Recently, the film 'Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant' has been a hit, telling the story of a Chinese chef opening a restaurant in the Middle East.
The wok hei (breath of the wok) of Chinese food on screen made many people say they were 'hungry just watching,' but what people don't know is that behind this story lies a trace of 'Jiangxi stir-fry.'
One of the prototypes of the film's characters, Shuai Xuejun, is from Tonggu County, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province.
In 2004, the 31-year-old Shuai Xuejun went to Iraq. The luggage he and his fellow travelers carried weighed more than 100 jin (about 50 kg) in total, mostly not clothes but seasonings hard to buy locally such as soy sauce, MSG and thirteen-spice powder.
'When we first arrived in Baghdad, conditions were harsher than we imagined.' Recalling that experience more than 20 years ago, Shuai Xuejun is still deeply impressed.
They named the restaurant 'China Dragon Restaurant' and opened it in an old brick-and-concrete building with broken glass in the windows. When everyone slept, the door was 'never closed at night' because the house had no door at all.
This is the food truck of the 'Dragon Restaurant.' Because of the shabby surroundings, business was poor when the Dragon Restaurant first opened. Shuai Xuejun and his colleagues would buy a few more kitchen utensils when they earned money, and fix a few more panes of glass when they earned more — until after a chance 'order explosion,' everyone made up their mind to give the restaurant a major makeover.
They closed for more than half a month to renovate, installing air conditioning, laying turf in the courtyard, and putting up lights on the perimeter wall. Business gradually flourished.
A group photo of Shuai Xuejun (far right) with his 'Dragon Restaurant' colleagues. At its largest, the Dragon Restaurant had nearly 20 employees, including four or five Chinese chefs. Shuai Xuejun did the work of a waiter, including serving dishes and settling bills.
Source: Xinhua | Original
