Nowadays, when people talk about court dishes known as "phoenix pulp dragon liver", they will think of the imitation meal of Beihai Yilan Hall and the Tingli Restaurant in the Summer Palace. The two restaurants, one to the south and one to the north, are far away, and both are opened in the former royal gardens. The court-style dishes operated here can be called living fossils of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Dragon Feast, vividly demonstrating the royal style of the emperor's eating life. As the old saying goes, there are no two days in the sky, and there is no two masters in the country. In addition to the Forbidden City, opening another "imperial dining room" to entertain the world is definitely a crime of deceiving the monarch and turning around.
So, when was Fangshan started? Apparently during the Republic of China years after the abdication of the Qing Emperor. The imperial system was over, and the royal garden should also be owned by the people. Therefore, since the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), there have been proposals among non-governmental figures and government officials to change beihai into a park, and later with the approval of Zhu Qiju, minister of internal affairs of the Beiyang government, it was decided to turn beihai into a park, and Zheng Xian, Lü Zhu, Wu Chengxiang and others presided over the maintenance and rectification. Since the Gengzi Rebellion, Beihai has become a dilapidated pavilion and a sparse grass.
The ancient Beihai, as a royal garden, has gone through 800 years of vicissitudes by the end of the Qing Dynasty. "Qionghua Island is in the northwest of the Forbidden City, the sun of the Tailiu Pond, when the Mongols first arose, they submitted to Jin, and there was a mountain in its territory, and the stones were exquisite, and the momentum was very beautiful. The Jin people said that the 'mountain' here has a royal spirit, and the desire to win is disgusted, so that people want to get this mountain to suppress our land, and mongolia allows it. The Jin people were dug up by the Great Hair Pawn, transported to the north of Youzhou City, and accumulated into mountains, because they excavated the sea, planted flowers and trees, and built palaces, thinking that they were lucky places. (For details, see "The Aftermath of Chunming's Dreams")
It can be seen that the "origin" of Beihai is not yet in Beijing, and it has also been painted with a mysterious political color. After several years of renovation, the Beihai was finally completed in 1925 and officially opened to the public in the same year. Prior to this, in early November 1924, Feng Yuxiang ordered his general Lu Zhonglin to expel Puyi, the old master of Beihai, from the Forbidden City. This young emperor of Xuantong had to temporarily live in the mansion of his father Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol, and the former "Hidden Dragon Residence" has now become "Luofengpo". The family was lost, and the Sunqing royal family naturally couldn't care less about beihai park, which was already a civilian paradise. As the pots and stoves in the Qingguan Imperial Dining Room cooled, the imperial cooks also walked out of the rich door and found another way to make a living, "In the past, Wang Xie Tang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people."
In the year when Beihai Park was officially opened, Zhao Runzhai, who had been on an errand in the imperial dining room Laiku, made an appointment with imperial cooks Sun Shaoran, Wang Yushan, Zhao Chengshou and others to open a "fangshan tea house" on the north shore of the Beihai Sea. The idea of opening a imitation meal turned in Zhao Runzhai's mind for a long time, because the imperial palace, as a forbidden city, has always maintained a huge sense of mystery for the people. What did the empresses eat? What to wear? How to live your life? Outsiders have no way to see, but they are full of curiosity, so it is definitely a good idea to open a fangshan restaurant in business.
It was only because of the unstable situation that in 1917, Zhang Xun, the "braided marshal", carried out a 12-day restoration activity in Beijing, and it may be dangerous to open a meal outside the official. It was not until Puyi was expelled from the government and fled to Tianjin, and Beihai was set open as a park, that Zhao Runzhai put his ideas into practice for many years. According to the "Yandu Congkao", at the beginning of the establishment of Beihai Park, "in addition to the painting of Fangzhai in the park, the jingxinzhai is the place where the government leaves guests, the fast snow hall is the Songpo library, and the Yuruo Yilan Hall, the Five Dragon Pavilion, and the Haopu stream are all set up as tea tasting areas." At that time, the tea shop in Beihai Park was not the only one, but the imitation meal was called for palace refreshments, which was unique.
Fangshan chose Beihai, which was once the royal forbidden garden, as its business location, and hired several veritable imperial chefs to hold the stove, which naturally made tourists flock to taste the delicacies that the Western Empress and the Guangxu Emperor had eaten. At the beginning of the establishment of the imitation meal, the foundation is very thin, the real court dish is powerless, and the sign of the imitation meal has not yet sounded, and tourists are mostly using a little refreshment, so Zhao Runzhai They started from refined court snacks and general stir-fry dishes. The refreshments here are far more elaborate than others, and the craftsmanship is good, and the preparation is small and exquisite. For example, to make pea yellow, you must use the white peas of the Jingdong Four Eyes Well to taste enough, after the pea is cooked, you must use a fine spoon woven with a horsetail to sift, so that the pea yellow taste is particularly sweet. Wang Yushan, who was called "the king of stir-frying" by Empress Dowager Cixi at that time, was good at doing the "four big catches"; catching fried prawns, catching fried tenderloin, catching fried fish fillets, and catching fried waist flowers. The trick to catching stir-frying pays attention to a "fast" word, first hang the main ingredient of the stir-fry dish, then fry it thoroughly and charred in the frying pan, and then quickly stir-fry it with high heat.
Wang Yushan's hanging paste pays attention to two kinds of road effects: one is the egg white to adjust the starch paste, and the other is to grasp the paste with wet starch. The main ingredient is fried in the pan, the most taboo to use boiling oil, otherwise it will become a lump, and the outside will be fried and the inside will not be fried. In addition, another technical task of catching stir-fry vegetables is to hook the juice, and the juice is so much that it is almost a soup dish, and it is noisy; the juice is less and the dish cannot be wrapped. Wang Yushan was able to master the fire kung fu just right, which could be called the "grasping and frying" of the capital at that time. Fangshan has his joining, which can be described as a tiger's wings. With the wings of imitation food becoming more and more plump, Cixi's original stewed duck tongue, stewed fat duck, cherry meat, chicken breasts, bells and the delicacies of Xia Jingtian- watermelon cups and other Famous Qing officials, which Cixi used to eat, also gradually appeared on the table of the imitation tea house, and tourists who always wanted to taste royal delicacies did not hesitate to spend two more money to eat quickly. The dishes of the imitation are not only soft and tender and fragrant in taste, but also full of grandeur in the name of the dish.
Like the "Oolong Spit Pearl" dish is made of East China Sea large black ginseng to make a dragon shape, coupled with rounded beads of quail eggs, strong dynamics, black and white, in addition to some dragon and phoenix titles, Li grilled abalone dragon whiskers, grilled dragon whisker mushrooms, phoenix fish belly, phoenix prawns, etc., all show the unparalleled style and majesty of the folk. To the left of the Fangshan Tea House is the famous Wulong Pavilion, where the Qianlong Emperor used to be too liquid in front of the Five Dragon Pavilion. In the time of the Republic of China, "when the winter was severe, there were many tourists, and in recent years, around the Yilan Hall and the Five Dragon Pavilion, there were ice rinks, thinking that it was a skating play, the facts were the same, and those who did not know thought that Europe and the United States were high winds, young people, flocking to them." Masquerade race walking is also enough to tilt for a while, compared to the artificial ice rink elsewhere. (For details, see "Yandu Cong Kao")
Fangshan Tea House is not far from the ice rink in front of Wulong Pavilion, in the middle of winter, after playing on the ice, take your feet to Fangshan to call a few stir-fry dishes, a few plates of court fines to warm your body, but also add a layer of winter fun. It was not until the early days of liberation that the business of fangshan shifted from refreshments to cooking dishes. In 1956, Fangshan Tea House was renamed Fangshan Restaurant, realizing state-owned operation, and 5 imperial chefs of the year were hired to mainly operate palace drinks. The ingredients are plentiful, the dishes have added a lot of color, and the trade is becoming more and more prosperous.
In 1959, in order to further develop, the Fangshan Restaurant moved from the side of Wulong Pavilion to the north of Qionghua Island, occupying six ancient buildings on the island, namely Yilan Hall, Daoning Zhai, Yiqing Lou, Fenliang Pavilion, Bizhao Lou and Yuanfan Pavilion. 11 large and small restaurants have been opened, which can host 25 tables at the same time, with a use area of more than 1,000 square meters, and have become an important banquet venue for receiving state guests and tourists. In fact, Yilan Hall was already a place to drink and eat as early as the Qianlong period, and the scholars of the Hanlin Academy who were responsible for compiling the "Continuation of the Three Links" (that is, the continuation of the three books of "Tongzhi", "Tongdian" and "Tongkao") were once summoned by the Qianlong Emperor to Yilan Hall to give feasts and rewards; European painters, missionaries Lang Shining, Jiang Youren and others who served in the inner court were also summoned here by Qianlong to feast.
Not only that, whenever Qianlong fished by the edge of the Tailiu Pond, he got several fish, and all of them were ordered to be teleported to the Yilan Hall to cook fresh and eat. Why did Qianlong love YilanTang so much? Because this hall was built to imitate the Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, Jiangnan, and was completed in the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong (1771), "the south is blocked, the north is covered with waves, and it is quite a general description of the Jinshan River." (For details, see "The North side of the Imperial Pagoda Mountain") Qianlong su is good and elegant, facing the jade fence fence, sparkling, water and sky scenery, you can not only view the Five Dragons Shrine from a distance, but also closely view the painting of the Boat Boat, plus the fresh and mixed fish, the wine is in the wind, naturally it is a rare wonderful place in the world.
Opening the imitation restaurant in Yilan Hall is indeed a unique vision. At this time, in addition to the aforementioned Wang Yushan's "four big grabs" famous, fangshan also excavated many court dishes, such as "four crisps" and "four sauces". "Four crisps" refers to crispy fish, crispy meat, crispy kelp, crispy chicken; "four sauces" refers to fried cucumber sauce, fried carrot sauce, fried hazelnut sauce, and fried pea sauce. Other famous dishes such as toad abalone, a pint of tofu, sand boat tacui, oolong spit beads, purse tenderloin, vegetarian stir-fried eel silk, etc., have also become a good trick to attract diners. Since then, the "Manchu Han Full Table" has become a high-end banquet that they highly recommend as the golden sign of imitation meals.
(Text/Zhou Jiawang)
Comes with a copy of the imitation menu:
Cold dishes: spiced fish, salted duck, sauce duck, shredded belly, char siu pork, sauce beef, spicy beef, fried cucumber skin, sour and spicy cabbage, brine shrimp, mixed duck palm, Yihe art fight, crab winter shoots.
Mountain treasures and seafood: clear soup swallow dish, hibiscus swallow dish, grilled swallow breast, clear soup silver ear fungus, sea red shark fin, grilled three silk shark fin, grilled sea cucumber, oolong spit beads, white grilled fish belly, grilled three white, phoenix fish belly, grilled abalone dragon whisker, toad abalone, yellow braised shark fin, bergamot shark fin, braised bear paw, canned braised shark fin, three-silk hump, roasted camel paw, grilled venison.
Chicken and duck: pot roast chicken, peach kernel chicken diced, guanbao chicken diced, crispy chicken, elephant eye pigeon egg, Mandarin duck egg, slippery chicken breast, hibiscus chicken slices, goldfish duck paw, three fresh duck buns, phoenix nest, money shiitake mushrooms, walnut duck square, oyster sauce duck paw.
Fish and shrimp: dried roasted live fish, sweet and sour fish, pregnant mandarin fish, hibiscus fish horn, fish hidden sword, live fish with shallot oil, dragon fish, spoon prawn, slippery shellfish ball, almond grilled fish, Luohan prawns, wind tail prawns, braised prawns in oil, prawns in oil, fried shrimp saucers, soft fried prawns, caught stir-fried prawns, squirrel mandarin fish.
Meat: Pursed tenderloin, Kung Pao tenderloin, fried bergamot, dried fried deer shredded, dried roast beef shredded, stir-fried minced meat, pot sticker tenderloin, yellow braised tofu.
Vegetarian dishes: grilled dragon whisker mushrooms, shiitake mushroom hearts, mushroom lentils, mushroom cauliflower, dried scallops and winter melon balls, a poinsettia of tofu, pine tree monkey head, stick hit monkey head, monkey head double dish. Beets: rock sugar lotus seeds, almond tofu, fried Duanxiao, plucked apples, rock sugar three fresh, guiyuan black rice porridge.
Dim sum: pea yellow, kidney bean roll, small nest head, mille-feuille cake, yellow cake, fried crisp box, minced meat baked cake. Soup dishes: lotus peas, fragrant apples, clear soup silver fungus, casserole ox whip, plum bamboo mountain stone, bean seedling deer tail soup.
(Courtesy of Fangshan Restaurant)