Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Southern City (Part 2 of 5) — Section 1 of 2
Reposted from the web
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Southern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: Chongwen:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Southern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This retry section is 1 of 2.
Section 1 of 2
Menkuang Hutong is full of individual stalls run by Hui Muslims. They pay attention to the hygiene of their utensils, and their food focuses on color, aroma, and taste, which attracts many customers and has earned them quite a reputation. Take Baodu Feng, which sells quick-boiled tripe (baodu). The lamb tripe and tripe kernels (duren) are cooked to the perfect texture—neither too tough nor too soft. The sauces, including fermented bean curd (jiang furu), chive flower paste (jiucaihua), and sesame paste (zhima jiang), are fresh and tasty, so the stall is full of customers every day who come for their fame.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
7. Bai's Tofu Pudding (doufunao) in Menkuang Hutong outside Qianmen.
Bai's Tofu Pudding is run by an elderly man named Bai. The tofu pudding is incredibly white and tender. The mushroom and lamb gravy (koumo zha yangrou lu) smells so good that it makes your mouth water from far away. When you eat it, you add chili oil or garlic sauce, which is truly wonderful. It is no wonder that many financial professionals in suits squeeze into the market, hunching over on small, narrow stools to enjoy this unique tofu pudding.
Bai's Tofu Pudding has a branch stall at the entrance of Guanghe Tower in the meat market, specifically for theatergoers watching Peking opera. Baodu Feng and Bai's Tofu Pudding also sell freshly baked sesame flatbreads (shaobing). Some individual vendors even bring small baskets of these flatbreads here to sell to customers.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
8. Niangao Wang (Rice Cake King) on Menkuang Hutong outside Qianmen
Nian Gao Wang sells traditional northern-style rice cakes (niangao). They are made from glutinous rice or glutinous rice flour, with layers of red bean paste in the middle and topped with shredded green or red silk. Sometimes they also sell pea flour cakes (wandouhuang). In the summer, these rice cakes are kept on large blocks of natural ice to keep them cool and refreshing. In the winter, they are steamed in small bamboo steamers (longti) to keep them soft and hot. When selling them in winter, the vendor takes a plate of steaming rice cakes from the steamer and adds a spoonful of white sugar, making them taste even better.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
9. Mujiazhai at Zangjia Bridge outside Qianmen
My grandmother's family ran a restaurant outside Qianmen at Zangjiaqiao called Mujiazhai, also known as Guangfuguan. If you ask the elders in the southern part of the city, they usually know it. The stir-fried dough bits (chaogeda) at Guangfuguan were made by my grandmother's family. My great-grandmother was a widow. To make a living, she set up a noodle stall selling rice porridge and flour-based foods to passing porters and laborers. My grandmother was also a widow. She managed my great-grandmother's business and worked incredibly hard to build this small restaurant. Two generations of widows ran the place. The name Guangfu uses homophones for the words meaning 'widow's shop.' People say the Little Prince Gong gave it this name to mark it as a widow's restaurant, and that is how it came to be. They specialized in stir-fried dough bits, and this dish became famous.
I heard from my grandmother that the Little Prince Gong loved listening to the operas of Shang Xiaoyun, so he was very close to him. When Shang Xiaoyun first met my grandmother, he thought she looked just like his own mother, from her height to her facial features. He said, 'Old lady, let me adopt you as my godmother!' After saying that, he knelt down and kowtowed, and from then on, she was his godmother. Shang Xiaoyun loved eating stir-fried dough bits, which influenced the Little Prince Gong. He often told the Prince, 'The stir-fried dough bits at my godmother's place are excellent.' The Prince was convinced, so he sent people to carry their own pots, pans, bowls, and stoves to eat there. He held a banquet at Guangfuguan in the private room on the second floor.
My mother invited Madame Mei Lanfang to dinner. Because my mother inherited my grandmother's skills, her stir-fried dough bits tasted different from everyone else's—they really had my grandmother's flavor. She invited Madame Mei, along with Mr. Shang Xiaoyun and his wife, to eat. Shang Xiaoyun was my grandmother's godson, so he just kept eating and eating. Madame Mei said, 'That is enough, brother, stop eating, you are going to burst.'
Born in the South of the City: Decades of Joy and Sorrow on the Stage—Oral history by the three Ma brothers. Ding Yizhuang
(Note by Wang Dongsi: The speaker is Ma Chongnian, nephew of Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang)
Stir-fried dough bits at Mujiazhai
Mujiazhai was a small shop, but it was crowded every day with customers waiting to eat the dough bits stir-fried by Sister-in-law Mu herself.
To make stir-fried dough bits, you knead the dough, cut it into dice-sized cubes, and then use your thumb to roll them into small shapes, which we Shanxi people call cat ears (maoerduo). First, you boil them, then stir-fry them with mung bean sprouts, shredded meat, and chives. The juices from the meat and vegetables soak into the dough bits, making them taste the best.
People say Sister-in-law Mu, like the Mapo of Chengdu's Mapo Tofu, first served her neighbors for free before her reputation spread and she became a professional.
In winter at Mujiazhai, you could still eat fresh spring and summer vegetables, such as Chinese toon (xiangchun) mixed with tofu, smashed cucumber, sugar and vinegar pickled dandelion greens (qumacaiya), and small radishes with sesame paste. People say the Mu family restaurant even had a special heated cellar (nuandongzi) to grow these fresh vegetables.
Food of the Hometown: Eating in Beiping. Liu Zhenwei
(Note by Wang Dongsi: The author was born in 1934.)
10. Xiangjugong halal pastry shop on Qianmen Street
Wang Dianwen personally oversaw the quality of the pastries (bobo). First, he hired experienced and skilled head pastry chefs (zhang'anren) with high salaries. Second, he insisted on buying high-quality raw materials for making the pastries. Back then, the white flour from Renhe Mill was fine, and the small-mill sesame oil from Xihongmen had a pure flavor; even though they were expensive, Xiangjugong still ordered from them. Sugar and other fruit ingredients were all top-tier products. For example, they paid high prices for the best red and white sugar, bought large thin-skinned walnuts from the Western Hills, sourced locust flower honey, and selected Miyun small dates, Western Hills roses, Shandong pears, Shenzhou honey peaches, and hawthorn jelly (jingao) from Jingao Zhang. Even for eggs, Xiangjugong had specific suppliers. Third, they strictly followed production procedures, from mixing the dough and fruit ingredients to the final baking, being very careful with every step. In the pastry industry, there is a saying: 'Thirty percent making, seventy percent baking.' This means that no matter how carefully or well you do the first few steps, if you do not control the oven fire at the end, the heat might be too high and burn them; or the heat might be too low, and they will not be cooked through. Therefore, in a pastry workshop, besides the head chef, the oven worker is the most important. The head chefs and oven workers hired by Xiangjugong were all highly skilled at the time.
Pastry products are seasonal; in the past, Beijingers ate specific pastries at specific times. For example, people ate sweet rice balls (yuanxiao) on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, sun cakes (taiyanggao) on the second day of the second month for the 'Dragon Raises Its Head' festival, wisteria cakes (tengluobing) when wisteria bloomed in the third month, sticky rice dumplings (zongzi) and five-poison cakes (wudubing) during the Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth month, mung bean cakes (lvdougao) to beat the heat in the sixth and seventh months, red and white mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the eighth month, flower cakes (huagao) for the 'climbing high' custom in the ninth month, and in the cold winter months, wealthy families ate hibiscus cakes (furonggao), while ordinary families ate oven-fired cakes (ganglu)—which were pastries made while testing the oven temperature that had rough, broken edges but were still high quality. Xiangjugong produced and supplied all these pastries on time. for holidays, the fasting month of Ramadan, the Eid al-Fitr celebration, and visiting relatives and friends, it was customary to use large and small gift sets (bajian) as presents. The small and large eight-piece pastries (ba jian) made by Xiangjugong are very famous in the southern part of Beijing.
Miscellaneous Talks on Old Beijing by Wang Yongbin.
11. Ha's sesame flatbread (shaobing) shop at Liulichang outside Hepingmen
Haji Sesame Flatbread Shop (Haji Shaobing Pu)
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Southern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: Chongwen:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Southern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This retry section is 1 of 2.
Section 1 of 2
Menkuang Hutong is full of individual stalls run by Hui Muslims. They pay attention to the hygiene of their utensils, and their food focuses on color, aroma, and taste, which attracts many customers and has earned them quite a reputation. Take Baodu Feng, which sells quick-boiled tripe (baodu). The lamb tripe and tripe kernels (duren) are cooked to the perfect texture—neither too tough nor too soft. The sauces, including fermented bean curd (jiang furu), chive flower paste (jiucaihua), and sesame paste (zhima jiang), are fresh and tasty, so the stall is full of customers every day who come for their fame.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
7. Bai's Tofu Pudding (doufunao) in Menkuang Hutong outside Qianmen.
Bai's Tofu Pudding is run by an elderly man named Bai. The tofu pudding is incredibly white and tender. The mushroom and lamb gravy (koumo zha yangrou lu) smells so good that it makes your mouth water from far away. When you eat it, you add chili oil or garlic sauce, which is truly wonderful. It is no wonder that many financial professionals in suits squeeze into the market, hunching over on small, narrow stools to enjoy this unique tofu pudding.
Bai's Tofu Pudding has a branch stall at the entrance of Guanghe Tower in the meat market, specifically for theatergoers watching Peking opera. Baodu Feng and Bai's Tofu Pudding also sell freshly baked sesame flatbreads (shaobing). Some individual vendors even bring small baskets of these flatbreads here to sell to customers.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
8. Niangao Wang (Rice Cake King) on Menkuang Hutong outside Qianmen
Nian Gao Wang sells traditional northern-style rice cakes (niangao). They are made from glutinous rice or glutinous rice flour, with layers of red bean paste in the middle and topped with shredded green or red silk. Sometimes they also sell pea flour cakes (wandouhuang). In the summer, these rice cakes are kept on large blocks of natural ice to keep them cool and refreshing. In the winter, they are steamed in small bamboo steamers (longti) to keep them soft and hot. When selling them in winter, the vendor takes a plate of steaming rice cakes from the steamer and adds a spoonful of white sugar, making them taste even better.
Ye Zufu Talks About Beijing by Ye Zufu
9. Mujiazhai at Zangjia Bridge outside Qianmen
My grandmother's family ran a restaurant outside Qianmen at Zangjiaqiao called Mujiazhai, also known as Guangfuguan. If you ask the elders in the southern part of the city, they usually know it. The stir-fried dough bits (chaogeda) at Guangfuguan were made by my grandmother's family. My great-grandmother was a widow. To make a living, she set up a noodle stall selling rice porridge and flour-based foods to passing porters and laborers. My grandmother was also a widow. She managed my great-grandmother's business and worked incredibly hard to build this small restaurant. Two generations of widows ran the place. The name Guangfu uses homophones for the words meaning 'widow's shop.' People say the Little Prince Gong gave it this name to mark it as a widow's restaurant, and that is how it came to be. They specialized in stir-fried dough bits, and this dish became famous.
I heard from my grandmother that the Little Prince Gong loved listening to the operas of Shang Xiaoyun, so he was very close to him. When Shang Xiaoyun first met my grandmother, he thought she looked just like his own mother, from her height to her facial features. He said, 'Old lady, let me adopt you as my godmother!' After saying that, he knelt down and kowtowed, and from then on, she was his godmother. Shang Xiaoyun loved eating stir-fried dough bits, which influenced the Little Prince Gong. He often told the Prince, 'The stir-fried dough bits at my godmother's place are excellent.' The Prince was convinced, so he sent people to carry their own pots, pans, bowls, and stoves to eat there. He held a banquet at Guangfuguan in the private room on the second floor.
My mother invited Madame Mei Lanfang to dinner. Because my mother inherited my grandmother's skills, her stir-fried dough bits tasted different from everyone else's—they really had my grandmother's flavor. She invited Madame Mei, along with Mr. Shang Xiaoyun and his wife, to eat. Shang Xiaoyun was my grandmother's godson, so he just kept eating and eating. Madame Mei said, 'That is enough, brother, stop eating, you are going to burst.'
Born in the South of the City: Decades of Joy and Sorrow on the Stage—Oral history by the three Ma brothers. Ding Yizhuang
(Note by Wang Dongsi: The speaker is Ma Chongnian, nephew of Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang)
Stir-fried dough bits at Mujiazhai
Mujiazhai was a small shop, but it was crowded every day with customers waiting to eat the dough bits stir-fried by Sister-in-law Mu herself.
To make stir-fried dough bits, you knead the dough, cut it into dice-sized cubes, and then use your thumb to roll them into small shapes, which we Shanxi people call cat ears (maoerduo). First, you boil them, then stir-fry them with mung bean sprouts, shredded meat, and chives. The juices from the meat and vegetables soak into the dough bits, making them taste the best.
People say Sister-in-law Mu, like the Mapo of Chengdu's Mapo Tofu, first served her neighbors for free before her reputation spread and she became a professional.
In winter at Mujiazhai, you could still eat fresh spring and summer vegetables, such as Chinese toon (xiangchun) mixed with tofu, smashed cucumber, sugar and vinegar pickled dandelion greens (qumacaiya), and small radishes with sesame paste. People say the Mu family restaurant even had a special heated cellar (nuandongzi) to grow these fresh vegetables.
Food of the Hometown: Eating in Beiping. Liu Zhenwei
(Note by Wang Dongsi: The author was born in 1934.)
10. Xiangjugong halal pastry shop on Qianmen Street
Wang Dianwen personally oversaw the quality of the pastries (bobo). First, he hired experienced and skilled head pastry chefs (zhang'anren) with high salaries. Second, he insisted on buying high-quality raw materials for making the pastries. Back then, the white flour from Renhe Mill was fine, and the small-mill sesame oil from Xihongmen had a pure flavor; even though they were expensive, Xiangjugong still ordered from them. Sugar and other fruit ingredients were all top-tier products. For example, they paid high prices for the best red and white sugar, bought large thin-skinned walnuts from the Western Hills, sourced locust flower honey, and selected Miyun small dates, Western Hills roses, Shandong pears, Shenzhou honey peaches, and hawthorn jelly (jingao) from Jingao Zhang. Even for eggs, Xiangjugong had specific suppliers. Third, they strictly followed production procedures, from mixing the dough and fruit ingredients to the final baking, being very careful with every step. In the pastry industry, there is a saying: 'Thirty percent making, seventy percent baking.' This means that no matter how carefully or well you do the first few steps, if you do not control the oven fire at the end, the heat might be too high and burn them; or the heat might be too low, and they will not be cooked through. Therefore, in a pastry workshop, besides the head chef, the oven worker is the most important. The head chefs and oven workers hired by Xiangjugong were all highly skilled at the time.
Pastry products are seasonal; in the past, Beijingers ate specific pastries at specific times. For example, people ate sweet rice balls (yuanxiao) on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, sun cakes (taiyanggao) on the second day of the second month for the 'Dragon Raises Its Head' festival, wisteria cakes (tengluobing) when wisteria bloomed in the third month, sticky rice dumplings (zongzi) and five-poison cakes (wudubing) during the Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth month, mung bean cakes (lvdougao) to beat the heat in the sixth and seventh months, red and white mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the eighth month, flower cakes (huagao) for the 'climbing high' custom in the ninth month, and in the cold winter months, wealthy families ate hibiscus cakes (furonggao), while ordinary families ate oven-fired cakes (ganglu)—which were pastries made while testing the oven temperature that had rough, broken edges but were still high quality. Xiangjugong produced and supplied all these pastries on time. for holidays, the fasting month of Ramadan, the Eid al-Fitr celebration, and visiting relatives and friends, it was customary to use large and small gift sets (bajian) as presents. The small and large eight-piece pastries (ba jian) made by Xiangjugong are very famous in the southern part of Beijing.
Miscellaneous Talks on Old Beijing by Wang Yongbin.
11. Ha's sesame flatbread (shaobing) shop at Liulichang outside Hepingmen
Haji Sesame Flatbread Shop (Haji Shaobing Pu)
