How many kinds of Manchu pastries are there?

Sakima - the living fossil of Manchu confectionery

The old Beijing outside the city there is a popular flag people, Han people welcome confectionery store "Zhengming Zhai", a long history, built in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the store is located in the Qianmen outside the Coal Market Street. Since the Xianfeng Dynasty, "Zhengming Zhai" of the meat and potatoes has been the Palace tribute, its varieties can be roughly divided into crust, fried, pastry, cake, sugar five categories. Among them, there are dozens of fine pastries, such as milk skin cake, dried vegetable moon cake, sausage, honey cake, peach crisp, yellow crisp moon cake, etc., the sesame seeds must be peeled to use.

When General Zhang Xueliang lived in Beijing, often sent his adjutant to Zhengming Zhai to order rose cakes. Rose cake is the old Beijing's traditional pastry, also known as "Neifu rose fire cake", the early Qing Dynasty has become the palace fine points. The difference of this cake is the use of rose petals as sugar filling. "Rose for filling: go to the rose gem stamens, and white. Take pure purple petals pounded into a paste, with white plum water for a few hours. Research fine, fine cloth twisted juice, add sugar, and then research very well, porcelain storage. The most fragrant and sweet, can be the filling of dim sum." (see "qing taolu class notes") Beijing opera master Mr. Hao Shouchen is favorite consumption of Zhengming Zhai's chicken oil cake, in the flag of the patrons also love to Zhengming Zhai to buy cream sachima, almonds, dried food, flavored moon cake, honey cake and so on. Honey cake is made of white flour, eggs, sugar, honey, plums, cinnamon, melon kernels, through the cake, filling cake, baking, cooling and other processes refined, there are nourishing the body, clearing the fire and moistening the intestines of the efficacy.

Zhengming Zhai's most famous Manchurian meat and potatoes is Sazima. "Sazima is Manchurian meat and potatoes, to icing sugar, cream and white flour for the shape of glutinous rice, baked in a wood oven with ash, so into a square, sweet and edible." (see "yanjing times") "sachima" is the Manchu language. Mr. Wang Shixiang said, "According to Yuan Bai Zun brother (Professor Qigong) see teach: 'Qing Wenjian' has this name, explained as 'dog's milk sugar dipping'. Saqima with eggs, grease and flour, fine cut and deep-fried, and then stirred with caramel, honey permeate, so it is called 'sugar dip'. Only in the dog's milk is particularly puzzling. If it is really dog milk, how many dogs need to raise enough! It turns out that there is a wild berry in the Northeast, in the shape of a dog's milk named, initially, that is, it is used as the fruit of the Saqi Ma. After entering the customs, gradually replaced by raisins, hawthorn cake, plums, melon seeds, etc., and the dog's milk is little known." (See the article "Biscuit Shop and Saqima" for more details.)

Saqima, with its fluffy and sweet, melt-in-your-mouth advantages, is y suited to the tastes of the old Beijingers. When the Beixinqiao Taihua Zhai meat and potatoes store of the creamy flavor of the most heavy saqima, because it is north of the Royal Temple Yonghe Palace, where the Lama monks are Taihua Zhai's first customers, as the Buddha before the supply, the dosage is very large. Di'anmen Guiying Zhai, because in the vicinity of the palace, so the palace eunuchs often come to patronize. Guiying Zhai shopkeeper's favorite, modeled on the characteristics of the Imperial Household Confectionery Bureau production, so that the eunuchs feel very much to their liking. Of course, in the market has the greatest impact on the number of Zhengming Zhai and Yongxing Zhai.

To this day, Saqima as the flavor of Manchu meat and potatoes, has spread from the north to Guangdong. Interestingly, the Guangdong vendors to blackmail to change the name of an unorthodox? Killing its horse. As if to eat this pastry, you must first kill whose horse.

After the People's Republic of China, the old Beijing flag people's standard of living can be said to be declining, the former sophisticated dietary life has become a dream of memories, but the kind of flag people's unique mentality of life, but still do the pivot point of their spirit. It is said that an old grandson of the king, the family is so poor that can only eat pickles nest, but also let the family cut the pickles into uniform filaments, it is best to point a drop of sesame oil, and then solemnly tied a napkin in front of the chest, pick up the nest to pick the eyes of the eye big eyes small, pick a big eye to eat. Because the eye of the big nest steamed through, Xuan Teng, the surface is not sex, eat up the gluten taste good.

I also heard that one winter there is an old man in the flag, the family has fallen into disrepair, a long time did not eat the fruit. One day, he happened to get a big snow pear back from a friend, can not help but be happy, first cut off a small piece to the grandson to eat, the rest left to himself. With the pear, the old man thought of ? The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're doing. Mixed with pear silk is a rare delicacy. So seventy years old, braving the wind and snow to go out for the second time, in order to credit back two spoons of sweet and sour delicious? Turned a big circle, finally exchanged to this point of the heart of the matter, but to see home, the remaining half of the pear has been eaten by the little grandson.

The life of the flag person has faded out of the historical picture of the old Beijing, but their food and their attention to food that care and care, so that we have a long time to remember.