Gourmand vol3

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EATING DUCK CULTURE QUALITY SALTED DUCK DUCK IN 72 WAYS

NO CATTAIL NO BANQUET

CHONGMING SHANGHAI WHEN SHANGHAI MEETS CHONGMING

THE HEALTHY ‘BLACK’

SCAN WITH WECHAT FOR GUIDE

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Home Serial Number: CN32-1379/TS International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): ISSN 1005-0345 PRICE: ￡3 Postal code for distribution: 28-169

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GOURMAND GOURMAND CHINESE EDITION ESTABLISHED ON JANUARY 1989 FIRST PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH ON 5TH JULY 2016

COPY RIGHT OWNER: SOHO Holdings Group Co. Ltd, Jiangsu PUBLISHER: SOHO Media Company Limited, Jiangsu.

CO-ORGANIZING UNITS: Jiangsu Cuisine Association

CONTENTS 02 EATING DUCK CULTURE in Jingling

14 NO CATTAIL No Banquet

20 WHEN SHANGHAI MEETS Chongming

24 THE HEALTHY 'BLACK'

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Jiangsu Nutrition Society SECRETARIAT:

ISSIN 1005-0345 HOME SERIAL NUMBER:

Liang Yue

CN32-1379/TS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD

Min Zhou ART DIRECTOR: Chao Wang EDITOR: Xinyue Hu TRANSLATOR: Shella Chen PHOTOGRAPHER: Xiaoli Cheng, Guo Chen ART EDITOR: Naiqiang Wu, Ace Xie NEW MEDIA EDITOR: Chunhui Li HOME ISSUE UNIT: Jiangsu Bureau of Newspaper Distribution INTERNATIONAL ISSUE UNIT:

SERIAL NUMBER (ISSN): ISSN 1005-0345 ADVERTISEMENT LICENSE: 3200004970395 POSTAL CODE FOR DISTRIBUTION: 28-169 PRICE: £3 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT TEL: 025-83324860 DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT: 025-84513344 MARKETING DEPARTMENT: 025-83231620 FAX: 025-84505484 ADDRESS:

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

EATING DUCK CULTURE IN JINLING People in Jinling (now called Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province) has a long history in eating ducks.

As early as in the Spring and Autumn, Warring state period (771 to 221 BC), it’s found in written documents that Jinling people raised ducks. It is said that salted duck has been invented for more than a thousand years, but only being recorded in early Ming dynasty. During the end of Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty, there were many Hui people(a Chinese ethnic minority group, most of them follow Islamic cuisine) living in Nanjing. Therefore, there’s a leading trending in eating duck in Nanjing more than anywhere else. Nowadays, Jinling Salted Duck has become a signature dish of Nanjing. Jinling Salted Duck, Yuhua Stone and Yun Brocade are known as three gems of Nanjing, and it’s very popular to send them to family and friends as gifts. These three gems are introduced widely to the nation as well as the world. Salted duck has become the signature Jinling dish and been well-known through various food festivals both in China and abroad.

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

HOW TO MAKE QUALITY SALTED DUCK

a beautiful environment with clear

To ensure the quality of Jinling Salted Duck, chefs would travel across the country to seek for Lao Lu (aged brine). Apart from the secret brine recipe, selection of ducks, their living environment, what food they eat, their growth period, butcher method, transport requirement, the weight of ducks, marinated method, first brine, second brine, clean brine, hang and air-dry, cooking method, cooking ingredients, braise or simmer method, how to present the dish, temperature and humidity requirement when processing, packaging, consuming time, etc. , all are strictly regulated to ensure fresh and tender taste of the duck. There is a formula saying: ‘Wipe the duck with cooked salt, double brine with clean brine, braise thoroughly; when it’s done, it shall be white skin, red meat with tender bones’.

SOURCING AND INSPECTION In order to produce quality Jinling Salted Duck, selecting ducks is significant. Ducks must be raised in

water and fresh air. There are also specific regulations on the raising process, time control and feed mixing. Traditionally, people like to use premium breed of Hushu shelduck, but because of unstable sourcing,

Jinling Restaurant prefers white ducks－offsprings of cornfed Cherry Valley Duck－from Nanjing, Husha and Gaochun. Cherry Valley Duck was first widely raised in China in 1991. It was the time when Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United King, visited China, Cherry Valley Duck was introduced to China. Funny enough, Cherry Valley Duck originates from Chinese breed ‘Beijing duck’.

In the 1950s, a British agriculturist Sir Joseph Nickerson conducted a long-term experiment of scientific breeding, and finally cultivated the well-known lean duck species and then reintroduced to China from the UK. This duck breed has many advantages, such as growing fast, high percentage of lean meat, fresh

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

and tender texture, low fat, and stable supply. Apart from choosing the right duck breed, selecting individual duck requires high standard too-body weight of the duck shall remain around 2kg, 100g more or less is ok; no broken skin, no bruise, no wounds, no speckles, no plumelet; tender beak, pointed and soft keel are required.

PRIMARY PROCESSING Rinse the duck thoroughly, soak it in cold water(15℃) for an hour to get rid of any impurities.

MARINATING Mix and stir-fry 150g salt with 20 Sichuan peppercorn. Add 50g mixed Sichuan peppercorn salt via wing cut, shake well. Wipe the duck with 50g mixed Sichuan peppercorn salt, add

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another 50g via neck cut and beak.

Make sure the duck legs and breast are dry, place the whole duck into a container, let the duck marinate for three hours in room temperature (10℃～20℃).

PRE-COOKING STORAGE

BRINE

COOKING

Pat dry the salted duck and soak it in Lao Lu(traditional aged-brine) for another 3 hours at temperature０℃～ ５℃, the proportion of clean brine to duck is 2:1.

Soak the salted duck in clear cold water for 30 minutes so as to get rid of unnecessary salt and impurities, this step would help the duck meat get whiter after cooked. Bring the salted duck in boiling water, when it boils again, skim floating foams, add

AIR－DRY Hang the marinated duck via neck with stainless steel hook to the stand, freeze them at temperature ０℃～ ５℃. Air-dry for 36 hours to evaporate the moisture. This step helps tighten the duck fat and keep the meat‘s resilience and fragrance.

Store the twice-marinated duck in a freezer(０℃～５℃) for 24 hours for better flavoured.

COOKING INGREDIENTS Every 20 salted duck shall consume 75kg water, 500g yellow wine, 50g Sichuan peppercorn, 50g star anise, 250g ginger and 250g scallion.

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

yellow, wine, Sichuan peppercorn, star anise, scallion, ginger, and simmer with a cover over low heat(92℃) for 20 minutes. Carefully lift the duck out of the water, and drain the cavity’s brine to the previous marinate container. Lower it back into the container again, when the cavity is full of brine again, bring the duck to the previous boiling water, simmer it over low heat (92℃)for another 25 minutes.

These steps ensure the duck muscle keeps enough sauce and helps to maintain the fragrance.

STORAGE Not-to-be-eaten but cooked salted duck can be stored in a large tray, cover it with wet sterile gauze to avoid sauce and water evaporating. It can be stored up to 10 hours. Remember not to store in refrigerators.

PACKAGING Skilled workers need to clean knives and hands before processing. Every plate (200g) shall have 50g sauce, which is the soup previously boiled the duck, every 500g soup needs to add 5g gourmet powder.

CLEANING BRINE Marinating salted duck needs ‘Lao Lu’, the aged old brine, brine sauce.

The recipe and storage of ‘Lao Lu’ are particular.

New brine method: Bring 50kg water mixed with 30-40kg salt to boil, simmer and remove floating foams.

Add the pouch packed with 500g ginger, 500g scallion, 50g star anise, 80g Sichuan peppercorn. Filter the mixture(after marinating the duck, it would leave mixed sauce of brine and duck blood) with gauze, pour it into a jar with salt.

The so-called Lao Lu, aged old brine, needs to constantly add salt, scallion,

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

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ingredients need to be wrapped with gauze, no still water shall be added.

In this case, Lao Lu could keep its longlasting fragrance.

star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, from time to time, year by year, till the soluble substance of the duck solve gradually in the marinated sauce, then it would finally become the ‘Hundred Years Lao Lu’ with unique fragrance and taste. To maintain the quality brine, it shall be clean it through

cooking the brine with duck blood, then it will keep clear and not turn red. Balancing the salt proportion is important as well. Change spice pouch from time to time, every pouch using for 100kg brine shall contain: 50g Sichuan peppercorn, 500g ginger, 1kg scallion, 50g star anise, 20g clove. All

Jinling/Nanjing Salted Duck is always served cold, so it shall be processed under 100℃. It tastes best as soon as it’s cooked, but nowadays some people suggests heat it before served.

Previously we mentioned about twice-brine process, and Nanjing’s temperature varies according to seasons, so twice-brine time varies too, say when it’s sunny, or cloudy, or rainy, the environment would have different impacts on the permeate pressure of the salt. Therefore, marinating or twice-brining the duck’s time changes according to seasons, humidity, duck’s breed, its weight, its amount and etc. Adjusting salty taste and marinated time depends on processing environment, facility, scientific control parameter and experience.

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

DUCK IN 72 WAYS

CRISPY DUCK STUFFED WITH SOUP

Cooking method 1. Soak in water for 24 hours to get rid of blood and impurities

Ingredients: 2-2.1kg Cherry duck, accompanied with celery, carrot, scallion, garlic, gingko, tsaoko, star anise, cinnamon, etc.

Feature Crispy duck skin, rich brine sauce, crispy outside and juicy inside, tender texture.

2. Marinated the duck with vegetables and spices overnight 3. Sew the cutouts to avoid evaporation 4. Roast the duck over wood for two hours 5. Keep it in constant temperature

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

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ZHEN BAO FANG MARINATED DUCK HEA Ingredients 10 big duck heads, 30g scallion, 20g ginger, 5g bay leaves, 5g star anise, 10g dried mandarin peel, 5g nutmeg, 3g cinnamon, 2 tsaoko Seasonings 10g Hoi-sin sauce, 8g oyster sauce, 10g fermented red beancurd sauce, 50g sugar, 30g dark soy sauce, 20g white wine, 10g Hua Diao wine, 5g white peppercorn powder, 5g refine salt, 5g gourmet powder, 200g water.

Cooking method 1. Rinse the duck heads to get rid of blood and impurities, heat the pot or deep pan with oil, submerge the duck heads into oil and lift them to drain.

2. Leave fair amount of oil to pan fry the vegetables, add ingredients and seasonings, and then add the duck heads.

WHIPPING CRISPY DUCK Main ingredients Duck breast, lotus rhizome, pork belly, wormwood, taro, preserved dried radish

Cooking Method 1. Chop duck breast, pork belly, lotus rhizome to mince, mix with salt, chicken powder, glutinous rice flour to make a mince paste 2. Shred washed and peeled taro, fry it till it gets a golden colour, dice wormwood and preserved dried radish, fry them with taro slices, add salt, and then place them in a plate 3. Pan fry minced paste into little round cake till it gets a golden colour, then place them on cooked taro 4. Mix soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Maggi seasoning, mustard paste, salt, chicken powder and sugar to make a special dressing, serve it in a little plate accompanied the taro cake.

3. Braise all the materials for 30 minutes over low heat, toss the heads and braise for another hour to let materials absorb the sauces, served cold.

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

DUCK BLOOD & VERMICELLI SOUP Green coriander, red spicy oil, tender bean curd with duck blood, bouncy vermicelli… A bowl of bean curd with duck blood and vermicelli soup is not just tasty but also full of Chinese culture and tradition. The origin of this soup dish could trace back to Zhenjiang （a city in Jiangsu Province） , but it became popular in Nanjing. Cooking this soup needs some particular recipes and quality materials, as well as dozens of steps.

It is most people’s favourite due to its freshness and delicacy.

BEER DUCK Introduction Choose one-year old freerange farm duck, braise with homemade beer and other sorts of ingredients.

Feature Freshly brown meat with great fragrance.

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

STEW FISH WITH WENWU DUCK Ingredients Half roasted duck (200g), half salted duck (200g), 150g ham, 150g vegetable, 10 pieces wormgrass, 10 duck tongues, 400g duck intestine, 10 broth-stewed abalone, 10 crispy duck cakes.

Seasonings 800g broth, 7g salt, 30 peppercorn, 10 sliced ginger, 5g gourmet powder

Cooking method 1. Shred salted duck and roasted duck around 8 cm long.

2. Shred ham into similar shape.

3. Boil duck tongues and duck intestine to get rid of blood smell, remove the bones of duck tongues.

4. Wrap one shredded roasted duck,

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one shredded salted duck, one duck tongue, one shredded ham with one duck intestine, do the same with the rest.

5. Boil and clean the wrapping ones to get rid of blood smell, place them into stewing pot, add fish, peppercorn, ginger, wormgrass and broth, steam it for one and half an hour.

6. Remove ginger, add boiled vegetables and duck cakes.

Feature Light and refreshing broth with great fragrance, delicious and nutritious.

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Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

Ingredients

Cooking method

30-40 duck intestine ďźˆend of the intestine, only the white part ,2 chicken fillets, 20g bamboo shoots, 6g mushroom, 1 egg white, 1g salt, 10g cooking wine, 1g gourmet powder, 15g cornstarch paste, 250g duck oil, 50g chicken soup

Bring duck intestine to boiling water for ten seconds and then cool it down in cold water, remove fascia, shred chicken fillets and stuff it inside duck intestine. Mix and stir well one egg white with 5g cornstarch paste, mix well, slice bamboo shoots and mushroom into pieces that slightly smaller than the duck intestine. Mix salt, cooking wine, gourmet powder, chicken broth and cornstarch paste to create sauce.

Feature Freshly white meat tastes tender and juicy with crispy texture.

Heat the pan, add 250g duck oil, bring it to 40% boil, stir-fry duck intestine, chicken fillet, bamboo shoots, mushroom. When chicken fillet turns white, dish it up and drain the oil. Bring the pan to heat again, add a little duck oil and slightly fry the scallion. Add chicken fillet and duck intestine, plus other ingredients. Pour the prepared sauce, stir-fry it well, add a little cooked duck oil then dish it up.

Eating Duck Culture in Jinling

WHITE BEAUTY

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No Cattail No Banquet

No Cattail No Banquet

NO CATTAIL NO BANQUET

“Cattail shoots tastes best in the world, nowhere to be found but here”. This is a popular focal song in Huaiyang area, Jiangsu Province. Cattail shoot has a beautiful story, which happened at South Song Dynasty. At the 5th year of anti-Jin warfare, grain supply nearly ran out. General Liang Hongyu accidentally discovered that horse ate cattail shoots, so she knew that people could eat cattail shoots instead of grains. Because of cattail shoots, it solved the crisis of food shortage. As a result, people nicknamed cattail shoots as ‘anti-Jin vegetable’. ‘Tianfei Temple’ stands in the south-west Huai’an, that area is a great fertile ground for cattail shoots.

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No Cattail No Banquet

HOW TO SELECT GOOD CATTAIL SHOOTS Good quality cattail shoot has a much higher price than the low-quality ones. Premium cattail shoot has refined veins, with pure white colour and delicate texture, and it tastes refreshing and sweet; while common cattail shoot is in a yellowish colour,

HARVESTING CATTAIL SHOOTS Tian Fei Temple’s cattail shoot is treasured as much as many other gems; it is so famous that it became the king dish of New China. At the banquet of the founding ceremony, Tian Fei Temple Cattail Shoots was

rough veins and tastes dried. So the taste of good and bad ones is rather varied.

FEATURE OF TIAN FEI TEMPLE CATTAIL SHOOTS The best cattail shoot grows in Huai’an, around Tianfei Temple, as

titled as “the best bamboo shoot”.

Wang Yan has been harvesting cattail shoots for 52 years as a professional.

According to Wang, Tian Fei Temple cattail shoot is unique due to the thick and soft slit it grows in. Cattail shoot starts to be sold in April and ends in September. Not many could taste the authentic Tian Fei Temple’s cattail shoots. “Only 15 kg cattail shoots

premium cattail grows in a beautiful lake there. Every year, it produces 1500-2000 kg cattail shoots. Tian Fei Temple’s lake has a premium quality of crystal clear water with thick and fertile silt at the bottom, so cattail grows best due to its naturally pleasant environment. Tian Fei Temple’s cattail shoot has a beautiful white colour, with clean and delicate veins, and it tastes smooth and refreshing, it also contains excellent nutrition.

could be collected per day, and they are all shipped to 3-4 certain high-end restaurants. The retail price of cattail shoots is 60 yuan per kilo; but if you want to taste it at Spring Festival time, it would be much more expensive, it costs 500-1000 yuan per kilo, as that time is cattail’s germination period.”

Reaping cattail shoots is not as easy

No Cattail No Banquet

as we imagine. Wang Yan brought a grine stone to sharpen his knife, and carefully hold it with his teeth. He took off the clothes, wearing only short pants, and plunged into the lake. A full cattail can grow very tall; it might surpass the water level with almost 2 metres. But for cooking and eating, only the underwater fresh root could be used. Wang swam towards the freshly grown cattail, grasping one root with one hand, using the other hand holding the knife to cut off the underwater stem. Wang said, reaping

cattail shoots needs great skill, one needs to grasp the root and slice it levelly under the silt. Only this way could keep the best part of the root, without affecting the next season growth.

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No Cattail No Banquet

HOMEMADE TASTE

“Cattail shoots and tofu soup, clear and refreshing, healthy and never boring.” That’s how Huai’an people describe cattail shoots. They have their unique ways of cooking it, e.g. boil it and serve cold, or braise it, or make it soup, or fry it with meat mall, or cook it with tofu and dried shrimp to make it into soup, each method can bring a unique flavour of cattail shoots. According to Wang, finely selected cattail shoots could become all sorts of delicacy either in stir-fry, braise, stew, steam, mix, etc.

Tips: Cattail shoot has a very light taste, cooking it with lard can bring extra fragrance, but other oil is fine as well.

No Cattail No Banquet

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STIR-FRY CATTAIL SHOOTS

CATTAIL SHOOTS WITH CHICKEN GRAVY

CATTAIL SHOOTS WITH DRIED SHRIMP

Cooking method

Ingredients

Ingredients

1. Chop cattail shoots into pieces;

500g Cattail shoots

600g Cattail

2. Add a few pieces of green or red peppers;

Seasonings

Seasonings

3. Stir-fry them all. (salty and refreshing)

20g refined salt, 10g gourmet powder, 10 ginger slices, 1250g chicken broth, 100g lard

1 scallion, 2 ginger slices, 500ml chicken broth, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch paste, 1 teaspoon of salt, 50g dried and shelled shrimp, 50g lard

Cooking method 1. Shred cattail shoots into 15cm’s long, boil in chicken broth, when it’s 60% well, lift them and drain; 2. Heat a pan with lard, add cattail shoots and stir fry with ginger.

Add chicken broth, salt and gourmet powder, dish up when cattail shoots turn soft; 3. Decorate the dish with goji berries.

Feature Refreshing and tender in white colour.

Cooking method 1. Wash cattail shoots, cut the top, leave 10cm to the bottom, and then shred them; 2. Shred scallion, slice ginger, soak dried and shelled shrimps in warm water, drain after they turn soft ; 3. Heat a pan and add lard, when it’s 60% well, add shredded scallion and ginger slices. Stir-fry well.

4. Add cattail shoots and soft dried shrimp, saute them and then add chicken broth, salt, boil till all the cattail shoots are soft, dish up and place cooked shrimp on top of cattail shoots; 5. Continue to boil the broth, add cornstarch paste. When the gravy is ready, pour over the cattail shoots.

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When Shanghai Meets Chongqing

WHEN SHANGHAI MEETS CHONGMING Xu Bin is the head chef at Pin Yue Restaurant in Shanghai’s Jin Mao Kai Yue Hotel （Chongming area） .

Food has always been something surrounding him since young.

Chongming has a great variety of food, so it is always described as ‘Land of Honey and Milk”. Xu is fascinated in developing local dish with creative methods to interpret a different ‘Chongming’ menu, in other words, to have his own ‘Chongming’ taste. Pin Yue Chinese Restaurant’s dishes are usually combined with Shanghai cuisine and Chongming organic seasonal food, tasty and healthy.

For example, the signature stew with Iberico and abalone, using the famous local breed Iberico; while Chongming Shredded Lam is using local-breed white goat; Chongming cake, dwarf spinach, Chongming rice wine, white Hyacinth bean, pumpkin slice, etc. Pin Yue always chooses local materials to prepare particular Shanghai dish.

When Shanghai Meets Chongqing

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HAND-PEELED YANGZI RIVER SHRIMP Feature Pick the freshest Yangzi River shrimp of the day from Chongming fish market, every shrimp needs to be peeled by hand, and usually, one kilo shrimp could only produce less than 200g pure shrimp meat. This tradition method preserves the freshest and sweetest taste and original texture of shrimps.

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When Shanghai Meets Chongqing

SIGNATURE DISH TRADITIONAL SHANGHAI SMOKED FISH Feature The traditional served-cold dish is not used here. Instead, they pick Chongming’s local fresh carp to prepare hot dish rather than serving cold, frying it to maintain its original taste to the greatest extent, in this case, it shall keep the crispy texture of smoked fish, but also remain tender and juicy inside.

ORGANIC CHONGMING RICE CAKE This is a slightly twist to the traditional Chongming cake. They choose organic sweet potato and pumpkin and local-produced glutinous powder, without any other ingredients, this rice cake keeps sweet potato and pumpkin’s natural sweetness and great fragrance, the glutinous taste is special but not sticky at all.

When Shanghai Meets Chongqing

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CHONGMING ALFALFA Alfalfa is Chongming’s local speciality, which helps to reduce blood fat and blood pressure. This dish chooses local-produced Alfalfa, from organic green to dried ones by the help with great sunshine that stimulates a unique natural taste. Soft dried Alfalfa is mixed with freshly crispy dried bamboo shoots, serving with sesame’s aromatic flavour, the great fragrance and taste immediately spread over the tongue.

CHONGMINGSTYLE BOILED PIG CHEEK’S MEAT Free range Iberian pig’s cheek meat is chosen, with chef’s great skill, all are cut into slices with a most appropriate thickness that brings deliciously fatty taste but not greasy at all. Accompanied with Pin Yue’s special-made sauce, it takes the meat to another level of fragrance. Its full flavour attempts people to have more, while the flower-shape ginger pickles are placed aside, being a plate decoration as well as a delight food to get.

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The Healthy ‘Black’

The Healthy ‘Black’

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Green vegetables have always been regarded as most healthy food. But more and more people have found out the healthy ‘black coloured food’, including chefs and healthy food lovers. In this issue, we are going to introduce the healthy ‘black’. Modern nutrition refers that black food has a great variety of nutrition, it can improve kidney’s function, anti-aging, life-lengthening, prevent diseases, and help healthy skin and hair. Many researches have proved that black food is very healthy due to its affluent nutrition, vitamin, trace element and procyanidin.

THE HEALTHY

BLACK

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The Healthy ‘Black’

NATURAL BLACK As the name suggests, natural black refers to those foods’ original colour is black without any processed, for example, black bean, black rice, black date, etc. Each type of natural black food has its unique function.

HERBAL BLACK Herbal black refers to non-black-coloured food that turns black by the help with processing with herbal. Oriental blueberry leaf, ‘Nan Zhu’ leaves, is worth mentioning. Food immersed in Oriental blueberry leaf dressing could become ‘black food’, and surprisingly, the colour would not run out even wash or scratch it.

Wu Fan tree is also called Nan Zhu, (in English, it is a type of oriental blueberry), people use its leaves to make “Wu Fan” (black rice) every lunar date April 8th, so it is called Wu Fan (Wu means black, Fan means rice). Wu Fan tree loves the sunshine and are drought-enduring, cold-resistant, so they are widely grown in the south of Yangtze River. It’s recorded that its leaves ‘is good for stomach and bones’, regularly eating could improve blood circulation, prevent stroke and anti-aging.

In the past, Nan Jing’s Maqun area grew a lot of these trees, but now it’s rarely seen. Somehow, there are still a few could be found in Jiang Ning area. The juice of the leaves is red, darker than hawthorn juice. Concentration needs special attention, people always use extra-large ‘tube’for testing concentration. Concentration is usually set as 16%-20%, but different vegetables need different concentration, immersing time is different too.

BLACK OFFICIAL BANQUET MADE FROM NAN ZHU LEAVES There is an official banquet in Republic of China called Black Official Banquet(Hei Guan Yan), which are made from blueberry leaves. Using blueberry leaves to prepare dish provides great nutritions. However, the making of Black Official Banquet is nearly lost to the world. For one reason, not many people know about it; and furthermore, lesser people know the greatness of black food. Old Nan Jing

The Healthy ‘Black’

people knows that on Lunar date 8th April, people need to eat ‘black rice’. The authentic ‘black rice’ is made from oriental blueberry leaves. People smash the leaves and let the juicy merge glutinous rice, after nine times evaporation and steaming could make the authentic ‘Wu Fan’.

BLACK OFFICIAL BANQUET Black Official Banquet, as its name suggests, is a banquet full of black food and served to officers. But here, black food is not about naturally black coloured food, but the processed black food, made from oriental blueberry leaves. But how does Black Official Banquet come from?

In 1928, the famous long-life old man Huang Wanjin’s cousin Li Fuquan ran a restaurant called ‘Double Phoenix’, which is specialised in black food. At that time, it is the only restaurant that produced black food. Due to black food’s nutrition, the restaurant is very popular and visited by many. Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, loved black food. After she tasted at ‘Double Phoenix’, she always came to dine there. At that time, many Kuomingtang’s important officers, such as Lin Sen, Yu Youren, Dai Jitao, Zhang Qun, Chen Lifu, Chen Guofu, often dined at ‘Double Phoenix’ for the famous

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black banquet. As a result, people called this black food banquet as ‘Official Banquet’.

In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War began. Staffs from ‘Double Pheonix’ moved to Suzhou, Nanxun, Huzhou and other places with the army hospitals to provide

catering service for officers and soldiers. After Nan Jing was fallen, staffs were severely hurt, survivals escaped to other places across the nation. As a result, ‘Black Official Banquet’ failed to be handed down from the past generations. To restore the recipe, Huang Jinwan selffunded to purchase ingredients and tried to retrieve the memories of cooking. After several years experiment, the recipe which has been lost for 70 years is finally re-introduced to the public. In 2010. Huang Wanjin was awarded the property right from National Intellectual Property Right of China for his ‘black herbal processed food’.

Tips: Oriental Blueberry Leaf, Nan Zhu Leaves

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The Healthy ‘Black’

CHANGSHA HIGHSTREET BLACK OFFICIAL BANQUET Wei Yu Tang Restaurant in Changsha, Hu Nan, introduced black food to the public.

BETTER THAN “BEAR PAWS”

Rich in collagen and good for skin, this dish, “Better than Bear Paws” is actually stewed pork trotter soup.

The colour of the soup is white, but the pork trotter is special made in black, so it looks very like bear paws, and that’s how the dish name come from.

Cooking method 1. Immerse pork trotter in blueberry leaves juice for 48 hours till it turns black.

2. Add lard, red chilli, bamboo shoots and soy sauce.

3. Add garlic, stir-fry with marinated pork trotter, braise it for a while.

4. Dish up and decorated with green and red peppers.

The Healthy ‘Black’

WEI YU-STYLE BLACK RICE Wu Fan is also called ‘black rice’, is a popular local food in Jiangnan area .

‘Black rice’ can be made from Oriental blueberry leaves. Oriental blueberry leaves can make it into teas as well.

Cooking method 1. Wash and rinse raw rice, pour oriental blueberry juice into the rice.

2. Cook it with water in normal proportion.

WOO LONG CHICKEN FEET Cooking method Marinate the chicken feet with oriental blueberry juice for 24 hours.

GRIDDLE COOKED BLACK DUCK WINGS Cooking method Marinate duck wings with oriental blueberry juice for 24 hours, then griddle cook them.

STEAMED BLACK CORN BREAD Cooking method Black corned bread is made from a high concentration of oriental blueberry juice. Add juice into corn flour or plain flour and then make it into steamed bread.

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VOL.003 March 2017

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金陵人

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当上海菜系 碰撞明崇特色

黑色美食的食“色” 养生之道

SCAN WITH WECHAT FOR GUIDE

Home Serial Number: CN32-1379/TS International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): ISSN 1005-0345 PRICE: ￡3 Postal code for distribution: 28-169

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