By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Tongzhou's wine industry had formed a large scale, and it had been brewing royal wine for the palace for 866 years.
According to "360 lines in Beijing", the sources of drunkenness in Beijing are divided into South Road and East Road: South Road is produced in Rongcheng and Baigou River; East Road is produced in Tongzhou area.
Historical data show that Zhangjiawan, Majuqiao, Xiji, Yongledian, Niubaotun, Dadushe and other ancient towns and regions have a history of wine making. There used to be large, medium and small shochu hutongs named after shochu workshops in Zhongcang area, which were demolished and built in the 1990s.
Legend has it that when Master Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he came to the fish market in Tongzhou and saw bustling markets and shops on both sides, including frying pans, restaurants, cloth shops, pawn shops and grocery stores. That's why Liu Yong, a gifted scholar, fought bravely with wits and skillfully matched couplets with Master Gan Long. The wonderful couplets of Tongzhou in the north and south and pawnshops in the east and west have been passed down to this day. It is said that Liu Yong often sends people to Tongzhou to drink after playing there.
Tongzhou is more than forty miles from Beijing. At that time, there were waterways and dry roads, so it was very convenient for Beijingers to drink and play with wine. It is said that some wine sellers have made money to open pubs in Beijing.
1949 After the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), with the support of the local government, all the woks were merged to form Tongzhou Distillery to produce spirit Erguotou and Tongzhou Laojiao.
The book "Tongzhou Folklore" includes "Shaoguo and Tongzhou Wine History" written by Mr. Chen Xuezeng, a Beijing wine bug, which describes the technological process of Erguotou wine, and there is such a passage: the root of Erguotou wine is undoubtedly in Tongzhou.
That is beside the point. Let's talk about the pub again.
More than 30 years ago, there were bars on the streets of East Street, West Street, North Street and Zhao Street. There is no signboard with a conspicuous nose, the area is very small, and there is no cover. An honest man's frontispiece can hardly see his true colors.
The North Street Bistro is not far from the north side of the Drum Tower. The house is not big, and the gable faces west. Usually there are three or five square tables and benches. When there are many people, each table can squeeze more than a dozen people. Often come to the bar to drink are middle-aged and elderly men, many acquaintances, who also don't think who, crowded crowded, together to drink. Others hide in the corner and drink by themselves, thinking that he should have something on his mind.
There are several jars with lids wrapped in red cloth in the bar of the pub. There is a white square enamel plate next to the jar, which contains wine raisins for selling wine, both made of bamboo and white iron, with a capacity of one or two or even more. When I worked in Tongxian Hardware Factory, I used to make wine raisins of different sizes with tin sheets.
Bottled loose wine is also sold there, and customers come to buy it. The salesman opened the bottle cap and measured the wine by the glass. If the wine is not sold out, cover the bottle cap and wait for the next sale. I remember one of them was a 7 1 bottle spirit Erguotou.
When a pub sells wine, no one dares to be short of a catty or pour water into it, which violates conscience and rules. Everyone who sells wine knows that, in that case, I won't eat it in the future.
The pub only sells wine, cold dishes and cooked food, not cooking. Appetizers include frozen skin, boiled peanuts, boiled soybeans, fried broad beans, fried shrimps, fried pork chops, vegetarian meatballs, and cooked food such as garlic sausage, vermicelli sausage, sauce beef, sauce trotters and pig's head meat. On the interlayer inside the glass counter, there are Xiangshan brand, Lvye brand, Badaling brand and Daqianmen brand unfiltered cigarettes, as well as cut tobacco, cigarette paper, matches and lighters, and colored flint produced by Tongxian Flint Factory. There is a dustpan or two near the wall, which contains baked wheat cakes and fire. Although the dustpan is covered with a white cloth curtain, it can't stop the delicious smell of baked wheat cake and fire.
Since late autumn and early winter, briquette stoves have been installed in pubs to keep warm and boil water. The waiter blows the stove and adds coal every morning, and it is always warm at night. When the drinker came, the waiter put the cage made of wire on the stove, covered the steamed bread and turned it over. The steamed bread is brown and fragrant.
Often come to the pub to drink, there are factory workers, people who push three wheels, people who pull carts, people who carry big bodies, and men who live nearby. They are all familiar faces and half-cooked faces, and they all bow and say hello when they meet.
When my grandfather and uncle, Mr. Tan Shiying, a Peking Opera performance artist, came to Tongzhou, they also liked to have two drinks in the pub. Erguotou was their favorite drink.
/kloc-in the autumn of 0/988, I went to Niubaotun to see a buddy of mine who worked in a winery. Passing through Tongxian winery, I smelled the smell of distiller's grains from a distance. At his house, the eldest sister-in-law fried several dishes, and the elder brothers took out the net distillate, saying that it was not enough to drink. Sure enough, I didn't feel dizzy after drinking two or eight cups of money. We talked while drinking, and he said that some wines on the market were mixed with flavors and fragrances, so they must be drunk. When he left, he asked me to take a net distilled plastic basin home and drink it slowly.
Many people say that people who drink in pubs prefer Erguotou, which is cheap, delicious and delicious.
Experts say: the real spirit Erguotou wine must be distilled with pure sorghum to have the old taste of spirit Erguotou.
The greatest pleasure of a master drinker is to talk while drinking. Throughout the ages, he has talked about wine in the fog about the local customs, what he saw and heard.
Uncle Liu of Porcelain Hutong is a frequent visitor to the pub. Every time he comes for a drink, he has to talk for a while before leaving. Uncle Liu and I met several times in a pub and talked about the past. He told the story and legend that Yan Song, a great traitor, starved to death in Crouching Tiger Bridge with a golden rice bowl. His name was Longwangzhuang, and he took the lead (commonly known as the tortoise back stone tablet) ... There is also a legend that a fisherman caught a big iron chain in the Dongguan section of the canal, and several people thought there was treasure, so they pulled it up, but they couldn't pull it for a long time. Someone suddenly saw the tower of Tongzhou crooked, and quickly put the chain back, Tongzhou. He spoke vividly and listened carefully.
People often come near pubs to buy drinks and vegetables. The waiter has made an appointment. First, they will wrap them in toilet paper, and then tie them into a cross with a roll of yellow paper rope hanging on the counter. Then they will tie a knot on it, pull out a rope and tie a knot, so that customers can carry drinks and vegetables home with that paper rope. Others came to buy sesame cakes to burn, which were also wrapped in horse manure paper. At that time, there was no plastic packaging, and shopping malls, grocery stores and pubs were all packed with toilet paper and paper rope, which would not do any harm to the environment.
You have to ask, is toilet paper made of horse manure? Look, this is a misunderstanding. Manure paper is a kind of yellow wrapping paper, which is made of straw and wheat straw. Rough processing, yellow color, so people used to call it dung paper.
Do you know when the bar is most crowded?
On the fifteenth day of every month, the factory spends money, and as soon as it gets off work, the people who drink are full. At that time, things were cheap, and the wine was pure grain wine at 80 cents, with pure flavor. Their diet is also very simple. Some people order two cold dishes, drink two or two glasses of wine slowly, and then have two fires or sesame cakes after drinking. Thirty or forty cents of wine is enough.
If the family has a large population and a heavy burden, drinking will be a bit miserable. Some of them bring a penny of fruit candy or three cents of milk candy, and some bring a handful of salt together. When they take a sip of wine, they put sugar or big salt on their lips, lick it with their tongues, and then continue to drink.
I have seen a master with nails. When drinking, he put his finger in his mouth and repeated it slowly. It is said that the nails used for drinking should be melted in a bowl with boiling water at night, and the nails should be put in and soaked all night. Take out your nails in the morning and put them on the table to dry. Put them in a special cloth pocket and take them with you when you go to work. They can be used for drinking water.
Some people check out after drinking wine, touch their pockets, forget to bring money, just say a word to the waiter and go out, and then come back to check out, still apologizing. The drinking advocate values fame more than life.
I once saw such a couplet in a pub in the ancient town of Chama, Donghe, Lijiang: busy with fame and fortune, taking a break for a cup of tea and taking pains to bring a pot of wine. It is not difficult to see that no matter Lijiang or Tongzhou, taverns are the favorite places for workers living at the bottom, and their hard work, joys, sorrows and virtues are all contained in a small wine glass.