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text│yang jiannan

photo by wang xiaohua

"one set of baozi and one set of baozi", "put more noodle sauce and green onions in my mouth"... in the early morning, when you queue up in front of any pancake stand in tianjin, you may encounter such "tianjin-style" orders. for breakfast, chongqing people choose small noodles, yunnan people choose rice noodles, henan people choose spicy soup, and among tianjin people's choices, baozi always appears from time to time.

food from all over the world is nothing more than a bowl of fireworks. mung bean noodles are spread into a "circle", eggs are spread on the circle to form a golden color, noodle sauce and red chili sauce are responsible for adding color, chopped green onions are mainly used to add fragrance, and then add fried dough sticks or crispy fried dough sticks. in the rising smoke, an authentic "tianjin flavor" is born like flowing water. the smell of fireworks is also the smell of culture. every kind of food contains the taste, habits, and even historical memory of the residents of a place. it is the fusion and precipitation of multiple elements that shape the tianjin flavor in the pancake, making the pancake fried dough sticks not only a delicacy, but also a local cultural symbol. from this perspective, food, superficially, is life, but the more you taste it, the more you can taste the cultural heritage in it.

cultural heritage is formed through the inheritance and accumulation of generations. nowadays, the term "old taste" often appears with tianjin's delicacies, such as old-flavor pancakes, old-flavor fried cakes, and old-flavor tea soup. in the eyes of many people, the food is guaranteed to be delicious with the blessing of old taste. old taste, as the name suggests, refers to the traditional taste. tianjin people admire old taste, and what they can't let go of is not only certain taste memories, but also the historical memories and cultural accumulation contained in it.

duliu old vinegar, which has a history of hundreds of years, can be regarded as an authentic old flavor. as the saying goes, good water grows good crops, and good crops make good vinegar. the canal water rushes in, irrigating the high-quality crops needed for vinegar making. this century-old vinegar fragrance originated from the grand canal, and was brought to all directions by the grand canal. the brewing skills and history of duliu old vinegar have become part of the grand canal culture. today, when people in duliu town mention duliu old vinegar, they still talk about the various stories about vinegar and the canal. the grand canal culture has also become more profound and more vibrant in the inheritance and innovation of food.

people who make food have passed down the ancient skills from generation to generation, and diners have also left the old taste on their tongues and in their hearts from generation to generation. feelings and memories, history and culture follow food from the past to the present and into the future. it can be seen that the carriers of culture are not only poems, songs, and cultural relics, but also a jar of vinegar and a dish. the old taste is closely linked to the special food of tianjin, which means that it is a kind of tianjin flavor. the emergence of this label also gives food a deeper social significance. a bite of the old taste often reminds the eater of the life, history, customs and habits related to our city. the old taste is recognized because it contains a certain unique ingenuity and skills. from this point of view, we may be able to regard this taste as a more down-to-earth expression of food culture.

tianjin flavor is not mysterious, it is vivid and specific. visit the western-style buildings on wudadao, watch the sunrise at dongjiang port, listen to crosstalk at the drum tower, eat breakfast at the northwest corner... food, folk art, handicrafts, historical customs, and even tianjin's architecture and dialect are all concrete expressions of tianjin flavor. when we explore from the outside to the inside and deeper, we will see the tianjin culture shaped by various elements such as western-style building culture, marine culture, folk art culture, and food culture.

a charming city must have its own special food, but it is not only about food. in order to satisfy people's taste buds with food, it is also necessary to capture people's hearts with culture. in other words, the tianjin flavor is in the pancakes. the streets, buildings and rivers on this land all contain the tianjin flavor. together, they form part of the historical context. this is the "root" and "soul" of a city, and it is also the fundamental reason why people linger.