Today (21st), the new store of Dexing Restaurant (formerly known as Shanghai Dexing Restaurant) was officially opened in the old Ximen Fuxinghui. After hearing the news of old Shanghai, many people have come to the new store to continue this precious "ben gang love affair", relive the old taste of Shanghai in their memories, and personally experience the new atmosphere of this time-honored Chinese brand.
The style of this gang's famous dishes is still the same, reliving Shanghai's "ancient and early taste"
In late December last year, the South Branch of Dexing Restaurant, which was originally located at 622 Zhonghua Road, closed and relocated. After hearing the news, the old customers who lived in the surrounding area specially rushed to eat a meal of the store's sign before closing the store, "I like to eat the soup buns and home-cooked dishes of the Dexing Pavilion the most, and I often pack them back to my family to eat, and I don't know if I can eat them later." At that time, the words of the citizen Aunt Cao revealed a strong reluctance to this old brand.
After a few months, the good news came - Dexing Restaurant moved from the original Xiaonanmen Zhonghua Road to the current Old Ximen Fuxinghui, the two places are about 1.6 kilometers apart, and it takes about 25 minutes on foot. "Choosing to move here, the main reason is that I am reluctant to be old customers and want to be as close as possible to everyone." Lu Qi, the manager of Fuxinghui Store, said with a smile, "When we were not open for business a few days ago, someone had already asked about the opening time and whether the private room could be booked. ”
Striking Qing Guangxu Nine Years lettering
The reporter saw that under the familiar "Dexing Restaurant" golden signboard, the eye-catching Qing Guangxu Nine-Year Characters shone brightly, highlighting the long history of this century-old ben gang that has been inherited for a hundred years. Walking into the store, the white-grained floor tiles on the ground, the vintage wooden cabinets on the walls, the brass chandeliers on the top, the retro photos of the beach hanging in the corridors... Compared with the original old store, the decoration style that can be said to be completely different has made many old customers sigh: "It has changed, it has become more fashionable, and it looks better!" "Others pulled out their phones to take photos and videos.
Inherit the old taste and inject new vitality
What the new store has changed is the image, and what has not changed is the inheritance of the old taste of the gang. Mei Lin, the chef of Fuxinghui Store, said: "For ourselves, this store can be regarded as an 'old store newly opened', and almost all of our team members have served in the South Store for many years. Taking advantage of this opportunity to open a new store, we will conduct in-depth sorting out of the menu, the survival of the fittest, and improve or eliminate products with poor sales and bad reputation. ”
Dexing Restaurant Fuxing Hui Branch on the first floor lobby
On the staircase leading to the second floor hangs old photographs of the upper beach
The reporter saw that there were nearly 100 dishes and snacks in the menu of this store. Among them, the popular old taste of Ben gang such as braised catfish, blue fish bald lungs, ringing oil eel paste, grass head circle, Dexing soup bun and so on have all been retained. At the same time, the chefs have also made innovative improvements to some dishes to adapt to the new requirements of the new era of consumers.
For example, dexing restaurant's signature bad brine big fish head, the use of about three pounds of silver carp head, with the broth together with the high heat boiled and simmered until the soup is rich, and then with the Dexing restaurant from generation to generation of homemade bad brine recipe to hang out the unique umami taste of this soup dish, it is really endless. What is particularly special is that the water used in this soup dish is not ordinary, and it uses "softened water", which can make the taste of the soup more delicate and delicious.
Bad brine big fish head
In addition to inheriting the taste of Benbang, Dexing Restaurant has also tried to restore some "ancient" Honbang dishes. Merlin told reporters that this gang dish is actually very exquisite from raw materials to cooking, from seasoning to heat, so this gang dish can also be said to be a kind of kung fu dish. The rapid development of modern society and the fast-paced life have forced some dishes that originally took a lot of time and effort to do. Therefore, in this menu, they deliberately tried to restore some of the old dishes, "It can be said that it is almost 'extinct' in the market." ”
Chicken pen meat
For example, this dish of Ben gang chicken pen meat, which is said to be improved from the famous dish "Grass Head Circle", was popular in Shanghai in the last century. The so-called chicken pen meat is the pork intestine, commonly known as the "circle", and the chicken nuggets and pork belly are braised together. This dish has many ingredients, miscellaneous processes, chicken nuggets, circles, pork belly each has different ripening time, the requirements for the taste are more different, so it is very laborious to make.
"Shanghainese say that at the entrance of the circle, the tongue should roll three times, and (the circle) will be thrown on the wall, it will stick, which is a good circle that burns in place." The cooking requirements for one of the ingredients alone are so strict that it's no wonder that chicken pen meat is starting to fade out of the modern restaurant scene, "If you search the Internet, you may hardly find restaurants that are still cooking this dish." ”
It is worth mentioning that when Dexing Restaurant makes this dish, it not only considers the restoration of the original taste, but also how to adapt it to the new consumer market and inject new vitality into the old dishes. So they have made some improvements from the ingredients, ingredients to the presentation, such as the chicken nuggets upgraded to boneless chicken wing meat, which is easier to taste and more convenient to eat.
The reporter saw at the scene that the age level of the guests here ranges from the 50s to the 90s and even the 00s, spanning several generations, some people choose dine-in, and some people choose to take cooked vegetables home. It can be seen that although today's dining options are becoming more and more abundant, the enthusiasm of citizens for local time-honored brands is still undiminished.
The classic ben gang taste, originating from the old city of Shanghai
It is understood that the Dexing Restaurant, founded in the ninth year of the Qing Dynasty (1883 AD), has a history of 138 years and is a century-old brand. Speaking of the history of Dexing Restaurant, it is inseparable from the Sixteen Shops in the Old Town of Shanghai.
In 1883, a vendor opened a snack bar on the two-bay façade of Shop Sixteen, which was frequented by nearby dock workers because of its low price and good taste. After the storefront plate was given to a boss named Wan Yunsheng, who had a rich business idea, he rebuilt a three-story restaurant on the original site, officially named Shanghai Dexing Restaurant, and divided the business types of the floors: the first floor supplied affordable public dishes, the second floor was a mid-range wine dish, and the third floor was a private room. Because the Dexing Hall was located in the Sixteen Shops at that time, backed by the old city box, it naturally gave rise to the idea of creating the characteristics of the Shanghai Gang.
At that time, dexing hall was improved according to the essence of Shanghai Pudong folk cuisine, and the chefs were mostly Shanghai natives with decades of culinary experience, especially for roasting, stewing, stir-frying, braising and frying. Dozens of famous dishes created are popular on the beach.
In 1958, dexing hall was moved from Zhenru Road to No. 29 Dongmen Road, and shanghai catering masters such as Yang Hesheng carefully maintained the special dishes in the store and continuously improved them, attracting a large number of new and old customers to patronize. Later Yang Hesheng's descendants Li Borong, Shen Lairong and other second-generation famous teachers in addition to inheriting the essence of the gang's dishes, but also with the times to carry out positioning adjustments, so that Dexing Pavilion on the basis of inheriting the tradition has absorbed a lot of Chinese and foreign culinary technology essence, creating ten kinds of popular dishes including bad bowl head, stir-fried eel paste, braised fish, grass head circle, white cut meat, vegetable heart walking oil hoof and so on, becoming the representative work of the gang cuisine at that time.
In 2011, Shanghai Dexing Pavilion was awarded the title of "China Time-honored Brand" by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.
Author: Gu Yiqiong
Images courtesy of interviewees
Editor: Wang Wanyi