At the end of the 1980s, Mr. Sun Zhihua, the founder of the old Sun family in Dongxin Street
At the beginning of 1935, the Longhai Railway was opened to Traffic in Xi'an, and the ancient city now had a golden business opportunity, and Shangren Road, which was directly related to the railway station, quickly became the first commercial street in Xi'an. In the spring of this year, 15-year-old Sun Zhihua came to Xi'an alone, walked around Shangren Road and The People's Paradise for many days, and felt that there were many "old watches" (Hui hometowns) in Henan, which was a good place to do business, so he stayed.
At first, he went around the huifang to do some chores, and later he was introduced by his fellow villagers, and the two of them apprenticed lamb making at the old boy's house in the "Yuanzhi Slope". After more than three years of apprenticeship, Sun Zhihua not only mastered the production of lamb meat, but he also began to do it alone. At that time, he lived in a small village, every day on the sidewalk in the southwest corner of Dongxin Street, pushing a cart to sell raw lamb, after accumulating, he sold the lamb, because of its deep "stop slope" essence, the lamb made was recognized by nearby residents with its fresh taste and rotten meat, so he quickly had savings, purchased real estate, and had wives and children.
In 1956, the public-private partnership, together with Sun Zhihua' individual vendors, were jointly operated in the Minyuan Vegetable Market, becoming collective workers, selling meat and vegetables every day in the vegetable market in the north gate of minyuan. During the three years of difficult times, the state opened the free market, at this time, the Sun family panned two bungalows in the southwest corner of Dongxin Street on Jiefang Road and began to sell mutton soup, raw mutton, and bacon. The "old Sun family" mutton soup soup is so umami that it is loved by nearby residents, so whether they are rich, rich, cadres or coolies like to drink a bowl, they come to the Sun family before dawn to wait for the door, which is called "drinking head soup". Every morning at seven or eight o'clock, the southwest corner of the cross of Dongxin Street is always black and pressed, the house and the outside of the house are full of troubles, as soon as the people retreat, the Sun family will push a cart along the street to pick up bowls, which is really a "big scene".
The production of bacon requires more than ten large tanks and a half people's height, and the meat is poured tank by tank every day, which is not only a heavy physical labor, but also a test of people's will. Sun Zhihua meticulously checks the traditional process layer by layer, thus ensuring that the taste is consistent. Since 1966, the "tail of capitalism" has been "cut", and all market transactions have been blocked, but there are many restless "factors" in the area of Jiefang Road and Dongxin Street, and the "old watchmen" go to work during the day to "hit the bell" and turn into zero "speculation" at night, and they steal a sheep and a sheep to maintain the survival of the family. For more than ten years, Sun Zhihua has sold lotus flour, rock sugar pears, cold powder and other snacks, and has never "flipped" because of his mastery of calculation, and is enjoyed by his old friends.
In 1978, the spring breeze of reform and opening up was strong, and the craftsmen of Dongxin Street who "speculated and fell" had long been unable to hold back, and the old Sun family was the first to receive individual business licenses, and its beef and mutton shops opened low-key. At the age of 68 this year, Sun Kexin's cousin Di Baoan said: "As soon as the old Sun family opened, my uncle's hands came out. As soon as the first pot came out of the pot, the whole Dongxin Street cross was the aroma of lamb..." People's barren tastes were attracted by the long-lost smell of meat, the old Sun family store was full of outsiders, people desperately rushed to buy, as if the food of the old Sun family did not need money, often heard customers say: "This is mine, this is mine, you don't move!" "It's funny to think about it now. At that time, people didn't have money in their pockets, they all bought one pound and two pounds, so the old Sun family was always busy.
Di Baoan: "As soon as the old Sun family opened, my uncle's hands came alive..." Photo @/Xi'an old story
Once, an Arab who stayed in the People's Mansion was attracted by the aroma of meat through lao sun's house, and learned through the translator that it was halal food, suffering from the lack of containers, so he borrowed an old bowl and took away 5 kilograms of bacon lamb, which was the biggest order of the old Sun family that year, so it was remembered by Sun Kexin.
Lao Sun's family is located at the intersection of Dongxin Street, between the two mosques in the east and west, which is a typical "golden triangle", so the business continues to decline. In addition to the usual sons in the store taking turns to help, 13-year-old Sun Kexin also dropped out of school to concentrate on helping the family do business. Nowadays, many surrounding residents remember that in those years, when buying beef and mutton on the eve of the Spring Festival, the scene of queuing in front of the old Sun family on Dongxin Street was not exaggerated in terms of spectacular.
In 1983, Lao Sun's family expanded its business area, the first and second floors totaled more than 300 square meters, renamed "Lao Sun Jia Restaurant" business varieties are: Lao Sun jia beef and mutton steamed steam Sun Zhihua relied on his half-life catering career, combined with the differences in Qin Yu's taste and the characteristics of the times, and repeatedly concocted the unique recipe of beef and mutton steamed bun with more than ten spices, making its meat, soup, color and taste different from the past, which is the unique taste of the old Sun family.
The old Sun family is deeply engaged in halal catering, and all the efforts have been richly rewarded. During that time, the old Sun family expanded the territory, bought a backyard house to open up the façade, rented a house as a cold storage, and constantly enriched and improved the business content. In the words of Di Baoan, his uncle Sun Zhihua is a person who pursues the extreme, if one day he feels that the taste of meat is slightly deviated, he will never sell it, and his family will solve it internally; he sells shabu-shabu, he goes around to find the best copper pot, even if there is a social copper pot in Xiaodongmen, he is willing to go to Beijing to purchase; he pays attention to production, beef and mutton are marinated from large vats, out of the pot on the counter, the angle of cutting meat, etc., are meticulous, the color and aroma are amazing.
In 1991, the famous actor Fu Yiwei came to Xi'an to promote the TV series "Fengshen List" and tasted the beef and mutton steamed buns of the old Sun family, and the famous actors Zhang Tielin, the famous singers Han Hong, Pang Long, etc. all visited the old Sun family and left a good story. Referring to these past events, Sun Kexin said with regret that there was no sense of publicity at the beginning, only that he felt that he would do his own thing well, and he did not expect to take a photo with a celebrity to improve his popularity, which shows her simplicity.
Singer Pang Long visited the old Sun's house to take a group photo with Sun Kexin
Sun Kexin (left) at work
At the end of the last century, just when the old Sun family was moving around to expand its business, a problem left over from history forced the old Sun family restaurant to hide the word "old" on the signboard of the old Sun family restaurant and become "Sun Family Restaurant". In 2006, the "old-fashioned" Sun Zhihua officially retired, and he handed over his traditional skills of beef and mutton steamed buns to his daughter Sun Kexin and grandson Li Peng, who had been working hard with him for nearly 30 years, and asked them to respect the tradition and inherit this family skill. In May 2007, Sun Zhihua died of illness. Sun Zhihua and Cao Yuping had eight children, seven sons and one daughter, and seven sons all had their own careers, and Sun Kexin took over the true transmission.
In 2009, the demolition around the Jiefang Road Amusement Market, Sun Kexin continued the skills of the old Sun family at the east entrance of Jianguo Lane, Dongxin Street, and changed his name to "Yi Xin Zhai", people are still those people, the taste is even more that taste.
Sun Kexin followed his father for more than 30 years, and practiced a hard kung fu of making beef and mutton steamed buns, attracting a large number of customers who loved the taste of the Sun family. Mr. Yang Juntang, a former artist and famous painter of Xi'an Yu Opera Troupe, has loved the Mouth of sun family since the early years, and he still loves Sun family steamed buns in his old age, and once came to the store to eat steamed buns, he specially painted a four-foot Chinese painting to give to Sun Kexin, thanking her for her inheritance to satisfy her own blessings. During the interview, the author met Uncle Zhou who lived on East Eighth Road, and the 88-year-old had a bowl of "Yi Xin Zhai" steamed bun the next day, which has not been interrupted for more than 40 years. Not only that, every time a Kaifeng relative comes to Shaanxi, he will come to "Yixin Zhai", which shows the charm of a bowl of old taste!
The famous painter Mr. Yang Juntang and his wife broke the bun in front of Yi Xinzhai's own painting
Yixin Zhai head Sun Kexin Photo @/Xi'an old thing
For those who do not have the memory reserves of the Sun family, its pure taste is just as appealing. Once, two Tianjin guests who traveled to Yongxingfang with a group, admired the food of Dongxin Street, chose to eat steamed buns in "Yixin Zhai", and praised them after eating. At noon the next day, two tourist buses stopped at the entrance of Jianguo Lane, and more than 50 people got off the car to drain the congestion inside and outside the small shop... It turned out that the day before yesterday, two tourists ate the "Yi Xin Zhai" steamed bun, and they strongly recommended the members of the group to taste it, but they caught the "Yi Xin Zhai" off guard... Watching foreign tourists love halal traditional food, Sun Kexin's heart blossomed.
Years of business career, let Sun Kexin develop the habit of loving to make friends, every day after noon leisure, there will be friends to chat, a cup of tea outside the store to talk about friendship. She is also a hands-on person, not only the oil aroma, the corner of the dish is well done, the marinade cold powder, spicy sauce, kimchi and other good reputation, often shared with old neighbors, popularity is a good one.
Nowadays, Dongxin Street has become a business card of Xi'an cuisine, and merchants like the Sun family who are quietly dedicated to this food street are still silently dedicated to the citizens of Xi'an. After years of hard work, it has been recognized by the market and the government, and has won the honors and titles of "Advanced Store", "Trustworthy Self-employed", "Excellent Self-employed", "Advanced Enterprise" and so on.
In recent years, media reports have always said that there are too few century-old enterprises in China, and the inheritance of family businesses is worrying, but ask yourself, what have we done for these family businesses? From the renaming of "Old Sun Family" to "Yi Xin Zhai", it is not difficult to see the difficulty of the development of private small and micro enterprises, and the reality that the business environment needs to be improved urgently! All we can do is go to these old shops a few more times.
In 1993, Sun Zhihua and Cao Yuping returned from a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca
Cao Yuping (second from right) has four sisters
Mr. Yang Juntang took a group photo with Sun Kexin
Di Baoan (left) and Uncle Zhou (middle) Sun Kexin talk about the past Picture @/Xi'an old things
The April 2006 edition of the "Newly Compiled Atlas of Xi'an" clearly marks the old Sun family restaurant