Chapter 34 Wang's western food

After the end of the Second Zhifeng War in September 1924, Zhang Xueliang was ordered to station in Tianjin.At that time, concessions from various countries gathered in Tianjin. Zhang Xueliang came into contact with and fell in love with Western food at that time, especially coffee. It is said that Zhang Xueliang was also at a loss when he first entered the western restaurant.Later, under the guidance of several British friends, I began to gradually understand the rules of eating Western food.From the use of knives and forks, to the order of serving Western food, to the wine pairing of Western food, Zhang learned from scratch.

But soon, the style and rules of western food were accepted by Zhang Xueliang.Later, in 1931, when Zhang Xueliang was stationed in Beiping, every time he entertained foreign guests, he would prepare Western-style dishes and foreign wines. During the confinement period after the "Xi'an Incident", Zhang Xueliang had almost no chance to come into contact with Western food.He tasted and fell in love with Western food again after he came to Taiwan in 1949. At the transfer meeting of the "Three Zhangs and One King" in Taipei, when it was Wang Xinheng's turn to be the host, he was best at Western food and vegetarian dishes.

Wang Xinheng once served as an aide to Chiang Ching-kuo, and has since been working in the Kuomintang military command. During the "Xi'an Incident", he was assigned by Dai Li to accompany Chiang Kai-shek to Xi'an to "supervise the war". As a result, he became a prisoner of Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army with Chiang. After arriving in Taiwan in 1949, he served as the chairman of the Southern Executive Department of the Kuomintang.Afterwards, he entered the business world and served successively as the chairman of Asia Cement Company and the executive director of Far East Textile Company.Maybe it was because they didn't know each other, but later he became one of Zhang Xueliang's close friends.

At that time, the chefs in Wang Xinheng's family were all Taiwanese culinary masters, and he was most proud of two of them who were Western food chefs.To some extent, the expertise of the chef often represents the taste of the owner.For example, Wang Xiaoyu, Yuan Mei's cook in the Qing Dynasty, represented Yuan Mei's taste. Yuan Mei wrote it later, and Wang Xiaoyu contributed a lot.Of Wang Xinheng’s two chefs mentioned above, one is good at Russian-style western food, and the other is good at American-style pastry.Every time Zhang Xueliang would take Miss Zhao Si to the Wang family for a banquet, because Miss Zhao Si also liked western food very much.

Wang Xinheng was a fellow countryman of Chiang Kai-shek, and was selected by the Kuomintang to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow in his early years, where he was a classmate of Chiang Ching-kuo.The experience of studying and living in Russia made him have a soft spot for Russian-style western food.Zhang Xueliang also became interested in Russian western food through "transfer".At that time, the Wang family often cooked Russian western food. The main dishes included buttered meat slices, tomato meat pie, crispy chicken noodle box, skewered beef, soft fried salmon, baked macaroni with three delicacies, buttered chicken with bamboo shoots, canned fish and so on.Side dishes include pickled cucumbers, iron chicken, lamb ribs, sweet pickled cabbage, goose ham, paper-wrapped shrimp, Polish fish, Russian-style marinated chicken, etc.Soups include meatball soup, chicken miscellaneous vegetables, red cabbage soup and so on.Desserts include snowflake sorbet, cream rolls, cabbage rolls, etc.

Originally, Zhang Xueliang hated the sour and sweet tastes in the dishes, but after he fell in love with Western food, he couldn’t do without these two flavors. He didn’t go to Wang Xinheng’s house to eat Western food for a few weeks, so he said to Wang Xinheng: I miss your pickled cucumbers again up. Pickled cucumber is a common side dish in Western food, and it is also a dish that everyone likes. Now Beijing Lao Mo Restaurant does a good job.I have been to Lao Mo restaurant, and many dishes in Wang Xinheng's family banquet are also available there.I have eaten pickles, red cabbage soup, Russian pickled chicken, snowflake sorbet, etc. there.It is said that it is currently the most authentic Russian restaurant in Beijing.

It should be mentioned here that Russian-style western food has its own system in Europe and has influenced Northern Europe and the Slavic regions of Eastern Europe.In the era of Tsarist Russia, the upper Russian nobles especially admired France. They not only took pride in speaking French, but also tried their best to imitate French Western food in their diet.After years of evolution, a Russian style has been formed.Russia is located in an alpine region, so they like to eat high-calorie foods, like meat pies made of fish, minced meat, and eggs.In Western food, there is a saying of "British and French dishes, Russian snacks".Russian style has a strong taste, mainly sour, spicy, sweet and salty.I like to use oil, and the method is simple, mainly roasting, marinating, and smoking.

As mentioned above, apart from Western food, the Wang family is also good at vegetarian dishes.For the vegetarian dishes of Wang Xinheng's family, Zhang Xueliang likes the Japanese-style Hoyaki the most, as well as Gavello and vegetable salad.At that time, the Wang family also cooked Chinese-style vegetarian dishes, such as canned boiled quail eggs, roasted potato eggplant cake, fried dried potatoes and so on.Wang pays attention to the matching of flavors, and these light vegetarian dishes are often paired with Italian-style milk soup. Wang Xinheng once said to Zhang Xueliang: "Hanqing, in the early years, I also liked big fish and big meat. No one can escape the mundane world. But since I converted to Christ, I have felt the benefits of eating more vegetarian food. Vegetarian food is also an important part of spiritual self-cultivation. "

These remarks had a great influence on Zhang Xueliang. Although he could not become a complete vegetarian, the proportion of vegetarians increased significantly. Twenty catties of cucumber, half catty of celery, half catty of fennel, five dried chilies, two bay leaves, one tael of peppercorns, four taels of garlic, seven taels of salt, two taels of horseradish, and fifteen catties of water. Wash the cucumber, wash the celery and fennel, wash and slice the horseradish, and cut the garlic crosswise.Put the cucumbers into the tank, sandwich a layer of celery, dried chili, fennel, horseradish, garlic, fragrant leaves, and peppercorns in the middle, and put them into the tank in three layers.Dissolve the salt in water and pour it into the tank, add a wooden grate and press it tightly with stones, put it at a temperature of about 30°C, after fermentation, move it into the refrigerator, and eat it after cooling thoroughly.

Crisp and sour, it relieves greasiness and aids digestion. It can also be used as a side dish or as a seasoning.