The leisurely life of rebirth.

In the old days, there was the following poem describing Xiguan in the Ming and Qing Dynasties:

When you go out, you can see that there are many places on the street, and there are people peddling the four alleys, praying to gods, worshiping Buddha and divination, all kinds of things are there.

From this, we can get a glimpse of the prosperity of Xiguan in the past.

Once here was the only trading port of the Qing court, and the thirteen lines were in the limelight for a while, comparable to salt merchants in Huaihe River and Huaihe River. In 1822, the Shisanhang Street fire destroyed 4000 million taels of silver. It is said in history that "foreign silver melted into the ditch and grew to one or two miles long".A big fire burned cleanly! [

After the Opium War, British merchants were allowed to trade with Chinese merchants at any port, Lingnan lost its advantage in foreign trade, and the glorious era of the Thirteen Banks also came to an end.

While the car was driving, Fang Monan could still see the prosperity of the past.Now it is very quiet here, with green trees, and you can see many old people strolling leisurely along the street, or walking with their grandchildren on the way to the teahouse.

The car was parked outside a restaurant. The restaurant was 4 stories high. Its exterior was the architectural form of the Republic of China with red walls and green tiles, carved beams and painted buildings, full of Lingnan architectural style.

"Let's go! This Tao Tao House is a well-known time-honored brand. It was established in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and it has a history of a hundred years. The implication of its sign is that you can also enjoy Tao Tao here. The price here is very affordable, and the food products are also good." Yan Guangxing Walking and talking. "It is rumored that the three characters "Tao Taoju" were written by Kang Youwei, using the "Shimen Ming" stele method. When Kang Youwei was giving lectures in Wanmu Thatched Cottage in Guangzhou, he often went to a teahouse to drink tea, so he wrote for that teahouse. After the failure of the Reform Movement of [-], the "Kang Party" was traced, and the owner of Tao Taoju was afraid of being implicated, so he removed Kang Youwei's name from the signboard, and "Tao Taoju" became a signboard with no name. Whether it’s true or not, only God knows.”

Fang Monan and the others walked into the teahouse, and the oncoming hall was spacious and bright, with elegant furnishings and an antique flavor.The middle building is a three-story reinforced concrete structure, with a hexagonal pavilion on the top cover, and the selected colored paintings and gray decorations are very Lingnan style.There are card seats in the main room, Grand View Garden, Lianxi Qingshe, Bagua graphics and other card seats, which are unique.In order to add to the elegance of the literati, calligraphy and paintings of famous people and couplets of poetry are hung on the interior walls, especially the poems and paintings engraved on the colorful glass screens for tea guests to appreciate.

"I've reserved a seat, and I want to really understand the life here, the hall doesn't mind!" Yan Guangxing said with his head sideways, and based on what he only knew about Fang Monan, he couldn't go wrong in choosing the hall.

"The hall is bright and bright." Fang Monan said with a smile, "It is better to observe the various states of life."

Drinking morning tea is the most common thing in life here.No matter what day it is, wherever morning tea is served in hotels and teahouses, the living room will be full and noisy.Sitting around, if you want to whisper something, there must be no way to hear it.

People in Yangcheng drink morning tea in several bands. Regardless of the bands, there are very few young people, and they generally don't come here to eat.They are more willing to pursue what they call fashionable and trendy "foreign stuff".It will take a few more years before young people who are tired of foreign gadgets will "return to the basics" and have a strong interest in traditional domestic crafts again.It's really 30 years in Hedong and 30 years in Hexi. The so-called feng shui turns, which is probably the case.The so-called trend is to keep spinning, jumping from one circle to another.

When Fang Monan and the others came in, it was just in time for the first wave of some old people leaving, and some continued to chat after drinking morning tea.

Most of these old people are retired.After exercising, a few old people got together to drink tea.Their simple and unsophisticated points are all affordable and unshakable one cup or two.The so-called "one cup and two pieces", one cup refers to tea, and two pieces refer to dim sum.And it is the cheapest pot: "Pu'er" or "Oolong tea" and occasionally a "fried rice noodles", or add a "char siu bun", and several old people eat together.It can be regarded as a breakfast.

They can sit for an hour or two.Let's talk about everyday things. "What's the price of side dishes", "What's the situation with the daughter-in-law in the family", "What's wrong with this family, what's the matter with that family" and so on.Their chief topics were the trivialities of everyday life.

There are seats in the hall, and Fang Monan and the others are sitting on the side, which happens to have a clear view of the entire hall.

Fang Monan and the others just took their seats when the waiter came to invite them to order tea and pastries.

Yan Guangxing came here as soon as he opened his mouth, "Pig brain fish soup, colorful fresh shrimp, fried crab with ginger and scallion, West Lake chrysanthemum fish, shredded salt-baked chicken, sliced ​​skin hanging oven duck, green shrimp tube, pineapple crisp shrimp, pipa shrimp fan , as well as crab roe siu mai, crispy egg tarts, braised chicken abalone wings, and thin-skinned fresh shrimp dumplings." These are the signature dishes here. "Tea, the best tea, oolong tea, Tieguanyin. Remember that the water used to make tea must be from Jiulong Spring in Baiyun Mountain."

"Okay, please wait a moment." Although the waiter was surprised, he still smiled and retreated.This tea customer is obviously knowledgeable, and he can eat, and he orders a lot.

"What's so special about this water?" Fang Monan raised his eyebrows and asked.

The waiter first brought the tea and poured it one by one for Fang Monan and the others.Yan Guangxing took a sip from his teacup, and the tea flowed down his esophagus into his stomach, feeling much more comfortable in his body. "Good tea needs good water to make it. When Tao Taoju was founded, more than a dozen young monks were hired to go to the Jiulong Spring of Baiyun Mountain Carrying water to cook tea. The little monk starts to work every morning, and the walking route and where to rest are relatively fixed. The bucket is covered, and the "Jiulongquan" water sandpaper strip is pasted on the seam of the lid, and a small flag is placed on the burden. Walk across the street to attract the attention of passers-by.

Tao Taoju is equipped with large tanks for water storage. The tea seats in the hall are five cents per person, and the tea seats in the small hall are 15 milliliters per person.Beside the entrance of the small hall, there is a lit red clay stove, and a half-colored olive pit is used as charcoal on the side of a bamboo fence. Jiulong spring water is boiling in the tile tea pot, and special personnel are waiting on the side, which is very particular. . "[

"Hehe... spread the word." Fang Monan said with a smile, don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients.

Soon the dishes Yan Guangxing ordered came up one by one, Yan Guangxing greeted Fang Monan and the others, "You are all from your own family, so you are welcome."

Fang Monan and Chang Jiuchun are naturally not polite, bird's nest meringue egg tart, several layers of golden and crispy egg tart shells filled with tender yellow and transparent bird's nest, just seeing it has already whetted the appetite, not to mention After the entrance, the sweetness and softness of the bird's nest are perfectly combined with the powdery crispness of the meringue, which is so delicious that people can't stop it.

Intestine powder is a must for morning tea.It is to put the rice milk in a special multi-layer steamer or steam it one by one on a cloth to form thin skins, put meat, fish fillets, shrimps, etc. on it, steam it and roll it into long strips, and cut the upper plate.The most famous rice rolls are soy sauce emperor beef sausage stuffed with beef, mushrooms, ginger, etc., served with raw oil, lard, light soy sauce, monosodium glutamate and other sauces, lightly soaked with rice rolls, not only It looks good, it tastes thin, tough and smooth, and the taste is quite good.

Fang Monan was in the morning tea hall of the tea house, watching other people eating and drinking leisurely, while listening to others talking in detail, saying that it was all trivial and trivial matters of the parents, they either shared their joy in their hearts, or cried out their boredom.

Unknowingly, you are full of tea and food, and this kind of morning tea is extraordinarily leisurely, which is a scene of local life.

Fang Monan looked it over, most of the whole family sat around a table for breakfast, restrained, enjoying the family happiness.Some use it for leisure.Most of the leisure people are retired old people in the neighborhood. They are usually the first to come and the latest to leave. They can sit in the teahouse from the morning when the teahouse opens until the morning tea "closes".The environment does not necessarily have to be star-rated, just go to an affordable small teahouse on the nearby street, and everyone can enjoy their meals. "Morning tea" is also a common way for people here to socialize.

The reason why morning tea is so prosperous here is inseparable from the prosperous trade and rapid economic development here since ancient times.Here, during morning tea, you can talk about business, exchange information, or meet and chat with friends.Businessmen regard the teahouse as a place for business talks, while ordinary people relieve their stress here, in exchange for half a day of leisure.

Fang Monan and the others ate very slowly, and truly experienced the tea custom of "holding a cup in hand and talking for half a day".Take a look at life by the way.

Fang Monan narrowed his eyes, stroked the teacup, and looked at the tea customers coming and going. When the first wave of old people left, after about ten o'clock, the second wave of people who came to the teahouse soon came in small cars. Cars drove over one by one, and most of the people who got out of the cars were rich women in their 40s and [-]s.The first batch of people who got rich first filed in.

"Pfft..." Fang Monan laughed, looking at their most fashionable outfits.

They are very conspicuously dressed, and as soon as they enter the hall, they are absolutely eye-catching.They are all painted full of blood, and they wear the fashions of international famous brands that first entered the mainland, and their bodies are full of jewels, which can blind people's eyes.Carrying a stylish bag in his hand.This is after they wake up, they invite several women of the same status to drink tea in high-end hotels and teahouses.They don't sit in the lobby, they go upstairs to the best boxes or booths.They don't really come for tea and food, they come here for a place to talk, and they can sit for hours because they have time.

"What are you laughing at?" Yan Guangxing asked amusedly, then followed Fang Monan's gaze towards the door of the hall. "Oh! So it's them."

"How do you know each other?" Fang Monan raised his eyebrows and asked.

"I know some of their husbands, and some of their husbands are private entrepreneurs with names in the province." Yan Guangxing drank the tea in his cup and continued, "When they were young, they almost worked hard with their own men, but now I became a wealthy wife and started to enjoy life. Alas! In fact, some of them are just acts of Chennai." He seemed to say with emotion.

"Why are you so gossip, eavesdropping on other people's conversations." Fang Monan joked with a smile. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to () to subscribe and reward. Your support is my biggest motivation.)