Beijing is a city where all ethnic groups in China live together. Among them, there are more than 200,000 Muslims of all ethnic groups who believe in Islam. Beijing's long history and culture and the charm of a modern metropolis have attracted more and more people from all walks of life in Islamic countries to visit, visit and travel, and international exchanges have become increasingly frequent. Especially in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, more than 40 athletes from Islamic countries will participate, and Muslims from more than 65,438+000 countries and regions will also visit Beijing. This undoubtedly provides unprecedented development opportunities and higher requirements for the halal catering industry in Beijing.

Muslim food in Beijing has a long history and unique flavor, which is an important part of Beijing's food culture. The origin of Muslim food in Beijing is synchronized with the introduction of Islam into Beijing, with a history of thousands of years. In the court cookbook Diet in the Yuan Dynasty, there are records of Qingzhen cuisine. A widely circulated encyclopedia of life in the Yuan Dynasty, The Complete Collection of Household Necessities, has a special chapter on "Huizhou cuisine", which covers many varieties of Huizhou cuisine. There is also a lyric in the Yuan zaju "The Leopard and the Monk Return to Vulgarity": "The fat mutton sold by butcher Liu is a whole hoof ... Ma Huihui's biscuits are very big, and all the dishes are rotten with monosodium glutamate ..." This shows that it has become quite common in Beijing and halal food in the Yuan Dynasty.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, "the prince swept the north" and made Beijing its capital. A large number of Muslims moved from the south to the north to settle in Beijing, which made the southern halal food production technology spread to Beijing and promoted the development of halal food in Beijing. From the Yuan and Ming Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, after hundreds of years of development, the varieties of halal food in Beijing have been very rich, and they are still the specialties of Muslim hotels in Beijing, such as Rumi, Osmanthus fragrans Mutton, Sesame tenderloin and salt-exploded pills, which were once imperial meals in the Qing Dynasty.

During the Republic of China, with the development of national industry and commerce, the halal catering industry in Beijing formed a mature market. There are dozens of Muslim restaurants in Qianmen area, such as Yuanxingtang, Liangyixuan, Tonghexuan, Tongyixuan, Xiyu Pavilion, Xisheng Pavilion, Qingyan Pavilion, Cuifangyuan Pavilion, Changyue Pavilion, Cohabitation Pavilion (Pie Week), Enyuanju (Fried Acne) and so on. In addition, there are Rui Hou Zhen in Zhongshan Park, Donglaishun in Dong 'an Market and Yishun in Xidan. 1930, the Muslim restaurant "Xilaishun" located at the bustling Xidan intersection opened, which immediately caused a sensation in Beijing. The reason is that the manager of Xilaishun Restaurant is Zhu Xiang, a famous Muslim chef in Beijing. Zhu Xiang, formerly known as Zhu Lianxiang, is a famous innovator of Qingzhen cuisine. Because of his superb cooking skills, he worked in the palace in the late Qing Dynasty. In the early years of the Republic of China, he went to restaurants such as "Liangyixuan" to guide cooking skills and brought out many outstanding disciples. Zhu Xiang is well informed and open-minded. On the innovation of pure cuisine, he boldly absorbed some skills of western food and China North and South cuisine, and created more than 100 kinds of new Muslim cuisines, such as "fried sheep tail", "raw roasted mutton", "fried Gansu chicken" and "fried belly", which created Muslim seafood cuisines and enjoyed a good reputation among peers and diners. Ma, a master of Peking Opera, is a Hui nationality. He often went to Xilaishun for banquets and meals, and forged a deep friendship with Zhu Xiang. As a result, many celebrities in the cultural and drama circles rushed to visit Xilaishun. After the peaceful liberation of Beijing, many important conferences such as Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Conference and Xinjiang Peaceful Liberation Conference held reception banquets here. Due to the innovative efforts of many Muslim chefs, such as Zhu Xiang, Muslim food in Beijing has become a unique and famous food in Beijing's food culture.

According to various published Beijing halal recipes, there are more than 500 kinds of halal dishes in Beijing. Many time-honored brands, such as beef and mutton with sauce in Yueshengzhai, sugar-roasted meat in Dashunzhai, pies in pie week, lamb chops with bean sauce, white water on sheep's head, tripe of fried chicken with deep-fried belly, and cakes cut by rice cake king, have enjoyed a good reputation at home and abroad after hundreds of years. The second Muslim cooking service skill competition was held in Beijing. Nearly 300 athletes from more than 50 Muslim food enterprises took part in the competition to prepare for the Olympic Games. With the east wind of the 2008 Olympic Games, the halal catering industry in Beijing will surely develop rapidly.