Article | Hu Ting Pictures | You Yu
年前的一個休息日,凱文來到“醇園高粱白酒”,這是一家“藏”在渝中區(qū)棗子嵐埡菜市巷子里的老酒鋪。
“要打桑泡兒酒還是金桔酒?”老板陳開棗看見凱文,張口就問。
“我要桑泡兒酒,二兩?!眲P文熟練的重慶話,居然連“兒化音”都說得很溜。
“在外面喝還是帶走?”
“老樣子?!?/p>
“好?!标惱习逡艘恍⊥刖?,放在店門旁的石桌子上。
凱文已經(jīng)坐下,有一搭沒一搭地和巷子里的住家戶們擺著龍門陣。
這樣地道的市井生活,其實(shí)是一個加拿大小伙在重慶的日常。
A day off before the New Year, Kevin went to an old tavern named “Mellow Sorghum Liquor”,located in the lane of Zaozilanya food market,Yuzhong District.
“Mulberry Wine or Kumquat Wine?” Chen Kaizao the owner, asked Kevin.
“Two liang (100 grams) of Mulberry Wine.”Kevin answered with fluent Chongqing dialect.
“Dine-in or take-out?”
“As usual.”
“Great.” Chen scooped out a small bowl of wine and put it on the stone table.
Kevin sat down, chatting light-heartedly with folks nearby.
In fact, such causal living style was the daily life of this Canadian man.
我們和凱文在人民廣場碰面,見面時,他手里還拿著吃了一半的烤紅薯。這一天,他要帶我們體驗(yàn)一把他的重慶時光。
從人民廣場出發(fā),凱文領(lǐng)著我們走到學(xué)田灣正街,沿著街道直走,走進(jìn)一幢樓,從一樓爬上三樓,穿過吊橋,到了大溪溝的紅球壩社區(qū)。
拐彎處有一個燒餅攤?!百u燒餅的王爺爺已經(jīng)70歲了,燒餅有甜的和咸的,我喜歡吃甜的,剛做出來的最好吃?!?/p>
老大爺看到凱文一點(diǎn)不生分,一邊和著面團(tuán),一邊和他有一搭沒一搭地閑聊。
凱文買了兩個剛烤好的甜燒餅,又趕著去打酒了。
走進(jìn)棗子嵐埡菜市巷子的街道,路邊都是上世紀(jì)八九十年代的房子,矮矮的。 “站在這條街上,尤其是夏天,透過黃葛樹的樹枝看重慶的藍(lán)天,非常棒。”
五年前,凱文第一次到棗子嵐埡,便喜歡上了這樣的重慶老街巷,還有這里的人,這里的吃食?!霸谶@里,我看到了生活最本來的樣子?!庇谑?,走街串巷,吃遍街邊小店,成了他生活的主題之一。
打上二兩酒,吃著燒餅,再拿本書慢悠悠地看。他經(jīng)常這樣一坐就是一下午。
晚飯時,凱文來到一家叫“無名蹄花”的餐館,點(diǎn)了他常點(diǎn)的豌豆蹄花和鹽煎肉。
“蹄花湯很鮮美,在這里很出名,老板從1985年就開始做了,很多的哥來吃?!眲P文滔滔不絕,如數(shù)家珍,談話間,和鄰桌的的哥們聊得熱火,還豎著大拇指點(diǎn)贊蹄花湯。
We met Kevin at People’s Square, with half a roast sweet potato in his hand. He was planning to show us how he spends a pleasant day in Chongqing.
Starting from People’s Square, Kevin led us to Xuetianwan Street, and then we walked into a building. Climbing from the first floor to the third floor, then across the suspension bridge, we arrived at Hongqiuba Community in Daxigou.
Around the corner was a pancake stall. “Grandpa Wang is 70 years old. His pancakes have two tastes:sweet and salty. I prefer sweet ones, and the freshouts are the best.”
Grandpa Wang was quite familiar with Kevin. He chatted leisurely with him while kneading the dough.
Kevin bought two fresh-out pancakes with sweat flavor and then rushed to buy wine.
We came to the Zaozilanya Food Market. The short buildings along the roadside were built during the 1980s or 1990s. “Standing on this street, especially in summer, you can embrace Chongqing’s clear blue sky through the branches of Ficusvirens.
Five years ago when Kevin went to Zaozilanya for the first time, he fell in love with these old lanes,local folks and delicious food. “I see what real life is like at this place.” From then on, hanging in these lanes and savoring delicious food became an indispensable part of his life.
He often spent the whole afternoon leisurely reading books while eating pancakes and savoring wine.
At dinner, Kevin came to a restaurant famous for its pig trotter soup. He ordered trotter and split pea soup and fried pork with salted pepper.
“The mouth-watering trotter soup has attracted many taxi drivers here every day.” Kevin boasted to folks at next tables about the soup here.
吃過晚飯,凱文沿著臨華路走回到華一坡的家里。
凱文算得上是個外來的“老重慶”。2009年,凱文21歲,第一次來到重慶,在一家英語培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)當(dāng)老師?!澳菚r我住在一號橋,后來又在華一坡、凱旋路、十八梯住過。因?yàn)槭颂葜匦麓蛟欤瑑赡昵拔矣肿〉搅巳A一坡。”幾年下來,他的重慶話也越來越地道。
“在重慶,我都住老房子,這些坡坡坎坎,我心里有張地圖。我最喜歡沿著十八梯,走過馬蹄街,到了山城巷后,一直走,再從金湯街到鼓樓巷和枇杷山附近?!边@些地方他走了大概上百次,也把老重慶的生活記憶“翻錄”了下來。
“社區(qū)壩子里,有時會放露天電影。過年了,居民樓陽臺上會掛著臘肉……哦,我還看到過最古老的做爆米花的樣子?!眲P文迫不及待要分享,那年他初到重慶,在街邊聽到“嘣”的一聲 ,第一次看到爆米花從一個罐子里“炸”出來,“不可思議。以后看到有賣這樣爆米花的,我都會買。”
那個時候,由于語言不通,凱文買了本《四川重慶及周邊地區(qū)公路里程地圖冊》。他順手從包里拿出來給我們看,書皮都磨舊了,書頁也泛黃了。
“剛開始,一到休假,我就先到菜園壩火車站,翻開地圖冊,一只手蒙著眼睛,一只手隨便指一個地方,就買票去?!眲P文滿臉驕傲,每去一個地方,他就用紅筆標(biāo)出來,已經(jīng)標(biāo)紅了30多個地方了。
After dinner, Kevin walked along Linhua Road to his home in Huayipo.
Although Kevin was a foreigner, he was quite familiar with Chongqing. In 2009,he came to Chongqing for the first time. He was 21 years old working as a teacher in an English training institution, then. “I lived in No.1 Bridge, then Huayipo, Kaixuan Road,Shibati. Over the years, his Chongqing dialect sounded like locals.
“In Chongqing, I always lived in old houses. These stairs and streets formed a map in my mind. My favorite route was to go along the Shibati, then Mati Street, until I arrived at Piper's Hill.” The lifestyle of old Chongqing has left a great impression on him as he has visited those places for over hundred times.
"Sometimes, outdoor movies were available in this community. When New Year came, the balcony of every household was hung with bacon." He was eager to share the time when he saw the popcorn was popped out from a pressure vessel heated over a fire, with a boom sound. What he saw was so unbelievable that he would definitely buy some whenever he runs into it.
When Kevin was new here, he once bought a map book that tells the distances between places in Sichuan and Chongqing, the cover of which was worn away, and the pages were faded.
“At first, I would go to Caiyuanba Railway Station and start my journey with the map on vacation.”Kevin was so proud that he has been to over 30 places and each place he visited was marked on the map.
讓人再吃一驚的是,除了走陸路“打開”重慶,凱文還會走水路。走水路不稀奇,可他竟然買了條漂流船代步。不過,看上去有些瘋狂的旅行,凱文嘗試了幾次就放棄了,只是途中暖心的事兒他記住了。
有一次,他和朋友劃著船沿嘉陵江從黃花園一直到了磁器口,但是從磁器口碼頭到雙碑時,不小心迷了路?!澳菚r已經(jīng)是晚上八點(diǎn)了,看不到任何建筑,就像在荒野。后來我們找到一家飯館,多虧老板開車把我們送回了黃花園,才回到了家?!?/p>
在我們眼里,凱文某些方面可稱得上“瘋狂”。可是,在凱文眼里,眼前這座城市的發(fā)展和更新速度,才是真的“瘋狂”?!氨热缬^音橋,如果我隔一個月去,會發(fā)現(xiàn)很多店鋪不見了,出現(xiàn)了一些新的店鋪?!庇直热?,紅旗河溝附近的李家花園隧道,2015年他才路過,一年多后再去,隧道就沒了,搖身一變成了立交橋。
“太不可思議了?!眲P文想到了自己的祖國?!澳阒绬?,在我的家鄉(xiāng)溫尼伯,可能要二十年才會出現(xiàn)兩棟新的房子。而另一面,比如江北嘴,現(xiàn)在修了金融街,很高的大樓,感覺又像是看到了加拿大的一部分?!?/p>
He also explored his journey by his drifting boat. Although he gave it up after several trials, the incidents happened during that time have etched in his mind.
The other day, when he and his friends rowed the boat along the Jialing River, they got lost on the way to Shuangbei. "It was so dark in the evening that we couldn’t see any buildings. Fortunately, we met a warm-hearted restaurant owner, and he drove us to the Huanghuayuan, where we found our way home."
We thought Kevin might be “crazy” in some ways. But to him, the city's development and renewal speed are literally “crazy”. “For example,if I go to Guanyinqiao every other month, I will find that many shops would have been replaced by new ones.” Or, in 2015, he passed by Lijia Garden Tunnel. Merely one year later, he has found the tunnel was changed into an overpass bridge.
"It is so incredible." Kevin thought up his motherland. "You know, in my hometown Winnipeg,it may take twenty years to see only two new buildings come out. While, in Jiangbeizui, you see the financial street and tall buildings spring up from the land, which reminds me of some parts of Canada."