The four traditional Chinese cuisines, Lu cuisine is the first, but also before the liberation of Beijing restaurants main cuisine, let's talk about the former Beijing Lu restaurant and service characteristics.
Beijing's food was originally not distinctive, until the Ming Dynasty capital moved to Beijing, because Lu cuisine was the closest cuisine to Beijing at that time, with the traffic situation at that time, most of the chefs and ingredients in the court came from Shandong, so Lu cuisine began to become popular in Beijing.
There are unique dishes that rely on local ingredients everywhere, but the formation of cuisines requires strong funds to support investment and research and development. The other three of the four major cuisines all rely on a certain historical background and local economic prosperity, Huaiyang cuisine relies on the rise of Hui merchants and salt merchants; Cantonese cuisine relies on the foreign trade of Guangzhou at that time and the prosperity of the Thirteen Elements; Sichuan cuisine originates from the division of warlords; only Lu cuisine mainly relies on political and Confucian influence.
Lu cuisine is derived from two parts, Kongfu cuisine and Jiaodong cuisine. Jiaodong cuisine is characterized by meat and seafood, especially in the early years of sea intestine powder is the secret weapon of monosodium glutamate before the invention of the premise of taste. The characteristics of Confucius cuisine are hanging soup and knife work, especially the annual festival of Confucius, which has special requirements for the shape, mood and color of the dish.
In addition, after becoming popular in Beijing, after being pointed out or suggested by high-ranking officials and scholars from all over the DPRK and China, Lu cuisine has the mark of "official cuisine", and the culinary requirements are extremely high in the process of process operation. So much so that in the circle of learning art, it is called "three years of Sichuan cuisine, ten years of Lu cuisine". The technical characteristics of Lu cuisine emphasize the heat, knife work and hanging soup, and I used to read a memoir of a high-ranking Kuomintang official, which recorded that when they went to the new Lu restaurant in the capital to eat, they first let a bowl of broth from the back kitchen come out to taste it, and then sat down to eat when they felt good.
After entering the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus had a share of drought and flood protection every year, but according to the ancestral system, they could not engage in business activities or learn crafts, and could only find the joy of life from eating, drinking and having fun, and Beijing's catering service industry began to enter a period of great development. However, the ancestral system stipulated that the Eight Banners of Manchuria were not allowed to do business, so in order to cover up the eyes and ears of the people, the rich Eight Banners disciples secretly invested, mainly hiring Shandong people to operate for them. At that time, most of the restaurants in Beijing were funded by the flag people, and the Shandong people contributed.
Restaurants in old Beijing are mainly open in the Qianmen area, and there are different grades.
The most high-grade one is called "Tang": it is basically a large courtyard with several depths. The gate can enter the car, and there are halls, cross-houses, small courtyards, and single rooms, which are quite large. You can hold banquets and sing in the hall, and there are not only tables and chairs in the restaurant, but also stages and empty venues, which is very grand. However, there are no scattered seats, zero points are not accepted, reservations must be made in advance when needed, and the minimum consumption standard must also be for the whole table. Somewhat similar to today's high-end private clubhouses.
The earliest halls are generally around the Imperial City, and are known as eight halls, namely Fushou Hall in Jinyu Hutong, Longfeng Hall in East Imperial City Root, Juxian Hall in Xidan Baozi Street, Jushou Hall in East Si qianliang Hutong, Yanshou Hall in Zongbu Hutong, Qinghe Hall on Di'anmen Outer Street, Huixian Hall on the north bank of Shichahai, and Fushou Hall in the grinding plant outside the front gate. However, these halls were basically closed before liberation; now there is the name Fushoutang behind the Cuiwei Building in Beijing, but only this name is used.
Slightly smaller than the hall called the building, Beijing before there was the Lu Cai Eight Building, again called the residence or garden, the difference between them and the church is that only the banquet, not the church meeting.
Again, it is called fasting, which generally means that the main business is one or two kinds of special foods.
Another level is the pavilion and the shop. There is no longer any cuisine here, that is, selling vegetables and selling rice, and eating enough is the mainstay. Among them, the "shop" generally only sells two kinds of meat dishes of pigs and sheep, so it is also called the second meat shop; in addition, the shop allows customers to eat and bring their own vegetables for processing, and the shop earns a little processing fee.
However, the average Shandong person is not involved in the business of shops and pavilions.
Let's talk about the service features of these eight buildings in old Beijing:
Generally speaking, in such high-end restaurants, there is a head of the church, similar to the current lobby manager. The status and income of the head of the church are generally second only to the big boss (overall responsible, equivalent to the CEO) and the second boss (management account, equivalent to the CFO).
The head of the hall is responsible for the arrival and delivery of important guests, observing the color. For new guests, a few words should understand whether the guest eats or invites guests, whether they are gourmets or novices, and what price is more appropriate.
Generally speaking, after eating once, you can remember the general name and hobbies, and every time you come back in the future, you can say hello, chat, and make guests feel at home.
There is a fixed service process for guests entering each building:
After the guests enter the door and sit down, the guy will bring freshly brewed tea and send a hand towel board for the guests to wipe their hands.
After ordering, put on some small snacks, drink tea and eat snacks, so as not to be bored waiting for a long time for dishes.
There are strict requirements for the timing and order of serving:
If the guest drinks, then the first to serve must be a cold dish, and when the guest is almost eaten, the guy will come forward to ask if it can be fried, and the soup is the last. After eating, the guy will also immediately bring toothpicks, mouthwashes and hand towels.
At that time, restaurant guests could bring their own drinks, and even let the restaurant guys go elsewhere to help buy alcohol. You can also ask other places to send wine over, and there is no such thing as a corkage fee.
Of course, good service is not all free, the restaurant of the year and the current international practice is the same, after the checkout of the guest will give some tips to the guys. But all tips must be collected in the ledger and recorded, and then distributed on a monthly basis to the chef, the accounting room, the running hall and the guys, the owner and the treasurer are not taken at all, so as to ensure that everyone is motivated, not only those who face the guests can have additional tip income.
At that time, each building had its own specialties, and paid attention to "no mixed soup", that is, no matter how well these specialties sold, other restaurants would not learn to make their own. For example, grilled sea cucumber is a famous dish in Dongxing Lou, you can only go to Dongxing Lou if you want to eat, go to Taifeng Lou to order this dish, people do not have it, and do not do it for much money.
There is a passage in xiangsheng that tests the basic skills, called the name of the dish, which borrows the fixed dishes of the buildings at the large banquets in the early years of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, namely:
Before the feast, four fresh fruits, four dried fruits, four preserves, and then eight cold meats; the first dish of the official banquet is generally filled with eight treasure fruit soup in a sea bowl; then on the bird's nest, shark fin, plus roasted whole pig, roasted whole duck; between the two need to be eight hot dishes; between the eight hot dishes need to be three dim sum: dessert, milk, meat; the last four soups and dishes; if it is winter, finally add a assorted hot pot.
These eight-flavor hot dishes are the highlights, generally referring to: one canary made in a fine soup; two fat stewed steamed glutinous rice chicken and duck soup; three to remove the armor to take more than an inch of cooked shrimp; four is Dongpo elbow or Dongpo meat; five chestnut braised chicken; six eight treasure roast pork; seven hanging stove roast lamb (legs); eight peeled to stab the bone sauce rotten fish. In particular, two symmetrical bowls are placed in the middle, namely ginseng stewed duck and black and white eel.
Let's talk about a small story of cooking in Beijing:
As the capital city of Beijing, there are more eunuchs, and the eunuchs in the palace have to sneak out to the restaurants in the city to relieve their hunger, but the eunuchs are the physically disabled people who belong to the day after tomorrow, and they are most afraid of others caring about their defects, so the eunuchs are extremely taboo about the words "chicken" and "egg".
In order to avoid the eunuchs, the beijing restaurants tried not to use the words "chicken" and "egg" in the name of the dish
For example, chicken food is replaced by livestock instead of chicken. For example, smoked chicken, alias is smoked livestock, brine chicken, is called brine livestock. The parts in the chicken's body are called shi pieces.
Eggs are generally replaced by fruits, such as poached eggs, which are called woguoer; egg soup is called flinging fruit. For the treated eggs, there is another name, such as stall eggs called stall yellow cabbage, peeled eggs because in the process of pickling, the egg body will produce a grain like pine flowers, so it is also called pine flowers; the egg white of the egg is called hibiscus, and the yolk is called wood. (In the 60s and 70s of last century, the little girl in the alleys of Beijing was also called Guo'er, and the beautiful one was called Jianguo'er.) ）
Finally, let's talk about the "yellow braised chicken rice" in the Shaxian snacks that are currently spread throughout the country, which was originally a Lu dish, which was once the signature dish of Jinan's time-honored "Fuquan Ju", but now no one associates it with "Lu cuisine".