The name of wonton is very extraordinary. It may come from the word "chaos", which is reminiscent of the beginning of the universe and the creation of Pangu. It is quite grand. In fact, it's just a home-cooked food. It's called wontons in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Bianshi in Fujian, and Chaoshou in Sichuan. It comes in two flavors: seafood and spicy. In Hong Kong and Cantonese, it's called wontons, which are much bigger. When you take a bite, the shrimp meat is elastic and delicious.
Wontons were first popular in the wells of Jiangnan. Stallholders often sold them on a basket and used bamboo bangs instead of shouting. To make a pipe, cut a long groove in the bamboo pipe and use a thin piece of hardwood to beat it. The pot was an ordinary iron pot, and the pole was just a round pine stick. In addition to the wooden cabinet and jar stove, it also comes with a small square table and two or three very narrow benches. Tuk-tuk-tuk, Tuk-tuk-tuk, the sound of bamboo bangs comes from far and near. No matter at dusk or late at night, diners come after hearing the sound, carrying a load on the street, cooking and eating now, the water vapor fills the air, and the aroma is overflowing. Especially on long winter nights, when hungry people pass by, they will serve a bowl of wontons, scoop out half a spoonful of minced chili pepper, and eat slowly under the flickering light in front of the load. Although they are not full, a bowl of hot wontons is enough. After eating the wontons, at least it warmed up my tired body.
This is an ordinary wonton dumpling, but there are also some specialties. Wang Zengqi's short story "Supper Flower" tells the story of three sisters getting married. The father of the three sisters, Qin Laoji, also made a living by carrying a burden and selling wontons. His burden was much more delicate: this burden was very special. At one end is a wooden cabinet with seven or eight flat drawers; at the other end is a small pine firewood-burning stove placed in the wooden cabinet, with a shallow copper pot on it. The copper pot is divided into two compartments, one compartment is for bone soup, and the other compartment is water for the wontons. The basket is made of nanmu, carved with flowers, delicate and beautiful, and very beautiful. This seems to be something from the period of "Tokyo Menghualu", something drawn by Li Song.
In Gu Long's novel, a master who retired to the world wore patched cloth and sold wontons. At one end of the load was a burning charcoal stove with an iron pot of boiling water on it. , the bottles and jars at the other end contain sesame oil, balsamic vinegar and coarse salt, and there are many rough earthenware bowls in the cabinet below. Of course, there are also a few bottles of cheap soju, and you can get drunk with just a few copper coins. Late at night, the boss set up a load in the corner of the Qingwa alley, unloaded a table and four stools, lit a lantern or a bright candle on the table, and waited for customers to come without saying a word. How can the guests be ordinary people? Even the peddlers and lackeys have their own thrilling stories in their hearts. If you drink too much, you can tell them if you want. If you don't want to, it doesn't matter if you cry and laugh.
There are also stunning beauties from Yunji E'e who come to drink alone. In addition to wontons, they also want a plate of peanuts, drinking one glass after another in front of the candlelight. If, I mean if, if a handsome knight comes silently to accompany her, it will be a sad and bizarre love story; if someone is chasing her and a poisonous needle hits the side of the bowl, it will be a revenge of swords and swords. Story; if the old woman in black clothes and stooped back is following, it goes without saying that she must be Grandma Xiong who sells sugar-roasted chestnuts.
In the north, wontons are not only a snack for breakfast or supper, but also a main meal. When I was in college, I moved to a newly built campus. The surrounding area was desolate. Most of the restaurants were small restaurants. They all closed at midnight. Fortunately, there were wonton baskets for late night snacks. Most of the stall owners were young men from Anhui. Then he came out to set up a stall. Sitting next to the burden and eating wontons felt very cramped, but it was also fun, so everyone was willing to squeeze in and eat on the bench. I have a classmate who eats a lot. Before going to bed every night, he will pack a pack of instant noodles in a lunch box, then go out to buy a bowl of wontons and eat them together. The skin of this kind of wonton is very thin, and there is only a little bit of meat filling inside. The soup is added with diced mustard and shrimp skin, and it is cooked very soft. You can drink it directly without chopsticks or spoons, and it tastes good.
When I went to Shanghai on a business trip, my friend invited me to eat authentic Shanghainese wontons. There was a food sign hanging at the door of the store, with the word "crepe wontons" written in black on a white background. It was very impressive. The pure meat stuffing, which is 70% lean and 30% fat, is minced with the back of a knife into a puree. Stir evenly with onions, ginger and salt, and wrap it in a wrapper. When cooked, the skin spreads out lazily in the soup, like a thin layer of silk yarn, with natural elegance, and the chopped green onion is green, the egg skin is goose yellow, and the seaweed is purple brown. A bit of fragrant lard, a bowl of wontons in your hand, all the colors, flavors and shapes are there, and people are so easily satisfied.
To make wontons delicious, the wonton wrappers must be rolled out very thin. In the past, dim sum shops used to make them open and ready to eat. The wrappers were crystal clear and thin, so you could see the writing on them. The aunties hold bamboo strips in one hand and wonton wrappers in the other, picking the meat and pinching the wontons, with their fingers flying, dazzled, it is called art. I studied for a long time and watched my mother make small wontons one by one every second, but to me it became like a mountain separated by rows. All the wontons that passed through my hands looked like that at first glance, but when they came out of the pot, they all fell into chaos.