I vaguely remember that it was around 2010, when a "palace science fiction drama" was wrapping up. A young man who was working on the crew invited some of our long-lost friends to dinner in a courtyard in the second ring road of Beijing. Erli.
The yard is very large, there is no door plaque, it is quiet and quaint, just like a wealthy family's home. When I entered, I discovered that it was a well-furnished restaurant. When I was handing out the small check, I glanced at the bill. That number was equivalent to two months' salary of a salaried worker at that time.
Since then, the word "private" has formed an inherent concept in my mind: a place for consumption by high-income people, frequented by celebrities, low luxury, and not close to the people. For a long time to come, For a period of time, when I traveled, I would stay away from "private kitchens" and "private kitchens". It wasn't until I arrived in Zhejiang in the past two years that I reintegrated my impression of "private kitchens". .
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There is a big difference between Beijing’s private cuisine and Zhejiang’s private cuisine. Most of the famous private dishes in Beijing originated from the "private assets" of the imperial palaces or high-ranking officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They are not popular among the people. Here is a common example:
Old Beijing specialty snack pea yellow , exquisite, small, and melt-in-your-mouth. It was because Empress Dowager Cixi liked to eat it that she asked the imperial kitchen to improve it with seasonal high-quality beans. In the folk, pea yellow was only available at temple fairs for a long time. . So in Beijing there are names like "Imperial Food" and "Tribute", and there are also places like "Little Kitchen" in the Forbidden City. After the palace chef retired, he opened a private restaurant on a street corner where dignitaries and dignitaries crowded, providing a level of consumption beyond the reach of ordinary people. Even today, it is still a very niche thing. In Zhejiang, the concept of private cuisine is completely different.
Zhejiang has been a land of Baiyue since ancient times, with intricate water systems and complex landforms. Although it has a profound history and a long-standing food culture, most of them are deeply rooted things that blended and collided with the hinterland of the Central Plains. few. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. The things that the people of Zhejiang grew up eating became "tributes" to the emperor. For example, Quzhou Kaihua's Longding Tea was made by ordinary people who went to the mountains to pick it up for drinking. Liu Bowen brought it back to Zhu Yuanzhang once, and it became a tribute tea in the Ming Dynasty.
This is the biggest difference between Zhejiang cuisine and Beijing cuisine. In Beijing, when it comes to the food in the palace, it must be exquisite, high-end, and tastes good; but in Zhejiang, good food is hidden in the kitchens of ordinary people, and then "upgraded" to the government.
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Eastern Zhejiang’s coastal areas and western Zhejiang’s mountainous areas had poor traffic and poor people in the old days, so they had no choice but to rely on the sea to eat and the mountains to eat. During this self-driving trip in southwestern Zhejiang, I discovered that more than 90% of the area in Taizhou, Shaoxing, and Quzhou is covered with mountains. In the past, there were few people in the remote areas. In order to have a full meal, the cooks had to rack their brains and use their skills. Therefore, in Zhejiang, many cooks who are hidden in the market may have the skills to cook in private kitchens. Nowadays, Zhejiang is one of the largest economic provinces in the country, and the tastes that have been grown from snacks have gradually moved from childhood dining tables to large halls such as five-star hotels, or have become "private tastes" transformed by chefs.
So I understand Zhejiang's "private cuisine" this way: if you are used to eating your own mother's taste, then go and eat other people's mother's taste.
This is also the biggest advantage of Zhejiang private cuisine: it is friendly and affordable for the people. There are pictures and truth, so I will post some private restaurants that I ate at during my last trip to southwestern Zhejiang.
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Linhai City, Zhejiang: Hutchison Private Kitchen. Linhai is an ancient small town, and this private restaurant is located on Ziyang Street with a history of thousands of years in the old city. The owner of Hutchison Private Kitchen is the only chef in Linhai City who has won the title of "Chinese Culinary Master". There are only three such chefs in Taizhou City, and he is one of them. Their dishes are very comprehensive. Linhai’s specialties such as egg white lamb tail, rice dumplings, wheat shrimps, wheat fat, and wheat cakes can all be eaten at one time in this restaurant. After the chef’s improvement, the childhood is transformed. The taste has become more creative, and the price is affordable, with an average price of less than 100 yuan per person. I had a unique delicacy at his house called bayberry soup.
Linhai is a rare "hometown of bayberry" in China. It is famous for its abundance of bayberries the size of table tennis balls. This fruit has a short life cycle and only survives for about 20 days a year. In late June every year , Ziyang Street will be crowded with tourists.
Except for egg whites, honey and fresh bayberries, this bayberry soup does not contain any extra ingredients. It can only be eaten in the chef’s house during those 20 days. It is worthy of the name. ?Private dishes?.
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Tiantai County, Zhejiang: Huamaidi Seafood Private Kitchen.
This is a restaurant I stopped by when visiting Tiantai Guoqing Temple. Guoqing Temple is a famous 5A-level temple scenic spot with free admission and excellent Feng Shui. It is said that making wishes and worshiping Buddha is very effective. There is an endless stream of tourists all year round.
Guoqing Temple has popularized many B&Bs, hotels, and restaurants in the surrounding area. Among them, Huamaidi Seafood Private Kitchen ranks among the top ten in Tiantai County’s food list. The price is still affordable, with the average price per person being only 80.
I ate a kind of burrito here. The flavor is very unique. It is a bit like the northern pancakes, but the texture is chewier than the pancakes. It contains several kinds of wild vegetables. It is a folk snack? Wok Latou? Advanced improved version.
The braised pork at this restaurant is also a must-try. It is a must-order at every table. It was sold out as soon as it was served. I only ate 3 pieces. It was fat but not greasy, and actually had a bit of the texture of roast goose.
Except for the braised pork, most of the other dishes are local specialties of Tiantai, such as soup screws, crystal cake, Tiantai eight-treasure rice, Nanshan bean noodles soup? The taste is indeed carefully thought out, with a moderate balance of salty and sweet. Neither heavy nor light.
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Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province: Xinchang Jufu Garden.
In my memory, Shaoxing cuisine is famous for being salty and smelly. However, although Xinchang County belongs to Shaoxing City, it has no such "Shaoxing flavor" at all. This store was renovated from a century-old hospital, which used to be an elementary school. Many primary school graduates here will come back to relive their childhood memories and taste.
What impressed me deeply during the dinner was the plate of small sweet potatoes, produced in a place called Dongming Township in the southwest of Xinchang County. They were small and thin, with red skin and yellow heart, sweet and soft.
There is also a particularly delicious kind of crispy rice. My friends who traveled with me said that this is the taste of southerners’ childhood. I, a northerner, have never seen it before. Judging from the shape, it should be that the rice is spread on the bottom of the pot and baked into a deep round. When it is crispy and cooked, it is taken out and placed on a plate, and the salty and sweet juice is poured over it.
When eating, first use a mallet to break it into pieces, then drop the whole plate into a pile. The aroma of the rice crispy rice and the richness of the sauce combine to create an unforgettable taste, which is incomparable to those neatly packaged crispy rice crusts pressed by machines.
Later, one of my Jiangnan netizens saw the picture and said: This dish is also common in Jiangsu. It is often served right after it is baked in the pot, and then the sweet or salty soup is poured into it. As soon as you pour it, you will hear a "chi la" sound, and the aroma of the rice cooker will fill the air, so this dish is also called "a sound from heaven and earth". ?