Unremarkable family restaurant, the bed side is the table, have been to the tourists want to go again!

A cold winter day, to Guizhou Qingyan Ancient Town Tourism, the cold wind in the few pedestrians, in the West Street to shoot the old pawnshops frozen shivering. Hungry and cold at the time, see a small restaurant across the street, the sign says "Huaxi beef noodles", did not think much about it, along the narrow staircase into the, just want to eat a bowl of hot noodles, warm up the frozen hands. On the second floor, lift the transparent plastic curtains, see the table is a bed, that moment really regret to come in. But after eating this meal, but ready to come back.

There is only one customer in the restaurant, sitting at a small table, thinking that at least this place can be sheltered from the cold. The owner greeted us at a table for two by the window, between the bed and the window, two chairs, a small dining table and an aisle for just one person. Sturdy wooden chairs, a small dining table, a clean plastic tablecloth, and an embroidered cloth underneath the table. When you sit down, there is a warmth under your feet, and it turns out there is a heater under the table.

Warming up to the scene outside the window, the table above the hanging of a palace lamp, the side of the old-fashioned carved windows, through the window pane, you can see the West Street across the old house of Daiwa. Seeing me looking, the next seat first guest said that the window can be opened, and then the boss introduced him as a tourist from Beijing, a familiar customer of his family. If it's not winter, eat here, open the window, you can taste the flavor of the old town of more than six hundred years.

Looked at his menu, Qingyan pig's feet, cake rice, rice tofu, rolled skin, cold noodles, tofu round, tofu fruit, marinade hot vegetables, characteristics of the taro poi, fried taro, wild prune soup, wild prickly pear juice, and rose ice powder and so on, the meal with the other restaurants in the old town of Qingyan, the price is also similar, the most expensive is 25 yuan for a catty of marinated pig's feet, and the rest are less than 15 dollars. Qingyan Ancient Town stayed a few days, in Wang Wanma, Jin Bixuan and other stores have eaten a lot of ancient town characteristics of food, on the point of tofu fruit, marinated hot vegetables, Huaxi beef powder and rose ice powder.

His tofu fruit is similar to Guizhou Leijia tofu meatballs, very similar to the fried tofu puffs that I ate as a child, except that we ate square, Qingyan Ancient Town's is round, but there is a layer of flour wrapped around the outside, and it's so crunchy after deep-frying. Bite open the crispy skin, inside is very soft tofu, try to dip Guizhou chili powder, not spicy, salty enough, with a variety of seasoning incense, full of crispy mouth.

Maybe it's warm, maybe it's curious, the winter specially asked for a bowl of rose ice powder. How can there be this kind of snack in Guizhou, similar to the south of Guangdong? The boss said that in the past, a lot of roses were planted near the Qingyan Ancient Town, and the streets are full of roses, and the local traditional snacks in the town will add roses, like rose ice powder and rose sugar, and Huang Laobo rose sugar is not far below his house on West Street.

After eating, and do not want to leave the warmth of the restaurant, suddenly heard outside the house like a parrot whistling. The boss said it was their grackle, more than parrots can talk, can speak Guizhou dialect, every day at dawn, it shouted in Guizhou language "boss open up!" When it gets dark, it screams, "Boss, close the door!" When I opened the window, I saw the grackle in the birdcage. When the grackle saw me patting it, it said "friend" in Mandarin, and I said "hello!" The grackle whistled loudly, and then also returned to me a "Hello!"

After teasing the grackle, I was even more curious about the restaurant, and looked around. An old carved bed and a few wooden chairs by the dining table aroused my interest. I remember my grandparents' house, there is also such a wooden bed, but unfortunately it has been discarded, this old Chinese wooden bed is not much, especially the whole wooden mortise and tenon bed frame, most of them are antiques before the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The boss said this is their family heirloom old wooden bed, should be the end of the Qing Dynasty, usually they still sleep in this bed.

The wooden bed in front of the two square planks "door enclosure" on the left and right each stood a small carved wooden lion, mottled red paint, there are some remnants of the gold tracing, railing below the cranes and other patterns, although there are also birds and dragons and phoenixes, but the bed is more likely to be a "longevity bed! ", rather than "dragon and phoenix bed". Hanging mosquito nets on the wooden frame and riding donkey Zhang Guolao, fishing old man and other auspicious gods and goddesses wood carvings, bed frame mounted frieze plate openwork carving to the "life" pattern for the tone, many people do not recognize this kind of deformation "life" pattern, when I was a child, my grandmother to give me a paper-cutting only ever seen.

There are also a few old wooden chairs in the house, two of which are placed in front of the bed, the wooden backrest box carved out like a bamboo joints, there is a certain degree of curvature, is also a wooden mortise and tenon structure. The backrests and corners are patterned, with the center pattern looking like two old men with longevity, and the paint and pattern match the old wooden bed. There is a chair seat plate paint has been worn out, revealing the wood grain, sitting on it hard, but leaning on the back is very comfortable.

Around the bed and chair shot for a while, the restaurant is no longer guests, the boss called me to drink tea together, around the fireplace to talk about the Qingyan Ancient Town, traveling, there is nothing happier than this. Boss surnamed Wu, ancestors live in Qingyan Ancient Town, in the town of cloth and salt business, the family business prosperity, most of the houses in the West Street of Qingyan Ancient Town are their Wu's family. Later the houses were confiscated, after a hard time, returned the current small house for them to live, downstairs as well as the back of the house living is also his family relatives.

In those days, private business was prohibited, and both Lao Wu and his father went to work in the township's Qingyan Subfood Factory, which at that time mainly processed and made subfoods and soy sauce, while Lao Wu's wife worked in the local weaving factory. With the economic reform and opening up, small factories in townships have closed down, so they opened a restaurant at home.

Experiencing the era of social change, Wu also witnessed the changes of the Qingyan ancient town, his deepest impression is the crossroads of the Qingyan ancient town "dragon head" position of the treasure, the earliest is a large family residence, this family has no one after the gradual decline of the people, this land finally became the ancient town of the stage, then often in the Nowadays, Guizhou's ground opera has become the most popular theater in the country. Today, Guizhou's opera has been a national intangible cultural heritage, cross-street corner of the theater is also a tourist attraction of the town, but many tourists do not know the origin of the "opera stage".

Qingyan Ancient Town ranks among the four major ancient towns in Guizhou, has been a little famous, but Qingyan Ancient Town fame is inseparable from the contemporary film and television dramas to help. The earliest is to shoot the "Long March", in the Qingyan ancient town of Ciyun Temple shooting, Lao Wu and many people in the town went to be a mass actor, a day and ten yuan subsidies.2019, Lu Chuan directed the film "looking for guns" in the backstreets of the ancient town of Qingyan shooting, this time the ancient town Tourism more fire, the business of the small restaurant is also red-hot.

Old Wu said, his small restaurant as "good again" name, there are a lot of repeat customers, they traveled to Qingyan Ancient Town, will return to their home, but also brought a lot of friends. One of the diners can draw, but also drew him a cartoon, Wu carrying his grandson in making brined pig's feet, written on it, "Mr. Wu Scholar hoof". Old Wu will be this caricature pasted on the top of an old cabinet, close to take a picture of a closer look, I think it is quite like him.

Seeing only three or four small tables in his house, I asked Wu if the restaurant was often full during the peak season, and he said there was room upstairs. On the roof of the building to see, feel into the botanical garden shed, the roof of the building is full of flowers and plants, out of the head, you can also see the whole West Street, under the cover of the plants, a small wooden pavilion, set up a table, there are seats on the side of the tea and chatting after dinner, but it's a "hidden in the city," a wonderful place to go.

Old Wu's restaurant is not beautifully decorated, and even a bit like a stall, the food may not be the best in town, but this family restaurant makes people feel a sense of humanity. I remember in February 2010, trekking through Nepal Poon hill small loop, the New Year's Eve stayed in Dhulikel (Dhulikel) a bed and breakfast, is also a family restaurant. The owner knew it was Chinese New Year and prepared a candlelight New Year's Eve dinner for us at night, and the next morning, set up a table, knives and forks on the balcony of his house and arranged a "scenic" breakfast. Although it was freezing cold, drinking coffee in the sunshine and enjoying the view of the Annapurna snow-capped mountains in the distance, the family restaurant left me with romantic memories.

I have also dreamed of opening my own family restaurant in a scenic town, where the walls are full of photos taken during my travels, the table is covered with a white tablecloth and elegant cutlery, and every ingredient is strictly selected and every dish is carefully prepared. Every day, I don't ask for a lot of people, I don't ask for money, I just ask for like-minded friends to come, drink tea together, chat, and tell the story of the journey behind each photo. But in the end, I still don't have the courage to realize this dream, afraid that I can't resist the loneliness of sticking to the same place ......

PS: If you want to see the short video of Qingyan Ancient Town that I filmed, or if you want to listen to the grackle of the old Wu's family talk, please click on the "Extended Link" below the article to watch. " to watch.