Reporters Zhang Dianbiao and Chen Yanze
At 2 o'clock in the morning, Jiang Dacai's family of three "settled" in other people's restaurants with pots and pans on time.
From this time to 10:00 in the morning, these 8 hours are the business hours of Jiang Dacai's family.
They share business licenses with shop owners.
This restaurant is located in Pen'er Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing, next to two middle schools, a vegetable market and several densely populated neighborhoods.
It is expected that the cold spring makes people shiver, and there is no one in the alley at 2 o'clock in the morning.
On Caishikou Street not far away, the late night barbecue restaurant has sent away the last group of customers.
52-year-old Jiang Dacai said: "If we open later, we will be overwhelmed."
In less than 20 minutes, the three quickly set up a breakfast stand.
Dough, meat stuffing, wonton wrappers... Everything from ingredients to kitchen utensils and even trash cans are brought by them.
When his 26-year-old son Jiang Xiaohu was kneading noodles to make steamed buns, his mother Zhang Daoqun had already arranged dipping sauces on each table, Jiang Dacai had already made soy milk, millet porridge was rolling in the pot, and water droplets hung on the windows.
The most popular item in the store is the 10 yuan a drawer of steamed buns. About 15 catties of noodles are consumed every day, and it can be sold for hundreds of drawers.
4 yuan a bowl of tofu nao ranked second.
These two main dishes are the most time-consuming and labor-intensive, and must be prepared before the breakfast rush.
Relatively easy pancakes, fried dough sticks and wontons are prepared later.
Before 3 o'clock, the store ushered in the first diner.
"A drawer of buns, a bowl of tofu nao." The taxi driver who just got off the night shift greeted, "When did you come?"
"I'll come as soon as the 15th day of the first lunar month is over. The buns are freshly made, and the tofu nao is not ready yet, so I have to wait for 15 minutes." By the time the regular customer answered, Xiaohu and his mother had already made several buns.
As soon as my brother sat down, another 8 young people crowded into the store and ordered buns and wontons.
"They opened a gym nearby." Jiang Dacai, who was making tofu nao, said that the breakfast shop relies on regular customers. Most of them live nearby. Parents who buy vegetables in the morning or send their children to school will eat breakfast here.
This breakfast shop has no signboard, and there is a simple menu made of foam boards at the door.
Since 2008, this foam board has followed the family to Qianmen, Xisi, Beishatan, Babaozhuang and Tiangongyuan, witnessing more than 5,000 long nights and morning glows.
"These places can be stayed for half a year at least, and five years at most." Jiang Dacai remembered that Xisi and Babaozhuang had the best business.
"In Xisi, we only focus on making buns and don't worry about selling them." Jiang Dacai recalled that he could use up a 50-jin bag of flour in a day, more than three times as much as now.
When it is good, 3 bags of noodles in 2 days are not enough.
It's a pity that when the restaurant was demolished, they only worked in Xisi for three years.
Relying on the money they saved in Babaozhuang for four years, they built a three-story villa in their rural hometown in Wuhu, Anhui six years ago.
The current restaurant can only accommodate 15 tables, while the shared restaurant in Babaozhuang has more than 30 tables, and every morning is full of seats.
"Many people in the village have built villas." Jiang Dacai said that many fellow villagers do catering in Beijing, but he doesn't interact with them much. "They all do their own things."
The reporter visited many times in the middle of the night and found that there are at least four "shared breakfast shops" in this 4-square-kilometer block from Guang'anmen South Street to Caishikou Street, You'anmen East Street to Guang'anmen Inner Street, and most of the owners are from Anhui. .
A few years ago, due to the renovation of back streets and alleys in Beijing, Jiang Dacai's breakfast shop was moved from Babaozhuang to Daxing, and it was not settled here until 4 years ago.
All the while, they were renting out their "free" time at other people's restaurants.
The skinny Jiang Dacai came to Beijing in 1989 and used to work on construction sites.
In his memory, many breakfast shops were already in the "shared" mode at that time, more than 20 years earlier than shared bicycles.
"The monthly rent has gradually increased from more than 1,000 to 3,000 yuan when I first entered the industry, and now it is tens of thousands of yuan." Zhang Daoqun, who is in charge of money management, has been busy all the time, and only occasionally interrupted, "Last year, the hotel also raised the rent once." Correspondingly, the original 9 yuan a drawer of buns has also increased by 1 yuan.
"The hotel rent plus the monthly rent of more than 5,000 yuan, the income is almost the same as working for others." Talking about the business situation, Zhang Daoqun, who was not much talkative before, slowly opened his mouth.
She pointed to her son and said, if he is a daughter, we will have a hard time after we get married.
When the sanitation workers appeared on the street, the steamed buns were already neatly stacked on the table in the front row.
Jiang Dacai walked into a small room of less than 2 square meters facing the street to fry fried dough sticks and pancakes, while Zhang Daoqun was busy making wontons...
On this day, after delivering the first two groups of customers, until 5 o'clock, there were no other customers in the breakfast shop except the reporter.
An hour later, the number of pedestrians and vehicles on the road gradually increased, and angry customers came to the door, and the store immediately became lively.
It was dawn and the street lights were off.
Before 8 o'clock, the store ushered in the "morning peak", and the 15 tables were full of people.
Zhang Daoqun trotted up from time to time, Xiaohu was busy with the accounts and serving bowls, and Jiang Dacai was frying fried dough sticks in the frying pan.
"The bun is gone."
"Tofu brains and wontons are gone."
"The fritters are gone, do you want fritters?"
Customers who come after 9 o'clock either have something to eat, or leave with regrets.
At 9:30, the waiters of the daytime restaurant appeared, and they began to carry ingredients to the store.
Jiang Dacai's family began to skillfully tidy up the tableware and clean up.
After 10 o'clock, Jiang Dacai's family disappeared into the crowd on two tricycles.
When they got home, the three of them also divided the work to clean the pots and pans. After lunch, they prepared the ingredients needed for the evening together. They were busy until three or four in the afternoon, went to bed at 6 in the evening, and started a "new day" at 1:30 in the morning the next day. ".
"The business in the past few days has returned to the level before the epidemic." Regarding the future, Jiang Dacai plans to close the stall and go home after the child gets married, "by then I will not be able to do it myself."
He told reporters that to get married in his hometown, he would have to buy a house in the city, plus decoration, which would cost a lot of money, "I won't be able to retire for a while."
Xiaohu, who has studied English for several years, has more plans.
He once thought of selling steamed buns abroad, but he didn't expect that when he met a foreigner, he would be speechless without a few words.
Right now, he plans to make steamed buns first, and then open several branches.
"Xinhua Daily Telegraph" February 21, 2023 Edition 05