Suzhou is a city of food.
Suzhou people pay attention to eating, which is beyond doubt.
Even if you cook your own food and eat it yourself, it is sloppy. Braised, must be thick oil red sauce, raw fried, green and green, steamed, to use a low flame, an ordinary salty rice, must also be boiled with bone broth, to add fresh shrimp, fresh scallops, salted meat, greens, and finally add a little pepper, but also take the hot to eat.
If you want to go to a restaurant, you will not be casual, and if you don't like it, you will never go there.
In order to eat a bowl of delicious noodles, Suzhou people do not waste time and gasoline, far away, to drive to eat a bowl of noodles, there are many people. Where Suzhou makes noodles slightly famous hotels, Zhu Hongxing, Tong Dexing, Lu Changxing, Lu Zhenxing, Lu Yang, Xucheng Building, Suzhou people are all like a number of family treasures.
Red soup noodles, white soup noodles, lasagna, thin noodles, hard noodles, rotten noodles, summer noodles, winter lamb soup noodles, many old Suzhou, a bowl of noodles in the morning, much tighter than the morning laziness.
As for going to Mudu Shijia Restaurant for dinner, to the library to drink sheep soup, to Kunshan to eat burnt stove noodles, for others, it is not very troublesome, for Suzhou people, it is a common meal, running a little road is what it is, eating satisfactorily is the most important.
Nowadays, people pay attention to health, self-preservation, and rarely eat lard, but there are many people in Suzhou who still love lard, in their words, fragrant, really fragrant, salivating. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer dishes to make dishes with lard, and merchants have abstained from lard like them in order to please customers. So the lard flatbread that remains the most impressive thing in our memory is almost extinct and cannot be found.
But Suzhou people, who really pay attention to eating, still have the ability to find lard cakes with historical flavor in the corners of Suzhou's alleys, and then, every morning, on the way to work, they are close and far, and when the traffic is rushing, they take a detour to that place. It is said that there is a twin tower near Dinghui Temple Lane, and there is a suyuan street area, I have not been, but I have heard many Suzhou people say many times, in those alleys, you can see, ordinary people, white-collar workers of the company, leaders of the organs, they are all together, queuing, buying lard flatbread.
In Suzhou, and follow the foodies, it is certainly worth the trip.
Mudu Shijia Hotel
It is said that the old Shijia Hotel on the old street of Mudu Old Town is the favorite of Suzhou people. There are often groups of Suzhou people, not too far away, to drive together, to the Mudu Shijia Hotel.
As soon as you enter Mudu Ancient Town, you will be greeted by an old street, which is a long-lost intimate atmosphere and a familiar charm of déjà vu. In fact, this kind of charm has been pervading in our hearts for many years, gathering, and finally, today, we stand here, and its zero-distance contact, and its all-round integration, the feeling of the villagers we hold, finally stretched out, we walked along the street.
The old street is ancient, and the exquisite tiles on the eaves and the quiet stones under the feet are all in line with our intentions. With the extension of the old street, we can continue to go forward, we can stay here for a long time, but now, we have stopped, we have not forgotten our original intention, we are here to eat.
The Shijia Hotel has appeared in front of our eyes, in the middle of the old street, it is both low-key and warm, where it greets us.
The old Shijia Hotel on the old street of Mudu Old Town, which still maintains a rustic and innocent local atmosphere, immediately drunk us.
Entering the hall on the first floor, here is like the large canteen we are familiar with before, the old-fashioned square table and ordinary stools are not sparse and just right, some ordinary guests are eating, some ordinary waiters are working, mostly middle-aged women, they are calm, not in a hurry to shuttle between the tables, giving guests a pot of home cooking that looks very ordinary.
Going up to the second floor, I always thought that there would be some packaging and changes here, but when I went upstairs, I found that the second floor was also a large canteen-style hall, which was not related to the palatial, and the tall was not bounded, still some ordinary guests were eating, and some ordinary waiters were working.
We sat down to order and then began to taste, no doubt in the ordinary hall, together with ordinary guests, ordinary waiters served the ordinary-looking dishes, the taste was selling, but it was not ordinary at all.
We all know that it is not simple to make sea cucumber shark fin delicious, and it is not easy to make green vegetables and tofu commendable, and the master chef of Shijia Hotel, serving his Shijia sauce recipe, will make many people unforgettable for a lifetime. I remember that day, we went to the Shijia Restaurant to eat a few people, some people usually do not eat fat meat, some people have cholecystitis or bad stomach, but they can not resist the temptation of the sauce, eat a mouth full of oil, satisfied.
There are also delicious and non-greasy dishes, refreshing and refreshing, three shrimp tofu, with shrimp meat shrimp brain that has just been peeled out of the shell by hand, and tofu is burned together, this tofu is not a general tofu, it is specially made by the monks of Lingyan Mountain, especially white and tender.
Quickly scoop a spoonful, be careful to burn the mouth, but it is hot or not, it is not hot, it can't be taken care of, it is really a mouthful.
It seems that in that season, the carp has not yet grown up, and if you come in autumn, you can still taste the world-famous catfish lung soup.
Yu Youren once inscribed: "Guizhou Mu Du Yu Kan, thank you Shijia Catfish Lung Soup", it turned out that in the past, when the Republic of China, many celebrities came here to eat, earlier, it is said that even the Qianlong Emperor also came, but no matter who came, Shijia Hotel is always so simple, always so exquisite quality, this brand, belongs to everyone.
Therefore, Suzhou people specially ran out of Suzhou City and ran to restaurants in the suburbs to eat, is it worth it?
value.
In the early years, Shijia Hotel has opened a large and new store in Mudu Town, and in recent years, it has opened a chain of stores in Suzhou City, and the most foreign and modern Jinji Lake LigongDi also has a Shijia Hotel. However, no matter where the Shijia Restaurant is opened, the Suzhou taste of Shijia cuisine will not change.
Hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake
In the spring, a few friends from the north came, sitting in the tea house in Suzhou drinking tea, talking about Suzhou, talking about the hairy crabs of Yangcheng Lake, they often go south to the north, Suzhou has come more than once or twice, as long as they come in the autumn, they can eat the hairy crabs of Yangcheng Lake, and have eaten more than once or twice, but one of them has a little doubt that has always been in his mind, because everyone says that the hairy crabs of Yangcheng Lake are good, but he does not dare to say it, why does he not feel good?
Until last autumn, he came again, this time not to eat hairy crabs in hotels and restaurants, he was led to Lotus Island in Yangcheng Lake and ate hairy crabs. So he said, I know what a hairy crab in Yangcheng Lake is. It turned out that none of the hairy crabs I had eaten before were Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs.
As a Suzhou native, I certainly know About Yangcheng Lake, I have been in close contact, I have been close, I have taken a speedboat to circle the lake, and the water splashes on my face. As for the lotus island in Yangcheng Lake, it is also quite famous, it is a place that I have longed for for a long time but have not been able to go, once I have been walking on the way to Lotus Island, halfway to the end, almost heard the sound of the lake, but suddenly because of something else, halfway back, another time, I have also made an appointment to go to Lotus Island to eat crabs, but the friend put the meal in the restaurant in the city. Rubbing shoulders with Lotus Island again and again, so that Lotus Island is more and more mysterious in my heart, the temptation is getting bigger and bigger, I can't help but ask a friend who has been to Lotus Island about Lotus Island, he said, Lotus Island, in addition to the lake light and water shadow you can imagine, farm scenery, fresh fish and vegetables, there is a scenery that is spectacular, there are speedboats at home, the river surface is like a street, speedboats come and go, just like boats driving on the street, fenced off on both sides of the crab, like high-rise buildings in the city. This strange landscape has touched my yearning more and more, and I think that by the autumn of this year, my wish should come true. Imagine that the day when the autumn breeze gradually rises and the sky is refreshing, calling friends to go to the lotus island on Yangcheng Lake to taste the hairy crabs of Yangcheng Lake.
This day finally came, although there was some rain, but everyone was in a high mood, and we didn't care to see how the lotus island was covered with greenery, nor did we have time to feel the refreshing breath of this paradise, and we didn't even think of seeing what the fishermen who raised crabs were doing, so we hurried straight to the subject.
And look at the crabs brought to the table, only the body is large and fat, red shell white belly, golden claws and yellow hair, ten limbs are healthy, such as fake replacement.
Can't be polite, can't wait any longer, wait for the saliva to fall down, hurry up and eat.
That is called a fat and tender and delicious, that is called a creamy yellow incense, has always been a group of literati who can speak the Tao, where a mouth is unwilling to stop, and like to describe, and used to exaggerate, but in front of the hairy crab, the mouth is not enough, the words are not enough, it is really wonderful, speechless condensation.
In the past, everyone decided that as long as they had eaten crabs, other good dishes would be tasteless, which was really not a false name. And my mouth seems to be more stubborn, because since that trip to Lotus Island, I have rarely eaten other crabs, after enjoying the authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs on Lotus Island, it is really difficult to empathize with other crabs, this kind of lifelong feelings for the authentic Yangcheng Lake crabs, although some paranoia, more narrow, but as a Suzhou foodie unchanged insistence.
Library of lamb
Autumn is almost over, winter is coming, the farmers in the book village on the outskirts of Suzhou have come to Suzhou to open a mutton shop, they rent an old house in the streets and alleys of Suzhou, the façade is along the street, the shop hall puts a few old square tables and some long benches, there is also a table near the door, there is a cupboard on the table, inside is cooked lamb, haggis, there are braised, there are also white-boiled, and there are things like lamb loins. Frozen lamb is more expensive, when the weather is not too cold, it can also be frozen, frozen into a square piece, the knife cut down, but also square neat. There was also a cutting board on the table, which was used to cut lamb, the cutting board was very thick, there was a layer of grease on it, and scraping with a knife could scrape off a lot, but they generally did not scrape it. A large wooden barrel sits on the stove, always steaming, some people buy a lamb or haggis, to add soup twice, and some people have to add soup three times, so the lamb soup will be guaranteed to be good. There is turquoise green garlic in the bowl next to it, chopped, people who eat sheep soup can catch garlic by themselves, and some people do not eat garlic, but some people who eat garlic always say, how to eat garlic without enlarging garlic? There were peppers and salt on every square table, and they were also put by the people who ate the mutton soup themselves. In the cold weather, people walk outside, frozen and trembling, walk into the lamb shop, drink a bowl of mutton soup, it will be warm, the mood will be better, the spirit is also refreshed, when you go out, it is like changing a person.
Sheep are kept in sheep pens in the countryside, and when the time comes, they are pulled out and killed. The family put the freshly killed sheep in snakeskin bags, took a minibus, brought the sheep up, and in the stove house behind the shop, they cooked the lamb and sold it. Lamb is fresh, not frozen meat, and people who often eat lamb and drink mutton soup can eat it as soon as they eat it, so in the autumn, the mutton shop opens out, and the business is very good. Li Shizhen said in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": Mutton, sweet, bitter, hot, non-toxic, can cure many diseases. In the past, in Traditional Chinese medicine, there were many prescriptions for using mutton as the main ingredient.
Such a business can last for several months, wait for the cold winter to pass, spring, and before the spring blooms, they will close their doors and go home. The house was taken back by the owner and rented to other people to open other shops, and the average person could only open it until October, when the lamb shop was coming again.
Every year at that time, a farmer would rent a house on the street, and he would become a temporary boss from a farmer, and the fragrant smell of mutton wafted into the street, and many Suzhou people would come in and shout: sheep soup, mutton, haggis. Business is good, the colder the day, the better the business.
If the temporary boss is a young man, then it is conceivable that his father and grandfather have long been doing the mutton business in Suzhou, perhaps this store has been rented by his father or grandfather, but this possibility is not great, because the urban construction of Suzhou has changed a lot, and the lamb shop in winter must also be relocated and relocated. It's just that no matter where it moves, someone always comes in to eat lamb and drink mutton soup.
The storefront of the lamb shop is not a new rent, but it is not a permanent rent, it is seasonal. Now Suzhou mutton shop has been opened to other places, Shanghai has, Nanjing also has, but in other places to eat Suzhou book mutton, can not eat the taste of Suzhou, this can not be regarded as a strange thing, after all, the water is not the same, the fire is not the same, the environment is not the same, the people who eat are not the same.
Mutton shops generally have better business at night than during the day, Suzhou people like to come out at night, even in the deep of the night to eat lamb soup, they walk on the street at night, see the mutton shop, there will be a feeling of home, very warm, they will stop, or get off the bicycle, or get out of the car, go into the store, a bowl of cheap hot fresh eyebrows but not at all fattening lamb soup under the belly, really race through the fairy days.