In the 1940s, there were many large and small hotels in and around Wuxi, such as Jufeng Garden, Yingbin Building, China Hotel, Taishan Hotel "Taihu Hall" and other big-name hotels with large business areas and rich and exquisite dishes, attracting many diners. Li Xifu, a small restaurant with only a open façade on the south side of the east street entrance in the city, with several specialties rich in rich Wuxi flavor, has also attracted a large number of diners who have come to taste delicious food, which can really be called full of seats, and its momentum is even greater than that of the big hotel.
Li Xifu Hotel, Wuxi people like to call it "Xifuli (Li)". The founder's name is Li Lianfeng, nicknamed Xifu. In the thirty-first year of Qing Guangxu (1905), Li Lianfeng opened a small restaurant on West Avenue and named it "Li Xifu Hotel". West Street is not far from the "old county front" where Wuxi County Yamen is located, the County Yamen of the Qing Dynasty is also in charge of civil and criminal matters, the people go to the county Yamen to fight a lawsuit, less to eat and rest nearby, these people who fight lawsuits do not have too high requirements for meals, Li Xifu Hotel in response to this situation, they sell porridge in the morning, sell rice in the afternoon, and the meals served are home-cooked. Although the business is small, the available materials are exquisite, the cooking is exquisite, even the most ordinary home-cooked "snow vegetable stewed tofu", in addition to the main ingredient snow vegetables, tofu, plus small kaiyang, shiitake mushrooms, put some red peppers, put more soybean oil, a bowl of steaming tofu on the table, white tofu, yellow and yellow layer of soybean oil slightly green new snow red, black shiitake mushrooms, plus a few stalks of bright red peppers, really color, aroma, taste, especially in winter, more appetizing. Of course, some customers want to eat better, steaming on the steamer with bad button meat, curd meat and meat stuffed gluten on the "mountain head", as guests choose. Also commendable is Li Xifu's pickled first salted head bacon, which is tender and fragrant, cut into two slices of bacon and add some spinach hundred pages to cook into a bacon spinach soup. Two people can easily eat a bowl of snow vegetable stewed tofu plus a bowl of shouting meat spinach soup, which does not cost much, which is enough to make people full of food. Soon after Li Xifu opened, he was well received by diners.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the original "Wuxi County Yamen" in front of the old county was abolished. The "Yamen of Jinkui County", which was originally located in front of the new county, became the seat of the Wuxi County Government during the Republic of China period. Lee Hee Fu Hotel lost many customers in the original West Avenue area. At this time, the Li Xifu Hotel was run by Li Rongquan, the son of Xifu. Li Rongquan was full of business acumen, so he moved the hotel business premises from the more remote West Avenue to the East Avenue entrance of the west of the most lively city bridge in Wuxi City to continue to operate. Although the business area has been expanded to two rooms, the store hall is still a white powder wall, green brick floor, eight immortals square table wooden benches, and the scale is only larger than the general rice package. Because Li Rongquan added several varieties of specialties, he was praised by old diners and won the praise of the big reputation of small restaurants. The diners affectionately called it "Hi Fu Lee".
Li Xifu's most famous dish praised by gourmets is "stir-fried sausage". The founder of this dish was mojia outside the South Gate, which later became the signature dish of the "Juxin Garden" in the South Gate. JuxinYuan's fried same intestine fat is not greasy, the original same intestine is made of pig small intestine set with raw blanks, according to the standard should be "nine with", not the "six same" supplied by the hotel now. Li Rongquan will put the raw blank intestines in the pot first, and when cooked, you can use chopsticks to poke into the pot to dry, put in the "and hundred juices" (Wuxi is called 咣 dang, is a delicious integration of various dishes, after the taste is taken out and set aside) soaked overnight. After ordering, add pork liver and stir-fry. A plate of stir-fried intestines is full of flavor, salty and moderate, fat but not greasy, and the price is low. Most diners go to Xifu for the sake of eating fried sausages. At the beginning of the liberation, a plate of fried sausages sold for 5 5 6 cents. Meat stuffed raw man is another popular specialty of XifuLi, the meat stuffed raw man skin is thin and stuffed, bite into the marinade entrance, plus the raw man's own umami taste, it is really delicious, and the price is not expensive. In the early 1950s, when I went to Xifu to eat, two people ordered a pot of fried sausage, RMB five corners and six cents, frozen white chopped chicken in Xifuli cold vegetables, a pot of triangle five points, two pieces of bacon and a dime and two points, plus spinach, a dime of 100 pages to make soup, and the rice was provided free of charge that year. Plus two dimes for two cups of frozen beer. The two of them ate a meal but more than three yuan. Quite twenty yuan now, it is really cheap and good, and it is popular with consumers.
In the early days of liberation, the bourgeoisie did not have high-grade hotel consumption. Yingbin Building, Jufengyuan and other large restaurants have a light business, only for the public, selling a triangular hex one guest meal, although there are old roasted fish, dried vegetable meat, shrimp stewed eggs, fried three fresh and other dishes, or few guests come to eat. Xifuli, on the other hand, is a thriving business, in stark contrast. "Bad fried white fish" and "rock sugar curd meat" in Xifu are also their signature dishes, and "fried intestines" and "meat stuffed raw man" are known as the four kongs of Xifu Lee. It must be pointed out that in order to make the same intestine taste, Xifu Lee used the same intestine to soak in "and hundred juices". Now, because the "and hundred juices" do not meet the sanitary requirements, the Jufengyuan and Buyan Restaurants that now supply stir-fried intestines have been soaked with special gravy and marinated duck juice to keep the original flavor of the intestines...
Bill for Lee Fu Hee Restaurant in 1953