Spanning centuries, the "Yuan Sentai Fresh Soup" near the bronze statue contracts a lot of memories of old Wuhan.
The storefront on the street is not large, with two large coal-burning stoves at the head of the small door, each with a dozen small jars in a row. The smoke was thick, followed by fresh incense, and I involuntarily walked into the store.
The varieties of soups sold in the store have been fixed in more than a dozen varieties for many years: chicken soup, duck soup, kelp rib soup, belly soup, pigeon soup, heart and lung soup, etc., all of which are authentic old Wuhan flavors. "Before liberation, we also had Bagua soup, which was made of wild turtle turtles."
The store uses "next year" native chicken, one chicken makes four cans of soup, and over the years, each small can of chicken soup has been evenly divided.
Sauté the chicken in a large pot with oil, salt, onion and ginger and simmer until it is five years old, then divide into small jars and continue simmering over low heat, taking two or three hours. "Only if the jar is so large and the proportion of water should be moderate, the concentration of the soup can be guaranteed." Boss Yuan Zhuoqiu said.
After the diners enter the shop, the soup maker pours the stewed soup from the crock pot into a large porcelain bowl, and the fat and tender chicken legs lean against the rim of the bowl, which is attractive in shape. Add vermicelli or kelp to the guest's preference, the vermicelli is pre-blanched and the kelp is pre-cooked. Add pepper, shallots and simply season to serve.
Huang Cancan's soup makes people swallow straight, the weaver also ordered a bowl of chicken soup, can't wait to scoop up a spoonful and send it to the mouth, wow, sure enough, it is the old taste of childhood grandma!
Eat meat and drink soup, after a while, the nose will begin to sweat, refreshing! The chicken is stewed badly and not old, the chicken bones are very hard, well, good chicken. Halfway through the soup, the temperature of the vermicelli in the bowl was just right, and with a sip, the faint sweetness was wrapped in the freshness of the chicken soup.
"The soup ordered by guests has a lot to do with the seasons, in summer, the cold duck soup, the fire kelp rib soup and the heart and lung soup are more ordered, and after the autumn, the warm chicken soup and pigeon soup are very popular."
Because it is located in Liudu Bridge, in addition to the old neighborhood, young people who come from the south to the north to do business in the vicinity also come here to eat.
"I work in the hair shop on Qianjin 4th Road, where the chicken is a native chicken, and the soup that comes out of the stew is delicious and often comes to drink."
Old Li's family lives near Sanmin Road, likes to drink, he comes to Yuan Sentai from time to time, two or two small bottles of liquor + a bowl of chicken soup, is his golden partner that has remained unchanged for decades.
"It's been drinking for decades, it's all old taste, hahaha!"
Lao Wang did some business himself, often running from Qingshan to Hankou, passing by the bronze statue must go to Yuan Sentai to drink soup.
"Last week, I came to drink black chicken soup, and I came here at 6 o'clock."
"There are all kinds of soups available today, which are guaranteed to make you drink what you want"! Many of the guests are regular customers, and the owner remembers their taste preferences and will occasionally make love to them.
If you feel that a bowl of soup is not enough to fill your stomach, the store also provides rice and pickles, a meat and a vegetarian combination is both appetizing and nutritious, less than 20 yuan to solve a meal, much higher quality than fast food.
Leisure to chat with the boss, only to know the century-old history of this store and the story behind it.
Yuan Zhuoqiu, who was born in 1970, is now the third generation of the family, and the Yuan family first started making soup in the 1930s. The small peach orchard that was once famous in the three towns of Wuhan was jointly organized by Yuan Zhuoqiu's grandfather and two other people, and each family took a word in its name to form "Xiao Tao Yuan", and later Xiao, Tao, and Yuan three families flew alone and opened their own stores.
The Yuan family's "Yuan Sentai Fresh Soup" sign has been used for hundreds of years, it is said that it was the name of the fortune teller that year, and later Yuan Zhuoqiu's father was born, as the eldest son in the family, there is also a "Sen" character in his name.
"My father is in his seventies this year, he has not done it anymore, and I am taking care of the family business."
People familiar with Yuan Sentai know that the bronze statue shop was only moved a few years ago, and it has been operated in the ancestral home of the Yuan family on Sanmin Road before. Before and after the founding of New China, Yuan Zhuoqiu's father and siblings all took turns running the soup shop in their home, and his aunt also opened a shop near the Tian'an Hotel on Jingwu Road, which was not done later because of the demolition.
Yuan Zhuoqiu (right) and aunt (left)
Yuan Zhuoqiu began to help in the store after she became an adult, and all the links of purchasing goods and making soup were personally done, and in the past few years, the efficiency of the unit was not good, and she simply came out to run her own soup shop full-time.
"It's hard to make soup, and every morning I have to get up at 3 o'clock to start preparing. My father always wanted me to pass on this family craft, so that the people of Wuhan could drink the most authentic local simmered soup"!