first class dinner ]
Family Dinner
Christmas is a special time, and I am not a person who celebrates it on purpose, but at this time of year, I will be at one end of the time, ready to meet my next self.
It's a new year, and we have to make progress.
Before the start of the year, I asked myself this question: how can so many high-end restaurants be considered high-end?Maybe the answer can be found in luxury.
A few days ago, I looked at the fine jewelry design appreciation of the last century, and sighed that the original tireless design, the details of the brilliance, can really be called a work of art, and now the young lady's neck, fingers and wrists, are "castrated" round after round of "simplification", are at a glance recognizable circles, flowers, letters, and even logos. It seems that "people have what I don't" is shameful, and even "different" is cheap.
The simplicity of one person is "advanced", what if the simplicity of a group of people?
From a broad perspective, the species, ingredients, and cooking that humans can eat now are actually "replaced" by people again and again in order to make it easier and easier to live. It's like a farmer bulldozing a tall pile of grain a little bit at a time, and then eventually everything is toppled and the pile is level with the loose sand on the ground. Birds, beasts, insects, and fish all have food, but they all eat the same. We can say that this is a common choice of society and is reasonable. Is the same true for eating?I really want to see what this advanced looked like before.
People say that the highest etiquette of hospitality is "family dinner", which is not what I mean in this article. The highest in my heart, I can think about it, but it is difficult to do.
After this meal in Macau, I have been haunted by dreams, wanting to know the things behind the first Chinese country banquet in history, "Taishi Cuisine". When modern people talk about "high-level", they always prevaricate with "not getting tired of eating, and not getting tired of fine", and the correct translation of Confucius**'s sentence is: "The more refined the grain, the better, and the finer the meat, the better." Describe the food as being refined and delicately cooked. "This is an analogy, and now it seems that it is basically nonsense. If, you tell me, that Bao Shen is superior, it is another kind of nonsense that "attempts to cover up strategic laziness with tactical efforts".
What can be easily bought with money is never too high-end.
I have believed in one thing since I was a child, the real exquisiteness, for Chinese, the delicate work is all in front of the table. Dealing with people must be moisturizing things silently. In fact, families with a rich life and a good upbringing will never be eager to put "sacrifices" and "money" on the table, and the "lavish" pomp and circumstance of WYSIWYG is usually more important than eating. Chinese cuisine, back to the essence, what really eats more than you see is actually a family feast.
One afternoon when I was baptized by Tai Shi Cai, the University of Hong Kong was just around the corner. In order to let me understand the strength of the winter mushroom, the senior sister stroked my hand with a teaspoon of 83 Lao Shengpu, like a spring breeze.
The senior sister said while making tea: "The family banquet is not a private dish, so you don't need money to buy it." I would like to add, "Money can't buy it." "This, in the martial arts mastery, is that there is no trick to win.
Senior Sister, formerly known as Yao Mai Limin, once studied traditional Cantonese cuisine with the famous Cantonese cuisine expert Jiang Xianzhu, and was known as "Senior Sister". I saw the old version of "Taishi Di Family Dishes" at her home in Hong Kong, which is a recipe book that briefly describes the legendary family banquet of the ** period, compiled by Jiang Xianzhu, the granddaughter of the famous Guangzhou gourmand Jiang Kongyin Taishi.
There is a sentence on the cover of the book, "Commoner ingredients, aristocratic delicacies", which I think is very powerful, for example: stir-fried vegetables can be amazing.
There are two major gastronomic families in Guangdong: one is Tan family cuisine and the other is Taishi cuisine, both of which were born in Nanhai, Guangdong. Although Tanjia cuisine was created in Guangdong, it then went north and has become a top official cuisine by integrating various cuisines, while Taishi cuisine adheres to Guangdong and carries forward the characteristics of Cantonese cuisine, and is promoted as "the first Cantonese cuisine in China". Taishi cuisine was shaped under the pickiness and personal participation of Jiang Taishi Gong. The old version of "Taishi Di Family Cuisine" is a recipe book that briefly describes the legendary family banquet in the ** period, and the author is Jiang Xianzhu, Ms. Jiang has made an indelible contribution to the development of Taishi cuisine culture and the spread of the world. As for the actual operation of "Taishi Cai", the senior sister is the master.
Good taste is good work. The senior sister, who is not a chef, said. "I don't know who Jiang Taishi is, 50 years ago, when I was 20 years old, I liked to eat Taishi snake soup in winter, this kind of soup made with 5 different kinds of snakes. ”
When the senior sister was 30 years old, she learned from a friend that Jiang Taishi's granddaughter Jiang Xianzhu came to Hong Kong, and at that time, she was engaged in the electronics industry and did not know much about Ms. Jiang, but was more interested in her husband who worked at IBM. "At that time, Professor Chen was teaching computer science at the Chinese University of Chinese, so we made a special trip to his house to learn how to cook Taishi cuisine. But the real purpose is the ** computer, and I don't know Jiang Taishi's life experience, and I don't know that Taishi snake soup is so powerful. ”
In fact, Mr. Jiang Xianzhu was not so proficient in "Taishi cuisine" at the beginning. She quipped in the book: "The closest period between Taishi Tofu Special Proofreader and me was in early 1973, after my mother died. At that time, I was volunteering, teaching Chinese cooking classes and attending banquets, and all the proceeds went to the American Cancer Society. At that time, there were people ordering food every week, and there were classes to teach cooking on weekdays, so my life was very busy. Foreign diners only know how to eat some choppy Chinese food, and they are reluctant to pay for it, and although I work hard day and night, the donation goal has not been reached. The master proofreader knew that this was not the solution, so he asked me to change to high-end Taishi dishes in order to attract Cantonese customers. This led to the idea of reviving "Taishi cuisine", but at that time, Miss Jiang, who was "fledgling", did not even have a concept of "Taishi tofu", and made it according to the recipe of Chen Rong's "Thirty Years in the Kitchen", which was a mixture of soft tofu with minced fish, minced shrimp and egg white, mixed well, steamed and matured into a plate of cakes, sliced and floured and fried to crisp. This is patently wrong.
There is also controversy about Taishi tofu. "The teacher said that one of the versions is our Cantonese people's 'old and young peace', tofu with some fish, potato flour, and then steamed, but always feel that it will not be so rough, and then the teacher went to the UK decades ago, found her grandfather's family used to help cook, and also recalled the complicated matters of buying tofu;There is also Taishi vegetable mushroom, because there are no teeth, so I especially like this vegetable soup, remove the leaves and hard parts in the middle of the spinach, and then use the bones to cook the soup;Like the chicken thighs in oil, I can't make them now, because some of the ingredients are completely impossible to find.
As for the "recovery" of Taishi Cai, the process is actually very circuitous. After the Anti-Japanese War, the "Tai Shi Di" family fell into the middle of the road, and Tai Shi himself also went to Hong Kong, slowly dismissing the family, and since the 30s of the last century, the successive generations of "Tai Shi Di" chefs of various "social restaurants" are also mixed. Taishi cuisine was once jokingly called "oral cultural heritage".
In 1979, the senior sister studied with Jiang Xianzhu, and in 1982, a friend of hers wanted to invite the teacher to dinner, and the senior sister remembered that someone had taken her to an impressive private restaurant, called "Ju Ke". A few decades ago, in Hong Kong, many wealthy people set up membership-based establishments, hired special staff to display their collection of calligraphy and painting antiques, and had cooks serve meals.
At that time, Jiang Taishi was already a figure a hundred years ago, as the Chinese president of British and American tobacco, he liked to invite people to eat at home and did not charge money. The story has become a gastronomic story. Every time there is a banquet, the Eight Immortals table is enabled, Taishi himself adds seven guests, and the ladies of the family are not on the table. The dishes are so famous that they have attracted the curiosity of many restaurants and restaurants, and they all want to imitate this mysterious Taishi family banquet.
At that time, there were about 11 members, and one of them was still alive, Mr. Lee Shau Kee of Henderson Land. With the help of members and friends, "Juke" allows them to taste private dishes during non-member hours. "At the time, I thought the snake soup here was very good, and the other dishes were also excellent. At the end of the day, after all the dishes are eaten, there will be a stir-fried choy sum and a little salted fish, accompanied by a bowl of porridge to eat, which is a high-end formula. So I thought, it's better to bring the teacher here to eat, who expected that as soon as the dish came out, the teacher concluded that this chef was from his family's previous home cook. ”
Many senior gourmets in Hong Kong know the smash hit Peach Blossom Paradise Kitchen, which was founded in Hong Kong in 2000 by Mr. Li Youtian, and the chief chef inherited the apprentice of Li Cai, the chef of Jiang Taishi in Guangzhou. Who is Li Cai?
The senior sister said: "Jiang Taishi is a native of the South China Sea, his home in Guangzhou is very large, the kind that leads to the road on all sides, there are several family chefs alone, some cook Western food, some cook Cantonese food, the dishes they cook run through different eras, and the last home chef is called Li Cai." At that time, the general environment was difficult, Jiang Taishi came to Hong Kong for refuge, and he could no longer afford to hire a home cook, so Li Cai went to Juke, and then he was invited to work as a home chef for the Japanese Governor of Hong Kong. It is not difficult to understand that the teacher of the senior sister can distinguish the taste of the former home at a glance. It is rumored that Li Cai, the last generation of Taishidi, worked in Pok Oi Tang of Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong after the war, and his apprentices were Li Yulin and Li Cheng.
Because the teacher was very young at the time, she was not allowed to enter the kitchen, so she actually didn't know how to make Taishi snake soup, and later Li Youtian demonstrated it to the teacher, and she wrote down the practice. Jiang Taishi is my teacher's grandfather, and he is very demanding about eating, but in his later years, his teeth fell out, and he was even more demanding on soft dishes such as snake soup. Senior Sister said. In Guangzhou more than 90 years ago, Jiang Taishi's family would hold a snake banquet, and the threshold was broken, and Taishi's five snake soup was the protagonist. Guangzhou, where snake eating is now a trend, started at that time. There are thousands of threads in a bowl of soup, and the entrance can turn a thousand times.
The smoke and rain outside the window are like wine, the autumn is beautiful, and it is like being drunk without drinking.
The corridor leading to the kitchen is a ** wall that records different memories, and she treasures the moments on it, including visiting various restaurants in Shenzhen and Taiwan;I also saw Danny (Ye Yinan), the owner of the Taipan Building, who traveled to Malaysia together in 2016 and learned to make local cakesand his grandson in London with Jamie Oliver's cooking lessons. But the senior sister, who has been cooking for 15 years, said that the most important thing here are the two faucets with great momentum.
But the seasoning in her house is really simple, which is surprising to me.
I saw a bowl of crystal clear shark fin on the board, and the senior sister said that it was used to make "crane magic needle", that is, pigeon swallowing wings.
The elder sister has two Filipino maids to follow, the longest is 5 years, the short one has also worked for 2 years, one of them has worked in the Middle East for 9 years, "it is easier to train in this way, because it is like a blank sheet of paper," the other has worked in Hong Kong for 10 years, but the boss changes every two years, so there is no fixed way to cook. Everyone has a different way of interpreting it, for example, if you want him to help make shiitake mushrooms today, tell him how to prepare all the ingredients, such as how to steam shiitake mushrooms, how pork ribs should be done, and so on. ”
You see, I wrote all the details, and there was no problem for him to follow along. The recipes I write are 99% in English, just to be precise and easier for them to understand. "Because the senior sister has been engaged in IT-related work before, she is used to burning and archiving the recipes, even if it is the first time for the Filipino maid, she can have a clearer understanding of the steps and know the details inside.
On that day, I was also very fortunate to see a common-looking but extremely precious ingredient - "pork thorn tendon". The elder sister said: "There is a little bit of meat to wrap the tendons, so its flavor does not come out, add this rib to add a little flavor." But this gluten tastes so good, just cook the two together. ”
For the precious ingredients that are super difficult to obtain, the senior sister has a unique procurement secret. "This is what I found more than 10 years ago in a Cantonese restaurant in Guangdong, they said that there is a small piece of meat in the tendon on the front hooves of the pig, and the part of this tendon is a little sticky, I like it very much, but a pig only has 2 front legs, so it is not easy to obtain, and I want fresh Hong Kong pork, a shop, it is not easy to sell two pigs a day, even if it is 3, there are only 6 front hooves, and there are hot pot restaurants that use it to make hot pot, so it is very difficult to buy. I negotiated with the boss who specializes in selling Hong Kong pigs, and helped me keep the pigs from his three shops for a week, about 20, which is very rare. There is also a possibility that the hot pot restaurant will ** Thailand's refrigerated pork trotter tendons, and I will also ask for it. ”
I also saw a small abalone in the back kitchen, and the senior sister invited me to try it. A sea cucumber and an abalone are the daily afternoon tea of the senior sister, which sounds very luxurious. She emphasized: She chose Kansai ginseng because it is cheaper than Kanto.
The caramelized flavor of the abalone almost made me forget about the whole feast at noon. The texture of sea cucumber hair, crispy and glutinous, surrounded by rich abalone fragrance, made me immerse myself for a long time. It's really far above the level of ordinary abalone banquets.
Because I got sick three years ago, my white blood cells are very low, my immune function is not good, and I need chemotherapy. At that time, two chef friends, one was the manager of Sun Rong Kee in Hong Kong, and the head chef of Fulin Hotel, Chef Wang, told me that it was better to eat ginseng during chemotherapy. By the 6th time, my immune system had recovered enough that I didn't need injections, and I got into the habit of eating sea cucumbers. ”
The abalone that is usually made is 35 heads from South Africa, and it is made with the same ingredients in both Japan and South Africa. Hong Kong's fresh old chicken, black pork ribs, 600 grams of dried abalone, I will use an old chicken, it should be 2 3 kg of raw chicken, the ribs are 12 kg, which adds up to more than 4 kg, will also be added to the soup. ”
Cooking is a lot of fun, and it takes a lot of care to make it. You see a sea cucumber is so small, it is so big, we ate the Kansai section that day, although the Kanto region is one level higher, but there is more gas, the taste should be a little harder, the Kansai here is a little softer, and you eat it at home, as long as the local sea is good, you can accept it.
After I finished eating, I couldn't help but praise again: so it's not a small snack that can be made in general.
Sea cucumbers have no taste, but when they touch a salty taste, they will precipitate water from their bodies. When the sea cucumber is dried, it is very large, steamed with water and put in the refrigerator, it will grow larger in 7 or 8 days, and when it is cooked with ham and broth, it will take away the water inside, and the sea cucumber will become smaller again. "Most merchants just want to sell large sea cucumbers, and they will add something else to support the body shape, which I don't agree with. ”
Taishi cuisine may also have contributed to the private cuisine in Hong Kong more than 20 years ago, whether it is aristocratic or not, they all claim to be private, but due to the limitations of their skills, there are many people who have gone out of business. Before that, I thought that all restaurants in Hong Kong knew shark fin and abalone, and they had seen a lot of high-end ingredients, so they must know how to make the best food, but then I found out that this was not the case. ”
In 2007, the senior sister went to eat the expensive Broken Tooth Cheng with her teacher, because she learned that Broken Tooth Cheng's uncle was Li Cai's nephew. Before they went, they were convinced: there must be something very good, and the cooking must be **. I can see that the senior sister said that "the truth is mediocre", not sarcasm, but regret.
At that time, he was still cooking abalone and shark fin with charcoal instead of gas. I ate it twice in total, once for his own son and once for his son, and then I said, I don't need to go again, the shark fin in the clear soup is actually green. Because I hair shark fin myself, I have never had this problem. This should be sent by an outsider, using some chemical things. I like to criticize, but I think, ** is so expensive, you shouldn't use bad ingredients. ”
Now whether it is Hong Kong or abroad, or the mainland, although there are many chefs, but there are few opportunities to learn things, such as abalone, although it is not cheap to buy abalone and dried abalone products in the past, but it is not as outrageous as it is now, many people have only seen what abalone is, but most people have not eaten the taste of really good abalone.
You see that we just ate such a strong thing, and it will not be dry and bitter, because it is all good ingredients and does not add any chemicals, but many people just don't understand this truth, thinking that it is the taste of abalone itself. Abalone in Japan is much better than in South Africa, where many abalone are farmed, and if you don't eat it wild, the taste will be even weaker because there are not enough flavor compounds in it. If you take the taste of MSG and chicken essence as a reference, you will not understand the true meaning of good ingredients. ”
There is a point of view that touched me very much. She said that the 35 head of Yoshipinabu used in South Africa is not big, and the taste itself is relatively light, so it is more important to cook it with care, and treat it as if it is a high-quality Japanese ingredient, and if you want to have the final good taste, you must also pay attention to the ingredients.
A few years ago, the elder sister invited a friend to a banquet at home, and the friend wanted to see how to prepare the food, and she said yes, but it would take three days. For example, shark fin should be used for two days. Fill a pot with boiling water, add dried shark fins, cover and let stand for a dayChange the water the next day, add green onion and ginger to remove the smell, and continue to stand;On the third day, the needle of the shark's fin can be taken out, which is called "Crane Divine Needle". I was amazed, and the senior sister said that three days is not a long time.
If you want to talk about texture and seasoning, it's more complicated!The shark fin is the first day, and on the second day, it is boiled with water, soup, shiitake mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and ham, and one soup in the morning and one in the evening, waiting for the flavor to turn in, but two days is not enough. On the third day, when feasting, it is necessary to put it in the pigeon for another two and a half hours, so that the taste of the pigeon meat can be soaked in the shark fin to obtain a different taste.
Another example is oyster bean song, which contains 16 kinds of ingredients such as dried oysters, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, carrots, pork, sausages, chili peppers, etc., and the dried oysters should be steamed in wine for two hours before cutting, because the sticky knife is not easy to operate, and each ingredient is cut into the same size, and it also takes two days to prepare.
But every time Jiang Taishi has a banquet, eighty percent of them will appear chicken scum, which is mostly a request from the guests. The cold dishes of Cantonese cuisine are generally two meats, one of which is chicken dregs. Because Taishi was in the tobacco business with Britain and the United States, and had close exchanges with foreign countries, in 1930, his Western chef knew how to use all kinds of sauces.
Everyone loves the dregs, with soup, eggs, corn flour, 70 boiled, can not be lumpy, must be completed within 13 minutes, because if you cook for too long, the soup will volatilize, the taste will be weakened, and the taste will become hard. There is also sea urchin slag, the sea urchin is bought back to grind, the blood filament is removed, after processing, because it is still hot and soft, it cannot be fried immediately, it should be put in the refrigerator for 6 hours and then sliced, and a thin layer of corn flour is sprinkled outside, like Japanese tempura. "After that, fry it at 205 for 1 minute, which is really demanding. Each dish looks simple, but it's a lot of effort to make. "
I have never eaten bird's nest crab winter mushroom soup in other restaurants, and I saw it this time. Bird's nest and winter melon have little to no taste, and the crab uses the best saltwater safflower crab. To achieve a winter mushroom with a cotton-like taste, winter melon should be bought old, and it should not be steamed whole, but cut according to the specified length and width, so that it can be controlled within 16 minutes, and the ripeness of each part is consistent, and it can be scraped off with a spoon. If a part is very hard, discard it to ensure a uniform taste overall.
When shaving, a lot of winter melon water will be precipitated, and the senior sister will set aside a cup to mix water chestnut powder. Because the soup is relatively thick, and the moisture is too high, it is necessary to yawn with strong enough horseshoe powder, and then cut the Yunnan ham into thin slices and cook it together, and finally add it to the soup made of chicken, pork, and ham, and cook it for a while, and the salty taste will become, but there is no salt to put it.
The crab meat was dismantled a day earlier, the bird's nest was also sent in advance, and the ham soup was cooked first in the afternoon of the treat, and then the soup was served. When the rice is opened, first boil the soup, put the winter melon puree, the taste will become lighter, then put the bird's nest, continue to fade, then the crab meat and water chestnut powder, turn off the heat, and then put the egg white, at this time is the ultimate to determine the taste, if the saltiness is not enough, put a little more ham. What seems like a simple soup from beginning to end is actually a matter of accumulated experience in terms of time and skill in judging the ingredients.
It's easy to want winter melon to have a taste, just sprinkle salt, but if you put salty things in the morning, it will turn sour, this is the trick. But businessmen don't do this at a loss, no wonder I haven't eaten elsewhere, it's so laborious, no one wants to work so hard. This dish has not been made by the senior sister for several years.
In fact, the first time I ate money chicken in Hong Kong Taipan Building, I was moved, but I didn't expect to learn it from the senior sister, this is the source. "Now they don't do it because it's too hard to do. The senior sister said, "You see that the money chicken I have cooked has to be rubbed with maltose to look good, and how far the roasted food can go in the end depends on personal interest." ”
If the target is 12, she will buy 14 crabs of the same size. The day before, the crab meat was dismantled, one person dismantled, and the other checked to see if there were any soft bones in it. In the final ratio, 40% is crab meat, and 30% is onion and shredded shallots, which should be cut like crab meat. The cream sauce mixed with onions and crabs, the big sister also uses peanut oil to replace the cream that is too strong and will cover the crab meat, and finally spreads breadcrumbs and deep-fried, which is also a kung fu dish.
Have you noticed that there are not many Jiang Taishi recipes that can be bought among the people. ”
Hmmm!My mind was spinning, but the core was clear: "This kind of family banquet is actually simplifying the complex and leaving the delicious food." When the abalone ginseng winged belly was not so expensive now, it was just that it was expensive in labor and thought. After deciding on a refined way to eat, I keep doing it. This is the same as my mother's dish, the same as the old three. ”
The elder sister said: "The family banquet does not consider how much it costs, but only wants to present the best ingredients. "This is the highest level of simplicity, and you will never get tired of eating it for a long time.
The goddess asked
Do you have a family feast that is deeply imprinted?
"The past is the present that has faded
The future is the present that has yet to come. ”
—Heidegger
food bless you！
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God-like Table" owner.
Producer of "Wild China" and "The World is Worth 369".