The sour plum soup is cool and calms your thirst and cools down, making it a great way to cool off on a hot summer day.
Bingzhan luscious and sour plum soup
Text丨Wei Bo
One day in the summer, my daughter, who graduated from college, had a whim, probably because she had just joined the work and was in an anxious mood, and wanted to achieve the effect of removing dryness and heat, so she developed a secret sour plum soup.
My daughter went to the Chinese medicine shop to buy black plum, hawthorn, licorice, tangerine peel and other medicinal materials in proportion, boiled them in a pot and simmered them, filtered them and added rock sugar, and drank them after being chilled. After I tasted it, I lacked the fragrance of osmanthus. The daughter had an epiphany, she also had a way, in order to increase its fragrance, and added a little osmanthus sour plum crystal, put it in the refrigerator after cooling, and then drink it after chilling, the taste was really extraordinary, and the daughter named herself "Wei Ji Secret Sour Plum Soup", and threatened to apply for a patent.
When it comes to sour plum soup, young people nowadays will definitely think that it is nothing more than a drink made with sour plum essence or mixed with concentrated sour plum juice with water. Indeed, there are many kinds of sour plum essence and concentrated plum juice of various brands on the market, and the more famous one is produced by Xinyuanzhai.
In fact, in the old Beijing temple fairs, sour plum soup was one of the most popular varieties in the summer temple fairs. At that time, cold and cool food was scarce, and the cold and tooth-relieving sour plum soup could both quench thirst and cool down, making it a good taste to cool off on a hot summer day. As soon as summer arrives, the vendors selling sour plum soup come alive, holding two ice cups and knocking them out loud and walking the streets. As soon as people heard the crisp and pleasant sound, they knew that the sour plum soup seller was coming, so they couldn't help but go out of the house and buy a bowl to dispel the bitter summer. "Yandu Snack Food Miscellaneous" wrote: "The plum soup is icy and sweet, sweet and sour, cool and refreshing, and the spleen is cold in June. It is rare to sweat and burn the sky, and smell the copper cup hot and wide. "Dumen Bamboo Branch Words" also has the verse "The sound of the copper bowl is called in the street, a pot of ice water and plum soup".
Sour plum soup
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The famous shop that produces and sells sour plum soup in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty is the first in Kyoto in the family of Jiulongzhai and Xidan Pailou Qiu (Yizuoqiu), "thirst-quenching plum soup is iced for a long time, and it is well-known without Jiulongzhai" is the praise of the Qing Dynasty literati Fang Zizhen on Jiulongzhai sour plum soup. Chongyi, a close friend, commented on the sour plum soup of Jiulongzhai, Xidan Qiujia and Xinyuanzhai as follows: "Beijing is a cold drink in summer, and sour plum soup is the best product. It is made of black plum and rock sugar water, and is surrounded by external ice, which cools itself for a long time, does not hurt people, and dispels heat. To Liulichang Xinyuan Zhai, the owner of Xiao's, is the master of Guzhai. In the early years of Qianmen Street, Jiulong Zhai was within the east gate of Qianmen Urn City, and three moves were also. The most prestigious. In fact, it is not as good as Xidan's Qiujia plum soup, Qiu's surname, Xingwu, and the subordinate of the Criminal Department. Its shop is located in the middle of the archway south Yong Road, and later due to the repair of the road, it was forced to relocate. Its floating stall has been around for a long time, and the cover began in the early years of Xianfeng. Yu Pinxin's distant taste is too strong, and the Jiulong flavor is too clear, but Qiujia plum soup is suitable for it. There is no such stall for a long time, or a fruit shop in Yunxi is still in business. ”
Sour plum soup is a traditional cold drink in Beijing, which has a long history and is very elaborate in its preparation, so it can taste mellow when eaten. In particular, the way of selling is very peculiar, not with shouting, but by knocking on the ice cup to attract buyers.
This ice bowl, also known as the ice bowl, is a unique tool for selling cold drinks in Beijing in the summer in the old days. This small object is two brass bowls about two inches in diameter, with a shallow bottom and thick sides, and the upper and lower bowls are stacked on top of each other, and with one hand they are struck together, and then there is a crisp and loud sonorous sound. This pleasant, rhythmic sound can travel far and wide. And some grocery vendors, although they do not sell sour plum soup, only sell glass powder, sour jujube soup, snowflake cheese and the like, but they also knock on the ice bowl. When the candied fruit and dried fruits are replaced with sour plum soup after the market closes, they must knock on the ice cup. Even the sour plum soup seller in front of the fruit bureau also knocked on the ice cup.
Ice Jar
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The sour plum soup is made in exquisite method, all soaked in boiling water, and the raw material is dried plums from dried fruit stores, also called sour plums, and traditional Chinese medicine is called black plum. The raw materials added are rock sugar, osmanthus halogen, and rose marinade to increase its fragrance. It is not allowed to be soaked in raw water, nor can saccharin be used, and the seller mostly indicates "cooked sour plum soup". Of course, ordinary hawkers are not necessarily so strict in making them, not only can they not guarantee hygiene, but also their taste will be affected. After the sour plum soup is prepared, it is poured into a fine porcelain dish with blue and white on a white background, and ice cubes are placed around it to chill.
According to Mr. Deng Yunxiang, the late Qing Dynasty "Patriotic Daily" recorded a description of sour plum soup: silver lacquered ice buckets, pairs of large sea bowls, ice trays, small porcelain pots, white copper crescents, the number plate is also inlaid with copper, the case is surrounded by blue cloth, covered with a large cloth umbrella, and the bronze ice cup is also knocked differently. Such exquisiteness shows the style of selling sour plum soup at that time.
There are two kinds of soup colors in sour plum soup, the thick color is like amber, and the fragrance is mellow; The light color is pale yellow, mellow and refreshing. It is said that at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a stall called "Qiujia Plum Soup" near the Xidan archway, the color was between the shades, and the taste was more pure, but unfortunately this stall had already passed away with history.
Sour plum soup is not only delicious, but also has a certain medicinal effect, according to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", black plum has "lower qi, in addition to heat and annoyance, peace of mind, relieve limb pain...... Water-stained juice drink, treatment of typhoid fever and heat, thirst quenching and adjustment, phlegm and malaria miasma".
In today's market, sour plum soup made by traditional methods is hard to find, and I once saw it occasionally at a banquet, and it tasted far better than ordinary food and industry products. In fact, the traditional sour plum soup can be processed and can be turned into a drink with Chinese characteristics. I believe that the market share of pure natural canned sour plum soup drinks will never be lower than that of all kinds of foreign beverages.
Nowadays, there are many varieties of sour plum essence and sour plum juice in supermarkets, and the sour plum soup made with this raw material cannot be compared with the traditional one. There are all kinds of cold food and cold drinks at the temple fair, and there are many varieties, which are simply dazzling, and people can choose at will, so the traditional sour plum soup is no longer as attractive as in the past.
This article is excerpted from "Everything Becomes a Treasure: An Essay on the Taste of a Famous Culinary Master"
By Wei Bo
Life · Reading· Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore Life Bookstore Publishing Co., Ltd
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