In the dishes, we often see or eat dishes that are called "chowder", "offal" or "assorted". Like: halal chowder, hibiscus chowder, silk chowder, braised offal, seafood assortment, braised assortment, cream vegetarian assortment, etc., the most famous of the dishes is "seafood assortment". There are also fried chicken offal that we often eat, there are also called fried chicken offal, as well as husband and wife lung slices, the earliest name is also called cold mix beef offal, the hot pot that everyone often eats, in fact, also called hot pot chowder, that is, put a variety of meat and vegetarian rice into a pot of soup to cook, each take what is good, divide and eat.
I remember in the fifties and sixties, every autumn and winter, the small streets and alleys have a stove in front of the door, a casserole pot burned with turnips mixed with beef offal, called roast beef offal, also called soup pot radish, regardless of meat and vegetarian two cents a piece, spicy and fragrant is very tempting, often hooked those of us who have just read a lot of poor dolls saliva long.
In the winter of 1986, Deng Xiaoping's family returned to Sichuan to stay in the Golden Bull Hotel, ate a reception banquet at noon, and specially instructed the master chef not to engage in other dishes at night, and to boil all these dishes into a pot at noon. Master Fu was dumbfounded when he heard it, and he didn't know how to be good. Xiaoping also said: "This kind of chowder has meat and vegetables, complete taste, and is very delicious." The kitchen masters had to do the same, and in the evening they burned a pot of smorgasbord, and the Xiaoping family ate with relish.
Burn chowder
In the old Chengdu, it was not easy for the poor people to make a living, it was difficult to eat, and it was even more difficult to eat meat. However, in the mansion restaurant, it is a luxurious banquet for the rich, the rich are drunk, spending money like dirt, the brain is full of fat, and the leftovers after the feast can accumulate several large tanks. Then cook a large pot, add some seasonings, called braised chowder, restaurants ask handymen to carry out the street every day to sell. At that time, the four-gate bridge in Chengdu had fixed-point regular sales along the river, especially the East Gate Bridge and the Nine-Eye Bridge. Of course, the daily queues for sale are naturally poor people and short-term workers, helpers, coachmen, caravans, porters, beggars and the like. This kind of leftovers have all kinds of flavors and meat, like the "moon meat" with only a curved meat skin, the "grate fish" with a bare skeleton, and the "stick chicken" that only leaves the skeleton. However, for the poor, this is a blessing, so the people call it "fairy cabbage". For the poor people, it is also a rare taste to be able to eat such a rich "oil".
In addition, in the past, there was a kind of small rice shop outside the four gates of Chengdu' east, west, south and north, which put plague pork, dead pork, dead cats and dogs, and even live mouse meat, in short, all the animals removed the offal meat and burned a big pot, the soup in the pot was rolled over, and the black foam piled up high, but it was still fragrant, also called braised chowder, specially sold to the poor to eat, even if it was a "tooth sacrifice". Every day at noon, customers are full of doors, and they eat more standing than sitting. There are also a few poor acid literati or small clerks who wear long shirts and top hats to buy home with large vats, and the whole family "fights a tooth sacrifice." It is also jokingly referred to as the "twelve phases" dish, meaning that there is all the animal meat from the rat to the pig twelve genera.
Assorted abalone
After this kind of chowder and chowder created by the people naturally became a dish that the public liked to eat, it was accepted by the chefs of restaurants and restaurants, and after generations of chefs' practice, it became a feast head dish, and also changed an elegant and noble name "assorted" with no less than ten kinds of raw materials, and was also divided into "meat assorted" and "vegetarian assorted". This is not to mention, if the meat assortment is added to the seafood, it is beautifully transformed into "seafood assortment", depending on the different seafood ingredients added, it is subdivided into sea cucumber assortment, squid assortment and so on. Many have also become the signature dishes of famous restaurants, such as the round milk soup smorgasbord, the braised assortment of hard work, and the hibiscus chowder of hibiscus restaurant. There is also a very affordable public banquet in the Sichuan cuisine banquet, which is called a chowder table with chowder as the first dish.
I once read an article called "Li Hongzhang Chowder", which said that "Li Hongzhang Chowder" this dish is very popular in European and American Chinese restaurants, very famous, its raw materials are very rich, there are chicken, sea cucumber, fish, cooked ham, oil hair fish belly, squid, water hair rotten bamboo, dried scallops, mushrooms, magnolia slices and dozens of raw materials. In fact, it is similar to seafood assortment, or seafood jar meat.
Seafood assortment
Chowder, offal, or assorted, simply put, it is to combine ingredients with different sexual flavors and tastes to cook into a delicious dish. Although there are no strict rules for the compatibility of various ingredients, it is also customary. Like the syllable chowder, it is mostly made of pork belly shreds, cooked ham shreds, cooked chicken shreds, winter bamboo shoots, loofah skin, as well as crispy meat, ringing skin, etc., and braised in clear soup. The braised assortment is mostly made of pork belly, pork heart, pig tongue, pig ring throat, cooked chicken thigh meat, water hair hoof tendon, water hair mushroom, net winter shoots, lettuce, and also add carrots, add fresh soup and stew. In addition to the use of pork belly, heart, tongue, ring throat and hoof tendons on the basis of braised assortment, it also uses pillars, cooked ham, water hair sea cucumber, water hair squid, golden hook, mushroom, winter shoots, vegetable hearts, etc., and also use shark fin, fish maw, abalone.
Whether it is chowder or assortment, the allure of this commonly known smorgasbord is that it is delicious and extraordinary, fragrant and different from the delicacies, and it is refreshing to eat, diverse in taste, nutritious and beneficial. To use today's words, chowder and assortment can be regarded as an unconventional and creative "surreal" delicacy in cooking.
Steamed chowder
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Board of "Sichuan Province Chronicle • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Sichuan Cuisine Culture Person Sichuan Cuisine Contributor
Author of "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "The History of Sichuan Cuisine on the Roadside", and "Three Hundred Years of Spicy Hemp Temptation"
Original Jianghu Gluttony East 2019.06.10. Chengdu