A "little beggar" broke into the capital from his hometown of Kaifeng, and finally became the boss and opened a well-known restaurant in the country. Even in Hong Kong, Taiwan and even foreign Countries in Japan and other places have more than a dozen semicolons, making it the earliest chain trust in the Chinese food industry. Such a story, no matter what era it is placed in, is quite an inspirational legend. This is the story of Hou Defu, a famous Yu cuisine restaurant. 112 years of history is enough to write a thick book, but we still condensed it in this thousand-word manuscript. The slush claws, a tube peeping into the sky, through the narrow time tunnel, the brilliant picture of the Republic of China catering era, can still be seen. Produced by YuJi, reprint please WeChat 80276821 Jiao Sufang | wen
The history of the struggle of the "little beggar"
The founder of Hou Defu was Chen Liantang, a native of Qi County, Kaifeng County, Henan. Regarding this person, Chen Xixian, a descendant of Hou Defu, once wrote in "A Hundred Years of Restaurant Hou Defu": My grandfather Chen Liantang (ZilianTang), whose hometown is in Kaifengqi County, Henan. Worrying about the sky, worrying about the flooding of the Yellow River. Chen Liantang's parents were beggars, and the family's property was three rice bowls and three rice sticks, and every night, these three sticks did not know where to put them, and the place where the sticks were placed was their home.
Chen Liantang, a little beggar who was passed on to his aunt, had his daily job to collect firewood and collect dung. There is a large road outside the village, which runs from Qixian County in the east to Kaifeng Province in the west. Merchants and passers-by love to stop here. At this window to the outside world, Chen Liantang knew Kaifeng Province and the city of Beijing. When he grew up to be more than 10 years old, Chen Liantang wanted to go out and go for a walk. Carrying a few miscellaneous steamed buns given by his aunt, the "History of Beijing Drift" of a Henan boy began.
Maybe that's the scene in the movie "On the Beach", all the bitterness of a small character trying to move up, we can imagine. In 1902, Chen Liantang, who had worked as a chef at Tongrentang in Beijing, had his own Hou Defu in a small smoke house in Dashilar, Beijing.
The original meaning of this hou defu is "to be loyal to the blessed land, and to gather and be blessed." However, at the beginning of its opening, this restaurant, which mainly featured Henan official cuisine, did not have a good business.
Not long after, in the ruins of the collapse of the imperial system, a figure with increasing power was born, which was Yuan Shikai, a native of Xiangcheng, Henan. In China, the high weight can also be understood as the "taste" high weight, as the Henan pavilion Hou Defu naturally became a gathering place for officials and eunuchs. Hou Defu's business suddenly rose. In 1916, with Yuan Shikai's claim to the throne, Hou Defu became the most popular restaurant in Beijing, with strong funds and famous chefs.
As the later major shareholder of Hou Defu, Chen Liantang and the Liang Shiqiu family had more than a century of business cooperation. Liang Shiqiu's younger daughter, Liang Wenqi, once commented on Chen Liantang, the founder of Yucai Famous Store: This true story can enter Shakespeare's script and can be made into a film to introduce modern people to the success of a poor Chinese 100 years ago.
Liang Shiqiu's Hou Defu
Hou Defu's association with the Liang family was in the era of Liang Shiqiu's grandfather.
Liang Shiqiu's grandfather was Liang Zhishan, a Sipin official in the late Qing Dynasty. He left Guangzhou and returned to Beijing. His son Liang Xianxi met Chen Liantang by chance, so he invested in the Yu restaurant and became the majority shareholder of the restaurant.
Liang Shiqiu's eldest daughter, Liang Wenqian, once said in an interview: "At that time, our family was a large feudal family with dozens of people. Grandfather Liang Xianxi was a very particular eater, and called himself the 'lord of the full beetle'. At that time, although there was a high-level chef at home, he still often went to the restaurant or small restaurant outside to find something he liked to eat. Under his influence, when I was a child, I used to ride with my grandfather in a foreign car to taste the delicacies of various families in Beijing. My father, Mr. Liang Shiqiu, was also very heavy-hearted. In "Yashe Talks About Eating", he wrote a lot about the catering he personally experienced, and also talked about the Houdefu Restaurant, the anecdotes in the store, and the famous dishes and famous points in the store. ”
In Liang Shiqiu's pen, there are several famous dishes of Hou Defu: soft boiled Yellow River carp baked noodles, fried walnut loin, iron pot eggs, tile fish, two made fish, etc., which are still mouth-watering to read.
The tile fish are selected from thick Yellow River carp or silver carp, taking the best part of the middle of it. The knife method is also exquisite, not only to peel the fish fillets, cut them in a moderate thickness, but also to avoid cutting the fish bones into excessive pieces. The flakes are not wrapped in batter, but protein powder. Add warm oil to the pan, fry until brown, then add rock sugar with the best lotus flour to make a sweet and sour sauce. Add a spoonful of hot oil while hot, pour over the fried fish cubes, sprinkle with minced ginger and serve. Pieces of fried yellow fish, slightly rolled into the shape of a tile, on top of a layer of viscous and transparent sweet and sour sauce, taste sweet and sour, crisp, tender, amazing.
And that famous fried walnut loin. The best pork loin is cut into rectangular pieces, the surface is vertical and horizontal, and the line is cut with a vertical knife to break the cross flower knife, and then fried in the frying pan. At this time, the oil should be hot and not boiling, fried until it turns yellow, the waist is shrunk into a circle, and the knife edge is opened into a walnut shape, so it is called walnut waist. Fried until golden walnut loin while hot dipped in pepper salt to eat, a crisp and tender sharp, not soft and hard, peppery flavor full of mouth.
In Liang Shiqiu's view, this dish looks like a simple dish, but the most test is knife work and fire work. The knife technique is not refined, and the waist is different in shade. The firemanship is not good, the waist is either born or old, either bleeding in the dish, or it is laborious to chew, and there is no crunchy and tender feeling.
Many years later in Taiwan, Liang Shiqiu happened to go to a small restaurant and was shocked to see walnut loins on the menu. Curious, I ordered to taste it, but it was a plate of fried waist flowers mixed with some fried walnut kernels, and I was disappointed. He wrote in the book: The art of cooking varies from place to place, that is, a restaurant specializes in a certain number of dishes, and it is not allowed for his family to follow suit.
What is lost is always the most precious. The delicacy of memory is not only a delicacy, but also a past and feeling, and because of the fermentation of time, it has become particularly tempting. Although the master understands such a truth, the fear between the lines of the words still cannot be relieved.
Eating is not only delicious, but also cultural
If Liang Shiqiu's obsession with Hou Defu's famous dishes is because there is a personal emotional factor in it. Then the popularity of celebrities in the society at that time for Hou Defu was obviously the special feature of this dish.
Zhang Hailin, executive deputy secretary general of the Henan Catering and Hotel Industry Association, believes that there are three reasons why Hou Defu can become the largest restaurant in the country in the Republic of China and is sought after by all sectors of society.
First, its dishes must be classic, borrowing from the history of the classic, with a strong cultural flavor. Most of the names of Hou Defu's dishes are related to historical events and allusions and anecdotes in Henan in ancient times.
For example, "Du Fu's Thatched Chicken" was obtained from the great poet Du Fu of Henan and his famous work "The Song of the Hut Broken by the Autumn Wind". "Sima Huaifu Chicken" is related to Sima Yi, a general of cao wei in the Three Kingdoms of Huaifu in Henan. "Luyi trial dog meat" is attached to the legend of Wang Mang chasing Liu Xiu, "Bao Fu Yu Belt Chicken" is a dish that praises Bao Zheng's honesty and honesty, "Qi's worries baked skin elbow" comes from the allusion of "Qiren Worried about the Sky", "Purple Qi Donglai" is taken from the legend of Lao Tzu's exit from the customs... "This kind of dish with great Central Plains cultural characteristics makes people who come to dine feel that eating here is also enjoying a kind of thick historical and cultural influence, how elegant. ”
In addition, the raw materials of Houdefu famous dishes are exquisite and full of local characteristics. In Zhang Hailin's introduction, the western mountainous areas of Henan are rich in monkey heads, deer antler velvet, tsuba buw, sheep belly and mushrooms; in northern Henan, there are Huaiqing yam, broad-backed ki carp, Baiquan white eel and Qinghua bamboo shoots; Henan's fish, shrimp, poultry eggs from the plains, and "Luo carp, Yi bream, as expensive as cattle and sheep", "Yellow River carp is the best, with Kaifeng as the most", providing a wealth of raw materials for Hou Defu's dishes. "Hero Three Eats Fish" uses Yellow River carp, "Luyi Trial Dog Meat" uses yellow dog meat from Luyi, Henan, and "Hibiscus Monkey Head" uses the famous Songshan Monkey Head Mushroom... The strong local aroma of Yu cuisine is vividly revealed here.
In addition to these famous dishes, Hou Defu also had two unique dishes, namely grilled bear paw and roasted deer tendon, which were most popular among the dignitaries and nobles at that time. The bear paw is the forefoot of the bear, removing the skin and bone, using its tender flesh, adding pork belly, pig's trotters, old chicken and more than ten kinds of Chinese herbs, simmering for five or six hours over low heat, and steaming through the special broth. Finally, the bear paws are sliced and served with ham and other grills. After cooking, the grilled bear paw is soft and fragrant, smooth and smooth, and melts in the mouth.
Regarding these two dishes, Hou Defu had an advertisement in the newspaper of Harbin during the Republic of China period: eat bear paws, taste deer tendons, enjoy the blessings of the mouth, replenish the body, please go to Hou Defu, Habu exclusive...
In the 1980s, due to the provisions of the Wildlife Law, Hou Defu's pickpocket was changed to pickpocket, but its method and flavor were still upside down.
Hou Defu is good at using cooking techniques such as "frying, stewing, stewing, stir-frying, and leaning", and the knife work is fine and the head is properly heated. It is worth mentioning that the knife worker, an ordinary knife, in the hands of a famous chef in Henan, has a variety of functions of "cutting before and chopping the middle piece, and smashing the mud on the back of the knife to pound garlic". And it is necessary to achieve the realm of "cutting must be neat, the pieces must be uniform, the solution must be more than half, and the chopping will not be chaotic".
There is also a wonderful and unique way to eat the famous dishes of Hou Defu. In the case of traditional crock fish, for example, a plate of charred fried noodles is served after the fish is eaten. First-time eaters will think that this crispy plate is noodles, but if you look closely, it is potatoes that are baked in the pan of oil. Dipped in the remaining soup from the tile fish plate with such a thin shredded potato, it is crispy and slightly sweet and sour, and the taste is very different.
There is also the "Purple Qi Donglai" taken from the allusion of "Lao Tzu out of the customs". Made with rooster treasure and beef punch, angelica, ginseng and special clear soup, this soup dish is cooked by an experienced chef, not on the plate, not in the pot, but in a delicate small teapot belly. Leisurely pour a cup, take a sip, delicious taste, clever way to taste, let people enjoy very much.
Take the classic taste of the Qing Palace Imperial Diet "Honey Juice Gourd" as an example. This dish, made from flour, eggs and honey, is said to have been specially developed for Empress Dowager Cixi. The reconciled dough is put into warm oil, and on one side of the dough grows another round ball, resembling a treasure gourd shaped like an iron crutch, which is very popular. Clipping a "treasure gourd" and gently biting it, it was actually hollow. This kind of unique work, a chef without a little aura and talent, is really difficult to master.
In the fifteenth year of the Republic of China (1926), the Beijing Morning Post once wrote: "The famous yu restaurant in Beijing is The Thick Defu of Dashilar, and the dishes are "tile fish", "braised mussels", "bone-minced meat", "walnut loins", "crispy kelp" and "air-dried chicken". Its pasta is homemade and delicate. The mooncakes made are date paste, bean paste, roses, ham, excellent taste, and can go far, and the southern tea shops, very different. ”
To be able to give such a high evaluation to the famous "Morning Post" at that time, the grand scene of Hou Defu at that time can be imagined.
About the author: Jiao Sufang, a well-known financial figure and food columnist, is born in Anyang, Henan. Author of the first history of chinese cuisine, "One Hundred Years of Yu Cuisine".
Editor: Xiaoxia Image source: Network
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