| taverna Mole beard bun was counted as a bun in Chengdu at that time

◎Wen Zhihang

Foodies in the world want to talk about well-known buns, Shanghai has Nanxiang steamed buns, Nanjing has chicken soup buns, Wuhan has four seasons of beauty, Kaifeng has the first floor, Tianjin has dogs to ignore... It is true that each has been leading the way for hundreds of years, and each has its own advantages in front of it. I'm a bun lover and I ask everywhere I go, just to feast on it. Speaking of well-known brands in Chengdu, in addition to introducing Han buns in the newspaper, today I will talk about the red-hot mole beard longan buns.

In the 1990s, I once bought a mole-bearded longan bun at the intersection of Twelve Bridges Street and Taiping Street (now Taisheng South Road), when the mole himself was still alive, he operated in a conspicuous position at the entrance of the store, and he could be seen from a distance, the old man was slender, with a stiff waist, a clear face, fair skin, kind eyebrows, a black mole on his chin, a long beard on the mole, and he was busy kneading the dragon's eye bun while smiling and receiving customers, he was himself a gold medal advertisement for the store!

Seeing him evokes my childhood memories, when I was a child, my parents took me to the People's Park to play, love came out of the side door of the half bridge of the park, walked forward to the left, a few steps away, you can see the mole beard, he is busy, a cage of thumb-sized buns steamed, with the rising steam fragrance wafting in all directions. As soon as the steamer was opened, the buns were small and exquisite, cute and seductive, and a pink meat stuffing appeared on the tip, like a bulging, watery dragon eye, and it was a lover! For a few cents you can buy longan buns, bite them down, hot, delicious meat fillings, and the lips and teeth are fragrant. His face was so soft that my favorite skin next to the meat filling was completely soaked in oil, and I devoured it, one by one, and ate it with two swollen cheeks.

In my memory, there was only one shop near the Three Hospitals on Qinglong Street, which was very inconspicuous but crowded every day, with several tables in the hall, full of seats, and every day at noon and evening, there were buyers waiting with lunch boxes, lining up in a long snake array to buy buns. One day, a small blackboard was hung at the entrance of the store, on which a notice was written crookedly in chalk: "I return to the store to rectify the taste and quality, resolutely sell small profits, please taste." The drop is: "Mole beard himself opened." As soon as this revelation came out, whether it was a passerby who had eaten his bun or had not eaten, he had to stop and find out. A Mr. Chen recorded the conversation of the people at the scene: "Before the mole beard went to the third branch to bring apprentices to pass on the art, the quality of the buns here was somewhat degraded. You see, he's very different when he returns to the store! "I can trust the mole beard, he goes to that shop to do it, I will go to that shop to eat!" "I'm not afraid of not knowing the goods, I'm afraid of comparing goods." Mole bearded longan buns, thin skin meat filling, delicious buns, you and other buns a comparison, you will understand everything! "Mole beard in Chengdu is a bun champion!"

After reading this conversation, I went home and relayed it to my father, as an old Chengdu, he was excited to tell me the story of the mole beard: the mole beard was named Liao Yongtong, at the end of the 1930s, he came to Chengdu from Huayang Zhongxingchang, and in Hankou Le Luchun on Chunxi Road, as an apprentice who did not take a tip, and then the restaurant closed down and he was displaced. When he was cornered, the original master brother invited him to fight in the Qingyang Palace Flower Club to seek wealth, the master brother to be a copyist, and Liao Yongtong to make a bun. The two of them joined hands and fired a blast at the Ersen-an! After the flower meeting, he set up a small stall selling buns on the half side bridge, and since then the longan bun business has been booming, and as soon as the people saw this tall and long young man, they remembered the long beard on the black mole on his chin, and affectionately called him mole beard, and the bun shop became famous ever since! After the prosperity of the business, he was not satisfied, adhered to the innovative concept, carefully studied the characteristics of various best-selling buns, and carefully pondered the psychology of diners, worked the shape, color, aroma and taste, and used various special raw materials to chop mushrooms and pour them into chicken juice to make its meat filling full of aroma. In the shape of the bun, it is popular to make ten thumb-sized small bags with one or two sides. After 1950, he officially entered the Xicheng District Catering Company and opened branches in Qinglong Street, North Avenue, Xi'an Road and other places.

After the reform and opening up, the mole beard bun shop is more famous inside and outside Sichuan, from morning to night, the door is like a city, the store is full, it is a brand snack with good economic and social benefits in Chengdu, and it is deeply loved by the people of Rongcheng.

Chengdu Evening News original, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.