How to understand the sentence "If you don't eat Quanjude roast duck in Beijing, you haven't arrived in Beijing"?

In the autumn Beijing written by Wang Zengqi, a contemporary Chinese writer, essayist, dramatist, and Beijing-style writer, three roasts are the most famous, namely barbecue, roast duck, and roasted sweet potatoes, which best embody the style of old Beijing. The best is Quanjude’s roast duck.

From the people to the palace, and then from the palace to the people, Quanjude has gone through 153 years with an oven and a duck pole. It has been passed down that Quanjude people are tireless in their old craftsmanship and gold medal service. pursuit.

The Roast Duck Museum founded by Quanjude

During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Quanren, the founder of Quanjude, left his hometown with his father and fellow villagers due to floods, and came to make a living outside the front gate of the capital, raising chickens by the moat. ducks and sell them in the Qianmen Street area.

Yang Quanren

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), Yang Quanren learned that a dried and fresh fruit shop called "De Juquan" in the meat market alley outside Qianmen was going to close down. Purchase this shop and open a small oven shop to engage in roast duck business. But he was worried that business here would not be good, so he invited a Feng Shui master to inspect the Feng Shui of this shop.

Mr. Feng Shui walked around the alley and said to Yang Quanren: "This is a treasure land of Feng Shui. It's a pity that the original shop owner didn't manage it well."

Yang Quanren listened to his heart. Secretly happy.

Mr. Feng Shui then told him: "The Meat Market Hutong here and the Jing'er Hutong behind it are like two sedan poles. If this small shop is renovated into a two-story building in the future, it will look more like an eight-foot-high sedan chair." "Jan, the business must be booming."

"What's the name of the small stove shop?" Yang Quanren asked next.

Mr. Feng Shui told Yang Quanren: "You can turn the three characters 'Dejuquan' upside down and call it 'Quanjude', and you can get rid of the bad luck, set off on a smooth road, and your business will definitely prosper."

Yang Quanren was inspired after hearing this: The name "Quanjude" is exactly what he wanted. Firstly, his name has the word "Quan" in it. Secondly, "Jude" means gathering virtues, which can be used to advertise one's business. Be virtuous. So he named the store "Quanjude".

Then he invited Qian Zilong, a scholar who was very accomplished in calligraphy, to write the three characters "Quanjude", and made a gold plaque to hang on the lintel. The characters were written vigorously, powerfully, and eye-catchingly, adding a lot of color to the shop.

Quanjude’s first plaque

Here is a short story about Quanjude’s plaque. I wonder if you have noticed that the word "德" in the picture above is missing a horizontal line?

Some people say that Boss Yang invited Qian Zilong over at that time, and the two drank happily. Yang Quanren learned that Qian Zilong's calligraphy was very good, so he immediately took out his pen, ink, paper and inkstone and asked Qian Xiucai to inscribe. Because Qian Xiucai drank too much and was in a daze, he accidentally forgot to write the word "virtue" across the line.

Some people say that when Yang Quanren started his business, he hired 13 clerks, including himself, 14 people. In order to allow everyone to work with peace of mind and work together, Qian Xiucai was asked to write one less horizontal line to express that everyone should not have a knife in their hearts. After hearing this, you may ask: Doesn't adding a horizontal line mean that you are single-minded?

Of course these are all speculations and legends. What's the real reason? It turns out that at that time, "virtue" was like a polyphonic character, meaning "multiple writing characters". It could have a horizontal character or not. Both ways of writing are correct. We can get confirmation of this from the ink marks of famous calligraphers such as Emperor Kangxi and Zheng Banqiao.

The story is over and let’s get back to the business.

On July 9, 1864 (the sixth day of the sixth lunar month), Quanjude opened bustlingly with a burst of loud firecrackers.

Under Yang Quanren’s careful management, Quanjude’s business is booming. Yang Quanren is smart and capable. He knows that if he wants his business to prosper, he must rely on a good chef, a good waiter, and a good shopkeeper. Therefore, he often visited various roast duck shops to explore the secrets of roast duck and look for the masters of roast duck.

When he learned that there was a master surnamed Sun in the Jinhua Pavilion, which specialized in cooking roast ducks for the imperial court, and he was very skilled in roasting ducks, he tried every means to make friends with him, often drinking and playing chess together, and they were very friendly with each other. The relationship is getting closer and closer. Master Sun was finally persuaded by Yang Quanren, and he came to Quanjude with a generous offer.

Quanjude hired Master Sun, which means he has mastered all the techniques of Qing palace hanging oven roast duck. Master Sun changed the original oven into a hanging oven with a large furnace height and a deep and wide furnace. It can roast more than a dozen ducks in one oven. It can also roast ducks while roasting them. The duck he roasted was beautiful in appearance, plump and plump, bright in color, jujube in color, crispy in skin and tender in meat, delicious and fragrant, fat but not greasy, thin but not woody. Quanjude Roast Duck won the title of "Beijing Master's Delicious Food". Yuya" reputation.

Roast Duck in Quanjude

In a restaurant, in addition to the importance of the chef, the importance of the waiters cannot be underestimated. Quanjude recruits new employees not only for their agility, but also for their strength. There is a large bucket behind the Quanjude store that can only hold 300 kilograms of swill. New guys usually have to try this big bucket to see if they can lift it. Those who can lift it stay, and those who can't lift it leave. Quanjude had more than 30 employees in the 1930s and 1940s, all of whom were smart and capable.

Quanjude, which spans three centuries, has also formed a set of nine-character store rules handed down from generation to generation: ducks must be good, people must be capable, and words must be sweet.

Ducks should be good: It talks about being honest and based on morality. "Buy good ducks, roast good ducks, and sell good ducks." The old store sells genuine products at fair prices, deals honestly, and is honest.

People must be able: “ability” is a combination of virtue and skill. The old store selects, employs, and educates people based on the criteria of "cultivate one's virtues and practice one's virtues, and praise one's virtues and merits", so that people can make the most of their talents and get the right positions, so that talents can emerge from generation to generation, and skills can be passed on forever.

Be sweet: Customers are the bread and butter of businesses. In old stores, cabinets, kitchens, and even clerks and handymen, they must cultivate their virtues with etiquette, treat guests with a smile, greet them with kind words, and accept promises, serve with all their heart, teach others virtues, and repay guests for their patronage.

These nine words embody the business philosophy of the predecessors of Quanjude who regard business ethics and character as the basis of all behavioral norms and cultivate morality and prosper business.

Quanjude Store

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Quanjude conducted a public-private partnership, opened a new branch, and expanded the old store. It was loved by celebrities and ordinary people at home and abroad, and was known as "The best food in China". Visitors from all walks of life in Beijing have the same feeling: if you don’t visit the Great Wall, you are not a true man, and it would be a pity not to eat Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck!