Shanghai used to be a paradise for Cantonese cuisine, and the representative restaurant was Xinghualou.
Xinghua Building was formerly known as "Xinghua Building". Is a traditional catering, food processing famous store in Shanghai, founded in the Qing Dynasty Xianfeng first year in 1851 Guangdong people "Shengzai" opened dessert shop, belongs to the Haipai Cantonese restaurant, known for making Cantonese mooncakes.
Located at No. 343 Fuzhou Road, Huangpu District, Xinghualou Main Store is one of the long-established brands in China and is now a famous Cantonese chef in Shencheng. From Mr. Zhang Taiyan's inscription: "Honey juice can quench the thirst of the road, and the river fish is to relieve the worries of the courtiers" to Mr. Wang Daohan's "group of sages to the end".
In 1851, Xu Arun, a native of Shanghai and Guangdong, founded Xinghua Building at the corner of Shandong Road, Fuzhou Road, specializing in Cantonese catering. Xu Arun spent his early years as a chef on a foreign ship, and after retiring, he opened the snack bar in Shanghai with his pension. During the day, it mainly serves Guangzhou-style lakau, and in the evening, it mainly serves spiced porridge, duck porridge, wonton and so on. In 1872, Xu Arun was nearly old, so he gave the Xinghua real estate to others to operate, and later changed hands many times.
In the early years of the Republic of China, due to the gradual increase in the number of Cantonese merchants who came to Shanghai to do business, the xinghualou business based on Cantonese cuisine became increasingly prosperous, so the original open façade was not enough. At that time, the owner of The shop, Li Jinhai, a native of Panyu, Guangdong, in order to meet the growing flow of customers, partnered with others to rebuild a two-story building on the current site. Li Jinhai began to apprentice in the kitchen of XinghuaLou in 1888, and later became the famous chef of the store, and in 1927, after the unanimous recommendation of the clerks, he began to take charge of Xinghualou.
In 1927, Xinghua Building was renovated again, and a seven-bay, four-storey restaurant was built, and the whole store could open nearly 100 tables at the same time, becoming the largest Cantonese restaurant in Shanghai at that time. Celebrities from Shencheng's industrial and commercial circles, military and political circles have all gone to dinner, and Li Zongren, Sun Ke, Du Yuesheng, etc. often go to Xinghualou to eat. In addition, some official large-scale banquets were also held in the Xinghua Building, which had hosted a welcome dinner for the Shanghai Municipal Education Bureau on the arrival of the Guolian Education Delegation in shanghai in the 1930s, and the Guolian Education Delegation included the famous French physicist Paul Lang Zhiwan, which shows that the Xinghua Building was already famous in Shanghai.
Due to the outstanding performance, the owner decided to change the name of the store because of the lack of elegance. Later, at the suggestion of a middle school teacher, Su Mou, it was renamed to its current name according to the poem of the great tang dynasty poet Du Mu, "The shepherd boy remotely refers to the apricot blossom village", that is, the apricot blossom building. In addition, Zhu Ruzhen, a well-known calligrapher and famous calligrapher who was also a Cantonese, wrote the three characters of "Xinghua Lou" as a signboard.
The well-known dishes of Xinghualou mainly include: open oven char siu, crispy roasted duck, Xishi shrimp, snake soup, chives and shallot oil chicken, stewed porch fish, dragon and tiger bucket, plant four treasures and other 300 or 400 kinds. One of the most well-known dishes is dragon and tiger bucket, when the apricot blossom house makes this dish, it uses cobra, golden ring snake, tree banyan snake, cat, leopard fox meat as raw materials, plus chicken shredded, fish belly, mushroom shredded mushrooms, wood ear shreds and spices to cook, the flavor is unique, it is a must in Shanghai.
Xinghualou Mooncake is one of the most famous products of Xinghualou Restaurant. In 1928, Xinghualou first launched Cantonese-style mooncakes. Specially hired Cantonese celebrity chefs to customize exclusive recipes. Among them, the bean paste uses Haimen Special Grade Da Hong Pao as the raw material, the Lotus Rong uses Hunan Tongxin Xianglian, the Coconut Paste uses Hainan Special Grade Coconut Silk, the olives are selected from Xishan, Guangdong, and the almonds from Beishan, Zhejiang, and the Walnuts of Yunnan Touji are used [5]. In addition, rose bean paste mooncake is also a major feature, and roses that are more than two years old must be used to replace sorghum wine. The recipe for the mooncake is now stored in a safe deposit box at the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
The packaging of the apricot blossom house mooncake is also a major feature. Since the launch of the mooncake in 1928, the apricot blossom house mooncake has always adopted Chang'e Running Moon as the packaging theme. At that time, the boss Li Jinhai asked Hang Xiying, the most famous painter in Shanghai at that time, to paint a picture of "the moon is brighter in August and the moon is brighter in the mid-autumn, and the chang'e dance in the month" is used as a package according to the mid-autumn festival season and myths and legends.
In the 1970s, Xinghualou hired Tang Yun, a famous painter in Shanghai, to paint a picture of "Chang'e Running Moon". In 1985, the well-known painter Li Mubai was invited to draw another pair of "Chang'e Benyue", and made two kinds of packaging, carton and iron box, which have been used to this day.