The elegantly decorated Apricot Blossom Building was founded in the first year of Xianfeng (1851) of the Qing Dynasty, and opened the situation in the first year with the main Cantonese desserts and porridge. The signboard in the shop, "Apricot Blossom Building", is deep and stable, majestic and atmospheric, and was inscribed by Zhu Ruzhen in 1930, the eye of the qing Dynasty.
In the history of the development of Xinghualou, 1927 is certainly a year worthy of big books. That year, celebrity chef Li Jinhai became the manager of Xinghua Building. At the beginning of his term of office, he began to carry out drastic reforms, first of all, he established a joint-stock system and expanded the Xinghualou storefront, and the following year, Li Jinhai captured the mooncake, a traditional food with a very humanistic spirit, with a unique vision, and began to try to make mooncakes, and became famous in the world.
China's vast and profound dessert culture has been nurtured in southern Guangdong for hundreds of years. In the beautiful and sweet Guangzhou, the streets and alleys are full of large and small sugar water shops, dessert houses, and a variety of desserts on the menu board - lotus seed stewed eggs, fresh milk stewed papaya, red bean sago dew... Dazzling and mouth-watering, Xinghualou is such a Cantonese dessert shop founded in Shanghai in the first year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty.
At first, Xinghualou was just a supper shop dealing in Cantonese desserts and Cantonese-style porridge, although the store was small, but the business was booming in the city, and the desserts made were deeply loved by residents. Later, it was expanded into seven stores and became famous; it was also the beginning of the story of Xinghualou.
At the beginning, the apricot blossom building was called "Tanhua Building". Su Jun, a good friend of the owner of the hotel who teaches in the middle school, suggested to the manager that the name Tanhualou was not elegant, and it was expanded to take an elegant name. After the boss agreed, Su Jun used the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's "During the Qingming Dynasty, the rain is pouring, and the roadside pedestrians want to break their souls." Asking where the restaurant is, passers-by refer to the apricot blossom village." The boss was overjoyed after hearing this, thinking that the name was elegant and loud, so he changed the name of TanhuaLou to Xinghualou.
In 1930, Zhu Ruzhen, the head of the Qing Dynasty, also wrote a sign for the Xinghua Building, which was hung in the shop hall on the ground floor and survived in the present.
In the heyday of the XinghuaLou in the 1930s and 1940s, the Xinghualou was set up with a full set of mahogany furniture, and the decoration pattern was antique, noble and elegant, attracting a group of industrial and commercial circles, military and political figures, at that time, Li Zongren, Wang Jingwei, Du Yuesheng and so on were regular customers of the Xinghualou. Chen Yi, the first mayor of Shanghai after liberation, hosted a banquet here to entertain guests.
It was also at this time that the Apricot Blossom House began to make mooncakes. Because the Apricot Blossom Building was already a clubhouse for the exchange of upper-class people at that time, the Apricot Blossom Building Mooncake rose rapidly and has been passed down to this day.
However, in fact, in the twenties, when Xinghualou first began to make mooncakes, it was not very famous. In order to launch the brand of apricot blossom house mooncake, Li Jinhai, the manager of apricot blossom building, constantly supervises the study of technology, improves quality, works carefully, and spends all his thoughts on the mooncake.
Li Jinhai also used a small plan, he aimed at the most famous mooncake brand in Shanghai at that time- Taotao Restaurant, temporarily rented a small façade opposite Taotao Restaurant, and invited a band, and hired a beautiful lady to sing with Taotao Restaurant. One year did not achieve the second year to fight again, and the apricot blossom building finally had a solid position in the mooncake class.
"That is, the apricot blossom restaurant. Sold on the side of each Mid-Autumn Festival. Its number reaches more than 100,000. If the city sells throughout the country, the number is not more alarming. It can be seen that the Apricot Blossom Building was already quite a national brand at that time.
Later, as the name of the apricot blossom house mooncake became louder and louder. The mooncake making of Xinghualou is also constantly improving the process, from material selection to processing. The price of mooncakes is very close to the people and has won a good reputation among the citizens. Since July 9, 1997, the mooncake craft recipe passed down from generation to generation in Xinghualou has been lying quietly in the vault of Pudong Development Bank, and behind this thin recipe is the painstaking efforts and experience of generations.
The mooncakes in Xinghualou are beautiful in appearance, attractive in color, fresh and delicious. A bite feels oily and not greasy, crispy and crunchy, and addictive. The color of the mooncake also meets the requirements of different tastes: lotus paste, coconut paste, bean paste, rose, ham, egg yolk... Sweet and salty mouths are readily available, satisfying everyone's appetite.
Time has passed, and the mooncake brand has been renewed. The elderly in the family, every Mid-Autumn Festival, the most preferred is still the moon cake of The Apricot Blossom Building, saying that it is "the taste of old Shanghai, and other families can't eat it." Every year on the night of the full moon, while the family sits on the balcony to enjoy the moon and reminisce about the past, there is always a box of mooncakes from the apricot blossom building at hand. The memories of old Shanghai when I was young turned into a hint of sweetness, which remained on the tip of the tongue and in my heart.