"Yongfu Club" was once the official residence of Kuang Ankun, a famous doctor at Ruijin Hospital, and has successively served as consulates of the Soviet Union, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries. Since its opening in 2004, this place itself has multiple cultural identities: Michelin restaurant, antique museum, and cultural living room. This place, where stars are like flowing water and political figures are like flying sand, almost carries the epitome of the rise of Shanghai-style culture. This time, let's visit this "Bite of Tongue Theater" of Shanghai-style cultural animals.

Mr. Wang Xingzheng (hereinafter referred to as Mr. Wang), the owner of Yongfu Club, is the first generation of Chinese designers in China and an antique collector. He is an "old carat" who even needs to replace the buttons of new clothes with his collection of antique buttons. When I came to him, I felt that my eyes had been eating "Western-style Chinese food" that I had never seen before, and watching a drama that changed scenery was more romantic than a flowing water banquet.

The reason why I call the special group of cultural people born in the "Shanghai Culture""animals" is that their way of gathering friends is enviable. In Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, the most fashionable thing was that I had just read a hot new book at hand. It was the background of conversation and people were keen on high-quality social interaction. It is hard to imagine that it is almost in sync with Hemingway's "The Flowing Feast" on the other side of the ocean.

If you use the social media generation as a benchmark, the situation described will be a little awkward. As early as the last century, in Shanghai's sleepless cultural circle, the atmosphere of "appreciating strange texts together and analyzing doubts" has made many people transcend a mediocre species. Due to the irrigation of Chinese and Western cultures, an inclusive flower has blossomed in the hardened soil. Such "exquisiteness" is passed on to the next generation, even if it is just to dress, eat and drink, time will be so beautiful.

Inspired by the Cultural Salon of the 1930s in Paris, Yongfu Club holds artistic activities such as musical performances, film exchanges, and literary readings here every week. Compared with Mixun Bar, Liuyi Hall is more antique. It is a hall of a large house in the early Qing Dynasty that was completely relocated from Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. As an open-air ancient stage at the Yongfu Club, it will now have a live. When I entered Yongfu along the path planted with pines, cypress and holly on both sides, I imagined Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Spanish King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, and former French President's wife Bernadette Chirac. I regret meeting each other too late to walk here. A Spanish-style three-story house has the three characters "Judetang" written on a Chinese plaque above the main entrance. The marble patterns in Judetang are the same as those in the Uffizi Art Museum in Italy, and are all hand-chiseled.

There is also a plaque in the foyer. It is an authentic work by Liu Yong, the "Prime Minister of Thick Ink" of the Qing Dynasty, with the words "Follow the law without blame (an)". Under the plaque is a Western-style fireplace, on which is placed the "Xuande Furnace" made during the Qianlong period. I think Zhang Ailing will see cinnabar moles and white moonlight in her heart when she comes.

Walking further, you will see the dining area, with red-bottomed window curtains embroidered with peacock tail feathers, the white tablecloth on the dining table is handmade purely, and the seats are antique. In the center of the restaurant, there is a couplet made of glass, which says,"East Lu Ya Yan Poetry and Book Dilites, Xijing Ming Xun filial piety Li Tian". The dining area also uses classical glass cabinets to display Wang Xingzheng's collection of antiques. Under the collision of China and the West, the shadows of the lights and the green shimmering outside the window are shining brightly, without any sense of inconsistency.

At this time, every bite I sat down to eat and drink was a conversation with Time Without Borders.

Who would have thought that the Yongfu Club, which had just opened, was just a group of designers working as chefs, studying the basics of catering in the library for two weeks. "Do you know the result? At that time, China wasn't the eight major cuisines, but 22 kinds of cuisines, each of which had roots and civilization." Mr. Wang said. I was surprised. Is cooking related to design? He calmly said: "In the past, chefs were a skill to make a living. Real practitioners didn't like it. A group of passionate and understanding designers came into the circle to cook, which was very disruptive to the industry. Don't you think that a high-end banquet is just a kind of design?"

Mr. Wang's answer convinced me. After all, in 2004, the "Yongfu Club", which had just opened, was named the "World's Best Design Club" by the world's top magazine "WALLPAPER". Since it is a club, the night is long and delicious.

In fact, what is more important than the dishes is the "emotional intelligence" of Shanghai style hospitality. That is consistent with the philosophy of Mr. Wang, the antique collector,"only recognizes beauty, not value." For people with extreme requirements for "aesthetics", this requirement is already too much.

Mr. Cao Kefan recalled once inviting pianist Mr. Fu Cong to have a dinner at the Yongfu Fair. "That day, Mr. Fu was wearing a dark navy blue printed satin coat, his hair neatly combed back, half black plush gloves on his hands, and a pipe in his mouth. In his speech, he spoke pure old Shanghai dialect, mixed with some English and French. This scene seems to feel like time has gone back."

The private room where Fu Cong dined in those years

Mr. Fu once described the first time he realized that he fell in love with Agerich, the Polish goddess of music, saying,"She is crystal clear," but others commented on her willful and wild. In my heart, beauty is pure, and sometimes there is no need to consider too much utility. Good love stories are usually simple, no matter how complex the plot is presented, it is like watching a Shakespeare play. There is a kind of goodwill in the atmosphere of communication among Shanghai-style cultural animals. They listen carefully to "expression" and do not easily judge the likes and dislikes of "out-of-the-box", because most people have seen enough sensuality. I admire their maverick and break the rules even if there is a little beauty in their lifestyle.

At that time, the small dishes of Yongfu Club were very simple, including chopped chicken, smoked fish, minced shredded pork, eight-treasure duck, marinated fresh... and so on. The master praised while eating, especially praising the bowl of mixed noodles with scallion oil."The taste is good, but it's a little lacking." After saying that, he also felt a little embarrassed. "People who have lived overseas for a long time often miss their hometown from a few home-cooked dishes. Zhang Ailing saw a handful of purple-red amaranth in Chinatown in the United States, and didn't she feel excited?"

Weiwei, artistic director of the Yongfu Club, recalled that one afternoon, she had coffee with the world-renowned Italian architect Roberto Baciocchi in the Yongfu Club garden. As Prada's royal architect, he came to Shanghai to preside over the creative restoration of the Rong House. "The old man came. He spoke French and didn't talk much. He didn't have the Italian enthusiasm for following the wind and waves. However, as he walked in the garden, his eagle eye swept around and talked more and more. He talked more and more. He talked to me about the grass emerging from the cracks in the garden. The grass was withering and yellowing during that season. In Liuyi Hall, he bowed down, squatted on the ground to watch carefully, stood up, and said, the combination of this material is amazing! This is impossible in the industry. He asked me if I could call Mr. Wang immediately and want to meet with him. I called Mr. Wang immediately. Mr. Wang replied that he was in his collection in the suburbs and couldn't make it today. The Italian asked me to tell Mr. Wang that he hoped that one day Mr. Wang would come to Europe and visit his famous ancient house in Tuscany."

A 140-year-old magnolia tree

Weiwei said that she was attracted by this point of Mr. Wang. For many years, he has insisted on laying Chinese grass in the garden, and each withered and the other flourished. He would rather use the hand of God to mess with his territory and reject the Western-style lawn that is clear at a glance and loses its secrets. Of course, some guests come to the Yongfu Club and think that high-quality places should have high-quality rules and cannot be "old". However,"old" is an aesthetic concept and a game between being an instrument and not being an instrument. It abandons the time-limited utilitarian nature of "things" and emphasizes the emotional return and return of "things" to "people. In this fashion capital where "new" is the king rule in everything, this garden gives the most authentic sound of the four seasons.

Sharp-eyed people will sit down as soon as they arrive at Yongfu, but will not leave for a while. The first time I met Mr. Wang, he wore a pair of see-rimmed glasses, and his seemingly simple white wide shirt and black baggy pants were carefully tailored. A ray of daylight had just shone on the antique glass on the dome, and his glasses were "lit up" and shone into the exquisite folds. The slender "lantern" also lit up, and he was all crystal clear. Next time, the sun shines on his antique Gucci and Fendi sofas from the 1960s. The chaps are more suitable than old cowhide.

His VIP cigar room was also the place he would like to stay most in his 50 years. Behind the sofa where I sit, there is a cigarette billboard in the late Qing Dynasty that looks like Pu Yi. Even now, many people's understanding of a large number of Chinese and Western antiques still lingers on the original question of "how much is it?" But I am a thoughtful snob and can't understand antique furniture. Walking into the space that Wang Xingzheng, the owner of the "Yongfu Club", spent nearly 20 years building, I only thought it was "beautiful."

He said,"Antiques are not repetitive. After it was created and weathered over the years, it formed a mechanical color in aesthetics. It cannot be repeated. If you ask the manufacturer to rebuild those patina paste now, there will be no such cracks and luster, and there will be no such same one again. So this level is already higher than all levels, because all beautiful things are imitations, and everything in the world is actually imitations, including food. Right?"

Looking back in time, I remembered having a Song banquet here. Song Dynasty is the commanding height of Chinese taste. Diners 'eyes, ears, nose, throat, body and mind have mountains, rivers, lakes and seas. It is also the most difficult ancient banquet to reproduce. I also thought that French cuisine was the best carrier for Fine Dining in terms of beautiful meals. It took 400 years to gradually develop a complete set of dining etiquette. In the pleasing dining experience, there are too many rules worth inheriting: remove one piece and serve another, match the wine with one piece, and more than 15 pieces of tableware serve the food... In comparison, the meal given by Qinghe Prince Zhang Jun (Yue Fei's boss) to Zhao Gou of Song Gaozong can be said to be a Chinese version of the "Buffett Feast". The venue was at the Prince's palace, which is now Qinghe Fang, Hangzhou. Nearly 150 foods, each of which is carefully recorded in "Old Things in Wulin". That was the peak of Chinese Native Fine Dining as far as I know.

The Song banquet of the Yongfu Festival is reproduced: young pigeons, lychee and white kidneys, willow leek, clam chowder, four-gill bass... I am obsessed with the romantic sounding flower rice dumplings. It was the first dish on the royal meal when Emperor Zhao Gou of the Southern Song Dynasty visited Zhang Junfu. It was flavored with edible roses. The exquisiteness of "Litchi White Kidney" comes from the knife technique. After processing the pork waist, the color will turn white. Small checkered patterns are evenly engraved on the surface of the half-split waist to imitate the texture of the lychee shell. This knife technique is "Litchi". Litchi patterns have been used since the Song Dynasty. The waist slices are cooked and rolled to form an unpeeled lychee. The significance of using this knife technique is to shorten the cooking time and make the dishes more delicious. Yongfu Club's handling method is: after the pork waist is changed to a knife, the wine will be rinsed for a day, and then poured with hot water and then poured with fruit lychee sauce. This dish is a bit close to Huaiyang fried waist slices in taste, but it does not use soy sauce to mix the sauce. The earliest use of the term "soy sauce" in Chinese history was in the Song Dynasty. However, because the ancients had limited purification and filtration capabilities, they usually still looked like thin bean paste, so soybean paste was used that time.

Here, I am like a person outside time and space. Just like the meal between the French President and Shanghai's literary and art circles at the Yongfu Festival in 2004, the new dishes and wine servers here let people see the sincerity born of love. President Chirac gave a speech at Fudan University that year and stayed at the Yongfu Conference for a whole day.

It is true that the Shanghai feast here is also fluid, exists in the grains of time, and can never be imitated. Even if Mr. Wang said that the world has changed now,"Society is fast because everyone now receives direct information. In the past, the transmission of information required time and space, but it was slow. So for many things, something that used to take many years to form, but now the process has actually been shortened." I said, that's a pity. It's too fast to enjoy many details.

I know that Yongfu Club has a new menu and has a pioneering feeling of experimentation, just like it was when it first set out. Cielo joined the Yongfu Club in 2022 and is currently one of the double chefs of the Yongfu Club. He seems to be very young, but he has actually worked in Italy for 15 years and has numerous international achievements. He is a rising star in the cooking industry.

Amuse Bouche

Four appetizers: Pearl Drunken Hokkaido Sweet Shrimp (pearl shell made from coconut milk, ink sauce and spring roll skin), rice foie gras air kacha with vinegar stained chives, dill yogurt and jerker chips, and cabbage chips with walnut and soy milk sandwich.

For the starters, I have a good impression on Henri Giraud, the champagne that is paired with Yongfu Club. The winery still insists on aging it in 100% oak barrels, and the wood used to make the oak barrels comes from the Argonne Forest next to Ay Village. This natural champagne is brewed from a mixture of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. It has peach, pear, vanilla and white pepper flavors, followed by lemon aroma and macaroons at the end. The structure can support the changes of the appetizer. It is also very fresh.

Hairy crab, crab, cherry tomato, ginger

It is difficult for dishes in the crab season to excel. To inherit the crab flavor and to remove the fishy smell and increase the freshness is a test of one's skill. This dish is inspired by the crab topping noodles. The salty and fresh shredded pork is wrapped in the wonton skin. It is freshly disassembled hairy crab meal and crab shell stock and slightly boiled, served with dried cherry tomatoes, ginger juice and aged flower carvings. Finally, spray sherry wine vinegar to increase the aroma. When I eat one bite, I feel both crispy and soft, salty and clear, and the chef handles the word "balance" generously.

This dish is paired with Tapai Winter Brew. I like the unique aroma of almond, lotus leaf, wheat, etc. inside. The water selection of this wine is particularly exquisite and needs to be brewed around the winter solstice. Firstly, due to the low temperature, the growth of miscellaneous bacteria is suppressed. Secondly, the water quality of Jianhu Lake in the southwest of Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province is particularly clear at this time, and the quality of the rice wine is excellent. The water from Jianhu Lake is only used to make this wine a few days before the winter solstice. After the winter solstice, there is a slight sour gas. Tapai's local wine is only brewed on the 5-6 days around the Winter Solstice every year.

Oiled dumplings, shredded radish, sour cream, sesame sauce, garlic

I marvel at the combination of Panchino and old Shanghai oil dumplings, a tribute to the Disfrutar restaurant in Barcelona: the thinner batter is filled with nitrogen and fried in 180 degrees oil temperature until crispy, the filling is shredded radish and sour cream, served with sesame sauce and shredded western garlic, delicate and smooth. When you eat one bite, you will be deeply comforted by childhood memories.

Spring grass, orchid head, purple cabbage, mixed seaweed, pine needles

With the appearance of this dish, I finally understood the joy of flying on the table. Re-interpret Shanghai smoked rice with spring rice dumplings rich in rice dumplings, shape and fry them crispy, and then immerse them in a traditional rich sauce.

Cypress head mud, purple cabbage gel, mixed seaweed and smoked pine needle foam add lightness.

Coupled with the aroma of ripe citrus fruits such as the Chardonnay's Hundred Poems Collection, pineapple and yellow peaches, I breathed fresh bubbles in my mouth and felt like I had transformed into a tropical fish.

Fresh abalone, fan rice, black truffle, egg dumplings, mixed vanilla

Inspired by egg dumplings and Wellington, the seventh floor is from the outside to the inside with egg dumpling skins, three-headed fresh abalone steamed with flower carving, Hokkaido fan mousse and black truffle sandwich.

Serve it with a six-hour-boiled fresh abalone broth and extract it with fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, peppermint, sage, wormwood) to maintain the fragrance.

Sea turtle shrimp, broad bean, snow cabbage, moss

The extra-large Icelandic sea turtle shrimp meat is fried in charred oil, fried with shrimp brain shrimp tongs and lime skin as filling. It is paired with the prepared broad bean paste, shrimp shells and shrimp heads to make sauce, stir-fried snow vegetables, fried reindeer moss, fan meat floss and red rice flour, inspired by Shanghai Douban Crispy, highlights the tenderness and tenderness.

A5 and beef, Koshikari rice, beef quince, white onion, Shanghai quince

I am generally very vigilant about all kinds of carbohydrates on the table to prevent getting fat, but this new thinking about risotto and Shanghai paella on the table made me give up resistance. Soak the Koshikari rice in Parasen cheese water, then cook it, add beef quince pith and burnt oil, and then add Shanghai quince, caramel onions and stir-fried top A5 beef to give it a strong aroma.

Pigeon, bean sprouts, red cabbage head, barley rice eight treasures

Inspired by Shanghai Babao Duck, the decomposed pigeon breast and pigeon leg are fried and fried respectively, and then smoked and roasted with open fire. They are paired with nine-hour boiled sauce with pigeon and old duck, red cabbage head sauce, and fried with red soy sauce in seafood sauce. Rice Babao and Moutai aroma bean sprouts.

Special soy sauce caramel ice cream, beans, dark chocolate, buckwheat

The smoothie made of Nanhui peaches is paired with perilla peach ice powder and fresh perilla leaves. After a refreshing transition, it is still very satisfying to eat a soy sauce caramel ice cream. The chef boldly mixes it with soy sauce gel, soy milk jelly, and Fafuna Dark chocolate chopped buckwheat and sponge cake are salty, sweet and charming.

Petits Fours

Mini Napoleon with kumquat sauce, white orchid and cherry blossom chocolate, fermented lychee fudge, and homemade Magnolia syrup with lime and cream.

Mr. Wang, would you like to eat? I said, of course, you see, I've eaten it all. It's not only delicious, but also beautiful.

"What you say is delicious and good-looking, but in fact, what comes from the bottom of your heart is a good impression. Favorable food is the king's way. It is a perception that combines the five senses."

"I have a cross-border perspective. From an aesthetic perspective, eating is actually a structure for both delicious food and favorable feelings. Everything is structured because I am designing. Looking at the bottom, when a dish comes out, there is a tangible structure and a compatible structure. The compatible structure derives from the technological structure and the qualitative structure, and the final result is a comprehensive artistic conception structure. Your experience of 'delicious and good-looking' is the artistic conception."

"In fact, the logic at the bottom of everything is a structure and a physical structure. So when I design, I am actually doing the physical structure, including the design and creation of the environment, including the configuration of the dishes, and including the presentation. The state starts completely from the structure and is not the same thing as a chef."

Mr. Wang's words were both profound and straightforward: "In the past, almost 90% of Chinese chefs were engaged in manual labor, and more than 90% were there. There were very few people who could truly have intelligence that could rise from brain power to intelligence. Because he is not civilized enough, when we say he is civilized, it actually means that he is not enough world view and understanding of the world and aesthetics. Aesthetics is civilization, it is not culture. Chinese cuisine has culture, but culture does not equal civilization. Culture and civilization are not the same thing."

The reason why I use "cultural animals" to call frequent visitors to the Yongfu Club is because of the vulgar prejudice of "insufficient civilization". However, I am glad that I am around strange and lovely people. Maybe one day I can learn to "let go" and "accept", have more courage, and become a proud "animal."

I even think that Mr. Wang himself is "cross-border", and that span is not enough to express it. He has crossed the "cross-border" and designed everything from his unique structural level, including dishes and conversations with me. It's delicious, but it needs to be allowed to digest. The "sense of high-quality" that is coming out is a taste that cannot be replicated under the precipitation of time. In this Bite Theater, you can't rush when eating.

🍌

The goddess asked

Are you obsessed?

"When one cannot have it,

The only thing he can do is not forget."

--Proust's "Remembering the Past Times"

Food Bless You!

Consultant for "Flavor World 3"

Owner of "God's Table"

Producer of "Food Wild China"