Chinese Food Culture: Cantonese Cuisine (1)

White Cloud Pig Hand

Legend has it that once upon a time, there was a monastery in Baiyun Mountain, where the young monks used to secretly eat meat when the elders of the monastery came down from the mountain to make friends.

One day, the little monk secretly cooked pork knuckle outside the mountain gate, and the pork knuckle had just been cooked, just in time for the elder to return. The little monk, fearful of being punished by the elders for violating the precepts, hurriedly threw the pig's elbow into the nearby stream. The next day, the pork knuckle was found by a woodcutter and taken home to be re-boiled, mixed with sugar, vinegar and salt, and found to be delicious. Shortly thereafter, this way of eating spread, because this way of eating originated from Baiyun Mountain, so it was named Baiyun Pig Hand.

This dish is made with emphasis on color, aroma, taste and type, and with the addition of "five willow ingredients" or red pepper shreds, the color is bright, the taste is better, and it has the effect of beauty and beauty. Baiyun pig hand-made is more delicate, the original cooking method of soil changed to five processes such as scraping, chopping, boiling, soaking, and pickling. The most elaborate Baiyun pig hand is soaked in the water of the Jiulong Spring of Baiyun Mountain.

According to the "Chronicle of Panyu County", "Jiulong Spring, according to legend, there is no spring hidden here during the Period of An, there are nine children to see, the spring of SuZu, the first to know the boy Gai Longye." Also known as Anshijing, the spring is extremely sweet, and the cooking has golden stone gas. "Jiulong Spring is rich in minerals, crystal clear, spring sweet water, with it soaked fat greasy pig hands, can dissolve greasy, color, fragrance, taste, shape are good."

Three-wire shark fin soup

The so-called shark fin, which is the filamentous cartilage in the shark's fin, is a kind of seafood treasure processed from the shark's fin.

Shark fin is one of the eight treasures of ancient times, although there are several versions of the eight treasures, but shark fin can always occupy a place, which shows that it has a solid position in the variety of cuisine. The first people to eat shark fin soup were fishermen, who sold sharks and left their fins for themselves to eat, after which the fish merchants found it profitable, they took it for sale as a commodity, and shark fins gradually appeared at banquets. By the Ming Dynasty, shark fin soup had been widely eaten by people, and various books introduced the selection and cooking of shark fin soup.

Shark fin soup is described as "delicious food" and "good rice"; The History of the Ming Palace records that Ming Xi Zong liked to eat shark fin soup, bird's nest, clams, fresh shrimp and other raw materials to make a "one-pin pot". Shark fin soup is especially regarded as a precious cooking ingredient in all parts of the south, and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "(The mackerel) has a hyena on its back and wings under its abdomen, which is delicious and fat, and the southerners cherish it."

When it comes to the cooking of shark fin soup, the Qing Dynasty is also the most abundant, and books such as "Food Constitution Hong secret", "Food Taste Preparation", "Tuning Ding Collection", "Suiyuan Food Menu" and other books contain the process technology of cooking and processing shark fin soup. Boiling shark fin is a precious dish that flourished in the Qing Dynasty, and the "Awakening Garden Record" says: "The method of boiling shark fin soup, the whole shark fin is soaked in water, and it is boiled in the pot until it can be torn open by hand, not too rotten." Take it up, soak it in cold water, tear off the bones and sand skin, take a whole petal, do not tear it, lay flat inside, dry and store the porcelain. Before use, weigh the number of bowls, take out and soak in water for half a day, first cook one or two rolls to wash, with cooked shredded meat or shredded chicken is better. Stir-fry the coriander in oil and garlic several times... The flesh and tender skin of its wings are added with vinegar and broth, and cooked to make a dish. "This method of boiling shark fin soup has been used to this day, but the operation process of today's people is slightly simplified. The shark fins cooked in this method are soft and sticky, and the soup is fresh and thick.

Tanjia cuisine in the late Qing Dynasty is most famous for cooking bird's nest and shark fin soup, and has a wing seat, and there are more than a dozen kinds of shark fin soup alone, including crab yellow shark fin, yellow braised shark fin, chicken shark fin, casserole shark fin, dried scallop shark fin, etc. Among them, the yellow braised shark fin is selected from the precious "Luzon yellow" as raw material, first soaked in cold and hot water, and then simmered in chicken and duck scallop ham soup, simmered continuously for 6 hours on a low heat, until the taste of various accessories is completely infiltrated into the wings, the chicken and duck dried scallops are discarded. The dish is soft and rotten, the color is golden, and the taste is long. "Beijing in the Past Forty Years" has a passage in it: "Those who have heard about it, shocked by the nobility of their price, feel that it is an honor to be able to entertain guests with Tan family dishes." Later, not only is there no 'virtual night', but also no 'virtual day', and the reservation is often scheduled until a month later, and it is not too late. ”

To this day, shark fin soup is still the first dish at the banquet, and the south especially respects Guangdong for having the saying that "no wings are not a table". Hong Kong consumes more than 2 million kilograms of shark fin every year, and the method of shark fin cooking that needs to be purchased from 60 countries and regions can be divided into Guangdong, Chaozhou, Sichuan, Beijing, Yangzhou, Hunan and other genres, and various shark fin dishes are widely seen in various cuisines. Although the methods of shark fin cooking are diverse, they can be roughly divided into two categories in the operation steps: one is to increase the hair, give flavor, and cook into a dish; One is to cook it directly into a dish after the hair is raised.

Dragon Tiger Fight

The dragon is the head of the four divine beasts of ancient Chinese legend, and it is also a god who can rule the sea with clouds and rain; The tiger is the king of the hundred beasts in the mountains, and the beasts on the earth all bow down to it. There is an idiom called dragon fighting tiger fighting, that is, dragons and tigers must have a fight when they meet. This is not simply people's imagination, in the ancient dynasties, the dragon and the tiger did have an unusually fierce battle - the Battle of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyou. At that time, the totem of the Yellow Emperor clan was a tiger, and the totem of the Xuan you clan was a dragon, and after a fierce battle, the Yellow Emperor finally killed Xuan You, and the battle ended with the tiger winning the victory. However, in order to make the people of Xuan you completely submit and unite all the tribes, the Yellow Emperor changed the totem into a tiger into a dragon, and the Chinese nation has since become the descendant of the dragon.

There are many words with outstanding achievements in Chinese idioms that are related to dragons and tigers, such as dragon leaping tiger leap, dragon leaping tiger lying, tiger roaring dragon groan, dragon walking tiger step, dragon transformation tiger change, these words all describe the dynamics of dragons and tigers, lively and powerful, full of vitality, indicating that in people's eyes, dragons and tigers are symbols of vitality and have an inspiring effect on people.

Dragon and tiger fighting, who will win, dragon or tiger? There is no answer on the battlefield. So is it possible to see at first sight somewhere else? The clever Cantonese figured out a good idea, and they moved the dragon and tiger dispute in the house to the table, and the dragon and tiger left their old nest and gambled one-on-one without helpers. Because the place is small, the dragon and tiger had to use the shrinkage method and transform into a snake and a cat, and the result was the same end, falling into a pot of cooking, and the battle of the dragon and tiger through the ages became a game. Speaking of this, I really have to admire the imagination of Cantonese people in terms of eating, and even made the dragon and tiger dispute into a dish.

Guangdong people have eaten snakes for more than 2,000 years, and the Han "Huainanzi" has a record of "Yue people get snakes to think that they are dishes". Song's "Pingzhou Can Be Talked About" also said: "Guangdong snake eats, and the city snake soup." Cantonese people are not addicted to eating snakes, and they also covet dragons, and they are not allowed to eat their flesh, so they have to eat their names. Dragon Tiger Dou, also known as Leopard Tanuki Braised Three Snakes, Dragon Tiger Phoenix Braised, is rumored to have been created during the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, there was a person born in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, named Jiang Yeyin, who had been an official in Beijing for many years, had tasted various famous dishes and delicious dishes, and was quite knowledgeable about food. After he resigned in his later years and returned home, he devoted himself to the study of cooking. On his seventieth birthday, in order to bring out a new dish for his relatives and friends to enjoy, he tried to make a dish with snakes and cats, which tasted very good, and visually took the name of the dish "Dragon tiger fight". Later, chicken was added to the dish, and the taste was even more wonderful, which was deeply loved by everyone. This dish has since passed down its name to the world, and the name of the dish has been changed to Dragon Tiger Phoenix Braised, but out of habit, people still call it "Dragon Tiger Fighting".

To be continued...

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