The ancient text "Huainanzi Xiuwu Training" tells a very interesting story: "The Chu people have cooked monkeys, recruiting their neighbors, thinking that the dog soup is also." And after Gan, smell its monkey also, the stronghold and vomit, this does not know the taste also. "The taste that is said here is actually not to distinguish the taste, if you can distinguish the taste, even if it is said to be dragon meat, he will not taste it." Then there was Su Dongpo who was degraded to Huizhou, and the concubine Chaoyun followed, eating snake soup thought it was seafood soup, and afterwards knowing that what he ate was a snake, he immediately vomited for several months and died. You see how important it is to know and discern taste, if Chaoyun had this ability, how could he be red-faced and short-lived because of his greedy mouth?
However, when a person is in a special living environment or background, or in a long-term state of starvation, it is difficult to talk about taste. Therefore, what a person usually likes to eat, or what he hates to eat, should be said to be the role of social background, living standards and taste memory. In fact, the food he loves to eat is not necessarily what is rare and delicious, and the food he hates to eat may not be as difficult to swallow as chaff, and what really determines his likes and dislikes is probably hidden in the taste memory of different life states, an unforgettable experience or a special complex. Look at the "popular food" in Chengdu almost a hundred years ago, you will definitely feel a thousand ..........
Pelvic Lung Tablets: In Chengdu in the 1920s, there was a popular street snack, mostly sold on several bridges near the Huangcheng Dam, especially the 12th Bridge of Qintai Road. Usually a bench is placed on the side of the bridge, one end is placed on the side of the earthen tile basin, one end sits selling vendors, the basin is full of chopsticks, the spicy aroma of red oil lung slices can be smelled from a distance, passers-by are really difficult to resist its temptation, and the appetite for love and appetite is smelled and moved. This lung slice is half the size of a palm, thin and transparent, and is said to be a "lung slice", but it is actually a gelatinous thin scalp. Eating spicy spicy spicy in the mouth, strong flavor, soft and crisp scalp, very chewy, especially after eating the "spicy and spicy, spicy red circle on the mouth" feeling is very comfortable and enjoyable. Coupled with the fact that the bookkeeping is very cheap, so it is greatly loved by those poor people and poor students, and people call it "pelvic lung tablets", which is also born before the later husband and wife lung tablets.
The fame of the pelvic lung slice is very large, and even attracts many decent people who are brightly dressed and wear long shirts and top hats. But they are not like the poor masses, as long as they have a few pieces of money in their hands, they can eat it freely and generously if they want to eat. These people are very eager to eat, but they are afraid of being seen by acquaintances and colleagues, eating this vulgar snack on the street bridge and insulting Sven and losing face. However, food, sex, coupled with its flavor temptation is difficult to resist, appetite is difficult to suppress, usually with the fastest action, quickly pick up one or two slices from the basin and send them into the mouth, chewing while looking at the two ends of the roadside to see if any acquaintances have seen. Such a vivid and interesting eating photo is jokingly called "two-headed look" by the world.
Today's string of incense can be similar to the pelvic lung tablets of that year
Fairy cabbage: In Chengdu in the 1930s and 1940s, it was not easy for the poor people to make a living, it was difficult to eat, and it was even more difficult to eat meat. However, the mansion restaurant is a luxury banquet for the rich, the rich are drunk, spending money like dirt, the brain is full of fat, the leftovers after the feast can be filled with several large tanks, and the restaurant is heated every day and asks the small workers to carry them out of the street to sell. At that time, the bridgehead of the four gates in Chengdu was sold at a fixed point, especially the East Gate Bridge and the Nine Eyes Bridge. Naturally, the people who wait in line every day are the poor and the short-term workers, helpers, coachmen, caravans, porters, beggars and the like. This kind of leftovers has all kinds of flavors and meat, like the "moon meat" with only a curved old meat skin, the "grate fish" with a bare skeleton, and the "stick chicken" that has slipped away. However, for the poor, this is a blessing, so it is called "fairy vegetable". For the poor people, it is also a rare taste to be able to eat such a rich "oil".
Twelve phase dishes: In addition, there is a kind of small rice shop outside the four gates of Chengdu' east, west, south and north, which cooks plague pork, dead pork, dead cats and dogs, and even live mouse meat, in short, all the meat of animals is messy and boiled in a big pot, the soup in the pot is rolled, and the black foam is piled up high, but it is still full of aroma, specially sold to the poor to eat, even if it is a "tooth sacrifice". Every day at noon, customers are full of doors, and they eat more standing than sitting. There are also a few poor acid literati or small clerks who wear long shirts and top hats to buy home with large bowls, and the whole family "fights a tooth sacrifice." People jokingly refer to it as the "twelve phases" dish, meaning that almost all animal meats from rats to pigs are available.
This scene is the same as the streets of Chengdu in the old days
Peeling the meat: There is also an open-air restaurant that sells large pieces of pot meat, blood soup, and tooth and tooth rice. That kind of back pot meat is really unique in taste. Palm large pig neck meat, Chengdu people called pig collar meat, slices of thick and large cotton pulled, can not chew at all, eat in the mouth like chewing rubber skin, bite a bite to pull for half a day, sometimes chopsticks are not clamped, a dozen slippery meat slices will bounce over to hit the face, mouth, nose a face of the seasoning, so people jokingly called "to pull meat" "pimping"; and that blood soup is also salty to death, tooth and tooth rice hard to use a knife to cut, commonly known as "knife rice". However, this kind of meal is cheap, oily and watery, and resistant to hunger, which is also a rare "taste" enjoyment.
Back to the pot meat or to the pulling of the meat
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.02.10 Chengdu