Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City (Part 6 of 6)
Reposted from the web
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: East City:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Northern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This is part 6 of 6.
Part 6 of 6
In the past, Madian Street ran north to south along an ancient road from the Ming and Qing dynasties. On both sides of the main street, lamb trading shops stood side by side. A few eateries and grocery stores were mixed in between them. Madian also had East Back Street and West Back Street. These were mainly residential areas for merchants, though they also had a few lamb shops and supporting businesses like grain shops, duck shops, and food service shops (qinhang).
Because business in Madian was booming and many people passed through, the service industry, especially the restaurant business, was very successful. Before the liberation, the restaurant business was called the food service trade (qinhang). The various snacks in the Madian food service trade were especially famous in northern Beijing. According to the village elders, the main snacks in the Madian area include sheep head meat (yangtou rou), quick-boiled tripe (baodu), mung bean jelly (liangfen), kidney bean cakes (yundou bing), and millet porridge with sesame paste (miancha). Most businesses are small, usually operating from street stalls or mobile carts.
History and Culture Research of the Garden Road Area in Beijing
9. Hui Muslim snack shops inside Xizhimen.
The halal snack shop is right at the entrance of Xinkai Alley. Inside, there is a wide variety of food like fried cakes (zhagao), sugar-coated ear-shaped fritters (tangerza), fried dough cakes (youbing), and sesame flatbreads (shaobing) piled high in baskets. Dark brown bean flour meatballs (doumian wanzi) float in a large soup pot about one meter in diameter. A fire burns underneath, and steam rises from the pot, which looks like it holds enough food to feed a hundred people for a day. It costs one mao and one liang of food stamps for a big bowl. Drizzle on some sesame paste and vinegar, then add seasonings like MSG and chopped cilantro. It arrives steaming hot with the scent of bean flour, making your mouth water.
The bean flour meatballs are deep-fried and contain thick vermicelli noodles. They are neither sticky nor hard, just right, and taste as savory and crispy as a boiled egg yolk.
Because we arrived late, we got the last two bowls, and the server scooped up all the remaining meatballs floating on top for us. The short-haired server went to the back to rest, leaving the two of us as the only customers in the empty shop. After finishing the meatballs, we could go to the big pot ourselves to ladle out more soup.
When An Heping went to get more soup, he found that even though the meatballs were gone, the bottom of the pot was full of meatball bits that were just as crispy and charred as the whole ones. An was so excited he whispered this discovery to me, his eyes shining like Aladdin finding an endless treasure chest. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. While the server was away, we kept an eye on the back room and carefully used the bowl-sized iron ladle to scoop up bits from the pot.
We ate bowl after bowl like royalty, completely satisfying our cravings.
In those simple and hard times, ten cents was a huge luxury, but the ten cents we spent that day became the best value in history. That day was like a bright festival, forever printed in our memories. Sina Blog
Past Events at Xinei (40) - Hui Muslim Snack Shop, by blogger 'Forever Badaowan'
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: East City:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Northern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This is part 6 of 6.
Part 6 of 6
In the past, Madian Street ran north to south along an ancient road from the Ming and Qing dynasties. On both sides of the main street, lamb trading shops stood side by side. A few eateries and grocery stores were mixed in between them. Madian also had East Back Street and West Back Street. These were mainly residential areas for merchants, though they also had a few lamb shops and supporting businesses like grain shops, duck shops, and food service shops (qinhang).
Because business in Madian was booming and many people passed through, the service industry, especially the restaurant business, was very successful. Before the liberation, the restaurant business was called the food service trade (qinhang). The various snacks in the Madian food service trade were especially famous in northern Beijing. According to the village elders, the main snacks in the Madian area include sheep head meat (yangtou rou), quick-boiled tripe (baodu), mung bean jelly (liangfen), kidney bean cakes (yundou bing), and millet porridge with sesame paste (miancha). Most businesses are small, usually operating from street stalls or mobile carts.
History and Culture Research of the Garden Road Area in Beijing
9. Hui Muslim snack shops inside Xizhimen.
The halal snack shop is right at the entrance of Xinkai Alley. Inside, there is a wide variety of food like fried cakes (zhagao), sugar-coated ear-shaped fritters (tangerza), fried dough cakes (youbing), and sesame flatbreads (shaobing) piled high in baskets. Dark brown bean flour meatballs (doumian wanzi) float in a large soup pot about one meter in diameter. A fire burns underneath, and steam rises from the pot, which looks like it holds enough food to feed a hundred people for a day. It costs one mao and one liang of food stamps for a big bowl. Drizzle on some sesame paste and vinegar, then add seasonings like MSG and chopped cilantro. It arrives steaming hot with the scent of bean flour, making your mouth water.
The bean flour meatballs are deep-fried and contain thick vermicelli noodles. They are neither sticky nor hard, just right, and taste as savory and crispy as a boiled egg yolk.
Because we arrived late, we got the last two bowls, and the server scooped up all the remaining meatballs floating on top for us. The short-haired server went to the back to rest, leaving the two of us as the only customers in the empty shop. After finishing the meatballs, we could go to the big pot ourselves to ladle out more soup.
When An Heping went to get more soup, he found that even though the meatballs were gone, the bottom of the pot was full of meatball bits that were just as crispy and charred as the whole ones. An was so excited he whispered this discovery to me, his eyes shining like Aladdin finding an endless treasure chest. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. While the server was away, we kept an eye on the back room and carefully used the bowl-sized iron ladle to scoop up bits from the pot.
We ate bowl after bowl like royalty, completely satisfying our cravings.
In those simple and hard times, ten cents was a huge luxury, but the ten cents we spent that day became the best value in history. That day was like a bright festival, forever printed in our memories. Sina Blog
Past Events at Xinei (40) - Hui Muslim Snack Shop, by blogger 'Forever Badaowan'
