At two o'clock in the morning, the whole city was still asleep, and Tian Jinxiang's day had begun.
Riding an electric car, crossing two streets, a few minutes away, you will reach your own shop. Pulling up the roller shutters sharply, he began to prepare for the day's business as usual. Boiling water, shan noodles, shaking noodles, preparing tahini, sesame oil, green onions... Everything was ready, and at 6 a.m., customers began to enter the store one after another.
Early in the morning of April 19, there was a long line outside the Old Tian Ji Noodle Shop on Huangshi Road. Photo by reporter Zhang Weina
"Lao Tian, you are on CCTV again, this time it is still "News Network"!" An old customer just entered the store and took his mobile phone to show Lao Tian. "Oops, I haven't noticed yet." The 66-year-old Lao Tian squinted his eyes and took the mobile phone and looked at it carefully for half a day.
Early in the morning of the 19th, customers lined up at the entrance of the store while chattering: "Lao Tian is on the "News Network", and the queue at the door is longer. ”
Video loading...
7 years ago, as the taste of old Wuhan debuted on CCTV
"There are so many hot dry noodle brands in Wuhan, how did you choose my small shop?" When he was selected for "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2", Lao Tian did not understand, why would it be him?
The enamel bowl of the noodles and the bamboo colander of the hot noodles maintain the traditional atmosphere in Laotian's shop. The same goes for the taste.
The predecessor of Lao Tian Ji Noodle Restaurant was a branch shop called Se Wei Xiang Canteen on Jiqing Street in the 1940s, and after the reform and opening up, Tian Jinxiang's parents contracted this shop and named it "Lao Tian Ji Noodle Restaurant". In 1993, after Tian Jinxiang was laid off from a dyeing factory, he followed his parents to run it for nearly 30 years.
Many people ride electric vehicles to eat noodles. Photo by reporter Zhang Weina
At 9:30 a.m. on April 19, when the Yangtze River Daily reporter arrived at the noodle restaurant, there were still many people queuing at the door. Aunt Lu, who lives on Liji North Road, told reporters that she would ride an electric car with her wife for half an hour too early for at least three days a week. "It's delicious, it was what we tasted when we were kids."
"Hot dry noodles are hot dry noodles, and without adding anything, it is the old taste of Wuhan." Lao Tian has an easy-going personality, and whoever talks to is smiling and hehehehe, only when it comes to hot dry noodles, will he show stubbornness and persistence.
In the past two years, in order to enrich the taste of hot dry noodles, many stores have prepared small ingredients such as capers and pickles for customers to add. Lao Tian refused to be fancy, and strived to maintain a single taste of hot dry noodles. Many new customers will find that their hot dry noodles do not add brine and there are no options for capers and pickles. A spoonful of thick and unsprung tahini, accompanied by a spoonful of soy sauce and vinegar, is a bowl of pure hot dry noodles.
At noon on April 19, the old Tian Ji noodle shop was busy. Photo by reporter Liu Bin
The material is simple, but the preparation of hot dry noodles is not simple.
With the launch of "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2", more and more people are looking for Lao Tian to learn the art, and he is willing to teach, but there is not much that can be learned.
Two years ago, a young man from Jiangxia studied in the shop for half a year, and followed Lao Tian from morning to night every day, until Lao Tian nodded, and the guy opened a shop independently. Nowadays, the business of this small shop is getting better and better.
Soon after, another guy went into the store to study, studied for a week, and thought that he had mastered the essentials of making hot dry noodles, "it is not difficult to make hot dry noodles", before leaving, the guy did not think so. On the day of opening the store, Lao Tian went to a trip, tasted a mouthful of noodles, and felt that it was not the taste. After opening for two months, the store was facing the risk of closing the store, and the boy asked Lao Tian to go out of the mountain for guidance, and Lao Tian did not agree again, "He has no reverence for hot dry noodles."
Lao Tian concluded that if you want to make hot dry noodles well, you must be able to eat bitterness and second, you must have understanding. "You and the noodles should have a spiritual connection, a few points thick and a little thin, a little dry and a little wet, and you must know what you want to know."
Seven years later, as a small and micro enterprise on the news network
Tian Jinxiang, owner of Lao Tian Ji Noodle Restaurant, appeared on CCTV's "News Network". Screenshot of CCTV
The life of Wuhan people is inseparable from a bowl of premature hot dry noodles. The hot dry noodle shops on the street converged into fireworks in Wuhan. For Lao Tian, making hot dry noodles is a small business, and it is necessary to calculate fine accounts.
In the "News Network" broadcast on the evening of April 18, Lao Tian calculated an account: the government's continuous tax reduction and preferential enterprise policy saved the store more than 36,000 yuan a year. "The money saved can be taken out to do store renovation, you can hire people, and the salary is a little higher." Tian Jinxiang said in the program.
The Yangtze River Daily reporter saw that compared with 7 years ago, the changes in the old Tian Ji noodle restaurant are really not small. Under the lens of "China on the Tip of the Tongue", the store sign has been smoked black, and now, the new signboard with red characters on a yellow background hangs brightly at the door; 7 years ago, customers entered the store to order, Tian Jinxiang had to tear up the meal ticket, and now, the automatic cash register has improved the efficiency of ordering; in 7 years, the store has moved from Jianghan Second Road to Huangshi Road, the store area has become larger, and the environment has improved.
On April 19, the old Tian Ji noodle shop was busy. Photo by reporter Liu Bin
Just near the Old Tian Ji Noodle Restaurant, the business of many hot dry noodle restaurants is booming. "The operating cost has come down, and this 'living money' will come in handy immediately," in Lao Tian's words, which is a solid "red envelope" given to them by the government.
Do a small business, the account to be calculated carefully. But in the selection of materials, Lao Tian is very willing.
Lao Tian ordered tahini, never bargained, "the price is a little more expensive, but it can not be adulterated." When the supplier grinds the tahini, Lao Tian sits next to him and watches, "Hot dry noodles are delicious at two points, the noodles should be good, and the tahini should be pure."
"I bought raw noodles, a pound is more expensive than ordinary alkali noodles two cents, a day according to 200 pounds of noodles, a year's expenditure cost is more than 15,000", Lao Tian told reporters, his family's one pound of raw noodles after the shan, up to 3.2 bowls of hot dry noodles, but for many hot dry noodle shops, a pound of fresh noodles can make 3.5 bowls, or even 4 bowls of the amount.
The inside and outside of the Old Tian Kee Noodle Restaurant are full of diners. Photo by reporter Liu Bin
A diner outside the Old Tian Kee Noodle Restaurant mixes noodles. Photo by reporter Liu Bin
After the broadcast of "China on the Tip of the Tongue", the sales of the store doubled, before selling two or three hundred bowls a day, now it is 600 bowls per day, encountering May Day, National Day and other holidays, tourists from all over the country will come to LaoTianji Noodle Restaurant to "punch in", which can sell more than 700 bowls a day.
The Diao Jiao small shop that the old Tian family has been running for 75 years is completely on fire. Why can fire, Lao Tian summed up four words, "make noodles well."
Produced by Yangtze River Daily Editorial: Reporter Zhang Weina Photo: Reporter Liu Bin Video: Creator Xu Jia Fan Peng Review Cai Minli Image Processing: Chen Chang Editor: Wang Rongfei Proofreader: Hu Die