China Overseas Chinese Network, June 2 Question: Another time-honored Chinese restaurant is closed. Is the overseas Chinese restaurant industry still "supporting"?

  Recently, the Yokohama head office of the oldest Chinese restaurant in Japan, "Pin Zhen Lou", officially closed, temporarily ending its 138-year legend in everyone's regret.

  It is reported that the closure of the "Pinzhen Building" stems from the relocation plan formulated before, but due to the epidemic, the store was closed in advance, and the address and opening time of the new store have not yet been determined.

  Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many overseas Chinese restaurants, especially time-honored Chinese restaurants, are closed.

  At the beginning of 2022, the last large-scale Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco, “Kang Nian Seafood Restaurant” announced its closure, and the Hong Kong-style roast restaurant “Sanhe Seafood Roast” in Irvine also closed in early May this year; in October 2021, it will be operating The Chinatown Food Street in Singapore, which has been in operation for 20 years, is permanently closed; in September 2020, the Chinese restaurant "Xin Lian Xiang Hotel", which has been operating for 65 years in New York, closed...

Picture data map: The picture shows the "Kangnian Seafood Restaurant" in Chinatown, San Francisco, USA.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan

  The shortage of chefs and ingredients, coupled with high rent and high costs, has made it difficult for Chinese restaurants to operate in such an environment.

  Wang Tieniu, vice president of the American Chinese Restaurant Association, said that in 2019, there were about 54,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, and after two years of the epidemic, there were less than 40,000.

"At present, Chinese restaurants on the market are basically struggling on the edge of losing money and not losing money, and they will close their doors one day."

  Choose to change or maintain the status quo?

Many Chinese restaurant operators made their answers.

  In order to reduce the workload of employees and attract repeat customers, the Chinese fast food "Old Sichuan" in Chicago will introduce robot services.

Its founder, Hu Xiaojun, said that while maintaining business and stabilizing popularity, merchants should find a way to develop that is more suitable for the needs of customers in the post-epidemic era, and turn crises into opportunities.

  In addition, many overseas Chinese restaurants have also actively tried business methods such as meal-sharing, packaged takeaway, and private ordering, all of which have achieved good results.

Data map: A chef at a Chinese restaurant in Toronto's Chinatown is cutting siu mei.

Photo by Yu Ruidong

  Lu Yuejun, who runs a Huaiyang restaurant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, led the chefs to make frozen buns during the epidemic and promoted them through WeChat and other mobile applications.

This innovation quickly became a success, and the restaurant continued to receive "big orders" from Chinese companies in Pakistan.

  The Italian "Zhonghua Lou" Chinese restaurant has also made improvements in the production method, for example, the soup dumplings were changed to fried dumplings, the boiled fish was changed to fried fish, and the whole fish was changed to debone sliced ​​fish.

In order to ensure the taste and temperature of the takeaway dishes, they also use special thermal lamps to keep the dishes warm.

  The British "Mi Qilin" Chinese restaurant rented a "kitchen" in an industrial area in London for special takeaway.

According to its founder Fang Gang, there are more than 20 "kitchens" in the same building as him.

They share the cold storage, dry goods area and cold food area.

This model not only reduces the reliance on storefronts and employees, but also reduces operating costs.

  ...

  While overseas Chinese restaurant practitioners are actively seeking changes, the gradual recovery of the tourism industry has also brought them new hope.

  Chinatown, New York, USA, has gradually opened the prelude to the return of business in the post-epidemic era. The "Xi Luck Lai" restaurant on the street said that it has increased the supply of meals a week in advance, and the number of people drinking tea has been constant since early, except for tourists. In addition, it has also stimulated the interest of local residents to eat out. In general, the number of diners has increased significantly.

  Well-known merchants such as "Mirahua Char Siu Bao" and "Chinatown Ice Cream Shop" also queued up, and many people came here.

  In addition, in order to welcome the Dragon Boat Festival, some businesses also took out the prepared rice dumplings for sale outside the store in advance, attracting foreign tourists to try them.

The store owner of "Shanghai Old Zhengxing" said that the sweet bean paste dumplings are the most popular, and they sold out early, and the crowd of tourists made the business recover slightly.

  The orders of the French "Paris International Hotel" in the second half of the year have recovered to 80% of those before the epidemic; the current customer base of the British Chinese restaurant "Mi Qilin" has returned to about 70% of the pre-epidemic level; the turnover of the Italian "Zhonghua Building" is currently also It has recovered to about 60% of the pre-epidemic...

  In addition, the use of social platforms to actively promote the Chinese culture behind Chinese food has also become a method for Chinese restaurants to attract customers in the future.

  Hu Xiaojun said: "Chinese food culture has a history of thousands of years. Taste is the root of Chinese food, and culture is the soul of Chinese food. If we combine the two better, we will be able to capture more people's stomachs and warm more people. people's hearts."

  Chen Jianbin, managing director of the French "Paris International Hotel", also said that in the future, overseas Chinese food practitioners should let Chinese food culture shine in the world.

More and more foreign friends will understand Chinese food, fall in love with Chinese food, and then fall in love with Chinese culture.

  (Source of the manuscript: WeChat official account of China Overseas Chinese Network; ID: qiaowangzhongguo; Source: Xinhuanet, People's Daily Overseas Edition, Japanese "Chinese Herald", American "Overseas Chinese News", American "World Journal", "European Times", etc.; Author: Zeng Xiaowei)