Matsue
Old
songjiang
Warm memories of the welcome building
Xu Yabin
38 years ago, when I graduated from college, perhaps destined to associate with this ancient city, I was assigned to a municipal professional school in Matsue.
One day, walking on the streets of this ancient city, a familiar and unfamiliar fragrance came to the nose. Based on that limited little experience, I concluded that it must be a small steamed bun that had just come out of the cage. Speaking of familiarity, is the smell of steamed meat mixed with the aroma of rice wine, saying strange, is it really uncertain what other flavor is mixed in, is it straw, reed leaves, or the fragrance of bamboo shoot shells?
Looking for a taste, I came to a small building with three floors and three bottoms. Looking up, but seeing the plaque with the words "Welcome Building" written on it, I couldn't help but be happy from my heart. I remember that at the reading meeting, I once heard a classmate who lived in Songjiang talk about the Welcome Building. At that time, I didn't care too much, but I unexpectedly came to it!
Yingbin Building on Zhongshan Road (Songjiang District Archives Collection)
Maybe I was really hungry, maybe the smell was so tempting that I walked in almost without any thought. An aunt with big eyes, white skin, and already a little blessed smiled and squinted and led me to an empty seat on the second floor by the window facing the river.
Auntie's introduction let me know that the Yingbin Building is also an old brand in the ancient city, and in the eyes of people, it has always been the status of the "second oldest", and there was originally the "boss" Songhe Tower opposite her. In the decades from the 1940s to the 1970s, the "eldest" and "second" towered across the street and dominated Zhongshan Middle Road. At that time, the long queue in front of the two stores every day was a special scenery on Zhongshan Road. Regrettably, the "boss" Songhe Tower was demolished in the 1970s.
That day, I was eating soup buns and drinking soy milk while watching the city river outside the window. There are one or two small boats docked on the bank of the river, a few ducks swimming leisurely in the center of the river, three or two girls washing clothes on the water bridge, and occasionally fish can be seen wandering with the waves.
Later, I fell in love, and I went to the welcome building more often. Serve a basket of small steamed buns, a bowl of soup for one person, or order two or three special side dishes. When I accidentally got ten yuan and eight yuan of manuscript fees, I proudly ordered half of the eight treasure ducks, or tasted the three silks of hibiscus and the three balls of Songjiang, especially liked the pine nut shrimp balls and crab powder eight treasure balls. Every time the aunt would lead us to an inconspicuous place by the window on the second floor, we would enjoy the delicacy every time while watching the boats in the river, the ducks in the water, the girls on the bridge...
The "Three Balls of Matsue" included in "Food in the Clouds" is a chestnut ball
Pine nut shrimp balls
Crab powder eight treasure balls
Because I liked the warmth of the welcome building, the later wedding banquet and the son's first birthday banquet were placed in the welcome building. In fact, at that time, there were even more "glamorous" hotels to choose from in the ancient city, such as the Songjiang Hotel, which was close at hand, or the more prominent Shanghai Little Red House Hotel. I loved the ease and specialities in the welcome building.
I still remember that the two feasts held in the Welcome Building were ordered with Eight Treasure Duck, White Chopped Chicken, Fried Pork Liver, Hibiscus Three Silk, Songjiang Three Balls, Stir-fried Eel Paste, Braised Pork Trotters, Fried Hoof Tendons with Green Peppers, and Fried Vegetarian With Dried Shiitake Mushrooms and Black Fungus as the main ingredients, and so on. Of course, the last duck vermicelli soup must be indispensable, which was the absolute "standard" of that era! Although it is not a precious dish, but the good taste, delicious taste, coupled with the warmth of the environment, so far back, the heart is still warm...
The passage of time is always silent, and it has been nearly 40 years since the ancient city came. Yingbin Building has also suffered the same fate as the "boss" Songhe Tower due to municipal construction, and it has been demolished and faded out of people's vision for 28 years, but the warm memories it has left me are still haunting my mind, so that every time I walk around Longbridge Street, I can't help but stop and stay. I will naturally think of the careful, thoughtful, warm, understanding, white and fat aunt who always has a smile on her face, the small steamed buns with a strong fragrance, the boats docked in the small river, the ducks cruising, the girls who drifted on the water bridge and the string of silver bells they left behind...
Source: Matsue MicroHistory
Editor: Jiayi Han