Summer Soup The climate of old Beijing, Leng Xia is hot in winter and hot in summer, people can't do without the "summer soup" for heatstroke prevention and cooling.

The general theory of summer soup can include mung bean soup boiled in people's homes, all cold drinks on the market and medicinal soup that can relieve summer heat. The summer soup mentioned here refers to the summer medicine soup prepared by Chinese medicine shops and provided to the people free of charge. Its prescriptions are mostly Elsholtzia Decoction and Hua Shuang Decoction which are suitable for dog days. This summer soup has the functions of dispelling summer heat, clearing triple energizer fire and regulating qi. In the old days, pharmacies such as Tongrentang, Heniantang and Qingrentang, as well as Wang Yao Temple and Wang Guan Temple, put a long table in front of the door from summer to the future, with large glass jars or wooden barrels, porcelain bowls and glasses filled with medicinal soup. Passers-by can stop and have a bowl or two on the dining table to quench their thirst and cool off the heat. Some residents often buy prepared medicine bags and take them home to fry for the whole family to drink. Some pharmacies often provide free "summer soup" to pedestrians, and at the same time distribute some small medicine bags such as Huoxiang Zhengqi Pills, which are usually printed with the words "summer heatstroke prevention", which is not only a social charity activity, but also a publicity for doing business, thus expanding the visibility of their stores.

Plum syrup

Sour plum soup is called "Tugongmei soup" in ancient books. There is also a record of "plum blossom water" in the story of the old Wulin in the Southern Song Dynasty. The sour plum soup that old Beijingers drink is a kind of drink that has been passed down from the imperial dining hall in the Qing Dynasty to relieve summer heat and quench thirst. It is known as "the peerless treasure of the Qing Dynasty, the royal sour plum soup".

Plum, also known as green plum, plum and sour plum, is smoked with semi-yellow plums to make dark plums. Soaking ebony in water has the effects of quenching thirst, regulating middle energizer, promoting salivation, moistening throat, relieving cough and eliminating phlegm. Sour plum soup is made by soaking dark plum and adding osmanthus fragrans, honey, crystal sugar and water. During the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, the poet Yang Miren wrote "Du Men Zhu Zhi Ci", which said: "A copper bowl rings in the street, and a glass of iced plum soup."

Shop assistants and vendors selling sour plum soup in old Beijing are playing with "ice cups"-two small copper bowls jingling up and down, shouting "Drink sour plum soup, it's so cold!"

The earliest store specializing in sour plum soup in old Beijing was the "Longjing River" dried fruit seafood store opened by Shanxi people in Xisipailou. Later, due to the "Boxer" in Beijing, it gradually declined and closed after being robbed by local ruffians and hooligans, and was replaced by the "Xinyuanzhai" opened in Liulichang. Xinyuanzhai is famous for its delicious food such as sour plum soup, candied fruit, Sugar-Coated Berry and sugar chess pieces, especially sour plum soup. Its sour plum soup is well-made and delicious, which is incomparable to other stores. In old Beijing, when many literati are searching for books and visiting the ancient times in Liulichang, they will stop by Xinyuanzhai to taste sour and sweet sour plum soup. Beijing opera artists Mei Lanfang and Ma often go to Xin Yuanzhai.

Ice cores and shaved ice In old Beijing, residents of some big houses have an earthen "refrigerator"-a wooden box with lead and iron sheets in it, where ice can be put on the lower floor and food can be put on the upper floor. The ice cubes in the "refrigerator" should be updated every day to avoid reducing the effect due to melting.

In old Beijing, every day an iceman drives a donkey to deliver ice cubes to the door of a big house. These ice cubes are specially wholesaled by the Iceman in the freezer. Residents of Dazhaimen put porcelain natural ice into the "refrigerator" every day to cool the food and prevent it from going bad. When the ice car arrived, the children in the alley were very happy. Some of them touch the cold ice, while others take pleasure in picking up the broken borneol on the ground and putting it in their mouths. Before liberation, some poor children went to the door of the ice room to pick up broken ice, or tried to buy some broken ice at a low price and wholesale it in a small bamboo basket with cotton cloth at the bottom and a white cloth on it. They go to the alley every day to sell "ice cores! Cheap ",in exchange for some small money. When someone comes to buy it, they break it into pieces with a small ice pan and serve it to the buyer with a small spoon. I remember when I was a child, I sometimes used my pocket money to buy one or two ice cores, so that no matter whether they are clean or not, they won't break. Put them in my mouth and refresh myself.

Xue Hua cheese

Before ice cream appeared, there was a similar cold food in China, that is, snow cheese.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the embryonic form of snow cheese appeared in Beijing. Before liberation, it was usually sold in snack bars and dried fruit shops in the market. Its manufacturing method is to put a round iron drum into a round wooden drum slightly shorter than it: the diameter of the wooden drum is larger than that of the iron drum, and the iron drum is filled with crushed ice. When making, cold water, brown sugar or saccharin and essence are poured into an iron drum. Then, a belt is wrapped around the upper end of the drum skin, and the belt is repeatedly pulled by human power to make the drum rotate, so that the water drops in the drum freeze. for

In order not to make it into ice, the producer had to use a piece of bamboo to remove the ice on the inner wall of the tank many times, so as to keep the tank in a semi-liquid state, that is, a "cheese" state. The iron drum rotates in the bucket of ice, turning more and more "glutinous" until it becomes thick millet porridge. When actually selling, you should pour fruit cheese (dried fruit), red fruit cheese and thick sour plum soup, stir with a stick in a wooden bucket or porcelain basin, and then put it in a cup, and the consumer will chew while drinking.

Legend has it that Xuezhi has different names, some are called "Bingguozhi" and some are called "Xuecha". People who say "snow tea" say that the word "snow" is homophonic with the word "blood" in the palace, and the word "flower" is added in the middle, which makes it "snow tea". "Xuezhi" probably comes from "Xuecha".

Snow buttermilk is more refreshing than ice cream, but it is a traditional cold food in China. Some dried fruit shops and snack bars in Beijing sell them. Red and white glass powder

Glass powder is actually cooked with lotus root starch or foreign starch (commonly known as agar in old Beijing) to make thick soup or jelly, and then cooled and solidified into frozen blocks. Transparent white is white glass powder. When cooking, add some edible red pigment and serve.

Red glass powder. Usually when selling, put a piece of red and white glass powder in a glassware. Red and white are glittering and translucent, which is a "selling point" in modern terms. When it is sold, it is held in a small porcelain bowl, cut into strips with a small steel knife and poured with crystal sugar water, which looks like transparent glass. This kind of glass powder is also sold in snack bars and dried fruit shops, and is often called "glass powder that moistens the throat because of fire!" The buyer sucks along the edge of the bowl with his mouth, which is cool, sweet, smooth and very refreshing. dry fruit

In the Qing Dynasty's "Yan Dou Snacks", "Dried apricots and persimmons make the ice hard, and the lotus root slices are cut into another layer." This poem is about "dried fruit".

The raw materials of dried fruits are mainly dried apricots, persimmon, fresh lotus root slices and sugar. The production method is to clean dried apricots and dried persimmons, then thoroughly cool them with water, tear them into pieces, add water and white sugar to make them into a paste with juice, put them in a vessel, cover them with fresh lotus roots, then put them in ice cubes and cool them overnight, and then put a large piece of ice cubes in the next day's sale. In old Beijing, besides dried fruit shops and snack bars, there are vendors pushing wheelbarrows in hutongs.

Sell it in hutong at night. When selling, put it in a blue porcelain bowl with a small copper spoon. The food is so cool that it tastes sweet and sour.

Anning tofu

Almond tofu, also known as apricot cheese, is a good ice food in old Beijing. Zhu Yizun, a poet in A Qing, said in The Secret of Delicious Food: "Shi Jing's sweet almonds are soaked in hot water with a pinch of ashes. After cooling in water, peel and rinse with clear water. Then measure the clear water, such as grinding it with water by grinding bean curd method, juicing it with silk bag to remove residue, cooking it in a pot with juice, adding white sugar paste or milk. " This method is to cool almond cheese and cut it into small pieces with ice.

Like tofu, water is cool and smooth after eating, and has good palatability, which is well received by foodies. This kind of almond tofu is often sold in western restaurants as well as snack bars. Big ice bowl

There is also a kind of cold food called "Big Ice Bowl" in old Beijing, which is often used as a red and white wedding or a birthday banquet in a hotel in summer. Yan Chen's "Memories of Kyoto Ci" in Qing Dynasty notes: "In the summer of Kyoto ... there must be four frozen fruits in the banquet to cool the heart and spleen." The "Summer Ice Bowl" in Huixiantang Restaurant, which was originally located next to the Lotus Market in Shichahai, is the most distinctive: a large blue-and-white porcelain plate with crushed ice at the bottom, with sliced fresh peaches, apples, pears and other fruits stacked on it, and covered with fresh lotus root slices, fresh water chestnuts and fresh lotus seeds produced in Shichahai. All kinds of fruits have been chilled with ice cubes, and some sugar and yellow wine have been sprinkled on the table. Eating this big ice bowl is fragrant, cold and refreshing, and the heat is gone. This kind of assorted fruit ice tray, known as the "big ice bowl", is very popular in old restaurants before and after the banquet for diners to eat.

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