No.24-1Xiatang East Street, Nanxun Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province
The weather is fine. My friends and I are visiting Nanxun Town.
The ancient town is divided into two scenic spots, north and south, which are distributed along the river. There are many shops in the south scenic area, and people are noisy. Even the river is crowded with many covered boats. Walking to the North Scenic Area, it is already sunset. Narrow alleys, paved with bluestone, are connected one by one, and shops are scattered all over the place. Most of them are locals living alone. Small shirts are hung on bamboo poles, puppies are taking a nap on the roadside, and three or two tourists gather in front of a tricycle selling tofu pudding in the distance.
At this time, our feet are weak, our clothes are sweaty, we are hungry and thirsty, and our pace is getting slower and slower. Passing by, I glanced at it and smiled at my uncle in the room. "Come in and have a cup of tea." Grandpa smiled, and our mess has long been seen through.
I felt cool when I walked into the room.
It's a teahouse, more like a small home with two rooms, more than ten meters square. The room that enters the door is bright and tidy, with a square table and a wardrobe containing some drinks and specialties.
Looking at smoked bean tea, Xi ao tea is a kind of "special tea" with an interesting name, so they each ordered a cup.
Lift the curtains and walk into the side room. Cool breeze, small and quiet. Two bamboo square tables, several bamboo chairs, an old wardrobe, a bamboo bookshelf in the corner, and some leisure books. Each coffee table is covered with a table runner made of blue calico and a glass tea set, which looks spotless. Outside the window are hundreds of buildings with flowing water, and the sound of smashing clothes on the shore is clearly audible.
Soon, my uncle came in with a small glass lamp and a smile. "The wind is ready for tea."
There are some broken rose petals scattered on the snow-white sheets. From above, there is not a drop of water, but it smells good when it is near. Is this tea? My partner and I were both surprised.
Scoop a spoonful, the entrance is sweet, the rice fragrance is accompanied by osmanthus fragrance, and then take a sip of the soaked thin skin, which is soft and sticky and melts at the tip of the tongue, and suddenly it is full of waxy sweetness.
It turns out that this wind tea is also called pot soup, and the white flakes are pot soup.
Wash and cook glutinous rice, dig a spoonful and put it in the pot. Hold the top of spatula with your left hand and the middle with your right hand, and turn it clockwise. Rice will slowly turn into rice paste under the pressure of a spatula. Under the baking of the furnace temperature, a thin layer of rice paste gradually formed on the side of the pot. With the continuous rotation of the spatula, the rice paste in the pot becomes thinner and thinner. When the thickness reaches 1 to 1.5 mm, cease fire and let the residual temperature slowly dry the rice paste. Then shovel quickly, and the pot will be served, which is the air shovel.
"Li" originally refers to the thin thread of cloth and the wind. As the name implies, this kind of pot is made thin and light, and the wind blows, like silk swaying in the wind, emitting a faint sweetness. The elegance of Nanxun people can be seen.
However, this piece of air hammer has high requirements for production, so now it is mostly made by machine. It's very convenient to pack.
In a tea bowl, put a shredded air shovel, sprinkle with white sugar and dried osmanthus, and wash it down with boiling water. The shovel is still blooming like a lotus flower, floating on the water, flowing along the edge of the bowl, and the fragrance is curling up and getting into the nose. Sweet, fragrant, waxy and smooth are the characteristics of Fengyi tea.
This sweet taste is also a wonderful childhood memory of many Nanxun people.
The Spring Festival is coming, adults will scatter wind, and children will steal the dry wind just shoveled out, which is crisp and fragrant, no less than the potato chips now. Generally speaking, it is once a year to make wind pressure sheets on the kang. When guests come during the Spring Festival, they should make a bowl of wind pressure tea, which is "fragrant and sweet" to show their goodwill and good luck. If there are new guests or valuable guests at home, such as son-in-law, the mother-in-law will invite her to drink tea with water eggs, which is very respectful to her.
Just after drinking a few mouthfuls of tea, the teahouse uncle came in with a teacup carefully. It must be smoked bean tea.
When the lid was lifted, a fragrant sesame fragrance came to my face. It was red, green, clear and blue, and there were some tea fruits lying at the bottom of the cup.
The green one is smoked beans. "The salt and soup in the boiling kettle are fragrant at first, and the charcoal fire in the oven is slightly cooked. I love this good color. There are many beans in the boudoir in winter. " Smoked beans, that is, tender green beans are cooked with salt water and smoked dry. In addition to smoked beans, there are dried carrots, dried tangerines, sesame seeds, medlar and green tea.
After a sip, my companions and I frowned, salty.
The old man in the teahouse laughed and said, "If smoked bean tea feels salty, you can add water while drinking it, but you can't add water to wind tea."
I don't know how many times I added water, but I'm still used to this salty and clear taste. Gradually, I found it delicious and delicious. Smoked beans are soft and delicious, carrots are crisp and refreshing because they have been pickled, and the smell of dried tangerine peel stimulates people. Take another sip of tea soup, and the fragrance of tender tea is accompanied by the fragrance of sesame seeds, which makes people feel refreshed.
In Nanxun, almost every household will smoke baked beans. Smoked beans are basically made once a year, and are usually canned or bagged in into the pit, which will not go bad every other year. It can be used to accompany wine at ordinary times, and it is delicious for children to grab a handful and put it in their pockets. Take it out when the guests come and brew it at any time. In the first month, they will entertain relatives and friends and eat and drink at happy events. Smoked bean tea is the first choice, which means "sesame blossoms are getting higher and higher". In the past, women in large families had to drink alcohol when they gave birth to children, because "children and grandchildren were full."
After eating Fengyi tea and smoked bean tea, the third tea is a cup of green tea. Choose local green tea, the aroma is overflowing, take a sip, and the bitter fragrance lingers between the lips and teeth.
In Nanxun, guests must finish these three bowls of tea to be complete. The first sweet tea shows welcome to the guests. The guests must be hungry from afar, so the pot in the tea can be slightly padded. The second salty tea is appetizing and invigorating the spleen; The third kind of green tea, fragrant and elegant, can always linger when the host and guest chat.
Nanxun people often say that three teas are as delicious as life, sweet and salty.
Think about it carefully, this first wind tea tastes very sweet, like a newborn, who knows nothing about the world, is cared for by people around him and leads a sweet life. The salty taste of smoked bean tea is like a blow, which makes people frown. Being more and more involved in the world, everything is unsatisfactory, worrying about taste, and mixed feelings. Who can solve it? However, when you drink more water several times, you will eventually get the right taste, which only you can understand. I have experienced a hundred kinds of life, and finally I understand that plain is true. I took a sip of tea and turned around. The only thing I can do is smile.
Behind the three teas, we can also see the enthusiasm, elegance, optimism, sincerity and simplicity of Nanxun people.
Uncle Zhu is a native of Changzhou. He grew up in Nanxun, and the old house in the teahouse was left by his ancestors. Five years ago, Uncle Zhu's daughter opened this teahouse, and the retired Uncle Zhu and his wife helped her daughter and helped her.
Compared with a cup of 15 yuan smoked bean tea in the southern scenic spot, 6 yuan spends a cup of tea, but the taste is not diminished, which shows the mentality of the teahouse owner.
Uncle Zhu is talkative and cheerful. When he has a cup of tea, the guests often become friends.
There are many photos posted on the wall. No stars, no big names. Are unknown faces. They are all photos of guests and teahouse owners, many of which have turned yellow. Looking at each photo, Uncle Zhu Can tells the scene at that time. There are three or four guest books on the shelf, all of which are books. People from all over the world seem willing to leave something here.
If you pass by here, you might as well put your feet on a row of small bamboo stools at the entrance of the teahouse and charge them in, which is also free. Or, like us, order a few bowls of tea, read a little book about Nanxun, look at the running water outside the window, and listen to the story of three teas told by the teahouse owner.