<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="45" > outsiders who know Nanjing cuisine may only know about ducks, but in fact, Nanjing citizens love to queue up the halal restaurants all over the streets. As a city in the Yangtze River Delta far from the Great Northwest, why is halal food so popular in Nanjing? </h1>
In ancient times, Jinling was one of the earliest areas where Islam was introduced to China, and a large number of them gathered near Jiqing Road. As early as the Tang and Song dynasties, a mosque was built at the intersection of Xinjiekou in Nanjing. The most prosperous period of the Halal population was in the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, when there was a saying called: The world returned to half Jinling, and a large number of soldiers and merchants came to Nanjing with Zhu Yuanzhang to settle down, helping the Ming Dynasty to build the city of Nanjing, and also because of shubian, and then spread from Nanjing to the Yunnan-Guizhou-Shaanxi-Gansu region. At that time, nanjing had a population of 700,000, and the Hui alone accounted for 14%. The Qing Dynasty was another culmination in the development of the Hui people, with 36 mosques appearing successively, and then during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Hui people fled from all over the world to Nanjing, which has now become an important religious and cultural center for the Hui. The density of the Hui population in Nanjing is rarely seen elsewhere, and a large number of Hui populations gather and reproduce, which provides unique conditions for the development of halal diets.
Now that hundreds of years have passed, it is strange that the Hui population in Nanjing is also quite large, but on weekdays it is almost impossible to meet people dressed as Hui people on the street, but the number and quality of halal shops on the street are conspicuous.
According to legend, after Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang organized and led the "August 15th killing of Tartars" successfully, the seven Hui surnames with meritorious deeds, such as Ha, Ma, Da, Shen, Shuai, Jin, and Sha, were placed on the banks of the Inner Qinhuai River, and gradually evolved into a gathering place for the seven surnames, so it was called "Seven Bays". The Hui people ate cattle and sheep livestock, and then according to the Qinhuai River, there were many slaughterhouses and leather processing factories, trading leather, and then people called that place "Pishi Street", which is now "Comment street". Nanjing's famous halal long-established brands Li Rongxing, Han Fuxing, An Yuan, Jiang Youji, Qifangge, Jin Tongji, Jin Hongxing, all started from Qijiawan. At present, the signs of beef pots and pans with "Qijia bay" in various parts of Nanjing come from this way. There are now more than 400 large and small Seven Bay Beef Pot Sticker Shops in Nanjing, most of which were opened by laid-off workers of state-run halal restaurants in the last century, and Li Rongxing, Ma Xiangxing and Li Ji all believe that they are not authentic and fake.
Nanjing's halal specialties are very famous both locally and nationally: Longfu Temple in the north and Green Willow Residence in the south. According to the promotional pictures of each store, there are records of receiving dignitaries, celebrities and nobles. There are now three famous halal hotels in Nanjing: An Yuan, Lu Liu Ju and Ma Xiangxing.
Founded in 1920 by Cai Jiheng, AnYuan Washik Park was originally known as the Halal Ann Paradise Hotel, which was first located in The Commentator Street near QijiaWan. In 1956, the public-private partnership, Anyuan Land and the state-owned Peace Canteen were merged, and several times changed and finally settled in Chaotian Palace. Anyuan's famous dim sum include beef soup buns, duck gizzard roasted for sale, six-color set of points, the development of innovative halal famous dish sauce cooking beef tendons, ringing oil beef fillet, aftertaste first bowl, etc., by its original stewed bowl beef yuan material exquisite, fine production, salty and fresh taste, round and full, red and beautiful, deeply loved by Nanjing citizens and friends.
Ann Paradise
Founded in 1912 in Taoyedu on the banks of the Qinhuai River, Luliuju was originally a high-end vegetarian restaurant, and Luliuju was the honorable place for banqueting dignitaries at that time, Dai Jitao, Kong Xiangxi, Jiang Jingguo often went to Luliuju Xiaoshu, and the Song sisters were regular customers of Luliuju. Famous calligraphers and painters Qi Baishi, Chen Dayu, Lin Sanzhi, Xiao Xian, And Mei Baojiu of Peking Opera have all left footprints here. One of the characteristics of Green Willow House is the vegetarian meat dish, vegetarian chicken and duck made with tofu skin, gluten, rotten bamboo and Chinese herbal spices, which are extremely delicious.
Green Willow House
Ma Xiangxing has been passed down from the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty to this day, has a history of more than 170 years, the northern halal flavor and Jiangnan cuisine are integrated, there are four town stores famous dishes "beauty liver", "anchovy shrimp", "egg roast sale", "squirrel fish", of which "beauty liver" is sometimes difficult to find. Kuomintang elder Yu Youren once wrote a plaque of "Ma Xiangxing" for the store. During the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Republic of China, Zhou Enlai invited Qing to dine at the restaurant at the invitation of Zhang Zhizhong. If you talk about history, no other restaurant in Nanjing can stand out.
Ma Xiangxing
These halal high-end restaurants have become the signature food of Nanjing City, whether it is the form of dishes or the taste, whether it is traditional production methods and innovative dish research and development, they are impeccable. In addition to these high-end restaurants, there are also some legendary small restaurants that can make halal food flourish in Nanjing. The most famous of these are Li Rongxing and Li Ji.
Li Bangjie, the owner of the Li Ji Halal Hall, is a relative of Li Bangzheng, the second generation of Li Rongxing, a long-established halal brand in Qijiawan. Here are the most authentic Qijiawan beef pot stickers, as the former Nanjing breakfast four, the whole body of the pleasant yellow beef pot stickers and beef fried buns, with a bowl of beef offal soup is the most authentic afternoon tea of Nanjing Muslims. The frying and filling of the pot stickers are exquisite, and it must be the cow slaughtered by the imam, made with the meat of the day, in order to eat the original taste of the beef. Take a bite of the golden pot sticker, the bottom is brown and crispy, and the sweet juice flows down the tip of the tongue to the throat, without any greasy feeling, it must be hot enough to be delicious. What surprised me the most was that it was not only delicious but also priced, and it only cost less than ten yuan to buy five beef pot stickers, and a large bowl of wontons was only 8 yuan.
Beef pot stickers
In Nanjing, there are also excellent pot sticker shops such as Jiang Youji, Caoqiao Halal Beef Pot Sticker Flat Food Shop and Northwest Qiaotou Ramen King, which are distributed in major tourist attractions and crowded places in Nanjing, and it is not difficult to taste the most authentic pot stickers. In Nanjing, you can not only eat the most authentic beef pot stickers, but also authentic Lanzhou ramen. There is a ramen restaurant called Oriental Palace in KeXiang of Daxing Palace, which is said to be a century-old shop, and the taste is indeed very close to the flavor of Lanzhou, and a spoonful of spicy seeds can make people feel that they are in Lanzhou, as if everyone has had such an experience for more than a hundred years.
There is also a saying that the original duck shop was a halal restaurant, and now there is a famous duck shop Jin Hongxing is a halal signboard, so some people say that most of the eating habits in Nanjing are determined by halal restaurants.
Beef pot stickers that can compete with saltwater ducks in Nanjing are now popular snacks, and in Li Ji I have met people from all over the country, and the number of people queuing for meals has exceeded the number of ducks. Behind such a hot, in fact, the surrounding citizens are not satisfied, on the one hand, it disturbs the rhythm of life, the number of people in line is too large, on the other hand, it is worried that the production is no longer exquisite. The reason why the old man and wife in Nanjing can be retained is because there is also the continuation of tradition. The production of beef pot stickers is very exquisite, and the requirements for people are very high, so the taste of most of the beef pot stickers in his shop is far less than that of the famous ones, and customers also say that the taste and price have not changed much over the years. I don't know how Boss Li views the hilarity brought by Internet celebrities, at least when Li Ji orders food, the front desk will be a little anxious to urge me.