Historical records of the Spring and Autumn Period record that "buckle bowl" as a unique cooking method of Lu cuisine, characterized by "eating nothing and not seeing anything", "whole chicken bones, whole fish to remove thorns". The ingredients are cut into pieces and steamed, and when they come out of the basket, they are fastened to another bowl, and the seasoning is poured to make a dish full of color and flavor. Brought to the table is full of fragrance, the taste in the mouth is fresh and mellow, "eat chicken without bone, eat fish without thorns."
This "buckle" seems simple, but it is still difficult to master without practicing for several years
"The altar opens a thousand incense, the store is a good thousand family ode", "Shengyou often comes to repair the recipe, and the high friend elegant seat chooses the mountain treasure." "This is a couplet on the door of the home of Zhang Yunquan, the inheritor of the Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yushan Village, Taozhuang Town, Xuecheng District, highlighting the unique gastronomic culture.
Zhang Yunquan was the fifth generation of the private imperial cooks of Hanlin Province in Qi Village before liberation. Before liberation, Zhang Yunquan's uncle Zhang Taiying and his grandfather Zhang Fulin (a native of Zouwu Southwest Village) were both cooks of the Cui Hanlin family in Qi Village. Zhang Fulin passed on his cooking skills to his son Zhang Shouquan, and Zhang Taiying passed on his cooking skills to his son Zhang Yunxi. Zhang Yunquan learned to cook with his uncle Zhang Yunxi at the age of seventeen, and then learned from the dumb chef Zhang Shouquan, and the bowl was gradually formed on the basis of following the traditional Bowl of Lu Cuisine, after several generations of excavation and innovation, the current "Eight Bowls of Zhang".
Slice the whole meat into thin slices, sprinkle with seasoning powder to marinate, wrap the egg flour noodles and fry them in a frying pan to form crispy meat; minced pork belly with onion, garlic and ginger into a filling, brewed into a tofu box; pork with skin, fried sugar color, fried, sliced... Potatoes, yams and other side dishes are changed to knives and cooked in the pot... The processed ingredients are stacked in bowls, served with various seasonal vegetables, and steamed in cages seven or eight stories high. After the opening of the cage, the original color of the food is retained, and the bowl is buckled into a special purple sand soup bowl, sprinkled with coriander, poured with a spoonful of exclusive boiled broth, and the "Zhang's Buckle Bowl" with full color and flavor is officially completed.
The utensils used to make the buckle bowls are also quite exquisite. These purple sand bowls are specially made from Jingdezhen and are said to be fired from old kilns, and they are used to serve vegetables with a more mellow taste. The ancient words and poems on the purple sand bowl are exquisite and elegant, adding cultural connotations. The big crispy meat is moist but not oily, fragrant but not greasy, the cabbage rolls are refreshing and delicious, the oil onion pumpkin is sweet and soft, the beef balls are spicy and fragrant... It is a feast that integrates sight, smell and taste.
In recent years, "Zhang's Buckle Bowl" has attracted many media interviews and reports inside and outside the province, attracted customers from surrounding districts and cities to taste, and attracted foreign tourists from Beijing, Shanghai, Xuzhou, Rizhao and other places during the Golden Week. Not long ago, several foreign friends from the ancient city of Taierzhuang specially tasted the "Zhang's Buckle Bowl", which was full of praise.
Source: Zaozhuang Evening News