Chef Lao Xu Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
The train shook a little, and in the boiling soup pot, the milky white soup sometimes shook out a circle of ripples, and when the lid was opened, the aroma came to the nose.
The focus of this soup is less salt, less oil, simmer over low heat, and a small amount of sea rice to improve freshness. On January 26, on the K548 train from Harbin West to Chengdu West, Xu Dongzhi, the head chef in a white coat, squinted his eyes, picked up a pinch of salt, and sprinkled it in a circle in mid-air. This day is the first day of this year's Spring Festival, tourists from all over the world have poured into the car, he specially prepared Zhejiang cuisine of winter melon sea rice ball soup and Cantonese cuisine steamed sea bass, meaning reunion, thriving.
54-year-old Xu Dongzhi is the head chef of the K548 Harbin passenger section of China Railway Harbin Bureau Group. A chubby Northeast man, with slender and flexible fingers, he can cook 8 cuisines.
In 2020, Xu Dongzhi served as the foreman chef of the K548 train from Harbin West to Chengdu. The train runs for more than 50 hours each way, passing through 9 provinces and cities including Shanxi and Shaanxi, and passengers have a variety of tastes. Only Northeast cuisine is cooked, and tourists don't buy it.
Food, clothing, housing and transportation, occupy a lot of money on the train, go out, and don't want to go home after eating. In order to let passengers taste the "local taste" on the tip of the tongue on the train, Xu Dongzhi pondered the matter of "customized recipes". When he was off duty, he went to the restaurant to learn the practices of local famous dishes such as Shanxi stewed dishes and Shaanxi trough meat. At the beginning of 2021, Xu Dongzhi completed the first "customized recipe" with 10 local dishes.
Whether the craftsmanship is good or not, see how many leftovers there are. The dish was on the table, Xu Dongzhi hid behind to observe the expressions of the guests when eating, listened to the guests' comments, and went back to summarize and improve. Slowly, Xu Dongzhi was able to make local famous dishes with authentic taste, and some passengers who often took the train became his "repeat customers".
Shanghai people like sweet, let's make braised pork, which is full of color and flavor; Sichuan people like spicy, so make spicy chicken, spicy and fragrant. In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, Lao Xu has studied health recipes again, and a tomato scrambled egg has become a signature dish.
Liu Zhiyuan is Lao Xu's partner, different from the second chef in the restaurant, he has to be responsible for washing, cutting vegetables, and preparing ingredients at the same time, he and Lao Xu have been cooperating for 3 years, and they have a tacit understanding that they can prepare all the ingredients without command. He said that among the six chefs he has worked with, Lao Xu is the most difficult to "serve". "Lao Xu has rules, restaurant hygiene is the most important, others only wipe the pot, and he can even brush the bottom of the pot as a mirror. ”
Lao Xu, who is not good at words, likes to fiddle with the food truck. With a new tablecloth on the table, a delicate paper towel clip, and a bouquet of dried flowers, he turned the food truck into a mobile star-rated restaurant.
Today's dining car kitchen has smokeless stoves, smokers, induction cookers, ovens, and refrigerators.
In recent years, with the popularity of ice and snow tourism, the number of southern tourists traveling to Heilongjiang has increased, and many southerners have fallen in love with Northeast cuisine. "I recently launched a new set of Northeast menus, and I also want to launch another set of Chinese New Year's Eve recipes on the train, to have a 'North and South Double Banquet'. The dining car should also be cleaned up, the lanterns should be hung up, and the car must also have the smell of the New Year. Lao Xu said.
Here comes the soup! Xu Dongzhi came out of the kitchen with a soup basin, and in the overflowing aroma, Lao Xu smiled extraordinarily brightly.