There is a Chengdu zai, mixed in Nanning for decades, these two years have not done any business, bored panic, so and a few friends to discuss to open a noodle shop. Not long after, he actually rented him a small façade to prepare for demolition, and the simple decoration was opened. I had a friend who pulled me to eat noodles and met him. The noodle shop is very small, in addition to the counter in the house, there can only be a small table, when it is hot, everyone is willing to pull a small table to put on the street corner. There are only three kinds of noodles - Chengdu miscellaneous sauce noodles, dried bamboo shoot soup noodles and spicy noodles, each divided into two or two, three or two specifications, but the noodles used are not our southern mechanism noodles, but the alkali noodles in the Sichuan-Chongqing area, I like to eat, especially the dried bamboo shoot noodles, the soup boiled with dried bamboo shoots, both clear and fragrant, after drinking wine, eat a bowl, the stomach ironing dead. Therefore, every three to five gangs lined him up, and also pulled a lot of friends to go. After a long errand, I rushed to eat noodles, but I saw that there were already a bunch of cold dishes based on brine on the counter, such as pork tongue, beef, intestines, belly, and tofu. I saw the joy - isn't this a "cold cup" in Chengdu? Chengdu is full of streets.
As the name suggests, the so-called "cold cup", cold refers to the temperature of the food; the person who eats it; the cup, that is, the utensils for holding wine. All in all, there are some cold dishes such as duck neck, rabbit head, dried tofu and so on, supplemented by cold beer (of course, there are also drinking liquor). The wine is cold and the dish is cold, so it is called "cold cup". Every summer, the streets of Chengdu are almost a world of cold cups, and some small restaurants will lay out tables and chairs at night, and also earn a profit from cold cups. Chengdu used to carry the burden through the streets and alleys to sell snacks are very famous, so far dan dan noodles, danzi cold powder and other famous snacks have entered the store, but the name can still see the family lineage. Cold cup is upgraded from picking the burden to walking the street to sitting on the ground to set up a stall, during the anti-Japanese war, Chen Baichen, Li Tianji and other celebrities fell into Sichuan, and often went to the street to brew cold cups.
Stir in the eggplant
Sichuan cuisine claims to have many flavor types and how many changes, in fact, in my opinion, in general, Sichuan cuisine can be divided into three kinds - hot pot, stir-fried vegetables and cold cups. One of the sources of modern Sichuan cuisine, stir-fry, is a hundred years ago famous for its "Mapo tofu" famous chen Mapo and some other folk cooks, as well as the "aunt feast" owner Mr. Huang Jinglin in the past hundred years to successively launch sichuan cuisine famous stir-fry, in the generations of efforts to form; hot pot is Zigong salt workers and Chuanjiang boat workers using old cattle and various meat offal to make a living and become a common practice, dating back only more than a hundred years. There is also a kind of cold cut snacks based on roasted and salted, from all over Sichuan to Chengdu and Chongqing, after the big wave of sand, a number of world-famous snacks have been formed, which has become the basis of today's cold cups.
Of course, it is not that there was no Sichuan cuisine a hundred years ago, and there will be vegetables everywhere, but it is completely different from today's Sichuan cuisine. Moreover, Sichuan cuisine is a very fast-growing cuisine, new dishes are introduced from time to time, but it can always precipitate some famous dishes down. Tianfu's country is rich in products and output, and catering is naturally convenient. Judging from the eating utensils excavated by archaeology, the origin of Sichuan cuisine is at least four or five thousand years old. However, the origin of modern Sichuan cuisine is only about a hundred years, and even the famous mapo tofu, garlic white meat, husband and wife lung slices, and spicy hot pot are only a hundred years old. Therefore, Sichuan restaurants rarely fool people with signs such as "century-old shops", and they are more willing to say what new dishes have been launched.
Jelly
Sichuan cuisine has developed into modern times, and there are several characteristics that the average person does not notice. First, Sichuan cuisine is developed and spread between the exchanges between ushering in the delivery. In the past, Shu Road was difficult and it was quite difficult to get in and out, so Sichuan cuisine was not very famous. However, Sichuan has suffered several times in the history of the population almost extinction disaster, the most famous is the late Ming Dynasty Zhang Xianzhong Tuchuan, today's population ranked in the forefront of the country's Sichuan, at that time to kill only a few hundred thousand people, even today's mega city of Chongqing city at that time there were only a few hundred households left. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was necessary to come to a "lake to fill Sichuan", immigrated from more than a dozen provinces, Sichuan ushered in an unprecedented population exchange, and correspondingly also brought about a large exchange of food. However, at that time, the reputation of Sichuan cuisine was still not integrated. The first slightly decent Han Chinese restaurant in Chengdu turned out to be Jufeng Garden, which was opened by Li Jiuru, a Native of Hejiang, in 1897. When the Anti-Japanese War army was revived, a large number of inland people poured in, which led to a great exchange of food, foreigners learned to eat Sichuan cuisine, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, Jiangnan people who never touched spicy were happy to eat; and the foreign food that followed bureaucrats and rich businessmen also gave Sichuan cuisine a lot of influence, and Sichuan cuisine was able to play a signboard in the country. After the reform and opening up, tens of millions of hard-working and hard-working Sichuan people flocked to all provinces of the country to earn a living and do business because of the narrow land in their hometown, bringing Sichuan cuisine to the whole country. Sichuan cuisine, which was unknown more than two hundred years ago, is now open in every place. As soon as the opportunity is seized, it will sweep away, take turns to attack the city strategically, so far has spread throughout the country, originally even a little spicy taste can not touch the Jiangnan area, there was a long-established Huaiyang cuisine to compete, and now it is also the city lost land, the red flag has been changed color, even Huaiyang restaurants have sold Sichuan cuisine. Especially the word spicy in Sichuan cuisine, really changed the taste of many people, with hot pot, sauerkraut fish, spring water chicken and other strong troops, many flower-like jade girls could not touch the spicy at all, and now eat peppers to the blood basin mouth, I am afraid that Sichuan people will be surprised to see it. Therefore, the realization of food exchanges with the exchange of populations can be described as the fundamental reason for the spread of Sichuan cuisine.
Halogen hundred pages
There are many Sichuan restaurants, and the nature is uneven. The general famous cuisine is developed in other places, and it is always slightly adapted to local tastes, and the completely authentic ones cannot be mixed. If you want to eat authentic Lu cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine, you can only go to Shandong and Jiangsu, but Sichuan cuisine may not be necessary. I have eaten Sichuan cuisine in many places across the country, and there are really many places where Sichuan cuisine tastes exactly like Chengdu. Frankly speaking, in many places to eat a lot of authentic Sichuan flavor, by nanning that Chengdu Zai invited from the hometown of the chef, to do very authentic; in Chengdu, but there are often extremely difficult Sichuan cuisine, always think that my hometown people come here to mix rivers and lakes. On the day I first came, I lived in Xindu District, the original Xindu County, where the local kimchi is very famous. I have a fondness for kimchi, but after a few meals in Xindu, I found kimchi here to be extremely unpalatable. In the middle of the night, I sneaked out to eat a cold cup, on a small plate of pickled sea peppers, both soft and non-sour, a bunch of stops; eating noodles in the morning, specially added two dollars to order a kimchi (experience: eating early kimchi in Chengdu is not money, you can add it yourself), but it is extremely salty and difficult to enter the mouth.
Marinated beef
The second characteristic of modern Sichuan cuisine is that innovation is getting faster and faster, starting from Cultural celebrities such as Li Yaoren, who opened a small ya restaurant at the beginning of the last century, and Huang Jinglin, who opened an "aunt feast", Sichuan cuisine always wins with bold innovation. Sichuan-Chongqing is rich in output, the cooking skills are unpredictable, is the support of a large number of Sichuan cuisine, rapid introduction of new products, less than a hundred years, the dazzling Sichuan cuisine famous dishes have been launched one by one. In recent years, it has become a trend of Sichuan cuisine to open up mountains and open up roads, in the name of "Jianghu cuisine", it has been constantly renovated, and even non-Sichuan ingredients have been brought into the cuisine, which is not a way to come from the old school of famous Sichuan cuisine. In the case of fish, the sauerkraut fish, cold pot fish and grilled fish on barbecue stalls that have appeared in recent years are hardly seen in any place, but the level of cooking is just how good it is.
Then again, innovation is too fast, it will make people confused, even the old Chengdu often misses, how the previous snacks have a taste, sigh how many good snacks are no longer looking. This problem is by no means unique to Sichuan cuisine, all famous dishes are like this, and industrialized society can only eat this assembly line product. Whether it is authentic or even good or not, only depends on whether he uses it or not. Selection of materials, knife work, blending, heat and so on, as long as you do it with your heart, it still has its own true taste. When "Kung Pao Chicken" is called "Kung Pao Chicken", can you still eat the taste of chicken? Don't hide from you, I have also eaten the cut back pot meat, how do you let him make that famous "lamp nest"?
Marinated duck
Talking about cold cups, but talking about the origin of Sichuan cuisine, there is a reason - the cold cups developed mainly based on snacks, although they are often innovated, still have the taste of traditional Sichuan cuisine, otherwise the majority of Chengdu citizens will not buy it, so that it is popular throughout the city.
Last year, due to the business of entering Sichuan, after a few days of private delay in Chengdu, my friends actually invited me to eat luxury seafood at a large restaurant for the first meal, which caused protests. The next day, I was invited to a small restaurant to eat Sichuan cuisine, and also went to the "Chengdu First Fly Shop" (flies flying around the table, the image of the food stall is also metaphorical), crowded in a vegetable market, the house is in tatters, the tables are full, and once empty, someone will fill it, and friends say that it is still a desk booked in the morning. The taste is good, but in general, this round to Sichuan, Sichuan cuisine in my mind the weight of a big drop. On the last two days, I asked to eat a cold cup and drink some wine and chat. A group of friends all sighed, saying that although the streets are full of cold cups, the taste is not as good as before, many delicious things can not be found, and the good things found are not delicious. They reminisced with me one by one, but I was not impressed, because I had never eaten anything they said, and I couldn't get enough salivation. As a foreigner, I have long been accustomed to the momentum of Sichuan cuisine changing its face like an unchaste woman. Go with the flow, see the children beat the children, and eat what you have. For example, now Chengdu girls hold rabbit heads that nibble on the street, and almost no cold cup stalls do not, but it has only been more than ten years since they entered the city from Shuangliu County. I had no interest in rabbit heads, half because I couldn't nibble on them, and I only ate a few strands of meat in half a day, only with a mouth full of spicy or pretzels. The other half of the reason, watching the beautiful women in Chengdu open their blood basins and holding a rabbit skeleton to nibble, always think of "Journey to the West", think that they really have a beautiful flesh skin, really want to shout at the headless: "You don't think it's rotten like this, I can't recognize your surname rabbit!" ”
Brine pig's trotters
With that said, I still think Chengdu is cold and strong. Except for the rabbit head, there is too much choice. There are many varieties of dishes in the cold cup, which can be selected at will. In general, there are four categories - brine, stir-fry, roast and cold mix, which integrate the basic taste of Sichuan cuisine, the taste is heavy and spicy, and there is a legacy of Sichuan cuisine "still tasteful, good spicy". Chengdu summer is very hot, engage in some of these equivalents of cold dishes, just to raise some appetite. Spicy taste plus wine strength, more or less can make people sweat, force out the hot air in the body, take a shower at night to sleep, feel very relaxed body and mind.
There was a Inner Mongolian brother who married a Chengdu woman and simply bought a house and settled in Chengdu. After a few years, I also ate the debut. One night, I greeted us with a cold cup, and ordered a few dishes that were very satisfactory to me. There are brine chicken feet, duck wings, goose meat, hoof flowers, small intestine knots, pig ears, pig tails, beef, beef tendons, steamed bacon, grilled fish, as well as boiled peanuts and pods with pods that are very chewy, and the cold mix includes cowpeas, bitter melon, dried tofu, salted beans, and cold powder, all of which are good things for hot days, dipped in pepper and salt, and are very happy.
What was even more painful was that he also came to the side to help me "risk" a bowl of fat intestine rice. The so-called bubbling rice is a way of eating and saying in Chengdu, which is to put white rice in a colander, put it in a soup pot to repeatedly "steam" the heat, and then pour it into a bowl, sprinkle with green onions, sprouts, and then drizzle with piping hot soup. I ran to see if the little boss had cooked the fat intestines thoroughly in a large pot, scooped them out and put them in a large dustpan to dry, and the pot was a rolling milky white soup, and the side of the stall was full of rich and seductive smell of fat sausage soup. Dude, he used a small colander to put some rice in the piping hot fat sausage soup, repeatedly "risked" a few times, and then poured the rice into the bowl, poured some soy sauce on the rice noodles at the tip, sprinkled some green onions, chopped with large bamboo chopsticks on the fat sausage casing board, poured on the rice, and I happily brought back to my seat. To be honest, I don't like to eat after drinking, but although it is summer, I have eaten every bit of this big bowl of rice.
Boil the edamame
Eating a cold cup, eating not only the taste, but also eating Chengdu culture for outsiders; for Chengdu people, eating is summer. Drink five or six, friends gathering, the best is the cold cup, the streets and alleys but where there are people, there are cold cups. Stalls were set up in the corners of the street, and a striking light box flashed the words "cold cup". The streets are crowded with spectacular rows of tables, large and small plates filled with a variety of meat and cold dishes, and although the scene seems chaotic, it is full of a taste of enjoyment rather than enduring hot summer. Some stalls, placed in the middle of the road, can not pull the electricity, light candles also dry. Car sellers, small white-collar workers posing as gentlemen, gangsters, and even leading cadres will come to patronize. Eating and drinking, swinging the dragon gate array, spending dozens of hundreds of dollars a night, but they all feel comfortable, eat and drink, the belly is round, and the words are full. Drink mainly cold beer, eat basically a cold dish, cold and cold, but really still hold a stomach hot sausage, do not think that called "cold cup" to eat very cold, the essence of the cold cup is to eat "lively"! Chengdu is a city that advocates a slow-paced life, brewing tea houses, playing mahjong, eating cold cups, all of which are notable a slow-moving style. Chengdu people are easy to say and comfortable, and the cold cup really reflects the ease and "bashi" of Chengdu people to the fullest. I was out of the house and dressed neatly, but my friends in Chengdu basically came with slippers, drank and took off their shirts, and their comfort can be imagined.
pickle
As mentioned earlier, Chengdu Zai opened a noodle restaurant in Nanning for the first time, and the business was very good, but it was unfortunately destroyed by the demolition. He was not convinced, looked east and west, and actually found a not-so-petty façade for him and opened a second store in Nanning. It may be that the first hilarity has blinded his head, and he does not know the height of the sky, and the opening price has been put on a grade first. At the beginning, I went a few times, and although the master I had invited did not come back, I still did a good job. One day, I pulled a buddy to eat noodles--that is, to introduce me to this Chengdu boy, he said with a smack of his mouth, I want to eat noodles, I will take you to lanzhou ramen. I asked why, and replied, "It's too expensive to be a thief to die." I thought, it's really good. The first time he set up a stall, two sides and eight yuan, Nanning generally two or two rice flour is about five yuan. Sometimes two or three people eat at his stall, and it costs hundreds of dollars. The second time the store was opened, the two sides rose to ten yuan. One night when I came home, I bought four brine duck claws and a small bowl of pickles, and actually charged me twenty-eight dollars. When I woke up drunk, I didn't feel right. After more than a month, I often passed by his shop when I came home, although I didn't see anyone at the meal, and after passing the restaurant, I played cards face to face with the two of them. I think that although the taste is good, the original intention of the cold cup is to make people enjoy it without spending a few dollars, but you operate it as a seafood restaurant.
It didn't take long for him to turn the shop around. Unfortunately, a group of drinkers I knew when he opened his stall was scattered because there was no stronghold.