Domain

Explanation

Buddha jumps over the wall

• Also called: Consummation of Happiness and Longevity, Wine-jug Stew
• Story: Qing official's cook copied it from a housewife and imrpoved it; he hen set up a restaurant beside a temple; once, the delicious smell of dish made the abbot next door jump over the wall to find out what it is
• The dish: Fujian, cooked for about 10 hours
• Ingredients: abalone, shark's fin, scallops, ham, mushroom, bamboo shoots, turnips, lotus leaf, sea cucumber, pork tendons, fish maw, seasoning: ginger, onion

Roast suckling pig

• Also called: Guangdong roast suckling pig
• Story: in the Stone Age, a bush boy accidentally set his family pigsty on fire; after the fire died down, the smell is delicious; the suckling pigs have been roasted!
• The dish: Manchu-and-Han dish, indispensable in Guangdong
• Ingredients: suckling pig roasted whole

Wrestling dragon, tiger and phoenix

• Also called: Congregation of the Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix
• Story: A 70-year-old elder saw how his cat engaged his snakes (locked in a cage) and invented the dish with the snakes as dragons and the cat as tiger; the phoenix with wings (chicken) is added to equate the two sides
• The dish: Guangdong
• Ingredients:cats, snakes, chicken

Chicken roasted in salt

• Also called: Dong 'an roast chicken
• Story: Guangdong was major salt-producing province of Qing dynasty; workers wrapped up boiled chicken & preserved them in abundant salt; later the dish is improvised for restaurants; the chicken is removed of bones & patched up into the original shape; served with the bones (young), soft meat (old); everyone happy
• The dish: Cantonese
• Ingredients: chicken, salt, oil paper

Dong Po pork

• Also called: Dong Po's calm
• Story: Su Dong Po of Song dynasty was thinking of ways to help the people when he forgot about the pork he was boiling in with seasoning; when he smelled it, it was not burnt but bright red and well-cooked; he often this dish for his fellow workers
• The dish: Huangzhou
• Ingredients: pork, seasoning, boiling water

Leather strip eels

• Also called: Bamboo joint eels
• Story: 19^th century, farmers were quarreling who damaged the paddy rice field dykes; the magistrate Zhu Caizhe discovered it was none other than the paddy eels (gongjie fish or worm); his cook taught the farmers how to cook the eels & from then on, no dykes were damaged
• The dish: Taiwan
• Ingredients: eels, cut into 3-inch strips, salt, starch, oil, seasoning: vinegar, sugar, chopped Chinese onion & ginger, boiling water, rice wine

West Lake sweet-and sour fish

• Also called: Delicacy created by a sister-in-law for her brother
• Story: an elder brother was killed, the wife and his brother fled; the brother decided to take the imperial examination, become an official and avenge his brother; on departure, the sister-in-law cooked a delicious dish to beef up his ambition and remember his hardship and misery; he succeeded in the exams and his revenge but lost his sister-in-law's whereabouts; one day, he called for a meal in a restaurant and discovered it was the same dish his sister-in-law had cooked for him; he had at last found his sister-in-law
• The dish: Hangzhou, Zhejiang
• Ingredients: fish, vinegar(hardships & misery), sugar(ambition & wishes)

Pockmarked lady's bean curd

• Also called: Numbing spicy bean curd
• Story: In Qing dynasty, Qiaoqiao a poor restaurant owner came across the market selling beef and bean curd; an idea struck; she boiled the bean curd; diced and stir-fried the minced beef; put the two together and cook with peppercorn, starch and seasoning added; from then on, the restaurant of the same name as the dish prospered till this day
• The dish: Sichuan
• Ingredients: minced beef, bean curd, boiling water, starch, huajiao

Taibai steamed duck

• Also called: Li Bai's dish
• Story: the Tang poet Li Bai was wondering how to become a pillar of the state when an idea struck him; he cooked a special duck dish & present it to the emperor; saying that preparing for this dish is like running the country …
• The dish: Sichuan
• Ingredients: duck, salt, pepper, rice wine, sanqi, wolfberry, onion, ginger, steam for three hours

Gongbao diced chicken

• Also called: Ding Baozhen's dish
• Story: created by the governor-general's cook; to fill their stomachs after a hard day's work
• The dish: Sichuan
• Ingredients: chicken breast, peanuts, red pepper, stir-fry, vinegar, sweet flour, spices, garlic, hot broad bean sauce, sugar

Peking roast duck

• Also called: Bianjing duck
• Story: Song Bianjing roast duck moved to Beijing during Yuan & became Peking roast duck
• The dish: Beijing
• Ingredients: duck, clear interiors, boil, dry, malt sugar, roast, sweet flour saucce, rice wine

Swimming dragon embroiders gold coins

• Also called: the commoner's dish
• Story: Qing Qianlong was touring when he ate this dish by an old couple; he was mesmerized
• The dish: Yangtze river
• Ingredients: small eels (brownish yellow), live shrimps (pink)

Coiled dragon, yellow croaker

• Also called: The comfort for Liu Bei
• Story: Liu Bei married Sun Quan's sister who prepared this dish to calm his nerves as well as to share his ambition and frustration of not being able to return to Shu
• The dish: Wu
• Ingredients: sweet (sugar), sour (vinegar), yellow croaker, sea cucumber, shrimps, eggs

Dragon and phoenix match

• Also called: The Union
• Story: In order to celebrate the festive homecoming and good fortune of Liu Bei and his newly-wed wife Madam Sun, his cook prepared this special dish
• The dish: Shu
• Ingredients: eels (dragon, Jingzhou), chicken (phoenix, Jingzhou)

Huang He carp

• Also called: Baked noodles with fish
• Story: To serve Empress Dowager Cixi & Emperor Guangxu, the local official engaged the famous chef, Sun the Fifth, to prepare this local specialty dish; the bosses loved it
• The dish: Kaifeng, Henan
• Ingredients: Huang He carp along Ligang, Kaifeng and Dongbatou, Lankao at the period of the fourth lunar month; handmade noodles, boil to bake, sweet (sugar), sour (vinegar)

Loaches in a jade box

• Also called: Loaches hidden in bean curd, husband's dish for wife-to-be
• Story: Chunge helped to fight off the village bullies pestering Qiumei who decided to marry him; Chunge mistakenly left the loaches in a pot filled with water and bean curd over fire; the loaches bore into the cooler bean curd interior and stay there till they are also cooked
• The dish: Hunan
• Ingredients: loaches (small eel-like fishes) [signify happiness & festivity], bean curd, boiling water, starch, seasoning, oil

Phoenix wrapped in green

• Also called: Watermelon chicken along with Jewel Hidden in White Jade
• Story: Meixiang, a family maid, broke a dish and had to prepare one herself; instead of winter melon, she used watermelon, cleared the interior, steam a chicken inside & wow the guests
• The dish: Suzhou, Jiangsu
• Ingredients: watermelon or winter melon, chicken, steam

Sizzling rice with shrimps

• Also called: Number one dish in the world (actually the first dish in the world)
• Story: Zhengde, a Ming official, was on an investigation tour when he stayed at Lin Family Village in Kunshan County for a meal; the housewife cooked a soup out sheer desperation of insufficient ingredients & gave it the name as Zhengde was the first main in the world to try it; In 1934, the dish was improved with more ingredients
• The dish: Jiangsu
• Ingredients: rice crust, bean curd, starch, sauce, chicken broth, tomato, MSG, Shaoxing rice wine

Beggar's chicken

• Also called: Roaast chicken clad in mud
• Story: A beggar grabbed a live chicken to keep warm over the winter night; when morning came, he killed it, rolled it in mud, put the whole ball on fire & that's it; a passer-by saw the immense talent of the beggar & formed a partnership with him to open a restaurant; later, in Suzhou, he included lotus leaf with the chicken as was customary with the locals
• The dish: Changshu, Jiangsu, Zhejiang
• Ingredients: chicken, lotus leaf, mud, wood fire

Zhenjiang cured pork

• Also called: The deity's dish
• Story: a couple mistook saltpetre for salt & cure their pork legs with it; later they thought it was inedible & began scrubbing off the skin, boiling with spring onion, ginger, brown peppercorn & aniseed; the smell was so good that the deity Zhang Guolao ignored the Queen Mother's peach party to get a taste of the dish; the word 硝(xiao, saltpetre) was changed to 肴(delicious food)
• The dish: Zhenjiang
• Ingredients: pork legs, saltpetre, boiling water, skin off, spring onion, ginger, brown peppercorn & aniseed