The three monsters of Zhenjiang
The first stop of this southbound trip is Xinghua, and at dinner in the Zhengjia Kitchen in Xinghua, a table of authentic Huaiyang dishes satisfies the eight people present to satisfy their sense of taste. When drinking the soup dish "boiled dry silk" soup, the hostess handed us a bowl of shallow and dark juice and told us that it was Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar. I ignored it and just got a spoonful of soup. In fact, when the balsamic vinegar is not poured, the soup that flows into the mouth has already felt the soup fresh and fragrant, this vinegar, the soup into the mouth, only to feel the aroma full of mouth, busy to the boss lady thumbs up to praise. After arriving in Yangzhou, I went to an old restaurant to taste Huaiyang dishes, and the owner of the restaurant still handed us a small bowl of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, which was not as good as the vinegar into the soup in the Xinghua Zheng family kitchen, but if you smelled the vinegar, the intuitive aroma was fragrant, and the vinegar was fragrant. The next day we arrived in Zhenjiang, the birthplace of balsamic vinegar. I remember that it was afternoon in Zhenjiang, stayed in the Super Eight Hotel, took a little rest, and our group went straight to a scenic spot in Zhenjiang: "Xijindu Ancient Street". Xijindu Ancient Street has been described above, located in Zhenjiang City, is an ancient street of the Ming and Qing dynasties, located in the foothills of The West Yuntai Mountain in Zhenjiang City, a historical site built by the hanging mountain of the Broken Mountain Boardwalk. It is also a long side street. The small street is paved with bluestone, and both sides of the street are full of merchants, most of them are restaurants, and there are also a few other shops. Because the people coming from the south to the north stopped at this small street, and then went down the hill to the west for a few hundred meters on the Yangtze River wharf and ran east and west. Therefore, people are used to calling it Little Dock Street.
Almost every restaurant here has the same kind of noodles, and the signature is pot lid noodles. Zhenjiang has three monsters, pot lid noodles, small dishes and balsamic vinegar, here is a lady boss who talks about the three monsters to be loud and colorful.
The first monster is the pot lid noodles, that is, the small pot lid is placed in the large pot, the noodles are boiled in the big pot, and the small pot lid is floated on the water to cook the noodles. Zhenjiang pot cover surface of the fir pot lid floating on the boiling water, no matter how the noodle soup in the cauldron is tumbled, it is pressed by the fir pot lid, so cleverly control the direction of the boiling water tumbling, the noodles are firmly pressed under the fir pot lid, constantly boiled in boiling water, so that the boiled noodles are not easy to cook, and the fir pot lid also adds a wooden fragrance to the pot lid!
The second monster is that the small dish is not a dish. Legend has it that more than three hundred years ago, there was a husband and wife hotel in Jiuhai Street, Zhenjiang. One day, the owner bought back four pig's trotters and prepared to eat them in a few days, but because of the heat and fear of deterioration, they salted them. But he never imagined that his wife would mistake a bag of salt bought for her father's firecrackers as fine salt. It was not until the next day when the wife was looking for salt to prepare for firecrackers that she found out, and quickly opened the pickling tank to take a look, only to see that the hooves not only had no change in meat, but the meat plate was firm, the color was ruddy, and the hooves were white. In order to remove the smell of nitrate, he soaked it in water many times in a row, and then blanched it in a pot of boiling water and rinsed it with clean water. Then add green onion and ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel and water to a boil. The owner and his wife wanted to cook it at high temperature to relieve its poisonous smell, but they did not expect that after more than an hour, the pot emitted a very attractive aroma. Since then, as one of the three monsters of Zhenjiang, the meat has been passed down in every household in Zhenjiang. The meat is crystal clear and has an excellent taste. Put a few pieces of meat on the lid of the pot, not for vegetables, leaving only its aroma.
The third strange zhenjiang balsamic vinegar is not bad, which means that the balsamic vinegar produced in Zhenjiang is not bad if placed anywhere for a hundred years. When a bowl of fragrant pot lid noodles is brought up, put on the meat, and then put on the Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar that has not been bad for a hundred years, this bowl of noodles is a combination of three monsters, noodles, meat, vinegar will make you unable to let go for a long time, the fragrance that cannot be dissipated, let you hate that you can't swallow a bowl of noodles into your mouth in one breath before you can relieve your breath.
The next day, while eating breakfast at the Super Eight Hotel, I chatted with the manager of the hotel. The manager of the hotel deliberately told me about the history of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, saying that Zhenjiang has a vinegar culture museum, which made me feel very surprised, vinegar, and museums? He said, yes, you can see it, the museum is divided into vinegar history museum, old workshop, exhibition hall, and an experience hall. Entering the museum, visitors can appreciate the scene of vinegar making and explore hundreds of vinegar products. He told me that Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar tasted, sour and fresh, fresh and slightly sweet, not astringent, the longer it was stored. The purer the taste, the more it does not spoil. The manager's words were the aroma of vinegar that I could not describe. I said, since I came into contact with Zhenjiang vinegar, whenever I eat, whether it is cold dishes, hot dishes, noodles, buns, dumplings, I want to drizzle Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, or I just want to drink it, and there will be a sense of satisfaction in the taste. The manager also told me that the best brand of balsamic vinegar is Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar brewed by Lao Hengshun.
The history of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, the legend is also related to Du Kang, when I wanted to ask, the manager smiled and said, to talk can be long, you can check the information or go to our Zhenjiang vinegar culture museum to understand, you will all understand.
The next day back in Beijing, I went to the supermarket to buy two bottles of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, after opening, smelling it, I always felt that the taste was not enough, and I regretted that I should buy a few bottles in Zhenjiang. Fortunately, when I was in Zhenjiang, I met a vendor who sold pickles, and I also thought that the pickles he sold were delicious, so I left WeChat with each other. I hurriedly opened WeChat, he told me, this is easy, I will give you a few bottles of our authentic old Hengshun Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, not to get it.
As for the pot lid noodles and small dishes, they are out of reach, and if you want to eat, you have to go to Zhenjiang again.