Many cities have City God Temple, but the gods worshipped here in Shanghai are different. It was converted from the Jinshan Temple, retaining the original god of defending the sea, and the back hall enshrined the Shanghai City God Qin Yubo. In 1937, the people also transformed the national heroes of the Qing Dynasty into sacrifices, forming a pattern of "one temple and three city gods". In addition, various gods such as the King of Hell, Guanyin, God of Wealth, and Yue Lao, have endless religious programs throughout the year. The "burning incense" on New Year's Day, the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the birth of the City God on February 21st, the tour of the Zhongyuan Festival on July 15th, etc. are all lively activities that are full of boiling and booming.

With more people attending temple fairs, naturally many merchants gathered here to sell various incense, candles, scriptures and daily necessities. Chefs from Wusong, Chuansha, Sanlintang and other places came to hear the news and opened teahouses, wine shops, restaurants and noodle shops. The stalls and vendors were even more prosperous, selling along the streets, frying, cooking and frying, and frying a fairy temple into a place full of fireworks.

This place has become the center of life for Shanghai citizens. The elderly like to drink tea in the Huxinting Teahouse, listen to Pingtan, and the budget-oriented housewives will come to purchase daily necessities. For children, the place with snacks is paradise. According to the recollection of Chen Cunren, a famous doctor in the Republic of China, a copper-yuan Baicao pear paste candy, two copper-yuan wine-making balls, and four copper-yuan noodles with "big and thick" meat were the deepest memory of the old City God Temple at that time.

In that era of poor entertainment activities, the City God Temple was like a local dream playground, supplying cheap heat, glitzy pleasure, and the most secular city style.

Such a bustling and prosperous City God Temple is naturally regarded by outsiders as a typical example of Shanghai's urban appearance. Even during the Republic of China period, when transportation was not so developed, there were no missing figures of outsiders - even foreigners - here. In 1933, Lou Shiyi City God Temple Praises:

Forty or fifty rickshaws drove westward from Xiaodongmen one after another. The Westerners with high noses and blue eyes were said to be foreign tourists who came to visit Chenghuang Temple. Foreigners were smarter after all. They knew that the tall white stone houses along the Bund and the green lights and red buildings on Xiafei Road were all just the fur of Shanghai. To truly understand the heart of Shanghai, you have to go to Chenghuang Temple.

More than 80 years later, many foreigners still drive to Chenghuang Temple to visit. Unfortunately, the Chenghuang Temple has become a attraction that sells fried chicken chops, prawn balls and fried breads side by side. The signature can be used to pretend to be a night market anywhere as soon as it is picked.

Dialects from all over the world are filled with my ears, and the only remaining Shanghai accents are mostly from impatient waiters and aunts.

When it comes to Chenghuang Temple snacks, this store can never be avoided. Shanghai people call steamed buns that have stuffing but no stuffing, while Nanxiang steamed buns sell small buns, which can also be referred to as "Xiaolong".

Nanxiang Mantou Shop is a perfect microcosm of a class society. It has three floors and is divided into five levels, with the threshold being naked money.

The crab noodles on the first floor cost 22 yuan and the soup buns are 15 yuan, which is only for takeout. Tourists line up to buy the ducks and can only stand by the window and eat them whole - this may be better for them. After all, the shriveled, salty and fishy ducks and the soup buns full of MSG can't stand the taste of chewing slowly. At the same time, the giant sign and loud speakers are all admonishing tourists: There is dine-in upstairs, and the upstairs are more delicious!

There are indeed seats on the second floor, but when there are too many people, they still have to be shipped forever. Only 8 crab meat cages are available for 25 yuan. The result of spending more is that the skin is thinner and you can taste a little soup and a few pieces of broken crabs in the meat filling.

When you go up to the third floor, the rules are even more complicated. The minimum consumption in Changxing Hall on the right is 50 per person, and the queue is much shorter than the second floor. You don’t have to worry about not being per person enough. A crab roe cage of 6 pieces is 55 yuan, and a crab roe soup dumpling is 35 yuan per piece. Although the small cage is a little salty, it finally has the popularity of steaming, and the "crab roe" flavor that matches the name and reality - it is not amazing, but it is still qualified.

The Dingxin Hall on the left has an average purchase of 80 yuan per person. Going further inside, it is the Ruixin Hall with a minimum purchase of 150 yuan per person. The latter has a more refined decoration and more thoughtful service. There is even a private room, but the menus of the two halls are shared.

In fact, the name of the creamy five-spice bean is not because it uses cream. The five-spice beans in Chenghuang Temple are cooked with broad beans with salt and various spices. After cooling off, a thin salt frost will appear on the surface, which looks like rock sugar butter. It is called "rock sugar butter butter" and later it was simply referred to as "cream five-spice bean". It can be imagined that it is mainly salty, and because it is cooked rather than fried, it is originally hard and tough, and is suitable for grinding teeth.

But even by this standard, the five-spice beans today are hard to be called delicious. The broad beans are old and stiff. Apart from salt, they are saccharin and flavors, and the mouth is sharp and sweet and salty. Penguin hasn't even finished a pack, and is also very curious about where the five-spice beans bought in batches by tourists.

The condition of pear paste sugar is similar to that of five-spice beans. It has exquisite packaging and a variety of flavors, but there are only two words in the mouth: hard and sweet.

In fact, the birth of pear paste sugar was not for delicious food, but for replacing cough-relieving medicine. Boil pear juice, herbal juice and white sugar into sugar cubes, slowly containing and moistening the throat, which is said to have certain cough-relieving effects.

In the era when there were not many snacks, such a little sweet candy could make children feel aftertaste. But now, all kinds of high-end candies are racking their brains to cater to your taste buds, and the pear paste candies are still as hard as bricks as they were back then. The "tasting type" pear paste candies customized for foreign tourists have infinitely weakened the medicinal flavor and are even more sweet and straightforward and frank. The only selling point is probably the only feeling.
Chapter completed!