Chapter 15 North and South Tanjia Cuisine

At the same time as Tan Yankai, a great gourmet in the Republic of China, there is also a surnamed Tan, who keeps his business in Beiping, and is famous all over the world. He has his own "Tan family cuisine".Tan Jiacai is a family banquet of Tan Zongjun, a bureaucrat in the late Qing Dynasty.In this way, Tan Yankai's Zu'an cuisine is also known as "South Tan".The two are also known as the two major official dishes in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In fact, it is Zhao Lifeng, the daughter-in-law of Tan Zongjun, who made the most of the fame of "Northern Tan Cuisine".This woman is the third concubine of Tan Zongjun's son Tan Zhuanqing. She is very studious and has superb cooking skills. She has adopted the characteristics of famous chefs from various schools in Beauna and created the housekeeping dish of "Beitan" - yellow braised shark's fin.Because of his culinary attainments, he was listed as one of the "Top Ten Famous Chefs in Chinese History" by later generations, and he was also called Chen Mapo, a contemporaneous culinary genius in the Republic of China.

The yellow braised shark's fin is a bit similar to the Zu'an shark's fin in "Nantan", but it has its own innovation and unique style. Braised shark's fin was airlifted from Beiping to eat. If you have to compare the "North and South Tan's Cuisine", objectively speaking, "Northern Tan" is better.Among other things, although "South Tan" has Tan Yankai's high status and fame all over the world, no matter whether he himself or his family members, there is no outstanding culinary figure like Zhao Lifeng in the "North Tan" family, which makes "South Tan" Innovation and sustained influence are discounted.Now that the "Tan Family Official Cuisine" of the "Northern Tan" branch has expanded across the country, with many branches opened, "South Tan" seems to be a bit weak in revival.

Comparing the dish of shark fin, which is famous in both Tans, the "Northern Tan" is richer in materials and techniques. "Beitan" yellow braised shark's fin is made of whole chicken and duck, scallops, cooked ham, etc., which are the basis of royal cuisine and Shandong cuisine.The techniques of Shandong cuisine are inherently stronger than those of Hunan cuisine, and the court cuisine of the Qing Dynasty largely relied on the skills of Shandong cuisine, which is also the foundation of Beijing cuisine now. "Nantan cuisine" may have added ham when it was developed in Nanjing, but there is no record after it arrived in Hunan. In this way, the thick and umami taste of the soup will definitely be inferior.

In this regard, I have a suggestion. In addition to pork knuckles, bacon or cured hooves should be added to the shark fin of "Nan Tan", because the method of bacon is somewhat similar to ham, and the aroma will be more unique. The above comparison does not mean that "Nan Tan" can only be regarded as second-rate in terms of cuisine. In fact, "Nan Tan cuisine" was strong and considered super first-class at the time. Representative dishes such as Zu'an spicy chicken, Zu'an soup soaked belly, An's braised bear's paw, Zu'an's fermented soybeans, etc., are all unique super delicacies.Its innovative ability is also very strong. For example, Tan Yankai has a very special way of "immortal fish soup" - first stew chicken soup in a casserole, hang a crucian carp on top of the chicken soup, seal the casserole with tin foil or kraft paper, and turn the fire to high Lower the heat and simmer for three to four hours, allowing the steam of the chicken soup to steam the crucian carp.After the crucian carp is steamed, it will slowly lose its bone and fall into the chicken soup until only the fish head and fish bones are left.Stew for another four to five hours to form a fish soup.This practice is amazing, but it is basically lost now.

North and South Tanjia dishes are very particular about the ingredients: cabbage before the frost, radish after the frost, winter bamboo shoots, spring buds, early leeks, late Song, ducks in autumn, and fish in winter.Song is also called cabbage, and all dishes belonging to the cabbage category are also called Song.Tan Yankai's food concept is the same as that of Confucius. Confucius once said "don't eat from time to time", translated into modern dialect, it means only eating "seasonal vegetables" and not eating out-of-season vegetables. Tan Yankai developed this particularity to the extreme: in order to make a fried cabbage heart with salted egg yolk, he had to take three loads of Chinese cabbage (Lan Song) harvested at night in advance, and take the tender heart from the side to burn, because the cabbage at night is very tender of.It is said that when this dish is made, the poor people around can pick up a lot of cabbage leaves from the garbage dump of Tan's family to eat.

In fact, the emphasis on materials is the characteristic of Hunan cuisine.Authentic Hunan cuisine pays attention to rice from Changsha, herring from Hengyang, Sima lotus root from Yongzhou, water shield from Changsha, cat bamboo shoots, whitebait from Miluo, mud frog from Jiangyong, duck in gray soup from Ningxiang. These special products have been recorded as early as Tang and Song Dynasties, and they are precious because of the right time and place.For example, Wang Kaiyun (Qi Baishi’s teacher) from the Qing Dynasty said that the gray soup duck is different because there are hot springs in the local area, and wild ducks come to spend the winter every winter, so domestic ducks and wild ducks have the opportunity to hybridize and produce different species.There is no marrow in the bones of ducks in other places, but the bone marrow of the gray soup duck is very high, so the deliciousness of the gray soup duck is natural, which is beyond the reach of human beings when cooking.

"Nantan cuisine" is very particular about the use of soup. It is often made of three-year-old hen without miscellaneous hair, Dongting Lake duck, pork knuckle and pig belly of piglets, and it is cooked with soup over a slow fire.Use chicken to enhance freshness, duck to increase fragrance, use belly to whiten, and elbow to remove stickiness. Tan Yankai particularly likes to eat dog meat, and it is said in history that Liu Bang also particularly likes to eat dog meat.Liu Bang's eating of dog meat created a famous dish in Jiangsu—Peigong dog meat. This dish is stewed with dog meat and soft-shelled turtle, and it is still a famous dish in Jiangsu.Coincidentally, Tan Yankai likes to eat dog meat and has created a famous Hunan dish - red stewed dog meat, because the main method in Hunan is to simmer.

"Simmering" is a major technique in Hunan cuisine.Water is used as the heat transfer medium, and after a certain period of time, the raw materials are soft and rotten. "Simmering" uses less water than "stewing", the water for "simmering" is just over the surface, and the height of "stewing" is five centimeters higher than the surface, and the production time of the former is shorter than that of the latter.Stewing is to drink soup, while simmering is not to drink soup. The practice of stewed dog meat is: chop the dog meat with skin into one-inch square meat pieces, and blanch them in water.Put the frying pan on high heat, add cooked lard and heat until 80% hot, add dog meat and stir-fry for three minutes, add cooking wine, soy sauce, and salt, continue to stir-fry to dry up the water, take a large earthenware bowl and use bamboo grates as the bottom , put in the dog meat, then add cinnamon bark, slices, angelica, green onion, ginger slices, red pepper, cold water, cover with a porcelain plate, first simmer over medium heat and then move to a small fire, simmer for two hours, then remove Cinnamon, green onion, ginger slices, red pepper, pour the dog meat into the frying pan, add MSG and boil.The color of this dish is crimson red, the meat is soft and the taste is spicy.For this reason, Tan Yankai once wrote a poem to praise: "The old man is having a dog banquet today. Unexpectedly, all the gentlemen came, the serving bowls fell from the top of the head, and the pot of wine was sifted to the ears."

In our hometown, adults would also cook dog meat for their children, especially in winter, one is to keep out the cold and the other is to avoid bedwetting.The method of this dog meat is similar to that of Hunan cuisine, because my hometown is now Youyang, Chongqing, which borders Hunan. Later, out of my love for food, I created a dish called Konjac Roasted Dog Meat based on Liu Bang’s favorite food of Peigong Dog Meat and Tan Yankai’s favorite food of Red Stewed Dog Meat. Ingredients, pickled peppers are added to the seasoning, and the taste is stronger than that of red stewed dog meat.If you have a chance, you can find some friends and have a drink together. It's a special taste.