Arundo donax in Chengnan, Beijing

Everything in Beijing, the ancient capital of the imperial capital, is very different from other places. No matter how big the watermelon rolls to Beijing, it is just a sesame seed; The smallest sesame seed, when it enters the capital, may really become a watermelon. In the eyes of old Beijingers, I am afraid that sesame seeds have turned into watermelons.

1978 Beijing, I have long heard that Beijingers love to eat braised dishes. Shops specializing in braised pork can be seen everywhere, and there are stalls selling braised pork near many famous scenic spots and around big business districts. Except franchise stores, most street stalls use disposable cups and bowls and eat them with bamboo sticks. Some nightclubs also put up signs of stewed meat, which attracted many migrant workers to eat at midnight every night. Eating in front of a pot-stewed stall with Beijing famous food signs on tourist attractions is daunting. For people who are taboo to eat animal viscera, it is inevitable to add some fear to take a look at the pig intestines and lungs in the braised cauldron. It's disgusting to smell the fishy smell of animal organs floating in the air again.

Some old Beijingers said that braised pork was originally a court delicacy in Qing Dynasty, which evolved from "Suzhou-made meat" brought to the imperial city by a chef in Suzhou. In fact, few people really believe that braised pork has such a big size and such a high price. Looking at its source, the poor people who couldn't afford to buy meat in the old society used pig water discarded or sold cheaply by the rich as ingredients, cleaned it, and then covered the dirty air in the large intestine, liver, abdomen and lungs with various seasonings to cook an attractive taste. Braised pork may not be much different from the "Suzhou-made meat" enjoyed by the royal family, but chop suey is something that can't be served on the table after all. The emperor Lao Tzu is tired of eating delicacies, and he may not value this pig intestine and lung. If these "poor people's food" are also considered court food, then what else in Beijing can't be related to royal rumors?

What is the attraction of this delicious food that ordinary people can't enjoy, which makes it a famous local traditional snack and online celebrity food? Curious, after the epidemic eased, we searched for traces and came to the doorframe alley outside the front door. Eating places in Beijing are all over the city, which can be roughly divided into four categories: modern hotels, old houses, street restaurants and hutong snacks. If you want to eat authentic Beijing flavor and find the taste and feeling of old Beijing, you still can't leave Beijing Hutong. Too close to the business circle, most of them have a strong commercial atmosphere, which is not much different from ordinary street restaurants. If you want to taste the authentic flavor of old Beijing stew, you must go deep into hutong. This is an experience repeatedly reminded by friends in Beijing. Sure enough, as soon as I entered the alley, the smell of stew came to my nose.

Cheng Nan is the birthplace of a century-old Beijing pot farm, and the doorframe hutong adjacent to Qianmen and Dashilan business district is the area where Cheng Nan inherits the pot farm the most. Tourists are concentrated here, and there are many pot-stewed dishes. Almost all famous people set up shop here. From the second corridor to the east and south is the doorframe alley. In the narrow alley, there are actually many marinated shops, many of which are hung with the sign of "door frame marinated". Maybe when we went, every pot-stewed restaurant was packed and very lively. Some people are still waiting in line, and many people want a takeaway after eating. It seems that the stew business here is really good. And it is closest to the life of old Beijingers. Grandpa Beijing, who lives inside and outside the hutong, is wearing big underpants, with a big belly and a big cattail leaf fan. He is thin and old-fashioned in the hutong.

We stopped in front of a shop called "Hundred Years Old Six Doors", only to see the shopkeeper greet us with a thick Beijing film: "Come, where are you, sit inside!" The waiters in other stores are mostly Mandarin or accents outside Beijing. You can feel that you are in old Beijing when you listen here. The diners inside were also very cooperative and left after eating to make room for us. This is the facade of a two-bedroom building. In addition to the steaming cauldron and console, there are only six small rectangular dining tables, each of which can seat two or three people at most. But people came to eat pot-stewed in an endless stream, and the free table was quickly occupied. On one side of the store, there is a black word on a red background "Don't eat well, don't pay", so we dared to put up such a slogan at the door of the store and chose this one without hesitation.

Lao Liu, the shopkeeper, is obviously a frank person. I haven't seen him busy since he entered the door. He took turns to introduce the "past lives" of old Beijing stew to us foreign diners. He publicly stated that Jingmen originated from Nanheng Street, which is "half the history of Cheng Nan", and his family moved from Nanheng Street, so he brought authentic Cheng Nan stew technology here. Dashilan area, where the doorframe hutong is located, has frequent fires in history, and only the doorframe hutong has survived, so people who do business have gathered here, and of course there are also people who sell braised dishes. In the case that most stew shops have been contracted out to foreigners, this stew shop is the real old Beijing stew shop opened by old Beijingers. He himself said that he is the only old Beijinger who works as a boss and cooks in dozens of stew shops around Qianmen.

Lao Liu told us that a good pot-stewed dish is the cleaning of ingredients. The fresh pigs bought must be carefully washed in the water, which is the most troublesome and particularly laborious. It needs to be cleaned repeatedly with yellow wine, salt and vinegar, and it also needs to remove the fatty oil from the pig intestine, leaving only the muscle part of the small intestine. Lung lobes should also be perfused repeatedly. After treatment, water and sundries should be blanched, and then all kinds of traditional cooking spices should be added to stew slowly, so that the stewed food can turn the "dirty dishes" into delicious food in people's eyes. Lao Liu also said that a bowl of stewed rice is good only by its appearance. The soup stock should be heavy in color and fresh in taste, but it should not be muddy or too salty. The intestines are cooked in a large pot with low fire, not soft and rotten in the mouth, but chewed. The lungs should be soft and not smelly. Add garlic, spicy oil and coriander, and a bowl of vibrant stew can reflect the authentic stew culture in Cheng Nan. Cheng Nan is famous for cooking in pot, relying on small fire and soup stock to restore the true colors of food, instead of just using salt to taste or using other seasonings to cover up the bad taste of pig intestines and lungs.

Lao Liu specially reminded me that there are many stewed dishes in a hundred years, and fake stewed dishes are flying all over the sky. There are very few vegetables that are really preserved. Whoever has no eyes will regret it. We seldom touch braised pork, and it is difficult to find out who is authentic and who is fake. But watching "Bowl of Incense Stewing Fire" makes us feel that this family is more realistic. The person who doesn't talk much about cooking is a woman who looks like Liu's family. She skillfully picked up a kitchen knife, cut off the intestines picked up from the boiling iron pot, cut them into even small pieces and put them in a bowl. In addition, pick up the fire soaked in the pot and a rectangular piece of fried tofu, cut it neatly into strips or triangles, pour a spoonful of thick soup, sprinkle some auxiliary materials, and a bowl of boiling pot-stewed will be served. Those with pig intestines and lungs are called braised pork, and those with burnt tofu are called braised pork. From the price point of view, it is also true that a large bowl of black porcelain can be cooked and burned. As long as 30 yuan is not enough, you can add it. A bowl of stew reveals the openness, tolerance and atmosphere of old Beijingers. There must be internal reasons why the original humble stew can flourish for decades.

To tell the truth, I don't like being fat at ordinary times, and I'm not that interested in eating pig guts. One year, I ate fried liver in an old shop in Beijing. The foul smell of pig intestines and liver almost made me vomit. This time, I just wanted to experience the taste of braised pork, and I didn't intend to eat up a bowl of braised pork, so I didn't care how much was in the bowl. Even so, I'm still worried about whether I can eat all the fat intestines, pig lungs, fried tofu and noodles full of soup. I never thought that there was no evil at all, so I took a few bites and took a big bite with joy. The muscle texture of pig's small intestine is clearly visible, and almost no fat can be seen, so it is soft but not greasy to chew. The lung head is soft and waxy, and the lung cartilage is crisp. Eating a piece of marinated sausage, a mouthful of marinated lung, and then chewing a roast or tofu, several different flavors alternate, which actually makes people forget that this is a bowl of pig viscera. Confucius once said that "lust does not eat" and "never eat righteously". That was when he didn't cook. Besides, Confucius is a saint, so it is naturally difficult for ordinary people to restrain themselves by the standards of saints, and it is naturally difficult to miss this tempting food. No, a big bowl of pot-stewed vegetables, the ingredients are thin and dry, and the staple food is non-staple. A person with a small appetite like me can't finish it. Especially that bowl of soup, which is thick, salty, suitable and full, can only be left in the bowl and can't be drunk. This bowl is better than a gluttonous meal. It's hard to describe the taste until you burp. In our southern Shandong dialect, this bowl of rice is starving, and it's really a master!

The high sense of cooking with vulgar ingredients broke my understanding of animal viscera food. The local flavor of Cheng Nan pot-stewed vegetables also gave me a new understanding of the allure of being close to the people. Beijingers probably like the special taste of pig and cow viscera. Braised pork, fried liver, fried belly and so on are also animal viscera foods that old Beijingers can't live without. They are not only the favorite of ordinary people, but also the favorite of many powerful celebrities. On the wall of the "Old Six Doors Centennial" store, there are many photos of diners and Lao Liu, some of whom are celebrities in the entertainment circle. Cheng Nan stew, full of authentic Beijingers, makes a pig a nutritious and high-quality food for all ages. It has not only become an unspeakable landmark food in old Beijing, but also represents the yearning of old Beijingers and carries their childhood memories. People in the imperial city of Beijing are most likely to associate secularism with poetry. No matter what the circumstances, they can enjoy life. Even if they chew with their mouths alone, they can find the joy of life and enjoy it. From this point of view, Beijingers love to eat hot pot. Isn't it a nostalgia for the old days and a taste for a new life?

I left the doorframe alley with the rich fragrance between my lips and teeth, and my mind was full of stew. I'm really worried that I will have to eat specially in a few days.