China News Service, Xi'an, September 12. Title: Taiwanese chef in a small village in the Qinling Mountains: using mountain and wild fireworks to combine the essence of the "taste buds" of both sides of the Taiwan Strait
China News Service reporter Zhang Yichen
In Liyukou Village, Xi'an City, located at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, the restaurant "Youxingshanji" has bright and clean windows. Looking out from the window, you can have a panoramic view of the open scenery of the Guanzhong Plain. The restaurant operator, Chen Youzheng, a young man from Taiwan, squatted by the field ridge, identifying seasonal ingredients in the mountains with fellow villagers.
“Many friends joke that I like to eat fried noodles more than people in Shaanxi, and they must be paired with a clove of garlic.” Chen Youzheng said that when he was in college, he worked in a Western restaurant in Taipei, where he often cooked foie gras, wagyu, blue lobster and other ingredients in the kitchen. “This was my introduction to the catering industry.” From then on, he began to delve into innovative cuisine that combines Eastern cooking ingenuity with Western techniques. In 2017, Chen Youzheng came to the mainland for the first time because of a catering project invitation, and his first stop was Xi'an. In the following years, he worked as a catering consultant in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, participating in the preliminary preparations and dish research and development of many catering stores.
Taiwanese young man Chen Youzheng was preparing dishes at the "Youxingshanji" restaurant in Liyukou Village, Xi'an City recently. Photo by China News Service reporter Dang Tianye
Through an online work matchmaking, Chen Youzheng met Xu Ying, a Shaanxi girl who is deeply involved in rural operations, and came to Liyukou Village.
Today, rural makers and digital nomads from all over the country gather in Liyukou, and old residents and new residents coexist and blend together, forming a unique rural ecology. Chen Youzheng and Xu Ying have a division of labor. Xu Ying is responsible for the overall operation of the restaurant and future planning of the project. He focuses on the output of cooking technology and regularly iterates the four-season menu.
"'Youxingshan Collection' is just one of my work projects. Every year I spend a few months stationed in the village doing dish research and development, and the rest of the time I travel to Shanghai and Guangzhou to promote other catering projects." Chen Youzheng said that the difference between cities and rural areas will bring about different creative states. The catering industry in Shanghai is fast-paced, and stores have to update their menus almost every month; the mountain village at the foot of the Qinling Mountains is more like an "energy charging station", allowing him to slow down and find cooking inspiration from the mountains and fields.
When making local fusion cuisine, you cannot stick to past experiences. After taking root in the mountain village, Chen Youzheng took the initiative to learn about local ingredients from the villagers. Toona in spring, gray vegetables and chicken feather vegetables in summer, wild kudzu in the mountains, and apricots grown in the village have all become the "materials" for his cooking creations.
For example, their signature dish "Apricot Fern Cake" is a sweet snack made by Chen Youzheng who followed the villagers into the mountains to collect kudzu and grind it into powder. He learned from the traditional Shaanxi food dough-making process and adjusted the salty and spicy tastes that the locals are accustomed to. It is paired with locally produced dried apricots and apricot jam to create a taste unique to the Qinling Mountains.
After traveling all over the country, Chen Youzheng lamented that only by truly going out, seeing the customs and customs of various places with his own eyes, and keeping an open mind can his horizons be truly opened, and he can then understand the customs and fireworks here. (over)
