If you want to eat a special meal of old Beijing, in addition to roast duck, it is probably shabu lamb.
In particular, when there is a slight chill on the day, the restaurant of shabu lamb begins to queue. On weekends, slightly more famous restaurants are often full of lamb inside and hot queues outside. If you ask the boss how many tables are left, even the boss will hint to you - don't wait, go to another house to eat, I am afraid that I will not be able to wait for three or two hours.
Shabu lamb is like a ceremony for entering autumn in old Beijing. As the writer Xiao Fuxing said, "In our old courtyard, those old neighbors often say that after the autumn, the family is poor, even if the socks show their heels, they have to eat a meal of shabu lamb." ”
The formation of the eating habit of "shabu mutton" in old Beijing is inseparable from its geographical location and political status.
Geographically, it has been close to the junction of nomadic and agrarian civilizations since ancient times. From Beijing all the way to the north, 80 kilometers can reach the Western Beijing Grassland, about 300 kilometers can reach Zhangjiakou Guyuan, Zhangbei Grassland, Chengde Yard, Fengning Dam; more than 400 kilometers to Inner Mongolia Chifeng Ulanbutong and so on. The natural proximity to the nomadic grasslands makes it inevitable that the diet here will be influenced by the steppe peoples. The two reigns of Mongolia and Manchuria, which built the capital in Beijing, reinforced this influence, from natural, folk, to political, top-down. And these are about the historical background of eating beef and mutton in old Beijing in the Four-Nine Cities today.
"Huan Zhu GeGe" was filmed at the Chengde Mulan Paddock
Many of Beijing's place names still bear the imprint of this. In the early years, the "Madian" of the North Third Ring Road was also one of the most densely populated areas for Muslims in Beijing. It is said that in the past, Madian Sheep Stack was lined with sheep and was the largest sheep distribution center in Beijing, and the local Hui people were mostly engaged in sheep walking. Another example is "Niujie", so far, as long as you live in Beijing for a year and a half, you can always hear someone tell you about this place, "if you want to eat delicious and authentic beef and mutton, you have to go to Niujie.".
Niujie street is located in the southwest corner of Beijing's old city, since the Song and Yuan dynasties, has been a settlement of Muslims, and the ancient Niujie Worship Temple, the Chinese Islamic Association and the Chinese Islamic Seminary are all nearby. There is a saying that Niu Street was not originally called Niu Street, but because the beef made by the nearby Muslims was too delicious, it was slowly called Niu Street. In the early years, many long-established beef and mutton shops gathered here, but in the 1990s, the streets were renovated and the major shops were integrated, forming the current Niujie Halal Beef and Mutton Market, located at No. 3 Of the Input Hutong. Interestingly, the "input" of this input hutong was originally "cooked meat", and the Hui people called all the slaughtered beef and mutton as cooked meat, and later changed the name to "input hutong" probably because the name was slightly bloody.
Nowadays, the supply of cattle and mutton markets in Niujie Street comes from Dachang Hui Autonomous County in the east of Beijing and Langfang in Hebei Province, and the cattle and sheep that have just been slaughtered are transported to the city overnight, one by one, they enter the market, and at night they enter the pots of ordinary people.)
Walking in beijing, you can often see a variety of beef and mutton monopolies (this is probably a cityscape that is not common in other places), with the monopoly of Uzumuqin sheep, Sunit sheep, Chahar sheep and so on as the signboard. Many small stores, seemingly small, have actually been working for more than ten years, or even two generations. Around the old Beijing, if you want to cook lamb at home every day, you will go to these small shops to say that the meat is cut, bring a jar of sesame sauce by the way, and then ask for a cabbage on the way, and you can go home and eat comfortably.
Logically, in the old days, the poor could scarcely afford to eat meat.
Regarding the origin of shabu lamb, there is a more credible theory: the way to eat shabu lamb originally came from the Mongolian royal family and then to the Manchu Qing royal family, in other words, it was a delicacy that spread among the imperial relatives and nobles. It is said that it was not until later that Kangxi and Qianlong held a banquet for a thousand monks that the "imperial cuisine" of shabu lamb slowly spread to the people.
The first restaurant recorded in video records to make shabu lamb was Zhengyang Lou (founded in the late Qing Dynasty). In the "Outline of Cultural Relics of the Old Capital", it was written: "The meat cutter of Zhengyang Lou is a special skill, passed down from the Shanxi people, and its knife technique is fast and thin, and the pieces are square." "As a member of the Eighth Building of the Capital City, in the late Qing Dynasty, the people who entered and exited the Zhengyang Building included The Prince of Yixuan, the nephew of Princess Zhen, tang Lusun, the famous gourmand, as well as the social celebrities Lu Xiaoman, the famous Peking Opera celebrities Mei Lanfang and Yu Shuyan, as well as the cultural celebrities Liang Shiqiu, Lin Yutang, Yu Dafu, Lao She, Wang Zengqi... When Cao Yu recalled the restaurants and restaurants in Beijing and the signature dishes of each family in "Beijingers", he once wrote that "the shabu lamb in Zhengyang Lou, the hanging stove duck in cheap fang, the grilled steamed buns in Tongheju, the mullet eggs in Dongxing Lou, and the braised duck strips in Zhi mei zhai ..." It can be seen that the big name of zhengyang Lou shabu lamb at that time can be seen.
There is also a well-known shabu shabu restaurant that was Donglaishun of that year.
Ji Xianlin mentioned shabu lamb many times in his diary, mostly in Donglaishun. In 1946, Ji Xianlin, who had just returned from Germany, traveled to Shanghai and Nanjing, and when he returned to Beiping, he could not help but shed tears. "On September 21st, at 9:50 in Beiping, I was in the dark, saw the city wall of Beiping, and for some reason, I suddenly shed tears." Soy milk, roast cakes, and shabu lamb are all his favorites. "On September 24, I went to the Mainland Bank to collect the manuscript fee, went to the market to buy a hot water kettle, and went to Donglaishun to eat, the lamb was really well cooked, and I was very happy in my heart, and I really felt that Beiping was the best place to live in the world." Four days later, Ji Xianlin invited a friend to eat shabu lamb. "At six o'clock we went to dong'an market, and I invited them to eat shabu lamb, which has not been eaten for more than ten years.
Figure | The Age of Awakening
At that time, the Donglaishun first floor hot pot in Dong'an Market was also called "public hot pot" and "republican pot", not burning charcoal, but burning coal, the center was a fire barrel, the hot pot mouth was quite a small round table, and several single cells were separated by a partition in the middle. The bottom of the pot is free, there is no bench, and customers can eat standing. Since the partition is active and the soup is shared, those who can't afford to buy slices of meat can buy burnt cakes, cabbage, vermicelli, frozen tofu, and relieve the broth of others' lamb. As a result, shabu lamb finally moved towards the era of "republic".
According to the accounts of some years in Donglaishun in the 1930s, every year after the autumn, the lamb, the hot pot lamb began to be listed, and by the end of the peak season of the first month, the lamb slices sold in one season were more than 100,000 catties. According to the calculation of lamb 4 two one plate, it is equivalent to selling 250,000 plates.
Nowadays, shabu lamb has long become a popular food that ordinary people can afford to eat, if there are friends from other places to beijing, it is not difficult to invite to a shabu meal, according to the Beijing dialect, if you want to "lining" a little on the restaurant to eat, "Jubaoyuan, Man Hengji, Yu Defu, South Gate North Gate ...", if you do not want to queue, but also a relatively close friend can also go to the beef and mutton shop to buy good meat, invited to the home, you can also eat a kind and warm.
Figure | @ Human Mad Stomach
A friend who has lived in Beijing for more than ten years described the Beijing shabu lamb in her eyes, "just like the Beijing boys you met, looking rough and delicate, eating and understanding, eating and not understanding is not particularly rare Who understands, born with a sense of poverty." ”
Indeed, southerners who are new to the north are usually less able to appreciate the "civilian cuisine" of old Beijing. Whether it's early bean juice, noodle tea, or snack fried cakes and forks, or sheep scorpions, shabu lamb, and the ubiquitous hemp sauce that is both filling and ingredient. After the first bite, in addition to the feeling of fullness, usually can not eat more advantages. I always feel that this food, rough and rough, and the beijing bus in the early years ate five words of the same as the station clerk, not fresh and refreshing, but also with a pair of "I am like this, love the land" temperament.
Figure | @0.0 5 brine eggs
However, when you approach it (and may not like it in the end), you can at least understand that this "hun" is more like a protective color, permeating the survival philosophy under the roots of the imperial city. Here, the delicate sincerity needs to be hidden, where is it good to hide? —— It seems that nowhere is it as good as the living world, the steaming lamb pot.
The elegance of shabu lamb is in a place that ordinary people can't see, such as dipping sauce.
Don't underestimate the bowl of spices, saying that it is the soul of shabu lamb, the finishing touch, not too much. With leek flowers, curd milk, sesame sauce, after the ratio, when mixing the sauce, you need to add warm water little by little, thick and thin, and then with chopped green onions, chopped coriander, it is qualified. More exquisite, but also to consider some homemade chili oil, pepper water, white vinegar, shrimp paste and the like, Lao She's character said that "eat shabu lamb without brine shrimp oil, delicious? "It's about the exquisiteness in this dipping sauce.
Although it is generally similar, the shabu-shabu restaurant in Beijing still upholds the recipe of each family, which is also the foundation of each family. If not, if the shabu-shabu restaurant were to produce a self-service seasoning table like a hot pot restaurant, it would seem "timid", because there was no spirit of the old Beijing shabu-shabu mutton restaurant. There is also the seemingly coarse sesame sauce baked cake, the process is no less exquisite than the exquisite small snacks in Jiangnan... Zheì is called shabu lamb! Beijingers are really exquisite about "hiding in the world".
Figure | @Snail powder does not have snails
Figure | @Sleepwalking Girl
The rain after the autumn seems to have added speed to the autumn in Beijing. When I woke up early and opened the window, even the air that blew in began to reveal a burst of autumn coolness.
The first meal of shabu lamb in autumn kicks off the city season. The next thing is, the colder, the more shabu, the hotter.
Mr. Gu Sui wrote about his mood when he was shabu-shabu with his friends, "Drinking less can be drunk and crazy, and hating the rain and snow at this time." I believe that for many people, the most beautiful scene of shabu lamb is the ice and snow outside, and three or two close friends sit indoors. In the middle is a hot lamb pot, and several people push cups to change cups and express their hearts. The more desolate and cold the outside world is, the more it seems that the human world inside is warm and makes people linger. At that time, looking out the window, it was as if the whole world had been smoked hot and warm by this pot.
Suddenly, I want to go to shabu lamb to eat!