Guiyang Huaxi beef powder out of the circle of the United States

　　Screenshot of the China Daily page

　　Flushing, Queens, New York, USA, is a well-known Asian community known for its multiculturalism. In 2009, Chen Yuzhu, a young man from Guizhou Bijie Qianxi City, crossed the ocean to do business in the United States, and in 2014, he turned from the building materials market to the catering industry, resolutely chose to open the first Guizhou beef powder shop here, and continued to open more than a dozen beef powder shops in various states. With a hometown complex, Chen Yuzhu brought the taste of Guizhou to the United States and created a beef powder brand that is well known to locals.

　　The specialty he runs comes from Huaxi District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, and is known locally as "Huaxi Beef Noodles". The soup base is made of beef bones and more than 40 flavors of Chinese herbs, plus a strong and smooth rice noodle, accompanied by beef that melts in the mouth and a sour and spicy side dish, which is very delicious. Chen Yuzhu's beef powder not only conveys the taste of hometown to compatriots overseas, but also opens up the gastronomic taste buds of Flushing residents.

　　At present, Chen Yuzhu's 13 restaurants are located in important business districts in New York, Texas, North Carolina and California. Open at 8 a.m. every day, they are busy for 12 hours, providing delicious meals for office workers in nearby office buildings and residents around them.

　　Chen Yuzhu's beef noodle shop is often overcrowded, attracting many diners who come to visit, 70% of whom are Asian, and the number of foreigners is now about 30%. Turnover can range from $80,000 to $160,000 per month. Today, the rice noodle shop he runs has become a popular food punch card for many bloggers, and he is also affectionately known as "Rice Noodle Brother".

　　Looking back at the early days of entrepreneurship, Chen Yuzhu felt that it was not easy. In 2008, Chen Yuzhu graduated from Guizhou Normal University, worked for a domestic timber export company, and was sent to the United States the following year to do business. In the face of the gradually cold building materials market, peers have begun to fight a price war, and discouraged Chen Yuzhu wants to seek another development. At the end of 2014, he decided to devote himself to the restaurant industry that he thought was promising. At that time, other cuisines were developing well in the United States, but Guizhou cuisine was almost zero, so he wanted to integrate into this "foreign land" with a proud hometown taste.

　　In preparation for the opening of the store, Chen Yuzhu, then 29, excitedly flew back to his hometown in Bijie to learn from his uncle, who also ran a beef noodle shop, and learn cooking skills and business skills. He then worked for several months at a restaurant in the United States, gaining experience. After a lot of preparation in the early stage, Chen Yuzhu felt full of confidence, so he invited two like-minded Fujian friends to open a shop and start their "rice noodle business" in the United States.

　　As the person with the least contribution, Chen Yuzhu consciously contributed more and worked more. He often works 18 hours a day, carrying rice noodles in the warehouse at two o'clock in the morning, or on the way back to the store. In order to promote the new restaurant, he often ran to the exit of the subway station and shouted: "Try Guizhou rice noodles!" This is a unique delicacy from my hometown of Guizhou! "Then take interested customers to the store to try it." During that time, he held several positions, in addition to supervising the production of rice noodles, helping with cashiers, and also going to the side of the road to solicit guests.

　　Two weeks before opening, the restaurant's daily turnover was only $200 at its peak, which was not enough to pay the rent. After his hard work, there are more customers and give him a little motivation. But at this time, the biggest problem slowly emerged.

　　"At first, we made it strictly according to the local taste of Guizhou, but after communicating with customers, we found that they felt that the taste was too light and the taste was single. There are very few repeat customers, and beef noodle shops are very niche in the local area. Chen Yuzhu said, "There are few guests, the turnover is low, I am panicked, I am very anxious every day, afraid of career failure, so I racked my brains to find a way out." ”

　　In order to open his mind, Chen Yuzhu always talked with the diners who came to the store, discussed with the partners, and finally found out the problem of product taste. He constantly makes improvements based on customer feedback, on the basis of the original soup, he has added the choice of soup base of thick soup and sour soup, and also provided ingredients such as matcha sauce and soy milk, which enriches the taste of beef powder while also being closer to local tastes and meeting the preferences of most people. After some efforts, a month later, the turnover improved, breaking through a thousand yuan, and he also saw hope.

　　Because of overwork, Chen Yuzhu was so tired that he vomited blood and was hospitalized for a week before recovering. During that time, he lost 20 pounds and felt that he was both hard and pitiful. He said: "But looking back, this process of hard work, learning and inspiration is also very cool!" ”

　　With the reputation of the restaurant, the rice noodle business is also becoming increasingly popular. In the process of service, he communicates with customers in the way of friends, and some customers directly become investors. With their support, Chen Yuzhu continued to open branches and expand his influence. Mr. Chen is satisfied with the U.S. business environment, and his stores in various states have received grants ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars and low-interest loans.

　　The outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020 has hit the real economy hard, and Chen Yuzhu's rice noodle shop is no exception, but it is at this time that Chen Yuzhu saw business opportunities in online catering sales and semi-finished product sales.

　　"After the outbreak of the epidemic, offline stores closed and business plummeted. However, we quickly changed our sales channels, improved the way we supplyed our products, and sold online by quantitatively making 'raw bags' (semi-finished products), where customers could eat a bowl of delicious Huaxi beef noodles by heating for only 2 minutes. Unexpectedly, this way has been affirmed and welcomed by customers. Beef noodle business has not decreased but increased, sales have increased six or seven times compared with before the epidemic, and some stores can export thousands of bowls of beef noodles in one day. Chen Yuzhu introduced.

　　Although the Aomi Kerong virus is now threatening, this has had little impact on Chen Yuzhu's rice noodle business. "Everyone seems to have looked down on the epidemic, and once infected, they rest and treat, and no longer feel panic." Chen Yuzhu said.

　　In the next three to five years, Chen Yuzhu plans to expand 1,000 to 2,000 branches in first-tier cities such as Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia and China's beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and he hopes to let more people know about Guizhou through food.

　　Chen Yuzhu said: "Initially, opening restaurants was to survive. But now, by running the rice noodle business, I've come to love this sense of accomplishment focused on creation. In the process, my personality has also become more open and inclusive, and I have made many friends. ”

　　Customer Dwight Howard Trudy, also a black friend of Chen Yuzhu, said that he saw the store through Facebook, and once he came to eat with friends, he liked the beef noodles in the store, except for business trips and travel, he would come almost once or twice a week. And this smell made him curious about Guizhou, hoping to one day go to this mysterious place for himself to find out.

　　Aamir Khan-Kimi, an Indian engineer who works in San Francisco, knows Chen Yuzhu's rice noodle shop through his Chinese colleagues, and he loves beef noodles from thick soup. Kimi said: "The boss is very good at talking and has become good friends with him. ”

　　Li Dandan, a Guizhou native who works in the United States and is also a regular customer of Chen Yuzhu's beef noodle shop, said: "I have been in the United States for more than thirty years, and I am very excited to eat the taste of my hometown for the first time in a foreign country. She drives more than an hour a week to the shop to eat a bowl of beef powder, and she also brings her foreign husband and some friends. She praised Chen Yuzhu and said: "The boss treats our Fellow Guizhou compatriots as relatives and gives us preferential treatment every time he goes. ”

　　(Source: China Daily reporter Chen Meiling, Yang Jun, compiled by Wang Jin, Zhang Chi)

• Time:
• 2022/02/09
• source:
• China Daily