The ancient city of Lanzhou on the bank of the Yellow River, which pervades the streets and alleys, is always the fragrance of beef noodles. A small bowl of noodles, after a hundred years of inheritance and historical precipitation, has become a food business card of Lanzhou. Hongbin Lou and Lanqing Pavilion, which belong to Jinding, are the inheritors and promoters of Lanzhou beef noodles, inheriting the production process and food culture of beef noodles with ingenuity, and pulling up the memory of Lanzhou for a hundred years with a bowl of noodles. On January 20 and April 10, 2020, Hongbin Building and Lanqing Pavilion were successively recognized as "Jincheng Time-honored Brands" by Lanzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce.
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A bowl of noodles pulls up lanzhou's century-old memory
On weekends, the Jinding Beef Noodle Hongbin Building store located at the south entrance of the square is located in the city. There is a long queue in the hall on the first floor, and the young and strong ramen chef in the back hall first repeatedly pounds, kneads, rolls, pulls, wrestles, and rolls the large balls of soft noodles, then pulls out long strips, into a noodle section with thick cups and chopsticks, and then with the customer's hobbies, pulls out noodles of different thicknesses such as "two fine", "leek leaves", "large width" and "capillary".
Ma Wenbin is the fourth generation of Lanzhou beef noodles, and he is familiar with the history of beef noodles. He said that Ma Baozi, an old man of Lanzhou Hui nationality, opened the first Lanzhou qingtang beef noodle restaurant in 1915, creating the characteristics of "one clear, two white, three red, four green, five yellow", and since then, clear soup beef noodles have been born in Lanzhou, and the business has gradually prospered and become famous. Ma Baozi operated until 1925, when his son Ma Jiesan inherited his father's business and took over the business. Ma Jiesan moved the clear soup beef noodle restaurant to the downtown area, and opened the "Ma Baozi Clear Soup Beef Noodle Restaurant" at the junction of the former Lanzhou Mutual Aid Lane and Zhongzheng Road (now the central square of Jiuquan Road). After the public-private partnership in 1956, "Ma Baozi Kiyogo Beef Noodle Restaurant" was changed to "Square Kiyoyu Beef Noodle Restaurant", which was renamed "LanQingGe" after the 1970s.
On the basis of his father's inheritance, help and belt, Mr. Ma Jiesan constantly summarized and improved his skills, and passed on his skills to Su Yunlong, Li Xueyi, Zhou Fuyuan and other employees of "Lanqing Pavilion", becoming the third and fourth generations of Lanzhou beef noodles.
At the snap of a finger, Ma Wenbin has been in the industry for more than 40 years. He still clearly remembers that when he first arrived at the "Square Clear Soup Beef Noodle Restaurant", the large bowl of beef noodles only needed 3 two grain coupons, 1 dime and 8 cents, and the small bowl of beef noodles had 2 two grain coupons and 1 dime and 5 cents.
At first, his job was just to sweep the floor and pick up the dishes, in order to learn ramen with the masters as soon as possible, Ma Wenbin did dirty and tired work.
After experiencing countless "three times of water, three times of ash, nine times of eighty-one times of kneading", Master Li Xueyi asked Ma Wenbin to order a bowl of noodles and let the masters identify whether the noodles were uniform.
It was in this small test that Ma Wenbin successfully passed the appraisal of the masters and officially became a ramen master.
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Lanzhou beef noodles won the "Golden Tripod Award"
In 1989, in the province's famous snack competition, Ma Wenbin's clear soup beef noodles won the title of "Gansu Province Famous Snack".
In 1991, Ma Wenbin and his master Zhou Fuyuan represented Gansu in Zhengzhou to participate in the National Food Competition organized by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, and "Lanzhou Clear Soup Beef Ramen" won the Golden Tripod Award. The "Jinding" brand, which is well known to Lanzhou people, got its name. Ma Wenbin recalled that at that time, they pulled four kinds of noodles, of which 8 hands were formed, a total of 256, connected up to 384 meters long, which was the height of 130 floors. From the beef noodles out of the pot to the end to the hands of the judges, more than 20 minutes passed, but still presented the characteristics of "one clear, two white, three red, four green, five yellow", which made the judges marvel.
In order to further make use of the brand advantages of the "Golden Tripod Award" and take the road of fast food chains, in 1993, Lanzhou Catering Company officially established the "Lanzhou Jinding Beef Noodle Group Company", and integrated the resources of the Lanzhou beef noodle industry, Jinding beef noodles integrated Lanqingge, Hongbin Lou and other long-established enterprises, concentrated the technical backbone of the Lanzhou beef noodle industry and the third and fourth generations, becoming the leader of the Lanzhou beef noodle industry, and also becoming the inheritor of Lanzhou beef noodles in the new era.
Jinding Company holds high the banner of promoting intangible cultural heritage, inherits the century-old classic of authentic beef noodles, and retains the traditional beef noodle production process and food culture. With the strong support of the municipal government, in 1998, Jinding Company took "revitalizing beef noodles and establishing a new image" as its purpose, improved the overall development of the industry as its own, and laid the foundation for the standardization, standardization, scale and chain industrialization of Lanzhou beef noodles with a new fast food chain model, and formulated technical standards and grading standards for Lanzhou beef noodles.
In 2000, Lanzhou Jinding Beef Noodle Group Co., Ltd. hosted the first "Jinding Cup" National Lanzhou Beef Ramen Technology Competition.
innovation
Lanzhou beef noodles were selected as "China's Top Ten Noodles"
"It is under the demonstration and guidance of Jinding Company that the overall grade, scale and level of lanzhou beef noodles have reached a new level." Ma Limin, president of the Lanzhou Beef Ramen Industry Association, said that in the past, Lanzhou people squatted on the side of the road to eat noodles, and Jinding beef noodles introduced the business philosophy of fast food, and after guests ordered food, the waiter brought it to the table where the guests sat, which improved the comfort of the meal. At the same time, Jinding Company combines the traditional production process of beef noodles with modern business philosophy, continuously enhances the cultural connotation of beef noodles, creates a brand with high-quality, high-quality innovation and development, develops high-grade nourishing beef noodles, whole beef banquets, forms a set of beef noodles with unique flavors, creates a new brand image of Lanzhou beef noodles, provides a new path for the development and innovation of Lanzhou beef noodles, makes Lanzhou beef noodles enter a new era, and becomes the leading model enterprise in Lanzhou beef noodle industry.
When unified brand, unified decoration, unified distribution, and unified price became the chain management concept of Jinding beef noodles, many beef noodle restaurants in Lanzhou have followed suit and developed chain models.
In 2013, Ma Wenbin represented Lanzhou in the first China Noodle Culture Festival held in Hangzhou, just as the so-called "ramen master is like an actor, pulling up the noodles like a performance", when the dough was transformed in his hands into capillary, second fine, leek leaves, large wide and other noodle types, his "special skills" ignited the enthusiasm of the delegates and Hangzhou citizens, and the Lanzhou beef noodle booth was surrounded by water. In the gap between the performances, delegates from all over the world and Hangzhou citizens came to take photos with him, and sometimes they had to teach "apprentices" on the spot. In the end, Ma Wenbin won the title of "Chinese Noodle Master", Lanzhou Beef Noodles was selected as "China's Top Ten Noodles" without suspense, and Lanzhou Jinding Catering Management Co., Ltd. won the only "China Top Ten Noodle Shops" in the province.
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Lanzhou beef noodles
It has been "pulled" to more than 40 countries and regions
The camel bell of the silk ancient road is fragrant on both sides of the Yellow River. The Lanzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Lanzhou Municipal Government attach great importance to the beef noodle industry. In 1999, Lanzhou beef noodles were identified by the state as one of the three major fast food in Chinese style, known as "the first noodle in China"; in May 2010, the trademark of "Lanzhou beef ramen" was registered in the State Trademark Office; in July 2010, the China Cuisine Association named Lanzhou as "the hometown of Chinese beef ramen". In 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020, the Lanzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the China Cuisine Association jointly held large-scale catering activities related to Lanzhou beef noodles for many times, promoting Lanzhou beef noodles to further accelerate the pace of "going out".
On June 10 this year, the State Council approved the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects (a total of 185 items) and the expanded list of national intangible cultural heritage representative items (a total of 140 items) determined by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Lanzhou beef noodle making technology was selected.
Through the policy guidance, project support, and external publicity and promotion of The Gansu Provincial Party Committee and the Lanzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, Lanzhou Beef Noodles has expanded the market and expanded its business scale in a standardized chain operation mode, and has developed from a small shop in the city to a large market of 10 billion. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 50,000 beef ramen restaurants in Lanzhou across the country, with more than 400,000 employees and an annual turnover of nearly 60 billion yuan. Lanzhou beef noodles are extending from a bowl of noodles to an industrial chain integrating scientific research and development, technical training, production and processing, logistics and distribution, and chain operation, which has made great contributions to activating the catering market, driving related industries, solving social employment, driving poverty alleviation, and promoting the "Belt and Road" food culture to go global.
With the advancement of the national "Belt and Road" initiative, Lanzhou beef noodles have gradually gone abroad, opening more than 200 stores in more than 40 countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, etc., becoming the communication ambassador of Lanzhou's history, culture and economy, and showing the charm of Lanzhou to the world.
Interview
Ma Wenbin, the fourth generation of Lanzhou beef noodles: "I will always teach young people this skill hand in hand"
Beginning as an apprentice in 1975 at the Lanzhou Catering Service Company Plaza Clear Soup Beef Noodle Restaurant, Ma Wenbin's life was inextricably linked to beef noodles. In more than 40 years of experience, he has represented Lanzhou in many national food competitions, won the reputation of "Gansu Province Famous Snack", "Golden Tripod Award" for national catering, "Top Ten Noodles in China", and performed beef noodle ramen skills in the documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue". Now, 64-year-old Ma Wenbin has not stopped, and is still the technical guidance of Jinding beef noodles. For more than 40 years, Ma Wenbin has pulled an average of 1,000 bowls of beef noodles a day, except for the Spring Festival, which can rest for a few days, which is 360,000 bowls a year for 360 days. For more than 40 years, he has pulled more than 16 million bowls of beef noodles. Nowadays, watching Lanzhou beef noodles harvest one "golden sign" after another, Ma Wenbin's noodles are more cheerful. He said: "As long as my body allows, I will always teach young people to learn this skill hand in hand, and pass on the intangible cultural heritage of Lanzhou beef noodles from generation to generation." ”
Lanzhou Daily all-media reporter Liu Weixia/Wen Majun/Photo