The northwest wind roared violently, as if to tear everything that was visible, the garbage cans on the side of the road were blown tossed upside down, the fallen garbage scattered in a large pile, giving off an indescribable smell of corruption, and the sky was gloomy and gloomy, indicating that a blizzard would hit tonight.

Anke wrapped his tweed coat tightly in the wind, and used the beige coffee-striped scarf to cover half of his face, the winter in the south is not as good as in the north, although the temperature does not look as scary as in the north, but the moisture in the air will transmit the cold to every pore on the body, and it doesn't matter how thick the clothes are.

And the main thing is that no matter how cold it is in the south, there is no heating when you go home......

Encore walked in the cold wind, and her heart was very sad, and she was arranged by the editor-in-chief to interview an old man who sold sauce elbows in the alley at Christmas, she was also unlucky enough, and she sincerely opposed her on this day.

It was not yet evening, and the streets had already begun to have a festive atmosphere, and everywhere was bustling, but she was destined to be excluded from this bustle today.

Although she usually encounters these festivals, most of her stays at home, but staying at home is always stronger than coming out to drink the northwest wind, at least she can watch dramas, brush Weibo, and tinker with gadgets or something.

The old man who was going to be interviewed had a very strange temper, and the colleague who arranged the interview used a three-inch tongue to persuade the uncle to accept the interview, but although he agreed, the uncle was very difficult to serve, and only accepted oral interviews, and was not allowed to go to his home to shoot.

So Encore can only go into battle alone, can't pull the radar to drink the northwest wind together, a person with a pitiful bag, staring at the navigation in his hand, the thought of facing a strange old man alone, is very depressed.

The well-known "Old Man Sauce Elbow" is in an alley, it is called "Old Man Sauce Elbow", in fact, it is the name that people pass me, I pass you, and give it by the way, this shop actually has no name, more precisely, this is not a store at all, because it is not only a name, but also a store.

More often than not, the word Hutong has existed as a tangible cultural heritage in books and the memories of the older generation, while in the modern bustling and exquisite city, the dilapidated old Hutong is even more out of place.

After a few bus and subway trips from the company, and following the navigation for a long time, Encore finally found a small alley that looked very dirty and messy at first glance.

The lime cement plastered on the walls has peeled off layer by layer under the corrosion of time, revealing mottled and jagged bluestone bricks inside, and occasionally a few small weeds can be seen in the cracks.

In the narrow space in the corner of the wall, because there is no sunlight all year round, the slippery and greasy moss grows, the cement telephone poles are pasted with colorful small advertisements, and the upturned corners shiver in the cold wind, which has almost become a unique scenery here.

In the closed alley, two rows of old houses are dilapidated and desolate, and each house is an ordinary bungalow, and the distance between them is very arbitrary, and you can come across a naturally formed alley in a few steps.

The red paint peeling wooden door was blown by the northwest wind, making an old "squeak" sound, wires and clotheslines were intricately intertwined overhead, and the people who watched were dizzy, and from time to time one or two puppies of unknown breed would come out of a corner and grin wildly at strange passers-by.

When Anke turned the third corner, he finally had to admit that he was lost, and the high-tech navigation was also lost to the wisdom of the older generation of working people.

Encore didn't expect that the structure in the alley was so extensive, and the twists and turns were simply a realistic version of the labyrinth, which seemed to lead to Rome, but as he walked, he was dizzy, and he looked like he had just walked through.

Encore can be regarded as understanding why the petty thieves in the movie always like to drill into the small alley when they are discovered, even if they don't know the way, it's good to be able to make the chaser dizzy.

Just as she gave up her blind turn and turned around to inquire about the family, a fragrance suddenly wafted in the air, combining the taste of various condiments in the kitchen, and her eyes suddenly lit up, it must be the sauce elbow!

So she walked by inhaling her nose and following the fragrance along the way, but it was unimpeded, and she didn't encounter a dead end on the road.

Bypassing a few alleys, there were a few people queuing at a cross corner in front, Enke was sure that he should have found a place now, and ran over happily, but before she could approach the group of people, a sharp-eyed eldest sister stretched out her arm, pointed behind her and shouted at her: "Little girl line up behind, you can't cut the line." ”

As he spoke, he moved forward, as if he was afraid that Encore would stick in front of him.

An Ke thought that he was doing business here now, and it was not easy to interview, and he was standing next to the team, and it was inevitable that he would be suspicious of melon fields and plums, so he listened to the words of the eldest sister and consciously walked to the back of the team, but when she approached and turned right to prepare to go to the back of the team, she was shocked.

Where is the so-called tail of the line? At first glance, it was all heads!

Abandoning the prospect of finding the penultimate diner, Encore crouched in a corner, tucked the hem of his clothes into his knees, careful not to rub his back against the moss on the wall.

Smelling the fragrance of sauce elbows wafting from his nose, Anke was secretly very glad that he didn't come on an empty stomach, otherwise he would have suffered a lot of pain when he watched him pass by with sauce elbows one by one.

After silently watching the colorful small advertisements on the telephone pole in front of him from beginning to end, the team in front of him did not see any disjoints, still you next to me and I next to you, huddled together in the northwest wind to keep each other warm.

Encore was about to watch the sixth small advertisement from scratch with the idea of working overtime today, when the crowd next to him suddenly became commotionous, and after a few seconds, the birds and beasts scattered.

"I didn't buy it again, I've been here three times, and there are too many people who buy it. ”

"If you get up early, who is to blame if you can't buy it?"

"Why doesn't the old man want to do more?"

"You said it lightly, and I don't look at how old the old man is this year. ”

“……”

Realizing that this was sold out, Encore happily wanted to applaud, but in order not to cause public anger and be thrown eggs in public, she just buried her face in the scarf, snickered twice, stood up and moved her squatting numb legs.

Although the sauce elbow was sold out, the fragrance of the sauce elbow had not yet dispersed, and it kept coming out of a small door in the deepest part of the alley.

Some faded red lanterns hung high in the doorway, the drooping tassels were no longer tassels, and the yellow lines were tangled together into a ball of thread, which was swayed from side to side by the wind, and a few green onions and ginger were planted in the small land surrounded by bricks on both sides.

Encore stood in front of the hut, which looked like the others, and even a little shabby in comparison, and reached out and knocked on the tin door.

"The sauce elbow is sold out, I'm going to buy it and come back on Monday. A distinctly local-accented voice came from inside the door, old and thick, sounding quite angry.

"That, uncle, I didn't buy sauce elbows, I made an appointment with you to come over for an interview before. Encore walked inside, stretching his neck and following the sound to find the direction where the master was.

"Oh, interview, come over here, I'm in the kitchen"

Encore could tell that the sound was coming from a small door separated by a wooden plank, and the smell of sauce was constantly wafting from it.

"Hey, uncle, don't you still have a sauce elbow?" An Ke walked in the door, just in time to see the uncle bending down and lifting the lid of an iron cauldron, and a shiny sauce elbow was lying inside.

"Hey, you stupid girl, what are you shouting, this is for me to eat. The uncle straightened his waist violently, put his hand to his mouth with a sigh, and motioned to Enke to whisper.

Encore understood that he was stupid, so he obediently shut up.

The old man's surname is Fan, he is not tall, he is wearing a thick military coat at this time, the long length is dragged to the ankles, the reading glasses on his face have fallen all the way to his nose, his gray hair is neglected, he looks like a messy grass, fluttering in the wind, at first glance it looks a bit like killing Matt, and he is very individual.

According to the information known by Enke, this old man used to be a paper mill worker, and after he was laid off, he opened a shop to sell sauce elbows, which were popular with diners near and far because they were delicious, but then he suddenly stopped opening the store and made sauce elbows at home.

Although it moved to a narrow alley, the fame of sauce elbow has not diminished, and it is still popular, and many people come all the way to buy a sauce elbow.

But Uncle Fan only sells sauce elbows from Monday to Friday, and only makes dozens of them every day, and also limits one person to only buy one, and the elbows are closed when they are sold out.

"The sauce elbows I make weigh two pounds and seven or eight taels each, and they only use the front elbow, not the back elbow, only in this way, the sauce elbow made is fat but not greasy, thin but not firewood, melts in the mouth, and is delicious!"

Speaking of his sauce elbow, the old man was full of pride, as if what he made was not a simple dish, but a work of art, and every detail was handled with care, and there were no mistakes.

Encore quickly translated the uncle's authentic local dialect into Mandarin in his mind, and then swished to record it in his small notebook, so busy that he flew up, and the handwriting was basically a ghost drawing.

"The meat on the front elbow is stewed out crispy, the fat and blood are all boiled out, and then the excess water is dried, and then grilled with charcoal, the skin is cuffed to the puff up, and the pig hair can be cleaned up, and finally put it in the jar, put a piece of ginger, four green onions, and finally hold two handfuls of fennel, two handfuls of chili, after boiling the pot, adjust to medium heat, and slowly simmer for five hours, so that the sauce elbow looks elastic, smells fragrant, and eats more softly. ”

Speaking of his secret recipe for stewed elbows, Uncle Fan is a relish, gushing, without a little jam in the flowing water, Encore has never memorized "Silent Night Thoughts" so smoothly back then, it is really embarrassing in comparison, and the hands that take notes can't help but speed up.

"Girl, you don't understand food, you don't love life" After the old man finished stewing elbows, his words suddenly changed, and his cloudy eyes looked at Encore through the reading glasses.

An Ke suddenly turned the topic to himself, his note-taking hand suddenly stopped, and he raised his eyes and looked at the uncle blankly,

"What do you mean?"

"You're just remembering what I said, and you don't think of my sauce elbow. The uncle pointed to her words of dragon flying and phoenix dance, and his brows furrowed.

"It's my job, of course it's all about work," Encore said after a pause before opening his mouth to defend himself.

"Tell me, what do you think is a good meal? You haven't eaten my sauce elbow, have you? You came to me for an interview because you heard people say my sauce is delicious?"

"I ......" Encore was completely speechless this time, and she didn't know what the old man was doing when he suddenly said this to her.

"When I was young, like you, I only knew that I worked in the paper mill, and every morning I ate pickles and steamed buns, ate three bowls of rice at noon, and drank gruel with dried radishes at night, and it never changed. ”

The uncle took out an old pocket watch from his arms and opened it to Enke, it was a yellowed group photo, the man laughed silly, the woman combed two small pigtails, although it was not particularly beautiful, but there was a natural and simple beauty, the old man pointed to the woman in the photo, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Later, I met my wife, she loves to eat, but also loves to do, she is best at this sauce elbow, although the material conditions are poor, it is rare to eat once, but every time I eat, I can reminisce for more than half a month, and then laid off, my wife accompanied me to open a shop on the street, we made sauce elbow together, at that time many people were a family of all the old and young people came out to my store to eat, that day, think about it and feel beautiful. ”

An Ke quietly listened to the old man's recollections, and the pen in his hand stopped at the original place.

"But then my wife got sick, and I left first, and I continued to open the store, but when I saw those people coming to eat with a family, I didn't feel good in my heart, and I always thought about my wife, and then I simply closed the store and did it at home, let them pack and take it away, and didn't give them a place to sit down and eat, so I felt better, isn't it boring?" The old man smiled at Anke, but there was a gloom in his eyes.

Anke didn't smile, looking at the old man who wanted to say something, but he didn't know what he could say, so he had to be silent.

"Everyone says that my sauce elbow is delicious, it is the original taste, but I can't eat the original taste myself, I always feel that there is something short, every time I stew sauce elbow, when it is almost cooked, the meat in it will be 'goo-goo-goo', I sound like I'm saying to me 'lonely and lonely', when I am with my wife, the sauce elbow is a delicacy, can it be considered a delicacy if eaten alone?"

"Food, it's a happy slow simmer. ”