#Start to Keep a Diary#1049 Four meals a day, delicious but also tiring

2019/12/21 Saturday Xiamen

I wake up after five hours of sleep. As I get older, my biological clock is set at a fixed time, and it is difficult to sleep more. After washing up, I went downstairs to smoke. The morning in Xiamen was a bit cool, so a thin sweater was enough to cope with it. I smoked two cigarettes in a row to bring myself back to reality. I will return to Beijing on the 19th and set off on the 20th. This rhythm makes me have the illusion of "what night is it today and where am I?" at a certain period of time. Smoking a cigarette and looking at the unfamiliar scenes around me, the incomprehensible Hokkien dialect helped me understand the geographical location.

I casually had breakfast in the hotel and went back to the room to read. I was a little tired. I still haven’t recovered from yesterday’s fatigue. I read for a while and became confused. I was a little hungry when I woke up, thinking that there was a big meal waiting for me at noon, so I resisted the urge to make instant noodles.

Brother Jie is the owner of Shangqing Bengang Seafood. He has recently succeeded in losing weight and lost more than 40 pounds. I asked Brother Jie the secret to losing weight, and he said he doesn’t eat anything delicious. Haha, I can't do this. Being naturally greedy, the most irresistible thing is the temptation of food. It is really not easy to think about Brother Jie. He prepared a super luxurious lunch for us at noon, and he was able to cook it for us and watch us eat without moving his chopsticks. The transformation of Shangqing Hong Kong Seafood from a street food stall into a Black Pearl One Diamond restaurant is probably inseparable from Jie Ge’s fierceness.

Lunch Menu

Platters of frozen bamboo shoots, geoduck, and tide watching. Brother Jie told him that he will win only if he loves to fight.

Slow-cooked smoked East China Sea large yellow croaker. Super delicious.

Fried seaweed

Pan-fried king cobra and swimming crab

Snake segments

Fish liver rice with fresh fish maw. My great love! This is the delicate version, but I think the rough version that comes with the soup on the whole plate tastes better.

Eight pounds of giant lobster

Vermicelli and shark skin.

The shark skin is almost boiling.

Two rattle snails, cut into large pieces, very enjoyable to eat.

Glutinous rice dumplings. Sugar water with ginger juice is very suitable for dispelling the cold in winter.

Qwen and Tina came over to have dinner together. They were old friends and felt very cordial after not seeing each other for many years. The couple are Taiwanese and their ancestral home is Quanzhou. When they work in Xiamen, they are considered to have returned to their hometown. The food and climate here are also very suitable. Compared with the five years of living in the Northeast, I feel much more comfortable and adaptable.

I didn’t drink alcohol during this meal because I couldn’t drink due to my health, which delayed everyone’s enjoyment, and I felt very disapproving of it. I really have no choice but to make up for it when I have the opportunity in the future.

Brother Jie said that he was very proud that the restaurant received the Black Pearl Diamond, and there were only a few restaurants in Xiamen. After feeling proud, I feel even more pressure. Because of this honor, I dare not relax at all. If you don't do it well, you will lose face and deeply feel that you have failed to trust your customers. Therefore, we can only work from dawn to dusk, standardize the process starting from the ingredients, and select carefully to ensure quality. At the same time, we also need to learn new dishes and new cooking techniques, hoping to provide customers with more choices. I think Brother Jie has a good understanding of the original intention of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, which is not only to provide consumers with a guide, but also to promote and pressure merchants. Food must be cooked for business, and food must be cooked for reputation. When this pressure and sense of honor become a habit and a natural thing, the restaurant will stride forward on the road of healthy development.

After dinner, I went to the Sugar Cube with Mr. and Mrs. Owen to have tea and chat. There was a lot to say after not seeing each other for several years. Xiamen Andaz Hotel is preparing to open after the new year, and I am very happy that Owen invited me to come and participate.

Brother Yong invited me to dinner at Hua Jiankai in the evening. Although the lunch meal was not fully digested, I still ate a lot in the evening.

Brother Yong is from Dalian. After leaving the army, he came to Xiamen and opened several restaurants. Hua Xiankai is currently the most expensive restaurant selling southern Fujian cuisine in Xiamen. I had a few dishes for dinner, which were not quite like Southern Fujian cuisine, but they were quite delicious. Although the lunch meal was not yet digestible, I still ate a lot in the evening.

Black truffle cod. This silver cod is fried first-rate, fragrant and plump.

Braised pork with abalone. Pork is super delicious. The old demon must eat meat after eating too much seafood, so Brother Yong gave him braised pork with abalone.

Squab

Mullet roe

Boiled blood eel. This is delicious. Chew it slowly and you can eat all the fish bones.

Fried squid and beef. This one is also prepared for Lao Yao. Chili peppers are used in it because Lao Yao wants to eat chili peppers.

Pan-fried nine-bellied fish

Stir-fried bacon with Wuhan red cabbage and moss

Lobster noodle soup. The soup base is fragrant and smooth, and Soy Sauce Brother's Yangchun noodles are naturally smooth and delicious.

Comments online say that Hua Xiankai is the most expensive Southern Fujian dish in Xiamen, with per capita consumption at about 800 yuan. The meal I had had no obvious Southern Fujian characteristics, but every dish was delicious. I have always believed that regional flavor identification can be used as a tool for self-promotion, but restaurants should not limit themselves by limiting regional flavor. The only way to enrich their menus by absorbing, learning, integrating, and other means and to make dishes that customers like is the way to go. Today, in This is the meaning of the dinner where the flowers are blooming.

I finished my dinner when I was tipsy, and then went to Aji Seafood. This is also a shochu restaurant, where Fu Lin is waiting for everyone to have a midnight snack. We sat down to chat, drink tea, and then drink. I actually drank a lot. Finally, I ate a bowl of Xiamen boiled noodles and said goodbye and went back to the hotel. Four meals a day really made me realize that eating is also a laborious task.