There are not only a few commercial streets in Zhongdu City that sell breakfast.
There are also street vendors on many streets in residential areas who get up early to sell breakfast. However, some well-known stores will make their reputations on the commercial streets and start their own morning market battles on the commercial streets early in the morning.
Therefore, as long as residents of Zhongdu don't get up late or have to rush out for urgent matters, they usually choose to go to the three commercial streets to satisfy their "the day's plan starts in the morning".
For now, there is almost no difference between the morning market in Zhongdu and the morning market in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. The same prosperity, the same crowds of people, the same rich variety, the same fragrant aroma, and full of Su Yonglin's favorite things in the world. Fireworks.
If you look at it more specifically, the Zhongdu morning market can be considered all-inclusive, with breakfast varieties ranging from northern noodles to Jiangnan meals.
If you walk on the street and look in both directions, you can see fragrant sesame cakes, tofu flowers, glutinous rice cakes, crab meat buns, crystal buns, fried vegetable cakes, steamed dumplings, shrimp dumplings, etc. at the street stalls. Just looking at it, the aroma is fragrant and mouth-watering.
All kinds of breakfast are piled on the stall, allowing passing diners to watch and choose.
When the diners like it, they tell the stall owner what they want to eat, and then sit on the low stool next to the stall. The stall owner will then put the food on the low table in front of him and wait for it to be eaten.
If the diners have plenty of time and money, are more particular about the pleasure and comfort of breakfast, and want a richer variety, then they can abandon the street stalls and go directly to the street breakfast shops.
These breakfast shops are usually opened by people with some financial resources, or they are very confident in their own breakfast, so they give up the way of running a street stall and change to a fixed store operation.
This type of breakfast shop generally has some decent interior decoration, and the tables, chairs and benches inside are different from the low and compact stalls outside.
Diners at the stalls sitting on the low tables have to lean forward to eat the food on the low tables. If they are interested in eating, others will look at them and look like animals eating, which is quite indecent in the eyes of decent people. .
The tables, chairs and benches in the breakfast shop are no different from those at home.
The diners sat down solemnly, straightened their backs, stretched out their chopsticks in front of the breakfast on the table, and felt like a big shot exercising their power wantonly, and they consciously interacted with those outside who were lying on the low table eating. People are different.
At the same time, there are more varieties to choose from in breakfast shops. Some of the breakfast stalls are available in some shops, and some shops that are not found in the walking stalls are also available in the shops.
For example, mutton blood, mutton rice soup, pork bone noodle soup, five-flavor meat porridge, seafood porridge, fried white sausage, fried plum fish, etc.
A variety of breakfasts are served on the dishes on the dining table in the store. Diners are often dazzled when they go in. They have to overcome their phobia of choice, choose what they want to eat, and eat it when they sit down.
After eating, you pay different prices depending on the number and type of dishes. It's a one-price price, so you don't get deceived.
If you like rice, of course you should go to those breakfast restaurants. The various rice-based foods are enough to make people who like rice endlessly happy. It feels very happy to hold a bowl and eat rice with big mouthfuls.
If you like to eat noodles, you can go to [Fencha Shop], which is a store specializing in selling noodles, to have a hot bowl of three fresh noodles, or a bowl of shrimp noodles with ingredients, or shredded chicken noodles, or pork and sheep noodles. , Fish Tong Skin Noodles, Salt Fried Noodles, Bamboo Shoot Pork Noodles, Fried Chicken Noodles, etc.
As for the way to eat breakfast, there is a clear difference between old Zhongdu residents and outsiders who come to Zhongdu for business, and outsiders can see it at a glance.
Foreigners are often dazzled by the bustling business scene in Zhongdu. Faced with a dazzling array of food, they simply don’t know what to choose.
They eat one thing and are afraid that the other one is more delicious, so they lose sight of the other. In the end, they eat a full stomach in a daze, but feel that they have not eaten anything, leaving only regrets.
But this is not the case for the old Zhongdu people who often come here to have breakfast. They have their favorite shops and breakfasts very early.
Regular customers who are familiar with a certain store know very well what kind of breakfast is most appetizing in the store, and have a clear goal. The old god walked into the store, sat down calmly, and shouted "Man, it's the same as before."
After a while, a waiter working in the store brought the favorite food of regular customers and placed it in front of him with a smile on his face.
"As usual, salt-fried noodles, three large pieces of skin-on pork, two cloves of garlic, and a bowl of hot soup. That's it. You haven't been here for a while."
"Hey, doesn't the government want to build schools in the surrounding villages? Our papermaking is good, so the government made rules with us and called the eight papermaking workshops in Zhongdu together for a meeting. We are so busy right now. I have lost my head and can’t even think about eating.”
"Hey, you always make a lot of money, don't forget to patronize our little store."
"Hahahaha, I can't forget you if I forget anything, just this salt-fried noodles. No, I'll come as soon as I have time. Come on, go ahead, I'm going to miss this bite of noodles."
After saying that, the regular customer stopped talking to the waiter and concentrated on the salt-fried noodles in front of him.
Eating this noodle is also very particular. You have to take a bite of the meat, then bite off a small clove of garlic, and finally take a sip of the shiny salt-fried noodles, and then chew it, focusing on feeling the aroma of the meat, the aroma of garlic and the smoothness of the noodles. The feeling of strong energy playing a symphony in your mouth.
The traditional cakes that northerners are used to eating also have a strong inheritance here.
Not to mention ordinary steamed cakes and cooking cakes, soup cakes are more popular in the morning, especially mutton soup cakes, pork bone soup cakes, etc. that have been improved by some stores.
The old soup cakes only contained soup and cakes, but the improved ones added thin noodles or tofu skin to increase the taste.
A mouthful of cake, a mouthful of soup, a mouthful of noodles or tofu skin, all mixed together, leaving a mouthful of fragrance.
In addition, there is also the "vegetarian burrito" included in the palace menu disclosed by Su Yonglin.
This kind of enchilada has also become a favorite among old and Chinese people who like pancakes because it contains vegetables, meat and pancakes.
Tacos usually use cut fresh green leafy vegetables and stewed very soft pork. They are spread out on a thin flatbread, then smeared with some of the sauces that everyone is used to, and then use their own customary techniques. Roll it up and roll it into a burrito that can be held in one hand, wrap it in oil paper and eat it.
This is often the first choice for people who are busy working or going to school in the morning when they are on their way.
For example, students who want to attend Zhongdu Meng School and Middle School.
They get up late in the morning, but have to catch up with early classes, and have no time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. The fajita is a good choice. You can take it and go, eat it while walking, and do not waste time on the road. It is as good as it should be. There are all of them, which makes people very satisfied.
If you have a little more time, you can have a bowl of wontons while eating the burrito. Wontons cook quickly. In some stores, the wontons are cooked by just rinsing them with water in a few seconds, and they are steaming in the soup bowl.
Take a bite of the burrito and have a wonton with the soup. It's fragrant and delicious and won't make you choke, and you can finish a bowl of it.
A burrito costs three cents for a small one, five cents for a large one, and three or four cents for a bowl of wontons. The total cost is less than ten cents, and a breakfast is just enough.
If you are on a budget and want to save some money for something larger, a fajita for thirty to five pennies can last you all morning.
If you want to eat better, for example, a bowl of salt-fried noodles with meat will only cost ten cents if you add all the ingredients. A large bowl of mutton or pork noodle soup or soup cakes will also cost the same.
Others, such as crab meat buns and dumplings, are indeed a little more expensive due to the transportation of seafood, but they are not much more expensive. They are only one or two cents more than ordinary meat buns and dumplings.
Not to mention that accommodation in Zhongdu City is indeed not cheap, but when it comes to eating meat and vegetables, Zhongdu City is indeed quite cheap.
The people of Zhongdu spent their morning in this steaming and bustling morning market.
After walking for a while, Su Yonglin's stomach growled, and he couldn't resist the temptation of delicious food, so he gave up the idea of going forward.
As an old Zhongdu native, Su Yonglin didn't know much about Zhongdu breakfast shops. Mainly because there weren't many opportunities to get out, so after looking around, he dragged Xin Qiji and Hu Wei together I chose a street stall.
This stall is placed on the roadside, surrounded by four low tables with four low stools on each table. On the low table is a wooden tube and a wooden box. There are chopsticks in the wooden tube and spoons in the wooden box. Simple tableware.
At this time, three of the four tables were occupied. Su Yonglin and others grabbed the last one and ordered tofu pudding, fried vegetable pancakes, chicken soup wontons and vegetable enchiladas.
During this period, the number of fried and fried foods in breakfast stalls and stores in Zhongdu City has greatly increased compared with the past.
This is mainly due to the imperial court's emphasis on and regulation of agriculture.
After grain production stabilized, the Zhongdu court specially arranged for some rural areas to grow oil crops instead of grain, and then signed contracts with them.
The contract stipulates that the oil crops they produce will be specially purchased by the state, and then the official workshops of the Oil Plants Department under the Ministry of Agriculture will be responsible for pressing the oil, and then the official stores of the Oil Plants Department will be responsible for selling them on the market.
After various costs and expenditures are controlled, the price of oil will also be controlled. If you buy in large quantities, there will be discounts of varying degrees, so leaving aside other places for the time being, just looking at the Zhongdu area, the price of oil is not expensive. .
In this context, various fried and fried dishes appear in large numbers, and breakfast is even more colorful.
Not long after the three of them sat down, the stall owner served breakfast quickly.
Su Yonglin, who had been hungry for a long time, couldn't control himself, so he started eating with a face full of joy.
"Come on, come on, you're welcome, go ahead and eat. Haha, I've loved eating tofu flowers since I was a child. I still remember when I was a kid, there was an aunt at home who was very good at making tofu flowers. It's fragrant and smooth, and it's hot in the stomach after one bite. Wow, it’s so comfortable.”
Su Yonglin was eating tofu flowers from a bowl with a satisfied look on his face.
Xin Qiji took a bite of the fajita and looked satisfied.
Only Hu Wei was a little nervous. He took small bites of the wonton bowl and didn't dare to talk nonsense.
Xin Qiji didn't have any taboos, so he started chatting with Su Yonglin.
"The breakfasts you had when you were young must have been richer than now, right? After several trips south, I felt that the officials in the Southern Song Dynasty were very particular. They had rules about food, clothing, housing, and transportation, which were very different from ordinary people."
"No, it's very particular."
Su Yonglin gulped down a bowl of tofu flowers in a hurry, which sounded the charge for himself. He picked up a fried vegetable pancake and took a bite. The fragrance of chives mixed with the oil bloomed in his mouth.
"At that time, my family was working as an official while "going out to sea". As money was tight, my grandfather wanted to have the style of a Zhongming Dingshi House. The whole family would gather together from the morning, and there would be a big table with thirty-six dishes without repeating them.
Ordinary people's porridge and side dishes are not allowed on the table, but fish porridge, shrimp porridge, crab porridge, and the hard-to-get mutton porridge, as well as crystal shrimp dumplings, four-color steamed buns, large steamed buns with thin fillings, and thin skin. There are so many spring cocoon bags that I can get dizzy. "
Not to mention that Hu Wei, who came from a poor background, had never heard of these things. Even Xin Qiji, who came from a wealthy family, was a little surprised when he heard this.
"So many? Sir... When I was a child, my family was considered wealthy, and my breakfast was not so exaggerated..."
"It's really an exaggeration to be like that in my family. Even if you don't tell me, I think it's an exaggeration. At most, there are only five people in our family eating breakfast. Five people, thirty-six kinds of breakfast, and not all of them are finished."
Su Yonglin stuffed the remaining half of the fried vegetable pancake into his mouth, chewed it quickly, drank a few mouthfuls of the soup in the chicken soup wontons, swallowed it, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"What should I do with the food that I can't finish? Just throw it away. Sometimes there is more than half of it, so I throw it all away and never keep it for the next meal. Grandpa talks about ostentation. I don't like to do this, but I can't help it. , and no one listened to me.
I persuaded my grandfather not to do this, but he just laughed and said that our family has money, we can do whatever we want, no matter how extravagant or wasteful we are, we deserve it, and the emperor doesn’t care anyway, the emperor doesn’t care, Who else dares to make irresponsible remarks? "
"This... is indeed not something that should be advocated."
Xin Qiji's voice was a little soft.
"What shouldn't be advocated? That's the wrong thing to do. Grandpa is depressed and can't express himself politically. He can only vent his anger in other places."
Su Yonglin shook his head, picked up a fajita, and took a big bite: "Later on, every time I saw so much extravagance and waste at home, I wondered how many more people we could feed with the food we wasted every day. Woolen cloth?
If we eat less at home, or give the uneaten food to the beggars outside, maybe those beggars can survive and not starve to death, but no, we have never done such a thing at home, and would rather throw it away. Nor do I feed it to those in need, which I have always regretted. "
Hu Wei, who came from a miserable background, was speechless as he recalled the miserable life of his family when he was young.
Xin Qiji was silent for a while, and then laughed.
"But what you are doing now is much greater than it was then. No matter how kind-hearted you were in the past, no matter how much you gave alms to beggars, you could only save a few or a dozen people. But now, You can save millions of people.”
Su Yonglin raised his eyebrows, looked at Xin Qiji and said with a smile, "Have you, Xin Youan, learned to flatter you too?"
"Just tell the truth. If this is considered flattery, will anyone dare to tell the truth?"
Xin Qiji took a bite of the fajita and chewed it with a smile.
Su Yonglin chuckled.
"Liu Bei once said, don't do good deeds because they are small, and don't do evil because it is small. Any good deed, no matter how small, should be done as long as it can be done. It is good to save ten thousand people and ten thousand people. , it’s good to save one person, at least that one person cares.”
After saying that, Su Yonglin looked at Hu Wei, who had been silent, and smiled kindly: "What do you think?"
"I...I...of course it's right, of course it's right...ah!"
Su Yonglin suddenly asked. Hu Wei didn't react for a moment and made a fool of himself. His hand shook and a wonton fell to the ground.
"Don't be too nervous. I'm not a man-eating beast, and I won't eat you. Why are you so nervous?"
Su Yonglin smiled helplessly, looked at Xin Qiji and asked, "Am I scary?"
"You shouldn't ask me this kind of thing."
Xin Qiji smiled and said, "Wouldn't it be nice to ask him?"
Xin Qiji pointed at Hu Wei, whose face was flushed.
Caught between the two bosses, Hu Wei suddenly felt that he was in a dilemma and was not human inside and out.
Perhaps knowing that his image had indeed moved in an irreversible direction after the purge, Su Yonglin laughed out loud and said nothing more. Instead, he went all out and ate all his breakfast.
