Huaiyang cuisine, together with Shandong cuisine, Guangdong cuisine and Sichuan cuisine, is known as the four famous dishes in China, and enjoyed a high reputation as early as 1000 years ago. Yuhuatai can be described as the originator of Huaiyang in Tianjin. The traditional famous dishes here are: shark's fin in raw juice, stewed crab roe lion's head, stewed silver carp's head, roasted whole pig's head, Yao meat, boiled dried silk, crisp eel on a summer mat, soft-pocked eel, crystal shrimp cake, lotus chicken, three sets of ducks, cicada cabbage, mirror box tofu and so on. Crisp and rotten, boneless, shapeless, slippery and crisp, tasteless. Huaiyang jiaozi, crab shell yellow, beef curry jiaozi, walnut cheese, milk sago and other flavor snacks are also unique.
The key to the success of Yuhua Satellite TV lies in the chef. It is not easy to be a cook. Chefs used to be called "oil tigers", saying that "they used to beat their fathers and wives, but now they are relegated to the kitchen, where they are smoky and have gone through all kinds of hardships", "People who make seats sleep in cool kang, women who sell oil comb their hair with water, and chefs starve to death …" But truly skilled chefs can get ahead.
In Tianjin, the most authentic Huaiyang cuisine is the core competitiveness of chefs, while coke chicken wings were born in the 1990s.
Huaiyang gourmet
Wang Xingyu, one of Yuhua's most famous chefs, was named one of the "Top Ten Chefs" in Tianjin in 1983. He was born in 1930s. He was an apprentice in a restaurant when he was 13 years old. He once worked as a teacher of Sichuan cuisine in Wei Tian, a chef, and also studied Huaiyang flavor. His dishes, such as hibiscus sea cucumber, shredded spicy chicken, crab and yellow lion head, shredded boiled chicken, soft-shelled turtle stewed with fire, fried butterfly slices, dried carp, tomatoes and shrimp balls, all highlight the original flavor, lightness and moderate sweetness of Huaiyang cuisine.
Wang Xingyu's specialty is tomatoes and shrimp balls, which are chopped, carefully mixed and squeezed into round shrimp balls. They are fried in hot oil to light yellow after cooking. The tomato juice is hooked in the pot spoon, and the shaken shrimp balls set off each other in red, and the royal oil holds the juice. The taste is fresh, tender, sweet, salty and slightly sour, delicious and beautiful. When you eat in Yuhua, Taiwan Province, you must order this dish. On the basis of the eel tube, he was transformed into a coir eel roll with great shape, taste and color. His apprentice Jia Kuilin learned this innovative dish in the national cooking competition and won the gold medal for hot dishes.
In Tianjin, the most authentic Huaiyang cuisine is the core competitiveness of chefs, while coke chicken wings were born in Huaiyang cuisine in the 1990s.
Ding Hongjun, who used to cook in Beijing, Zhang Zuolin and Dahuahuafu, introduced Shuaifu cuisine in Yuhuatai, and Zhang Zuolin went to Beijing from the northeast. Later, he often hired famous chefs of various cuisines to cook in the mansion, and the banquet was characterized by bringing in the essence of various cuisines. Jong Zhang Xueliang and his younger brother Zhang Xueming pay more attention to diet, and even open the menu themselves. Shuaifu cuisine is characterized by authenticity, authenticity and authenticity. Mixed soup, such as original shark fin, is the most taboo. The grilled shark's fin has no fishy smell, which highlights the original flavor. Besides, barbecued duck with pork and baked scattered eggs with cream are also quite famous. Later, these were the symbols of Yuhuatai.
Han Shiwen, Yuhuatai, is good at making cold meat. He is proficient in all kinds of dishes in cold meat, such as roast, wax, marinated, mixed, salty, frozen, crystallized and steamed. His platter is uniform in edge, harmonious in taste and bright in color, and he can put on "a flock of geese to build a nest", "eight treasures fight", "assorted special fight" and "splendid magic". Taking bacon as an example, Han Shiwen can make sausages, bacon, chicken, duck, salted pork liver, pork chops, duck claw buns, duck legs and duck cakes. And it is unique, especially the bacon liver made of 30% fat and 70% pig liver, which tastes tough and fat but not greasy.
The cakes of Huaiyang cuisine are different from the cakes in the pastry industry, and it pays more attention to the collocation with dishes. It's very seasonal to cook and eat now. There are spring rolls and leek spring cakes in spring; In summer, there are almond tofu, watermelon cheese and pea cake; In autumn, there are crab yellow soup buns and steamed dumplings; In winter, there are Yangzhou pot noodles and walnut cheese. In addition, Huaiyang steamed stuffed bun is stuffed with juicy pork, which is indispensable all year round. Yuhuatai, Ding Hongjun, a pastry chef with Huaiyang flavor, is best at making these snacks.
1982, Yuhuatai Hotel, which was cancelled for three years, resumed business on Shanxi Road. At that time, Hu Juewen, the 86-year-old vice chairman of the National People's Congress, wrote the plaque of "Yuhuatai". The Culinary Technology Training Center opened a southern cooking class here. In the first stage, more than 30 students were enrolled and opened to the outside world to train young chefs specializing in Huaiyang cuisine. The restaurant recalled two old chefs from Yuhuatai, and transferred three old chefs and five middle-aged chefs with technical expertise as teachers to lead the operation of Nancai training class.
Yuhuatai pays special attention to innovation while retaining traditional dishes. For example, in the 1990s, they introduced cola as a condiment into dishes. Coke chicken chops, coke shrimp balls, coke fish flowers, coke chicken slices, coke pickles, etc. Created "Coke Series"-,and successively introduced Fanta, litchi and other beverages into the series of dishes.
In the 1990s, they made use of the idle space on the sixth floor of the grand restaurant to build a "West Lake Hall", adding more than a dozen Huaiyang dishes, such as the imperial concubine in Liyuan, Xi Shi in Fengfu Competition, fragrant leaves, bamboo tubes and phoenix wings, crispy food in snowy mountains and stir-fried cats. Babao rice, a dessert that disappeared in Huaiyang for decades, was restored. The cool eight treasures made of lotus root starch instead of glutinous rice flour were served with the only iced walnut cheese at that time. (Text: He Yuxin) Tianjin, the most authentic Huaiyang cuisine is the core competitiveness of chefs, while coke chicken wings were born in the 1990s.