China Overseas Chinese Network, May 27. According to Japan's "Chinese Herald" report, recently, the Yokohama head office of "Pin Zhen Lou", the oldest Chinese restaurant in Japan, officially closed. Come to an end.
A Japanese food columnist analyzed that, in addition to the impact of the new crown epidemic on Japanese traditional Chinese cuisine, authentic Chinese restaurants that have sprung up and developed in Japan recently are also "the last straw that broke the camel's back".
Founded in 1884, Pinjin House is the oldest Chinese restaurant in Japan and an important symbol of Chinatown.
At the end of the Shogunate, Japan implemented the founding policy, and Yokohama became a trading port.
Many Chinese came here, and Chinatown developed rapidly.
Pinzhen Building came into being at this time.
The founder is an overseas Chinese surnamed Zhang.
At that time, it was just an ordinary two-story restaurant.
By 1934, Pinzhen Building had more than ten halls and a banquet hall that could accommodate two or three thousand people at a time.
At that time, a newspaper said, "Pinzhenlou has been famous all over the country for 50 years, and it is the oldest famous Chinese restaurant in Yokohama in Toho".
The Cantonese cuisine at Pinzhen Lou is the No. 1 Chinese food in Yokohama on Dianping.com.
Due to its long history and high-quality dishes, Japanese customers refer to Pinzhen Lou as a "landmark presence in Chinatown".
It is reported that the closure of Pinzhen Building is due to the relocation plan formulated earlier, but due to the epidemic, the store was closed in advance. At present, the address and opening time of the new store have not yet been determined.
According to media reports, on the day the store was closed, many old Japanese customers went to the restaurant to take pictures and express their reluctance.
"It feels very lost," regrets one regular of 15 years.
According to a local survey, about 40 stores in Yokohama Chinatown will be closed for about a year from 2021 to the present.
The situation of friends eating Chinese food around the table in groups of three or five has decreased sharply during the epidemic. Traditional Chinese restaurants with many employees and large scales like Pinzhen Lou will definitely bear the brunt of the impact.
There is also a factor that cannot be ignored, that is, the rapid rise of authentic Chinese restaurants scattered in Tokyo's Shinjuku, Okubo, Takadanobaba, Ikebukuro, Nishikawaguchi and Shinkoiwa areas, which has also caused a lot of impact on traditional Chinese cuisine such as Pinzhen Lou.
A Japanese media columnist wrote that once upon a time, as long as Japanese people wanted to eat authentic Chinese food or experience a Chinese atmosphere, they would naturally go to Yokohama Chinatown.
However, as more and more Japanese people travel and do business in China, they gradually understand that there are certain differences between authentic Chinese food and Yokohama Chinatown dishes. In addition, Japanese people love variety and innovative food. The presence of authentic Chinese restaurants opened by Xin Huaqiao is also getting stronger and stronger, so the taste habits of the Japanese people and the feeling of "authentic Chinese flavor" in their minds have changed a lot compared to before.
One of the landmark events is that the “Haidilao” hotpot from Sichuan opened its first Japanese store in Ikebukuro in 2015.
"Haidilao" has conquered the Japanese people with its authentic "Chinese quality service" and "not in China is better than in China" dining experience.
Since then, authentic Sichuan hot pot chains such as Xiaolongkan, Shu Daxia, Tan Yaxue, and Xianhezhuang have taken advantage of the momentum to open stores around the Tokyo metropolitan area, thus entering the mainstream Japanese catering market.
Takadanobaba, located on the border between Shinjuku and Toshima, is conveniently located near Waseda University.
In recent years, the number of language schools and cram schools in Takadanobaba has continued to increase, and many young Chinese students studying in Japan have also used it as a base for their life in Japan. Various original Chinese restaurants that cater to Chinese tastes emerge in an endless stream.
The well-known "Friendship Restaurant" among the Chinese in Japan, which integrates authentic Chinese product sales and authentic Chinese food courts, is always "overcrowded" after get off work or on holidays.
At present, when the epidemic has not completely subsided, the Japanese people can just take a virtual "in-depth China tour" here, so it is not surprising that such authentic Chinese food restaurants are showing high popularity locally.
There is an obvious feature of a wide variety of authentic Chinese restaurants in Japan, that is, the dishes they sell do not specifically cater to the tastes of the Japanese people and are "daily chemical".
On the contrary, whether it is the purchased ingredients or the seasoning method, it is almost a replica of the Chinese restaurant, and even the restaurant waiters are all Chinese.
So much so that when some Japanese come to the restaurant to eat, they will sigh "this is China at all".
However, all this is incomparable to Yokohama Chinatown.
Today, Yokohama Chinatown is more and more a tourist attraction in the eyes of most Japanese, rather than a place that can be frequented in life.
It is undeniable that if Japanese people consider eating "Japanese-style Chinese food", Yokohama Chinatown is still the "base camp", but the authentic Chinese restaurants scattered all over Japan have quietly integrated the authentic Chinese food culture into Japan. in society.