Nightlife and night economy have always been fashionable landscapes, and eating, drinking and having fun is also the eternal theme of nightlife. Since then, the city of Chengdu has been dominated day and night by a spirit of eating, drinking and playing in the streets and alleys. You see, whenever the sun sets, all kinds of stalls, food stalls are lit up, guests flock to the scene, mostly young and middle-aged men and women, in a moment there will be a lot of people, noisy, cheering, punching, eating and drinking, shouting, one after another, very lively. Coupled with the setting up of stalls or the "ghost food" that flows around, the nightlife of Chengdu, which never sleeps, has been formed. This outdoor open-air food scene lasts until about three or four o'clock in the morning, and the people of Rongcheng city call it a "cold cup" or "night beer".
This cold cup, the night beer square, thousands of people eat and drink. This is exactly the feast of the night; there are rabbit heads, there are spicy and hot, there are lobster peeling, bamboo sticks are picky for snails, there are chewing small barbecues, selling stewed pig's trotters, etc., thousands of families in the city. On the side of the parking road, BMW, Cadillac dignified and generous with battery cars, bicycles in a pile; local tycoons, dicks, scumbags, greasy uncles, as well as rich second generation, Bai Fumei, etc., also mixed together without scruples; especially those whose faces are flushed, sweating, eating exaggerated beauties and ladies, perhaps cold white-collar workers who do not squint during the day; the naked white-collar workers at the neighboring table, with dark skin hanging on the sweat mixed with dust, or who have just come down from the construction site; the other side can't stop shaking the big fan and eating edamame leisurely. The old man who drinks beer may already be a scholar of peach and plum... Everyone eats and drinks face to face together to eliminate the heat. At this time, people, only at this time, under the night, can they reveal their true nature without scruples, high and low, noble, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, all blended in the fragrance of the cold cup, eating, drinking, talking and laughing.
Nightlife can also come alive
The origin of the cold cup
Cold cup, used to be called cold tavern, as for when it originated, where it originated, it is difficult to verify. From Du Fu's in the Tang Dynasty: "Panbiao City is far from a tasteful, and the bottle restaurant is poor and only old." To the early Qing Dynasty scholar Jin Shengzhi, who is famous for commenting on "Water Margin" and "West Chamber", sighed: "The dried tofu in Chengdu Cold Tavern is mixed with peanuts and rice, which is better than ham", then the Chengdu Cold Cup is also a long history.
Cold taverns are generally small, and the cabinets next to the door are often lined with large and small wine altars, although the stones wrapped in red cloth press against the altar, but the aroma of wine still flows out delicately, making people drunk before drinking. The wine is very simple, a slice of brine ribs, a plate of pig ears, a piece of dried brine tofu, a piece of fried yellow crispy pea oil cake, a small pile of fried peanuts, you can relax and drink or drink. Some of the drinkers came out of the meal, and some of them were hungry, and the latter simply used wine as a meal, which is the "cold cup".
The saying "cold cup" was originally a well saying in Chengdu. The "cold bite" refers to cold vegetables and cold wine, cold eating and cold drinking, simple and convenient. But now most people say "cold", although "light" is not as vivid as "啖", but a "light" word is also vivid and flexible and profound. "Light" refers to coarse tea and light rice, frugal by oneself, simple and convenient. Although "cold" also deeply implies the meaning of "looking at the world coldly and living indifferently", it is not a cold and indifferent treatment of people, but it is not extravagant and luxurious. Three friends and five friends together, sitting at a table idly eating cold, talking and laughing, but also quite a "gentleman's friendship is as light as water" style. Therefore, Chengdu people invite guests, even if it is a rich table, they will also say: "Coarse tea and light rice, sorry Ha!" And if someone invites guests, there will be a saying in the pile: "Please be hot, eat indifferently." In this way, the "coldness" of the "cold cup" is cold but not cold, it is a kind of life mentality and realm that is light but not thin, light and flavorful, light in pleasure, light in seeing the truth, and seeing love in light.
Cold cup tavern
Dozens of years ago in Chengdu, there were many such taverns in the streets and alleys. These cold taverns do not sell hot noodle rice, only "glasses of wine". The dry branches on the street beams are hung with strings of smoked dried tofu for the men who work hard at night to drink, gather, relieve fatigue, and sit in a teahouse. The appetizer is mostly salt-boiled peanuts, edamame, sautéed beans, crispy soybeans, dried tofu and other dry snacks.
Some of these cold taverns also have roasted pork stalls at the entrance, and a wooden shelf with a square table slightly inclined outwards is filled with red and shiny, oily marinated pork head, ribs, heart tongue and liver belly, and pickled duck, rabbit, chicken wings, duck feet and other meat dishes. Rich drinkers do not enter the store, they first cut points on the stall, use the dried lotus leaf stall to enter the store and then beat the wine. These roasted pork stalls were later made into pickled brine taverns. Like the "fragrant flavor" of the original Chengshou East Street, the "Libin Feast" of South Street, and the "Pan Food Market" of Huaxing Street, which is still popular. Like the north side of the original commercial field, there is a low street, commonly known as Liu Dwarf's "cold cup", the boss lives in the store, silent all day. Inside the door shop are two small square tables, often with customers opening the door. His family's large wine altar is covered with red cloth, and the green fruit, jujube and goji thorn bubble wine have a unique flavor. The basket on the cabinet contains leather eggs and salted eggs, and the basket is piled with fried peanuts, boiled peanuts, and brine edamame, which only sells for two cents and a bamboo circle. These appetizers, peanuts with the wind blowing dried tofu have a long aftertaste, refreshing and chewy, very edible. When the boss is happy, he will also sing: "Spiced dried tofu, spicy dried tofu, pepper and salt, eat and drink to understand." From the street to the end of the street, you can smell the smell of sparkling wine.
However, the vast majority of poor people play one or two or two shochu, buy a pile of fried peanuts for two cents, or a piece of dried tofu, one by one, little by little, slowly taste the wine and chat easily. There are also slightly more generous people on hand, buy a duck wing or rabbit head, if you cut the pig's ears or cut a quarter of the roast duck, it is already very luxurious.
I remember that in the early 1950s, my father would lead me to a cold tavern on the street of Zhonglianchi in the evening, carry me to a high bench next to the table, ask for a drink or two, sometimes buy a peanut, or a piece of dried tofu the size of a half playing card, give me half of it, and then drink while swinging a dragon gate with the drinkers at the same table. Because they know each other very well as neighbors, the liquor owner will occasionally entertain me with a small piece of pig's ear, which is simply a blessing for me. Such "cold cup" taverns continued until the natural disaster period of the 1960s, due to the shortage of materials, all daily necessities were supplied in limited quantities with tickets before they had to disappear.
Past cold cup street taverns
Continuation of the cold cup
By the 1990s, most people had a few spare money in their bags, and summer suppers became fashionable. Whenever the sun sets, "karaoke", video halls, dance halls and large department stores are bustling, accompanied by cold cups, spicy hot, skewers, barbecue stalls, stirring up a sweltering summer night. Especially if there are football matches or European Championships and World Cups, it is even more earth-shaking, and the Cold Cup can even fill Tianfu Square. Thousands of men and women drank cold beer, ate duck feet, tore chicken wings, nibbled rabbit heads, peeled lobsters, squeezed brine edamame, chewed crispy peanuts, drank wine while punching shells, astronomical geography, international and domestic, celebrity scandals, celebrity anecdotes, city anecdotes, gossip into nine gua, everything to talk about, everything. Only at this time, on this occasion, is it open mouth to talk nonsense, unrestrained. Daytime fatigue, boredom and depression, grievances and dissatisfaction, etc., are all vented in cold beer, cold vegetables, fragrant tea, melon seeds and laughter. The flies that fly in the sky during the day also go home to rest at night, even if the mosquitoes on the night shift come out, they are also people drinking ice beer, mosquitoes drinking hot blood, going with the flow, naturally. It really became "drunkenly looking at the world, laughing and cursing the world", everything faded away in the cold cup, and the body and mind also got a momentary comfort, saw themselves again, found some confidence and enjoyed life with peace of mind.
The nightlife of Xiangxiang Lane in Chengdu
"Cold Cup" is mostly located in densely populated areas or more remote roadside hollows, street sidewalks, bridgehead riverside, one after another, next to each other, forming a street of "Cold Cup". Around six o'clock in the evening, the tables and chairs and benches are spread all the way, the night falls, the lights are shining, the diners will come one after another, and the small workers will pick up guests one after another, greeting and sitting, serving dishes and pouring wine, and the crowds are crowded for a while, and the sky is lively and noisy. In addition to beer, most of them are also equipped with the boss's own soaked green fruit (green olive) wine, goji berry wine or other tonic liquor, Chengdu people call it "bubble wine", the wine is counted in two, bamboo tube small wine mention one or two, the ancient style still exists, it is interesting. Beer is mostly not used in a cup, and the bottle is lifted up to drop the wine without leaking half a bottle into the stomach, which is called "blowing the trumpet".
The dishes of the cold cup are common at home. However, today's "cold cup" dishes are much richer, in addition to regular dishes, there are also lotus leaf porridge, mung bean soup, eight treasure porridge, cold powder, cold noodles, powder mash, drunken eight immortals (assorted fruit mash), marinated beef, cured meat, sauce meat, sausage, spicy chicken, green pepper mixed with skin eggs and dozens of hundreds of varieties. By about ten o'clock, the "cold cup" gradually entered a better state, most of the drinkers and diners were already drunk and hot, their brains were full of fat, drunken, excited, shirtless, naked, if there was no one talking about the ball, the five drinks and six guessing boxing orders, the whispering chanters or the singers were intertwined, it was really the "ghost diet" paradise of the male ghosts and female ghosts.
Cold cup with a variety of cold dishes
Especially there are large-scale football events like the World Cup, that in the city sports center, convention center, Tianfu Square and other places with large TV screens are more all night, eating cold cups, watching the event men and women are like cooking a big pot of dumplings, the heads rolling and rolling waves, cheers, sighs, screams and scolding are deafening, there must be a strong heart and low blood pressure, in order to support. Outsiders can't help but stop and be stunned, but they are amazed, Chengdu people really have the ability to turn a "World Cup" into a super "food stall".
"Cold Cup" is not a single snack variety, as a unique diet form that integrates gourmet delicacies, folk customs, and local customs and the life form of the people, it is Chengdu people who combine chengdu's geographical characteristics and humanistic feelings to play the "cold dish" eating method in three meals a day to the extreme. Not only that, in the past two decades, Chengdu people who are delicious, like to eat and good at eating have created such unique food scenes as "cold cup", "skewer incense", "spicy hot", "farmhouse" and other unique food interests and style characteristics, and the cold cup, a wonderful idea that integrates food and leisure, has also spread its wings and flew out of Bashu, and the wind and fire are in Kyushu.
That's where the nightlife gets buzzing
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.08.12 Chengdu