Gui Xinzhai (South Hengxi Street Store)
Cold and summer, autumn harvest and winter hiding.
It's almost winter, and it's time to "hide" things at home.
In the past, every household in Beijing would hoard hundreds of pounds of Cabbage and store hundreds of pieces of honeycomb coal every winter.
However, not all fresh vegetables can be stored for a long time like Chinese cabbage, so when storing winter vegetables with salt, sauce, etc., the ancients found pickles, pickles...
The pickles of old Beijing have a royal spirit. This is because the capital city is full of rivers, set the flavors of the north and south, learn from each other, and compete with each other. There are no less than 100 sauce gardens in old Beijing, large and small, and are divided into different genres according to taste:
One is the old sauce garden, mostly opened for Shanxi people, represented by Liubiju; The other type is the South Sauce Garden, represented by Gui Xinzhai and Wang Zhihe; Then there is the Jing Sauce Garden, represented by the Tianyuan Sauce Garden and Tianyi Shun.
Today, let's not talk about those famous Liubiju, Tianyuan Sauce Garden, And Tianyi Shun, but just talk about the representative of this South Sauce Garden- Gui Xinzhai .
In the first year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1736), on the east side of the vegetable market outside Xuanwu Gate, no. 30 North Tiemen Hutong, the former Luomashi Street Road, opened a pickle garden - Gui Xinzhai .
A few years ago, when Gui Xinzhai Pickle Factory opened a store in Liujiayao in nancheng, there was an elderly old man who lived in beicheng who heard the news, poured several trains without hesitation, came to Guixinzhai to buy sauce cucumbers, and immediately tasted it after buying it, and even praised: "This cucumber is authentic, the melon is fragrant with fresh sauce, and it really has the taste of Gui Xinzhai in that year." ”
What was the taste of Gui Xinzhai like back then?
According to records, it is mellow and slightly sweet, or sweet and salty.
Most of the northern diet is rough and salty, why do pickles have a sweet taste?
That's because the original owner of Gui Xinzhai was a couple from the south, and the taste of pickles naturally carried the characteristics of southern pickles.
After the couple came to Beijing, they initially set up a stall at the mouth of the vegetable market to sell their own pickled side dishes. Because of the exquisite selection of materials, fine production, unique taste, widely praised.
Soon, in order to expand their business, the couple rented two houses in the south exit of Tiemen Hutong on the east side of Caishikou, recruited apprentices, passed on their studies, and opened this Guixin Zhai.
There is also a reason why the pickle garden is opened in the Tiemen Hutong.
Today, only half of tiemen hutong is left, which was filmed at the south entrance, and you can see the Wal-Mart at the mouth of the hutong at a glance. Taken in March 2019.
Tiemen Hutong, it is rumored that this area was originally a place for raising tigers and training bears to feed eagles, so there are place names such as Hufang Bridge and Feeding Eagle (Weiying) Hutong nearby.
The Qing Dynasty's "Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Decorations of Jicheng" says that the Hufang Bridge "has an iron gate in its west, and the former tiger enclosure is also there". The iron gate is the iron fence gate on the edge of the tiger circle, from which the alley gets its name.
Interestingly, later next to it, there were one to nine cotton alleys famous for and named after the "cotton land", one cold and one hot, one just and one soft, next to each other, yin and yang, which is rare.
Iron Gate and Cotton Fields on the Map of Beijing in 1948
There are "three more" in the Tiemen Hutong: many wells, many pickle gardens, and many historical celebrities. There are many wells, which is precisely the premise of many pickle gardens.
It is recorded in the Yandu Cong Kao: "There are about seventy-two wells in the hutong, although in the room, there are often well eyes." Its place is more sauce-making bureau, requires more water, and covers this reason. ”
It is precisely because of the unique taste of Gui Xinzhai's pickles, on the basis of salty flavor and sweet flavor, coupled with the relatively cheap price, attracting customers from near and far in Beijing, the small shop business in the hutong has gradually boomed.
The old owner had done it all his life, homesick, and wanted to go back to the south, and handed over all the assets of Gui Xinzhai to the big apprentice, Shen Mou from Gucheng County, Hebei Province. In this way, a small and famous South Sauce Garden was run by an authentic northerner.
After the new owner took over, he raised funds from relatives and friends, purchased production equipment, recruited apprentices, expanded the scale of production and business scope, and built a handicraft workshop near the Cikang Temple (also known as Cihang Temple) in Tiemen Hutong, and opened a wholesale business, striving to make the industry bigger and stronger.
Cihang Temple on the east side of Tiemen Hutong on the map of Beijing in 1938 and 1948
The new owner is also very experienced in operation, and has formulated many rules and regulations internally, which has greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of employees.
For example, it is stipulated that the annual profit is not distributed in the current year, and every three years is an account period, and one-third of the dividends received go to the workers, two-thirds to the shareholders, and half of the internal and external shareholders. For another example, the regulations do not add less owners, do not add less treasurers, do not live idle people, and do not guarantee externally.
As a treasurer, Shen insists on running a shop with diligence and thrift, leads by example, works in the front, and improperly throws his hands to the treasurer.
After Shen retired, he still served as a shareholder, and also signed a contract with the counter, stipulating that the method of dividends is still a three-year account period, and all rules and regulations remain unchanged. This has also laid a good foundation for the development of Gui Xinzhai.
As the pickle garden became better and better, it was not only famous far and wide, but even received the attention of the Qing court, and was given a "waist card", a white red spike hat, and a black horse coat by Empress Dowager Cixi, with which he could enter the imperial palace to deliver vegetables.
For a time, Gui Xinzhai became famous in the capital, and dignitaries and dignitaries also followed suit, and when they were invited, they inevitably put a plate of Gui Xinzhai pickles, one was fashionable, and the other was the glory shared with the royal family.
According to legend, until the liberation, the six pins were still enshrined in front of guixinzhai hall and became the best advertising signboard. Isn't this the same as the famous inscriptions and leaders' photos hanging on the walls of shops today?
The Qing Dynasty six pins wore flower plumes on top
In the thirtieth year of qing guangxu (1904), the scale of Gui Xinzhai was further expanded, and three semicolons were opened successively, namely Nangui Xinzhai , Gui Xinzhan and Gui Xin Dongji , and at No. 14 Dachuandian in the former Xuanwu District ( now No. 50 Nanheng Street ) , there was also a pickle factory of considerable scale , with more than 100 employees.
At that time, most of the oil and salt grocery stores in Beijing purchased pickles, pickles and other products from Guixinzhai and sold them to thousands of households. Because the old store of Guixinzhai is located in Tiemen Hutong, "Tiemen Sauce Garden" has become a synonym for "Guixinzhai".
By 1937, Gui Xinzhai had become the premier sauce garden in Beijing at that time, with more than 190 employees, a business area of 6848 square meters, an annual output of pickles used as much as 1 million jin of mustard greens, more than 1.5 million jin of cabbage, and the amount of other melons and vegetables was also considerable.
In the "Famous Foods" section of the "Beiping Travel Guide" compiled in 1938, Gui Xinzhai is the only old sauce garden included in the pickle food, along with Quanjude roast duck, Guixiangcun pastry, Wang Zhi and stinky tofu.
In the 1939 edition of "Records of old stories under the Sun", it was also mentioned: "Beiping pickles, which are quite famous, are shipped to Jingdong, the three eastern provinces, Shanghai and other places every year, and are also exported to Japan, which is a bulk of the production in Beijing, and the sweet pickles are now the best in Guixin, Tianyuan, Dongyang, Tianyishun and other four."
There are many guixinzhai fine pickles, including four major products of bergamot, spiced tempeh, assorted vegetables, sweet noodle sauce, as well as winter vegetables, plum dried vegetables, etc., of which bergamot knots are the most famous.
In the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang (1845), Yang Jingting's "Dumen Jiluo" has a record of Gui Xinzhai and his famous dishes bergamot knots and winter vegetables.
The production of bergamot knots is very exquisite, with special attention to the selection of raw materials.
In the past, the two eyebrow mustard heads used were produced in the small red gate of the southern suburbs. This mustard head is a spherical fleshy root with a smooth outer skin and two horizontal stripes that resemble eyebrows; the meat is thick, tender and crisp, and it is a necessary raw material for Guixinzhai to marinate pickles.
Two-way mustard greens
In addition, in the process of pickling pickles, Gui Xinzhai also has a unique set of processing techniques. After a selection of two eyebrow mustard heads, washed, dried, pickled to make semi-finished products, after 9 times of repeated cooking and drying, and finally fermented into a dish.
In this process, each process has a strict process, to accurately grasp the heat and the ratio of accessories, to ensure the quality and appearance of pickles.
The bergamot knots produced by Gui Xinzhai are also called "nine steamed bergamots" because their mustard head and tail resemble bergamot fruits. The appearance is purple, shiny, soft to the touch, chewing in the mouth crunchy, mellow taste, salty and sweet and delicious.
If you shred it and stir-fry it with shredded meat, the fried dish is crisp and delicious, and it is a dish that many old Beijing loves to eat.
In addition, Gui Xinzhai's plum vegetables are also famous in Beijing. The famous long-established Zhengmingzhai "dried vegetable mooncake" is made of dried plum vegetables from Guixinzhai as raw materials.
Gui Xinzhai's sweet noodle sauce is golden in color and rich in flavor, accompanied by a faint curved aroma. In the past, most of the sweet noodle sauce used in old Beijing to make shredded meat and fried sauce noodles was produced by Gui Xinzhai, especially in Nancheng.
However, with the outbreak of war, Beiping fell, the people did not have a good life, not only the raw materials were insufficient, the business was also much less, Guixin Zhai River was declining, losing money for many years, on the verge of bankruptcy, and there were only 14 people left in the store.
After the founding of New China, Gui Xinzhai gained a new life. In 1956, Gui Xinzhai merged with dozens of sauce gardens such as Lan Xin Zhai and Rui Xin Zhai through public-private partnerships to establish the "Xuanwu Pickle Factory" with Gui Xin Zhai as the mainstay. Later, it has changed its name several times, such as Beijing Xuanwu Pickle Factory, Beijing Pickle Food Factory No. 3, Beijing Guixinzhai Pickle General Factory, Beijing Liubiju Food No. 3 Factory, etc.
In the 1980s, with the spring breeze of reform, Gui Xinzhai ushered in the second heyday. The number of employees has grown to nearly 300 people, covering an area of 28,000 square meters, the enterprise not only produces bergamot knots, spiced tempeh, assorted vegetables, sweet noodle sauce these four major products, but also pays attention to absorbing the strengths of each pickle, constantly innovating, researching and developing new pickle varieties, such as: cinnamon silk, box brocade, sweet and spicy cucumber, osmanthus spicy mustard, spicy crisp and so on. The Beijing spicy vegetables, spicy sauce mustard and sesame hot sauce produced by Gui Xinzhai are known as "three spicy".
Familiar pickles Familiar pickle jar Image source public reviews
In 2006, Gui Xinzhai was recognized by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China as a time-honored brand in China.
In order to adapt to the changing tastes and habits of consumers nowadays, since entering the new century, Gui Xinzhai is on the basis of maintaining traditional products, one is to develop in the direction of high-grade pickles, and the other is to develop in the direction of low salt, low sugar and multi-flavor, to adapt to the taste needs of different consumers and meet the needs of people for health and wellness.
With continuous research and development, the variety of Gui Xinzhai products continues to increase, and the sales scope has also expanded unprecedentedly. In addition to the Nanhengxi Street and Yongwai Liujiayao Nanli stores, there are also sales outlets in hundreds of supermarkets; in major cities in North China, Northeast China, Northwest China and other regions, there are more than 100 large shopping malls selling Gui Xinzhai pickles.
Gui Xinzhai store façade and interior view Source public comments
For more than two hundred years, Gui Xinzhai was handed over from the hands of the southern couple to the Hands of the Shen Family Hanzi in the ancient city of Hebei, and it was also brilliant and wandering, and today, Gui Xinzhai's pickles are still fragrant in Kyoto. So-called:
Guiyu Yanshan is divided into hebei and north, and Xinying yishui wins the south of the river. Sauce Yu Zhou Guan Bai Shi Urn, Garden Left Zhuangzi 8,000 years.
The pictures in this article are partly from the Internet, and they are invaded and deleted.
Beijing Xicheng Time-honored Genealogy Series Food Processing Volume Gui Xinzhai, pp. 21-28
Zhang Baokun, a pickle garden with a unique flavor, Gui Xinzhai
Old Beijing Hutong Story: Tiemen Hutong The sound of books is not as loud as the noise of the city, Beijing Evening News
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