It’s been a long time since I wrote about a Hutong restaurant. It seems that apart from this special and ordinary place, there is no motivation to write about a restaurant. When I write about a restaurant, I’m not actually writing about a restaurant... If you are a new friend, you I would say that this person is really hypocritical. If you are an old friend, you will naturally know what I am talking about. This time, we gathered a few small shops in Dongsi and Andingmen in the Hutong District of Beijing. They are ever-changing and have strange shapes, but I believe there will always be a small group of aliens who can fit into their shapes perfectly.
1. Qulangyuan
I have a miraculous sister who is also a native of Beijing. She is carefree and has a delicate mind. She is also a complex and simple person. We were colleagues for a short time in 2010. When I was in Nyingchi, Tibet a few days ago, I heard from the eldest brother at the dinner table that people rarely make friends after college, and she is one of the few.
I am very busy. From working for a big company to now becoming a middle-aged literary girl who writes and shoots movies for herself, time has never been my own. I have been arranged, asked to do homework and urged to and fro. First, I need time to reply. Secondly, I lost my mood and lowered the quality of the content. In the end, didn’t the people who urged me suffer? She is very busy and often works overtime. If she forwards my official account to Moments, she will be scolded by the leader: "Do you want to return to life?" She also lives involuntarily. She loves to study, seeks to make progress, and has some savings after working for many years. Suddenly one day, she told me that she wanted to learn French and study abroad, because France used to be the commanding height of art in the world, so she retreated for two years and rarely saw each other, but each time was still short. Every meeting can bring me new insights, and every time I can say a sentence that I will remember, it makes me suddenly realize that I still have a taste when I chew it every now and then.
She told me a story once, a man asked an angel, why can you go through stones? The angel said: You can go through air because you are harder than air. I can go through stone because I am harder than stone.
These words allow me to persist in myself even when I suffer hardships and criticisms, to get through it without shame, and to make myself harder than a rock.
Once she told me, you read a book called "Goodbye, Old Beijing", which is written by an American, and it will make you cry. I didn’t have time. After a long time, I finally thought of searching on Himalaya. I listened to the whole book with joy and fear, and my heart became a bottomless pit. I told her that I had finished listening, and didn’t say anything more. Feel without words.
The cover of the book is so ordinary, with blue fences, broken three rounds, foggy and tidal haze in the distance, semi-finished buildings and tower cranes, which are "building" their capital and destroying our Beijing.
Since then, I have often talked about this book and recommended other friends to read it, often depicting a representative scene in the book:
In Beijing, the dynamic capital of China, change is the only constant theme.
The ruins of this "chessboard" still remain in Beijing. The area of more than 60 square kilometers is about the size of Manhattan, and the narrow alleys called hutongs still exist. Hutongs are to Beijing what rivers are to Venice. Hutongs have been a cultural feature of the city for centuries, even if they are less than one-eighth of what they used to be.
Beijing is not a city in the eyes of Westerners. In 1962, a foreign reporter defined it as "the largest village in history". Despite the world's second-busiest airport, nearly a hundred Starbucks and a new subway system stretching beyond the urban core, it's still a countryside in the eyes of some Beijingers.
Over the past decade, like the capital of any rising country, the great village of Beijing has gone international. Across Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, a hundred kilometers away, marks the city's broad boundaries. Perhaps its change can be illustrated with this vignette:
A few years ago, I saw an optimistic banner hanging on the demolition site of an old building, which read: Reappear the ancient capital. One night, someone quietly removed the left half of the second word, so the slogan became: Goodbye to the ancient capital.
For passers-by, both of these slogans may be correct, and Beijing is once again in the cycle of reconstruction and rebirth once every 800 years. The altered banner was pulled down within hours, but that doesn't matter because Beijingers don't need to read it to feel the changes in the city -- they live in it every day.
——"Goodbye, Old Beijing" Michael Mayer
Over the years, many things have happened in the hutongs. Those who like and dislike come and go, those who are suitable and those who are not suitable vie for germination. Nine years ago, I was puzzled by my colleagues and even reprimanded my region because of it. In the end, it was time and people. It has proved its charm and value in itself.
More and more people are igniting their love for Beijing Hutongs. Hutongs are the cultural symbols and cultural heritage of Beijing, which is on the brink of extinction. As a powerless person, I am grateful to the shopkeepers who use the hutong for whatever purpose, for protective use, for protection, as long as it can be kept.
However, when people began to pay attention to it, it had already been severely damaged, irrecoverable, irreparable, heartache, and no one could be punished. And the matter of drawing salaries from the bottom of the pot is staged again-renovation, tearing down walls and digging holes.
Every time I need to meet with friends, I always choose a hutong shop that I want to go to, to experience, cherish, and enjoy the environment and location there. I also hope that my friends can also understand the Beijing hutong. charm.
This time the record is the love deeply rooted in my heart - Qulangyuan. It appeared once in the list of Hutong stores at the beginning of last year. The photos of that time were taken with a small fixed focus, and it is really difficult to express its beauty in part. . This time, let the large wide-angle show its skills, and it is easy to take your breath away with just a single glance.
This house was originally a hutong house in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. The abandoned small courtyard was transformed into a green bamboo seclusion with several verandas by the designer, breaking the conventional courtyard pattern and combining the courtyard representing Confucianism in the north and the courtyard representing Taoism in the south. gardens combined. If this is just a tea house, how many young people today can go to the tea house from time to time? If this is just an exhibition hall, then who can keep it?
However, it is such a magical compound space. Here is still a tea house, where you can drink tea and taste tea, and it is also a restaurant, where you can eat precious local ingredients and delicious meals made with Western cooking techniques, and it is also an exhibition hall that focuses on local art works.
The so-called abandonment is just that its value is temporarily not recognized.
Today, the small courtyard of the Qing Dynasty, which has been transformed into Qulangyuan, accommodates the body and mind of people from all over the world, and presents the diversity of local ingredients with cross-border cuisine.
The store abandons imported ingredients and focuses on domestic high-grade ingredients, adapting measures to local conditions, digging out the connotation and characteristics of local ingredients, from luxury to simplicity. The young and outstanding chef who once worked in a Michelin restaurant is in charge, based on local ingredients and rendered with Western-style techniques.
The head chef is well versed in the essence of Chinese and Western cooking skills, and the new fusion dishes that combine Italian and French cuisine often make people marvel at the combination of dishes. The dishes are served on a simple plate, bringing out the essence of the food itself. Even the tableware is very particular. The copper spoons are from the hands of Korean craftsmen, and each one is different. The chopsticks are handmade by Japanese masters.
From 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in autumn, the sunlight slanted through the window sills, sprinkled on the wooden table, and collided with the water glasses and wine glasses. The glass and water reflected the most beautiful light and shadow.
The food was served, and the dishes were beautiful, new, surprising, and full of memories.
Fangshan Shidu Caviar, Yanqing Farm Pumpkin Flowers, Shidu Lengxi Wild Male Fish, Miyun Wagyu, Ningxia Silver Heights Winery Century Warrior Wine, indeed, there is no need to advertise Japanese Wagyu, French wine, Norwegian salmon, American king crab... Just in China, right here, same, even better.
The set meal that my sister and I ate was Muxi. I was stunned looking at this "fried pumpkin flower with butterfly shrimp and lemon sauce". This is the first time I have seen a dish made with pumpkin flower . There are East China Sea butterfly shrimp hidden in the pumpkin flowers of Yanqing Farm. The slightly sour taste comes from the lemon, and the grainy taste comes from the pine nuts. The taste is unique and unforgettable.
In my memory, we call it the old pumpkin flower, which is the favorite "big meal" of grasshoppers. I have raised it almost every year since I was a child, from 50 cents a piece to more than ten yuan now. When I was a child, I lived in a bungalow, and my own house didn’t grow. Old pumpkin flowers and loofah flowers climbed on the fence of the vegetable garden of the neighbor’s old man’s house. When they met me, they would be my nemesis. After school, they would secretly pick them up and feed the grasshoppers. They swallowed it happily with their big teeth crunching, and heard the crisp sound of wings rubbing from time to time. Sometimes the old man happened to meet Huahuaer, and I would smile sarcastically, say hello to Grasshopper, and then pretend to slow down and run away.
Sliced raw scallops served with Haiborui caviar, using Zhoushan scallops and Shidu Lengxi caviar; fried male fish with coriander crispy rice using Shidu Lengxi wild male fish; fried white snails with black bean sauce and almond bamboo charcoal sandy soil,
Miyun fresh wagyu beef for rice with beef short ribs in tea soup. August is the harvest season of matsutake in Yunnan. A dish of fire-roasted matsutake with sea salt and vanilla powder cooks the natural mushroom aroma of this season.
The watermelon and farm organic tomato in the suburbs of Beijing, served with ricotta cheese and balsamic vinegar, is a refreshing and creative side dish; the fried steak made of Miyun fresh wagyu beef is served with organic vegetables and port wine sauce. In Australia Wagyu.
The last two desserts should be eaten in your stomach. The tundra made of melon, whipped cream and cucumber, due to the ingredients, Huoshan fresh dendrobium + lychee + evaporated milk Qingxia was replaced by matcha peach gum. The novel taste and combination is I never thought about it, let alone tried it, and was pleasantly surprised.
Qulangyuan
Per capita: rich and thrifty, Muxi set meal: ¥788/person, a la carte is also available
Address: No. 25, East 41, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Wan wǎn
Per capita: 140 yuan
Address: No. 10, Wudaoying Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
I stubbornly believe that most people who like similar restaurants have similar life attitudes and concepts. I stubbornly love restaurants with a beautiful environment. Whenever I find one, I can’t wait to share it, but this can’t wait and I’m always caught by the busy life. Extended indefinitely, the store was actually filmed on October 14, 2016.
When Nanluo fell, when the Drum Tower was preparing for the war, and Fangjia Hutong was blocked by force majeure after N good stores, Wudaoying was still a place I visited more frequently. This treasure that I have collected for a long time is at the east entrance of Wudaoying Hutong. Hidden in the lintels of rich families is the grafting of Saigon, Vietnam and Beijing courtyards.
Its magic is that no matter how smoggy and dry Beijing is, it will always be surrounded by green plants and full of vitality. The moist mist permeates the air, which is fresh and refined. The standard courtyard behind the glass sensor door is set up with tall glass The roof has floor heating in winter and coolness in summer, stepping into Southeast Asia in one step.
The urban landscape of Sai Kung is naturally superimposed into the courtyards of old Beijing, with sufficient light and skylights for ventilation, precise temperature and humidity control, so that birds of paradise, traveler bananas, poinciana, monstera, kiwi, pineapple, coconut, mangosteen , Longan and other tropical plants can grow healthily in the yard.
What hangs on the wall is not a picture, but the original old wooden pane of the old house. It has been completely preserved and has become the current decoration. This is cleverly set up, just like a mirror, which makes you think There is still space behind the windows, which increases the visual sense of space.
Withered trees come spring, old buildings are active again in the new era, and the north room, east and west wing rooms, courtyard and second-floor terrace have become places for us to enjoy it. What you eat in this kind of Beijing courtyard is not the well-behaved home-cooked or official dishes, but fresh Vietnamese dishes.
Its signature is "Yi Wan Noodles", and the soup, rice noodles, and side dishes are all very particular. Use beef bone, beef, tendon, oxtail, pineapple, sugar cane, lemongrass, pandan leaves to ensure a large amount of vitamin C needed by the human body, mixed with onion and ginger, start from 6:00 in the morning and cook for 6 hours on low heat, 12:00 The pre-cooking is completed. The soup is clear and clear, with a rich and thick taste. Then put the cooked rice noodles, beef tendon, beef brisket, perilla, bean sprouts, mint, millet chili rings, and lemon into the soup. Take a bite of sweet and sour, salty and spicy, and want to ask where you are .
Golden tofu, Dettol coffee, fresh shrimp spring rolls, Tom Yum Kung noodles, Vietnamese sandwiches, glutinous rice and avocado, Tom Yum Kung seafood hot pot, sugarcane spring rolls, avocado prawn salad... as well as the sunshine in the northern hemisphere and the rain in Southeast Asia, all in the old Beijing courtyard Take back the loop.
Muming Coffee
Alias: L'infusion
Address: No. 53, Wudaoying Hutong, Lama Temple Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
At the beginning of 2011, the weather was still cold in winter, which was the vacuum period when I changed jobs for the first time. My Hangzhou colleague Yang Xin, who also likes cats, came to Beijing and stayed at my house. I took her to my favorite Muming Coffee and went on a business trip in Hangzhou. On weekends and weekday evenings, she would take me to various scenic spots and restaurants in Hangzhou, and take a walk on the small roads that are rarely visited by tourists. Do you remember the travel note I wrote about Hangzhou, saying that it was her. For review, please click "Visit the filming location of the movie "The Curse", one of the top ten haunted houses in Hangzhou with a history of more than 100 years."
I still remember that in the early morning of that weekday, we were the first customers of this cafe and the only table for a period of time. You must know that it was hard to find a cafe in the afternoon at that time.
I like it here not only because of the sunny second floor, retro and comfortable furniture and environment, but also because of the four super invincible big fat cats, pure black, pure white, yellow and white, and a tortoiseshell tabby cat, all of which are very fleshy Almost, some have a bad temper and don't provoke them, and some can be hugged, but they have sharp claws, so be careful! They lie down next to you, wandering around on the table where you put coffee and tea cups, declaring their sovereignty.
This is a place of great love that I have never written about, but I have always buried it in my heart. It was also the store when the founder of Wudaoying was founded. It was still very depressed in 2010, but it is already here.
Its neighbors ebb and flow, and I will appear on the stage after you sing. The Grape Yard, which was once a smash hit and opened a branch store, is now hard to find. The top brand of saffron in the alley has long been covered by N shops and it has been forgotten. Only Mu Tea and coffee are still the same. I'm glad.
The photography technology in 2011 is nothing to say, shame
Cloud Sihe
Formerly: Muming Coffee Courtyard Store
Address: 100 meters ahead of Exit E, Line 5, Lama Temple, No. 60, Andingmen East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Not long after Muming Coffee opened, I found out that Muming Coffee also had a courtyard shop when I searched on Dianping. It wasn’t until 6 years later, on September 25, 2016, that I was with my junior high school and high school classmates—well, alone , especially by fate, they all passed the test in one place - to go to the courtyard shop to have a cat addiction.
The courtyard shop is a few steps away from the Wudaoying shop. Behind the grove on the side of Andingmen Road, there is a neat one-story courtyard. It is not very accurate to say that the courtyard house is not very accurate, because there is no north room, and the east-west wing room and the inverted south room are composed. A courtyard, the upper part of the courtyard is sealed into a sun room, there is a small private room, and more places are nostalgic and retro-style scattered seats. It is so beautiful in my heart that it is a 0-degree space in this chaotic city.
The signatures here include more than 30 kinds of coffee, such as drip filter, Italian, and American, made from the best Italian coffee beans, and more than 10 kinds of Australian beer and wine. The biggest point is a group of stray cats adopted by the owner.
If you are also a cat lover, you can see at a glance the biggest difference between these stray cats and those cats in cat-themed cafes or board game shops-the appearance. I don't like those cats who serve guests full-time. They look cat prostitutes. Every cat in Muming Coffee is just like my own. I call them good cats.
This little raccoon looks like it's only three months old, and it's the most mischievous. When I had a meal with my classmates, it always came to make trouble, stretched out its hand to eat, pulled it back, and came back later. In the picture, when it was about to leap, it was caught by a classmate but failed.
Sometimes the children would just squat at the door, looking out through the glass door, wondering if they were planning how to escape from prison, or if they were content with the life of putting on clothes, reaching out for food and opening their mouths.
Now, the courtyard store of Muming Coffee has been changed to "Sihe in the Cloud". The shabu-shabu restaurant decorated with Tibetan style has few cats, and more of them have been sent to Wudaoying store.
other shopping
Baozi and Bakery
Address: No. 75, Wudaoying Hutong A, Dongcheng District, Beijing
A well-known handicraft shop in Wudaoying. The first time I knew it was in the program on the plane. If I remember correctly, it should be a girl who met this Garfield in winter and took it in. The cat lay on her side while she worked, and this plaster painting shop was born after that. Plaster is the mold of various Garfield cats. People can choose the base they like, paint it in the color and image they like, and calculate the price according to the mold. On the day I went, the room was full of people, adults and children were very serious about drawing, just like taking handicraft lessons when I was a child. An old aunt with a northeast accent was very nice and allowed me to take pictures, so I recorded these scenes.
Since I don't like the frowning of the big pancake face like bun folds, I don't really like it. In my sister's words: it's like owing money to it.
SAVE AS Save As
Address: No. 20, Wudaoying Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
This vintage retro life culture grocery store is also a small shop of the founders of Wudaoying. It existed here as early as 2010. Its motto is: nothing happened without records, advocating nostalgic retro slow life, selling N Kind of things that our parents and even grandparents used in those days. Although the shops in Wudaoying are crowded with each other, it still has its own world and is one of the most distinctive shops.
Old TVs, old telephones, cards serving the people, blue washbasin stands, pinballs, tin frogs... a small object can open up memories from decades ago. When you plan to "clean up the door", please Think twice, maybe trash can guests will become a rarity in a few years.
No Ming Tea House
Address: No. 61, Andingmen East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
This is a small shop that I walked past after going to Muming Coffee that day. It is a neighbor on the same side as it. It is also a small courtyard with a glass sun room, with a different temperament. This is a tea house, quiet amidst the hustle and bustle. The name of the tea house is Wuming, which means to cure by doing nothing, and the fragrance of tea stays far away. Silence is better than sound, no tea is better than fame.
Here you can learn and practice calligraphy, drink tea, understand the knowledge of tea, and find an ethereal state of mind.
Rushan Guqin
Address: No. 59, Andingmen East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Rushan Guqin is next to Wuming Tea House. If you didn’t enter here, you really don’t know, and you don’t dare to think. There are really many people who are learning classical art. You can learn Guqin, meticulous painting, freehand brushwork, and tea ceremony here... …
faded memory
life of things
The CHANGE exchange store at No. 67, Wudaoying Hutong, existed in the early days of Wudaoying’s construction. You can use money to buy goods in the store, or you can use the old things you don’t want at home to offset the amount to exchange for what you want. Here No cash purchase of any items, nor any form of consignment. The original intention of the exchange store is to promote the flow of idle resources in society, not a barter exchange club. "Communication changes the meaning of life", not only items are exchanged, but also moods are changed. Later, this method could not survive, so it was changed to a second-hand store.
There are really many great collectibles in the store, old antiques, gadgets, and of course the prices are not cheap, so I am not willing to buy them. In the store, I found the wool felt brooch I bought in Shanghai. It was 58 yuan, and there was no price increase, which is very real. Since photography is not allowed, I only took a picture of the entrance.
Today, this legendary store no longer exists.
100 little lives
Maybe you have never noticed that there is a small gap in No. 70 of Wudaoying. It is a bicycle buyer’s shop, which is also a cafe, a small restaurant and a workshop. You can engrave a rubber stamp here. Make a passport holder, draw a colored pencil drawing, sew a felt animal...
About the name of the store, it is said on the Internet: Lu Guangzhong's lyrics "The boundless planet has the life I want, and there are 100 kinds".
Today, I slowly began to understand that life is more than just going to and from get off work and going to and from work. As long as you dare to dream, work hard, and practice, it is possible to realize it one day.
Today, the shop of 100 kinds of small lives has been closed, and our life may open the door of another possibility at any time. Ask yourself from time to time, is the life you want right now? In fact, the key is in your hand.
The girl in the picture is the miraculous sister mentioned at the beginning. I would like to wish you a safe and smooth life in a foreign country with this article.
Travel food independent photographer, freelance writer, senior media person.
Except for the quoted materials, the pictures and texts are all original by the author, and unauthorized reprinting or commercial use is prohibited. Contact information, Weibo and public account with the same name @刚职情好
