Some time ago, I went to Zhongxiang in Hubei Province on a business trip, and after doing business, Zhongxiang's friend invited me to a restaurant for dinner. During the meal, a plate of golden-colored, dragon-shaped dishes caught my attention. Friend Wan'er smiled and said: "This is Zhong Xiang's famous dish Panlong dish, also known as Panlong dish, roll cut, commonly known as chopped vegetables, I specially ordered for you, try it." ”
Curiously, I picked up a piece of chopsticks and tasted it in the mouth, tender and delicious, oily but not greasy, melting in the mouth, especially delicious. "Eat what is made of?" The friend asked. I looked at the dragon on the plate carefully, and tasted the mellow taste in my mouth, like pork and tenderer than pork, soft and silky, more delicious than the food I had eaten before. I snorted and couldn't say why. The friend smiled and said, "This is made of pork and fish chopped into mushrooms and eggs, and is famous for 'eating meat without meat'." How's that, it tastes good, doesn't it? Eat more. ”
I nodded violently and feasted. My friend was very happy to see that I liked to eat, opened the conversation box, and told me the story about the dragon dish.
According to legend, in the sixteenth year of Ming Zhengde (1521 AD), Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao died and was succeeded by a childless person. According to the ancestral precept of "brother and brother", there were three candidates at that time, namely Zhu Houxi, the son of the late Xingxian King Zhu Youzhao, Zhu Youjiao, the King of Shouding, and Zhu Youluo, the King of Ru'an. Finally, Empress Dowager Zhang of Filial Piety passed on yi's will and sent Emperor Wuzong's edicts simultaneously to Zhu Houxi (朱厚熜) of the Xingwang Palace in Luzhou (present-day Zhongxiang), Zhu Youxi (朱佑搘) the Prince of Shouding (寿定王) of De'an, and Zhu Youju (朱佑梈) the Prince of Ru'an (汝安王) of Weihui. The empress dowager ordered the three of them to "come first to be a king, and then to be a subject."
The Xingwang Mansion was the farthest away from Beijing, and in order to hurry, yan Song, the curtain guest, offered advice and let Zhu Houxi pretend to be a Qin prisoner on the prison cart and rush to the capital day and night. Zhu Houxi was the son of the king of the domain and was not accustomed to eating coarse food, so he ordered the chef in the house to make a dish that ate fish but did not see fish. The chefs thought hard and did not make a dish that met the requirements. There was a chef named Jando who was skillful. One day, when his wife saw that he had not returned from dark, she brought him cooked sweet potatoes to eat. In the process of delivery, I accidentally broke the sweet potato peel. Jando had the opportunity to come up with a good way to make "sweet potatoes" out of fish, meat, and eggs. Therefore, Zhu Houxi ate "sweet potatoes" and smoothly entered Beijing as emperor.
After Zhu Houxi ascended the throne, he became Jiajing. He missed the "sweet potato" he ate sitting in the prison car, so he passed on Zhan Duo to Beijing to make "sweet potatoes" for him. Jando improved the sweet potato and renamed it "Dragon Dish", which is the dish that the dragon eats. After Jiajing ate the new "Dragon Dish", he was full of praise and ordered people to record it in the palace recipe. Since then, "Panlong cuisine" has become a Ming Palace cuisine, which has been passed down to the present, becoming a traditional specialty that can be seen at every household table in the New Year's Eve.
After listening to the story told by my friend, I couldn't help but become interested in its approach. My friend told me how to make dragon dishes: minced lean pork and fresh fish into meat paste, filtered out the blood water, mixed with fatty shredded meat, fine powder, egg white, minced onion and ginger, salt and mixed evenly as filling. Wrap the filling in a spread-cooked egg skin. Wrap a flat drum about 30 cm long and 5 to 6 cm thick and steam it in a steamer basket. When eating, cut the cooled drum into thin slices, stack it in a bowl, plate it into a dragon shape, steam it back, and then flip it into the plate from the bowl.
Dragon cuisine is beautiful in shape, delicious in taste and rich in nutrition. The Qing Dynasty poet Fan Guokai once described Zhong Xiang's dragon dish in the "Twelve Songs of Bamboo Branches in Yingzhong": "The taste of mountains and treasures and the sea does not need to be offered, and the rich water and spring fragrant wine have a strong taste." The full seat of guests called for food and dressed up as a roll-cut dragon. ”
Going to Zhongxiang, not only tasting the delicious dragon dish, but also growing knowledge, it is really worth the trip.