The many restaurants all over China, each has its own uniqueness. In general, a mutual trait shared by all is that the entire food service industry is facing the challenges posed by the change of our times and new ways of living.
Around the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, all industries in China, including the restaurants have adopted the policy of joint ownership and management by both the state and private entities. To keep consistency in cooking standards, restaurants that used to keep secrets from one another began to disclose information and communicate for improvements. Some lost skills and forgotten dishes were rediscovered, welcoming a new golden age of food culture. However, due to certain social attitudes and trends
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| Long with Chinese economic development, prices of grains and oils were no longer tightly controlled.By the 1990s "food notes,' were altogether abolished. | at the time, opposing luxury and encouraging austerity, those that paid attention to food were labeled as corrupt and backward thinking. The urge to enjoy a tasty meal at restaurants was being suppressed, and culinary art development unavoidably suffered. Most state-operated hotels and restaurants abode by traditional convention, served mostly authentic styles with limited choices and high prices. However, customer services at most state-owned dining places were most often unsatisfactory.
By September 30th, 1980, the first privately held restaurant since
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| During the planned-economy period in China, the government issued "food notes" starting in 1955, in order to guarantee the supply offoodstuffs for citizens in cities and towns. | China's reform was opened in Beijing, named the "Yibin Restaurant." At that time, all other restaurants were state- owned. Cereals, oils and tofu required government-issued "food notes." So the new private restaurant stirred quite a reaction from the international community. Even to this very day, the owner remembers down to the last details of the day his restaurant opened. He spent 36 Yuan, bought 4 ducks, and made several duck dishes. Only a few days later, customers of the restaurants included ambassadors from 72 countries and press correspondents of 74 different media.
As living conditions improved, people still wanted to dine out for a change of taste, and have some foods that one does not know how to or does not have the means of making at home. Restaurants of different tastes and different grades operate for survival, as more and more newcomer rush to the scene from different parts of the country. The food service industry became China's hotspot of investment. Investors and managers sought help, from chefs of the older generations or epicures of famous schools and families, for the ways of making traditional dishes. Restaurants that used to offer handmade dumpling or noodles were expanding their menu offerings, starting to simultaneously sell other types of foods. Attractive hostesses wearing striking uniforms or qipao (a traditional Chinese dress), elegant hats, and a band across the chests marked with the names of the restaurants ,
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| Workers eating in cafeterias in the 1950s. | greet guests with a friendly smile in front of newly opened restaurants. Since privately held restaurants pay the utmost attention to quality service, waiters and waitresses treat customers with warm, adequate courtesy, so as to attract much business. In contrary, many state-owned restaurants situated at noisy districts gradually lost their competitive edge due to their rude service and plain menus. In no time, the great tasting foods that disappeared from the cities returned once more. Certain restaurants in northern China, serving traditional foods, started to use their "old brand names" again. In Shanghai, food houses use the word "authentic" to attract diners.
Before the 90s of the 20'h century, people focused on just the food when dining out. Even for street stands and grills, people would form lines just to have a taste as long as the prices are fair and the servings are big enough. However, as economic development in China's cities and towns flourished, consumers have set their eyes on more than just filling the stomach. Most people, on top of great food, look for elegance of environment, cleanliness and thoughtful service.
Great tasting home-style cooking once again ventured out of the homes and into the market place, onto the menus of restaurants. The once gone tastes were now all back in the cities. Compared to the rare delicacies of high-class restaurants, home-style dishes have no special characteristics in taste,
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| A large scale shopping mall on Zhongzhou Island in Fuzhou. | but many restaurants flaunt it as a customer magnet, with great taste and affordability. But the most attractive aspect is the home-like feeling that it produces, making dining in restaurants no different from home, free and cozy. Most often, home-style restaurants are rather small in size. Its simple menus only offer well-known dishes such as Gongbao (Kungpao) Chicken, Yuxiang Pork, Fruit Salad and so on. In recent years, people's daily diets show obvious changes as feasts for birthdays, gatherings and treating guests are moving to public places. Snacks, home-style dishes and fast foods are quite popular. The rise of home-style cooking not only changed the dietary habits of common citizens, but also injected new life into the highly competitive food service industry. All kinds of signs with the words "Home-style Food" written in all fonts and styles adorn the street sides, with an ever-expanding scope of business. Famous names include "Mao Style Home Cuisines," "Guolin Home-Style Foods" and so on. Home-style gourmet changed from daily meals for the common people into commercial food, restaurant food.
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Chinese-style fast food.(1) |
As home-style dishes developed, the ways in which home-style restaurants managed their businesses changed. Son restaurants introduced more expensive foods such as Beijing Roast Duck, while other restaurants kept the familiar "ok faces," such as Simmered Pork Ribs in So) Sauce, Casserole Bean Curd, Green Pepper and Potato Strips and so on. High- priced cuisines not only have differences in basic ingredients from home-style dishes, its ways of making are also much more complicated.
To cater to different tastes of different customers, in cities with large volumes of migrant population, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and so on, more and more restaurants are offering regional cuisines. Food culture and fashion met with immense changes in every one or two years. First it was the Yue (Cantonese) cuisines, popularized throughout the country; followed by Fish with Pickled Vegetables belonging to the Sichuan style; Lamb Kabobs from Xinjiang; Mao Style Simmered Pork of Xiang (Hunan) cuisine; Henan's Simmered Lamb in Soy Sauce; Mala (Hot and Mouth-numbing) Hotpot from Chongqing; Dumplings from northeastern Regions of China; Shanghai's benbang foods; Hangzhou cuisines; Boiled Fish in Hot Oil from Sichuan; Fragrant and Hot Crab; Yunnan cuisines,
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Chinese-style fast food.(2) | Guizhou food, Taiwanese food and much, much more. Changes in popular taste were like gorgeous fashion models on the catwalk, attractive and ever-changing. Since a couple of year ago, places such as Beijing~ Shanghai and Taipei welcomed a new kind of home-style cooking called "Personal Home Dish." These restaurants make original dishes and snacks for their guests, while providing a private, all-to- yourself kind of atmosphere with high emotional appeal. Most of these places are small in size; some even adopted membership policy, while others require reservations. These restaurants with a personal touch are frequented and loved by white-collared urban professionals. Combining the practice of Western cocktail parties, buffets let the Chinese experience a meal with the freedom to choose; a great contrast from traditional Chinese restaurants. But the biggest advantage of buffets is that people no longer have to sacrifice their own taste preferences for the sake of others; making social intercourse while indulging oneself only with his or her favorite food a possibility.
For those foreigners new to China, aside from trying tasty Chinese foods, even more enjoyable is to try some "old brand names" of food houses, where there is a strong Chinese cultural experience. These old names include Quanjude, Bianyifang, Donglaishun, Fengzeyuan, Fangshan (imitation imperial cuisines), Liuquanju,
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| A restaurant with traditional decorations. | Shaguoju, Kaorouji, Kaorouwan, Gongdelin of Beijing; as well as the Old Restaurant of Shanghai, Laozhengxing Restaurant and Meilongzhen, all located in Shanghai; still more are Tianjin's Dog-Won't-Eat Stuffed Buns, Hunqishun Restaurant, Tianyifang Restaurant and more. Most of these food houses have several decades to well over a hundred years of history. Though it has been through the changeover from joint state and individual ownership to privatization, these businesses retained their competitive edge in the food service industry. "Old names" attract customers not only with featured dishes, but rely more on its historical and cultural meanings.
The most famous of the Beijing Old Names- Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, is a characteristic example. In actuality, the oldest name in roasting ducks should be Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant. Quanjude appeared slightly later but exceeded the former in business. Especially in the eyes of the foreigner, Quanjude is the most acclaimed roast duck house. On basis of preserving the hanging roaster stove, Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurants' business multiplied by the day, with over one hundred locations throughout China. It even created its unique all-duck feast. Many people like to have Quanjude Roast Duck not just to have a great t
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| A snack bar that provides Chinese fast food. | aste, but also to savor the century-old stories of the past.
Situated in the most flourishing district of Beijing-- Wangfujing, Donglaishun Restaurant evolved from once a small Hui nationality porridge stall, to selling lamb hotpot, and eventually becoming the number one "old name" in this business. Aside from its authentic Beijing Lamb Hotpot, there came to be no less than 200 other qingzhen (Hui Muslim) dishes such as Mixed Fungus and Tremella, Roast Lamb Leg, Innards in Clear Soup, Hand- served Lamb, Fired-roasted Lamb Tail and so on. Its snacks such as butter fried cake, and walnut cream are also quite famous. Walking into Donglaishun, tasting all kinds of qingzhen foods and Beijing's Lamb Hotpot, one could obtain from it a sense of contentment.
Compared to home-style cooking, regional cuisines and the "old name" restaurants, Chinese fast food, adopting foreign business formulas, have only been around for several decades, but have spread to every corner of cities of all sizes. These types of restaurants were revealed to the public in all new modes of management. With their long store hours and traditional tasting foods, fast food stores can meet customers' needs for meals at any time. Plus low pricing, comprehensive selections, numerous tastes, and clean individual servings allowed fast foods restaurants to develop with powerful momentum. With McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and other Western fast food franchises taking hold in the country, Western fast food, characterized by coke, burgers and pizzas, are doing quite well in China despite their not-so-cheap prices.
In fact, real Western food first appeared in China long ago, more than 7 centuries ago to be exact, when the Italian traveler, Marco Polo visited China. Ways of making Western food were introduced to China. But these foods only appeared in overseas Chinese homes or Chinese imperial and noble families. There was a long way to go before Western foods become an integral part of the Chinese food service industry. From late 19'" to early 20th century, accompanying foreign invasion from the Western superpowers, Chinese people who worked for foreigners mastered Western food-making techniques. Making and eating Western food for the Chinese was no longer a fancy practice. It even developed into a whole separate line of business.
In the twenty-some years following the implementation of China's open-up policy, number of restaurants selling specialty food from both East and West was on the rise. Some are "old name" Western food restaurants located inside high-class hotels; others were newly opened independent restaurants at places where foreigners gather to work and live. Some cities with tourist attractions even built specialty food streets, providing various foreign foods for foreign tourists, complete with dining and leisure alternatives. The foreign foods offered by many restaurants could each form their own line of business, with their unique Chinese interpretation for different regions, cultures and customs of different countries, enriching the daily lives of the Chinese and stimulated the growth towards prosperity of the Chinese food service industry. People from different countries joyfully experience respect and tolerance for one another in food. |
