In the past, a large area west of Dongchenggen Street, east of Tonghuimen, north of West Avenue, and south of At least Chenggong Park (now People's Park) in Chengdu was the "Shaocheng" inhabited by manchus during the Qing Dynasty's rule of Sichuan. Shaocheng and its surrounding areas have always been the center of Chengdu's trade, culture and entertainment. The folk customs and customs of Bazi in western Sichuan are colorful, vivid and beautiful here.
Shaocheng, simple and elegant, beautiful and beautiful, humanistic gathering; poetry, calligraphy and painting stones, flowers, birds, insects and fish, antique pawnshops are all over the place; bookstore school, dotted with stars; the mansion of the government office, deep and elegant; bank money house, solemn and elegant; three teachings and nine streams, each occupying the wharf; Pitou department store, lingering; meat rack vegetable market, festival scale ratio; tea house and wine shop, shoulder to shoulder; restaurant snacks, everywhere... So generation after generation, the prosperity of the years has formed a wave of fragrant and delicious, full of love and "shaocheng food style".
Shaocheng is also a cultural area of the Manchu Qing "Three Dynasties". In the Qing Dynasty, high-ranking officials and nobles lived in the imperial city, and the rest of the officials and gentry built mansions and mansions in Shaocheng. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, at that time, every person added to the Eight Banners Province could receive an imperial grain in the national treasury - 24 yuan of ocean per month. So in the small streets and alleys of the small city, there are thousands of garden-style mansions shown in the wide and narrow alleys today, and the old masters, wives, princes, ladies and other delicious guests and gourmets who live in the house are really full of food all day, have no intentions, play with bird cages, fight crickets, red tape wine orders, eating tao, that is more to play and seek novelty, food is not tired.
Less city style
With the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the people who lived in the many "mansions" in Shaocheng during the Republic of China period have been transformed, except for a few of the Eight Banners, most of them are some local and from all over the country celebrities, giants and gentry, as well as warlord bureaucrats, family relatives and so on. Although it is a change of dynasty. However, the legacy of eating, drinking and having fun in the Eight Banners is not diminished by the change of dynasty, but these new upstarts, who are promoted to the throne and celebrate each other; male and female marriages, concubines who receive righteousness; Tim Ting Zhu Shou, Fang Cheng's chess game; and Pear Garden Hall Meetings, etc., are all singing and dancing, please eat and show, and enjoy themselves. All year round, Fulu Shouxi, spring, summer, autumn and winter, you feast on him please, feast famous food, snacks fine, flowing water mat like this to eat that family open. Not only that, but also ingenious, new and curious, created a lot of new dishes, new ways to eat, so that the formation of the famous "less city to eat pie", "less city food style" to come.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many institutions, schools, newspapers, hospitals, banks, commercial enterprises, performing arts groups and restaurants were moved from the occupied areas, including many gourmets and gourmets; especially literati and celebrities, who were well-informed and good at eating good food, they attracted many famous chefs from Beijing Sulu and Guangdong, north, south, west and east, bringing together, broadening the horizons of Chengdu gourmets, broadening the insights of local gourmets, enriching Chengdu catering, intensifying industry competition, and also allowing Chengdu people to eat and eat well. Not only do you have the insight, but you also have the opportunity to taste the dishes of the north and south at your doorstep. In particular, the eaters and fragrant mouths in the Shaocheng area have also continued to grow, and the more they eat, the more refined they are, and the more they eat in Shaocheng, the more they spread, affecting the entire Western Sichuan Bazi and even the catering industry in Chongqing. Chengdu when not to mention, a variety of restaurants in response to the sound, each has its own unique skills, really is a magic height of one foot, "Qiu Fozi" Bean Flower Restaurant is one of the inattentive, it has become one of the famous shops sought after by the old gourmets.
Small city meals
It is said that in the mid-1920s, a carpenter surnamed Qiu opened a casual restaurant selling bean blossoms and small vegetables in Ancestral Hall Street in Chengdu. By the 1930s, Qiu Carpenter had passed away, and his son Qiu Bo had inherited his father's business and added some home-cooked dishes. Dishes are also renovated at any time according to seasonal changes. For example, in the winter, it sells goulash beef, beef offal, braised beef, and hot nest beef; in the summer, it sells white meat with garlic paste, mung bean stewed elbows, and winter melon with pots. These home-cooked delicacies are very delicate, inexpensive and delicious, and naturally become the best choice for the citizens to eat and enjoy, and even attract many high-ranking officials and nobles, and the old diners of shaocheng food are invited to enjoy.
The boss Qiu Bo has a long beard, usually people call him "Qiu Beard", he believes in Buddhism, so he simply wrote the restaurant brand as "Qiu Fozi" Bean Flower Restaurant. The dishes adjusted by him, according to today's saying, are local flavor dishes, the dishes are both simple and mellow, but also refreshing and elegant, just like the village girl in Chuanxi Bazi, pure and simple, evocative and endless. Therefore, in addition to the old gourmets in Shaocheng, the cast and crew of the Sichuan Opera Class of the Tianfu Grand Theater next door and the audience watching the play; there are also those "school" tea guests in the "Summer Palace" tea house, white-collar workers from surrounding banks and shops, citizens who walk birds in Shaocheng Park, and citizens who have finished playing Taijiquan, etc., all of whom have a special love for the "Qiu Fozi" cheap and delicious and authentic bean flower meals, and flock to them.
Qiu Fozi bean flower
The food of "Qiu Fozi" has four major characteristics. The first feature is his signature dish "Red Oil Spicy Bean Blossom". Because Qiu Beard often went to the temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha and eat iftar, he was familiar with the four key elements of the Buddhist family's production of bean blossoms: selection, refining, brine, and seasoning. Therefore, the bean blossoms of Qiu Fozi are white and delicate, and the flavor is authentic. Moreover, the bean blossom is still a unique orchid high-legged trumpet-shaped bowl, which looks elegant at a glance, and it looks like the bean blossom form is plump, just like a push of snow. Especially the red oil dipping dish, the color is bright, the oil is bright, the spicy is fragrant, it is very appetizing, tempting people to be peristaltic, mouth and tongue.
The second feature is "rising head" white rice. The official may be about to make some noise, what is the characteristic of this dried rice, not all rice, the same cooking method, so entangled. Yes, the words are like this, but Qiu Fozi's Zhen Zi's cooking really has to be a different matter. Every time Qiu Beard returns to Chengdu from Shuangliu Majia Temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha, he must bring a few sacks of new rice from the famous Majia Temple in western Sichuan, and then boil it into drained rice, which is steamed and sold in the store. The key is that the method of steaming rice is very simple and primitive, the chef drains the quickly cooked sandwich rice, pours it into the bamboo basket of the large steamer, when steaming, inserts a verdant bamboo tube from the center of the rice to the bottom of the pot, so that the water vapor at the bottom of the pot comes out through the bamboo pipe, and the chef will judge the size of the fire and the amount of water in the pot by observing the hot gas coming out of the bamboo tube. This kind of steaming method is not only simple and very scientific, presumably every family, and even other restaurants will not cook rice like this.
Besides, the snow-white pine bubble rice is scooped into the bowl, and the "head of the child" can most catch people's eyes and tempt people to eat. The diner uses chopsticks to press on the head of the "Mao'er", the tip of the white rice is gone, and then scoop a few spoonfuls of fresh soup for a dip, the "Mao'er's head" will loosen down and lie in the bowl, just like magic, which is very interesting. That is to say, as soon as the rice is served, a bowl with a sharp tip, a flat bowl with chopsticks pressed, and then a soup is brewed, and it becomes half a bowl of rice. But this meal is extraordinary, really delicious and fun. Qiu Fozi's "head-on" meal has become a daily joke among the citizens.
The third feature is "(Huobapa) Pea Fat Intestine Blood Soup", which is Qiu Fozi's signature soup dish. The soup end is on the table, only to see the soup is wide and thick, the fat intestines are cut like a ring, the duck blood is cut into thin slices, the (fire) peas after frying incense are boiled to powder, the beans are fragrant, and then served in a white porcelain soup pot, the soup noodles are sprinkled with a layer of fine green onions, a few drops of sesame oil, and the oil beads quickly spread out on the soup surface, just like a picture of elegant landscape, tempting people to shiver in their cheeks, itch their tongues, and swallow saliva.
The fourth feature is the two-plate side dish, "Shredded Pepper Oil Kohlrabi" and "Pickled Green Shoots". Kohlrabi silk spicy dry, salty sweet and delicious, soaked green shoots salty spicy sour, crisp and refreshing, diners take a bite of pea fat intestine blood soup soaked rice, pick up a small dish entrance, and chew, really is wine meat through the intestines, small dishes left in the heart.
Qiu Fozi's popular scene lasted for nearly 30 years, and by the mid-50s, he finally died of old age and illness due to Qiu Dabei's old age and illness, and no one inherited it. It makes many old diners and citizens nostalgic. No wonder Zhou Juren, a famous scholar in Chengdu, once wrote "Bamboo Branch Words" to express his feelings: "Qiu Family Buddha Zi Old Hair Slave, Four Seasons Of Food Single Change?" Rice soft vegetables and pickles are crisp, and no one does not love the small kitchen. ”
Hat head rice
In 1956, Chengdu City Catering Company took over "Qiu Fozi" and its chef team, rebuilding and expanding on the original basis. Reopened the store on Shaocheng West Royal Street and changed its name to "Shaocheng Small Meal". In order to maintain Qiu Fozi's original flavor characteristics and business style, as well as the reputation enjoyed among the general public, he has mobilized a master chef who is good at making bean blossoms, white meat and small dishes, including a Sichuan cuisine chef who is known as "Duobao Daoren" - Zhang Huaijun.
This master Zhang Huaijun is really a seemingly silent, but he is a remarkable jianghu talent with extraordinary skills. In addition to being good at rural taste, home-cooked dishes, more proficient in red and white skills, and steaming and roasting stewing, brine roasting and frying, simmering and smoking and other eighteen cooking skills, all-round, is an all-round expert, after years of cultivation in the south and north, knowledgeable and talented, its cooking skills have been "all martial arts", reached the realm of pure fire, so it is known as "Duobao Daoist" by people in the industry.
As soon as the Shaocheng snack opened, it still took Qiu Fozi's three musts: bean blossoms, white meat, and various side dishes as the signature, and as soon as it was launched, it was indeed a diner' door, and the old diners flocked here to taste the flavor of "Qiu Fozi". With the prosperity of business, Shaocheng snacks have successively added a variety of stir-fried dishes, flavored snacks and wrapped mats. The three major pieces of bean blossoms, white meat and small dishes are pure in flavor and inexpensive to diners. Its "Shaocheng Tofu" series is tender and delicate, without any bean smell, and even the chef does not say anything, and he does not know what it is. The ingenuity of the cooking is breathtaking. The "Shaocheng Big Bag" served by the snack department every day attracts many citizens with its white skin, loose foam noodles, full filling, and delicious flavor, and the long queues in the early morning of the day rush to buy, which has become a major landscape of Shaocheng for a time.
As soon as the feast of the Shaocheng small meal opened, Zhang Huaijun, the "Duobao Daoist", showed his skills and made frequent moves. He launched the "money gourd duck", exquisite and chic, in the boneless duck belly filled with chicken breast meat to make a "gourd", steamed to the extremely soft, the whole duck became a duck gourd, duck waist is also tied with gold wire noodles, placed in a large disc, very atmospheric, elegant, exquisite and vivid, beautiful and vulgar, eaters taste soft and tender, delicious and delicious duck, chicken "gourd" will stand out, giving people a surprise, eating love food is interesting. Chef Zhang has also successively introduced his special skills: clear soup white crispy chicken, amaranth duck fang, Shaocheng tofu, minced liver slices, seven-star lotus soup, longan sweet roasted white, assorted luohan cuisine and other famous dishes.
Duobao Daoist Zhang Huaijun
Since then, Zhang Huaijun has been the chef of Small Meals in Shaocheng for many years, not only good at making big dishes such as whole lamb mats and char siu suckling pig, but also in his usual folk flavors and rich in small frying and small stir-frying techniques. His "fish-shredded meat" is oily and fragrant, making people tired of eating. Subsequently, under the auspices of Master Zhang, the "small meal" in Shaocheng gradually evolved into a "big meal", with more than 100 varieties of sea cucumbers, fish maws, abalone fish, pigs, cattle and sheep, chicken and duck fish, seasonal vegetables and beans, snacks and desserts; summer cold drinks, winter hot pots, meat and vegetables, high and low grades are complete. It is praised by diners as "Shaocheng Flavor". Especially Zhang Huaijun's cooking skills, but also the killing of young city gourmets. Liu Mengling, former director of the Sichuan Provincial Museum of Culture and History, specially inscribed a poem praising the Shaocheng small meal: "Bailao tongchun asks drunk towns, and the famous food in Shaocheng is the most appropriate." Nowadays, the cooking is more beautiful, and the three must-have plates are fragrant. The "three absolutes" mentioned in the poem are bean blossoms, white meat and side dishes.
And Master Zhang Huaijun is honored by the "Shaocheng Food School" as the grandmaster of the "Shaocheng School" of Chengdu cuisine, and the master of the Sichuan cuisine path. Zhang Huaijun later served as the manager and chef of "Shaocheng Snack". In 1958, he was named one of the first batch of Sichuan cuisine special first-class celebrity chefs. Later, he worked as the chef of "Chengdu Restaurant", "Yaohua Restaurant", "Furong Restaurant" and "Sichuan Hotel" in Beijing.
Money gourd duck
In 1962, when Deng Xiaoping stayed in Chengdu, he watched Sichuan opera, Pinchuan cuisine, and ate snacks. For the first time, I tasted a table managed by Master Zhang Huaijun in the commercial field of the original dragon copy shop, including boiling water cabbage, and Xiao Ping even praised it after eating: Good dish! Good dish! This dish is only available in heaven. The Chengdu snacks on the table are traditional snacks served by Master Songcheng, a first-class white case master of Chengdu Catering Company: horseshoe cake, horse red amaranth, jade hair cake, pearl yuanzi. There are four dishes and one soup and four snacks: diced meat, boiled pot meat, okara pig's head, slippery meat slices, chicken elbow heart (vermicelli soup); two vegetarian dishes boiled water cabbage and pheasant red.
After 1972, Master Zhang Huaijun, who can speak and do things and can write and martial arts, taught cooking skills in "Rong Paradise" and trained backbone chefs of Sichuan cuisine. Even the catering industry in Liaoning, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other provinces and cities has sent people to "Shaocheng Small Meals" to learn from "Duobao Daoists". Zhang Huaijun not only taught his disciples to operate on the ground, but also vividly and humorously "talked about dishes" and "talked about dishes", and one mouth was two or three hours. The "master dishes" and "innovative dishes" he demonstrated were all soaked with his painstaking efforts in his bumpy and difficult culinary career, and there was a little-known experience and story. From Master Zhang's speech, the disciples also gradually understood that Master Zhang's "many treasures" were obtained by his diligent study and diligent practice in his long-term practice.
After Deng Xiaoping's comeback, Zhang Huaijun was transferred to Beijing in 1980 to work as the head chef at the Sichuan Hotel. Every time Deng Xiaoping's family and other Sichuan national leaders entertain foreign guests or distinguished guests, they will go to the Sichuan Hotel, where Master Zhang Huaijun will personally cook, and the guests will eat happily. The real one is: Shaocheng Food Sect Zhang Huaijun, Duobao Daoist Show True Gong.
China's time-honored brand
Sichuan Cuisine Culture Scholar "Sichuan Province Zhi • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Deputy Editor-in-Chief Of the Editorial Board Of the Old Stubborn Family Cultural Consultant "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "Roadside Sichuan Cuisine History", "Spicy Hemp Temptation Three Hundred Years" Author Picture Original • Jianghu Gluttony East 2020.06.01 Chengdu