Ouyang Xiu wrote his memoir "Returning to the Field" (written in 107 1) in his later years, which contained a story of a minister eating out. That's the story of Ouyang Xiu's predecessors before he became an official (998- 1022). The owner's name is Lu Zongdao. One day, Lu went to a restaurant to entertain relatives and friends. This restaurant is famous as Renhe Restaurant.
At that time, Emperor Jojo wanted to see him and sent a special envoy to his residence. I have been waiting for Lu to come back for a long time. The emperor has not been greeted by Lu's face for a long time. The emperor asked Lu why he came so late. Lu told the truth, saying that he was entertaining guests outside and keeping officials waiting. He also said that the cooking facilities outside the restaurant are more professional, unlike simple utensils at home.
This story tells us that in Bianjing, under the rule of Song Zhenzong in the Northern Dynasty, the food in restaurants is more exquisite than that in home cooking, and the cooking utensils are better than that in home cooking. A key point of this story is that the chef who cooks keeps his career.
In addition, the food in restaurants has surpassed that in aristocratic families. This is a very important new era in the history of food outside China. During the 900 years from the Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, tourists lived in hotels and restaurants and only ate coarse grains. Delicious food in society can only be found in the home cooking of the upper class.
Tell the story that the seniors fell in love with Bianjing Restaurant, and so did Ouyang Xiu himself. These two literati who fell in love with Bianjing Restaurant are not unusual, but extremely common. In the same memoir, Ouyang Xiu also tells the story of his two friends, Shi He, fighting for wine in a newly opened restaurant. Later, it was widely rumored: "There are two restaurants in Wang, which have been drinking for a long time. Restaurants not only sell wine, but also cook food for drinking.
Ouyang Xiu also commented on the restaurant where Lu Zongdao ate: "Wine is very famous in Beijing. The restaurant here even has an address handed down from generation to generation, located in the bathing hall lane outside Songmen, Bianjing. Isn't this amazing? It seems that in today's TV food programs, viewers are always told about the location and service of food shops.
Don't think that restaurants are everywhere in big cities for a long time. The phenomenon of eating out in big cities described by Ouyang Xiu is only 200 years old. In other words, professional chefs and eating out are two new cultural phenomena that only appeared in the ninth century in China history. There were no shops in the administrative cities of China in the Middle Ages (about Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and the first half of Tang Dynasty), let alone many shops.
From the 5th century to the 9th century, the administrative city of China was divided into hundreds of blocks, which was then called "Fang". Every square is surrounded by a square wall. Every night, not only is there a curfew in the whole city, but also the entrance and exit of each square, that is, the "square door", is locked. The business activities of the whole city are limited to about two designated markets, namely the East Market and the West Market in Chang 'an and the North Market and the West Market in Luoyang, and are only open at noon and closed in the afternoon and evening.
This is the same mode of operation in the two capitals of the Tang Dynasty, namely Chang 'an and Luoyang. In this situation, due to the decline of social control in the first Tang Empire and the sharp increase of consumption economy in the second capital, the old method of fixed-point fairs and daily closing after dusk is no longer enough. As a result, the movement of demolishing the square wall wandered around the city, and the storefront doors of shops were demolished in the square wall, resulting in the scene of shops and streets all over the city.
This part is the veil of urban commerce unveiled by the sages who studied urban history in the past. It has a specific name, called the collapse of the city square system. After the abolition of the city square system, cities in Tang and Beijing began to open all night, even the gates were not closed. At the beginning of this book, Bai Juyi entered the city on a summer night in 1983, which is just an example of the changes in the routine of residents in this new city.
When the city square system is perfect, the commercial scale is limited to the mobile breakfast vendors at the entrance of each square. This is to adapt to being a guest in another workshop during the day, because I missed the locking time of the workshop door and was forced to stay overnight or be invited by the owner. The next day, the guests took advantage of the morning light to shine on the wall of the square, while the door of the square was open, and took advantage of the breakfast stall at the entrance of the square to solve the problems of hunger and revolution.