Author/Meng Jing

When I was a child, a Shanghai great-aunt came to my family. Because she had only been here once, she naturally couldn't remember her appearance clearly, and she never investigated her relationship with my family.

It's just that the box of cakes she brought specially left a deep memory on me.

This kind of cake is very different from the scallion cakes currently made and sold on the covered bridges in the village, the short cakes from the supply and marketing cooperatives, and the thousand-layer cakes on the old street of Xikou. The round cakes are covered with white sesame seeds, and the crispy skin is wrapped in oily, sweet bean paste filling.

It was rare to eat food at that time, and my grandmother spoiled it. Most of this box of cakes entered my stomach, and the taste has been remembered by me for more than 30 years.

My great-aunt said that this was "Xiangcheng Sesame Cake", which was filial to her by a distant nephew in Suzhou.

She brought this box of cakes and when she handed it to grandma, she explained it in a serious manner, so I remembered it.

I went to work in Suzhou in 2011 and learned that there is a Xiangcheng District in Suzhou. Suddenly one day, I thought of my great-aunt's "Xiangcheng Sesame Cake" and secretly laughed. It turned out to be Xiangcheng Sesame Cake.

Later, when I went to the news outlet of Xiangcheng, I gained an understanding of this area, and began to wonder. When my great-aunt was alive, this Xiangcheng District still belonged to the boundary of Wu County. I am afraid I was the one who spread the rumors about the "Xiangcheng Ma Bing".

So he asked his local colleague who was born and raised,"Where do you sell sesame cakes here?"

This guy who grew up in Ancient City was surprised that I was thinking about the goods "eaten by the old man and the old lady." When he stopped by to Mudu Ancient Town, he brought two pieces for me to taste.

"Hey, this is the date paste sesame cake you wanted!" My colleague chuckled and threw it to me.

Looking left and right, I can see that this Ma Bing, whose name is quite a curse, is almost the same as the "Xiangcheng Ma Bing" that I have been longing for for decades.

People are very stubborn animals. Their taste buds in childhood are accompanied by their lifelong dietary preferences. This "jujube paste cake" feels less soul in the dark.

But he couldn't make sense.

The year before last, I suddenly became interested in the old streets scattered in the countryside of Suzhou, and wandered around and accidentally walked into Xiangcheng Old Street.

At first, there was no association with "Xiangcheng Ma Pancake". After all, this snack food is not so much that it makes people miss it crazy.

However, there was a faint burnt aroma and oily smell lingering in the alley. When I asked the old woman selling vegetables on the street, I was surprised to hear her words,"I am making sesame cakes ahead."

The old demon, who had been sealed in a trance for thousands of years, was freed. The introduction of "Xiangcheng Ma Bing" and "Xiangcheng Ma Bing" by his great-aunt in childhood was poured into his eardrum without losing a trace of tone.

He slapped his forehead fiercely. Where did the "Xiangcheng Sesame Pancake" come from? It was clearly the "Xiangcheng Sesame Pancake".

Following the fragrance, and sure enough, in a food store in the front and back, the staff were busy packaging freshly baked sesame cakes. The fragrance with the smell of fireworks was like the first love of old age, and they were still remembered after a long time.

The facade next to the old street was not for sale, but later we went around to the storefront and weighed some scattered things.

Looking left and right, no one noticed my greedy appearance. I opened the plastic bag and put the cake into my mouth. I chewed it to comfort my taste buds who had been greedy for more than 30 years.

After that encounter, I went to Xiangcheng Old Street several times. In addition to appreciating the four seasons of the old street, I just wanted to buy sesame cakes.

At the beginning of the year, I specially brought some back to my hometown in Fenghua. Following the example of her great-aunt that year, she gave it to her sons and nephews to taste,"This is Xiangcheng sesame cake."

It's just that today's children are not as miserable as I was when I was a child. They watched them break it apart with their small hands, and then reluctantly put it to their mouths and asked them,"Is it delicious?"

Everyone said nothing. They dropped the cake on the plate, rubbed their small hands against their trouser legs, and hurriedly swiped their mobile phone screens.

Once I asked indigenous friends in the old town of Xiangcheng,"Do you like to eat sesame cakes?"

"When I was a child, I would only buy some during the holidays." A friend said that at that time, there were many children at home. Not everyone had a whole cake to eat, but parents cut it into pieces with a knife."That is, when guests came, I am generally reluctant to buy it."

It seems that for a middle-aged man like me who was born in the 1970s, this sesame cake was once a luxury.

While talking about the miserable appearance of several brothers grabbing sesame cakes when they were young, a friend's grandson was shouting,"Dad, I want to play with my mobile phone!"

My friends and I looked at each other and smiled, with a little loneliness.

Xinyan does not know the old courtyard.

Just like the old streets I was searching for, I once came with my son, and the scenery that brought me joy was a desolate and unpleasantness to him.

When I get old, I feel beautiful about my old dreams.

I am not an old-fashioned parent, and I don't regret my child's unhappiness at that moment. Some things need time to cook the rain.

Whether it is old streets or sesame cakes, their stubborn existence is more like a spirit that has been temporarily sealed.

After all, the ancient trees in the setting sun, the ruins of the old courtyard, and the meals of the old grandmother will comfort people in the vicissitudes of time after the years.

Allusion:

Xiangcheng sesame cake was born in Xiangcheng Laofang Tea and Food Shop opened by Qian Heming in 1911 in the third year of Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty.

Qian Heming was a native of Xiangcheng and came from a poor family. At the age of 14, he went to Shanghai's "Wild Water Cheese Tea Shop" as an apprentice. Due to hard study and hard research, I mastered the skills of making various Soviet-style cakes and candies. At the age of 27, he returned to his hometown to start a business. He opened the "Lao Da Fang Tea and Food Shop" in Xiangcheng Town, specializing in the management of "Qianji Songhe Brand" sesame cakes and began to strive for his own world.

Qian Heming attaches great importance to product quality. He not only selects materials and formulas himself, but also often frequents teahouses, taverns, and bookstores to make friends and solicit opinions. He learned from others and continuously improved the quality of sesame cakes. According to different needs, he explored different formulas and production processes. He finally developed a high-end sesame cake with stuffing core as the main part and flour skin as the supplement. He created a 20% leather wrapping method for 80% of the stuffing core, forming a lard jujube paste sesame cake with thin skin, thick filling and unique flavor.

The workmanship of Xiangcheng sesame cakes is very exquisite. A small sesame cake has to go through more than 30 processes to control the "five evennesses" of hardness and softness of the cake skin, meat filling amount, sesame density, drying and drying into the furnace, and baking heat, so as to ensure that it is full and free from scorched spots, and sesame seeds are evenly distributed without falling grains, the skin is thin and not cracked, the filling is too large, sweet but not tired, and oily but not greasy.