Chai's Style Vegetarian Beef Noodles (Halal)

The following is excerpted from the store's introduction:

This soup originated around 1920. The name of the cook is: Wang Chai, a Muslim. The family has ancestral sauce beef. When Wang Chai was young, every time he cooked beef at home, it was so fragrant that the surrounding neighbors could smell the aroma. This soup has been around for seventy years. Several years of history.

Since the opening of the halal-flavored vegetarian restaurant, Wang Lin, the son of Wang Chai, has worked hard to recover and sum up the ancestral sauce meat method. After more than two years of continuous preparation of the soup, he carefully adjusted the ingredients according to the ancestral recipe. The choice basically restores the original flavor of beef in Chai's sauce, and the aroma is attractive, making people linger after eating it.

Chai's small bowl of meat is more distinctive, fat but not greasy, lean but not greasy, with a mellow taste and a smooth texture.

I have long heard countless people mention how delicious "Ganjiakou's beef noodles" are. It is said that most people can't help but go in and have a bowl when they walk through the door. The popular "Beijing Food Map" on the Internet states: Chai's Beef Noodles, 100 meters west of Ganjiakou intersection, the beef noodle soup seasoned by Mr. Chai of the Hui people is a unique thing in the capital - what kind of "unique" is it? Law? Let's go together.

The menu only has 4 "main dishes" of beef

A thin piece of laminated paper says: Beef with soy sauce (25 yuan/jin), small bowl Meat (5 yuan/bowl), beef noodle soup (4 yuan/4 taels, 5 yuan/5 taels), beef and potato vermicelli (10 yuan/casserole)

I found “Chai’s” on a Hong Kong website The exact address of "Beef Noodles" is different from the address on the food map. It is said to be in the alley south of Ganjiakou Building and go west. But there was no explanation of how far we walked

We passed one restaurant after another, but the "Chai's" sign never appeared. It's more than a hundred meters to the west, more than two or three hundred meters. We have passed a fork in the road.

When I was about to despair and was about to ask someone, a large signboard suddenly appeared on the south side of the road (opposite the Haidian Health Bureau), which said "Chai Chai" in Hui and Chinese characters. "Shi Feng Zhai" - this place and name are the correct explanation of the so-called "Ganjiakou Beef Noodles". As soon as you enter the store, the unique smell of beef hits your face.

There are small black square tables for four people in the spacious hall, neatly stacked, and it feels a bit like a classroom

Enter from the east door and walk all the way to the west. A bowl of noodles is placed in front of every guest, without exception.

There are more than 30 kinds of side dishes here. Except for spiced beef tendons and meat skewers, they are all vegetables, which look very healthy.

The legendary beef noodle soup is sold in packages of 4 taels

These 4 taels are all noodle soup. If you want to eat beef, you have to order a "small bowl of meat". Although the rule for a small bowl of meat here is "a flat bowl with no sharp edges", adding this small bowl of meat to both sides of 4 makes me feel a little full just thinking about it

Fortunately, the photographer arrived in time and had this The "cow addict" was here, so he added another pound of soy beef and a few delicious side dishes with great ease.

While waiting for the meal, the reporter visited the store. There are a few capable young men in the open kitchen, cutting meat and cooking noodles. Everything is going on in an orderly manner. In the easternmost kitchen compartment, which is also the take-out window, there is a large pot that two people can hug together. It is steaming inside, and a young man is poking into it with chopsticks - needless to say, the pot is stewed. Yes, it’s the fragrant Chai’s beef.

There are many photos hanging in the lobby. In the photos, Mrs. Chai’s son Wang Lin looks very much like the "007" actor Sean Connery in "The Thief". He is a very handsome old man. There is also the earliest small shop environment - the reputation of "Ganjiakou Beef Noodles" spread far and wide from that small and shabby shop.

The store was located where the private rooms are now. Roads had not been built at that time, and the lobby was still a small road.

"Chai's" has not yet applied for a patent or registered trademark. The name of the store is "Flavor Zhai Restaurant". From its opening in 1988 until 1996, the store was only 16 square meters and could only accommodate 4 tables. The beef is "thin but not fat, fat but not greasy" and is chewed vigorously with the noodles, so that the noodles are fully mixed with the beef and shredded cabbage. The several aromas and different textures are touching.

Beef noodle soup is served with a small bowl of beef. The strong aroma of meat activates all the sensory systems of the human body. 0FCNraM1lU

Pour a small bowl of beef into the soup noodles. You can mix it or not. Put the beef into your mouth with a chopstick of noodles - it smells so good! As I was eating enthusiastically, the soy sauce beef was served again. Those "tender" tendons were really delicious and smooth. What is particularly worth mentioning is the chili oil here, which is so fragrant. Before the waiter could even approach, the scent of chili oil penetrated the nostrils and immediately drew away one's soul. Even eating soy beef dipped in chili oil would make you want to be a god. The beef stew takes a full 4 hours

The Wuhuo is brought to a boil and simmered. When to add fire and when to extinguish the fire, the time must be precise. The stewing time should not be less than one minute. In addition to store manager Shan Baoan, the interviewees for this interview include Wang Lin’s wife, 71-year-old Bai Guilan.

Bai Guilan speaks in a loud, majestic and sonorous voice. She likes to use rhetorical questions and occasionally gestures. She unlocked for us the secret of delicious "Chai's" beef noodles. The first is material selection. The selection of ingredients must be precise, and grade A meat from a large factory must be used.

The second is the heat. The beef stew takes a full 4 hours.

The third is soup. The essence of beef is all in the soup. The old soup made from pure beef is directly poured over the noodles, which is extremely fresh.

■Numbers Chai’s daily beef sales: 580 kilograms (standard kilograms)

Small bowls of beef sold every day: around 1,000 bowls. When the most beef is sold: Nearly 700 pounds

■Chai’s anecdote

What “medicine” is sold in beef soup? The beef soup of "Chai Shi Feng Zhai" has a history of more than 70 years. Mrs. Chai’s father’s surname is Wang, and both of her parents are Muslims. When Wang and Chai were young, they made a living on “ancestral sauce beef”, which was around 1920.

Bai Guilan’s sesame seed cakes are also a must-have

Over the past few decades, countless incidents have occurred. Life was difficult for a period of time, and I didn’t have many opportunities to cook the meat. Boil the jar of old soup, add a lot of salt, seal it and put it in the cellar. If it is time to eat meat, the soup will be taken out. After the meat is stewed, Wang Lin will personally check and scoop out all the soup before the family is allowed to touch the meat.

At first, there was only one restaurant in Ganjiakou community, "Flavor Zhai". In addition to beef noodles, it also sold Shaobing with meat and shabu-shabu. Wang Lin's wife Bai Guilan bakes a unique sesame seed cake. It's charred on the outside and soft on the inside. It's incredibly delicious. Now, due to lack of space, the item of Shaobing with meat has been cancelled. However, old diners who have been eating it for more than ten years are still greedy and often suggest bringing back the item.

When "Flavour Zhai" opened in 1988, there were only 4 tables in the store, and the rest were placed on the curb - 58 tables! At 12 noon, all 62 tables were full. Those who came later could only stand at the tables on the curb and wait for a table. In 1996, due to road reconstruction, "Flavor Zhai" moved to the nearby Ganjiakou Middle School. The store expanded to about 100 square meters, and it still followed the "road teeth tactics". The grand event at that time was really called "unprecedented". 350,000 books published overseas to introduce "Chai Family"

"Chai Family" really became famous overseas in 1992. That day, a taxi driver was chartered by a Japanese and went to eat "Dong Lai Shun" first and felt uncomfortable. It was so enjoyable that after getting on the bus, I asked the driver if there was any good place to eat, and the driver recommended this "old place". After a meal of "Chai's" beef noodles, the Japanese kept saying it was better than the previous one.

The Japanese then asked the boss, Bai Guilan, to pay 300,000 yuan for the secret recipe.

But Wang Lin firmly disagreed, saying, "300,000? I won't sell 3 million to foreigners!" Although the Japanese left with regrets, they told this place to a Japanese media, which later specially I went to a small store for an interview and found out that the book I published sold 350,000 copies in Japan.

It was not until July 2001, when the road construction was completed, that "Chai" had its new home today. There are 72 tables for 4 people in one place, but it is no longer as grand as it used to be.

The smell of beef makes me unable to move

Someone once described Chai’s Beef Noodles like this: “When I walk to the east and south entrance of the community, I smell the smell of beef and think of the pot. I can’t walk in front of the pot without eating a bowl.”

Bai Guilan told reporters that her soup is the aroma of more than a dozen spices mixed with several precious Chinese medicines.

Of course there are regrets. Bai Guilan said that after it is now stipulated to use natural gas, the aroma has been reduced by several percent, and it is not as fragrant as the previous stew on coals with gasoline barrels. The so-called "fragrance spreads ten miles away" means that you have to work slowly to get a good job.

■Side dish seasoning

Shredded cabbage "best paired with beef"

I asked Bai Guilan a question: What side dish is best when eating beef? Dish: 3 yuan. The dish "invented" by Bai Guilan himself is actually made of cabbage cut into thin strips and topped with beef soup. Originally, there was shredded cabbage in the noodle soup, but many people thought it was lacking, so we came up with this "copy dish" that is "best paired with beef".

Kimchi: 4 yuan

The kimchi is made in the store, fresh but not salty. Sweet and sour radish: 3 yuan

A mix of sweet and sour shreds Chewing a piece of beef is wonderful.

Sweet and spicy melon strips: 4 yuan. Cut small cucumbers into strips and drizzle with extremely fragrant chili oil. It is sweet and slightly spicy, crispy and refreshing.