A few days ago, the 2021 public review must eat list was released. A total of 46 restaurants were selected in Guangzhou, many of which are well-known and long-established brands.
Now Guangdong people want to eat good things, may first think of is to search for public reviews, but in the era of no public reviews, how do Cantonese people forage for food without stepping on the pit?
The answer is that it all depends on real people's comments - how the food KOLs at that time ate, how everyone followed suit; how the food KOLs did at that time, and how the restaurants followed suit.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > a rich family banquet that money may not be able to eat</h1>
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, Guangzhou's catering industry was already very prosperous. At that time, the famous and prestigious families invited VIPs, and did not like to hold a feast in the restaurant, but loved to set up a family banquet in the mansion. One is to ensure the privacy of social interaction, and the other is to show your taste.
▲ Private banquets of ancient Chinese, source network
The most famous thing in modern Guangdong is the Jiang Taishi Family Banquet.
Jiang Taishi' original name was Jiang Kongyin, born in Nanhai, Guangdong, because he was the last imperial scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, and once entered the Hanlin Academy, so he was respected by the people of the time as Jiang Taishi. Although he was an official of the Qing Dynasty, he sympathized with the revolution, not only helped the martyrs of the Huanghuagang Uprising to be buried, but after the Wuchang Uprising, he also promoted the peaceful restoration of Guangzhou and protected from the scourge of swords and soldiers, which was really a great merit.
▲ Jiang Taishi statue, source network
But his more recognizable identity is that of a gourmet. Jiang Taishi family is prominent, the ancestors have been rich tea merchants, and he has served as the agent of British American Tobacco Company in South China for many years, in addition to the rich side, the diet is wide-ranging, and there is the title of "the first person in Cantonese cuisine".
Jiang Taishi's intensive study of food and drink can be said to be a pioneer of "from farm to table" a hundred years ago. He developed more than 1,000 acres of farm in Panyu Luogangdong on the outskirts of the city, called "Jianglanzhai Farm", which produces a variety of agricultural products, in addition to being sold on behalf of Guangzhou Daxin Department Store, but also used for guests and personal use.
Jiang Xianzhu, the granddaughter of Jiang Taishi, recalled her childhood: "In Taishidi, in addition to the chef, there are also Western chefs, dim sum chefs, several vegetarian grandmothers and a special chef. ”
▲In the picture is Ms. Jiang Xianzhu, the source network
Due to the tricky taste, Jiang Taishi constantly spurred jiangjia chefs to strive for excellence in developing new dishes, and many dishes at that time were set under the pickiness and personal participation of Jiang Taishigong, such as Taishi snake soup, dragon tiger phoenix, shrimp grapefruit skin, Taishitian chicken, Chen Taiji ice roast meat splendid embroidery, rich pomegranate chicken, winter melon crab claws, golden crown jade hairpin field chicken legs, glass shrimp balls, osmanthus wings, Taishi He flower finch, Taishi tofu and so on.
▲ Taishi snake soup, picture source Michelin
Jiang Taishi made friends across the East and the West, and often invited guests to banquets in Taishidi, No. 10, Tongdri, Henan, Guangzhou, and Sun Yat-sen, Mei Lanfang, Liao Zhongkai, Hu Hanmin, and Chiang Kai-shek were also guests of honor at Jiangfu family banquets. At that time, the powerful and celebrities were all proud to taste the family banquet of Tai Shi Di.
At that time, there was a saying circulating in Guangzhou: Jiang Taishi family banquet, money may not be able to eat. Therefore, as long as there is any new dish in Taishidi's family banquet, people who have tasted it will tell each other, and then the major restaurants will immediately imitate it, and attract diners in the name of Taishi, which is popular.
However, Tai ShiDi, who has been prominent for many years, did not escape the baptism of the great era in the end. With the fall of the Jiangjia family road after the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Taishi Gong was also depressed during the land reform in 1952, and since then, Taishidi's family banquet has also become a masterpiece.
▲Image source network
Later, the rich families who moved to Hong Kong and Macao, even if they had the financial resources to afford to raise a home cook, it was difficult to replicate the taste of Tai Shi Gong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="94" > tan family dish in the food world</h1>
With the gradual disappearance of the luxury family banquet, the rise of private dishes has taken its place, becoming a way for political and business celebrities to entertain VIPs. The historical private dish can be traced back to the Tan family cuisine in the Guangxu period at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Tan Zhenqing, whose ancestors are from Guangdong, has been writing poetry for generations and has a good diet, after his father Tan Zongjun entered Beijing as an official, he mixed his hometown Cantonese cuisine with Beijing cuisine into Tan family cuisine, and his family feast name shocked Beijing, such as cold pots such as white cut chicken, honey sauce char siu, large dishes such as yellow braised shark fin, oyster sauce abalone flakes, vegetarian dishes such as white ear vegetarian stew, dim sum such as crispy boxes, etc., all of which are deliberately seeking work, and they are not tired of detail.
▲ Tan Zhenqing entered the table to show that he was not doing business, but Yaju. Graph source network
Later, tan seal Qing family road fell, then the family cook or wife and concubine to do the Tan family private dish to help make up for the family plan. Banquets are set up at home, three seats per night, and reservations must be made three days in advance.
Tan family private room dishes, there is an unwritten rule: no matter who does the east, whether they know each other or not, they must prepare an invitation card for the host Tan Zhenqing, leave a place, and the host always has to come to taste a few sips and drink two cups. At that time, the dignitaries and nobles were proud to have eaten their private dishes, and at their peak, they had to wait for a month to book a single seat.
▲ Tan jia cai, image source network
After the death of Tan Qingqing and his wife, his daughter Tan Lingrou and the cook Peng Changhai continued to operate private dishes in Beijing's Mishi Hutong, until after the public-private partnership in 1954, the descendants of Tan family cuisine switched to work in Beijing restaurants, and the Tan family's private dishes were interrupted.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="95" > Li Cheng, the ancestor of modern private cuisine</h1>
Private cuisine disappeared on the mainland, but re-emerged in Hong Kong.
After leaving the Jiang family, Li Cai, the last chef of Jiang Taishi, worked as a chef at many restaurants in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Most of the sons and nephews cultivated by Li Cai later became well-known figures in the Hong Kong food industry, among which the cousin Li Cheng learned to cook with Li Cai in his teens, and after years of tempering, he attacked the true tradition.
▲ Photos of Master Li Cheng's home, image source network
Li Adult, known as "Broken Tooth Cheng", originally worked as a chef in the senior staff canteen of Hang Seng Bank, and then started his own business, setting up a seat in the living room of the family, which can accommodate more than ten people, personally cooking every night, cooking Taishi cuisine with charcoal as the main feast, attracting many rich Hong Kong foodies.
When Exactly Li Cheng began to cook private dishes, no one can say clearly.
It is said that in the 1950s, Li Cheng had already begun to serve, and later simply fixed the place to do private dishes. He only did the business of regular customers, only one seat a day, and rested in between. After a long time, the number of regular customers is enough, he will no longer accept new guests, and anyone who wants to go can only pass through regular customers with the right to make reservations.
In this way, the "private dish made of broken teeth" has become a legend, and those who do not know are completely unaware, and those who know may not be able to go.
Li Cheng's dishes include: fried osmanthus wings, pigeon egg bird's nest, colorful fried belly tip, winged braised snake, tyrannical chicken, raw fried glutinous rice and so on. His private dishes are famous for their portion sizes, which are basically not finished and have to be packed and taken home.
▲Fried osmanthus wings, source watermark
Today, most of the private dishes have gone out of the courtyard of the deep house, and even openly played a sign to publicize it. But what has not changed is that there is no fixed menu, advance reservation is required, one to three tables are limited, and the celebrity chef himself cooks and communicates in front of diners. Its privacy and sense of experience is as high as ever, and it is no wonder that it has gradually become the preferred consumption method of many young upstarts.
Although the story of the famous family banquet to the private dish of the famous chef is full of the vicissitudes of the years, in any case, the guangdong people's unremitting pursuit of food has never changed.
Dear friends,
Have you eaten any impressive restaurants?
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