National Tide 1980

Ten miles of red makeup, thousands of bright lanterns, the traditional wedding of ancient Han style is full of elegance and luxury.

The drums and music sounded, the phoenixes and the birds sang in harmony, and the joy and auspiciousness of the Chinese wedding is the accumulation of thousands of years.

The phoenix crown, the golden hairpin, the hair combed in the palace style makeup, the moment the bride was lifted off the veil was enough to stun the four people.

Following the ancient rituals, worshiping heaven and earth, respecting the parents, making solemn vows, and holding the case together until the hair turns white.

This is the charm of the Chinese wedding.

Gorgeous, solemn and full of style.

Accompanied by bursts of laughter, accompanied by applause and cheers.

From the old director of the Temple of Heaven Park as the master of ceremonies to read the marriage certificate, to the bride and groom serving tea to the elders and relatives of both parties sitting in front of the hall, and then the guests of status gave congratulations until the ceremony was over.

All the wedding processes were joyous, lively and proper.

With the witness of friends from all walks of life, Chinese and foreign guests, and the envy and admiration of countless people, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko completed their wedding ceremony very smoothly and beautifully.

The calligraphy work written by Huo Yanping himself, "The love between the two sides of the strait is a happy marriage, and the coincidence of fate is happy and happy", has become the best blessing for this Chinese-Japanese couple and their transnational marriage from all the people present.

As the parties involved in the first transnational marriage in the country, Song Huagui and Wan Man's on-site speeches, and the heart-shaped wall hangings they jointly presented to Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, have become the most appropriate and meaningful wedding gifts at this time and place.

To be honest, these are actually nothing.

Because the few words Huo Yanping told Ning Weimin in private were the surprise that far exceeded his expectations, and it was his biggest gain in today's wedding.

"Wei Min, the Spring Festival Gala has been basically discussed. The higher-ups are very grateful to you for facilitating this matter. You have made a great contribution this time. It's just a pity that this matter needs to be kept secret and cannot be publicized. The person who came with me can't stay to drink your wedding wine. But don't be disappointed. This calligraphy is given to you by him, and it can be regarded as a congratulatory gift. In addition, he asked me to bring you a message. If you encounter any policy problems that you don't understand when doing business in China, you can ask him for advice. He is willing to help you solve your doubts."

The profoundness of the Chinese language lies in the sense of discretion in speaking, and many things are implied.

After Ning Weimin thanked him, he found an opportunity to get away under the pretext of going to the toilet, and first went to a place where no one was there to secretly open the calligraphy scroll.

At a glance, he found that the gift of this calligraphy was "zumaolinzhi, zongupingshi", and he couldn't help but feel ecstatic and understood everything.

You know, this is a congratulatory message for having many descendants and a prosperous clan.

How much confidence does one have to have to say this? How much weight does one have?

Moreover, the value of this calligraphy is not only in the signature, but also in the seal, which is a serious promise.

To put it bluntly, the value of this calligraphy is not something that can be calculated in terms of money.

If you want to find an appropriate word to describe it, I'm afraid it can only be "iron scroll and red book".

Of course, this is just a symbolic thing.

Ning Weimin doesn't think that he can do whatever he wants and walk sideways everywhere.

He doesn't intend to really flatter others and make excessive demands.

Because he knows that uncontrollable greed is the way to disaster. Even if it is really an iron scroll and red book, it didn't save Mr. Chai.

But at the very least, with this thing, as long as he does business honestly and legally.

Not to mention in the capital, even if he travels all over the country, no one will deliberately forget him.

He doesn't have to worry about the kind of unforeseen disaster that private businessmen fear the most. This should be a magic weapon that can scare away all ghosts and avoid them, and can specifically defeat evil spirits.

From this point of view, even if he can't get a penny back from making the movie "Crazy Rich Asians", he thinks it's worth it!

How can he not be beautiful?

So when he returned to the table and started to toast, he couldn't restrain his smile.

He grinned at every turn, and seemed to want to laugh for no reason, which made almost everyone mistakenly think that he was conceited for today's glory and finally became a groom.

But then again, this day is supposed to be a day for everyone to enjoy. Don't just look at Ning Weimin's beauty, how can the guests on this day not be beautiful?

If nothing else, it's good food and drink, it's fun to watch, and there are gifts to receive in return. Who wouldn't be happy?

Let's talk about eating first. People in Beijing understand that the word "ban" in "banxishi" refers to setting up a banquet.

Whether it is a wedding or a funeral, including birthday celebrations, as long as you don't prepare wine and food to entertain relatives and friends, you can't send invitations to invite people, and you can't accept cash and physical gifts from relatives and friends.

No matter how many etiquette activities there are, no matter how big or grand, it is also called "not doing things".

To put it bluntly, eating and drinking are the main content of all celebrations.

In the past, this was called "nibbling", for example, when the person who contributed money returned home, the people who didn't go would ask, "How is the 'nibbling' prepared today?"

If the person who contributed money answered, "Yes, this preparation is really 'hard'. This is a great event."

It means that the food prepared by the host is very affordable and enough to satisfy the guests.

If they say, "Oh, don't mention it. Even the salt seller was beaten to death. It's not for people to eat."

It means that the family is stingy and prepared few dishes. They are afraid that there will not be enough food, so they have to ask the chef to make the dishes extra spicy to deal with the problem.

Both of the above statements are very straightforward and rude, but this is the overall evaluation of the host's event by the invited person.

In the former case, the "hard preparation" of the table implicitly sets off the goodness of other ceremonial and entertainment activities, and gives a comprehensive affirmation.

In the latter case, the host fools the invited relatives and friends in terms of food and drink, and even if the ceremonial and entertainment activities are good, they will inevitably be wiped out by the people who contribute to the meal, and completely denied.

Therefore, from ancient times to the present, the "outsiders" in the capital have never failed to pay attention to the banquet when holding weddings.

Don't look at the words "respectfully serve and drink lightly" on the invitation, which is just a humble and polite term.

In fact, it must not be light, especially when holding birthdays and birthday celebrations.

Why?

Because marrying a daughter-in-law, hiring a girl, and sending off the elderly are unavoidable for rich or poor families. The quality of the banquet should be done according to one's ability, and relatives and friends will naturally have an understanding.

Only in the matter of birthday celebrations, this is originally a icing on the cake, and it is a "show off wealth". If the prepared banquet is not good and the food and drinks are too bad, it will inevitably affect the character of the host family, and people will suspect that the host family is intentionally "casting a net to catch fish".

And in this regard, how is the wedding today?

Needless to say, this "four-four to the end" fruit banquet is enough to surprise the guests just from the number of dishes and routines.

Ordinary people, hey, don't talk about ordinary people, as long as you haven't eaten the "official banquet" at the Tan Palace Restaurant, who has seen such a grand show in your life?

Who has seen a banquet with dozens of dishes from hot to cold, fancy and garish, and the price is rising?

Not to mention, every dish is made by an expert, there is no stuff to fool people, and the taste is also great.

If you don't believe it, just count and see.

The dried fruits were provided by the eldest son-in-law of the Luo family. They are a family of nobles. They used to be famous for their "Beng Dou Ding" in the south city.

Now he has been hired by the Tan Palace and has become a formal employee. He receives the salary of the head chef every month. He does nothing every day but making dried fruits.

The snack cakes are baked by the chefs of the Tan Palace Restaurant according to the methods taught by Master Luo and Luo Guangsheng.

The Luo family father and son also have their own background. They learned from the authentic Manchurian cake shop "Zhengmingzhai".

That was the leading enterprise in the Beijing baking furnace bureau in the past. It was established the earliest and had the most complete categories.

At that time, Daoxiangcun was not even a plaything. It was not even a cake shop. It was a southern food store. You are a junior.

The real big banquet was jointly controlled by Master Pang, who came from Kouzi, and Master Li from Sichuan Restaurant.

This not only ensures the efficiency of serving dishes, but also the quality and taste of the dishes.

Even the raw materials are not ordinary. In addition to mountain and sea delicacies, there are also good things such as chestnut mushrooms, palace yellow, and Jingxi rice.

Think about it, if this table is not wonderful, what other banquet is worthy of such a word?

Even more than that, the most rare thing is that the famous chef "Zhang Dashao" fulfilled his promise and cooked in person on the same day to make the finale of the day for Ning Weimin's wedding banquet - 30 "Eight Treasure Gourd Duck".

Once this dish was served, it amazed the whole audience and let all the guests experience the incredible Chinese cuisine and court delicacies.

It turned out that this dish was extraordinary. It was a famous dish from Jiangnan brought back by Emperor Qianlong during his southern tour.

The word "gourd" in Eight Treasure Gourd Duck is homophonic to "Fu Lu", which means prosperity of the family.

The production process is more exquisite than the name, and it requires a high level of chef skills.

In Suzhou and other places, chefs mostly use small sharp knives to make "Eight Treasure Gourd Duck", but Zhang Dashao is good at using one dish to conquer the world, and uses great force.

He had already instructed the kitchen staff to prepare the ingredients according to his requirements. When making the duck, he only made a small incision of 4.5 inches on the duck, so that the whole duck could be deboned without damaging the duck skin. The whole process was done in one go.

Eight treasures, that is, eight kinds of auxiliary ingredients.

Lotus seeds, shrimps, scallops and other aquatic products are fried until six-tenths done, and glutinous rice is added to help the filling absorb the essence of duck meat.

After stuffing the duck belly, the knife edge is tied with straw rope and made into a gourd shape.

After steaming in a steamer, the gourd-shaped duck embryo is finally fried in oil.

After several rounds of cooking, the duck skin is golden, transparent, tight and shiny when it comes out of the pot.

The shiny and crispy duck skin, tender and juicy duck meat, and soft and glutinous and fragrant fillings taste like a fusion of salty, fresh and mellow flavors.

How to describe the effect of this dish as soon as it is served?

It should be similar to the scene in the movie "Man Han Banquet" where Zhong Zhentao finished cooking the stuffed yellow croaker and then opened it with chopsticks.

Almost no one was not surprised to see the core of this eight-treasure gourd duck.

Even those "VIPs" who were soaking in banquets every day were shocked - their eyes were opened.

And what about Fu Jie and his wife who had eaten this dish in the past?

They were also quite satisfied and said, "This is a delicacy with perfect color, fragrance, taste, meaning and shape. It is a great honor to be able to taste it again now."

In short, with this dish made by Zhang Dashao, the specifications of today's wedding banquet can catch up with those of the state banquet.

In addition, as the saying goes, "no wine, no feast", especially for weddings, wine is more important.

Because "wine" and "long" are homophones, people naturally use the meaning of "wine" as "long" for auspiciousness.

In the past, the most commonly used by people in Beijing was "Shao Huang Erjiu", which was called "gold wine and silver wine".

These two things are naturally not lacking in the weddings organized by Ning Weimin.

At his wedding banquet, Maotai was used for Shaoxing wine and Jimo old wine for Huangjiu.

However, in order not to show off and avoid gossip, the wine at the wedding banquet was served in pots.

The advantage of this is that not only are the utensils exquisite and paired with the tableware, but people of high level can still taste it, which makes them look elegant and reserved.

Like most people in the officialdom, almost all of them can taste it at the first level.

They naturally nodded and smiled, and raised their glasses happily.

Although ordinary people don’t know the goods, they only know that it tastes good, but they can also feel at ease because of it.

For example, Master Mi from No. 2 Shaner Hutong is a person who has only drunk Erguotou and kept talking to Uncle Bian.

"Look, this old Kang is really smart. One bottle of Laobai is enough to divide two or three pots. Don't look at so many tables, in fact, not many bottles are needed. This is a clever move. If I had a son, I would do the same. No wonder this old guy is rich, he is really a businessman, and he knows how to save money."

Uncle Bian is still fair. "Look at what you said, they will refill it for you after you finish drinking it. Besides, this wine is so good, it must be three yuan of good wine, is he stingy? It is reasonable to try to waste less. And those red wines, beer and soda, which one did you not drink? These are cheap?"

Indeed, today there are not only shochu and rice wine, but also white and red wine, as well as the sweet-scented osmanthus Chen and "Five Star Beer" and "Polar Bear" soda that were artificially iced early, which were also placed on the oil table next to it together with the iron bucket.

That is all-inclusive, the main point is to be thoughtful, to take care of the different needs of guests of different genders and ages.

In addition, there is also a thoughtful return gift in terms of food that all guests will not expect.

You should know that at Ning Weimin's wedding today, once a guest leaves, there must be a return gift as a thank you.

Crafts such as wedding cigarettes, wedding candies, utensils, jewelry, and heart knots will not let the guests go home empty-handed.

However, among all the return gifts, there is also a portion of assorted steamed food, which is even more unique.

The steamed food for the return gift is mainly steamed buns, which is considered that after the guests return home after a full meal, they will mostly be tired and unwilling to move.

With steamed buns, once they are hungry, they don't need to turn on the fire, they can directly use steamed buns to fill their hunger.

The special thing is that the fillings of steamed buns are not available in restaurants on the market.

For example: chicken and duck shiitake mushroom filling, sea cucumber and scallop magnolia slice filling, eel filling, green clam filling, white lotus root filling, milk taro filling, jasmine tea and shrimp filling, which is really unique.

Jiang Nianyun personally selected the ingredients and mixed the stuffing for all the buns, and finally put them in the steamer and took them out of the pot. Jiang Nianyun had to watch them in person before they could be put into the cattail bag and paper box as gifts.

The old lady had very high requirements for the quality of the dough. The alkali must be moderate, and it must not be slightly yellow or yellowish to be considered decent.

To be honest, this was actually an innovation of the Ma family, the richest family in Beijing, when they were doing business. As a result, Jiang Nianyun, who was living here as a guest, saw it and learned to embezzle it today.

This should also be regarded as a kind of inheritance, and it is also appropriate.

After all, with Ning Weimin's assets today, he has long been worthy of being the new generation of the richest man in Beijing.