National Tide 1980.

Chapter 651
In addition to local snacks such as the "Three Wonders of Jinmen" and authentic pancakes, there is another food in Jinmen that is well-known throughout the country.

It seems that if people who come to Jinmen have not eaten, it is tantamount to coming in vain, what a pity.

That is Qishilin's western food.

As a port city, as a transit place for foreigners entering Beijing, Jinmen is undoubtedly the first place in China to introduce Western food.

As early as the Guangxu period, the western restaurant of Astor Hotel began to operate.

At that time, it echoed with Yipinxiang in Shanghai, one south and one north.

Later, due to the existence of the concession and the influx of White Russian nobles, the western restaurants in Jinmen achieved unprecedented prosperity.

Undoubtedly, in such a place, it is not easy for Qishilin to become the leader in the western food industry in Jinmen.

If the founder Albert Kiesling hadn't been the royal chef of Kaiser Wilhelm II, I am afraid he would not have achieved such an achievement.

Especially for so many years, the industry status of Qishilin has been as stable as Mount Tai.

In the north, it can be said that it is almost synonymous with Western food!
Just like in the whole country today, when people mention milk candy, they are white rabbits, when they mention chocolate, they think of Yili, when they mention canned luncheon meat, they recognize Meilin, and they say that Qiulin is the only one who buys jam.

Looking back in the past, the best Western restaurants in the country were Qishi Lin in Jinmen.

How good was the Qishilin in the past?

No matter which city, any western restaurant.

As long as you claim that your chef is from Keshilin, that is the best and most attractive advertisement.

It's enough to be used as a gimmick to attract guests.

It is no exaggeration to say that the three words "Qishilin" fall into the ears of people who used to love Western food, just like soldiers mentioning "Whampoa Military Academy".

That will really make people look forward to it!It's a real gold-lettered signboard!
It was Kang Shude, who wanted to come to Jinmen to run errands for Mr. Song.

As soon as the matter was over, he first came to Qishilin for dinner.

It can be said that it was here that he received his first enlightenment of Western food, and he served foreign meat.

Ning Weimin has never eaten Shilin, so of course he wants to try such a well-known western restaurant.

So he accompanied Kang Shude to Qishilin on Zhejiang Road, Heping District.

Frankly speaking, if their main purpose of this trip is to accompany the old man to reminisce about the time back then.

At the beginning, I really felt that I was running for nothing, and it could even be said that I was disappointed by Kang Shude himself.

Because Qishilin actually moved.

Originally, Ning Weimin followed the route in Kang Shuode's memory and found Jiefang South Road by car.

That is, William Street in the former German Concession.

As a result, when they arrived at the place, both the master and the apprentice were dumbfounded, and found that they were completely in vain.

The original site of Qishilin has disappeared, and it has become a large lawn opposite the CPPCC Club (it used to be a German club) today.

Later, I inquired with passers-by, and they learned that Qishilin had merged with a western restaurant called Vigdori in the 50s.

And the original site of the Vigdori Western Restaurant is now the storefront of Shilin, although it looks quite impressive, it is a small four-story western-style building.

But after all, it is no longer the five big houses in Kang Shuode's impression, with dance halls and open-air restaurants attached.

It's hard for the old man to find the old feeling again.

The appearance of the restaurant can only be said to be barely visible.

The old furniture here is not as well preserved as Astor.

In particular, the curtains are a bit rudimentary, which really doesn't match the classical style required by the restaurant.

The names of Keshilin and Bud are missing from the tableware, cutlery and forks.

As for the types of food, the gap with that of the past seems to be even greater.

Because there are three glass counters on the left side of the hall.

There are all kinds of pastries and breads inside.

There are cakes with cream flowers in different shapes, coffee candies wrapped in red paper with globe patterns, white paper wrapped, black plum candies with walnut kernels wrapped in cellophane, and colored strips "Christmas canes" wrapped in cellophane Sugar, there are multi-colored multi-layered long cubes of fondant dipped in white sugar, sliced ​​fruit candy with patterns of villains and flowers, and very hard loose chocolate in the shape of various animals.

But in the eyes of Kang Shude, these varieties are simply extremely monotonous.

It is less than one-tenth of the types of candies, bread, and pastries sold by Keshilin in the past.

Not to mention the menu.

But there are no dishes that Kang Shude wants to order, such as fried prawns, cold and sour fish, butter roasted squab, butter chicken rolls, German-style fried steak, and buttered chestnut flour.

There are only stewed fish, beetroot soup, canned beef stew, creamy grilled fish, creamy mushroom soup, Russian salad, jam, pickles, and so on.

And although these dishes look similar to Lao Mo in the capital.

But the problem is that the price is much more expensive than Lao Mo.

Each hot dish is three yuan cheaper, five yuan more expensive, and even ice cream costs one yuan and five yuan.

Considering that the consumption level in Jinmen at this time is much lower than that in Beijing.

A meal at such a price can cost a Jinmen person's salary for the month, which can be said to be quite "black".

It's no wonder that when it's time for dinner, the occupancy rate of the restaurants with business areas on these two floors is less than [-]%.

This really provoked the people to vote with their feet.

Not to mention the quality of service, the common problems of state-owned enterprises are almost the same.

When eating western food, even the waiter and the manager shouted "the tablecloth is gone" loudly, which made people feel like eating breakfast at the breakfast shop.

But to be fair, people who start Shilin are at least quite polite, and they can smile at people, which is considered good in this day and age.

In short, as soon as he entered the restaurant and sat down, since he picked up the menu, Ning Weimin could not conceal his disappointment on Kang Shuode's face.

He knew that maybe it was because of seeing Qi Shilin back then that the old man's psychological gap was so big.

However, smelling the mixed aroma of natural butter, cream, and coffee wafting from the shop, Ning Weimin's appetite was indeed whetted.

He felt that since he was here, he had to eat anyway, and it was impossible to just turn around and leave.

Anyway, he has already achieved financial freedom, and he doesn't care about the price, he eats whatever he wants.

So I generously picked up what I wanted to eat, and asked for a dozen kinds of big dishes, side dishes, cold dishes, and soups that I was interested in.

To say that it really didn't cost money.

The waiter immediately regarded them as distinguished guests, and served them first, and the speed was extremely fast.

In a short time, they were served snack platters, pickles, liver putty and salad.

Later the waiter brought the soup in a deep white plate with wide sides, followed by the hot dishes.

And what Ning Weimin never expected was that those dishes were surprisingly pleasant to eat, and the taste was quite good.

Looking at it this way, it seems that the money was not too unjustly spent.

The cream of mushroom soup is filled with sliced ​​white mushrooms and a small amount of minced chicken.

Creamy and mellow.

The fried bread dices are floating on top of the soup, which is a very special feature.

There are two or three pieces of beef in the beetroot soup, with cabbage, seaweed heads, carrots and tomatoes.

There is a fragrant leaf floating on it.

The taste is light and salty, slightly sweet.

Butter grilled fish is served on a large deep white plate.

Inside is sliced ​​mandarin fish without spines, which tastes delicious, neither salty nor fishy.

There is a layer of cheese, cream, eggs and a very small amount of butter fried noodles baked on top, which can be pulled out when eaten.

There are squeezed buttercream flowers on the side.

Iron pan grilled miscellaneous mix, served on a rectangular iron pan, with various fried meats on it.

Bring it up, there is an alcohol stove underneath, and there is an iron shelf on it.

Put the iron plate on the rack, and the waiter will crack an egg on the iron plate meat in front of the customer.

With a "stab", as the eggs fell, a puff of white smoke rose from the iron plate, with a tangy aroma and atmosphere.

But what surprised Ning Weimin the most was the canned beef stew.

In this day and age, food that Lao Mo couldn't even find was eaten here, how could he not be happy.

Especially the moment when the bread shell that sealed the mouth of the jar was knocked open, the smell of beef...

In his previous life, he had to order western food in Beijing. He missed this bite for a long time, and his mouth was watering before he even had it in his mouth.

After Kang Shude tasted a few mouthfuls, he also felt much better because of the excellent taste of the dishes.

Although there is no shadow of the past here, in his opinion, the taste still retains [-]% to [-]% of the past.

In particular, he also drank the vermouth that he used to order every time he went to Qishilin, which was rare elsewhere.

The old man finally found some sense of the past, so he came to talk a little bit.

Pointing to the dishes on the table, he chatted with Ning Weimin.

Tell the disciples what is good about this dish, and what is the shortcoming of that dish.

In fact, Ning Weimin really had a lot of curious things to ask, for example, he couldn't understand something at first.

"Grandpa, isn't this Shilin opened by a German? It should only serve German food, right? Why is it all Russian food here? Look at this salad, it has potatoes and mayonnaise, as you told me , this is a typical Russian salad, exactly the same as Lao Mo’s.”

Kang Shude shook his head in reply.

"It's true that the owner of Qishilin is German. They can do business, of course, to make money. When it first opened, Qishilin's signature was English, German, and French cuisine, and it also sold candy and bread."

"To put it bluntly, it is what is easy to sell. So when the White Russian nobles came to Jinmen, Qishilin also bought Russian dishes and became a restaurant that also serves the dishes of the four countries. This is not surprising."

"Today, it's probably because the ingredients of Russian cuisine are the most common, and it's best to prepare them well. This place has become mainly Russian cuisine."

"But to be honest, even Russian cuisine is not complete nowadays. In the past, the Russian cuisine here included roasted duck with apples, Caucasian dumpling soup, and caviar."

"Oh, that's right." Ning Weimin thought about it.

"I said, the canned beef stew here is so good. I haven't eaten this dish before Lao Mo, only the stewed lamb and stewed chicken. I'm still surprised, why didn't Lao Mo make his specialty dishes .Anyway, if you can make this dish taste like this, the level of this scholar is no less than that of Lao Mo..."

Unexpectedly, his words made Kang Shude shake his head again.

"Why do you say that this pot of stewed beef is Lao Mo's specialty? This has always been a special dish of Shilin. When did Lao Mo sell a pot of stewed beef? And you said it the other way around. You I probably didn’t know that the technical backbone of the Moscow Western Restaurant and Xinqiao Restaurant in the capital were all from Tianjin’s cheese forest when they were first established. So the stewed mutton and stewed chicken they sold were also learned from them. Cheeselin."

"Ah!" Ning Weimin really understood at this time, where is the root of this pot of stewed beef, and how high is Qishilin's status.

(End of this chapter)