"Four hot meats" are the most tested chef skills
Text/Figure Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Song Yunxiao intern Blue Moon Song
More than 100 years ago, did you see the banquet menu of the people of Guangzhou? How is the serving process different from today, which dishes have almost disappeared today, and what was the taste of that year?
The Guangzhou Museum has collected a number of old menus of Cantonese restaurants in the Republic of China period, and recently carefully selected some dishes from the old menus of local famous restaurants such as Lu Yuju, Xinhua Restaurant, South China Restaurant, etc., and joined hands with China Hotel to reproduce the century-old "disappearing famous dishes".
The regular banquet menu of Lu Yuju Restaurant more than 100 years ago
"Disappearing Famous Dishes" reappears in the jianghu
It is reported that the Cantonese cuisine banquet in the Republic of China period originated from the Manchu and Han dynasty seats in the Qing Dynasty, and was a luxurious bright color of Guangzhou citizens' life more than 100 years ago. However, with the flow of the long river of history, the famous cantonese dishes that were well-known in the past and the food forest palms that were enjoyed by the citizens have gradually disappeared in people's memories.
Although the years have passed, the cultural relics are eternal, in order to reproduce the glory of the famous seats in the past, the Guangzhou Museum and the China Hotel have conducted in-depth research and exploration of the old menus of the Republic of China period, and carefully selected some famous dishes, so that the lost Cantonese cuisine can return to the table and reproduce the glory of the famous seats in the past.
It is reported that the currently launched replica banquet has a total of 22 courses of two Beijing fruits, four cold meats, four hot meats, six bowls, staple foods and snacks. "There are 108 dishes in the Manchu and Han dynasties, and during the Republic of China, the Guangzhou chefs were simplified and improved to form the 22 dishes we see now, but due to the cumbersome craftsmanship, they gradually disappeared. At that time, a table like this was priced at about 50 yuan, equivalent to a month's salary for the working class, and it was usually high-ranking officials and nobles who could afford to spend it. The relevant staff of the China Hotel introduced to the Yangcheng Evening News reporter.
How to reproduce the taste of that year? Chef Xu Jinhui, the executive chef of the China Hotel, thought of the people who had tasted the authentic taste of that year, so during the production process, he invited Cantonese food masters to come and taste it many times, such as the 98-year-old Cantonese dim sum master Chef Chen Xun.
Xu Jinhui said: "At the beginning, many teachers scolded us for not doing a good job, but after continuous correction, they slowly recalled their memories of that year, closed their eyes and tasted 'Ah... It's really like the taste of the year'. ”
In order to be closer to tradition, the plating and craftsmanship will follow the old practice, even the utensils will try to use the previous things, and in the process of reproduction, the chef team will abandon high-end ingredients. In fact, the ability of celebrity chefs to turn ordinary ingredients into exquisite classic dishes is the skill of famous chefs, and the seasonings of that year are relatively simple and relatively easy to restore.
Manager He of China Hotel said that the "disappearing famous dishes" feast and dish series will continue to be introduced, and the public can get special dining discounts as long as they spend at the China Hotel with the tickets of the Guangzhou Museum, and the century-old story behind the famous dishes will also be told to the guests through documentaries.
Sour and delicious "five willow groupers"
Pursue the taste of the Republic of China with an "archaeological mentality"
Appetizers: "Two Fruits", "Two Kyo Fruits", "Four Cold Meats"
The raw fruit in "Ershengguo" and "Erjingguo" is the freshly plucked fruit from the tree, while the Jingguo is a candied fruit. The selection and combination of raw and jingguo will change with change.
"Four cold meats" is the traditional dish of cantonese feast in the Republic of China period, before serving hot dishes, the restaurant will first serve two dim sum for diners to pad their stomachs, while two meat dishes can be used as appetizers, the two dim sums of this reproduction are "chicken shredded peel" and "thousand layers of sea bass pieces"; and the two meat dishes are "roasted gold and silver spoons" and "fenjiu beef".
Salty and refreshing "roasted gold and silver spoon"
Among them, the "roasted gold and silver spoon" is steamed with a piece of pork liver, cut in the middle and sandwiched with a slice of white fatty bacon and a slice of salted egg yolk. Salted egg yolk is "gold", white bacon is "silver", Cantonese people call pork liver "膶", so it is called "gold and silver scoop". The taste is salty and refreshing, fat but not greasy. The "Thousand Layer Perch Pieces" is a pastry, and the thousand layers of puff pastry are topped with sea bass, ham slices and several fried olive kernels, which are rich in layers and endless in taste.
Main course: "Four hot meats" and "six bowls"
According to historical research and oral accounts of famous masters, "four hot meat" is the essence of the whole table feast, is the old time to measure a chef's skills, "four hot meat" is made of ordinary ingredients, its preciousness lies in the chef's "ingenuity", "ingenuity" and "embroidery" kung fu.
The first thing on the list of this fork is "fried shrimp", the chef selects ten eight-headed fresh prawns, adds salt to the flavor, and frys the whole shrimp in the oil pan until it is crispy, bright red, rich in garlic, and fresh meat. After that, the "stir-fried snails" and the night chicken liver finches are presented with exquisite materials and exquisite plates.
The last hot meat is "whole section melon", which looks very simple at first glance, but the production process is very complicated and delicate, and the ginger melon is hollowed out and brewed into the meat stuffing made of pork head meat, shrimp meat, dried shrimp and shiitake mushroom grains, and then put into the carp soup and slow-cooked, after the pot is opened into two, then cut the melon into thick slices on the plate, pour sauce, sprinkle with fried shrimp and serve. The tender and silky melon, together with the rich filling, delicious soup, and salty shrimp, is rich in flavor and accompanied by a magnificent plate, which is a double enjoyment of sight and taste.
"Steamed crab" soaked with the fragrance of lotus leaves
It is reported that the chef of the restaurant began to run after making the "four hot meats" and did not participate in the production of subsequent dishes, and each restaurant would arrange his most famous signature dishes as "six bowls" into the feast.
There are two soups in the "six bowls", first thick and then clear, and there will be a luxurious dish in the thick and light conversion room, followed by three hard dishes, first light and then thick.
According to tradition, the first thing on the table is the soup "Phoenix Braised Fresh Belly", followed by the "Open Furnace Roast suckling pig" dish, the restaurant uses about seven pounds of suckling pig, burned into a hemp skin, with suckling pig sauce, sugar, etc., the eating method is similar to that of Beijing roast duck, take a piece of steamed buns, wrap the crispy dipped suckling pig skin and send it to the mouth.
The subsequent clear soup "Zhengmao tail shoot stewed fairy duck", the soup is as clear as tea, but it does not lose its deliciousness, which truly reflects the fine skills of Cantonese chefs.
Smooth Q-bomb, skilled "Jiangnan Hundred Flowers Chicken"
Since then, the signature dish "Jiangnan Hundred Flowers Chicken" from the four major restaurants in Guangzhou has followed, and the smooth chicken skin and Q bullet shrimp meat have been integrated into one, and the shape is elegant. This is followed by the "steamed meat crab" soaked with the fragrance of lotus leaves and the sour and delicious "five willow groupers", and the taste of the three hard dishes changes from light to strong, rich in layers and very distinct.
Staple food: "nine inches" braised Yifu noodles, Yangzhou fried rice
According to reports, it was customary to use the size of the utensils to measure the portion of the dish, such as nine inches of noodles, is to use nine inches of plates to hold the noodles, and the ratio of meat to vegetables in each specification of the dish is also fixed, the chef sees the size of the utensils, but also knows how much to do the dish. It reflects the standardization of Cantonese cuisine and the characteristics of the Lingnan people's meticulous calculation.
The staple food of this reproduction is braised Yifu noodles and Yangzhou fried rice: fresh mushrooms are sliced, leeks are cut into sections, add abalone juice together to simmer the noodles, sprinkle with shrimp after falling; Yangzhou fried rice shiitake mushrooms, carrots cut into grains, add green beans, shrimp, eggs, rice grains golden, soft and hard moderate.
Delicate, tender, sweet "pineapple bath day"
Dessert: "Golden And Silver Chicken Cake" "Pineapple Bath Day"
Master Xu said that "gold and silver chicken cake" and "pineapple bath day" are the most difficult to reproduce. The gold and silver chicken cake is divided into two layers, baking the Western-style cake as the bottom, putting lotus paste in the middle, and the steamed cake has extremely high requirements for time grasp, to be accurate to the second, the masters have done more than 30 times to determine the best time. The two ways of cooking come together for a unique flavor.
The "pineapple bath day", which means one of the eight scenic spots of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, has a similar taste to double skin milk, sweetened fresh milk is stewed in a bowl and then put in the roasted salted egg yolk to make the "sun", surrounded by five pieces of pineapple slices as embellishment, the taste is sweet and delicate and tender, refreshing pineapple and salty salted egg yolk, rich in taste and layered.
The "Disappearing Famous Dishes" jointly planned by the Guangzhou Museum and the China Grand Hotel can be said to be the unique quality and craftsman spirit of Cantonese cuisine that is full of rivers, eclecticism, art according to materials and nature, and the production pays attention to authenticity, not luxury, which is highly consistent with the spirit of the times of strict economy, and is also the essence of the social and cultural atmosphere of economic reality, non-extravagance and waste that Lao Guang has always adhered to.
Source: Golden Sheep Network