莲蓉第一家

莲香楼是一间百年老号，享有“莲蓉第一家”之称。说起莲香楼的纯正莲蓉，还有一段故事，１８８９年，在古老的广州城西一隅，莲香楼开业了。那时，广州城西多是商贾富裕人家，食肆十分兴旺，竞争也异常激烈，为了招徕食客，各店均竞相推出新特的食品。一天，莲香楼老制饼师傅陈维清喝着用莲子煲的糖水，苦思着如何改进制饼工艺，忽然一股清香的甜味沁入心肺，他定神望着碗里的莲子，灵感一动，何不用莲子来制作饼点馅料。于是，他把莲子洗净去心，放在铜镬里煮，不停地搅拌，再放进白糖、花生油，最初制出来的莲蓉带点涩味。经过反复试验，陈师傅终于研制出用枧水去莲子皮的新工艺，使莲蓉保持莲子的清香而不带涩味、色泽金黄、幼滑、莲味浓郁，被誉为“莲蓉第一家”。在粤港一带饼食业内流传着一句话：“有了莲香楼莲蓉，才有莲蓉月饼”。从此，奠定了广式莲蓉月饼鼻祖的地位。

The First Firm for Producing Lotus Seed Paste

Lianxianglou is a famous old firm with a history of over one hundred years and enjoys a title of the First Firm for Producing Lotus Seed Paste. There is a story about the lotus seed paste of Lianxianglou.. In1889, Lianxianglou was established in the west part of ancient Guangzhou city. At that time, many rich families and businessmen lived around there. Catering trade was very prosperous and competition very keen. For soliciting customers, every firm vide with another to produce new and unique foods. One day, Mr.Chen qingjian, the master craftsman in Lianxianglou, pondered deeply over innovation of the method for cake making when he drunk a bowl of sugar water with lotus seed. He was refreshed by the fragrant smell of lotus seed .So he fixed his gaze on the lotus seed and suddenly he got an inspiration for producing cake stuffing with lotus seed paste. As a result, he tool some lotus seed, cleaned them with water and removed the core, boiled them in a copper cooker and well stirred meanwhile, then put into some white sugar and peanut oil. However, the earliest product of lotus seed paste had a little astringent. Testing again and again, Mr. Chen finally succeeded in developing a new method to remove lotus seed peel with soda water. Therefore, the lotus seed paste not only maintains the delicate fragrance of lotus seed, but also is free of astringent, featuring golden color and smooth feeling as well as strong lotus seed smell. For this reason, Lianxianglou has been honored as The First Firm for producing Lotus Seed Paste. There is such a word widely spread in catering industry of Guangdong and Hongkong that it was impossible for making lotus seed paste moon cake without Lianxianglou’s lotus seed paste. Since then Lianxianglou has been known as the originator of Guangzhou style’s lotus seed paste moon cake.