Things after watching "Midnight Diner"

Reflections after watching "Midnight Canteen" (1)

Huang Lei's version of "Midnight Canteen" has been on the air for a few days. It has lost reputation, ratings, and Douban ratings, but it has not lost its popularity. , the most criticized thing is that this drama completely copies the plot of Japanese dramas.

I believe that when many people knew that Huang Lei was going to participate in this film, due to his character of Chef Huang and the huge influence of the Japanese version of "Midnight Diner", everyone was still looking forward to it. Including me.

However, after the first episode came out, everyone was really stunned. Douban gave it a score of 2.3, which is a new level that even in my childhood could not reach. Everyone knows the allusion that "oranges grow in Huainan, and oranges grow; oranges grow in Huaibei, and they grow tangerines." But no one really understands it. There is a huge gap in the cultural backgrounds of the food systems, customs, and cultural backgrounds of the two countries, and copying them is not suitable for nature.

The Japanese version of "Midnight Diner" is adapted from the comic and tells a story: There is a canteen that is only open from 12 o'clock at night to 7 o'clock in the morning. People who come here to dine will order from the boss. A special dish, behind every dish, there is a special story.

The first thing everyone recognizes is the strong original Japanese style. Izakaya is the habitat of the Japanese soul. Half of the pressure of the entire Japanese nation is evaporated in Izakaya, mixed with alcohol. , the popularity of the Japanese version of "Midnight Diner" is first of all a true reflection of national life and has a sufficient mass base. It is largely in line with the collective subconscious of the Japanese people. Secondly, the tonality is accurate enough. Although the izakaya is simple, the food still requires natural colors, delicious ingredients, and a sense of ritual with excellent utensils. The tone of the short drama is also restrained enough.

Let’s talk about the Chinese version of "Midnight Diner". It was really poorly thought out. It sent a screenwriter to sit in the old Sanpailou restaurant at one or two o'clock every night and listen to the diners bragging and chatting about the mountains. It took less than a month to write a "Yi" "One Thousand and One Nights", even if you don't want to be up late at night and read two novels and essays by contemporary writers, you will definitely find that there are so many late-night canteen-type stories.

In Zhu Ziqing's "Winter", there is this passage:

When talking about winter, tofu suddenly comes to mind. It's a "small foreign pot" boiled tofu, piping hot. The water is rolling, like many fish eyes, with small pieces of tofu inside, tender and smooth, like a white fox coat worn inside out. The pot is on the "yang stove", and the stove and the smoke are black and black, and the whiteness of the tofu is more and more obvious. It was night, and the house was old. Even though the "foreign lanterns" were lit, it was still dark. Sitting around the table were my father and our three brothers.

A simple scene, a simple late-night cafeteria, a sense of picture that comes to your face, the traveler opens the door and comes in covered with cold air, Xiao Linxun or Huang Lei, who has a scar on his face, does not say anything, and carries it over A pot of tofu was placed in front of him. The traveler exhaled white air, rubbed his frozen hands, broke off his chopsticks and put a piece into his mouth. In his heart was his distant hometown and his father who had been a winter night. This long shot doesn’t even require a line of dialogue.

There is no shortage of food plots in China. Food programs in China tend to cause a stir because it is not just food, but also delicious food, emotions, memories, and the combination of all of these. Deliberate, weak or isolated rings will make feelings become water without a source and a tree without a root, and the result will be like a farce story like the three instant noodle sisters.

Reflections on the late-night canteen (2)

What should the Chinese people’s real “late-night canteen” be?

Dominate the market with unique taste and set off a hot pot revolution!

-----Pinshang Doulao Hotpot

Our "late night"

Late at night, the busy city has completed its high-speed operation for the day. Most people have either gone to bed or are about to go to bed, but for some people, life in the city has just begun.

A small street hidden among office buildings, schools, and shopping malls is inconspicuous during the day, but late at night, it becomes a spontaneous night market, with food stalls set up like this.

Nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock...

The white-collar workers who worked overtime in the office building stretched themselves, rubbed their sore eyes, and ended a busy day. work;

The students in the university also finished studying hard in the library, and walked out of the building group by group talking and laughing;

I thought of the beautiful songs in the shopping mall. The saxophone player "Going Home" was playing, and the salespersons who had been standing all day were still counting accounts and discussing with each other what to eat to "reward" themselves after get off work;

Workers on duty at a nearby construction site also I took off my sweat-smelling work clothes, took off my helmet, and took a quick shower. I planned to drink two large glasses of draft beer in a while to get rid of the fatigue and heat.

These people have different life backgrounds, different occupations, and different hometowns, but at this time, they are heading to the same place.

Our "canteen"

When they came to the night market, they chose the stalls they wanted to eat according to their own tastes, whether they were heavy ones and liked spicy food, or light ones and liked soups and soups. Whether you just want a drink to cool off the heat, you can find a place here.

The most popular one is undoubtedly a Doulao hot pot restaurant. More than a dozen tables are occupied, and there are still more than a dozen people queuing up. Naturally, those who get in the queue are overjoyed, and those who can’t get in the queue are naturally happy. Hungry and anxiously waiting. There is a small hot pot on every table. The bottom of the pot is spicy and red. When the soup in the pot starts to simmer and steam, you can cook all kinds of delicacies. After the plates of delicacies were cooked, they were put into oily dishes with chopsticks to eat. Everyone was sweating profusely and their faces were red, saying "it's so satisfying".

Looking around, there are people everywhere, all kinds of people, people of all ages and professions, some are shirtless, drunk and shouting, some have their hands Taking a cup of herbal tea, we laughed and talked about various aspects of society. Some people were talking about the philosophy of life as if they had understood the world. Some people were talking about various ways to make money; some people's faces were full of the marks of wind and frost. Before people have truly entered society, they still have the spirit of a calf who “fear neither heaven nor earth”.

These people are ourselves, our relatives, our friends, our classmates and colleagues, and the ordinary Chinese people around us. Different people have different lives, different sorrows, different happiness and dreams. At this moment, they are all gathered in the night market. No matter who they are, they don’t care about anything else. They are eating, drinking and chatting happily. That would be fun!

Every city has thousands of night markets, thousands of food stalls, and thousands of hot pot restaurants. Thousands of Chinese people visit them every day. Telling different stories. This is the real "late-night canteen" for us ordinary Chinese

The "late-night canteen" of the Chinese

Only now do I finally understand why our Little Chef Huang remake This "Late Night Diner" will fail.

If the original version of "Midnight Diner" is moved to China intact, it is already destined to fail.

The menu has changed the soup but not the dressing, the "big pot dish" has never been ordered; the same Japanese chef's uniform, the same scars; the dining style of a Japanese izakaya; not to mention that for the sake of hard work The screen is full of embarrassment caused by advertising.

Also, who would have any sympathy for this group of exaggerated and pretentious people?

China is not Japan, and China’s food culture is by no means comparable to Japan. The Chinese people’s legends and stories about food could not be finished in a hundred years.

Therefore, the reason why "A Bite of China" is successful is because the producer does not stand high in the clouds and look down on all living beings, but is full of the fireworks of life, which can capture the stomach of Chinese people. , and can capture the hearts of Chinese people.

So, it is not difficult to understand why the Chinese version of "Midnight Diner" failed.

Reflections after watching Late Night Canteen (3)

Recently I have been following a TV series - Late Night Canteen, a TV series about food and stories.

The reason why I like it is because there is a story behind every delicacy, it can be family affection, love, friendship, or public fraternity.

A bowl of fried instant noodles makes three single leftover women become best friends and talk to each other; behind a glass of beer and red sausage, there is a beautiful but sad love; a cup of popping candy ice cream, Let two terminally ill young people accompany each other until the end of their lives; a spoonful of old soy sauce can bring the father and son who once did not understand each other back together; a bowl of braised pork can revive the doctor who was paralyzed in bed; a plate of soy sauce fried rice , let the beautiful star find her father; a bowl of steamed eggs not only allows the owner to find the taste of his mother, but also brings him happy love...

Food, what is it? gourmet food? In this age of gourmet food, many people will label themselves as foodies. As long as they eat something they think is delicious, they will label it as gourmet and hype it up. In order to promote their own delicacies, merchants have racked their brains to plan marketing plans, such as getting as much as you like, getting discounts if you accumulate enough likes in your circle of friends, scanning QR codes to add membership points to exchange for cash coupons, etc. As everyone knows, most of these so-called delicacies are the result of mechanized procedures. There is no emotion, only technology, and no original flavor of ingredients, only various condiments. Therefore, such delicacies can only temporarily satisfy the craving.

And I like this kind of food: I get up early in the morning and go to the morning market, select the freshest ingredients, and then spend the whole morning preparing: washing vegetables, garnishing vegetables, cutting vegetables, and then adding a little creativity. There are no extra condiments, just the most common salt, soy sauce and vinegar. Although it is simple to retain the most original taste of the ingredients, the emotion in the food is not simple. Even I like boiled or steamed vegetables. What I like even more is that the carefully prepared dishes can satisfy the mood and requirements of the guests.

In addition to fresh ingredients, good food requires the infusion of emotion. Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the beauty of a delicious food is not the food itself, but the emotion in the food. You will never tire of eating this kind of food.

Sipping gnocchi - the only noodle dish I like, because it is a memory of home;

Mixing soup - sweet and sour, with soup and gnocchi, a warm dish in winter Stomach soup, Xiaoxiong, do you remember it? But what you eat is not the best thing I cook, and the best thing I eat is the bowl of mutton soup that my father brought to the bed in the morning;

Pancakes - soft and a little salty, Dad’s taste is one of the must-eats every time I go home;

Dumplings - everyone in the north knows how to make them, but people in the south have no way of making them, so at that time, they often made a refrigerator full of dumplings for Hua. In case of daily hunger;

Braised pork - I used to not like eating fatty meat, but after eating authentic Mao's braised pork with Ouyang, I no longer have any grudge against fat meat. ;

Qingming dumplings - a specialty of the curly family, which can only be eaten during the Qingming Festival. Green glutinous rice is wrapped with spicy dried vegetables, which is the taste of grandma and mother;

Spicy stir-fried dried fish - Aunt Wu's specialty dish, I was full of praise for it the first time I ate it;

Jiaotou - similar to garlic, paired with red, green and green peppers, great with rice! Song, do you remember? I haven’t eaten it since I left NC;

Soup noodle - a must-have breakfast for four years in college. The moment you step into the cafeteria door, the soup noodle aunt has already prepared it. No need to line up. It’s 1.2 yuan a piece. Bowl;

Stir-fried pork with garlic moss - Shitou’s favorite, I learned it from me for a long time and took notes, but in the end I still can’t make it, fortunately it’s not far from me;

Spare ribs soup - a stomach-warming dish in winter, cook it in one pot and have a great time drinking it with pupu;

Crabs and shrimps - steamed, simple, the key is to have someone peel them for you to eat The most delicious;

Fish-flavored shredded pork - sweet and spicy, the key is the bean paste, I have never liked it, but it is someone's favorite, but unfortunately, it was separated before I had time to make it.

I believe that there are many people who really like food and understand food. I also believe that everyone who likes food has a story or a person behind every delicacy.