At this time, Brother Liu Haojia took a step back, highlighting Zhang Shunping's presence. Zhang Shunping smiled broadly as everyone bowed their hands and saluted. He took a thin hemp rope from a waiter and pulled it gently. The red cloth covering the plaque fell down, revealing the ebony plaque behind it! There are three big characters written on the plaque: Shiweizhai!
These three characters are written vigorously and powerfully. Zhang Shunping paid a lot of money to have them written by famous artists!
As soon as the red cloth on the plaque fell, the guy next to him lit the firecrackers! The sound of "cracking" suddenly sounded on the street, and everyone on the street knew that this restaurant was officially opened!
As soon as the firecrackers ended, Zhang Shunping led the guests into the restaurant. The first floor of a restaurant is generally used to receive individual customers, so there will be as many tables as possible. However, Shiweizhai is basically planning to take the boutique route, so even the seats for individual customers on the first floor are relatively loose!
And the most amazing thing is that each table is separated by low walls of different heights. On the low walls are pots of green plants of different sizes, dividing each table into independent space! The height of the green plants is not very high, just a little higher than people's eyesight, so it is absolutely guaranteed that the neighboring tables cannot be seen! And with the blocking of plants, even the voices of people talking at the next table can be blocked a lot!
Seeing this scene, all the guests were amazed and praised Zhang Shunping for his good intentions! Someone said: "With these flowers, plants and trees, the scattered tables become like an elegant room, which makes people feel much more at ease. What a thoughtful idea!"
"That's true! And haven't you noticed that the height of these green plants is just enough to block everyone's view and prevent them from seeing the table next door!"
"Many of these flowers and plants are evergreen plants from the south. I'm afraid it's difficult to grow them in the north, and they'll cost a lot of money to maintain!"
"It's not particularly difficult. All you need to do is put a few more carbon pots in winter. It doesn't cost a lot of money, but the effect is very good!"
When they walked around on the first floor and went up the stairs to the second floor, they discovered that the empty space in the middle of the second floor was made into a small stage, with the surrounding rooms forming a large semicircle surrounding the stage. What makes everyone even more surprised is that the doors of all private rooms are an entire wall!
The entire wall is made up of sixteen wooden boards, with hinges in the middle and grooved slides up and down. If all the wooden boards are pulled apart, a wall will be formed, which will seal the room into a sealed and complete private room! But if these wooden boards are pushed aside, they will fold up, and the entire wall will open to reveal the dining table inside. This allows people sitting inside to see the performers on stage!
This discovery made everyone praise Zhang Shunping again! Zhang Shunping accepted it with a proud face, but he was determined not to say that these ideas came from other people!
Just when the guests wanted to go to the third floor, they were stopped by Zhang Shunping and said: "Everyone, there is nothing interesting on the third floor. They are all private rooms, but the area is a little larger! And now the third floor There are noble people here, so don’t go up and disturb us! When you have time in the future, Zhang will definitely invite everyone to come up and have a seat!"
These guests are all businessmen, so they naturally know that they cannot offend those noble people, so they made a joke and followed Zhang Shunping to sit down on the second floor, waiting for the food to be served, so as to have a taste of what this Shiweizhai has to offer?
Just as they were sitting down, food was already being served at Father Liu's table on the third floor! The first things to come are cold pickles and cold dishes. Liu Haojia really doesn't have any innovative methods for these things, because many braised food recipes were passed down from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and they have not improved much when they were passed down to modern times.
In addition, Liu Haojia himself is not a chef. So he couldn't make much improvement. All he could do was collect as many spices as possible in the market and hand them over to the chefs. Therefore, these cold dishes did not surprise these honorable guests too much after they tasted them. Only a few dishes were eye-catching!
You know, Liu's father boasted about it very much at the beginning, so everyone was a little disappointed after tasting the cold dishes! But fortunately, we are all nobles, and we have to save some face, so we won't directly laugh at Liu's father at this time.
But Father Liu guessed something by looking at the expressions on everyone's faces, so he immediately said: "Our family's ability is not in cold dishes, but in hot dishes! You will know the level when the hot dishes are served soon!"
While I was talking, the first dish had already been served, a spicy tofu dish! Everyone became curious when they saw the color of the food! As soon as the chopsticks went down, everyone shouted "Enjoyed!"
"It's too spicy, I can't stand it!"
"Get me water quickly!"
“This dish is delicious!”
Father Liu smiled secretly when he saw the faces of everyone! But he knew in his heart that he had the same virtue when he ate this dish for the first time! God knows where Liu Haojia found this kind of ghost stuff. It tasted delicious, but it was too spicy and burned his tongue a little!
In fact, with the advent of the Age of Discovery, many exotic species have taken root in China and have begun to gradually become localized. This chili is one of them!
According to a Ming Dynasty book "Hua Cao Lu", pepper had been localized in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but at that time its name was Panjiao and it was grown as an ornamental plant. As a result, Liu Haojia sent people to collect these peppers and make them into seasonings!
Moreover, China's eight major cuisines have not yet taken shape at this time, so many dishes have not yet fully appeared in the world. Liu Haojia could only describe the appearance and general preparation of these dishes, as well as the raw materials and ingredients to these chefs, and then let the chefs explore on their own.
Armed with so many tips, these chefs quickly copied many of these future dishes, and they turned out to be great! This is also the reason why he opened this restaurant!
As the dishes were served one after another, these nobles finally knew that today's meal was different from the past! This article describes the nobles living in the capital with fine clothes and fine food. They can pat their chests and say that there are few things in the world that they have not eaten! But they have never tasted most of today’s dishes!
It’s okay if the dishes are fresh, but you can figure it out if you study slowly. But what’s hard to learn is that this whole table of dishes highlights three features! The first one is salty, which is one of the main traditions of northern cuisine, especially suitable for the taste of northerners!
The second one is spicy! In the past, when people ate spicy food, they usually used dogwood as seasoning. But the spiciness produced by dogwood is more like that of horseradish! And it also has a slight astringent taste! So after chili peppers were officially classified as condiments, they were completely eliminated!
