After daily morning exercises, Bai Fu likes to go to the alley to have breakfast with his brothers and sisters. There are three stalls all year round at the entrance of the alley, Aunt Zhong selling bean curds, Brother Liu and Sao Liu selling red oil pot helmets, and Old Man Xiao selling wonton pickles.
Although these three stalls are simple, they taste the essence of Chengdu snacks and have a very pleasant taste.
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Aunt Zhong put the hand-ground tofu into the pot and steamed it for a while, then took it out and put it in a small bowl, added meat and bone stock, stirred in crispy peanuts, chopped coriander, pickled beans, and shredded kohlrabi, and finally topped it with secret chili oil and ate it. One bite, spicy enough to make you sweat and soothing to your throat.
Brother Liu's Guokui is famous for being "dry, crispy, white and fragrant". It is dry and chewy, crispy on the inside and crispy on the outside, white and shiny, mellow and delicious.
There is a large bucket next to the stall. The lid is removed, and the inside is filled with mud to form a furnace with a big belly and a small mouth. Brother Liu kneads the dough on the chopping board, constantly rubbing the balls of fermented dough in his hands. When he is satisfied, he puts it aside and wakes up. ;
When the diners gave instructions, Brother Liu would stretch the woke dough wide and elongated, sometimes into the shape of crabapple leaves, sometimes into the shape of shoe soles, and finally shake a wooden box. The bottom of the wooden box was drilled into sieve-like holes, and sesame seeds were filled inside. You can do it as often or as little as you like.
After kneading it thoroughly, Brother Liu quickly put the pasta into the furnace, which was burning with a blazing charcoal fire. After making the kang for a while, Brother Liu used a pair of special pliers to gently increase the size of the noodles from the furnace. He took out twice as much pot and handed it directly to Mrs. Liu. According to the needs of the diners, Mrs. Liu would add sugar if it was sweet, salt and chili if it was salty, and it was up to you whether the oil was heavy or the oil was light.
The freshly baked Guokui is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It is soft and comfortable. It is hot when you hold it and eat it just right. It is hollow, crispy on the outside, layered on the inside and thick on the sides, absorbing the juice without leaking the soup.
Guokui with red oil beef offal is a perfect match for Liu's Guokui: use low-cost beef offal scraps, wash, braise and slice into pieces, add soy sauce, red oil, chili, pepper noodles, sesame noodles, etc., mix well, and add In the freshly cooked Guokui, the aroma of hot noodles enhances the aroma of the meat to the extreme, and the greasy meat is absorbed by the Guokui and becomes invisible. It is fragrant, crispy, soft, and enjoyable to eat.
Next to it happened to be Mr. Xiao's picker, put a bowl of shredded chicken on it, add soybeans, chives, chopped green onion, coriander leaves, celery segments, then pour the secret sesame oil, and it's ready!
The hand on the right hand is crystal clear and the soup is steaming, the vegetables are green and yellow, and the pulp is fresh and attractive; the left hand is holding a red oily beef offal pot helmet, which can produce fluid under the tongue even if you are not hungry.
The tofu flowers are tender and sour, the beef offal is fat but not greasy, and the shredded chicken is round and warm to the stomach. Although it is a street snack, the fragrance can fill your cheeks and the taste can soak into the six organs. The scenery of Bashu and the good wine are not afraid of the deep alleys. Not only the common people love to eat it , even officials often visit.
Among the three, Bai Fu's favorite is Old Man Xiao's shredded chicken. Duan Fuyin once praised his family: "Now Yiguan's famous food is Xiao's wontons, and the fat soup can be drained, so you can make tea."
After eating for a long time, Bai Fu became familiar with them.
Bai Fu asked: "Uncle Xiao, what's the secret of your hand being so delicious?"
Old Man Xiao said: "Finely chop the meat dumplings, add bamboo shoots or wild rice, leeks, or wisteria flowers. Wrap it evenly with a little Sichuan pepper almond paste. The skin should be slightly thicker. Cut it into squares and roll it out with real powder. Next. When the soup is boiling, stir it in extremely boiling soup. Don't cover it until it floats, and don't stir it any more. Do not use amomum villosum in the stuffing, use only belch."
Bai Fu had nothing to do, so he also gave Old Man Xiao a hand and helped him outflank him. Bai Fu was quick and could cover a large plate with just one stick of incense.
Old Man Xiao looked at it and shook his head, saying: "You are such a ruthless young man, you only wrap a little bit of meat in each copy."
Bai Fu joked: "Uncle Xiao, who among the wonton sellers in the world would dislike the dumplings stuffed with meat fillings? What's more, except for old diners, who can eat a wonton with too much stuffing and too little stuffing?"
Old man Xiao didn't refute, squatted down on the bench, took a puff of dry cigarette, and said slowly: "There is more stuffing, but there is less stuffing. Don't others know it, and the heart doesn't know it either? What is benevolence? Is it peace of mind or not?"
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On this day, Li Gan, the imperial envoy, came to Chengdu to declare an edict. He held up a sign of silence, avoided the sign, and had a dignified ceremonial guard. When the people saw it, they quickly got out of the way. An old man who was doing business moved slowly. Before he could close his stall, the ceremonial guard team arrived in front of him.
This Li Qian is a popular figure in the emperor today, and he is arrogant. This time he came to Xishu to announce the decree. He thought that the country of Tianfu was rich and got a lucrative job, but he did not expect that the ceremony he received was very different. Especially the defense of Jianmen Pass.
General Zhao Kunlun was even more ignorant of the ways of the world. He even skipped the banquet on the pretext that he was busy with military affairs.
After traveling thousands of miles and arriving in Chengdu, the governor of Chengdu did not understand the rules. He knew that the imperial envoys were coming and did not greet them ten miles outside the city. Li Qian was unhappy when he heard someone blocking the road. He felt irritated and asked his men to kill the people directly.
He was pinned to the ground and beaten with twenty killing sticks. This was a severe warning to the Chengdu officialdom.
The old man didn't resist, and after receiving twenty sticks silently, he got up, brushed off the dirt on his body, walked straight to his stall, picked up the wonton picker, and wandered toward the depths of the alley.
Before the execution, the primary school student was very worried about what to do if he killed his father-in-law with a stick on the spot and aroused public outrage. At this time, he was even more frightened when he saw that the old man was acting as usual. He quickly reported to Li Gan, saying that the stick hit the old man as if he were being beaten.
On soft leather.
Only then did Li Qian realize that the person who was beaten was an old man, and he was afraid. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured.
When I was in Chang'an, I often heard that there were many strange people in Bashu, and it was true. So I secretly called the soldiers around me and asked them to follow my father-in-law and find out the situation.
The old man was carrying the pick, and his movements looked slow, but when he reached Jinli, he disappeared into the alley in a few flashes. The soldier was dazzled and lost track of him.
However, this soldier had a background as a police officer and was a master of tracking. After looking left and right, he turned into a small courtyard. He heard Old Man Xiao's voice coming from the courtyard: "I'm in a very difficult situation today. I need to drink some water."
It turned out that this father-in-law was none other than Mr. Xiao, the owner of Xiaojia Wonton.