break the law after drinking, and even commit crimes... As a result, some people are eager to ban it like anti-drug, prostitution, and gambling. I often defend it with vindication. I think that wine is not intoxicating, everyone is drunk, and people are not charming; there is no way out of misfortune, but people call themselves. People who drink alcohol, as long as they keep their moral bottom line and regulate their legal behavior, there will be no "alcohol disaster". As for drinking alcohol, in addition to the need to control their own alcohol intake, you need to pay attention to the physical condition during drinking, as Feng Menglong said in "Three Words and Two Beats": "Wine can be adaptable to emotions, and can also relieve boredom and dispel sorrow." Three cups of five cups of music and leisure, drinking hard can damage life." In particular, it is necessary to choose a good wine such as Suzhou Wujing Hengjing Shochu Co., Ltd. - Hengjing Shochu. Qingyuan and Yuan Xuelan (formerly known as Jinglan) praised Hengjing shochu as "Jiangnan Indyota in autumn, and the grains of red fragrance are full of frost in the volume of Wu County's Years and Hua Jili". The white wine is white in the milk, and the opening of the cylinder is fragrant. "This is the first choice that drinking friends must be, self-drinking is very comfortable, the banquet guests have to be praised, gifts have face, are not happy? I like the fragrant, spicy but not spicy feeling of Hengjing shochu, and I like the feeling of drinking wine as clear as water and straight through the chest, and I am suddenly refreshed. I am more than a year old, and my biggest regret is that I have not gone to a regular university, so fortunate that my son was admitted to Nanjing University, which is naturally a great joy. That year, colleges and universities had not yet implemented enrollment expansion, and the admission rate of benyi was very low. My son made up my long-cherished wish. Relatives have sent congratulatory gifts. In order to thank you, but also to celebrate, I set up a wine banquet in a century-old shop in Suzhou to return the favor. After I delivered my thank-you speech, I said loudly: "Since the old man trained me to drink, I have never been drunk." "Today the Father is proud of the Son, and I will drink it with grace." I poured the liquor, stood up, and went to the neighboring table of my nephews and nephews, and showed them the glory of my uncle and uncle. The more I drank, the more I said, "Today I am so happy, today I am so happy..." Repeated many times, confused, dangling, cloudy, fluttering... When I woke up, it was more than 10 o'clock the next morning, and the red sun was shining brightly. The son asked softly, "Dad, are you awake?" I'll pour you a cup of tea. I blushed with shame, but the joy in my heart did not diminish at all, and I shook my son's hand and said, "I am drunk for my son, it is worth it!" "I also love dishes with a strong alcoholic flavor. Spring is the season when wild vegetables are on the market, and every spring equinox, Suzhou people have to eat "seven heads". "Head" refers to the newborn bud head of fresh young stems and leaves of wild vegetables, and the traditional "seven heads" refer to the head of cabbage, broccoli (head), marlan head, goji berry head, toon head, pea head, alfalfa (needle goldenrod) head. My best liquor vegetable is the broccoli in the spring. Broccoli contains a lot of vitamins, fiber, is a kind of grass head vegetarian vegetables that are very beneficial to human health. First remove, wash and water the broccoli; pour food oil (more) into the pot, then light the fire, when the oil is 70% or 80% hot, pour the broccoli, stir-fry continuously, and add salt (do not use soy sauce). When the color of broccoli is translucent, pour the wine, not too much, about half two. After stir-frying evenly, immediately turn off the heat and start the pot and plate. Stir-fried broccoli with white wine is refreshing, smooth and tender, crisp, good taste and good appetite. All seven heads can be concocted in the same way, and the aroma and crispness of liquor are added. In the early summer, the bought live cockroach (the appearance is the same as that of hairy crabs, but the size is obviously small), put into a glass bottle, add salt and stir well, cover the lid, wait for about 2 hours, brush the cockroach inside and out, soak in cold boiled water for 10-20 minutes; control the water, put it in a clean container, and completely soak the white wine in the cockroach; after ten minutes, add ginger shreds and slightly pour raw soy sauce. After a week of pickling, you can eat it, the taste is very delicious, and it is the best partner for drinking white wine. In midsummer, the live shrimp is washed, drained, put into the white wine, and in just a few minutes the shrimp is drunk and becomes a drunken shrimp. When eaten, shrimp fat, wine aroma. The shrimp meat is delicious, soft and smooth, with a full taste and a long aftertaste. In the hot summer, my appetite is not good, my appetite is poor, and the drunken carp slices are mouthful, delicious, and fragrant, which is conducive to cooking. As early as March, I bought fresh carp in advance. After slaughter, wash, open the slices, apply the salt evenly, and then dry it to make it hard. Then soak it in white wine with peppercorns and ginger, seal the container with a lid and place it in a place protected from light, cool and air. After three months of liquor penetration, in the hot sun, open the altar to take, put green onion, dried ginger steamed through, fragrant! In the mouth, salty with fresh, hard flavor. There are too many wine-scented dishes, since you like to eat, just make a "bad bowl". "Bad bowl head" is the summer eating habit of Suzhou people, which is almost a must-have for every family. In the past, there was no ready-made bad brine, and the housewife bought the aged distiller's lees (rice, wheat, sorghum and other remaining residues after brewing) from the hotel, and mixed them with spicy seasoning, ginger slices, green onions, refined salt, and cold boiled water to make a bad brine with a strong aroma and a moderate saltiness. Wash, cook, and put no spices (not even salt) of meat dishes, soak them in a bad bowl (the bad brine needs to be covered with food), cover and seal, and place in a cool and ventilated place. After 3 hours, it is suitable for opening a bowl to taste fresh, or eat it fresh, or steam, or slip it up, or make a soup, or stir-fry. There are no rules for the bad dishes in the bad bowl head, almost everything is indispensable, the meat has bad pork belly, bad ribs, bad tailwind (pig ears), bad door cavity (pig tongue), bad nose tube (pig nose), bad pig's feet, bad button meat, bad duck tongue, bad chicken claws (chicken feet), bad eggs... There are bad edamame, bad white, bad smelly dry, bad soybean sprouts, bad bamboo shoots... "bad bowl head" has become a Suzhou family food storehouse. Lazy to go out to buy vegetables, or suddenly have a guest, or when the appetite is not good, open the bad bowl, all the troubles will be solved. The best wine parsley in autumn is drunken crab. The method is similar to that of drunken toads, but when washing hairy crabs, there is more work to remove the cheeks, stomach and intestines. Drunken crab is lifelike, the wine is rich, the taste is salty and moderate, the aroma is sweet, the meat is tender, the aroma is fishy, the crab is full of flavor and rich nutrition. Hengjing shochu is delicious, can cook, and helped me solve some small problems in life. I will introduce the experience to everyone: use white wine to roast fish, stew meat, remove fishy, meaty, not to mention. It takes a long time to take the frozen fish out of the refrigerator to thaw, but spraying it with white wine can shorten the time a lot and help me a lot. When steaming ham and braised beef and lamb, I add some white wine, which not only makes the meat delicious, but also easy to burn crisp. I like to eat fish and tend to buy more than one at a time. I drop a few drops of liquor in the mouth of a live fish and put it back in the water, in a dark and breathable place, and live for 3 to 5 days even in the summer. When I accidentally broke the fish bile when I cut the fish, I smeared a little white wine on the place where there was bile, and then rinsed it with cold water, and the bitter taste of the fish bile was eliminated. After killing fish and washing fish, there will be a fishy smell on the hands, which cannot be washed off for a long time, I will drop a little liquor in the palm of my hand, rub each other, and then rinse with water, and the fishy smell will disappear immediately. Some salted fish, really called a salty, someone taught me to wash the salted fish, put in the white wine soaked for 2 to 3 hours, the salty taste really lightened. Now you can buy chickens and ducks and ask the stall owner to help slaughter them. Before, when there was no such service, I slaughtered myself, but several times the hair was not clean, and it was too annoying. I thought it was because the water temperature was not enough, so I poured boiling water on the chickens and ducks. Unfortunately, the skins of chickens and ducks were burned and fell into a mess. Someone taught me to pour a tablespoon of white wine on chickens and ducks before slaughtering, and then kill them after half an hour, which is not only easy to remove the hair, but also the chicken skin and duck skin are intact. It's really godly, and it's fun, watching chickens and ducks get drunk, crooked, cute, and then killed with a knife, it's still more humane. Sometimes I make sweet and sour dishes, put more vinegar, add some white wine, and the sour taste is reduced a lot. After the fried peanuts are placed on the plate, it is also a good idea to sprinkle a little white wine while it is hot, crispy and delicious, and not easy to soften. In the yellow plum season in Suzhou, everything at home will be moldy, which makes people have a headache. I checked the information and learned that spraying some liquor in stored beans and rice can prevent insects; adding some liquor to soy sauce bottles and vinegar bottles can prevent mildew from deteriorating and increasing deliciousness; and soaking fresh ginger in liquor can be stored for a long time. My feet were sweaty and I dried my shoes every day; after I learned to spray the right amount of liquor in my shoes, the smell in my shoes was gone, and the daily troubles were gone. I wear reading glasses when I write. When cleaning the lenses, I added a little white wine, which felt particularly clean and bright; I thought that I could use this method to wipe glass, and the effect was equally surprisingly good. There is also a "wine incident" that young and middle-aged people do not know now. In the 1950s and 1980s, every household in Suzhou used a coal stove to cook rice, cook vegetables and boil water. The gall of the coal stove is made of mud, and after a period of time, it will crack or even fall, and it will not be able to support the stove pad. I went to the hotel to buy the yellow clay sealed in the wine altar, and went home to mash, grind, add water, form a relatively dry paste, apply it to the inner wall around the coal stove (half waist inserted into the stove pad), and put it in a ventilated place to dry. The wine altar mud is delicate, and there are rice husks (rice skins), hay, and lime, so the new coal stove has good fastness, durability, and has made great contributions to many families. The cup is large in Suzhou, and the pot is fragrant. Raise a glass to celebrate the centenary of our dear party! Raise a toast to celebrate, celebrate more than 8,000 square kilometers of Suzhou continues to walk in the forefront of prefecture-level cities! Raise a glass to celebrate the happiness and well-being of more than 10 million Suzhou people! Raise a glass to celebrate, celebrate "Hengjing roast, Suzhou flavor" and continue the frontier!
