In 2016, the popularity of a documentary "Taste of Shunde" set off a boom in Shunde cuisine across the country, and Shunde cuisine has given Shunde a more specific image of the city through regionality and characteristics.
Shunde area
The Shunde area has a dense water network and developed agriculture, and has been a prosperous place in Lingnan since ancient times. In a rich land, drinking and eating will be exquisite, the people like to use local ordinary products to cook finely, evaluate each other, and the overall cooking skills are quite high. "Food in Guangzhou, Cooking out of Fengcheng" fully demonstrates the unique advantages of Shunde people's cooking technology in Cantonese cuisine.
Shunde chrysanthemum fish raw
The taste of Shunde cuisine is "clear, refreshing, tender, smooth and fresh", but its core lies in "truth". True taste, both the way of local materials, but also the promotion of the original taste.
Shunde food can be said to be well known to the world, but the diet is never as simple as the surface, behind it is hidden is the geographical, historical, economic, cultural and spiritual changes of a region. The creation and thinking based on food makes its significance for the region and people more abundant and far-reaching.
Shunde Diet and Fang Zhi Novel
In the public's impression, art and writing are elegant and white snow, while food is a daily life full of fireworks. But writing itself is a way to get people back to the scene of memory, and art makes the journey more vivid, imaginative, and modern. The cross-border fusion of the two with diet may produce more incredible sparks of inspiration.
The hundred-year-old archway and ancient tomb in Gulang Village are recorded to be related to the Huang Xiaoyang Rebellion (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
From March 6, 2021 to March 20, 2021, the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute of Shunde OCT, together with the "Fangzhi Novel Joint Resident Program", launched the "Shunde Food Interpretation and Art Residency" creation activity, inviting artists, researchers and Shunde celebrity chefs to cooperate, on the one hand, from the experience of chefs to trace the source of Shunde food, on the other hand, artists and scholars went deep into the field, visited the current situation of Shunde cuisine, combed the delicious composition of diet and local experience, and searched for the historical context of Shunde, with words, images, Videos and other media are used as forms to realize the re-creation of Shunde food and regional culture.
In recent years, "Fang Zhi novels" dominated by local writing have quietly appeared in many regions of China's great rivers and north and south. Such a grounded and singular form of stylistic form is popular with many young writers and artists.
Map of Fengshan Academy (taken from Qing Xianfeng's "Shunde County Chronicle")
Fang Zhi is a local text in ancient China that records the customs, characters, properties, public opinions and folklore of the four parties, including county records and local records. Fang Zhi Novel borrows this concept, it is the marriage of Fang Zhi and the novel, and has now been extended to the fictional and non-fiction texts, images, new media and other multi-media works of art created by contemporary people based on the cognition of local culture.
The "Shunde Food Digestion and Art Residency" creation activity initiated by the Qingyun Cultural Society is also another artistic writing activity after the "Hidden Qingyun Cultural Society" and the "Triangle Dragon Boat Culture".
Taste the resident art creation of Shunde
During the preliminary fieldwork, Chen Dong, head of the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute, led the resident artists to visit the Nanhai Temple, Baishifang and other historical relics in Gulang Village, Xingtan Town, and visited the artist Wu Shixiong's studio; visited the rural construction exhibition in Qingtian Village, Longtan; tasted the dessert of Zhuji Bowl Cake in Huanglian Village, Leliu Town, visited the black vinegar brewing workshop of Lianfeng Food Factory, the production process of Zhen Tianji Ice Flower Plum Sauce, and tasted the food "Datou Hua Roast Goose" introduced in the documentary with Fei Muming, the director of "Taste of Shunde". In addition, the resident artists also exchanged views with Chef Wang Tan Yongqiang, Chen Dehe, one of the top ten famous chefs, and Liao Xixiang, a shunde drinking researcher.
Artist inspects an abandoned mansion (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Artist on the Dragon Bridge in Gulang Village (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Artist visits Huang Lianfeng Food Factory (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Artist explores abandoned yard (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Streets of Shunde (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
In addition to the young scholar Cao Yu, Chen Min, Hechang, Qin Xiaoshi, Xin Wei and Zhu Lanqing are all young artists who have been active in the contemporary art circle in recent years. They are active in thinking, keen in feelings, have a strong interest in local customs, history, and the relationship between people and things, and they are good at using various media such as words and images for artistic writing. The artist initially entered the fields of Shunde as an other, and in the process of exploration, through continuous entry, feeling and imagination, gradually deepened his understanding of the food of Shunde's customs and objects, and brewed a future creative plan.
Plum sauce
Cao Yu is a young scholar of anthropology who is the author of the book "The History of Chinese Spicy Food", which has received widespread attention from the industry and general readers. There are also his funny and humorous speeches on the "history of spicy food" on the Internet. His investigation and writing reflect the rational perspective of anthropologists: "Shunde has a dense water network, developed agriculture, but not near the sea, the diet is taken from the common things in the fields of Lingnan, especially the fish, the rest of the surimi, grass finches, snake soup, grass worms, is also a model of Lingnan fine cooking, although there are similar ingredients in Guangdong, the cooking skills are far inferior to Shunde." filigree. ”
Cao Yu's writing this time mainly involves the history of plum sauce and wu sauce, as well as their development in Shunde and their application in local food. He wanted to use plum sauce and wu sauce as examples to show the food logic of the Shunde region - to remove the odor and highlight the original taste. The Shunde diet focuses on flavoring to accentuate the original taste, rather than covering the original taste. For example, the original taste of fish should be umami, and the earthy taste is an odor. The earthy smell can be removed through "lean" pretreatment, followed by a small amount of sugar and soy sauce to highlight the umami taste of the fish.
Fish noodles
Chen Min was deeply impressed by the Zhuji Bowl Cake and The Fishing Noodles of Daganghui in Huanglian Village, Shunde. Located near Qinghui Garden, the fish noodle restaurant adopts a modern decoration style equipped with new media, which is refreshing, which makes her feel the new face of Shunde cuisine in line with the development of the times. She is still thinking about the theme of this creation.
Sauna chicken
Qin Xiaoshi is deeply impressed by Shunde's sauna chicken and sauna fish, and she believes that the sauna chicken is a good embodiment of Shunde cuisine's pursuit of fresh and delicious ingredients themselves, and the requirements for heat are also very accurate, the time is not slippery, and the time is not cooked. In addition, it can be said that the whole people are cooked here, and even the street snacks - salty and sour knife work are very delicate.
The large mussel shell in the left picture is the Shunde area, the top right picture: salty acid, the bottom right picture: 1940s cuisine (Photo: Qin Xiaoshi)
Qin Xiaoshi was fascinated by "strange old things". She read the "Shunde County Chronicle" and became interested in the river mussels, she went to the mountain reservoir to collect the mussel shells left over from the water birds to make works, she thought it was big enough, and when she arrived in Shunde, she found the little witch and saw the big witch, and the "river mussels were as big as a wheel, glowing at night" in the "County Chronicle", and she herself also picked up the mussel shells as large as a human face. In addition, she also collected other interesting things in the county chronicle and dishes from the Republic of China, and in the novels she created, she will reflect various "strange things" in Shunde.
Sauté the milk
Xin Wei is an authentic Guangzhou native. He believes that the cooking methods of Shunde cuisine are actually very similar to those of Cantonese cuisine, and now it is almost inseparable from each other. His impression of Shunde cuisine is mainly the handling of ingredients. Shunde ingredients are mostly local, pay attention to the season, but also benefit from the coarse materials, the overall warmth and full of details - fried milk is one of the best.
Shunde fish pond
In the residency, Xin Wei will present his work in a semi-fictional writing style. One of the clues unfolds with the change in the way fish are reared, the relationship between people and fish. Fish farming in the Shunde area began to be free range culture, and in the late Qing Dynasty it became a Sanji fish pond, followed by a cane-based fish pond, and now a large greenhouse for fish farming. But for a long time, farmers have needed to be cared for by the pond, and the farming methods, outputs, and channels have been evolving, but the relationship between people and fish is constant.
Zhu Lanqing photographed in Shunde (Photo: Zhu Lanqing)
Zhu Lanqing, who won the Three Shadows Photography Award for her hometown theme in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, is extremely sensitive to local history. In this resident art expedition, Zhu Lanqing embarked on a journey of exploration around Shunde's former sugar industry and related sugarcane cultivation. By searching for the sugarcane planting test site in the past and the Shunde Sugar Factory founded in the Republic of China, interviewing the old sugar factory workers and cane farmers living in it, the artist intends to explore the inherent relationship between the two. At the same time, by tracing the history of "sugar", it also shows the influence of the taste of "sweet" on the daily life of Shunde.
Zhu Lanqing interviews the elderly in Shunde (Photo: Zhu Lanqing)
Zhu Lanqing's artistic creation includes a short film, photographic works and artistic writing. At the same time, she is reading Cantonese short stories from the 1950s to the 1970s, which focus more on reflecting the positive outlook of workers and peasants, and the writing part will begin with the study of these novels.
Stuffed mud carp
Zhang Wenxin was impressed by Shunde's specialty, stuffed mud carp. Stuffed mud carp is a thin layer of fish skin wrapped in pure fish minced meat, the outer skin is like a complete fish, the inner chamber is removed from the fish bone, stuffed with the meat of two fish, the chef deconstructed the fish, and then reconstructed, but also retained the appearance of the fish, the process is extremely complicated, this is different from home cooking, the way of food transformation makes Zhang Wenxin remember it vividly.
Macrobrachia
For this resident art creation, Zhang Wenxin envisions combining Shunde's food stories such as shrunken bone bighead fish, roasted goose, and white chopped chicken, and writing a short story with science fiction over the history of human transformation of nature and the imagination of future human survival. The head of the shrunken big head fish is large and short, originally just an ordinary big head fish, and the juvenile fish is specially treated so that its head accounts for one-third of the whole body. Zhang Wenxin believes that this is a typical case of human beings consciously changing their biological form to make the ingredients more in line with their needs.
Who understands it – share the lecture
Shunde Food And Beverage Interpretation and Art Resident Exchange Meeting (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
From 14:00 to 17:00 on The afternoon of March 20th, the "Shunde Food And Beverage Interpretation and Art Resident Exchange Meeting" was held in the conference hall of shunde happy coast PLUS Shunde food museum. Zhu Lanqing, Cao Yu, Fei Muming, Yan Lijun and other guests gave keynote speeches on Shunde cuisine, songs, sugar factories, fisheries and other content.
Baron's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Musician Barang is the original initiator and lead singer of the "Five People" band, Barang's speech is titled "Shunde in the Ballad", Barang is deeply influenced by the Taiwanese lyricist Zhong Yongfeng, he has a deep study of folk songs around the world, by showing and comparing the same content around the place, but different lyrics of the nursery rhyme version, Barang believes that nursery rhymes are like a kind of food, the cooking methods in different places will be different, dialect folk songs are a local cuisine.
Zhu Lanqing's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Video artist Zhu Lanqing shared her visit to the Shunde Sugar Factory in the fieldwork. Once a glorious symbol of Shunde's sugar industry, the Shunde Sugar Factory is now an abandoned factory site. Zhu Lanqing showed the transformation of the sugar industry in Shunde Sugar Factory from the Republic of China to the socialist planned economy period after the founding of the People's Republic of China. On the other hand, the interdependent relationship between sugar factories and sugarcane cultivation, the relationship between geographical space and industrial planning under the background of global industrial transfer, and the resulting local discussion are also Zhu Lanqing's concerns.
Liao Baoxin's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Liao Baoxin, a member of the "Shunde Studies Group", shared the theme of "Fashionable New Diet and Personal Skills", the "Shunde Studies" group traced the origins of food on the tables in Shunde in the form of a multidisciplinary open practice group, and at the same time examined the pursuit of original food taste in Shunde, the relationship between women and family cooking, and some new cooking tools gradually appeared in Shunde, which reflected the changes in Shunde's food culture.
Cao Yu's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Dr. Cao Yu, a doctor of anthropology, gave a warm and funny speech, and he shared the story of Plum Sauce for everyone. His interest in plum sauce stemmed from visiting a factory in Shunde that specializes in plum sauce and an additive food factory that produces ice flower plum sauce, which is a dipping sauce for roast goose in Cantonese cuisine. In fact, plum sauce, which seems to be a local specialty, is a very traditional ancient Chinese food that once spread throughout the Central Plains. From this, Cao Yu introduced a series of stories such as the history, craftsmanship, geographical changes, and cultural symbols of plum sauce.
Yan Lijun's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Yan Lijun, Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, shared the title of "Dragon Travel and Dragon Making: A Glimpse into Shunde Culture". Yan Lijun introduced the new cultural phenomenon of Shunde dragon boats, such as the traditional dragon tour emphasizing the process of swimming and the sense of ceremony carried out. In the modern dragon race, there is a great emphasis on speed, focusing on winning and losing, and there is a development trend from traditional festivals to sports events. At the same time, she used the story of two young dragon boat makers to reflect the endless inheritance of dragon-making culture in Shunde.
Fei Muming's live speech (Photo: Liu Pengfei)
Fei Muming, the director of "Taste of Shunde", shared the feeling of shooting Shunde's diet, he believes that the most prominent thing in Shunde is the pursuit of original taste, and raw porridge is the best carrier that reflects the true taste of Shunde. Shunde people's "lean farming" of fish also reflects this feature, the fish through 5-10 days of flowing water culture, no longer feeding, so as to remove the grass fishy smell, to obtain the umami taste of fish. He also shared the story of shooting the agricultural breeding of Jitang in Shunde, which can be recycled and produces a variety of ingredients. He also outlined the supply chain of the eel industry radiating from Shunde to the world by showing the cultivation of eels in Shunde, the food of eels - bering Strait fishmeal, and the consumption of eels in Japan.
Liao Xixiang's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Liao Xixiang is a senior researcher of Shunde cuisine, he shared the changes in the early catering industry in Shunde, Shunde was affected by banditry for a long time, there were no famous restaurants, they were all home cooks and private cooks hired by rich families, at home specially for the big master to do exquisite and elegant dishes, food-tireless gourmets cultivated a chef who was not tired of detail, and the fine characteristics of Shunde cuisine were formed. In the Republic of China period, the owner of the silk reeling factory and the silk tycoon often went out to dinner, and their demand for food and speed gave birth to the rapid stir-fry, and the "Fengcheng small stir-fry" full of woks promoted the rapid development of Shunde's modern catering industry.
Chen Dehe's live speech (Photo: Chen Dong)
Chef Chen recalled the glorious history of Shunde Qinghui Garden dining in the 1970s and 1980s with his own experience. He told everyone that many classic dishes in Shunde have extremely strict requirements for time, heat and steps. For example, the grass turtle stew, after the grass turtle is treated, the open flame is boiled for four hours, the gum in the bone is boiled, and then put in the stew cup for two hours, when the soup is a little red, it is the top product. In addition, he also introduced the famous dishes of Shunde such as milk stewed bamboo silk chicken, fried milk, fried pho, water snake porridge, fish fillet porridge, etc., of which fried milk is a classic of Shunde cuisine, which is a miracle to fry gelatinous liquid milk into a semi-solid hot dish.
Cu Ding Taste – The artist works with celebrity chefs to cook
Tasting session of "Ku Ding Deodorization"
The tasting session of "Ding Ding" can be called the finale of the 20-day event, and the artist's personal cooking is a creative highlight. Based on local ingredients, the artist modeled on the practices and forms of Shunde cuisine, and collaborated with Shunde chefs to innovate a series of new dishes with unique styles and flavors. The guests could not help but marvel at the artist's imagination, hands-on ability and the profound cooking skills of Shunde chefs.
Xin Wei making dishes in the back kitchen (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Xin Wei's first dish is the steamed egg that he masters every day, he knows the ratio of cooked egg liquid to milk, as well as the control of temperature, and the steamed egg is sweet and tender. The second course is asparagus with yuanbei fried dragon fish roll, seafood enriches the taste level of the dish, and the green spinach juice just neutralizes the taste, this dish has a fresh sense of season.
Cao Yu's plum sauce pig hand (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Cao Yu used the plum sauce he studied as a raw material and used the plum sauce to stew pig hands. The plum sauce itself has a good fruity taste that neutralizes the fatness of the pig's hands and brings a better taste.
Zhang Wenxin's dishes are a combination of Northwest's specialty snack potato scrubbing and Shunde's specialty mud carp slip, and provides dipping sauces in both styles. Northwest China and South China have very different food cultures, but residents of both places have developed very meticulous and delicious food in the face of the limitation of ingredients.
Qin Xiaoshi's dishes also take into account the combination of ingredients from different regions. Grilled Jin Biwen cheese usually put honey or jam, she used Shunde special ice flower plum sauce instead of jam, made "ice flower plum sauce roast cheese". Inspired by the baked sweet potatoes drizzled with tahini from her Israeli classmates, she replaced the sesame sauce with Guangzhou's special southern milk peanuts and improved it into "Southern Milk Peanuts with Sweet Potatoes".
Zhu Lanqing makes a white dew cane forest in the back kitchen (Photo: Lin Zhenlan)
Zhu Lanqing made a punch (cocktail mixed with drink and juice) of "White Dew Cane Forest". "Using the sugarcane juice I used in my research as a base, I added rum and local red rice wine. Rum also happens to be a sugarcane-made wine. Then use tropical lemon leaves, lemongrass and lemon to enhance the aroma. Several spices are also often used in Shunde cuisine, such as in fish raw and bu bu clam hot pot. Finally, I secretly added the marinated ginger. The artist commented on his work.
Chen Dehe and chef cook a famous dish on the spot - fried milk (Photo: Liu Pengfei)
The highlight of the dinner was Chen Dehe and the chef performing Shunde's classic dish , fried milk. According to Chen Dehe, this dish must be made with water milk, and the side dishes can include fresh meat, char siu, sausage, and most importantly, olive kernels. Lan Ren plays a soul role in Shunde cuisine. When frying, pay attention to the heat, a little paste will fail. This dish is coagulated without diarrhea, full of milk, white and smooth, soft and delicious.
Follow-up activities
Poster of Shunde Food Decontamination and Art Residency Event
The "Shunde Food And Taste Solution and Art Station" is a cross-year cultural and artistic activity organized by the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute. In December 2020, the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute invited the artist "Shunde Studies" group to start from the river and conduct six months of field research to trace the origin of food; on March 6, it cooperated with Fang Zhi Novel to once again convene more artists and scholars for a 15-day residency; in April and May, it will invite new media artist Hu Jieming to create works based on the relationship with food from the perspective of individuals and memories.
Past posters and invitations
Before the epidemic, the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute launched the art writing activities of "The Hidden Qingyun Cultural Society" and the "Qingyun Field Writing Award", which attracted the attention of the industry and became a very active force in the cultural ecology of the Pearl River Delta region. This "Shunde Food And Beverage Interpretation and Art Residency" will become another far-reaching art activity, which is not only an extensive and in-depth fieldwork and writing plan, but also an imaginative and interesting exploration of the combination of elite culture and mass culture, which will surely receive wide attention from the industry and the audience.
The past and present lives of the Qingyun Cultural Society
"Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute" originated from the most far-reaching public welfare cultural and educational organization in Shunde's history, "Qingyun Cultural Society", which was established with the support of Shunde Overseas Chinese Town, with the purpose of tracing and inheriting the cultural spirit of Qingyun Cultural Society in the past 400 years based on locality and reverence for culture and education. With the positioning of "local map and urban cultural platform", the Qingyun Cultural Society Research Institute is committed to the research of the relevant history of the disappeared Qingyun Cultural Society, as well as the local culture of Shunde and even the Pearl River Delta region, and promotes the public's understanding of the local culture of the Pearl River Delta through publications, exhibitions, lectures, cultural awards and other carriers.
Qingyun Pagoda (Photo: Liu Pengfei)
The historical Qingyun Cultural Society was once a public welfare cultural and educational organization jointly donated by local gentry in Shunde in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and initially helped Shunde students to "step in the clouds", and Shunde became the hometown of The Champions. To this day, on the ShenbuGang in Shunde, there is also the Qingyun Pagoda built by Ni Shangzhong of Shunde Zhi County in the Ming Dynasty for the revival of local literary style.
Later, the Qingyun Cultural Society used the imperial examination channel to dredge the mutual feeding relationship between the central and local clans, and then integrate local politics, economy, culture, architecture and cuisine, becoming one of the most influential local authorities in Shunde. During the Republic of China, the Qingyun Cultural Society was once again transformed into a cultural and educational organization, and the Qingyun Children's Education Institute once broke through the Japanese blockade line during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and rescued and reared nearly a thousand children who suffered, which became a legendary story of local education. Today, Qingyun Children's Education Institute has evolved into Qingyun Middle School in Chen Village, Shunde, which is the last continuation of the centuries-old cultural and educational undertakings of Qingyun Cultural Society. (Author: Liu Pengfei)