Xi'an Restaurant on East Avenue

Text: Zhu Wenjie

One

　　

　　Speaking of Xi'an Restaurant, it is a super-first-class hotel in Xi'an in my mind, saying that it is "authentic Shaanxi cuisine", "food collar Sanqin", "landmark of Sanqin food culture", as well as "international catering famous shop", "Chinese time-honored brand", "leading hotel in Xi'an catering industry", "AAAAA-level Chinese green hotel of the top 100 catering enterprises in China", etc., etc., are not exaggerated, but they cannot cover all of it. What I admire most is the folk song of "East Bell West Drum, Green Dragon White Tiger, Coriander Hot Soup, Xi'an Restaurant" circulating among the old Xi'an population. Because there is a reputation for the top!

　　At the beginning of the establishment of Xi'an Restaurant in 1929, it was first settled in a place called Sandao Lane in the southwest corner of Xi'an Bell Tower and West Avenue, the door number was No. 24 West Avenue, next to the Bell Tower to the east, and not far from the Drum Tower to the west, so it was called "East Bell West Drum". I am too familiar with this piece of the matter, because I used to live in a small building in the courtyard of Xi'an Wenlian, No. 55 Social Third Road opposite the old Xi'an Restaurant, and I was also sandwiched between the East Bell and the West Drum. I remember the nursery rhyme of my childhood that sang "the bell tower is high, the drum tower is low, and roast chicken is sold at the intersection of society." So I changed it to "the bell tower is high, the drum tower is low, and the east comes and the west side." My family lives in the middle of the dang, and you don't see it unusually. ”

　　Xi'an Restaurant was built with funds raised by the socialites in Xi'an at that time, such as Feng Zhimo, Ma Gongtao, Zhen Shoushan and Mr. Feng Kechang, and was originally named Xi'an Hotel, and later renamed Xi'an Restaurant. The shop is a large courtyard, three facades, upstairs and downstairs, as soon as it opens, it is booming, customers are full of doors, and often need to set up a mat shed in the backyard to socialize. He also invited Mr. Xing Weiting, the teacher of Zhao Shuqiao, the minister of military aircraft at the end of the Qing Dynasty, to write the name of the shop for him, in order to make a strong reputation. Mr. Xing Weiting was a Qing Dynasty tribute, who had worked as a secretary in Shaanxi Inspector Yamen, and his calligraphy was studied by Fan Zengxiang, the Inspector of Shaanxi Province, and was quite famous in Guanzhong. Xi'an Restaurant was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Xi'an at that time, and military and political dignitaries used to hold banquets here.

　　Regarding the theory that Xi'an Restaurant was founded in 1929, I checked the "Xi'an City Chronicle" and the "Beilin District Chronicle", but the records are: "The Seventeenth Year of the Republic of China (1928)", which makes people wonder why. Later, I consulted Mr. Guo Yuqi, the former deputy general manager of Xi'an Restaurant, who said: "Since the public-private partnership in 1956, Xi'an Restaurant has set the establishment time to 1929. He also said that at that time, it seemed that at the end of the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928), it was converted to 1929 according to the lunar calendar. "This, of course, is also an explanation.

　　It is necessary to say that Feng Kechang, the founder of Xi'an Restaurant, is a legendary figure. Originally, he was just a young man from a hotel called "Yixian pavilion" on West Avenue, also known as "Tangguan". Although his status is low, he is shrewd and strong, and he treats people sincerely, and he has let several social elites who often go to the "Yixian Pavilion" restaurant to see him, and it can be said that Feng Kechang has met the noble person of fate. Among these people were Zhen Shoushan, who was the commander of the Division of the General Headquarters of the Nationalist Coalition Army in Shaanxi; on one occasion, Zhen Shoushan's friends Feng Zhimo (dramatist) and Ma Gongtao (dramatist) and others; and seven or eight of them, after drinking and eating in Yixianting, made a family routine with Feng Kechang, and encouraged Feng Kechang to set up his own door and open a restaurant. So it was a hit, Master Zhen and thirteen of them, immediately raised six hundred and fifty yuan to open a hotel, let Feng Kechang be the manager to open a hotel. The preparation time should be in the autumn of 1928, the mid-spring of 1929, officially opened, the name of the store set as "Xi'an Hotel".

　　The "Xi'an Hotel" was later renamed "Xi'an Restaurant", which is related to Mao Changjie, a famous scholar in Guanzhong. In October 1929, Mao Changjie went to the Xi'an Hotel to taste the large meat of the water basin and praised it. Mr. Mao praised the Xi'an Hotel as a "Qin cuisine restaurant" and said: "Shaanxi people have been good at cooking since ancient times, but although there are many varieties of food, they have not been as unified as Sichuan-Yang cuisine, and Xi'an Hotel should adhere to the Shaanxi style and dig out a complete system of Qin cuisine!" The phrase "Qin Cai Restaurant" was deafening and deafening, and only then did it have the great name of "Xi'an Restaurant".

　　Mr. Mao Changjie was a prominent figure in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the father of Chang'an Jinshi Examination, known for his classics, yu right as his disciple, who served as the director of the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an, presided over the Sanyuan Hongdao Academy, and together with Yan Ganyuan and other self-financed funds to found Shaanxi's earliest newspaper "Guangzhi".

　　In 1931, Manager Feng Kechang hired a famous chef Cao Bingjun who was skilled and designed to host high-end banquets, and a multi-functional, cooking master Jin Youcheng, Wang Hongru and other famous chefs, laying a solid foundation for the future prosperity of Xi'an Hotel and the great exhibition of Hongtu.

　　Another need to be added is the plaque written by Mr. Xing Weiting for the Xi'an Hotel, the words are vertical lines, gold characters on a black background, and they are quite eye-catching, but unfortunately they were lost later. Around the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the calligrapher Mr. Yue Songyi was asked to write another plaque, which was written horizontally, with a momentum and a dignified and dignified manner, and it is said that his whereabouts were unknown later. Teacher Zheng Hanhui, who is also a librarian of the Xi'an Municipal Museum of Culture and History, said that the famous calligrapher Duan Shaojia later inscribed a plaque for the Xi'an Restaurant.

　　The business rent of Xi'an Restaurant was the house of Ren Gechen, the elder of the Xinhai Revolution, who participated in the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and later made many achievements in the siege of Xi'an, after which he left the military. His granddaughter Ren Jianyou provided me with the following information: "Duan Shaojia, the teacher of his friend Mr. Li Long, is the vice chairman of the Shaanxi Calligraphers Association and the deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Museum Preservation Department, and Mr. Duan Shaojia integrates hundreds of families, has his own face, has a distinct personality, and is known as "Duan Jiawei". Mr. Li Long said that when Mr. Duan was alive, he often heard Mr. Duan talk about the fact that he used to go to the Zhengguo Society and other theater gardens to watch plays, and feng Kechang, the owner of Xi'an Restaurant, sent people to use two or three layers of food boxes to deliver bubble oil cakes to the Duan family and the Ren Gechen family every year when the Dragon Boat Festival arrived. It is also said that Feng Kechang only sends these two families every year, until the time of the public-private partnership after liberation. From the information provided above, it can be seen that the relationship between Feng Kechang, the owner of Xi'an Restaurant, Duan Shaojia and Ren Gechen is extraordinary. My friend Mr. Feng Wuchang also told me, "My uncle, Mr. Feng Yushu, the son of Mr. Feng Zhimo, said that every New Year's Festival, Xi'an Restaurant sends big dishes and other foodies to his family. Mr. Feng Wuchang also said: "According to the son of Ma Gongtao, one of the founders of Xi'an Restaurant, until the public-private partnership, Xi'an Restaurant would send 8 steamed bowls to his family food box every New Year's Day. ”

　　It is also worth mentioning that Mr. Song Bolu, a scholar of the late Qing Dynasty, a famous scholar of Wushu, and a master of calligraphy and painting, wrote a four-character plaque of "Qin Cuisine Duxiu" for the Xi'an Hotel. It was Mr. Mao Changjie who introduced the food of the Xi'an Hotel to Mr. Song Bolu, who also led his colleagues Guo Yunsheng, Wu Jingzhi, Huo Zhuting and other colleagues of the Provincial TongzhiGuan to the hotel to taste, all of whom were unanimously praised. Most of these people were former Qing jinshi who were proficient in historical records. There were several big names among these literati and inkers who gave advice and suggestions, quoted scriptures, and provided support to Feng Kechang, so that Feng Kechang had confidence in carrying the banner of "revitalizing Shaanxi cuisine".

　　In 1933, After Mr. Yu Youren returned to Shaanxi and came to Xi'an Hotel to taste warm-mixed waist silk and large meat in a water basin, he said happily: "I have eaten my hometown meal." And called the manager Feng Kechang, carefully inquired, encouraged the Xi'an Hotel: "Do more of the meals that our old Shaanxi loves to eat, and you will not worry about no business." ”

　　Under the order of Mr. Youren, Feng also introduced Sanyuan bubble oil cake, Wowo noodles in Yaoxian County, and Shichen buns in Weinan to renovate and update them, so that the quality of the snack series of Xi'an Hotel has been enriched and improved.

　　Two

　　Xi'an Restaurant was astonished as soon as it appeared, if you list the memorabilia of the restaurant on West Avenue, the focus should be: General Yang Hucheng gave his mother a birthday banquet here; in 1936, Zhou Enlai specially went to Xi'an to coordinate the handling of the "Xi'an Incident", set up a "peace banquet" at the Xi'an Restaurant, and made a unique achievement here with Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng and other patriotic generals to "stop the civil war and unite to resist Japan"; in 1938, Zhou Enlai also received here dr. Ke Dihua, an international friend of the Indian anti-Japanese medical team aiding China, and bethune, an internationalist fighter.

　　Xi'an Restaurant moved to Juhuayuankou on East Avenue in 1958. Although it is a bungalow, it occupies a large area, so the business area has been expanded several times.

　　The first time I went to Xi'an Restaurant was in the autumn of 1965, when I was working at the Bell Tower Food Store for more than two months. Every time I arrive at the meal point, I will go to the snack department on the first floor of Xi'an Restaurant every three to five minutes, buy a pot of thick wine, two shortbreads to the mouth to have an addiction, and eat shortbread, drink Huanggui thick wine that is a perfect match of the year.

　　The memory of the stomach is too stubborn, more than 50 years now, I still like to eat shortbread, not only love to eat, but also do it? In 1988, I received a few friends at the home of the three roads of the society, bragging that I would make shortbread and how authentic it was. I was too lazy to cook, so I had to do it myself. When the shortbread came out of the pan, the aroma attracted one of my neighbor's brothers, I took out a cake for him to taste, he took a bite, rushed home to question his wife, why don't you have more layers of shortbread than Wenjie? I listened and replied: I am imitating xi'an restaurant mille-feuille shortbread! A friend who was eating said: What is blowing! At most ten layers, but also a thousand layers of cake! Another friend helped: There are a thousand layers where I translate my last name. I was so angry that I hit back: Your surname is Wang, you are still a king when you turn it over, and your mouth will turn very much! A bunch of white jujubes are suspicious of beard (nuclear) big goods...

　　Later, from the "Xi'an Chronicle of Commerce", it was known that the thousand-layer shortbread of Xi'an Restaurant was "according to legend, when the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang returned from the Western Regions to translate thousands of volumes of Buddhist scriptures, Tang Gaozong sent people to reward 'thousand-layer flapjacks', and the thousand-layer shortbread was improved accordingly." ”

　　And Huanggui thick wine, known as "jade pulp" in ancient times, began in the pre-Qin. The poem "Li Taibai Is Good to Drink Jade Floating Liang" contained in the "Qing Yilu" refers to the ancient thick wine. And I think the mythical story "Wu Gang held out the osmanthus wine" in the moon palace should also be a yellow guichou bar. In 1956, when Guo Moruo came to Xi'an, he tasted the Huanggui thick wine of Xi'an Restaurant and praised it as "not like wine, better than wine". Indeed, in my eyes, Huanggui thick wine should be called "immortal wine".

　　I will also be unforgettable is one of the top ten famous dishes of Xi'an Restaurant, pioneered by the late famous chefs Cao Bingjun, Jin Xuanmin and other culinary masters in the 1930s, which won the "Golden Tripod Award" in the national competition and the signature dish of Xi'an Restaurant.

　　The first time you ate gourd chicken was in the 1970s. At that time, I was working as a songwriter in the choreography and directing group of the Tongchuan Song and Dance Troupe, and once our troupe ate a banquet at the Xi'an Restaurant for several teachers in the literary and art circles of Shaanxi Province. But just a chopstick, the table turns a few times, and the plate is bare! Because of the consideration of etiquette, I did not eat a famous place. I think of a phrase called "Eating is unforgettable, eating is more unforgettable".

　　Hulu chicken is said to have been created by the home cook of Shangshu Wei Zhi in the first year of Tang Xuanzong, Wei Zhi was extremely particular about the dishes, the chef made him chicken, the first chef used the method of first frying and then cooking, Wei Zhi felt that the taste and meat quality of the chicken were poor. The second cook cooks first and then fried, the meat is tender, but it is not shaped, not good-looking and bad. The third cook learned from the experience of the first two cooks, first bundled the chicken, then cooked and then fried, so that the chicken was crispy on the outside, golden in color, mellow and delicious. And because the shape resembles a gourd, it is called "gourd chicken". Some people also say that the whole chicken does not fall apart and remains in a circle shape, so it is called "chicken". Shaanxi people pay attention to the whole goods, completeness, and integration, that is, the prison. Later, the pronunciation was also called "gourd chicken", and the gourd harmonic sound "Fluke". No matter how it is called, it means auspiciousness anyway. The Xi'an Dictionary of the Republic of China records that gourd chicken is "a famous flavor dish, originally known as '囫囵囵鸡', that is, a whole chicken, which was later transliterated into this name." ”

　　There is also a record: "Its traditional selection is to use the 'Wo Wo Wo Chicken' from Sanyao Village in the south of Xi'an City." This chicken is raised for a year, with a net weight of about one kilogram and tender meat. There are three processes of boiling, basket steaming and frying: before boiling, the whole chicken is put into water and rinsed to remove blood stains, and the chicken is bundled with hemp wire when cooking to maintain the shape of the chicken. After boiling water in the pot, put the chicken in, cook for half an hour, take it out, put it in the basin, add broth, cooking wine, soy sauce, salt, green onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, and steam it thoroughly. When frying, the rapeseed oil is boiled to maturity, the whole chicken is put into the oil pan, stirred with a hand spoon, and when the chicken is golden brown, it is fished out with a colander, drained and served on the plate. At this time, the chicken skin is crispy and tender, fragrant and mellow, accompanied by pepper and salt, the taste is more delicious, the lips and teeth are fragrant, and the aftertaste is lingering. It has the reputation of 'chang'an's first taste'. ”

　　This made me think that if you want to maintain the original taste of "gourd chicken", the first chicken that needs to be stocked for one year cannot be used to feed and hormones to produce chickens that come out of the cage in three or two months. Second, the chicken breed should be a native "chicken". This requires the construction of a base for raising "chickens" and strict management. Otherwise we really can't eat the real "gourd chicken".

　Three

Stuffed money hair dish is also a famous dish of Xi'an Restaurant. The "Xi'an Dictionary of the Republic of China" says: At that time, "the rich merchants held a banquet, and the first dish was mostly this dish to please the auspicious." The method is to first soak the hair vegetables in warm water, blanch it slightly, chop the chicken breast like mud, add salt, egg white, wet starch, cooked lard and stir into a brewed seed, take the egg to make an egg skin, spread a layer of hair vegetables on the egg skin, spread a layer of hair vegetables, and then smear a layer of stuffed seeds, add a layer of yellow cake, roll into a cylindrical shape, steam for three minutes, cut into thin slices shaped like money, pour chicken soup on the egg broth and eat. ”

The "Xi'an Chronicle of Commerce" also records: "Money hair vegetables, Tang Dynasty merchant Wang Yuanbao was fond of eating hair vegetables, and later Wang Yuanbao became a rich man in Chang'an City, and the merchants in the city followed suit, all eating hair vegetables in order to 'get rich'." ”

The name of the dish is auspicious, which means that "making a fortune" is the main reason why "brewing money and making vegetables" is the first dish of the banquet.

Then there is the "milk soup pot fish", one of the top ten famous dishes of Xi'an Restaurant, which evolved from the "milk stuffed fish" of the Chang'an Restaurant in the Tang Dynasty. In 1955, Ke Zhongping, Hu Cai, Liu Qing, Wang Wenshi, Du Pengcheng, Wei Gangyan, Gobi Zhou, etc., at that time, almost all the famous writers of the older generation in Shaanxi went out to entertain Mr. Lao She, who came to Xi'an to write about the sensational limelight of the whole country in order to create "Looking West to Chang'an". Gobi Zhou, then secretary general of the Xi'an Branch of the China Writers Association and editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine "Yanhe", wrote an article entitled "Fish Eating" in order to describe in detail the scene of the banquet at the Xi'an Restaurant.

This article is very vivid, wonderful and wonderful, I specially excerpted a paragraph for friends to read:

At this time, a clean and neat man in a white cloth undershirt, with a bald head, holding a kitchen knife and cutting board in his left hand, and a carp in his right hand. He stuck the gills of the fish, lifted them high, turned them around, turned them around, and let the guests see that the fish was fresh. And said: 'Just went to the city to mention it'. People's eyes lit up. The water-drenched, fresh carp, about a foot long, is still swinging, shining with golden light. Lao She said: 'This is the golden carp in the Yellow River, and it is a must in Zhongzhou!' Elder Ke (Ke Zhongping) laughed and said, "Oh! Jump the dragon gate is it! Liu Qing said, "The Dragon Gate is coming!" A large copper hot pot with piping hot chicken soup was served.

How a flash of an eye, the chef has cut the fish, the knife is flying, and the fish fillets are also flying. The fillets are so wide, so falling, so thin that they want to fly! It flew all over the plate and flew around the hot pot that was emitting green flames. The Cu Ding who dissolved the cattle in Zhuang Zhou's "South China Classic" did not have such a coincidence, such a god. The hot pot is open, the chicken soup is jumping, and the aroma is wafting around, and it carries the fragrance of wine. Only then did I know that what was burned was not alcohol, but Xifeng famous wine. Right next to the hot pot, there were two bottles of Xifeng wine waiting there. The fish fillets reflected in the green fire flew around in the steam of chicken soup, and the people were silent, and all four of them shone with a faint green light, and each joyful eye had a jade-like luster. Or the guest first said: 'That's nice!' Lao She also said: "Xi'an is the ancient capital of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and this dish can have a long energy flow." Elder Ke said, "Delicious and painful, this large piece of fish fillet is as beautiful as a large bowl of wine and a large piece of beef and mutton!" Liu Qing said: "I have never liked to eat fish, but this fish is an exception... It is the first in Xi'an! ''Northwest first! ''Go to Beijing!'' Everyone stopped chopsticks and admired them. Lao She said: 'Beijing can't eat such a good fish!' ''That's what makes it float across the ocean?' ''Get a gold medal!'' After a pause, he said: 'We have good works in China, like this pot of fish...' Everyone said: 'Well said!' ''Interesting!'' The Gobi boat who wrote "Fish Eater" is a famous poet and writer who needs to be introduced. Gobi Boat (1916~1986) was originally named Liao Xinquan, the word is difficult, and later changed its name to Gobi Boat. A native of Chengdu, Sichuan. In 1936, he joined the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard and the Student National Salvation Federation and began to write poetry. In 1939, he entered the Wartime Youth Training Class in Wubao, and in 1941, he entered the Literature Department of Lu Xun Art College in Yan'an. In 1946, he went to work in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Cultural Association. In 1947, Ge was transferred to the Forward Branch of the Xinhua News Agency, and participated in the Yan'an Defense War with the army, during which he wrote poems such as "Minesweeper", "Telephone Operator", "Street Battle" and other poems reflecting the combat life of the People's Liberation Army.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Gobi Zhou successively served as the director of the Creative Studio of the Northwest Literary Association, the secretary general of the Xi'an Branch of the China Writers Association and the editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine "Yanhe". Representative poetry works include "Repair the Road to Heaven", "Yanhe Still Flowing", "Three-String Warrior", "Ordering Qinling to Give Way", etc., and authored poems such as "Oath Collection", "I Greet the Rising Sun", "Landing Collection" and so on. In 1958, Gobi Zhou was transferred to the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature as the secretary of the party group, and in 1980, he returned to Xi'an to serve as the chairman of the Xi'an Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature. He died in Xi'an in 1986.

Mr. Wang Zihui, an expert in food culture research, wrote "Gobi Boat Talks About Pot Fish", which wrote: Originally, Mr. Gobi Boat was born delicious, bad he can eat, good he loves to eat, odor he dares to eat, but also from eating to understand its way. Xi'an Restaurant's milk soup pot fish is his first choice for often tasting and feasting. To this end, we visited the famous poet Gobi Ark together. ...... When we stepped into Ge Lao's study and explained our intentions, the old Ge Lao, who was too old, seemed to be dozens of years younger. As soon as I mentioned the milk soup pot fish, I couldn't put it away when I let go of the box. He started in 1949, "When I first came to Xi'an from northern Shaanxi, I learned that the pot fish in Xi'an Restaurant is one of the best dishes in Xi'an." As soon as the allowance was paid, he went with Shi Lu and Guan Heyan to eat pot fish. Since the milk soup pot fish is made of Yellow River carp by the Yellow River iron bridge, the soup is stewed with native chicken to make a milky white. Delicious is not said, but after eating an account is 150,000 yuan (15 yuan now), and the monthly allowance I brought, only half of it, actually made an eagle grab the coat - can not take off the claw, had to let everyone hostage, I went to borrow money to take people. Maybe because of this, I will never forget the pot fish for a long time. ”

Ge Lao also talked about other famous dishes of Xi'an Restaurant: "The warm mixed waist silk is really good, fresh, tender, slightly crisp, really refreshing." Gourd chicken looks like roast chicken, the meat is very rotten, imported, chicken skin like roast duck skin, no wonder Ke Lao (Ke Zhongping) clipped chicken skin to respect the old man. Lotus cake, is lotus mud wrapped bean paste filling, as big as a watch, eating in the mouth it is still singing, because Shaanxi lotus vegetables are particularly crisp. Lao She said: "These dishes can only be eaten in Xi'an. ”

Here is another paragraph of Mr. Lao She's visit to Xi'an to interview and write the drama "Looking West to Chang'an", as well as to reflect the fraud history of Li Wanming, a huge political swindler who shocked China and foreign countries in the 1950s, li was exposed and fell from power in Xi'an. The incident dates back to the liberation of Nanjing in 1949, when Li Wanming concealed his history of joining the Kuomintang Nanjing Army Hospital and joining the Youth Army, forged documents, pretended to be a student of Nanjing Central University, was admitted to the People's Liberation Army Erye Military and Political University, and began to cheat after graduation. In just 6 years, he cheated from the local government to Beijing, from a section clerk to a section chief, from a Kuomintang soldier, to a "people's hero" of the "Red Army identity", and also deceived to go to the Soviet Union, and on May 9, 1952, he stood on the Red Square military parade platform and the Soviet Supreme Commander Stalin stood in a row. Soon after returning to China, he deceived himself into becoming a "high-ranking cadre" of the 13th level of administration. Its deception can be described as a step-by-step "ascension to the pinnacle". By 1955, he still wanted to deceive a division commander in the Lanzhou Military Region, and only then was he exposed in Xi'an. In the end, he was sentenced by the Beijing Municipal Intermediate People's Court to 15 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years.

Li Wanming's deception can go all the way unimpeded. Among them, in addition to Li Wanming, a liar who is indeed "unprecedented" and people lack resistance, there are many objective factors. For example, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was inevitable that there would be institutional loopholes, poor information, frequent changes in institutional personnel, and bureaucracy, hero worship, blindness, credulity, and so on. All this intersected with the cunning of the liars, and finally led to one satirical political farce after another, which has since become the political laughing stock of street talk. Li Wanming was originally from Ankang, Shaanxi, which also humiliated the people of Shaanxi. Later, Mr. Lao She's "West Looking at Chang'an" immediately caused a sensation as soon as it was staged.

Back to the Xi'an Restaurant's "Milk Soup Pot Fish", this famous dish is made of golden carp as the ingredient, taking the beautiful auspicious meaning of jumping the dragon gate. Its milk soup is stewed with pork knuckle, chicken and duck. Simmer until cooked, the soup is milky white. After the table, the liquor under the pot is lit, and a flame spreads around the pot, which is very poetic. In particular, the fillet fish at the banquet adds a special atmosphere and fun to the scene.

Folklore says that Xi'an people do not eat fish, suspect that fish have thorns, or do not eat fish. I remember when I was a teenager, I went to the table with my grandfather, and I once came across a fish cut with bamboo chips, poured with soup, can see whether you can eat, nothing more than a picture of auspicious, meaning that there are more than (fish) for many years. I still remember the Shanghainese who lived in my yard said: The fish sold in Tanshi Street in Xi'an are much cheaper than in Ala Shanghai! I know that the reason is that "Xi'an people think that fish have thorns, and there are relatively few people who love to eat fish." But the thing is definitely not because "milk soup pot fish" is a famous dish, which means "more than a year" and "carp jumping the dragon gate", which can change the habit of Xi'an people not eating fish. If this is the case, xi'an people eat this "milk soup pot fish", they can't care that the fish has a thorn in the mouth!

Also included in the top ten famous dishes of Xi'an Restaurant is "warm mixed waist silk", which is transformed from the "white waist of wine vinegar" in the "Jade Food Batch" handed down from the Song Dynasty. It is one of the representative works of warm mixed vegetables. And warm mixing can be said to be the unique skill of Shaanxi cuisine, breaking the convention of mixing and cold mixing. This dish has high requirements for knife skills, seasoning, and the control of the time it takes to make it into the water, and the whole production process is completed in one go. The warm mixed dishes are crisp and tender without skin, fresh and fragrant, refreshing and delicious, spicy and aromatic and very local.

Mr. Su Yuhai wrote that "milk soup pot fish" is a dish in the Famous Tang Dynasty feast "Roast tail feast", called milk stuffed fish. It is also said that "warm mixed waist silk" is also derived from the sheepskin filigree in the famous feast of the Tang Dynasty "Burning Tail Banquet". If this is true, then the origin of "milk soup pot fish" and "warm mixed waist silk" has a history of more than a thousand years! It's truly breathtaking.

Regarding the Tang Dynasty's burning tail feast, the "Little Chronicle of Discernment" says: Tang Zi Zhongzong Dynasty, the chancellor first worshiped the official, that is, jiaguan Jinlu, for example, sacrificed food to the Heavenly Son, known as "burning tail". "Burning tail", take its "divine dragon burning tail, straight up to the Qingyun Zhiyi". The Northern Song Dynasty Tao Gu's "Qing Yilu" details one of the most famous tail-burning banquets in the Tang Dynasty. In 709, Wei Juyuan, a native of Jingzhao Wannian (present-day Xi'an), was promoted to Shangshu Zuo's servant and promoted to the rank of Knight of Theory, and was to feast on Emperor Zhongzong of Tang as usual. The banquet featured 58 courses: cold and hot stir-fry, grilled soup, dessert noodles.

Four

After Xi'an Restaurant moved to Juhuayuankou on East Avenue in 1958, Yang Xiaochu, who was then the vice mayor of Xi'an City, paid special attention to the expansion and operation of Xi'an Restaurant, and then Xu Keheng, the descendant of Osmanthus Thick Wine, Xue Zhigang, a mille-feuille shortbread technician, and Yang Deng'an, a pot sticker expert, were successively transferred to Xi'an Restaurant, and famous people gathered, making hundreds of famous snacks in Xi'an Restaurant a higher level, attracting a large number of customers to flock to Xi'an Restaurant. In the early 1960s, marshal Montgomery,LinkedIn a legendary general during World War II, was very satisfied after tasting jin Youcheng's spring rolls of cabbage, bean paste pen holders, mutton cakes, etc., and thought that they were fine crafts that exuded local flavor. Jin You became a famous chef hired by Manager Feng Kechang in 1931, a multi-functional cooking master. This time it came in handy, and it added luster to the Xi'an Restaurant.

In 1962, the city was appointed as a master of cooking, and among the 13 people, there were two masters in Xi'an Restaurant, Cao Bingjun and Jin Xuanmin.

Regarding the old Xi'an Restaurant at the mouth of Juhuayuankou on East Avenue, Mr. Guo Yuqi painted me a floor plan of the restaurant from 1958 to 1974. He told me that Xi'an Restaurant is about 80 meters long from north to south, about 45 meters from east to west, and about 20 meters from the west of the main entrance to the mouth of Ju Garden Alley. The door of the reception hall in the middle is a paved door, with pickles on the left and thick wine and loose beer (barrels) on the right. On both sides are the East Snack Department and the West Snack Department, the east side sells shortbread, large meatloaf and cheek noodles, and the west side sells pot stickers, wontons and so on. There is a passageway at the west side of the hotel, which is used to purchase goods, can be used to rack cars, and is closed when it is officially opened.

The old Xi'an restaurant is a two-storey wooden loft, the first floor is open, the second floor is a staff dormitory, about eighteen or nineteen rooms, two people live in one, Guo Yuqi said that he only worked with the national culinary master Mr. Li Fenggong to live in one.

There are East and West restaurants in the restaurant, specializing in all kinds of stir-fried dishes, including the top ten famous dishes created by Xi'an Restaurant. In the 1970s, there was a corridor in the middle of the East and West Restaurants, flanked by a 2-meter-high flower partition wall, a solid wall under 1 meter, and above which was a hollowed-out wooden flower lattice window, which looked antique. The courtyard is a garden, there is a circular pool in the middle, there is a stone sculpture that seems to be in the shape of a fish, and the fish can spray water with its mouth facing upwards, which is very beautiful. The flowers and trees in the four corners of the garden include moon season, roses, hibiscus, and lilacs. Open a circular door opening to the east, also called the Moon Gate, the top door of the cave is covered with green tiles that are buckled together, the classical garden style, which is very elegant. Behind the garden is a particularly striking VIP room, a large roof of an antique building covered with colorful glazed tiles, carved beams and painted buildings, golden splendor, and carved dragons and phoenixes on the ridges of the roof on both sides. The VIP room is luxurious and spacious, and two large round tables can be placed in the room. After the new building was built in 1977, the large roof of the VIP hall was still not demolished. The whole courtyard has a back door through Zhangfu Lane, where the mansion of Zhang Fengyi, the first governor of Shaanxi of the Republic of China, is located.

By the early 1970s, Xi'an Restaurant had become old and narrow, far from keeping up with the development of the times. In 1973, under the care of Premier Zhou Enlai, the Xi'an Restaurant was rebuilt and completed in the second half of 1977. Guo Moruo personally inscribed the name of the restaurant in Xi'an. The new Xi'an Restaurant Building stretches 70 meters, is 6 stories high, and has a business area of more than 8,000 square meters. At that time, the citizens of Xi'an affectionately called this project the "Premier Project".

After the completion of the new building, it was transferred to Yu Yingwen, a special chef who is good at knife work and good at cold spelling dishes, and Wang Lianming, a banquet designer. The Xi'an Restaurant, which is "full of talents and talents, less long and salty", has once again become famous. In the 1960s and 1970s, Xi'an Restaurant had a strong culinary and service technology force, and the first batch of provincial and municipal chefs Cao Bingjun (CPPCC member in the 1960s) and Jin Xuanmin (CPPCC member of the 1960s) were all chefs in the restaurant. There are also: Jin Youcheng, a famous chef of flavor snacks, Zhou Youtang, an expert in dried vegetables, Wang Hongru, the king of steamers (who has been guarding the steamer for decades), Xue Zhigang, a shortbread technician, Yang Deng'an, a pot paste technician, Xu Zhiheng, a descendant of the Osmanthus thick wine family, and others, and they have also cultivated a large number of culinary rookies. This is an important guarantee of Xi'an Restaurant's exquisite food and good service.

Mr. Guo Yuqi is an old man at Xi'an Restaurant, and he participated in the whole process of the construction of the new building of Xi'an Restaurant in the 1970s. He has served as deputy secretary of the party committee, deputy general manager, chairman of the trade union and secretary of the discipline inspection committee of Xi'an Restaurant, vice president of the Shaanxi Provincial Hotel Association, researcher of the Shaanxi Sanqin Cultural Research Association, and technical consultant of Xi'an Catering Co., Ltd. He is also a member of the 10th and 11th CPPCC committees of Xi'an, and won the title of "Model Worker of Xi'an". Because I know Mr. Guo, and he is also a member of the 11th CPPCC Committee of Xi'an City, with his guidance, it can be said that I have walked into the Xi'an Restaurant and enjoyed the unique scenery of the Xi'an Restaurant at close range.

In 1993, it raised more than 20 million yuan, and carried out all-round and large-scale renovation and decoration of the inside of the restaurant, and opened up large and small restaurants such as Tang Shan Palace, Fujing Lou, and Yaqu Hall. Taking culture as the forerunner, embodying the Han and Tang dynasties as the main body of the Sanqin food culture, Guanzhong customs, and auspicious culture and folk essence style, forming a rich historical and cultural atmosphere of Xi'an Restaurant, so that people can immerse themselves in the rich Chang'an culture as soon as they enter, and have a sense of crossing. Each restaurant has a yanglian written on the lintel of the pavilion, such as "the bird smells the fragrant phoenix, and the swimming fish tastes like a golden dragon" as the yanglian on the lintel of the xianghe restaurant. "Quan will make si palace a room, you must know that this banquet is not a hongmen", for the same eaves in front of the pavilion. In several important reception VIP restaurants, large-scale art works such as murals such as "Noble Concubine Drunkenness", "Qin King's Banquet Gong Diagram", and "Will Enter the Wine" were also arranged. In the restaurant, a hall, fountain, and ancient trees are built to help set off the atmosphere with poems, swords, books, paintings, and wine utensils. In particular, the "Drunken Lying Statue of Li Bai" with Han White Jade in the Yaqu Hall is particularly auraous and eye-catching.

In the dance hall of the restaurant, the arrangement is also a classic part of the Chinese culture that embodies 5,000 years. Warring States chimes, music and dance on Dunhuang murals, bouncing pipa. Sheng Tang's "Neon Dress Feather Dance", "Qin King Breaking Array Music" and Chang'an Drum Music were all introduced.

In 1992, Xi'an Restaurant took over The Peace Restaurant and founded the first branch, the Dachashi Branch, which was renamed the Peace Hotel six years later. In 1994, it merged with The Jinqiao Trading Company of Xishu Group to open the first catering supermarket in Xi'an , Crystal Palace Seafood Food City ; in 1997 , the State Guest Hotel and Weishuiyuan Hot Spring Resort were grandly opened ; in 1998 , we ventured into the tourism industry and successfully launched Changning Palace Leisure Villa. Since then, Xi'an Restaurant has stepped out of East Avenue and has become a famous enterprise that affects the West Security Domain.

The Crystal Palace Seafood Food City opened by Xi'an Restaurant is located at No. 38 Lianhu Road. Close to my unit, xi'an Wenlian, which is close to Lianhu Park, because of my great trust in the delicious food of Xi'an Restaurant, I had many banquets at the Crystal Palace in the mid-to-late 1990s, including literary friends from other places.

On June 22, 2016, as a public judge, I participated in the 2016 Xi'an Tourism Group Staff Skills Knowledge Training (Cooking Skills Competition) at the Xi'an Culinary Institute, and also met Mr. Li Yuan of xi'an Restaurant, who was the chief judge at the time.

Li Yuan is a veteran chef who has worked at Xi'an Restaurant for 38 years, and now he is the deputy general manager of Xi'an Restaurant and a master of Chinese cooking. When he was working in the catering department of Xi'an Restaurant for Foreign Guests, he presided over the production of Shaanxi-style snack banquets, Chang'an Eight Scenic Feasts, Palace Longevity Banquet, Double Grill Banquet and other shaanxi-style and high-end banquets, as well as unique and self-contained sour and spicy belly soup, camel's hoof soup, white ear soup and other Shaanxi soup dishes, which won him the reputation of "taste talking" and "the first spoonful of Xi'an soup".

Folk have the saying that "the cavity of singing opera, the soup of cooking vegetables" and "it is better to eat no meat than to eat no soup". Li Yuan is good at making soups, which is a must. He pays attention to the "five flavors of harmony", "seven tastes and eight tastes", "long aftertaste" and "mellow flavor". His series of dishes, also because of their realistic images, often make foreign guests unable to bear to move chopsticks. "Take the dish 'Balin liu feixue' of the 'Eight Scenic Feasts of Chang'an', the walnut is 'Lishan', the fresh cuttlefish shredded is 'snow', and the cucumber is 'willow tree', which is both beautiful and delicious." He said: Since the 1990s, Xi'an Restaurant has launched at least 80 new dishes every year, in 1991, he won the "Golden Tripod Award" of the Ministry of Commerce for a "grilled prawn", and his "Baliu Fengxue" won the gold medal at the 13th China Chefs Festival held in 2003. He is an important member of the xi'an restaurant's famous dishes from top to bottom and passing on the torch.

In 1986, when Li Yuan became a chef, he also hosted the famous female writer Qiong Yao and her husband from Taiwan in xi'an restaurant. Qiong Yao and his wife, who ate particularly happily after the meal, also took a group photo with Li Yuan and the restaurant staff. In 2005, the famous cross-talk actor Ma Ji came to Xi'an to dine at the Huaqing Palace of Xi'an Restaurant. After dinner, he took a photo with Li Yuan, who has become deputy general manager.

Of course, there are countless celebrities who come to Xi'an Restaurant to dine. Mr. Wang Zihui, mentioned above, wrote a description about Ms. Chen Xiangmei coming to Xi'an in the early 1990s, and before coming to Xi'an, she specifically proposed to eat local dishes in Shaanxi on the phone, and then the chef of Xi'an Restaurant made special snacks for her.

With the acceleration of another round of comprehensive renovation and construction of Xi'an East Avenue, in June 2016, the Xi'an Restaurant Main Store on East Avenue was demolished and moved to the Bell Tower Hotel. The place of origin at the beginning of the establishment of Xi'an Restaurant is in the location of today's Bell Tower Hotel, which can be said to be a transition back to the hometown.

In 2018, I went to a friend's party at Xi'an Restaurant at the Bell Tower Hotel. At that time, in addition to other large meals, the delicacies in the top ten famous dishes were delicious, and I was deeply impressed by the bubble oil cake from Mihara, and the bubble oil cake made by Xi'an Restaurant shocked me very much, and I felt as if I had eaten the taste of that year. After listening to the introduction of the restaurant people, Fang Zhi in 1990, the bubble oil cake made by Xi'an Restaurant won the "Golden Tripod Award" of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and was rated as "Chinese Famous Snack".

Bubble cream cake has a long history of being known for its creamy color, exquisite clarity, fluffy sweetness, and instant melting in the mouth. According to the "Three Original Food Extracts", Tang Taizong, who went hunting in Beiyuan one day, came to a small shop in "WangdianJi" to taste the oil cakes made with foamy skin, crisp and crisp, and sweet and soft fillings, so the reputation of the shop was greatly enhanced, and the oil cakes he operated were widely circulated. It is said that the dim sum in the Tang Dynasty's "burning tail feast" "see the wind disappears", which is in the same vein as the oil cake.

To tell the truth, I was very worried about the reconstruction of the original site of Xi'an Restaurant East Avenue, and I always thought about when I would meet xi'an Restaurant again on East Avenue. However, when I checked and browsed on the Internet, I found that someone had typed an advertisement for the four words of the movie "After The End", and the meaning of the subtext was so clear that I was not calm. It wasn't until I wrote this reminiscence of xi'an restaurant on East Avenue that I felt that this idea was a little too pessimistic. I firmly believe! As long as the priceless golden sign of Xi'an Restaurant is there, it will definitely cooperate with the old Xi'an people who remember this old shop in their hearts to release a realistic version of the film "There Will Be a Period After" that reproduces the glory and grand narrative.