"Lanzhou Beef Noodles" originated from Henan Boai's "Chen Family in Suzhai Village", which is an indisputable fact.
In March 2014, the "First Side of the World" source search activity initiated by Wang Jun, general manager of Qinyuan Chun Hotel in Jiaozuo Boai County, Henan Province, attracted the attention of major media, relevant people at home and abroad, and some people said that it was no less than an earthquake. Others say the root-seeking will turn into endless quarrels. More people, including Henan Boai's own family, also feel that this is a commercial hype, Lanzhou beef noodles and your Henan what is the relationship? What does it have to do with your fraternity? What does it have to do with your little Su Zhai?
The debate continued until September 10, when the Bo'ai County Government hosted the "Lanzhou Beef Noodle History Origin and Boai County Food Culture Symposium", which was located in the second floor hall of Qinyuan Chun Hotel in Bo'ai County. At the meeting, an old gentleman in his sixties read a poem aloud: "The spring grass will be green next year, and my grandchildren will not return?" The birds flew high, and Takako went far away. Cardamom is old and stronger than a hundred times stronger. Spring breeze grass and wood fragrance, angelica Huaiqing province...". Is this a rendering of the poem? Is this a recitation of words? Attendees were dazed. However, the old gentleman turned his words around and said: "This is the secret recipe of Lanzhou beef noodles later, and it is also the secret recipe of our Suzhai Chen family beef noodles, and every sentence in the poem hides a chinese medicine name, a bowl of noodles and a poem, and 23 flavors of Chinese medicine." Applause immediately rang out, and people were amazed, praised, and impressed. After a long round of applause, a moving story that has lasted for two hundred years impressed the participants. Affection, righteousness, selflessness, and great love all waft in a bowl of noodles. He is the descendant of Chen Weijing, the founder of Lanzhou Beef Noodles, who now lives in Lanzhou and is originally from Chen Jiuru of Bo'ai Suzhai Village. If this is a symposium, it is better to say that it is a playing song of Darong culture, harmonious music rings in all directions, Lanzhou people send information, Lanzhou beef noodles come from Henan fraternity We have never forgotten, hanging on the signboard of our Lanzhou beef noodles, writing on our declaration. Lanzhou people "a river, a bowl of noodles, a book", of which "a bowl of noodles" is the Lanzhou beef noodles originating in Boai County, Henan, this bowl of noodles is rooted in Henan, the origin is your Boai Suzhai Village. Henan people also echoed: beef noodles are Made big and strong by Lanzhou people, making them the first side in the world. Thus a chorus of Da Rong culture came to a perfect end.
However, after two hundred years of ups and downs, why does this bowl of noodles endure from an inconspicuous village to the city and abroad? Why is it getting wider and wider, getting bigger and bigger? This is a topic worth exploring.
"Ask where the canal is as clear as promised, for there is a source of living water." This bowl of noodles is like a clear stream flowing out of the country, traveling all over the world, and now she wants to go home, is she back? From that meeting to now it is eight spring and autumn, how is she in her homeland?
Recently, the author invited Mr. Chen Jiuru to explore his hometown of Bo'ai Suzhai in his spare time. Also going were Mr. Zhou Zhengyi, who had been engaged in the study of Da Rong culture, Traditional Chinese medicine culture, and medicinal and food homology, and the photographer Ding Zhiguo.
Henan Boai Suzhai Village, four miles away from the county seat of Boai, the village has 358 households and more than 1400 people. The land is more than 250 mu, and the bamboo forest is more than 150 mu. If you compare Bo'ai County to a tree, then Suzhai is the branch that sticks the root of the tree, and its branches hang slightly at the foot of the Qianlong Emperor's Sanyou Yueshan Temple, swaying and swaying. It can be said: "One street leads to the north and south, the two compartments smell the sound of chickens, you can see a thousand bamboo sticks, and the crops are green."
Rain has no fish, mud mountains have no stones, earth trees have no branches, Lao Tzu has no father, heavenly daughter has no husband, and deserted cities have no cities. Suzhai has no village, no Su surname, only two surnames, Da Chen and Xiao Chen. The legend about Suzhai has been a long time, who can solve this mystery of eternity? Suzhai originally had dense bamboo forests and babbling streams, but later people destroyed the ecological environment, and now the bamboo forests are sparse and visible. There are four streets in the village, east, west, south and north, the new houses and old houses are uneven, and the new buildings are seen, and the ancient houses are also seen, the crops are planted in front of the house and the back of the house, and the flowers are fragrant after the door in front of the door. It is in response to this sentence: "With you the earth is desolate."
The Old Mansion of the Chen Family is a typical northern mansion, the tall gatehouse is scattered under the wind and candles of the years, but it still does not fall on its thickness and tallness, and the courtyard is composed of four courtyards: the main courtyard, the cross-courtyard, the stable courtyard, and the back college. The main courtyard is a courtyard, the north is the hall house, the east and west two boxes, the south is the street house, and the east side of the main courtyard also has the early gang house courtyard and the horse house courtyard. There is also a study. Some of the inscriptions that record history are vague and indistinct, and some are fell in the grass. This one-acre and eight-minute-old mansion is now: "Wild grass flowers by the Suzaku Bridge, the sunset at the mouth of Wuyi Lane." In the old days, Wang Xie Tang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people." But through the wood carved window we seem to hear the children's reading aloud, the Chen family once ran a school here to let the children of the whole village read here, through a hidden door, we seem to see a cart of beef, along the ancient Silk Road, out of Qinghua City, pushed to Luoyang, all the way to the west, and then pushed from Xi'an to Lanzhou, when chen family ancestors made a cart of beef, from fraternity to Luoyang, from Luoyang to Xi'an, and from Xi'an to Lanzhou, all the way to sell, where there is no meat, They slaughtered cattle to cook meat, and they didn't want to throw away the soup, so they put noodles in the soup and ate it. In this way, it slowly developed into Chen JiaQing Soup Beef Noodles. The Chen family pays attention to eating, paying attention to not only the taste of fresh and beautiful, but also the use of their knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine to make everyone eat healthy. At that time, the Chen family opened a restaurant in the Area of Huaiqing Province, and diners came from Beijing and Luoyang in order to taste the fresh. The Chen family gradually abandoned business and politics and became a writer.
In the ancient Jade Emperor Temple and the Great Opera Building in Suzhai Village, on the walls and in the temple, there are 46 years of the Ming Wanli Calendar, 4 years of The Qing Kangxi, 9 years of Kangxi, 21 years of Qianlong, 46 years of Qianlong, and 15 years of the Republic of China, which record the six inscriptions of Chen Guozuo, the seventh ancestor Chen Dasheng, the eleventh Chen Keda, the fifteenth Chen Huansheng, etc. Participating in donating money to build the temple, of which Chen Guozuo, Chen Dasheng in the Kangxi year, Chen Huansheng in the Republic of China are the initiators of donations to repair the temple and the theater building, Chen Guozuo donated 8,000 yuan at most. Chen Huansheng is the person who donates the most money in the village. The Chen family has been doing public welfare undertakings for a long time.
According to the records of the "Chen Family Tree", in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Shanxi immigrants, and Chen Duo, the ancestor of the Chen family, moved his family from Hongdong County in Shanxi to Bo'ai Suzhai Village in the third year of Hongwu.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Keda , the eleventh chen family ( the grandfather of Chen Weijing , the founder of Lanzhou beef noodles , the 21st year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty , the ertong inscription of the Jade Emperor Temple in Suzhai Village in the 49th year of the Qing Dynasty ) and the twelfth Chen Guangxue (Chen Weijing's father) began to make trolleys of beef and beef noodles to earn money to support their children and grandchildren. The Chen family's beef noodles were passed to Lanzhou to trace the roots and source, which was the love transmission of Chen Weijing, the thirteenth generation of the Chen family. Chen Weijing has been brilliant since childhood, in addition to studying the Four Books and Five Classics, he also likes astronomy and forensic medicine, and also has a good study of the same origin of medicine and food, the same origin of medicine and food, and the way of cooking. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, he was admitted to the Guozijian School in Beijing, and a rural child suddenly entered the highest school at that time, which was really the elite of the time. During his studies, he often visited Tianfu, Yueshengzhai, Duyi, Cheap Fang and other places in Beijing, and also made many friends with famous chefs. His classmate Ma Liuqi, a member of Gansu Dongxiang, because he was a foreign class student, there was no anointing subsidy, and his family situation was not very good, Chen Weijing often funded him, in order to let him have a craft to make a living, Chen Weijing was determined to pass on his family's beef noodle craft to him, Chen Weijing taught him the heirloom of his generations of family craftsmanship "Suzhai Chen Family Beef Noodles", and also gave him the ancestral secret recipe, Ma Liuqi went to Gansu after completing his studies and brought the cooking art to Lanzhou. During the Tongzhi period, a decade-long "Tongzhi Rebellion" occurred in Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, the Han people were killed tens of millions, the Hui were dismissed from remote areas, and beef noodles were lost in Lanzhou after the war subsided. In order to restore his cooking skills, the elderly Chen Weijing was invited by his friend Chen Shizhong and others to send his son Chen Weilin and grandson Chen Hesheng to restore and standardize, and Lanzhou beef noodles reappeared in Lanzhou.
Chinese food pays attention to "hundreds of dishes and hundreds of flavors", and the essence of beef noodles invented by Chen Weijing lies in the "harmony of all tastes". "Harmony" also complements the Chen family's family rules: "The kindness of one thought, all things are good; the kindness of one heart, all things are celebrated; the heart is compassionate, and the people are self-sufficient", the Chen family's good virtue inheritance is not only known to everyone in Suzhai, but also well-known to people in ten miles and eight townships. In 2016, henan Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House published and issued "Henan Family Training Family Rules", which selected the family training family rules of 103 families in Henan Province, and the family training family rules of the Suzhai Chen family were selected as the most influential family training family rules in the province to publicize and promote to the society. The book records the Chen family's 56-character family training rules: "Those who work hard are like saints, and charity is virtue." Wealth and nobility look empty, and fame is like earth. Pure heart and thin profit, looking for damage. Under the shade of envy bamboo, the poetry book is coiled. Money is lost, and knowledge lives on. Jutian knows beauty, and ploughing the field is diligent. Think of the field to cultivate the truth, harvest the field and do good. ”
Standing in front of the old house of the Chen family, Chen Jiuru told us that in 1937, the Japanese invaded our territory, the Chen family compound was occupied by the Japanese, and his father took the family to Lanzhou. In Lanzhou for decades, I often eat Lanzhou beef noodles, and I am very happy to see my family's noodles getting bigger and bigger in Lanzhou. Until he accidentally saw the series of reports of Henan Shangbao "Taste of Henan" from the Internet, his heart was touched, he heard the call of his hometown, and returned to his hometown. On September 8, 2014, he returned with his love for his family and the thought of his homeland, and after he attended the seminar on the birthplace of beef noodles on September 10, he strengthened his confidence, he felt that this bowl of noodles of the Chen family was not only a summary of the wisdom of the Chen family, but also a cultural heritage of a nation, so he had the responsibility and obligation to carry forward this heritage. I want to return this bowl of noodles to my hometown and benefit my hometown.
In fact, Lanzhou beef noodles have not faded for a hundred years because of the integrity and virtue inheritance of Chen Ma and ma families, and getting bigger and stronger benefits from reform and opening up, thanks to the strong support of the local government in Lanzhou. Lanzhou beef noodles began to go abroad for the first time in 1979, and now it has landed in 76 countries including South Korea, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Philippines, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. In the mid-to-late 1980s, the Lanzhou Municipal Government built the urban breakfast project, which was repeatedly selected and listed as the mainstream of the breakfast project because of its fresh, delicious, fast and convenient soup.
In 1999, the Lanzhou Municipal Government supported the Beef Noodle Association to apply for the collective trademark of "Lanzhou Beef Noodles" to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Lanzhou people can make our noodles so good, can't we do a good job?
Boai County was called "Qinghua Town" in ancient times, Qinghua Town is the main traffic route between Jin merchants and merchants to the Central Plains, this area of Huaishang Jinshang is prosperous, shops are lined up, known as the economic center of the eight counties of Huaiqing Province. Belonging to Bo'ai and Qinyang are called: "Jin Bo'ai, Yin Qinyang." There are also the legends of "Fraternity Snack A World", Fraternity beef balls, tofu soup with sesame sugar, braised mix, pulp noodles, Tuxin noodles, egg soup, cold powder... These snacks are also available throughout the country, but Fraternity's unique practices are incomparable, such as Fraternity's tofu soup with candy, elsewhere or there is tofu soup, but there is no candy sugar, Fraternity cold powder is not fried cold powder elsewhere is used to make breakfast, Fraternity's pulp noodle soup is soup is noodles, other places are a pot of paste, Fraternal egg soup That sour and refreshing taste is nowhere to be found... Dozens of Thanh Hoa snacks such as boai's car beef, beef noodles, and haggis are concentrated at the west gate, and the beef roast chicken, pulp noodles, tribute meat, and enemas are concentrated at the small crossroads of North Avenue, grain mills, spices, and dried vegetables are concentrated in East Street, and the brine chicken on The Second Street is more famous.
During the Qianlong period, there was an unprecedented prosperity in Qinghua's commercial exchanges, at this time Chen Weijing's grandfather Chen Ke pushed a wheelbarrow to Qinghua Street to start operating trolley beef, roast cake, trolley beef noodles, etc. Trolley beef noodles are divided into two kinds, one is called Clear Soup Beef Noodles, the other is called Lao Tang Beef Noodles, at that time, small car beef can only be sold for seven months a year, summer can not be sold, so spring and summer mainly sell brine beef and clear soup beef noodles, autumn and winter only sell trolley beef, clear soup beef noodles and old soup beef noodles, burnt cakes are available all year round, Mainly eaten with trolley beef or marinated beef, the taste is superb. Street food is plentiful, and it is an irresistible delicacy for merchants traveling from the south to the north, in that period of relative scarcity of materials. To be able to enjoy these delicacies can be said to be the most comforting. At that time, there was such a couplet in the folk;
The upper link is: the car beef is fragrant all over the world; the lower link is: beef soup noodles are delicious and beautiful.
The private snacks and side dishes of the Bo'ai Chen family are also diverse, and they are also delicious dishes. The Chen family pays attention to health, nutrition, medicinal and food homology first, and then taste and beauty.
Although the Chen family's beef noodles and Lanzhou beef noodles come from the same family, they are not the same, the ingredients for Lanzhou beef noodles are of course local to Lanzhou, and the chen family's beef noodles are used: "turnips from Suzhai, ginger from Shangzhuang, peppercorns from Taihang Mountain, and soup (water) from Qinghua." Lanzhou beef noodles have long adhered to the "one clear two white, three red, four green and five yellow". The Chen family's beef noodles are "one clear, two white, three red, four green and five spices". This was quoted in the Lanzhou Municipal Government's 2013 "Lanzhou Beef Ramen" brochure, although it is a word difference but far-reaching significance. Therefore, uncle Ma and the Chen family in Suzhai have the same roots and origins. But they all have unique skills, and the flowers bloom two branches and each has its own fragrance.
The Lanzhou beef noodles inherited and carried forward by the Chen Weijing family and the Chinese catering culture inherited by the Chen Weijing family are the essence of Chinese catering culture. It covers more than 100 kinds of classic noodle recipes, and hundreds of recipes have been studied, verified and passed down by nearly ten generations. China is the country with the most complete cultural heritage in the world, from ancient mythology, to the formation of tribes, to the establishment of national structures, to the change of dynasties, our nation has experienced a complete process from primitive to modern civilization. The world is recognized as having four ancient civilizations, China has a unique culture, and the Chen Weijing family is adhering to the essence of Chinese food culture to inherit and carry forward, for tens of millions of people to build a bridge to start a business, with beef noodles to qinghai, Gansu hundreds of thousands of people embarked on the road to get rid of poverty and get rich, this is a miracle that the Chen Weijing family never dreamed of!
After Chen Jiuru returned from Lanzhou, he rarely returned to Lanzhou, he stayed in Bo'ai Qinyuan Spring, the hotel provided him with convenience, and provided him with various ingredients to study beef noodles. In October 2014, the original "Suzhai ChenJia Beef Noodles" was officially born in the Spring "Our Kitchen" in Bo'ai Qinyuan Spring. Chen Jiuru plans to spend another three years to compile the book "Lanzhou Beef Noodles" (a total of 800,000 words), which will promote the delicacies passed down by the Chen Wei family to the whole country and the world.
Eight years of journey, Mr. Chen Jiuru painstakingly excavated, has restored dozens of family heirloom dishes and sauce and brine products, and has entered the "Majia Uncle Beef Noodles" restaurant, which is unique in China, can eat culture and eat healthy noodles and dishes, is steaming for the king to taste.
Facing the Chen family's old courtyard, people went to the empty room. The author feels that the Chen family beef noodles pushed out with a cart of beef need to be "pushed" again, the inheritors "push", the merchants "push", and the government "pushes". A few degrees of prosperity, a few degrees of desolation, a few degrees of paleness, a small car and a bowl of noodles, a story of several lifetimes. Let the Chen Family Compound return to its former prosperity, and let the "Suzhai Chen Family Beef Noodles" return to its hometown with pride.
In the office of the Suzhai Village Committee, we met Liu Xiaoyan, the secretary of the village branch, a capable and enthusiastic woman, who was generous and enthusiastic about her work. She told us that the village-run enterprises in Suzhai Village were doing very well, and the 12-inch and 14-inch black-and-white television products produced by the village-run enterprise "Rainbow Radio Factory" were sold all over the country, which was a very remarkable thing in the early 1980s, because at that time, the whole country was one TV factory in every province, and most of them were in the provincial capital. "Reminiscing about the past", now village-run enterprises are the only way to revitalize the countryside. After consultation and verification between the two village committees, it was decided that we can no longer hold the golden rice bowl to eat rice, and we must make good use of the golden signboard of "lanzhou beef noodle birthplace", dig deep into potential and resources, gather the strength of the eight parties, develop and build the "Chen Family Food Industrial Park" project, deeply integrate into the environment of "global tourism" in our county, and let the golden sign of the birthplace of Lanzhou beef noodles take root and bear fruit in our village. With the process of urbanization to the whole country, the fragrance is floating in Shenzhou.
Mr. Chen Jiuru said: "The real meaning of life is not how much material you have, but how many people you have helped and how many people have benefited from you."
This sentence is the living water source of "Suzhai Chen Family Beef Noodles". This is the answer to why this bowl of noodles will last for a long time, will go wider and wider, and become bigger and longer.
At present, Boai "Qinyuan Spring Hotel" is cooperating with Mr. Chen Jiuru and working together to show the classics of catering and cooking accumulated by the Chen Weijing family for more than 200 years, and the Suzhai Village Committee is also working hard to restore the Chen Family Snack Village.
Just like Chen Weijing's son Chen Weilin, the recipe poem written by The Brine Beef: "Cardamom" branches are upturned, and cuizhu Suzhai is wrapped around. "Octagon" "Big Red Robe", "Lilac" laughed. ......。
"Suzhai Chen Family Beef Noodles" will laugh at the world.
About the Author
Chen Mo (formerly Guizhi). Born in 1951. Henan Jiaozuo Boai Zhai HuoXiang former Yuanyuan village people. He is a member of the Henan Provincial Writers Association. Former reporter for The Western Times. Editor and director of henan tv station "tourism" column.
His major works include: one-act drama "Qingsong Village" and large-scale drama "Sangu Spring".
The screenplay of the film, "There is no sunshine".
The novella "Dinner with a Love Enemy" and the novel "Acacia".
Photo: Ding Zhiguo