Chapter 64 Nanyue Vegetarian Feast

There are seventy-two peaks in Nanyue, and the forty-four peaks are in Nanyue District. There are dense temples, Taoist temples, monks and pilgrims.According to statistics, in 1949, there were 124 large and small Buddhist temples and 24 Taoist temples in Nanyue.After more than 60 years of development and prosperity, the number of temples in Nanyue has increased unabated.In recent years, the temple has developed rapidly and its reputation has spread far and wide. Nanyue Hengshan is a famous Buddhist and Taoist resort in my country, with many temples, each temple is good at making vegetarian feasts, and has a long-standing reputation among pilgrims.There are many tourists who pay homage to Nanyue Mountain, especially the pilgrims from South China, Hong Kong and Macao. They come to Hengshan from thousands of miles away.In order to meet the needs of diners, Nanyue people and monks in Nanyue temples began to study vegetarian food, make vegetarian food and fast meals.All pilgrims and tourists on Mount Heng must fast for three days in order to offer incense and make a wish. They cannot eat meat and fish, so they have to fast to satisfy their hunger.In order to meet the needs of diners, all the jungles, restaurants, hotels, and inns in Nanyue Ancient Town invite chefs who are good at making vegetarian meals, using eggplants, beans, flour, lilies, strawberries, lotus roots, radishes, melons, and vegetables as raw materials. Imitating the shape and taste of chicken, fish, meat, and eggs, it is made into various dishes, which have the same name and shape as meat food, and the taste is not bad. They are even made into banquets for guests.The Nanyue Vegetarian Banquet uses the best local vegetarian ingredients in Nanyue. It is exquisitely crafted, and the taste is fragrant and tender, and the umami taste is simple and charming, which is inferior to meat dishes.

In order to commemorate the great monk Huai Su in the Tang Dynasty, the ancestors of Nanyue specially made a seven-story vegetarian dish to commemorate him.With the passage of time, vegetarian food in Nanyue has continued to develop and grow, and the ingredients and production have been continuously excavated, and the unique vegetarian feast of Nanyue has gradually been born.Monks and pilgrims traveling from north to south came to Hengshan to burn incense, make friends, make vows, and fulfill vows. In order to show their piety, they practiced strict fasting. They could only eat vegetarian fasts and abide by the precepts.When encountering a big wedding banquet with local relatives and friends, pilgrims can only eat fast to survive.The master showed respect to the monks and pilgrims, and let them eat the seven-story pagoda. This custom gradually formed in Nanyue and became a local religious belief.

In the history of Nanyue, there are two ancient people who made important contributions to vegetarian food and fasting. One is Wang Fuzhi, a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty. Bamboo shoots, wild goose mushrooms and other mountain delicacies are his home-cooked dishes and nutritious meals. He has explored in picking and tasting; one is Peng Yulin, the leader of the Wanqing Hunan Army, who is influenced by Hengshan Buddhism and loves vegetarian food. After making his fortune, the signature dish for serving guests is the seven-story pagoda. He transformed the seven-story pagoda, adding ingredients such as kidney flower, pot roasted balls, yellow sparrow meat, fish balls, egg rolls, etc., to form the Pengban seven-story pagoda. People call it Yulin Xiangyao, Pagoda Xiangyao, Guanduizi Xiangyao, shaped like a pagoda, implying climbing higher step by step.

"Nanyue Chronicles" records: Nanyue vegetarian food has a history of 600 years. It is a delicacy for Nanyue monks to receive pilgrims and laymen. It is delicious in color and rich in nutritional value.They use gray noodles, beans, and vegetables as raw materials to make all kinds of delicacies, which are light and refreshing, bright in color, exquisite in shape, fine in craftsmanship, and complete in color, fragrance, and shape.They also gave some meaningful names to vegetarian dishes, which is infinitely imaginative.I have traveled to Lifo in Hengshan many times, and enjoyed vegetarian meals countless times, which left me with endless aftertaste and deep impression.

There are ten kinds of banquets in Nanyue, such as one-pinxiang, two-degree plum, three-flavored soup, four-season green, five-lantern show, six-story building, eight bowls, nine ruyis, and ten sceneries.Yipinxiang refers to a single plate of vegetarian dishes; Erdumei refers to moldy beans and fermented bean curd; Sanxiantang refers to three kinds of seasonal vegetables for soup; Sijiqing refers to four kinds of green vegetables; Wudenghui refers to five kinds of stews; Liuzilian refers to roasted eggplant and fried bamboo shoots stewed mushrooms, spicy oil, dried bean curd, lotus root meatballs; the seven-story building is stacked with fake meat, meatballs, steamed buns, sub-gluten, cabbage sum, magnolia slices, and shiitake mushrooms; ; Jiu Ruyi is a meal, with dishes according to the season and the number of guests, so that the guests can eat satisfactorily; there are two types of ten sceneries: one is ten sceneries vegetarian stew, which is called small ten sceneries, which is composed of magnolia slices, carrots, white radishes, Lily, cabbage heart, mushroom, water chestnut, potato, bean shoot skin, noodle dish tendon, etc. are stewed and braised.Magnolia slices, red and white radishes, water chestnuts, and potatoes are carved into various flower shapes; the other is a banquet made of ten kinds of big vegetables, called ten scenes, with pearl rice, fried chicken in oil, soybean shoots in oil, Xianglian in rock sugar, seven-story buildings, Eight-treasure rice, grilled mushroom soup and green vegetables are carefully prepared, sweet and sour, soft and crispy, and both water and land vegetarian dishes are available.

Nanyue Mountain has unique scenery, but also contains countless mountain treasures, which are the best ingredients for Nanyue Vegetarian Banquet. Nanyue Guanyin bamboo shoots are a unique delicacy of Nanyue. They are exquisitely prepared and can be fried, fried, pickled and boiled.The most distinctive Nanyue bamboo shoots are oily bamboo shoots. Fresh, tender and fat bamboo shoots are picked from the mountains, washed and boiled for a while, dried in the sun and soaked in tea oil for storage. The longer the time, the better the fragrance. It is very beautiful, the color is light and buttery, the meat is tender, crispy and refreshing, full of flavor, and it is delicious when eaten with a little salt and pepper.Salted bamboo shoots are another kind of bamboo shoot dish. The peeled small bamboo shoots are boiled in salt water, dried and steamed for several times, and then stored in an altar. It has a unique flavor when eaten.The weirdest thing is the bamboo shoots in a jar. As soon as the bamboo shoots break through the ground, they cover the shoots with a jar and press stones on them. When they are full of the jar, the new leaves stick out of the jar. A jar full of bamboo shoots.In order to preserve the delicious bamboo shoots, the monks boiled the bamboo shoots and mashed them into bamboo shoot paste, and then mixed them with ingredients to make bamboo shoots and bamboo shoots, which have a unique flavor and are extremely sour and tender.

Nanyue geese and goose fungus is a delicacy in the world.In the third and eighth month of the lunar calendar, wild geese fly back and forth over Hengshan Mountain. Men, women and children in Hengshan Mountain carry bamboo baskets on their backs to search for the freshly unearthed delicacy - goose fungus.Ansemania is light brown, shaped like an umbrella, as small as a copper coin, big as a vegetable bowl, with loose meat and fat, fragrant and sweet, fresh and delicious.After scalding water, make soup, stir-fry meat, all of them are suitable, and all of them are delicious.Fry fresh goose and goose fungus in tea oil, and store them together with tea oil in jars, called fungus oil.Drop a little on other dishes, the fragrance is tangy, cool and refreshing, and the spleen and stomach are widened.

Nanyue birthday cakes have been handed down for a long time. During Emperor Shun’s tour to the south, he tasted a delicacy called pea cakes in Hengshan. In order to express their loyalty, the leaders of various tribes named pea cakes Wanshou cakes.The pea cake has been passed down to this day and has become a special delicacy in Nanyue.When foreign pilgrims travel to Nanyue, they will definitely eat pea cakes.During the incense season or the fasting meeting, pilgrims compete to offer pea cakes to repay their wishes.This habit of making conventions has long been known far and wide, and has been passed on by pilgrims.The birthday cake is sweet but not greasy, fragrant and refreshing, suitable for all ages.

Nanyue Zhaixi, with a strong local flavor, is also the essence of Nanyue's religious food culture and the crystallization of Hengshan food for thousands of years.In recent years, with the increase of tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong, vegetarian banquets have become popular in temples. Shopkeepers and monks vary from person to person, making various new vegetarian dishes, ranging from spicy to light, sweet to salty. Nanyue Vegetarian Banquet is one of the few authentic vegetarian meals in China.The vegetarian patterns are simple and elegant, exquisite workmanship, which is loved by diners.Let experts and diners come here to discuss and research, and enjoy a taste.