Every autumn and winter, I always think of sweet and sour gourds, but I haven't eaten them for a long time.
In my memory, the vendors who walked the streets and alleys selling sugar gourds pushed bicycles, and behind them was a haystack full of rock sugar gourds, shouting "ice-sugar-gourd, ice-sugar-gourd..." At that time, the rock sugar gourd was still a string of two cents.
With the passage of time, the melodious and pleasant shouting has gradually drifted away, and there are fewer and fewer sugar gourd sellers, and even our memories of these childhoods have faded and blurred.
<h1>Rock sugar gourd was originally a folk remedy in the jianghu lang? </h1>
The rock sugar gourd is said to be related to The Song Guangzong Zhao Huan. During the ShaoXi period, Zhao Huan's favorite Huang Guifei fell ill. She has a thin face and does not think about eating. The imperial medicine used many valuable drugs, but there was no curative effect. The emperor saw that Aifei was becoming increasingly emaciated, and he was sad all day.
In the end, the emperor had no choice but to ask for medical treatment. A jianghu langzhong unveiled the list into the palace, and after examining Huang Guifei's pulse, he said: "As long as you use rock sugar and red fruit (that is, hawthorn) to boil, eat five to ten before each meal, and within half a month, you will be well." ”
At first, the emperor was also suspicious, but fortunately, this way of eating was still in line with the taste of the noble concubine, and after the noble concubine took it according to this method, she was indeed cured of her illness as scheduled. The emperor was naturally overjoyed and raised an eyebrow.
Later, this folk remedy spread to the people. In order to eat it conveniently, the people have skewered the hawthorn, and after years of production, they have gradually accumulated experience and formed the traditional practice of rock sugar gourd.
In the late Qing Dynasty scholar Fu Cha Dun Chong's miscellaneous account of the customs of the Beijing years, "Yanjing Chronicle", it is recorded that the production method of rock sugar gourd: ice sugar gourd, which is made of bamboo sticks, is made of mountain red, begonia fruit, grapes, hemp yam, walnut kernels, bean paste, etc., dipped in rock sugar, sweet and crisp and cold.
During the Qing Dynasty, rock sugar gourds were popular everywhere, and tea houses, theaters, streets and alleys could be seen everywhere. At that time, there were many other names for the rock sugar gourd, called "sugar pear paste" in the northeast region; "sugar dun'er" in the Tianjin area; "sugar ball" in the Yantai area of Shandong; and "big string" in some areas of Hebei.
<h1>The rock sugar gourd of old Beijing</h1>
The earliest manufacturers and sellers of rock sugar gourds in Beijing are several long-established shops selling honey fruits, such as "BulaoQuan", "Jiulong Zhai" and "Xinyuan Zhai".
"Bulao Spring" was built in the first year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1736), the original site in the LiuliChang, the Qing Dynasty scholar Ji Xiaolan admired the ice sugar gourd of the Bulao Spring very much, and once inscribed the verse "Floating and sinking in the sea like a gull bird, the book of life and death conges Bulao Spring" self-deprecating.
The original site of "Kowloon Zhai" and "Xinyuan Zhai" in Qianmen Avenue and DongliuliChang, its earliest sale of individual red fruits, begonia sugar balls, is very popular among the people. The most famous thing in the Republic of China was the rock sugar gourd made and sold by the "Longji" food store at the south gate of Dong'an Market.
In the old days, there was also a kind of sugar gourd, which was carried by carrying a burden or carrying a wooden carrying box and a bamboo basket to walk the streets and shout and sell: "Alas, the rock sugar gourd yo, newly dipped." "The vendor sells a wooden plate with a semicircular shelf of bamboo pieces bent on one end, with many small holes inserted with sugar gourds, and the other end is a stove, iron pot, board, knife and shovel, sugar, red fruit, yam and other tools and raw materials that can be made on the spot.
Because there is no wind and three feet of waves on the loess streets of old Beijing, for the windproof sand, the vendors of satchel boxes are often covered with white cloth to prevent dust. This kind of sugar gourd, there are not many varieties, the price is moderate, and it is also very popular with the old and young people in the courtyard.
In the old days, some vendors also had lottery gambling equipment, and the hawkers used the lottery tubes in the doorway of the house or in the shops to play "Pai Jiu" with the buyers of the good bets to gamble on sugar gourds, and met the buyers who would gamble, and they could eat more than a dozen bunches of gourds for very little money. If you can't gamble, the vendor will make enough money, and finally will send a string of sugar gourds to the buyer to relieve his hunger, and everyone is happy.
There is also a kind of sugar gourd, that is, the children at the changdian temple fair hold aloft a large string of brown sugar gourds that are four or five feet long and strung with thorns. The red in the mountain is smeared with white maltose, commonly known as syrup, and a small bunting flag is planted at the top, which was once a folk scenery of the old Beijing temple fair.
When it comes to the most popular period of rock sugar gourd in Beijing, it must be said that it is the Republic of China period. At that time, the grades and methods of rock sugar gourds sold in different parts of the capital were different, there were several types, in food stores, park refreshment departments or movie theaters, theaters, the ice sugar gourds were often placed in the white porcelain plates covered in glass, and their production was exquisite, and there were many varieties, including mountain red, white begonia, water chestnut, yam, oranges, and all kinds of rock sugar gourds with bean paste, melon seeds, and sesame filling.
As Liang Shiqiu put it, the rock sugar gourd, "does not belong to any class of food in Beiping." Because the rock sugar gourd is both sweet and sour, suitable for all ages, both beautiful and delicious and economical, almost everyone in Beijing is good at this bite.
Sugar gourd's rock sugar crystal sweet and crisp, hawthorn bright red sour soft, a bite down, a crunching sound, between the lips and teeth inside it wrapped sweet, sweet inside it is permeated with acid, that taste stimulation and psychological satisfaction, double cool!
It is no wonder that Lin Yutang, in a monograph recalling the history and culture of Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, also failed to ignore the existence of rock sugar gourds, "Whether day or night, you will hear the cries of vendors selling luscious and round frozen persimmons, and the rock sugar gourds that children like to eat, small fruits wrapped in sugar, five or six strung together, dyed red to attract customers..."
Liang Shiqiu also sighed, "I haven't eaten sugar gourd since leaving Beiping, I really miss it."
Perhaps, many people remember the "ice - sugar - gourd, ice - sugar - gourd..." the roar has gradually gone, "all said that the rock sugar gourd is sour, the acid inside it is wrapped in sweetness..." The song has gradually drifted away, but a string of red, crystal clear rock sugar gourds brings us good memories on the road to growth.
<h1>Acknowledgements and statements</h1>
The pictures in this article are partly from the Internet, and they are invaded and deleted.
This article is compiled from the poem "Old Beijinger's Favorite: Rock Sugar Gourd" and Zhang Shanpei of "Old Beijing in Memory - Rock Sugar Gourd"
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