Artesian well food from a hundred years ago
Liu Gang
Every city with a long history has a different memory of time in everyone's heart, such as the artesian well in southern Sichuan, "eat in Sichuan, taste in Zigong" has been deeply implanted in the soul of generations of Yandu people. Here, when it comes to eating, in addition to the "famous dishes of Tianfu" such as boiled beef, fireside beef, Zigong beautiful frog, cold rabbit, fresh pot rabbit, etc., there are also home-cooked dishes such as hot kidney flower, dry pot duck feet, small fried chicken, raw stewed rabbit, braised pork, etc., which can really be described as "a city with salt and taste". After all, Zigong, the "thousand-year-old salt capital" with artesian wells as the main urban area, "the house of food" and "the hometown of Chinese salt and vegetables" has become another way of expression in the new era.
In fact, as early as more than 100 years ago, from the winter of 1915 to 1916, a native of Jianzhou, Sichuan Province (now Jianyang City) called Fu Qiao Village (name Chongju, the word Qiao Village, once used pen names such as Qiao Fu and Qiao Axe) preserved a century-old taste of artesian wells for us from the perspective of outsiders. During his time in the artesian well, he compiled a book of about 90,000 words - "Artesian Well (Episode 1)" with his personal experience, in which he described the "food of the artesian well" in more than 1,000 words, mainly from the aspects of ingredients and how to eat them, leaving a memory belonging to that era, which provided valuable literature for the study of the dietary structure and food culture of the artesian well people in the Republic of China.
Cover and table of contents of "Artesian Well (Episode 1)" by Fu Qiaocun
To sum up, "Artesian Well Food" successively describes beef, pork, chicken, duck, eggs and other animal foods, mash, biscuits, cakes, noodles, glutinous rice balls, pot helmets, hemp cakes, rice, peas, dumplings and other cereal foods, mushrooms, peppers, radish, sugarcane, loquats, apricots, peaches, pears, oranges, pomelos, mushrooms, pomegranates and other vegetable and fruit foods, as well as as as the dining places of Tsinghua Garden, Xin Garden, Qingxiang Garden and other banquet halls, which fully reflects the food diversification of the people of the Republic of China and the staple food culture of grains.
Interestingly, at that time, the artesian people paid special attention to the way to eat, such as "the stewed beef, people always use a large radish (radish) to cook it, and use a wooden stick to break the radish cloth, the big one is like a fist, and it is not necessary to cut it with a knife, and it is not delicious to say that it is 'stained with iron gas'." What's even more strange is that there is a cruel practice of eating pig blood bubbles, that is, "first feed the pigs with hot food, because the hot food enters the abdomen, the stomach and intestines are scalded, and they form nuclei for a long time." In addition, there is an even more incredible thing, that is, a hundred years ago, there were unscrupulous people selling water-injected pork in the artesian well, "a pig can be filled with dozens of catties of water, so the pork here is not delicious, there is a leather bag to fill water, with a bamboo pipe inserted into the killing mouth, shoot water into the meat." This also reflects the artesian well at the beginning of the Republic of China from another side, and there is indeed a wind phenomenon that people's hearts are not ancient and the world is pouring out.
The text also reflects the integration of Chinese and foreign food cultures, such as "Western-style biscuits, cakes and dim sum, which have been sold since April of this year (1916)", which shows the characteristics of the era of openness and inclusiveness of the artesian people of the Republic of China. The author also noticed that "pears come from Sanduozhai, and the color is ochre black", which really proves the historical heritage of the "century-old pear orchard" of Sanduozhai in Da'an District from the perspective of literature.
Fu Qiaocun wrote the book "The Food of the Artesian Well".
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Original text of "Self-Flowing Food"
Beef, there are many sick cattle and dead cattle. The meat of the cattle slaughtered is not fresh. There are more buffaloes and fewer scalpers.
Beef stew, people always use the big radish (radish) to cook it, with a wooden stick to break the radish cloth, the big one is like a fist, do not use a knife to cut, it is said that "dipping iron gas" is not delicious. However, most of the beef soup is black and unclean.
Pork is also unclean, and there are many pigs, two hundred or one hundred and sixty wen per catty. 200 literati are clean meat, without a leader; One hundred and sixty literati have small intestines, large intestines, lianshu (pig's spleen), hooves, liver, and so on.
Blood bubbles are a thing, delicious and brittle, and the entrance is slag, which is tuberculosis in the pig's intestine. There are guests who come from Armagina and have eaten. Smell a certain cloud of Li's, want pigs to have blood bubbles, first feed the pigs with hot food, because the hot food into the abdomen, the stomach and intestines are hot, and they form nuclei for a long time. However, pigs with tuberculosis cannot be fattened.
The slaughtered pigs in other places are filled with gas, and the slaughtered pigs here (artesian wells) are also irrigated, which is also special. A pig can be filled with dozens of catties of water, so the pork in this place is not delicious, there is a leather bag to fill the water, with a bamboo pipe inserted into the killing mouth, shoot water into the meat.
Chickens and ducks are very expensive, each of which is more than three catties, and it is worth thousands of dollars. There is also sweet duck on the table, and the meat is neither fat nor white. There are black-shelled duck eggs, the color is like the color of aged salt eggs, and it is also a specialty.
Eggs are also expensive, with a constant price of more than 10 wen per piece.
The mash is not good. The wine sold by the people includes Chongqing wine, which is very expensive; There is often wine, and the color and taste are not as good as Chongqing wine; There is also a kind of home-brewed wine, which is white in color; Daqu is also very popular.
Western-style biscuits, cakes, and snacks have been on sale since April of this year (1916).
Maizi brand machine noodles, there is a wholesale office on Xinglong Street.
There are those who sell heartless rice balls, each Sanwen, in Badian Street.
The pot helmet is very expensive, each Bawen, thin and crispy, delicious.
Tea and food are not as good as Chengdu-Chongqing, and they are not as good as Zizhong (Zizhong) (Neijiang). In the Mid-Autumn Festival, hemp cakes are very popular.
Most of the rice is picked from Jiang'an County, Lu County, and Fushun, and each bucket is worth 18,900 to 2,6700 Wen. When the rice number was on duty at the station, each number was merged into fifteen, and each family subscribed to three stones of military rice every day.
Peas are good in spring, but they are not edible in March.
There are beef dumplings sold on Xinglong Street, and there is a new dumpling bun shop, which can also be eaten.
There are three major bacteria in summer, and more horse skin cysts in spring.
The pepper is strong, the color is light and short, and the spicy power is especially heavier than the chicken heart pepper. Those from Sichuan Province take the spicy taste here as the first.
The white radish cloth comes out in August and September, it is not good, contains more starch, the entrance is cotton, and the texture is superficial.
The strongest of the chili peppers is the seven-star pepper, which is twice as powerful as the chicken heart, button and other peppers. Long inch Xu, each save seven, such as the standard plum seven real, hence the name of seven stars. 11,200 Wen per 10 catties, the new shop is out of the place, more than 40 miles away from the well (artesian well).
There is a kind of dew fungus here, the quality is crisp and delicious, no less than the mushroom, it is out in winter and spring, the color is black and white, and it varies from time to time. For example, those who are born in February and March, the color is more black, the price per catty is 200 Wen, and there are many places such as Taiping Temple and Tianchi Mountain.
There is a banquet hall, the dishes are not clean, it is better to take Tsinghua Garden nearby, the Xin Garden of Wangjiatang is also good, and the fragrance garden of Mrs. Meng, the place is still clean and secluded, and the dishes are not bad.
Roast pigs add four or five thousand yuan each.
At the banquet table, the dishes and vegetables are roughly the same. In the hospitality house, there are few people who have special dishes, and there are many soups, more lettuce on the plate, more peppers and garlic are added to the side dishes, and there are no good cooks (cooks).
White sugar cane is abundant and can be found everywhere. There is another kind, which is fed to cattle in winter, and people cannot eat it.
Fruits come from other places, there are loquat in April, apricots in early May, peaches after the tenth of the first month, pears in July, oranges and pomelos in October, and mushrooms are often there.
Tangerine orange is a thing, the market is very large, picked from Lu County, from October to Ladi, for the most period, after the first month of the twentieth month, it is difficult to find. The pear comes from Sanduo Village, the color is ochre black, and the taste is not as good as the pear of Nanjinyi (now Nanjin Town, Yanjiang District, Ziyang City). Pomegranate seeds are not large.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Author: Liu Gang (Zigong Local Chronicles Office)