Nowadays, to find the authentic Tianjin old taste, even outsiders know to go to the northwest corner and Hongqiao District to find it.
But some delicious food has completely disappeared from the Tianjin people's dinner table.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 35 famous restaurants of various kinds in the small old town of Tianjin, such as small buns in Gulou East, small steamed food in Chajia Hutong, beef in Guy Lane, fire in Socks Hutong, fire in front of Ganlu Temple, chicken fat fire in Da hutong, and boiled fish in Xitou Mujia Restaurant. Unfortunately, for various reasons. Not all foods can be passed down, and some foods in memory can only taste its taste in memory.
For example, there are two seasonal treasures: purple crab and silver fish.
The purple crab of the Seven Caspian Sea is definitely a treasure in the crab family. Purple crab is a kind of Chinese river crab, the size of copper money, the whole body is bluish brown, the abdomen is white, the crab yellow is unusually full, through the thin crab shell, faintly revealing a layer of purple, hence the name.
The purple crab of the Seven Caspian Sea is different from the crab of rivers and lakes, it hatches into small crabs in spring and summer, grows in the grass, reeds, or ditches and rice fields in the depression, and feeds on fish and insects, rice ears, etc. It grows in late autumn and lurks in mud holes in reed ponds, rice paddies and river channels in early winter. In winter, when the snow is frozen for thousands of miles, it is not easy to break through the ice and catch purple crabs. In the past, there were large families in the old city of Tianjin, and in the autumn, purple crabs were bought and put into the porcelain altar with soil at the bottom, placed in the shade, and carefully fed. When the north wind whistles, it is much more convenient to enjoy the delicious taste of purple crab.
As for the way purple crab and silver fish are eaten, they vary according to human taste. These two ingredients are treasures, not easy to get, simple and popular frying, frying, cooking, boiling and stewing are all violent things. The old Tianjin Wei who will eat is still the most respected purple crab silver fish mixed hot pot. This hot pot is not the kind of hot pot used for shabu lamb, but a pot like a pot made of brass, which is placed on a hollowed out copper shelf, and the bottom of the pot is heated by an alcohol stove. Hot pot is said to come from the Manchu people's hometown in the northeast, where in winter, the weather is cold and the north wind is whistling, so they use this thing to keep their food warm. It is said that the Manchus began to eat hot pot from the day of "Li Dong", eating it every day, and eating it all winter.
In the harsh winter in the north, the cold wind outside the house is covered with heavy snow. At the dining table in the house, the large copper pot was steaming hot and smoky. The purple crab silver fish caught by breaking the ice, the cabbage leaves of the green hemp leaves, the mung bean sprouts in the crock pot, and the mushroom winter shoots are all cooked together in the pot, and the air is filled with the fresh fragrance of the purple crab and the cucumber fragrance of the silver fish. The wind and snow outside the house, the heat wave inside the house, the two moods are not very charming?
There are also some delicacies that are not precious materials and have disappeared into time.
(The images below are search-based, not physical, but exemplary.) ）
Soba noodles are roasted
There are many snacks specifically for poor children in Bird City, there is a kind of soba noodles hafnium chrome, soba noodles are cheaper than white noodles, after pressing the chromium and cooking, mixed with sesame sauce and salt water.
Red Rice Noodle Lantern
The red rice noodle Lantern, only brown sugar filling, is much lower than the price of jiang rice noodle Lantern.
Tianju trumpets ring skin flesh
The Tianju, near the National Hotel in the French Concession, created a kind of ringing skin meat, which makes a crisp creaking sound when chewed in the mouth, and the more it is chewed, the more fragrant it is, and it is rotten in an instant. To make the skin meat, choose the good pork belly with the skin, cut it into cubes, cook it with the old soup until it is eight ripe, steam it on the drawer, and then put the meat skin down into the frying pan, fry until the meat skin is slightly charred, and the meat skin will become crisp after cooling.
Jiangsu noodle restaurant fried crab
Opposite the China Grand Theater, there is a Jiangsu noodle restaurant called Tianchanghou. The noodle restaurant's best dishes are two appetizers – sugar ribs and fried crab. The sugar ribs are selected with pork ribs, and after stewing, the sugar juice is boiled and poured on the ribs, and the saucer cannot be dipped in sugar juice. Fried crab is a bit cruel, live river crab washed under the frying pan fried into a big red, out of the pot plate, the long navel must have crab paste, the umbilicus must be full of yellow. At that time, Tianjin's river and sea two fresh produce was abundant, and crab shrimp was also a common thing, but the crabs eaten fried were the only ones.
Tianruiju Five Treasures Rice
There is a Tianruiju at the back door of the persuasion field, and the mixed fried rice here is known as "five treasure rice". Tianjin Xiaozhan rice is the main ingredient, accompanied by shrimp, sea cucumber, eggs, and then garnished with fresh peas, diced carrots and diced cucumbers. The rice is non-sticky, the grains are flavorful, smooth but not greasy, and the seafood is full of flavor.
Wan Shun into a pot of ba dishes
The predecessor of the former Beijing-Tianjin Snack Bar at No. 148 Liaoning Road was Wan Shuncheng, who sold pot dishes all day from breakfast to night. The brine of his family's pot vegetables is made of fatty meat slices and yellow flower fungus, which is much more delicious than vegetarian brine. Wan Shuncheng and Dafulai are on a par with perhaps better, but unfortunately they are now extinct.
Shuluguan donkey meat skin jelly and chicken soup tofu brain
South of Dongmenli Avenue, not far from Dafeijia Hutong, there is a family-style tavern called "Shuluguan", which specializes in sauce donkey meat, sauce donkey miscellaneous, donkey meat enemas, and the unique donkey meat skin jelly in Jinmen. In the late 1940s, when the market was depressed, Shuluguan introduced chicken soup tofu brain, which was marinated with chicken meat, and put cauliflower, fungus, and shiitake mushrooms in the brine, and beat the frangipani after hooking. At that time, the newspaper also reported that the famous xiangsheng family Chang Baokun and Zhao Peiru went to Shuluguan to eat tofu brain, and commercial radio stations also broadcast advertisements for Shuluguan chicken soup tofu brain.