"online celebrity Cuisine" in the Qing Dynasty, a must-eat in Beijing.

Friends who come to Beijing know that there are many kinds of snacks in Beijing, some of which came from the Qing Palace and were once the emperor's favorite bite. Some of them are traditional halal snacks, which are also highly praised; There is also food for ordinary people, and the taste is very authentic. If you think Beijing snacks are a bit ordinary, you should see where old Beijingers go to eat these authentic Beijing foods.

In old Beijing, fresh fruits were hardly seen in winter. Sugar-Coated Berry and frozen persimmons were the only things that could be used to satisfy the appetite, and dried fruit was one of them.

Dried fruit is a traditional snack in winter in Beijing. It is made of dried apricots, dried persimmons, fresh lotus roots, raisins and other fruits. Amber persimmon, orange-red dried sweet apricots, and snow-white lotus root slices are poured with sweet osmanthus juice and placed in a fruit bowl with ice. When eaten in the mouth, it is cool and crisp, sweet and sour, and very refreshing. In the past, this kind of snack was often sold by vendors in the streets and lanes, and was called "ice cup". They usually hold two copper ice cups and knock them up and down with a clear voice, which spreads far away. They also knock and shout "Dried Fruit ~, Sour Plum Soup ~, Rose Jujube ~, Boiled Begonia ~" and so on. When children living in the streets hear this sound, they quickly take pots and bowls and drag adults out, for fear that they will not be able to eat if they are late.

It is said that when Emperor Tongzhi was nine years old, he went out of the Fengze Gate and the Forbidden City privately to eat this dried fruit.

It was the first time that Little Tongzhi slipped out of the palace. It was really an eye-opener, and everything was so fresh. He saw a group of children gathered in front of a stall, each with a small bowl in his hand. The vendor was scooping a spoon from the car and putting it in the small bowl, and the children took the spoon and ate it all. Little Tongzhi's mouth was watering. He went over and asked, "What is this?" The vendor said, "Young Master, this is called dried frozen fruit. It's sweet and sour and cold. It's delicious. Try it?" Little Tongzhi had never been called "Little Master", and thought it was very interesting, so he readily took the bowl and ate it. It's refreshing to take a bite, so happy! While eating with relish, he was seen by several eunuchs who were anxious to find him. In desperation, Xiao Tongzhi lifted his skirt, poured the rest of the frozen fruit into his pocket and ran back to the palace wet. At this time, everyone knew that this was the little emperor of the dynasty. When he was taken back to the palace, he was reluctant to throw away the dried fruit, which really cut a dash.

Today, such delicious dried fruit is rare in the market, but you can still eat it if you go to the right place.

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< However, this chestnut noodle steamed bread was used exclusively for Cixi before, and it only flowed into the people after the Republic of China.

It is said that during the Gengzi period, Cixi was starving on her way to the west, and a woman gave her a big steamed bun, so the hungry Cixi naturally tasted delicious. After returning to the palace, one day Cixi suddenly wanted to eat this bite, so she ordered it to go on, but the chef dared to make this folk real steamed corn bread for Cixi, so he racked his brains, used finely ground corn flour, and then mixed with a proper amount of soybean powder, sugar and sweet osmanthus, making it into chestnut steamed corn bread with sweet and soft taste for Cixi to enjoy. Cixi was really satisfied after eating, and repeatedly praised her sweet taste as unparalleled.

Chestnut-flour steamed buns are only the size of chestnuts, and taste as soft as chestnuts. According to the chef of imitation food, when making this kind of steamed buns, you should use good new corn flour, which is too fine, then add good yellow bean, and add sweet-scented osmanthus sugar when steaming, so that it will be fragrant and sweet. Moreover, a kilo of flour needs to be steamed into 1 steamed buns to be "small", so the steamed buns shaped like chestnuts got their name.

On the National Day of 1956 after the founding of New China, at the banquet hosted by Premier Zhou Enlai for foreign guests, there was also this imitation dessert-Xiaowotou, which was refined by the old chef of the Qing Palace. When these 4, lovable steamed buns were put on the table, all the foreign guests praised them, and many people shouted: Pyramid! Pyramid! This is a wonderful metaphor for all kinds of steamed buns. Fangshan Xiaowotou has been famous at home and abroad since then.

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Yangyaner steamed buns are a good food for Hui people. Each steamed bun is as big as "Yangyaner", and it is now steamed and has various fillings. When out of the pot, the gravy is soaked in the dough, which is soft and chewy and tastes very delicious.

According to legend, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty wanted to eat this bite, so he disguised himself and went to the Huimin mutton steamed bun shop outside the front door to taste it. When Kangxi walked into the mutton bun shop, the attentive Hui shopkeeper immediately sent two cups of tea with a small tray, greeted the long live grandfather, and said with a smiling face, "I'm not afraid of being annoyed. I haven't tasted any delicacies in the palace, and I've stooped to taste the sheep's eye buns. I really dare not be filial." Kangxi knew that his identity had been discovered, but he still wanted to eat steamed buns. The shopkeeper had no choice but to say, "I am so grateful that I must eat it. Please wait a little." In a short time, hot buns were delivered. Kangxi put one on the plate with chopsticks, and the aroma was fragrant. When he put it in his mouth, it tasted delicious. But Kangxi looked left and right and didn't see the "sheep eye", so he asked the shopkeeper, "Why can't you see the sheep eye?" The shopkeeper replied quickly, "If you return to the Lord, you are guilty and dare not cheat: the stuffing is not sheep's eye, but it is made more finely, and the size of the bag is smaller, like sheep's eye, so it is named' sheep's eye steamed stuffed bun'." After hearing this, Kangxi sent a message: "I think yangyaner steamed stuffed bun is very good. You can always send it to the palace and ask the internal affairs office to open a bank."

from then on, yangyaner steamed stuffed bun became famous all over Beijing. As a result, Muslim restaurants all over the four cities made sheep's eye buns, which became a favorite food for Muslims.

It is said that snowballing with soft glutinous rice and sweet bean paste is also one of the delicacies in the Qing Palace. In the old Beijing, it was a frequent visitor to temple fairs and fairs.

it is said that cixi, who was tired of eating palace delicacies, wanted to try something new one day, but this sudden idea really broke the imperial chef. After much deliberation, the chef decided to make a new pastry with Jiang rice noodles wrapped in red bean paste. But as luck would have it, when the pastry was just finished, an eunuch named "Xiao Lv's son" accidentally bumped into a basin filled with yellow bean. This can be anxious for the royal chef, but it is too late to redo it at this time. There is no way, so the chef has to bite the bullet and present it to Cixi. Who would have thought that as soon as Cixi ate this new gadget, "Hmm!" The taste is not bad, so I asked the chef, "What's this called?" The chef thought that it was all the eunuch named Xiao Lv, so he said to Cixi, "This is called' snowballing'."

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Memories of old Beijingers. Many families will eat stinky tofu milk, a small piece of bluish gray, square and smelly. It tastes rich and pure, and can be put on steamed bread, noodles or pancakes, all of which are delicious.

The most famous stinky tofu milk in Beijing is from Wang Zhihe outside Qianmen, and the inventor is Wang Zhihe, an Anhui native, who has been circulating for more than 3 years. According to legend, he used to be a scholar. After eight years of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty, he failed in the exam in Beijing, so he made tofu for a living and created stinky tofu milk. After many improvements, it tasted better and became more famous.

Later, this story spread to the palace, and a eunuch curiously bought some to taste. Sure enough, he immediately offered it to the emperor. As soon as the emperor tasted it, his appetite opened up, and he sent a decree to list "stinky tofu milk" as one of the side dishes in the Imperial Restaurant and named it "Qingfang". Now, Wang Zhihe's stinky tofu milk is more famous and its business is more prosperous. In the 17th year of Kangxi (1678), Wang Zhihe decided to build a workshop in the west of yanshou temple Street and set up a signboard "Wang Zhihe South Sauce Garden". Since then, the business has grown from generation to generation. Later, it was said that Empress Dowager Cixi especially liked this bite. Every day, she ate a dish of stinky tofu milk poured with fried pepper oil, and it must be made of delicious stinky tofu milk bought from Wang Zhihe Nanjiangyuan that day. At one time, "Wang Zhihe South Sauce Garden" was closed for a few days, so the eunuch who served Cixi had to replace it with the remaining stinky tofu milk, but how could he hide it from Cixi? As soon as she tasted it, she became suspicious and secretly hid a pepper in the stinky tofu milk when eating. When she went to dinner the next day, Cixi was furious when she saw that the pepper she had put was still in it, and reprimanded the eunuch for giving herself leftover stinky tofu milk. From then on, the eunuchs thought of the arrogance of "Galeries Lafayette" and never dared to cheat her again, so they had to go to Wang Zhihe every day to buy fresh stinky tofu milk.

Today, Wang Zhihe stinky tofu milk is sold in all major supermarkets in Beijing. You can also go home and try Empress Dowager Cixi's stinky tofu milk with pepper oil. The method is simple and the taste is unique.

Pea yellow and kidney bean rolls were originally folk snacks, which became snacks in the Qing Dynasty. There is also a short story: It is said that one day Cixi was sitting in the meditation room in Beihai to cool off, when she suddenly heard the sound of beating gongs and shouts from the street, she wondered what they were for, and asked what they were for. The eunuch on duty reported that she sold pea yellow and kidney bean rolls. Cixi was happy for a moment and sent a command to call this person into the garden. When the vendor saw Lafayette, he hurriedly knelt down, holding kidney bean rolls and pea yellow in his hands. Please come to Lafayette. Cixi tasted it and was full of praise, so she left this person in the palace to make pea yellow and kidney bean rolls for her.

In the past, most people who operated "rough pea yellow children" in Beijing were people from Pinggu, Xianghe and Caiyu, because these places were rich in peas. The production of rough pea yellow is simple. Generally, white peas are peeled, stewed with twice as much water as peas, then fried with sugar, mixed with gypsum water and cooked dates, put into a big casserole, cooled into lumps, cut into diamond-shaped pieces like cakes, decorated with small pieces of golden cakes, covered with wet blue cloth, and sold on a wheelbarrow. Kidney bean roll is also a very common snack among the people in Beijing. It is soft and delicate, and the stuffing is sweet and refreshing. Because Cixi is quite satisfied after tasting it, it has become a royal snack in the Qing Dynasty. However, the kidney roll and pea yellow in the Qing palace are still slightly different from those in the folk. Generally speaking, the "fine pea yellow" in the palace is an improvement of the royal kitchen based on the folk small jujube rough pea yellow. The method is exquisite and the materials are excellent: first, the peas are boiled and sieved into paste, with white sugar and sweet-scented osmanthus, which are cut into small squares two inches square and less than half an inch thick after solidification, and a few honey cakes are placed on them, which has the characteristics of delicate and pure texture, instant taste and good color and taste.

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Saqima is my favorite. If I want to eat it, I will go to Beijing Daoxiang Village to buy a piece.

Saqima is one of the traditional cakes in old Beijing, and its name is also an abbreviation of Manchu. Mr. Qi Gong once said that the word "Saqima" was included in Qing Wen Jian compiled by Fu Huan and others during the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, which was interpreted as "dog's milk dipped in sugar". It is easy to understand that "dog's milk" is a little strange. In fact, dog's milk is Lycium barbarum, which is shaped like dog's milk. It was originally used as the fruit material of Saqima, and later it was gradually replaced by raisins, hawthorn cakes and green plums.

There is also a short story about its origin: In the Qing Dynasty, a general who worked in Guangzhou, surnamed Sa, loved riding horses and hunting, and he ate a little snack after every hunting. I can't repeat it! On one occasion, General Sa wanted to go out hunting, and specifically told the chef to "bring something new". If he could not satisfy him, he was ready to go home and "eat the cook". When the chef in charge of dim sum heard this, he was absent-minded and fried the dim sum stained with egg liquid. It happened that at this moment, the general urged for snacks again, and the cook got angry and cursed: "Kill that rider!" " Only in a hurry to set out snacks. But unexpectedly, General Sa was quite satisfied after eating it and asked what the name of this snack was. The cook immediately replied, "Kill the horse." As a result, General Sa listened to "Sa riding a horse", hence the name. Later, Saqima became popular because of its good taste and low price. According to a survey conducted in 1927, there are many Saqima in the hearts of red stoves sold in big teahouses in old Beijing.

Today, the practice of Saqima is divided into north and south, with slight differences. The traditional Saqima in the north needs more cream; In the south, only egg white, leavening agent and sugar are used, which is called Shaqima. What can be seen in the market is mostly Shaqima, but there are a lot less Shaqima. More interestingly, in Hong Kong, people used to call Shaqima "Ma Zi". Because horse racing gambling is commonly known as "betting on horses", some people in Hong Kong believe that they can win the horse racing gambling after eating Shaqima.

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A kind of halal food in old Beijing, similar to soup dumplings, with brown skin and thick soup, which is really attractive. Especially when eating, it must be hot, so that the taste is good. But you can't bite it down, otherwise, it's not only easy to burn your mouth, but also easy to get greasy. If you want to take your time, you'd better pour some vinegar on it. It's really delicious and boring! Eating doornail patties should be accompanied by a bowl of porridge, which can moisten the stomach, and it is a pleasure to have a bite of meat and porridge.

The doornail patties are also related to Empress Dowager Cixi. It is said that the chef of the imperial kitchen made a stuffed snack for Cixi. After tasting it, Cixi liked it very much and asked what kind of food it was. There was no name at that time, but the queen mother asked, I can't say I don't know! Then, the chef had a brainwave and thought of the doornail on the city gate, and said, "This is called doornail patties". Therefore, the meat pie shaped like the nail on the door of the old city gate was named.

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