People gather because of the city, and the city prospers with people. Countless strivers from all walks of life in the three islands have worked intensively for the development of Chongming, and we have successively launched a series of interviews with people who are "I'm in Chongming, I'm very good", inviting these strivers to tell the stories that belong to them and Chongming, and to pay tribute to every ordinary hero who participated in the construction of a world-class ecological island.
Drive from Chenhai Highway to Jinchen Road, and after a short walk, you will come to an exquisite courtyard surrounded by green trees. When the reporter visited, the hot summer was in full bloom, the summer was steaming, and the trees knew that there was endless singing, but here it enjoyed a quiet and quiet.
The small courtyard is a country restaurant, famous as "Zhiyao Little Kitchen". Looking beyond the signboard of "Living in Chongming Taste Taiwan", I saw that the courtyard was lush with flowers and plants, and it was unique everywhere; A two-storey building forms the main body of the restaurant, and there is a small house on the right-hand side, which is a café built with heart.
Liu Yuwei
The owner and director of this chic restaurant is Liu Yuwei from Taiwan Province. With his continuous efforts, people who come to Zhiyao Kitchen will not only praise the delicious food, but also be deeply impressed by the "home-like atmosphere" here.
01
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Open a good restaurant
The taste is just basic
The most important criterion for judging a restaurant is, of course, "eating" - Zhiyao Chef is a "delicious" restaurant.
As a private restaurant in the countryside, although Zhiyao Kitchen does not have many chefs and a short menu, every dish is strictly controlled by Liu Yuwei, and it has undergone countless improvements and tests by many diners, and has excellent taste and quality.
Taiwan braised pork rice
Stir-fried Chongming cake
There are not only authentic Taiwan famous dishes such as braised pork rice, but also classic famous dishes of major cuisines; For example, taro white lentils, cold salad golden gourd shreds, cooked drunk clear water crab, etc., a series of local dishes rich in Chongming characteristics are even more amazing...... After many years of traveling from south to north, Liu Yuwei's horizons have been broadened and his taste has become more inclusive, so he attaches great importance to the integration and innovation of Zhiyao Kitchen's production, and often adds new concepts, ingredients and techniques to classic dishes. The store has a stir-fried Chongming cake with dried scallops, which is a good example - the salty and fresh seafood is combined with the sweetness of Chongming cake and stir-fried with green onions, creating an innovative delicacy with strong contrast and perfect taste.
"'Knowing' is knowing, 'Yao' is a beautiful thing, knowing Yao is knowing the beauty of life - opening this restaurant, I hope that with the help of food, more people can enjoy and discover the beauty of life." Liu Yuwei said. Because of this, the menu of Zhiyao Kitchen is always updated, while retaining the signature classics, presenting the excitement of the different seasons. "In ancient times, there was a saying that 'spring leeks and autumn shear' are the healthiest and most delicious ingredients in season, and we are constantly changing the menu in order to always pursue the freshest taste and bring the taste to the diners." In the process of developing new dishes, the professionalism and cohesion of the restaurant team have been repeatedly refined, and some ingenuity has been solidified, adding new signature features to the menu.
The dining environment is another measure of a "good restaurant". In Liu Yuwei's view, the guest experience begins from the moment he gets off the bus and enters the courtyard gate, and does not end until the meal is over, he gets in the car and leaves. To this end, he spent a lot of effort laying floor tiles, painting walls, introducing flowers, designing decorations, and tidying up the inside and outside of Zhiyao Kitchen, and integrating a lot of humanistic care.
"Considering that many of our guests are families with children, we have set up sandpits, slides and toys for children to do." Liu Yuwei said, "The small vegetable garden is full of fresh vegetables, which is full of farm fun, and it can also allow guests to experience the labor harvest firsthand." It is worth mentioning that there are also a lot of rosemary planted in the courtyard, which are lush and fragrant under the careful care of the owner, which often attracts guests to stop. The restaurant uses a large number of logs and rope art facilities, with carefully selected warm lighting, to ensure cleanliness and create a homely warmth. At the request of Liu Yuwei, there are fixed rules for the placement of a bowl and chopsticks, and the service staff must also take and clean up the dishes with care, and there is no need to be restrained and cordial to the guests. Every little detail makes every guest feel at home and warm.
Relying on such excellence, since its opening in 2021, Zhiyao Kitchen has received a large number of praise and frequent customers, and has gradually become a well-known specialty restaurant inside and outside the island, and has also become a new cultural tourism business card of Chenjia Town.
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From the city to the countryside
His original intention has never changed
Liu Yuwei was born in Taichung in 1977, and first lived in Taipei with his family when he was a child, and later lived in Changhua for a long time. In Liu Yuwei's slightly turbulent childhood memories, it contains not only the hustle and bustle of the city, but also the soothing of the countryside.
"For a long time, my house was close to the rice paddies, and the sound of frogs and insects was constant at night." "When the water rises after the rain, I would jump into the water, swim, catch some small fish and shrimp, or make a boat out of a wooden plank – the joy was always pure," Liu recalls. "At that time, Taiwan was beginning to develop rapidly, and the main theme of the times was the rapid development of the cities and the retreat of the countryside; Liu Yuwei also has a period of experience in school and work, the pace of life continues to accelerate, and he meshes into the gears of urban operation, and only retains his nostalgia for rural life in his heart.
In 2015, due to the business development needs of his affiliated company, Liu Yuwei came to Shanghai and fell in love with this all-encompassing and full of opportunities. In 2019, under the traction of fate, Liu Yuwei met a girl he liked - and later became his wife. "At that time, she happened to be working in Chongming, which also became an opportunity for me to meet Chongming." After many years in the business world, Liu Yuwei began to look forward to stable happiness, and the experience of coming to Chongming several times made the rural complex in his heart slowly awaken. "There's a soothing and relaxed pace of life here, and I really enjoy it." So, in this foreign land with the shadow of his hometown, Liu Yuwei began to plan to settle down.
At the end of 2020, Liu Yuwei hit it off with a friend and planned to co-open a rural restaurant in Chongming. "Over the years, Chongming has opened a lot of homestays and farm stays, but there has been a lack of high-quality rural restaurants. We think there's a lot to be done about this. The details of the opening were quickly agreed, and with the joint efforts of Liu Yuwei and his friends, Zhiyao Kitchen successfully opened on the occasion of the Lunar New Year in 2021. Later, friends went abroad to develop, and Liu Yuwei completely took over the business of Zhiyao Kitchen.
Initially, Liu Yuwei's choice of track for Zhiyao's chef was small hot pot, but he did not succeed in opening the market, and the restaurant's start has also gone through a period of hardship. After an in-depth investigation, Liu Yuwei hired a professional chef from downtown Shanghai to return to the most mainstream Chinese stir-fry track and choose