All You Can Eat
The food street beyond Tongjigong Teahouse is the most crowded part of Yuanjia Village. Snack bars are too small for chairs or tables, so visitors squeeze onto benches outside. The turnover of these snack bars is high – no sooner has one diner finished his meal than another snaps up his place.
A bustling tofu stand caught my eye. The tofu sold here is much more solid than regular tofu and tastes better due to a special binding solution used in the process. Business was brisk – a number of products on a shelf were marked “reserved.” Instead of that tofu, I ordered another appetizing specialty, tofu pudding, served floating in a bowl of soup like flower buds on a lake. From the first spoonful to the last, the taste of tofu with a seasoning of coriander, vinegar and chili oil was amazing.
A well-known yogurt shop stands opposite the tofu stand. I was told to expect long queues but I didn’t find many people outside when I got there. Evidently, the last batch of yogurt had just sold out and the next batch would not be ready for an hour. It was clear the people waiting were disgruntled. But it turned out to be worth the wait. I knew from the first sip that this was the best yogurt I had ever tasted – a river of sweetness cooled my mouth, throat and stomach.
I didn’t intend to buy any laozao, a beverage made of fermented glutinous rice, when I passed by a shop selling it. But the sample caught my interest and I could not help myself.
The moreish flavor of snacks in Yuanjia Village can be attributed to the first-rate ingredients. Every snack bar declares the source of the ingredients it uses on a board and hangs it on the front door. So, diners not only benefit from exquisite taste, but also from peace of mind that the snacks are made from genuine resources.
Many city-dwellers hanker after a simple, pastoral life. Living in busy, noisy cities, we eat processed food because it’s more convenient, wear garments made of synthetic materials because they’re cheaper, and listen to fickle pop music because it’s unavoidable. But deep in our hearts, we dreadfully miss free-range eggs, hand-woven cloth and the pristine folk operas that echo in our memories of home and childhood.
In Yuanjia Village people often feel they have traveled back in time to the good old days, pre-industrialization and pre-commercialization, when life was simple and so was happiness. This place allows us to rediscover the meaning of life and return to nature.
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