Many cities have City God Temples, but here in Shanghai, the deities enshrined are different. It was rebuilt from the Jinshan Temple, retaining the original god of defending the sea, Huo Guang, and the apse was dedicated to Qin Yubo, the god of the Shanghai city god. In 1937, the people enshrined the Qing Dynasty national heroes into enshrinements, forming a pattern of "one temple and three city gods", plus the gods of Hades, Guanyin, God of Wealth, Yuelao and other gods, all year round, religious programs emerge in endlessly. The "burning incense" on New Year's Day, the lantern festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the birthday of the city god on February 21, and the mid-year festival on July 15 are all lively activities.

There are many people rushing to the temple fair, and naturally many merchants gather here to sell all kinds of incense, candles, scriptures, books, and daily necessities. Chefs from Wusong, Chuansha, Sanlintang and other places came to hear the wind and opened teahouses, restaurants, and noodle restaurants. The stalls and vendors are even more prosperous, selling along the streets, frying and frying, and simply turning a fairy temple into a smoky snack place.

It has become the center of life for the citizens of Shanghai. The elderly like to drink tea and listen to comments in the Huxinting Teahouse, and the budget-conscious housewives will come to buy daily necessities. For children, the place with snacks is paradise - according to the memories of Chen Cunren, a famous doctor in the Republic of China, one copper yuan of baicao pear paste candy, two copper yuan of wine-stuffed balls, and four copper yuan of noodles with "big and thick" meat are the most profound memories of children for the old city god temple at that time.

In those days when entertainment was scarce, the Temple was like a homegrown fantasy playground, offering cheap calories, glitzy pleasures, and the most worldly of city styles.

Such a lively and prosperous City God Temple is naturally regarded by outsiders as a typical example of Shanghai's well style. Even in the Republic of China, when transportation was not so developed, outsiders - and even foreigners - were indispensable here. In 1933, Lou Shiyi's "Praise of the City God's Temple" said:

Forty or fifty rickshaws, one after another, drove west by the small east gate, and the cars were all high-nosed, blue-eyed Westerners, who were said to be foreign sightseeing groups to the City God Temple. After all, the foreigner is smarter, he knows that the tall white stone houses along the Bund and the green lights and red buildings on Xiafei Road are just the skin of Shanghai, and if you want to really know the heart of Shanghai, you have to go to the City God Temple.

Today, more than 80 years later, there are still many foreigners who drive to the Temple for sightseeing. Unfortunately, time has passed, and today's City God Temple has become a spot where chicken cutlets, prawn balls and fried buns are sold side by side, and the signboard can be picked up to pretend to be a night market anywhere.

The dialects of Tiannan and Haibei are full of ears, and most of the remaining Shanghai accents come from impatient waiter aunts.

When it comes to snacks in the City God Temple, you can never avoid this shop. Shanghainese refer to those with and without stuffing as steamed buns, while Nanxiang steamed bun shop sells small long steamed buns, which can also be referred to as "small cages".

Nanxiang Mantou Shop is a perfect microcosm of a class society, a three-story building, divided into five levels, and the threshold is naked money.

The crab roe dumplings on the first floor cost 22 yuan for 12 pieces, and the soup dumplings are 15 yuan, which are only for takeaway, and tourists queue up to buy the dumplings, so they can only stand by the window and eat them - this may be better for them, after all, the shriveled and salty dumplings and the soup dumplings full of MSG really can't stand the taste of chewing and swallowing slowly. At the same time, giant signboards and loudspeakers are all bitterly exhorting tourists: dine-in upstairs, upstairs is more delicious!

There are indeed seats on the second floor, but when there are many people, they still have to wait in line, and only supply 25 yuan for 8 crab meat cages. The result of spending more money is that the skin is thinner and you can taste a little soup and a few slices of crushed crab in the meat filling.

Going up to the third floor, the rules are more complicated. The minimum consumption in the Changxing Hall on the right is 50 per person, and the queue is much shorter than on the second floor. You don't need to worry about the point is not enough per capita, a basket of 6 crab roe small cages is 55 yuan, and crab roe soup dumplings are 35 yuan. Although the xiaolong is a little salty, it finally has the heat of steaming, and the taste of "crab roe" matches the name - not amazing, but it is passable.

The Dingxin Hall on the left has a low per capita consumption of 80 yuan, and then go inside, it is the Ruixin Hall with a per capita low consumption of 150 yuan. The latter is more elaborately decorated, the service is more attentive, and there are even private rooms, but the menus of the two halls are shared.

In fact, the name of the cream spiced bean is not because of the use of cream. The five-spice beans of the Chenghuang Temple are boiled with broad beans with salt and various spices, and after the pot is cooled, a thin salt frost will appear on the surface, which seems to be rock sugar cream, which is named "rock sugar cream five-spice beans", and later referred to as "cream five-spice beans". As you can imagine, it is mainly salty, and because it is cooked rather than fried, it is originally hard and tough, which is suitable for teeth grinding.

But even by this standard, today's spiced beans are hardly delicious. The broad beans are old and stiff, and the seasoning is saccharin and flavor in addition to salt, and the entrance has a sharp sweet and salty taste. Penguin Jun didn't even finish a pack, and at the same time he was very curious about what happened to the five-spice beans that were bought in bulk by tourists.

The condition of pear paste candy is similar to that of spice beans, the packaging is exquisite, the flavors are varied, but there are only two words in the mouth: hard and sweet.

In fact, pear paste candy was born not to be delicious, but to replace cough medicine. Pear juice, herbal juice and white sugar are boiled together into sugar cubes and slowly melted to moisten the throat, which is said to have a cough suppressant effect.

In the era when there were not many snacks, such a little sweets could make children taste aftertaste, but nowadays, all kinds of high-end candies are racking their brains to cater to your taste buds, and pear paste candy is still as hard as a brick back then. The "tasting-type" pear paste candy customized for foreign tourists has an infinitely weakened medicinal taste, and it is even sweeter and straightforward, and the only selling point is probably only feelings.

SC Johnson is on the loose for a lifetime!