50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 87 Hot Pot

Sun Zhiwei didn't know whether there were any advanced producers among so many sales clerks in the building.

However, today's sales clerks still focus on serving the people, have a good work attitude, and are very friendly to customers.

Unlike many years later, state-owned restaurants actually emphasized: "No beating of customers without reason."

What does it mean? It means that if there is a reason, then you can beat him.

Haha, this happened later, and this situation will definitely not happen now.

This incident later became a meme, which kept circulating and changing on the Internet, and was developed into many jokes by enthusiastic netizens.

Sun Zhiwei took the two girls to avoid the crowded crowd on the first floor and began to stroll around the mall. They didn't have any clear goals today, so they would buy anything they liked.

After shopping in the mall for two hours, the three of them came out with their hands full of paper packages, most of which contained the girls' favorite snacks and small accessories.

The next stop is Donglaishun, which is located on the second floor of Dong'an Market opposite Wangfujing Department Store. There is nothing more comfortable than eating a hot pot of mutton on a cold day.

If the time had been moved forward a month, Sun Zhiwei would definitely not have brought them here to eat. At that time, due to the inadequate reform, the taste of the mutton here had deteriorated significantly, and many people were unwilling to come and eat it.

Fortunately, new documents were issued at the end of last month, and these famous old stores have changed back to their original state, so now is the perfect time to go there.

Sun Zhiwei led the two of them carefully across the street, past the bus with the giant gas canister on top, and arrived at the second floor of Dong'an Market, which was already packed at noon.
However, people at this time are more polite. They leave immediately after eating and no one will occupy the seat to chat.

After they waited for half an hour, a seat became available and the three of them sat down immediately.

In Beijing dialect, shabu-shabu is called "shabu-shabu". For authentic old Beijing shabu-shabu, the pot must be a copper pot with a big belly around the edge. The charcoal fire is concentrated to heat the soup, and the temperature is high and stable. When the soup boils, it is only cooked slowly over low heat.

Authentic hot pot only uses mutton, because the smell of beef and mutton is different, and the soup will not taste good if they are mixed together. Add a cup of water and two or three green onions and ginger, and the flavor will come out.

The ingredients must also be exquisite. In the past, all the mutton slices in restaurants were from fat sheep with big tails coming from Kouwai (Zhangjiakou). Not only was the meat tender, but it also had no smell of mutton.

There are also requirements for the part of the meat to be taken, which is generally divided into: cucumber strips (rib meat), upper brain (upper abdominal meat), lower brain (lower abdominal meat), grinding crotch (hind leg meat), and Sanyouer (neck meat).

Cutting meat is also very particular. According to Donglaishun's standards, one pound of meat is cut into 40 to 50 slices of meat that are six inches long and one and a half inches wide. Each slice is about 0.9 mm thick. One person can only cut a few dozen pounds a day.

It is truly as thin as paper, as smooth as crystal, as neat as thread, and as beautiful as a flower.

Every winter, all the big restaurants including Donglaishun would set up tables at the door, and the chefs would cut the meat in public. The beautiful knife skills flying up and down made people feel that it was an art.

When all the dishes were served and the soup pot was boiling, the three of them started eating with big mouthfuls.

Put the thin slices of lamb on chopsticks, boil them in boiling water for three times, and then serve with the unique dipping sauce of Beijing: sesame paste, fermented tofu, and chives.

That taste is so tempting!
An hour later, after finishing the mutton, they drank several large bowls of the mutton soup from the pot. The three of them all had big bellies and staggered out of the Dong'an Market.

"Brother, this is so comfortable. Burp~"

"Hold on, let's take a stroll to help digest the food. Burp~" Sun Zhiwei didn't want to talk either, the mutton soup was stuck in his throat.

"I'm so lucky to be born in Beijing. So that my descendants can enjoy this delicious mutton, I'm ready to stay here forever."

"Yes, we won't leave. We'll stay here until we die. Hiccup~" The three of them carefully walked back to West Chang'an Avenue from Wangfujing Street. By this time, the running competition had already ended and most of the people on the street had dispersed.

The rickshaws that used to run on the road have all disappeared, replaced by a large number of pedal tricycles.

Although rickshaws were banned according to documents, their number had actually been gradually decreasing for more than a decade. The main reason was the advancement of technology, with three-wheeled vehicles replacing rickshaws.

Passing by Jinshui Bridge again, Nannan noticed that there were many people sitting on the fence beside the bridge. She curiously went over to take a look and found that they were many painters painting.

Some of these people are students, some are artists, and they can sketch here freely.

Across the street is the flagpole of the national flag, which is 22 and a half meters high.

I originally heard that it was going to be built as high as the city wall, but due to material and other reasons, three water pipes of different thicknesses were only welded to a height of 3 meters.

It was used as is until the 90s when it was replaced.

The flagpole now stands on a two-meter-high pedestal, surrounded by a white marble fence. The first flag-raising ceremony used an electric motor, and the workers left no gaps in the fence.

At this time, the flag-raising ceremony was completed by the power bureau. When the flag needed to be raised, the flag was hung up, and then the worker on duty pressed a button and it was done.

This later resulted in the guard team having great difficulty entering and exiting when raising the flag. They had to first jump over the white jade railings and then use an iron ladder to climb up the 2-meter-high flagpole base.

The renovation of this white jade fence will have to wait until several decades later.

The three of them chatted and digested their food along the way, and it was an hour later when they arrived near Beihai.

Sun Zhiwei saw that the two of them had almost digested the food, and then looked at the ice surface of Beihai, where many tourists were skating.

It is only mid-February. The weather is relatively cold this year and there is no sign of thawing yet. However, the ice rink in Beihai is still open.

So he suggested: "Jia Jia, Nan Nan, let's go ice skating?"

"But I didn't bring my ice skates?" Tong Jiajia was a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry, there's a place to rent shoes." He then led them to the entrance of the ice rink, where they had to buy tickets to enter and where they could rent shoes.

As for Nannan's opinion, it was impossible for her to have any opinion. Her eyes seemed to be welded to the ice. How could Sun Zhiwei not understand?

This girl has never skated before, so let her fall on her butt a few times today and she will know how good it is.

After paying the ten-cent entrance fee each, they spent a few more cents to rent three pairs of ice skates. After putting on their shoes, the three of them carefully stepped onto the ice.

At the beginning, they could only skate slowly. The three of them held each other's hands and did not dare to leave the ice.

They fell down several times in a row. If one person couldn't stand steadily, all three of them would suffer. Sun Zhiwei could hardly feel his butt.

However, as the eldest brother, he could not be the first to back down at this time.

Just as he was about to muster up the courage to continue falling, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a group of people gathered nearby. Looking through the gaps between their legs, it seemed like someone was performing.

(End of this chapter)