Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, **Why are you angry at scallion cakes?
On Chinese New Year's Eve in 1960, imperial chef Cheng Ruming prepared his favorite green onion cake for *** in Zhongnanhai. He made flatbread out of a large bowl of lard and carefully brought it to the table.
**After seeing the scallion pancake, I smiled happily, immediately picked up a piece, blew it and sent it to my mouth. However, as soon as he took a bite, **'s face changed greatly, and he asked Cheng Ruming: "Do you dare to lie to me?" ”
Cheng Ruming was surprised, because he had worked beside *** for nearly 10 years and had been highly praised by the chairman, and he didn't understand why there was such a question.
Cheng Ruming, a famous chef, has experienced poverty and hunger since he was a child. This experience made him deeply aware of the importance of food, and he believed that through his own cooking, he could provide food to all the hungry people in the world, so that they would no longer go hungry.
So, he decided to become a chef and make delicious food for people all over the world. With his efforts, he quickly became the head chef of Tianjin's "Juju City" restaurant, and was known as the culinary master of "Famous Tianjin".
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was assigned to work in the Beijing Railway Special Transportation Department. At the 1952 Regional Peace Conference in Asia and the Pacific, he won wide acclaim for his ability to "learn from China and the West" and served as the chef of a special train for foreign experts, and since then he has gained widespread acclaim.
Cheng Ruming's story tells us that as long as we have firm faith and unremitting efforts, we will be able to realize our dreams and become a true culinary master.
In 1954, Cheng Ruming was looking for his mission in the dispatch room, but he couldn't find a sign with his name written on it. He began to worry about his dismissal. At this time, a man who had a good relationship with him suggested that he go"Confidential room"Look.
This secret room refers to the special train of the ** chief. Cheng Ruming walked in nervously, and the staff greeted him warmly and told him that he must celebrate today because he became the chef of the *** special train.
It's not easy to be a chef. ** is a nostalgic person who rarely eats food cooked by strangers. The new chef cooks for the chairman for the first time, and if the chairman doesn't eat, it's normal; The second time the cook is also normal if the chairman still does not eat; But if the third chairman still refuses to eat, the relevant department will change the chef.
Therefore, cooking for the first time is very important for Cheng Ruming.
Cheng Ruming recalled the first time he cooked chicken spinach for ***, and in order to satisfy the chairman's preference for green vegetables, he took great pains to make this dish. However, when he brought the dishes to the table, ** did not move the chopsticks, but was quite satisfied with the other dishes.
Seeing that the original chicken juice and baby spinach were sent back intact, Cheng Ruming couldn't help but feel a trace of loss in his heart, and couldn't help but start thinking: "Is it that you have to be sent back after only making this dish?" ”
After some struggle and thinking, he decided to ask the conductor for help. After looking at the dishes cooked by Ru Ming, the conductor replied: "The chairman has a habit of always eating vegetables with soup when he eats green vegetables, and the soup in your dish is a little less." ”
Cheng Ruming breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and immediately improved the dish and re-served it.
Cheng Ruming used his superb cooking skills to successfully win the praise of the best, and improved an ordinary braised pork into the much-loved "Mao's braised pork", which became one of the representatives of Chinese cuisine.
His good intentions and perseverance show us his love for his work and his pursuit of good food.
Cheng Ruming's carefully cooked braised pork made *** eat with relish, but this dish, ** didn't even touch it. This made Cheng Ruming puzzled, and he decided to ask *** directly why.
Cheng Ruming found *** and asked, "Chairman, isn't the braised pork I made delicious?" * was stunned for a moment, then told him with a smile: "No, mainly because I don't like soy sauce." ”
When Cheng Ruming heard this, he was immediately surprised. * explained with a smile, "When I was a child, there used to be a soy sauce workshop in my family, and soy sauce at that time was generally fermented by natural drying.
I remember one summer, when I went to a soy sauce workshop, I saw some white spots in the soy sauce tank, and when I walked over it, guess what I saw? Cheng Ruming asked curiously, "What?" ”
Answer: "The maggots that grow when soy sauce is fermented." At that time, I couldn't eat for several days, and I haven't eaten soy sauce since. ”
After listening to ***'s explanation, Cheng Ruming suddenly realized. He sighed: "It turns out that the chairman doesn't like to eat soy sauce for this reason, which is really eye-opening." ”
The chairman smiled and said, "Yes, some people have special sensitivities to certain foods, so we can't judge other people's tastes by our own preferences. ”
In order to make braised pork for ***, Cheng Ruming has developed a new method without soy sauce, using sugar and salt as the meat coloring material, and the cooked braised pork is salty and fresh without losing its sweetness.
This kind of braised pork has been loved by *** and has become an indispensable famous dish on his table.
Cheng Ruming entered Zhongnanhai in 1958 for his outstanding performance and became the "exclusive chef" of ***. On Chinese New Year's Eve 1959, he took it for granted that he had to make dumplings.
Before preparing, he specifically asked *** what kind of dumplings he liked. The chairman replied, "I can eat any filling, I can't eat a few dumplings." Cheng Ruming thought that the chairman had no appetite, but the chairman only symbolically ate one dumpling, and then never touched it again, and the other dishes were eaten cleanly.
Cheng Ruming once made *** the dumplings he was accustomed to Chinese New Year's Eve dinner because of the difference in lifestyle, but found that *** preferred to eat rice cakes. After getting the advice of the staff, Cheng Ruming decided to make rice cakes for *** every year.
However, the only time he didn't get good reviews was on Chinese New Year's Eve in 1960, when he added pork flatbread and was scolded.
Cheng Ruming is a native of Shandong, he loves green onions, and at the same time, he also observed a trivial matter of life: "* doesn't seem to like green onions very much." Cheng Ruming felt that it was necessary for him to let *** appreciate the charm of green onions!
In order to achieve this goal, Cheng Ruming racked his brains. One day, he tried to make a green onion cake, although this cake with only green onions, salt and five-spice powder was "simpler" than the braised pork, but *** tasted the taste of green onions, and after eating a piece of cake, he was still unsatisfied, and said to Cheng Ruming: "Make me another piece." ”
Since then, Cheng Ruming has often made scallion cakes for *** to enjoy.
After three years of natural disasters, ** expressed deep concern for the lives of the people. He gave an order to Cheng Ruming not to prepare meat and eggs for him in the future.
However, on Chinese New Year's Eve in 1960, Cheng Ruming decided to let the chairman eat meat in an ingenious way. He knew that his favorite food was fatty meat, so he boiled a big bowl of lard with a piece of fatty pork, and when he was making green onion cakes for the chairman, he mixed this "liquid pork" into the noodles.
At the same time, he also deliberately put some diced meat in the green onions.
Cheng Ruming believes that his actions are flawless, and it is absolutely impossible to find a problem. However, it only took one bite to find out the problem, the cake was so fragrant, and the mouth was full of meat.
In order not to waste it, after swallowing the cake, he asked Cheng Ruming seriously: "You dare to lie to me?" Cheng Ruming saw that *** had discovered the truth, so he could only tell him the whole thing.
Sigh, after all, the bread has already been made and cannot be thrown away. So, he asked everyone to share this cake together, and sternly ordered Cheng Ruming: "You are not allowed to make cakes in the future!" ”
In fact, even in difficult times, even in times when food and meat are plentiful, the diet is relatively simple and frugal. For example, one year during the Chinese New Year, the only good dish on the table was a dish of Luohan prawns, which was eaten at noon at that time, and there were some leftovers.
When cooking the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner that night, ** especially reminded him not to forget to bring the remaining prawns to "solve".
On Chinese New Year's Eve in 1962, ** spent in Shanghai, that year, Shanghai ** specially sent a basket of red eggs for the celebration. However, after seeing this basket of red eggs, I felt a little"Luxury", because he usually eats his own roasted peppers, not eggs.
The chairman's roasted chili peppers are not roasted randomly, they need to be roasted on a fire, then added with sugar, salt, tempeh, and finally drizzled with chicken broth to collect the juice.
This roasted chili, like braised pork, is the chairman's favorite, and he usually takes one bite at a time. However, in the 70s, due to physical conditions, whether it was chili pepper or braised pork, the chairman ate very little.
Cheng Ruming recalled the last Chinese New Year's Eve, which was a night full of festive atmosphere. He and *** set off firecrackers together to celebrate the New Year. However, the only regret for him was that due to organizational rules, he couldn't remember what *** ate back then.
**After his death, Cheng Ruming often returned to Chinese New Year's Eve in 1959 in his dreams, the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner that impressed him. He prepared a variety of delicacies for ***, such as braised pork, chili rings, salted chicken, fish head tofu, etc.
After finishing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, he approached *** and looked at the chairman's smiling face, and he couldn't help but laugh. Although I don't know why the chairman laughed, that kind of warm atmosphere made Cheng Ruming feel extremely happy.
Cheng Ruming smiled in his dream, but when he woke up, he found that the corners of his eyes were moist, and tears slipped down for some reason.