National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1009 Opening Ceremony

April 1986, 4 finally ushered in the day when Qu Xiao's mother underwent surgery.

On this day, Ning Weimin rushed to the hospital to accompany Qu Xiao.

It was thanks to Ning Weimin's presence.

Because Qu Xiao finished signing and watched her mother being pushed into the operating room, her feet went limp.

The whole person could hardly stand up.

If Ning Weimin hadn't seen something wrong and helped her in time, she might have passed out on the spot because of being too excited.

Moreover, Japanese doctors performed laparoscopic surgery on Qu Xiao's mother, which is currently difficult to complete in China, and it took a long time.

During the almost five full hours of waiting, Qu Xiao was also in a state of anxiety and panic.

Fortunately, Ning Weimin has been by Qu Xiao's side to relieve her like a big brother, and this girl finally survived the darkest moment in her life.

Fortunately, however, the operation was relatively smooth and successful.

When Qu Xiao's mother was pushed out of the operating room again, the Japanese doctor brought Qu Xiao the good news she was most looking forward to.

The Japanese doctor told her that as long as she takes good care of her body and stays in the hospital for observation for a period of time, her mother should be able to leave the hospital with peace of mind.

Although I need to change my eating habits in the future, I need to eat at least five times a day, but my life should be safe.

At this point, Qu Xiao finally wept with joy, holding Ning Weimin and crying heartily.

The worries, fears, and inexpressible pain and grievances that lasted for several months were completely vented at this moment.

Although Ning Weimin is not sure, is there any regret that it is difficult to place love in Qu Xiao's crying?
I don't know if it also includes the sentimentality of the two being destined for each other?
But these are no longer important, maybe only the present result is the best.

Maybe he shouldn't have said that, but the fact is that Qu Xiao's mother's illness made Qu Xiao passively divert most of his attention from the loss of love.

Let this girl grow emotionally and mentally from the pain and pressure of losing her mother, and become mature.

The success of Qu Xiao's mother's operation, in turn, freed Ning Weimin, who helped the family, from his emotional guilt, allowing him to forgive himself and find relaxation and peace.

For a while, I feel relieved.

In the following days, Ning Weimin had nothing to worry about.

He devoted himself wholeheartedly to his work.

After a few more days like this, the day of the opening ceremony of Tokyo Ginza Tangong Restaurant finally arrived.

April 1986, 4, Sunday, can be called the most important moment in Ning Weimin's catering career.

…………

Tangong Restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo may not be the best Chinese restaurant in Japan.

But it is definitely the first restaurant in Japan that serves authentic Chinese court dishes.

It was Ning Weimin who spent a lot of thought, in order to make more money from the Japanese wallets, and personally built the most luxurious Chinese restaurant in Japan.

Ning Weimin has made full consideration and preliminary preparations for Japanese food preferences, menu settings, raw material selection, service standards, etc.

Even in decoration design and tableware selection, he spared no expense.

To put it bluntly, Ning Weimin did everything he could do, implemented his advanced business philosophy and unique cultural taste into every inch of the restaurant layout, and decided to open the door to welcome customers on this day , accepted the market test.

As the saying goes, hard work pays off.

Regardless of other things, anyway, during the opening ceremony, the most intuitive visual effect of this restaurant was at least in line with Ning Weimin's wishes, and it was presented in front of the guests with the idealized appearance he pursued.

It is completely different from the Tan Palace main store in Beijing. Whether it is a restaurant for individual customers or a banquet hall of Beishen Kitchen, all of them are decorated in traditional Chinese style.

Ning Weimin adopts a fashionable and modern simple design style for the branch store opened in Ginza, Tokyo.

For example, the main color is peacock blue gauze curtains and bead curtains, which are matched with wood-colored and white-cream furniture.

The image of the restaurant he pursues is one that is friendly enough, clean, and has a fresh and transparent aesthetic.

At the same time, the store also adopts the design of light trough light strips in a large number, and the main lighting fixtures are mainly crystal chandeliers with the best light transmission.

As for the tables and chairs, there is not a single traditional Chinese Eight Immortals table in the store.

They are all round tables covered with white tablecloths, with white leather seats, or white upholstered sofa seats.

Even the floor is made of blue and white diagonal grids to maintain the light, luxurious and bright atmosphere of the restaurant as a whole.

Overall, the decoration of Tangong Restaurant in Ginza does not look like a Chinese restaurant at all.

It's more like a fine jewelry store, or a beauty salon.

Look stylish and elegant.

As for this approach, although it is deviant, it may not be accepted by some conservative people.

But the benefits are also obvious, mainly in two ways.

One is to maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses, so as to avoid high economic costs due to the lack of high-end Chinese-style decoration materials in Japan.

The second is to break the stereotyped impression of Chinese restaurants in people's minds and bring people a refreshing look.

It is not necessarily necessary to use scarlet carpets, hanging palace lanterns, traditional wooden tables and chairs, patchwork blue-gray bricks and tiles, and antique wooden partitions to reflect the cultural atmosphere of Chinese cuisine, right?
What's more, despite this, Ning Weimin did not give up the unique "museum restaurant" business model of Tangong Restaurant.

In fact, from the moment guests are welcomed into the store, the full immersive experience begins.

From the stone horse pillars of the Han Dynasty placed at the entrance of the store, the Wei Tuo statues of the Song Dynasty, to the red sandalwood window lattices of the Qing Dynasty hanging in the store, the carved hanging screens of the figures of the Three Kingdoms of the Ming Dynasty, the hanging screens of Guo Ziyi's return home carved in boxwood, and the Qianlong period. The preface plaque of the golden nanmulan pavilion, the deep and shiny Xuande furnace, the bronze candlestick of the horse riding on the flying swallow...

Each of these things is a real, genuine Chinese antique.

Ning Weimin, who is good at using the overseas environment, personally selects and buys the lost cultural relics in the second-hand goods market in Japan.

Although the price is not expensive, its value is extraordinary. No matter how old it is or how rare it is, it is far more than the decoration of the domestic head office.

After all, in the overseas environment, there are few large utensils, but there are many small boutiques.

Ever since, tradition and modernity, history and fashion, have formed wonderful collisions and interesting contrasts in the distinct environment of this restaurant.

It allows every guest who visits the restaurant to appreciate the beauty of Chinese ancient relics from a unique perspective with a new perspective.

In addition, there are also those handicrafts and replicas brought by Ning Weimin from Huaxia to add luster to the restaurant.

For example, in the movie "Burning the Old Summer Palace", replicas of the complete set of court clothes and armor of Emperor Xianfeng and the Empresses of the Two Palaces are placed in the most conspicuous place in the store.

The exquisite embroidery is matched with the relevant stills in the movie, which complement each other brilliantly.

As a rare Chinese cultural work exported to the whole of Asia, "Burning the Old Summer Palace" has a box office of one billion yen in Japan.

Its influence should not be underestimated, and obviously it will have a certain effect on improving the cultural style of the restaurant.

In the Qianlong Dynasty, replicas of the meal list, meal card, recipes, and imperial wine utensils, tableware, hand stove, and wine and meal picks were also placed in glass display cabinets illuminated by spotlights on the wall.

These things are even more difficult to distinguish between true and false, directly pointing out that the restaurant is inherited from the imperial dining room, and it operates the theme of court cuisine.

Under the replica of the "Picture of the Palace of the Capital" in the Ming Dynasty, there is a 1.8-meter-long table.

The things on display here are the most interesting.

Because inside the glass cover of the table is a monkey made of cicada slough, which is arranged in the miniature landscape of the imperial dining room of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Little monkeys turned into imperial cooks in the Qing palace, busy up and down the stove, the scene is lifelike, wonderful and interesting.

The related setting is also very elegant, meat bureau, vegetarian bureau, soup bureau, meal bureau, stove bureau, dim sum bureau, secretary house, everything is available.

The original appearance of the old imperial dining room was restored almost in equal proportions.

It was Ning Weimin who worked so hard and carefully brought it from the capital, and it took several people several days to put it together and assemble it.

The Japanese can see it, and it is really lucky for Sansheng.

In addition, there are also inscriptions written by the last prince and the last princess from Japan in the restaurant.

"Food in the Altar Palace" written by Fu Jie is hung at the entrance of the main entrance of the store.

And the book "Six dishes are adjusted on the top of the god tripod, and three rice wines are brewed in the jade pot in spring" written by Saga Hao is hung in a prominent position in the hall of the store.

These two pieces of calligraphy are equivalent to an endorsement of the credibility of the court dishes of the altar palace, which indirectly shows its cultural authority inherited from the orthodox.

As for the whole set of silk figurines in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as well as palace lanterns for Nine Dragons Opera Pearls, flower and fruit bonsai, melon, fruit and vegetable ornaments, bionic porcelain of birds and animals, lacquerware of mother-of-pearl, gold-plated Ruyi, famille rose gourds, enamel paint, etc. Charcoal fire pot...

These colorful things are the need to increase the cultural interest, as the need to decorate the corner.

That's not to mention, because the store is big enough, Ning Weimin even set up a display area for wine lovers who can learn about famous Chinese wines.

He ingeniously placed five or six glass wine cabinets with glowing bottoms in the store, which were specially used to display wines from China.

In these display cabinets, there are not only China's top ten famous wines, but also products from major wineries in Beijing and Shandong Jimo Winery.

Not only the flavor types of baijiu include clear, strong, sauce, complex, and rice, but also rice wine, fruit wine, dew wine and beer.

There are as many as hundreds of kinds.

Even these drinks are not limited to simply displaying for guests to watch.

If a customer is really curious about which kind of wine, they can order a small glass through the waiter, experience it for themselves, and taste it for free.

In addition, Ning Weimin wanted to deepen the cultural experience of customers as much as possible.

At the beginning of the design proposal, he asked the designer to hang TVs in different positions in the store.

After the final construction was completed, these TVs were also connected to VCRs.

In this way, it is possible to play corporate promotional videos to the guests in the store without any dead ends, and it is also possible to play a documentary filmed by NHK TV station in the capital.

Then, by comparing with these TV screens, customers can feel the pure Chinese food atmosphere.

All in all, the original intention of Ning Weimin to create such a restaurant is to let every customer who enters the altar palace experience the rich taste of Chinese food culture and become interested in Chinese traditional culture through the decoration and furnishings of the store. curiosity.

To put it bluntly, what you eat here is not only dishes and tastes, but also exotic cultures, historical origins and customs.

So think about it, in a scene like this.

Those guests who have just arrived at Ginza Altar Palace Restaurant and are here to participate in the opening ceremony today, can they stay quietly?
Do not!of course not!
In fact, everyone's eyes are almost not enough, and everyone has become a curious baby!
Director Taniguchi, Mrs. Taniguchi, the Kagawa sisters, Yujiro Sakai, two college students from the Keibundo Bookstore, and several key employees of the Broadsword Trading Company are undoubtedly the few Japanese who are less knowledgeable among the guests today.

Being in such an environment, for them, they just feel dizzy, rich and powerful, which is extremely uncomfortable.

Originally, their well-dressed clothes were purely for the sake of the location of Ginza.

It's not that the Japanese have never eaten Chinese food.

In their subconscious, they somewhat underestimate Chinese restaurants.

They couldn't help wondering why Ning Weimin would choose the most expensive place in Tokyo to open a Chinese restaurant.

Isn't it good to open a western restaurant in such a good location?

Or rent it out for others to use!

That's what most of them really think.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I found this place, I was shocked by the overwhelming opening flower baskets in front of the store before entering the door.

Regardless of the fact that the property Ning Weimin bought is upstairs, there is only one staircase leading to the street outside.

But there are so many flower baskets that have already been placed down the stairs, causing the stairs and the entrance to become a sea of ​​flowers.

This undoubtedly also shows that Ning Weimin has a wealth of contacts, and these little people in Japanese society are dumbfounded.

Zuo Haiyou Erlang specially prepared a large flower basket as a gift, so it looks inconspicuous.

This made him full of confidence, and his thoughts of showing off immediately dissipated.

When they each walked through Huacong to the store with a cautious sense of restraint, they encountered a spiritual baptism.

Because the guests that day were exactly as they expected downstairs.

Almost all of them are well-dressed celebrities, who don't look like ordinary people.

Moreover, the high-style decoration and furnishings in the store also have a dazzling magic.

Let them get lost in it after a few glances, become at a loss, and don't know how to deal with themselves.

Fortunately, Ning Weimin arranged for someone to guide them at the door, asked them to sign in, and took them to the seats arranged for them according to the list.

Otherwise, some of these people may have to retreat, and they might not have the courage to enter the restaurant again.

But even so, most of them dare not fully satisfy their curiosity.

I didn't have the courage to take the initiative to go around the restaurant and take a look, but just sat on the seat honestly.

Especially for a social animal like Director Taniguchi, and a socially unsocial person like Mrs. Taniguchi, the scene here is simply scary.

They look around at the guests who have already arrived, and they are really afraid that if they act rashly, they may be rude at any time, which will lead to shame and embarrassment.

He couldn't help muttering in a low voice, "The restaurant is really beautiful. It's no different from a place that runs French cuisine. These guests are either the president or the chairman. It seems that Ning Sang is really good at inviting such guests. Not ordinary people."

"Yeah, don't look young, Ning Sang is worthy of being a minister-level management. He really has extraordinary talents. Among other things, a restaurant as big as this can accommodate at least a few hundred people. It must be very hard to manage. "

And for young people like the part-time college students at Huiwentang Bookstore and the Kagawa sisters.

Although they are newborn calves who are not afraid of tigers, and they don't have the filthiness of the Taniguchi couple, who feel that their identities seem not suitable for attending such an occasion, but the sense of restraint is not necessarily less.

"Hey, is that a reporter? How could a reporter come? Isn't this just the opening of a restaurant?"

"Idiot, look at this place. Is this an ordinary restaurant? Ning Sang must have spent a lot of money to advertise with reporters? Is this difficult to understand? Maybe there will be celebrities coming?"

"Ah, how is it possible? Right? Kagawa-san?"

"This kind of thing... I don't know the details. However, I do know that there will be an entertainment performance today. There should be singers coming. But I don't know if they are famous or not. I am actually curious too."

"Hey? Is it true? Kagawa-san, I'm sorry, I want to ask, if there are really celebrities present, can we ask for autographs!"

"Idiot! Don't do such a disrespectful thing! You two boys are the same, just wait quietly for the ceremony to start, and applaud when the time comes!"

"Sister, why are you talking like that. Normal people would be curious, right?"

"Rinzi, don't be too lenient. As the store manager, you have to take responsibility. Don't even think about it. Would Ningsang be happy if you let these two guys disrupt the order here just because you want to sign?"

Only a quick-thinking person like Yujiro Zuokai dared to seize the opportunity.

He wandered around restlessly in the restaurant by himself.

It is not only a feast for the eyes, but also an opportunity to meet important people.

(End of this chapter)