Daoxiang Village

Daoxiang Village, located on the east side of Guanqian Street, was founded in the 38th year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1773 AD). It is based on the Daoxiang Village in the Grand View Garden in Cao Xueqin’s famous work "A Dream of Red Mansions" Named after Suzhou, it is the most famous professional store (factory) with a long history of producing and selling Suzhou-style cakes. It is also the most representative store (factory) that comprehensively inherits and develops Suzhou-style cake shops. Because of its superb production skills, It is also famous for selling Su-style game. On August 31, 1926, "Suzhou Ming Pao" published an advertisement for the completion of a new house in Daoxiang Village, saying: This number was opened at the east end of Zhusi Lane in front of Xuanmiao Temple in Suzhou City. It has been more than a hundred years ago. Due to the expansion of business, a tall Western-style facade is still being renovated on the original site. On the occasion of the completion of the new house, a trademark with the word "禾" was added. However, according to the 1914 "Jiangsu Province Industrial Administrative Report", Daoxiang Village was founded in the third year of Tongzhi (1864). The "Chunhuaguan Food and Drink Chronicles" drafted in 1931 said: "The shop owner of Daoxiang Village is surnamed Shen. He took refuge in the countryside during the Hongyang War. He once set up a tea restaurant in a village by Yangcheng Lake. The business was not bad. After the chaos, he returned to the city. , had accumulated enough money, and planned to expand his business, so he set up shop in Guanqian Street. "The above records are each different, and it is difficult to examine them in detail. Passed down from generation to generation through the method of "master leading apprentice", "stores in the south are opened in the north, and flavors in the south are opened in the north". It soon blossomed in dozens of cities in the north and became popular. But unfortunately, "Daoxiang Village", which has the same origin, origin and family, is still operating under the same brand in dozens of cities.

There are also different opinions about the store recruitment in Daoxiang Village. According to the past legend in the store, the owner Wang Qiugen's ancestors loved to watch "Dream of Red Mansions". Later, he was inspired by "Dream of Red Mansions" and thought that the raw materials of tea, cakes and cakes were rice and wheat, so he decided to name it "Daoxiang Village". However, it is said in "Chunhuaguan Food and Drink Chronicles": "The owner of the shop, surnamed Shen... set up a shop on Guanqian Street, but there was no sign on the sign, so he decided to do business with his close friend, a radish farmer on the shore of Taihu Lake, abbreviated I didn't know much about it, but I read novels like "A Dream of Red Mansions" and saw the plaque "Daoxiang Village" in the Grand View Garden, so I chose these three characters to name Shen shop.

The factory currently has 276 employees, including 203 pastry production workers. , with a factory area of ??3,000 square meters and a business area of ??200 square meters. In 1986, it was expanded into Daoxiangcun Food Factory, which still maintains the traditional characteristics of the front shop and back shop (factory).

Now Daoxiangcun produces candies, game, roasted seeds and nuts, etc. Green salt preserves and Western-style candies, biscuits, canned foods, dairy products, beverages, etc. are also engaged in tea, snacks and pastries with their own traditional characteristics. There are 22 major categories and more than 130 varieties, including 70 perennial varieties and seasonal varieties. There are more than 60 varieties, and the seasonal varieties change with the seasonal changes of the four seasons and eight seasons. There are ten award-winning products of each brand.

The famous tea and cakes supplied all year round include: lard, pine nut and jujube paste sesame cake, almond cake, green onion. Nectarine cakes, thin crisps, foreign money cakes, lard pine nut cakes, Haru cakes, bean paste cakes, ear cakes, stocking cakes, jade belt cakes, fresh meat dumplings, pan-flavored cakes, brown sugar, sliced, etc.

Famous seasonal tea and cakes include apricot sesame cakes, fermented rice cakes, white sugar snow cakes, meat-based snow cakes, spring cakes, etc. in spring, and mint cakes, Indian cakes, poria cakes, water chestnut cakes, steamed cakes, and meat-and-vegetarian mung bean cakes in summer. , ice and snow cakes, summer sugar, sour plum juice, etc. In autumn, there are Ruyi cakes, Qiaoguo, Bergamot cakes, various Soviet-style pastry cakes, and in winter, there are Walnut cakes, eight pieces of meringue, etc.

The shop is also very famous for its smoked game, such as meat floss, duck gizzard liver, etc. According to the book "Wuzhong Recipes", Daoxiang Village makes square cakes and pine nut king thousand cakes in a fixed quantity every day, and this shop will never make them in a shoddy way. The smoked fish and wild ducks... are all made fresh, and the smoked fish is not smoked unless it is herring. "This is something that ordinary game shops cannot match, but the game in Daoxiang Village is no longer available, and the chef is also old. Already high, the store is actively cultivating personnel so that there will be successors to this game specialty.

"Chunhuaguan Food and Drink Chronicles" has detailed records of Daoxiang Village's famous brand products: "Mooncakes are the best tea and snacks in Daoxiang Village...the best part is that they are heavy in sugar and oil, and they are crispy and easy to eat." There are roses, bean paste, cabbage, salt and pepper, etc. The price of each cake is ten copper yuan. There are four cakes in each box, which are called big meat mooncakes. The price of small meat mooncakes is half, and the name and color are the same as the big meat mooncakes.

Only one of them, the clear water rose, is made of pure white sugar, bright red flowers, and meat oil. Compared with other meat dishes, it is particularly delicious. There are also round, large and flat moon cakes, which are called moon palace cakes, or palace cakes for short. They are filled with jujube paste and meat oil. Each cake costs twenty copper coins, two per box. This is the best sweet mooncake. As for salty mooncakes, there used to be only two types: southern leg and scallion oil. In recent years, fresh meat mooncakes have been added. All three of these are suitable to be eaten immediately after being cooked. The skin will be crispy and the taste will be plump, with a distinctive flavor. "

"Dingsheng cake and fermented glutinous rice cake are popular foods in spring. However, Daoxiangcun cake is also suitable for soft and hard cakes. "

" For smoked fish and wild duck, Daoxiangcun is also the best... These three (note: refers to Daoxiangcun, Ye Shouhe, and Donglu) must only smoke herring. It is better to have less than to overdo it. "

"There is also a large rose lard cake that was launched in March and April. It is made of white sugar and lard, with bright roses added, which is fragrant and sweet. But when it is steamed and comes out of the cauldron, around six o'clock in the morning, people who wake up early in the morning can eat it, while those who get up later in the morning are snatched up by vendors who have bought all the food, making people salivate. "

These traditional snacks are still produced in Daoxiangcun Food Store today, such as clear water rose mooncakes, sesame halva, pine nut and jujube paste cakes, meat and wine cakes, smoked fish, shrimp roe, etc. Hong Kong's "Wen Wei Po" once introduced the long history of Daoxiang Village, more than 130 traditional varieties, and more than 60 seasonal products with the title "The flavor of tea and food in the four seasons is elegant, and the pastries of Daoxiang Village are like Daoxiang". In addition to the characteristics of Su-style pastries, they also have their own unique characteristics, which are seasonal freshness and emphasis on both taste and shape. This is the basis for Daoxiang Village to be able to survive for hundreds of years.