Text by Guo Dan Translation by Leo Illustration by Nan Fang

Delicacies in Chinese Classics

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Leo Illustration by Nan Fang

The extravagant of dining in A Dream of Red Mansions, a masterpiece of Chinese literature, is indeed peerless by both ancient and modern standards, yet the sons and daughters of the rich families took on too much reservedness and nobility at the dinner table. For example, they would eat delicacies like crab and grilled venison with the elegance of a fi ne lady, without losing a hint of their table manners. For them, eating is simply another excuse to attend to their ref i ned taste of making poems. No wonder an eggplant was cooked with a dozen chickens.

In contrast, The Plum in the Golden Vase or Jin Ping Mei, another masterpiece of Chinese literature, gives a most frequent account of such dishes as cooked goose, roasted duck, pig's trotters, pork ribs and fresh fi sh. These are marketplace and mundane eating that sound so familiar to readers. As a saying goes, “It takes the efforts of three rich generations to know how to properly dress and eat.” As a noveau riche, Ximen Qing (the male protagonist of the novel Jin Ping Mei) is by no means as particular about what to eat as Jia Baoyu (the male protagonist of the novel A Dream of Red Mansions).For example, Ximen Qing arranged a banquet when a friend by the name of Ying visited him. The banquet started with four saucers of hors d'oeuvres, which were followed by four dishes in the fi rst course - namely, red duck eggs, crescent-shaped golden prawns with julienned cucumber, fragrant deep-fried pork bones and plump dry-steamed chicken. The second course also consisted of four dishes: a steamed and roasted duck, jellied pig's trotters, plain deep-f i red pork and quick-fried pork kidneys. After that, a whole bright-red steamed pickled reeves shad was served in a porcelain platter decorated with blue and white patterns both inside and out. With a bewitching aroma, the fi sh melted in the mouth. Even its bones were fragrant. Ximen Qing poured lotus wine to wineglasses in the shape of little golden chrysanthemum blossoms as they enjoyed their repast.

Such common dishes as duck eggs, shrimps, pork ribs and roasted chicken are found on the tables of common folk, no matter how poor they are, upon the Chinese New Year or other festivals. The banquet of Ximen Qing represents the most authentic mundane tastes. While the dish of “quickfried pork kidneys” never even appears on the menu for the girl-servants living in the Grand View Garden, a large landscaped interior garden in A Dream of Red Mansions, the entrails are among the favourites of ordinary folk. The most precious dish in the said banquet is the pickled reeves shad. Given two reeves shads by his host, Ying was reluctant to eat them all in one meal. Thus he sent one to his brother and the middle section of the other one to his daughter, while leaving the rest for himself. His own portion was cut into small pieces and stored in an earthen jar, only one or two pieces to be steamed and eaten while guests visited. To our surprise, such precious shads were always available at Ximen Qing's residence. Even after hundreds of years, such a menu still renders much familiarity and stimulates one's appetite.

Kallen Guo Senior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author, authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.郭丹資深影視人、名媛、暢銷書作家。代表作包括最佳外語小說獎獲得作品《別愛蘇黎世》等。