Free Days in Siheyuan

Chapter 1356

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In the severe winter, people will make hot food. When I was a child, I often ate "Zhuobaobao" made by my mother in winter. It is a coarse grain and finely cooked noodle dish. Take corn flour, add white flour in a certain proportion, put it in a basin and scald it with boiling water, then break it into cubes, cut it into thin slices with a knife, pat it firmly to make the surface smooth, cut it into squares like "dice", sprinkle it with thin flour, put it in a basin and shake it back and forth. After shaking, put it in a pot of boiling water and cook it until it is done, then take it out and mix it with chives, sesame paste and other seasonings while it is still hot, and eat it while it is hot. Eating the fragrant and hot "Zhuobaobao" will make the cold disappear without a trace.

As the New Year approaches, my mother will make a big pot of fried bean paste, let it cool down, put it in the yard, cover it tightly, and store it in a low temperature place. This is a delicious dish that is often eaten during the Spring Festival.

At that time, there were still many people pushing carts and carrying loads to sell snacks in the alleys in winter. My favorite was the kidney bean cake sold by Uncle Chang. It was a cake made by wrapping boiled kidney beans in white cloth and pressing them into a cake. The kidney bean cake exuded a fragrance and was especially delicious. My neighbor Zhao Tiege had a stove on his cart. On the stove was a big iron pot. At the bottom of the pot was sweet potatoes covered with honey. They were soft, sweet, melted in the mouth, and steaming. They were very popular with children.

In addition to food, winter clothes are also very important. In the old days, every family had to make quilts, cotton clothes and cotton shoes. Wearing cotton clothes made by yourself is both soft and warm. At that time, the technology of making cotton clothes was taught to daughters by mothers. In fact, the girls in the family saw their mothers making cotton clothes and quilts so many times that they almost knew how to do it themselves.

We used to make our own shoes. Every winter, semi-finished shoes of large, medium and small sizes were lined up on the kang, and it was a very lively scene. After a series of processes such as making the soles and uppers, some cotton was stuffed into the lining, smoothed, and hammered flat, and a pair of cotton shoes was ready.

As the saying goes, "It's warm after the wind, and cold after the snow." Once the snow stops and the temperature drops sharply, the stoves of each family have to be fueled with coal. In the past, ordinary families mainly relied on picking up coal for heating, and they had to pay someone to make coal balls. Old Beijingers called these people "coal ball shakers." After finding them, they first agreed on the processing fee, and the master mixed the loess, then added water and started to shake. Their tools were generally a shaking basket, a rotating basin and a shovel. They were quick and efficient, and they made coal balls in a short time.

In addition, every household has to prepare cotton door curtains to block the wind, broken quilts to cover cabbages, and butt curtains for children. These are jokingly called the "Three Friends of Winter".

More than 50 years ago, every time the "Little New Year" came, many families living in Donghua City would do "outside work": they would get semi-finished paper lantern materials from the Beijing Silk Flower Factory and take them home to process them into finished products.

My mother-in-law's family also actively did "outside work" to supplement the family income. After receiving the materials, they assigned tasks to their children. My wife is the youngest sister in the family. She was responsible for applying paste on the cardboard, and her brother and sister were responsible for rolling the strips. After they were done, they handed it over to my mother-in-law to paste the lanterns. The last process of "threading the candlestick" was completed by the third sister. In this link, the requirements for sticking the candlestick are the highest. It must be stuck flat and not skewed. Once the candlestick is skewed, the candle cannot be lit. With the efforts of the whole family, lanterns in the shape of roosters and little white rabbits were made. Nowadays, people have long stopped making paper lanterns. The experience of "doing outside work" in winter not only alleviated the family's financial difficulties, but also left unforgettable memories for this generation. When I saw the date displayed on the calendar, I knew that it was the beginning of winter again. I remember that when I was a child, every household in Beijing was busy in the early winter, storing cabbage for winter, pickling pickles, "enamelling stoves" and cleaning chimneys. Nowadays, Beijing's vegetable markets supply a variety of fresh vegetables all year round. At that time, Beijing only had cabbage in winter, and each household had to store it themselves. When it came to storing cabbage for the winter, the alleys and streets of Beijing were filled with piles of cabbage.

If the temperature dropped at night, we had to cover the cabbage pile with straw curtains and cotton quilts. Winter cabbage was the only vegetable for every household throughout the winter. At that time, we were reluctant to throw away even the cabbage stalks. My family would always wash the outer layer of the cabbage stalks and dry them in the sun, saving them for when there was a shortage of food. When eating this kind of dried vegetables that were like "tobacco leaves", you had to soak them in water to soften them, then wash them and you could cook them. At that time, we didn't eat stir-fried dishes at all, but cooked them in a big pot. Putting a little bit of oil was almost the same as boiling them in plain water. In the late period of the Cultural Revolution, schools often organized students to participate in labor in the countryside, and students lived in the homes of fellow villagers. Once I saw a fellow villager "cooking pig food" (cooking for pigs), when I smelled the smell of "cooking pig food", my head immediately hurt, because the smell was the same as the smell of the dried cabbage cooked in my family, which caused a conditioned reflex that I would have a severe headache when I smelled the smell. I was really afraid of eating it.

While storing cabbage, the family also picked a small jar of sauerkraut, pickled radish, kohlrabi, and watercress. These pickled vegetables could basically be eaten until the next year. The staple food was of course cornmeal steamed bread. Young people today find this hard to believe, for they don't know that it was impossible for every household to have enough cornmeal steamed bread back then. These sauerkraut, pickles, and dried vegetables were to supplement the lack of food. It is also said that sauerkraut soup can cure "gas poisoning." At that time, "gas poisoning" often occurred. Once someone was poisoned by gas, the elders would ask them to drink a bowl of sauerkraut soup. It is not known whether it worked or not. I remember that one time, our neighbor Huang's eldest brother Wensheng was poisoned by gas. Aunt Huang quickly poured him a bowl of pickled cabbage soup. At that time, Wensheng was in high school. At that time, high school students were considered to be very educated people. Wensheng refused to drink the pickled cabbage soup, saying that there was no scientific basis for it and that Aunt Huang was uneducated. At that time, I felt that educated people were different from ordinary people. They spoke in a flowery way to appear educated, while we, the ignorant children, believed everything the adults said without a doubt and had no ability to distinguish at all.

After every household stored the Chinese cabbage, they began to prepare the "enamel stove" and install the chimney. In the past, Beijing families used "coal briquette stoves" for cooking and heating. The earliest "coal briquette stoves" were made of iron sheets, which could be moved everywhere. The stove had to be moved outdoors before going to bed at night and "re-burned" the next day. When "re-burning", the "coal cores" that were not fully burned in the stove had to be picked out and continued to be used. Later, a "foreign stove" appeared. This "foreign stove" was made of cast iron. There were two or three furnace rings and a round fire cover on the stove. There was also a small round movable gate at the rear to control the wind force. Behind the gate was the interface for placing the chimney. At the bottom of the stove, there was also a movable iron grate that could be pulled out. Below the iron grate was a partition for removing the ash.
This "foreign stove" can be fixed in a certain place in the room, and then the installed chimney can be led to the outside. The chimney should be tied and fixed with fine iron wire. At that time, the winter in Beijing was very cold. The smoke oil flowing out of the chimney extending to the outside was frozen into long icicles, and the smoke oil dripping on the ground under the chimney was also frozen into large lumps of ice. Later, "honeycomb coal" appeared in Beijing. At first, the people did not accept "honeycomb coal", saying that the fire from the "honeycomb coal" was not as strong as the fire from the "coal balls". Later, they gradually accepted it. After all, "honeycomb coal" is relatively more convenient and cleaner than "coal balls".

This kind of "foreign stove" and "chimney" had to be purchased at a daily necessities store. In the past, the walls in front of such stores were written with "daily necessities, willow, bamboo and mountain goods". The store mainly supplied hardware and electrical materials, kitchen utensils, labor protection supplies and other daily necessities for home life. Old Beijingers called this kind of store a "mountain goods house". The chimney of the "foreign stove" had to be cleaned regularly, otherwise the coal ash would easily clog the flue and cause gas poisoning. In order to prevent gas poisoning, the activist old ladies on the street would go door to door to supervise and check the installation of "wind scoops" as soon as winter came. The "wind scoop" was a small window for ventilation in the room. In order to prevent strong winds from blowing directly into the house, a "wind scoop" was installed outside the window. The "wind scoop" was very simple to make, and every household made it by themselves. Some were made of thin iron sheets, some were made of iron sheets. Some use plywood, some use old cardboard. In fact, in winter, in addition to installing the "wind scoop", "stove enameling" is also a very important thing. Because if the stove is well enameled, it not only saves coal but also has a high and strong fire. If the enameling is not good, the flame is small and the fire is not strong. The old people say: "This fire is not strong, and the rice cannot be cooked." The materials used for "stove enameling" are "cylinder sand" and "blue ash". Some also use "clay". "Cylinder sand" is a refractory material, "blue ash" is blue-gray peat powder with gelling properties, which acts as a binder. "Clean clay" is a very sticky loess. These materials could be bought in brick, tile, sand and stone shops that sold "lime and hemp knives" in the past. Every time my family "enamelled the stove", we would go to a shop not far from the south entrance of "Da Jiangjia Hutong" in Sanlihe to buy these.
It is much easier to enamele a "honeycomb coal" stove than a "coal ball stove". A "honeycomb coal" stove uses a gear-shaped stove tile. Use green ash to stick the stove tile firmly around the furnace and it's done. Enameling a "coal ball stove" depends entirely on skill. The tool used is a bamboo board that is less than one meter long. Each household usually "enameles the stove" by themselves, and some neighbors help each other. Every time my family "enameled the stove", it was the neighbors who helped. My father was an honest man all his life. He was the kind of honest and decent man who hardly spoke a few words a day. One year, my father heard from someone that only loess mud was needed to enamele the stove. In order to prevent it from bursting when exposed to heat, some broken hair should be added to increase the pulling force. In order to save money, my father decided to try it himself. He asked Uncle Ding from the "Victory Barber Shop" next door and mixed a handful of broken hair with loess mud and started to "enamele the stove". As a result, after the enameling, the whole house was filled with the smell of burnt pig hair, which made my mother so angry that she nagged for half a month.

Nowadays we all use gas and natural gas, and those "coal balls" and "stoves" have long been forgotten by people, but I always think that the dirty and backward "coal ball stove" is not without advantages. What I can't forget until now is that the steamed corn bread and steamed buns baked in this kind of "coal ball" or "honeycomb coal" stove are really unique. Looking at the brown and thick layer of "crunch" is really tempting. The baked steamed corn bread and steamed buns are so fragrant when chewed in the mouth. Now you will definitely never have this taste and enjoyment again.

Nowadays, some young people do not know the history of Beijing in the past. They say to me: "A stove is just a stove. Why must it be called a "foreign stove"? The thing is, from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the early days of the founding of New China, our country's industrial development was very backward. Even ordinary daily necessities could not be produced and had to be imported. So at that time, people called everything with the word "foreign", such as soap (foreign soap), umbrella (foreign umbrella), cotton cloth (foreign cloth), kettle (foreign iron kettle), bucket (foreign iron bucket), candle (foreign wax), cigarette (foreign cigarette roll), match (foreign match), rickshaw (foreign car), flour (foreign noodles), flour bags (foreign noodles bags), children's play cards (foreign pictures) ), foreign guns, cannons, and war horses (foreign guns, foreign cannons, foreign horses). Even foreigners were called "foreigners". In the early years, foreign doctors in the "Union Hospital" were called "foreign doctors", church schools in Beijing were called "foreign schools", and foreign teachers were called "foreign gentlemen". I remember that there were two boarding church schools run by foreigners in "Hadimen" at that time, one was "Muzhen Primary School" and the other was "Huiwen Primary School". "Muzhen Primary School" was a girls' school, and Huiwen Primary School was the original "Dingxiang Hutong Primary School". When we were young, we listened to the story of "Sun Jingxiu" told on the small loudspeaker radio. When my grandfather was young, he was a Chinese teacher at Huiwen Primary School and taught there for 35 years. When my eldest brother "Zhang Tieliang"'s sister "Xiuyun" moved to Beijing with her parents when she was a child, she studied at Beijing Huiwen Primary School. Because she could not speak Mandarin and could not communicate with her classmates, the school asked "Sun Jingxiu" to tutor her in Mandarin. It is not an exaggeration to say that "strict teachers produce excellent students". "Sun Jingxiu" was originally a master of language. It didn't take long for this teacher who could not speak a word of Mandarin to speak a lot of Chinese. Students who speak Shanghainese can communicate with everyone in not very fluent Mandarin. Time flies. This "little Shanghai" student who received special tutoring from teacher "Sun Jingxiu" is now over 80 years old, but he is in good health and spirit, and still speaks fluent "Beijing dialect". Whenever he talks about that unforgettable childhood, this "son-in-law of Xiaoshi Street" can't help but reveal his true feelings, that is, for decades, he has been missing the always respected and kind teacher "Sun Jingxiu", missing his childhood Huiwen Primary School, and missing the Beijing city of those days.

"Time flies like an arrow, the days and months pass by quickly." Today's Beijing has long become a modern metropolis with high-rise buildings everywhere.