Two days ago, I saw a "wonton memoir" in the jar, and after reading it, I remembered the old wonton waiting shop that I used to go to when I was a child. When I was young, my family lived close to Wangfujing Street, and the bustling commercial street became a place where I often came. On weekdays, I love to go and go the most when I am in the area of the eight-sided groove.
At that time, the wontons were far less imposing than the renovations now, just bungalows, but at that time it was not small. It is facing north and south, not very high stone slab steps (not yet later cement steps), large glass, double-pushed wooden doors, and pieces of transparent glass embedded in it. I remember that there were two large shops, and as soon as I entered the outer one, I saw the partition and the counter, which were also covered with glass, which was obviously clean and orderly.
Pour L-shaped counter, enter the door to first pay to buy a small bamboo card (later changed to blue, pink, yellow paper tickets), tight north of the short side there is a place to take ravioli, you can see the back of the kitchen in the big open soup pot, the side of the cauldron hung an iron grate, the grate really put a lot of big bones in the grate. At the edge of the pot stood a chef with grease and twist, shaking a large fence and constantly filling the wontons into the blue-rimmed porcelain bowl that had been placed with seaweed shrimp skin and winter vegetables. Behind the tin-wrapped counter stood a waiter, his white clothes cleaner than the cook's, while collecting the customer's bamboo sign, he casually pushed a bowl containing ravioli over, and then used a large spoon to scoop half a spoonful of bone soup from the soup bucket next to him, and poured ravioli into the bowl, no more and no less just filled the rim of the bowl, "Next". As for whether you use your two hands to shake and take the hot wonton away, or grit your teeth and pinch the big thumb on the bottom of the bowl with the middle finger of the soup, he doesn't care. The wonton soup is yours, love how to take it away how to take it.
The long L-shaped side of the store from north to south is followed by sesame burnt cakes, bamboo brands, loose sake, garlic sausages, and later cold dishes such as loose beer and peanut rice in iron barrels.
Experienced guests often buy bamboo cards, line up first to pick wontons, say hello to the people behind them, go get burnt cakes and sausages, and then return to line up to get wontons. Then he carefully held the wontons, inhaled the cool air (hot) while shouting "borrow the light to borrow the light, drive hard and drive", the footsteps were light and steady through the pile of people, all the way to the west side of the many tables and chairs bench inside the walk.
The inner room is a special place for eating. Imaginable wooden tables and wooden stools are all square. There are many people who come to eat wontons, the house is always bustling, no matter who walks in, they are carefully carrying hot wontons, their eyes are staring at the spill, and the corner of their eyes has to scan to see where there are seats.
It was hard to find a clearing to put the bowl down, and the hot red fingers had to continue to touch the stool. Because although there is open space on the table, the stools are always insufficient, and there are always more guests and fewer stools. At this time, no matter how hot the wonton bowl was, and how hungry the diners were in their stomachs, they simply said who the wonton bowl was, and they had to draw a place on the table where the broken bowl of soup was always scattered, and quickly put the wonton bowl on the table, and quickly lifted the hot fingers up and threw them away. Then look at the people who sat down first and tasted, which one looked like they were about to finish eating, so they walked over and stood behind the one, hoping that the people would quickly finish eating and vacate the stool, and they would sit down steadily, slowly, and drink the ravioli with taste.
At that time, in the old wonton waiting shop, in addition to the delicious wontons, there were also guys who I still remember vividly. It was a small iron bucket with a soup spoon. I remember it was riveted on a pillar in the center of the house. The shape is a semicircle shape of a one-sided section, with a groove on the outside of the arc, and another semicircle at the upper end of the groove. The light, blue green enamel spoon, neatly inserted in the cylinder, only the handle of the spoon is exposed, when you have to hold the handle of the spoon, and then draw it along the groove, to the upper semicircle position can be pulled out and taken away. This action is easy to say, but at that time, I was still young, I knew that I grabbed the spoon with my hand and dragged it hard, but I couldn't pull it out, and I couldn't eat it quickly with a bowl of fragrant wontons, which hurt me. Or the adult helped me take out a spoon, after eating the wontons, I remembered to go over and carefully examine it, and watched others do a few demonstrations for me before I understood what was going on. It was a bit stupid as a kid, huh.
I vaguely remember that at that time, each bowl of wontons was one dime and two cents, and one sesame roast cake was three points. For a dime and a half cents, you can eat a bowl of hot whirring, really fresh bone broth, wontons with delicious ingredients, and many layers of thick sesame salt roasted cakes with the aroma of roasted sesame seeds. That kind of enjoyment and comfort can no longer be found.