Cantonese cuisine Dacheng gourmet
- North Garden Restaurant
Zhang Green
North Garden Restaurant in the Republic of China period (picture from the network for reference only, true and false can not be distinguished)
Beiyuan Restaurant is a garden-style restaurant with lingnan garden architectural color, located diagonally opposite the small north gate of Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou, which is famous for its Cantonese cuisine, and its dishes are mainly light and tender, with the characteristics of Cantonese cuisine. The layout of the restaurant hall is unique, antique, elegant and gorgeous. The environment of the store is elegant, yuchi stone mountain, small bridge flowing water, winding path cloister, strange flowers, dazzling. Guests can enjoy the garden in addition to their taste.
The founding of North Park and its evolution
Founded in the late 1920s, Beiyuan Restaurant was founded by Zou Dianbang, president of the Municipal Chamber of Commerce during the Chen Jitang period, and some bureaucrats' wives raised funds to open the restaurant in the area. At that time, the restaurant only engaged in wine, dishes and banquets, specializing in the business of military and political circles, merchants, and literati. Because it is located in the northern suburbs of Yangcheng, adjacent to the Baiyun Mountain Dragon, the trees are dense, the environment is quiet, and there is a small river flowing through the front, so it is called "Mountain Front Liquor Store, Water Tail Tea Liao". In order to attract customers, North Garden has vegetable balls nearby, planting seasonal vegetables, customers come, that is, pick and fry, vegetables are fresh and tender, turquoise and pleasant, dishes color, aroma, taste, type, so that diners are happy.
In the past, Xiaobei Road was relatively secluded, but the only way for people to visit Baiyun Mountain was also called "Dengfeng Road". People who climb the peak will naturally go to the North Garden Restaurant to eat and drink. Therefore, since the opening of North Park, business has become increasingly prosperous. However, the good times did not last long, and in 1938, Guangzhou fell, and the North Garden was declared closed.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Renfu, a former employee of North Garden, returned to Guangzhou and decided to rebuild the North Garden Restaurant. Yang and chen Zhaozi, former sales director of North Park, chefs Liu Su and Huang Zhuting combined with the company to operate a collective stock. The original team of people who returned to the North Garden, such as Liu Kun, Chen Li, Lai Shrimp, Liu Zhang, Wang Xiquan and "Fish King" Luo Chang, reopened in the summer of 1947.
The reconstructed North Garden Restaurant, with a relatively simple structure, is made of pine skin penny cover, only one hall, more than 10 loose tables, eight or nine pine skin pavilions, and more than 10 workers (later increased to 30). After the restoration of Guangzhou, the recovery of hundreds of industries, the tea house tavern appeared a prosperous scene, although the equipment of the North Garden is simple, but the font size is old, and it has the characteristics of traditional gardens, so there are also many customers. The store's "big chicken three flavors" are also gradually famous, because the chicken used is to buy the "chicken items" raised by farmers on the spot, and the customers order it instantly [tāng], so the entrance is soft and sweet, smooth and delicious. There are also dishes such as oil pond shrimp, vegetable gall fish rot, suburban fish head, garlic steamed [hān] fish head, gillet raw fish, glass oil suckling pigeon, oyster sauce duck foot, mountain spotted tofu, fried salted (sweet) sand puff noodles and other dishes are also evocative.
On the eve of liberation, Kuomintang military and political leaders and industrial and commercial tycoons fled south one after another and gathered in Guangzhou, where they often patronized the North Garden. Xiang Hanping, a member of the Kuomintang military and political department, often feasted here, and when eating crabs was generally steamed, Xiang Hanping felt tired of eating, so he asked the chef Liu Kun to change it. After Master Liu studied, he used hemp mushrooms, green onion flowers to take juice, And Shao liquor to make it, the aroma was fragrant, and Xiang Hanping was happy, and the long banner that read "Crab Yellow Liquor Aroma, Bamboo Nest Hut Small Pomp" was sent to the North Garden. In the future, he had to arrange this dish whenever he invited guests, so posterity jokingly called this dish "Xianggong Fried Crab". Yu Hanmou, commander of the Seventh Theater, and Sun Ke, chief executive of the Kuomintang, also visited the Beiyuan Restaurant. Sun Ke's favorite thing to eat is "Shangtang Fish Noodles", which is the skill of "Fish King" Master Luo Chang, and it is also an exclusive dish in North Garden. The preparation method is first made with fresh mud carp into fish gelatin, mixed with egg whites, thoroughly, steamed, and then cut into noodles and stewed in soup, smooth and sweet. At that time, the North Garden Restaurant was also a place where literati and scholars gathered, and famous artists He Feifan, Chu Xiuyun, Red Line Woman, famous doctors Du Wenchao and Du Weiwen, and Jin Zengcheng, president of Sun Yat-sen University, often patronized the banquet.
North Garden Restaurant also operates a "meeting banquet" service, in which the chef cooks for customers. For example, at that time, Cai Tingkai [kǎi] (commander of the Nineteenth Route Army), Jiang Guangguo, Xu Jingtang, Song Ziwen, Ouyang Ju, Chen Ce and other military and political dignitaries all invited the chefs of Beiyuan to their villas, and the mansion made a "banquet at the meeting".
From the eve of the liberation of Guangzhou to the early days of liberation, the food business was once neglected. After the "five antis" in 1953, the national economy gradually restored market prosperity, and the business of North Park flourished again.
Expansion and features of north park
After the public-private partnership in 1956, with the recovery and development of the national economy, Mayor Zhu Guang personally visited the North Park and proposed an expansion plan. In 1957, the state invested in reconstruction, carefully designed by the famous architectural engineer Mo Bozhi and others, and expanded into the first antique garden restaurant in Guangzhou, full of Chinese garden characteristics. Mayor Zhu Guang also wrote the "North Garden" signboard for the restaurant (now embedded in the "Qixiu Building" gate shed). He was very concerned about the layout of the North Garden, business characteristics and technical strength, and advocated that restaurants should adopt the business policy of operating banquet wine and dishes, implementing the business policy of holding both high and low, and three tea markets and two rice markets every day.
Beiyuan has a strong culinary technology force, such as Mai Jiu, Deng Su, Xu Heng, He Ying, Li He, Zhou Xin, Kong Quan, Liao Gan, etc. are the main players of the restaurant's cooking and production, so that the characteristic flavor of cantonese cuisine can be maintained and developed, and it has been well received by customers. Known as one of the top ten famous chefs in Guangzhou, Cantonese cuisine master and special chef Li He is skilled. High-grade materials will be the icing on the cake in his hands; ordinary materials will also become delicious dishes. He made innovative improvements to the "flower carved chicken". In the past, it was cooked with flower carving wine, and the chopping pieces were served on a plate, he used a clay pot to carry it, poured the flower carving wine into the tile jar and baked it, and when it was opened on the table, it was full of aroma, and the meat was tender and smooth, delicious and delicious, which made the chef's appetite move. In terms of cooking skills and ingredients, Master Li he not only gives full play to the specialties of traditional dishes, but also constantly innovates, forming ten famous dishes in Beiyuan, such as "oil-soaked shrimp", "suburban fish head", "oyster sauce duck feet", "dried fried chicken breast", "osmanthus fragrant", "Baoding full of altar incense", "tile pot flower carved chicken", etc., all of which are well-known at home and abroad. Griller Liao Gan's creation of "osmanthus fragrant za" is made of salted egg yolk, rotten skin, lean meat slices, coriander and other rolls into a circle, with duck intestines around the tight, placed in the oven to bake, coarse refined, good color, beautiful, inexpensive, Japanese newspapers and periodicals have translated "osmanthus za" as "osmanthus wreath" to publicize. At the end of 1981, Master Li He was invited to Hong Kong, New York and other places to investigate the catering industry, and made technical exchanges and performances with local food peers, which was well received by local overseas Chinese and people from all walks of life. He participated in the first national culinary performance competition and won the Outstanding Chef Award. He also participated in the compilation of cooking technology books such as "Chinese Recipes" and "Cantonese Cuisine", and also compiled a number of cooking technology textbooks such as "Instructions for Entering the Kitchen" and "Cantonese Cuisine Collection". The major hotels and restaurants in Guangzhou and the catering industry in the province have chefs trained by him.
Special pastry chef Chen Xun (image from the Internet)
The exquisite dim sum of the North Garden Restaurant is also outstanding and colorful. Dim sum chef Mai Jiu's "Pipa Shrimp Fan", special dim sum chef Chen Xun's "Mandarin Duck Mille-feuille Cake", "Dangui Cup in the Moon", "Jade Liquid Char Siu Bun" and other dim sum have long been famous. At the end of 1981, Chen Xun went to the United States, Hong Kong and other places to investigate the catering industry. In August 1985, he went to Singapore to perform. Many chefs, pastry chefs and roasters in The North Garden have been recruited to perform and work in the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Bangladesh, the United States, Suriname, Botswana and other countries, and have been widely praised. At that time, several major provincial and municipal newspapers, Hong Kong's "New Evening News", "Wen Wei Po", Singapore Newspaper, etc. have reported one after another, which has a great impact.
In 1983, Beiyuan Restaurant selected famous dishes of the 1980s at the "Guangzhou Famous Dishes Beauty And Comments Exhibition" as: "Baoding Full of Altar Incense", "Clay Pot Flower Carved Chicken", "Oyster Sauce Duck Feet", "Fenjiu Beef", "Pine Nuts Fish". Osmanthus fragrant sauce", "Hundred Flowers Fight for Duck", "Gold Medal Oil Chicken", "Kyoto Smoked Fish", etc. Famous dim sums include: "Spoon Shrimp Fan", "Jade Liquid Char Siu Bun", "Fragrant Hemp Milk Layer Cake", "Hundred Flowers fish dumplings", "Tai Chi Shadow Double Hui", "Dangui Cup in the Moon", "Hundred Flowers Basket", "Pineapple Snowflake Cup", "Colorful Shadow Red Plum" and so on.
North Garden also pays attention to cultivating young outstanding chefs, such as Chen Zhiqiang, who is only 30 years old and has a secondary school education, who has become a special chef under the guidance and training of teachers. In May 1988, he participated in the 2nd National Culinary Competition in Beijing, where he won the gold medal in the dish "Jade Liquid Qiong Cup", the silver medal in the ingenious dim sum "Lotus Millefeuille Cake" and the bronze medal in "Cherry Phoenix Nest". Winning three consecutive medals in a national cooking competition is extremely rare among the younger generation of chefs.
Happily, Chen Xun, a special dim sum chef at Beiyuan Restaurant, was elected as a deputy to the Fourth National People's Congress, Special Chef Li He was a member of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and xu Shaorong, a banquet designer, was elected as the people's representative of Yuexiu District. Beiyuan Restaurant has also been rated as a provincial and municipal advanced unit for many times.
Excellent service and new look
With the development of the situation and the need for reform and opening up, the North Garden Restaurant added a five-story building with a green tile palace on the original basis in 1984 - "Qixiu Building", which people called "New North Park". It stands in the south of the Old North Park, connecting the old and the new, which is spectacular.
The newly built "Qixiu Building" echoes with the architectural style, garden characteristics, and simple and elegant layout of the former North Garden Restaurant. The whole building seems to be built on the back of the blue pond, surrounded by the swaying flowers and green trees. Climb up the steps from the boulders and ascend to the viewing platform, where you can not only enjoy the floating koi in the pool, but also browse the chic scenery of the whole restaurant, so that people can wash the dust of the bustling downtown area and feel refreshed.
In August 1986, north garden restaurants raised huge funds to carry out large-scale comprehensive renovation of the old building part of the restaurant. On the basis of maintaining the simple and elegant Lingnan garden style, the introduction of advanced technology equipment in the 1980s, the addition of central air conditioning, sound and a large number of stainless steel production equipment, but also greatly improved the working conditions and working environment of workers.
Now, when guests enter the gate of the North Garden Restaurant, they are greeted by a painting of mahogany carved intricately carved and inlaid with ancient vessels etched in green glass, which is exquisitely made and breathtaking.
The North Garden Restaurant's [yì] Cui Lou Banquet Hall is magnificent. The most distinctive feature is the twelve mahogany flower screen doors carved from carved wood. The various flowers, birds, insects and fish carved according to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter in the screen door are vivid and exquisite. The exquisite craftsmanship and vivid composition are rare. The entire hall of The Rucui Building is decorated with teak, log, mahogany and chromatic glass materials, and the ceiling is made of traditional swastika, money and ruyi bats carved on the whole teak board, which is solemn and elegant. There is a joint as evidence, "Ru Lu invited a few glasses of red wine to pour liver and gallbladder, Cuiping Qi Ge Yi Hao Yin saw the temperament."
The new Yibi Building is very different from the Rucui Building, which is characterized by elegant comfort. Here is a one-way hall, each restaurant is carved with celebrity poetry paintings carved beam paintings, but also with teak carved door leaf and etched red set blue glass pieces as a septum, paved with noble carpet, decorated with all kinds of sour branches and pear blossom mahogany chairs, with a rich and luxurious pattern.
After the new and renovated North Garden Restaurant, there are more than 1,400 private seats, 4 large restaurants, and 40 small and medium-sized restaurants. The restaurant not only has well-known Chinese and foreign flavor dishes, comfortable and elegant seats, but also has first-class service facilities, excellent waiters, warm and thoughtful service attitude, making it highly praised by guests and won the trust of Chinese and foreign customers.
Since the 1960s, Beiyuan has made friends with many Chinese and foreign VIPs. In July 1964, the famous Japanese Buddhist master and calligrapher Tianmen Haiweng was touched by the warm reception and rich dishes of the North Garden, and with great interest, he impromptuly waved a banner with four big characters of "peace and friendship" as a gift. On July 14 of the same year, the famous literary artist Guo Moruo, when he went abroad to Visit Vietnam and passed through Guangzhou, once went to the Beiyuan Restaurant to drink morning tea. Because the refreshments are exquisite, colorful, and the service is warm and thoughtful, it is impromptu and gives a poem: "Drinking morning tea in the North Garden, as if arriving at home, instantly going abroad, returning to drink tea again." When the art master Liu Haisu was 87 years old, he once came here to feast and drink, and he greatly rewarded the dishes of the North Garden Restaurant, and improvised the four characters of "its taste is infinite". Shang Chengzuo, a famous professor at Sun Yat-sen University, presented "Taste of The Fat" to express his evaluation of the dishes.
Mr. Ho Yin, the former President of the Macau Chamber of Commerce, often came to North Garden before his death, and he liked to eat the pork inspice [zhēng] and the paste of shrimp in oil, duck feet with oyster sauce, and chicken with carved flowers. Especially when eating flower carved chicken, he always keeps the sauce and stirs it with fried pho to eat. Mr. Ho said: "The carved chicken tastes good even in juice." Every year, Mr. He always goes to the North Garden Restaurant for dinner.
Ma Man-kei, President of the Macau Chamber of Commerce, Tao Kai-yu, President of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce Wang Kuancheng, well-known personalities Gao Zhendong, Tang Kun, etc., all often come to the restaurant to feast and drink, and the waiters have mastered the eating habits of each of them, making them feel at home.
One year, Australian Minister of Industry and Commerce Philip. After Lynch came here to eat, he said, "It is indeed a first-class dish, and I told my friends after I returned to China that they must come to you when they come to China." A year later, sure enough, an Australian friend took Philip. Lynch went to the North Garden Restaurant to eat the menu, and after eating, he praised it: "Wonderful, wonderful!"
It should be noted that in the 1950s, chef Xu Heng took the cook Liang Ping to the Zhudao Hotel to cook Cantonese cuisine for Chairman Mao and other party and state leaders; he was praised by the relevant departments. The restaurant also sent the barbecue chef Master Liao Gan to the Conghua Hotel to grill suckling pigs for US President Nixon. In the 1960s, Marshals Chen Yi and Ye Jianying went to the North Garden to drink Kung Fu tea. State leaders Wang Zhen and Liao Chengzhi, Gu Mu and Zhang Aiping, mathematician Hua Luogeng, Chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh, Chinese businessman Han Suyin, US Congressman Mans Sin Erde, and Japanese friends from all walks of life in the vicinity of siyuan temple have also eaten in the North Garden.
In recent years, beiyuan restaurants have received more and more foreign guest services, and restaurants have insisted on achieving "one-stop service reception". From the beginning of the guest entering the store with a seat, the waiter serves the guest in accordance with the service specifications, pours tea and delivers towels, and finally sends the guest out, all of which are meticulous and attentive. Some tour groups are too late to eat due to the flight or car, and the restaurant also prepares box lunches and snacks for them, so that guests can take them to the plane or car to eat, which is really warm and thoughtful.
In recent years, the turnover of North Garden Restaurant has been growing day by day. According to statistics, after 1958, the monthly turnover was 6-8 million yuan, and the annual profit was about 100,000 yuan. Since 1983, the monthly turnover has risen to 1.25 million yuan, and the annual profit is 1.8 million yuan. Especially after the reform and opening up, the responsibility system for the manager's tenure target was implemented, and the Beiyuan Restaurant signed a double link between business and profit with the catering company, which mobilized the enthusiasm of the majority of employees and continuously improved the living standards of employees. In 1988, the monthly income of employees increased by 182% compared with before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. The development of the business has continuously expanded the staff of the restaurant, and there are more than 600 employees. Among them, there are 55 chefs or roasters of level 3 or above, 29 dim sum chefs, 9 banquet designers, 2 service technicians, and 64 waiters of level 3 or above.
At present, under the situation of in-depth development of reform, Beiyuan Restaurant insists on carrying forward the fine traditions of the past, continues to grasp the quality of food, innovate varieties, has the courage to reform, and at the same time grasps the quality of service to meet the increasing consumption needs of the masses and make all work to a higher level.
Exterior view of the North Garden Restaurant today
Article source: Guangzhou famous time-honored brand (September 1989, 1st edition)
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