Chapter 29 Young handsome gourmet legend

The young marshal Zhang Xueliang wandered all his life, and his taste often changed with the change of the environment.Born and raised in Liaoning, he liked Liaoning cuisine at first.Later, I got acquainted with a group of Sichuan people such as Zhang Daqian and Zhang Qun. Under their influence, I once favored Sichuan cuisine.Before and after the Anti-Japanese War, he was imprisoned in Guizhou for nine years, so he never forgot the flavor of Guizhou. Zhang Xueliang's eating habits are greatly influenced by his family.His father, Zhang Zuolin, was a horse thief when he was young, roaring through the mountains and forests, drinking in big bowls, and eating large pieces of meat.Later, he was recruited, unified the Northeast, and became the king outside the pass. In September 1924, the Second Zhifeng War broke out, and the Zhifeng and Fengtian troops fought at the Nine Gates of Shanhaiguan.Due to Feng Yuxiang's defection, Wu Peifu was defeated, and the Northeast Army wearing a dog fur hat entered the customs in a large scale and fought all the way to Shanghai.

At that time, the chefs in the Marshal's Mansion were already full of talents and tastes from both north and south.It is said that the chefs of the Marshal's Mansion were able to cook more than 400 kinds of North and South delicacies.But what Zhang Zuolin likes most is not those high-end bear paws, sea cucumbers, and abalones, but the small meatballs from his hometown, and stewed vermicelli with cabbage and pork. Zhang Zuolin's eating habits had a profound impact on Zhang Xueliang in his teenage years.The Zhang family has a large population. Zhang Zuolin alone has six concubines and more than a dozen children.Including adjutants, bodyguards, secretaries, gardeners, servants, etc., the kitchen of the Marshal's Mansion provides food for hundreds of people every day.Sometimes I met Zhang Zuolin holding a military and political meeting in Daqinglou, and even had to serve more than two hundred people for dinner.Therefore, there are four permanent kitchens, large and small, in the Marshal's Mansion.

At that time, the Marshal's Mansion was divided into the front courtyard, the middle courtyard, the small red building, the big brothel, etc., with a large scale.The large kitchen in the west courtyard is dedicated to providing three meals for the secretary, adjutant, driver, maid, etc. of the Shuai Mansion.The meals in this kitchen are relatively ordinary, usually one dish and one soup, and the staple food is mainly coarse grains. White rice can only be seen on important festivals.The big kitchen in the east courtyard mainly provides three meals for Zhang Zuolin's children, including his six daughters and eight sons.The standard of meals is slightly higher than that of the kitchen in the west courtyard, but fine grains are rarely seen.This shows that Zhang Zuolin is still very strict in disciplining his children. He believes that only by suffering a little more will the children be successful in the future.

But his "rule" does not apply to Zhang Xueliang.Zhang Xueliang did not dine in the big kitchen of the East Yard with his brothers and sisters, but ate in the small kitchen with his father.This is because he was frail since he was a child, needed nourishment, and was smart, so he really aroused his father's love, so he was allowed to eat "Xiaozao". The small kitchen is exclusively for Zhang Zuolin and his favorite Fifth Aunt Shou. Most of the Chinese and foreign dignitaries who have been invited to dine in the handsome mansion are deeply impressed by the exquisite food in the small kitchen.At that time, the senior chefs of Fengtian Restaurant "Minghuchun" would take turns to cook in the small kitchen of the Marshal's Mansion.

In his youth, Zhang Xueliang wandered with his mother in the countryside of western Liaoning, living in poverty.He himself recalled that he was born in a carriage.Since his mother had very little milk after giving birth, Zhang grew up drinking rice soup, so he has a special affection for rice soup. We often drank rice soup in the 1960s and 1970s, but now few people drink it, and rice cookers generally cannot make rice soup.Rice soup is rich in nutrition. When I was a child, I often used rice soup to cook eggplant, sauerkraut, and cowpea at home. It tasted very delicious.There is a kind of kitchen utensil in Daxinan called a tripod jar, which can be used for cooking while cooking on the other side.When serving rice, it is not easy to clean the rice in the cauldron, so put rice soup to soften the rice crust inside and serve it out.Even eating the rice soup with the rice soup, the rice crust is still a little crispy and very fragrant, and I still drool thinking about it now.

When Zhang Zuolin was in charge of the Northeast military administration, the Liao cuisine in the small kitchen of the Marshal's Mansion also took shape.During this period, Zhang Xueliang fell in love with Liao cuisine.At that time, there was a chef named Wang Baotian in the small kitchen, who was good at cooking home-cooked dishes.Wang Baotian is from Haicheng, Liaoning, and he and Zhang Xueliang are fellow villagers.Zhang Xueliang likes the wrong dishes made by Wang Baotian the most, and praises it as a representative of small and medium dishes in Liao cuisine.Whenever frost and snow fall in late autumn, Wang Baotian will pickle a few wrong vegetables from the big pottery.This dish is to chop all kinds of fresh vegetables, soak them in shrimp oil, and seal them in an altar.Take it out in the spring of the second year and use it to hangover and have dinner.It is characterized by crisp, crispy, tender green appetizers.

Zhang Xueliang went to Taiwan and the United States in his later years, and he still couldn't forget the right and wrong dishes.When he was stationed in Beijing, he strongly recommended wrong dishes to politicians such as Wu Peifu and Duan Qirui.When I lived in Tianjin, every spring and autumn, I had to transport Wang Baotian's wrong vegetables to the mansion in Tianjin. In addition to wrong dishes, Wang Baotian's Liao cuisine also includes white meat blood sausage, sauerkraut hot pot and braised Hericium erinaceus.White meat blood sausage is still a famous dish in Liaoning.At that time, Zhang Xueliang had already served as the air force commander of the Northeast Army, and some restaurants in Shenyang and high-end Japanese restaurants had Zhang Xueliang's fixed private seats.Zhang Xueliang likes to eat at Baofa Garden on Xiaoshizi Street, Xiaodong Road, Dadong District, Shenyang.The signature dish here is called Sijue Cai, which are simmered liver tip, simmered kidney flower, spread yellow vegetables and fried meatballs.Baofa Garden was founded by Guo Junzhang, a native of Ninghe County, Zhili Province, in the first year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty.The four unique dishes are cooked by Guo Junzhang’s younger brother Guo Junrui himself. The common feature of the four dishes is tenderness, but each has its own merits.Among them, the fried liver tip is smooth and tender, the fried kidney flower is crisp and tender, the yellow vegetables are soft and tender, and the fried meatballs are burnt and tender.These four dishes were delicious and delicious, and were very popular among the diners at that time.You must know that if you want to make the fried liver tip and the fried kidney flower well, the raw materials must be the oily liver and fresh waist of the newly slaughtered pig.The ingredients should not be washed during processing, otherwise the taste will be lost after washing, so they should be eaten and cut immediately.Cut the oily liver into willow leaves, and cut the fresh waist into cross-shaped knives.There is no need to hang paste and sizing, first put oil and then use green onion and ginger pot, then stir-fry quickly on high heat, just pour a little gorgon juice before leaving the pot, so as to ensure the freshness of the dish.

Once, Zhang Xueliang came here admiringly. After eating, he was full of praise. He specially met Guo Junrui, who was in charge of the spoon, and gave him ten yuan...