Looking back at the old garden, the most nostalgic thing is the beloved relatives and friends who are connected by blood; and the most nostalgic thing is the rural style that is treasured in the depths of memory. As a native of BlackPool, the best memory of childhood is to lead the adult's clothes and go to the street to catch the market. The biggest motivation for the market is to go to the long-desired mustard shop and eat a bowl of lamb mustard with a meat aroma and soaked in red oil and spicy seeds. That delicious taste, that feeling of luxury, still full of temptation when I think about it to this day.
Heichi Town is a large town in the southeastern region of Heyang County. There are mounds, beaches, ditches and rivers in the territory. It is rich in high-quality wheat and suitable for grazing sheep. The unique natural conditions have combined to create a famous local snack: Blackpool lamb and mustard.
Although the Black Pond Lamb Hu Bao is only a local snack, its historical origins can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty more than 800 years ago. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", after Jin submitted Wang Zhen to the Southern Song Dynasty, he led his troops south. When his army reached the village of Hanzhuang near the town of Blackpool, it was already dusk. Seeing that their military discipline was strict and did not harm the people, the local people came forward to greet them warmly. Some bring lamb, some bring bread. Wang Zhen and his party were hungry and thirsty, so they casually boiled the lamb and flour cakes sent by the locals together, and when they were cooked, they tasted it, and its taste was wonderful and delicious.
In the tenth year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1140), Wang Zhen and Yue Fei joined forces with Yue Fei in Zhuxian Town, breaking the Jin army and forcing The Jin Wushu Emperor to flee. At the celebration banquet of the master Zhu Jie, Wang Zhen asked his subordinates to present the "two-in-one delicacy" to marshal Yue. After Yue Fei tasted it carefully, he felt that the taste was extremely beautiful, so he asked what it was. Wang Zhen said: "The meat is mutton, and the bread is the bread called by the Han people." Boiling the two together is this thing, and we Hu people also love to eat it! Yue Fei said: "Hu Han can become a brother, but also can become a family, then call this delicacy 'Hu Rao'." ”
Blackpool lamb hurri is a folk snack made from high-quality wheat flour to bake into pancakes, cut into thin strips, and then simmered with delicious lamb. It is exquisitely made, the soup is rich and delicious, the taste is strong, and the aftertaste is long. "I'd rather eat a plate of mustard than a table." This long-standing folk proverb shows the local people's love and respect for this flavor snack.
Black pond people eat mustard, originally there is a particularity, that is, after the spring, in the spring of sheep breeding and breastfeeding, you can not kill sheep to eat mustard. It is not until around June that the mustard shop on Blackpool Street can open for business in the expectation of nearly half a year. At that time, it was just the time for the fresh sheep fat soup and new wheat to play. People who are difficult to eat meat on weekdays can feast on a plate of lamb and gourge to nourish their bodies and minds. In winter, the mutton mustard that is both nourishing and stomach-warming is a delicious dish to drive away the cold and maintain health! Being able to enjoy a plate of mustard in a mustard shop was the happiest life I had ever dreamed of as a child! Now, the taboo has been broken, and you can eat delicious lamb mustard all year round on Blackpool Street.
Blackpool lamb mustard, spread in the town of Blackpool and the surrounding area. Nowadays, the best craftsmanship on Blackpool Street is Wang Baichen. The seventy-nine-year-old Wang Baichen was now the famous Hu Rao master Peng Yue'er. And his craft was learned and figured out from Peng Yue'er's most outstanding apprentice, Wang Youwa.
If you want to master a craft to support your family, Wang Baichen when he was a teenager knew that he must study and practice diligently, and even more importantly, he must think hard. If you don't want to suffer hardships and be opportunistic, you can't learn the craft.
From the age of fourteen to the present, The old man Wang Baichen, who has been sticking to the Hu Bao shop all his life, is well aware of the hardships of this line. Go to the county town to talk to the exchange meeting, open their own carrot shop, the best time for business, that is, when they are the most bitter and tired.
Bitter is sweet! For decades, relying on his tenacious perseverance and exquisite craftsmanship, Wang Baichen has supported the family's livelihood by selling hu bao. If you suffer more than the people around you, you will naturally be richer than other people's lives. When a working day in a production team is worth only two cents, he can earn sixty dollars a month. This enviable high income also made him miss the opportunity to become a regular employee of the state-run canteen, causing him to regret for life.
After the responsibility system, Wang Baichen, who was in his forties and in his prime, broke away from the state-run canteen and partnered with others to open his own mustard shop. Several people invest together, work together, and share dividends. The business at that time was so good that they were surprised.
The loose policy has brought a new turning point to the life of Wang Baichen's family. Income increased, life became richer, and under his leadership, the whole family naturally joined under his banner.
Although the income is good, the excessive hard work makes the eldest son Wang Hongbin tired of this profession. As an adult, he did not want his son to inherit his father's business and continue to work in this line. His rebellion made his father, who had sold his lifelong mustard, helpless.
It is better to do business than to sell rice. After many setbacks, Wang Hongbin picked up his family's heirloom craftsmanship and opened a new restaurant on Blackpool Street. Wang Hongbin, who grew up playing big in the Hu Bao shop, picked and chose, and finally stepped on his father's footprints in this line. From boiling meat to cutting cakes, from cooking mustards to matching spices, he has inherited his father's traditional craftsmanship and made some new improvements according to the changes of the times.
Today, Wang Baichen has been running the old shop for more than 30 years, and is headed by Wang Yanan, the daughter of the second son. Although the elderly Wang Baichen, who is nearly eighty years old, has inconvenient legs and feet and cannot cook himself, he still can't rest assured that he will keep nodding to his children and grandchildren.
On Blackpool Street, the chef in charge of the mustard shop has been a strong man from ancient times to the present. Wang Yanan's joining has a bit of a demeanor of shouldering the responsibility for his father. Wang Yanan's father has poor eyesight, and his grandfather is now old, and Wang Yanan, who is in his twenties, with the assistance of his whole family, is trying his best to support the signboard and façade of the oldest hulu shop in Blackpool Town.
Blackpool Town is the main position where Blackpool is popular and popular. The influence of Blackpool lamb mustard has long been affected in the surrounding areas. On Majiazhuang Street, south of Blackpool, Ma Zhongshan's mustard cakes are very well baked. The bread is baked well, and naturally there is his special care and meticulous know-how.
The first person to open a Hu Bao shop into the county seat was another master, Tian Qianzhou. After more than 30 years of operation, BlackPool Hu Has long been rooted in the county and is famous far and wide. As soon as outsiders arrive in Heyang, search for local food and taste the flavor snacks, Tian Qianzhou's "County Strong Hu Bao" is undoubtedly a piece of the best reputation of the golden signboard.
Tian Qianzhou, a native of Daoji Village, Heichi Town, after graduating from junior high school at the age of seventeen, he followed his father to open a hu bao shop in the village. After the reform and opening up, their whole family went to the county town to set up a stall to sell hu bao at the exchange meeting. The prosperity of the county town aroused his ambition to enter the city to start a business and expand his business.
Entering the city to start a business, the difficulty of the beginning can be imagined. During the day, we set up a tent to sell food, and at night, we pull open the bunk to sleep on the floor. The hardships of the past are hard to describe.
In order to make a living, unremitting struggle; not willing to be mediocre, positive and enterprising; still optimistic after suffering hardships, not to be content and stagnant. For decades, Tian Qianzhou and his wife opened their huyao shop in the bustling part of the county town, and the operation was prosperous and colorful.
Tian Qianzhou, who has excellent cooking skills, is also a boss who understands the operation of the restaurant. Summing up decades of successful experience, Tian Qianzhou felt that it was not complicated. He believes that for the catering industry, it is nothing more than to do a good job of "environmental hygiene, service attitude, and meal quality".
"Watching people eat" was originally a derogatory disparagement of a person's character and style. This sentence, after being reinterpreted by Tian Qian's family with practical actions, has become a witty, flexible business strategy, and a generous and kind expression of emotion.
When he was young, he learned art with his father, and in his prime, the couple got up early and ran greedily, and now, the participation of his son, who has grown into adulthood, has made Tian Qianzhou, who is about to enter old age, have a new turn in business thinking; many of his sons' new ideas have also brought new surprises to their business!
Tian Qianzhou's son, Tian Xianqiang, grew up under the influence of two generations of hu rao masters from his grandparents and fathers. Now, he works at work during the day and goes to the store after work at night to take over his father's work. As a young generation of heirs, he has inherited the craftsmanship of his family, and in terms of business philosophy, he is more advanced than his father.
The new business philosophy brings obvious economic benefits. While expanding new business outwards, the transformation of the store environment, the adherence to the quality of meals, and the grasp of modern tastes are still the daily focus of Tian Qian's family.
The older generation insists on inheritance, the young people innovate in exploration, and the Blackpool lamb mustard is more delicious and mellow in the inheritance of the alternating between the old and the new. In my heart, that bowl of lamb dumplings with the aroma of meat and soaked in red oil and spicy seeds still affects my footsteps and homesickness.
Source: Heyang Kui
Author: Zou Caihong
Editor-in-charge: Wang Qing