Hengyang Cuisine

The Hengyang Cuisine

Alias Mount Longevity, Mount Heng (South Great Mountain), located at Hengyang City, the second-largest city in Hunan Province, is one of the five great mountains in China. With its advantaged geographical conditions, it is known as the mountain of longevity in China. As the saying goes, vegetarian diets make a longer life. In the ancient time, vegetarian dishes were an essential part of agricultural people’s daily life, especially for the Hengyang people, to whom plants are the main food materials. Hengyang people’s preference for vegetarian food is recorded in the “Records of South Great Mountain.”

In Hengyang, people name vegetarian dishes in a special way. The steaming sweet and sour pork In Hengyang, people name vegetarian dishes in a special way. The steaming sweet and sour pork made of pineapple and tofu is named by locals as Prajna Paramita. The vegetarian seafood dish made of konjac with the slightly fishy smell is called Steamed Sea Cucumber. And the sausage made of lotus root dices is named One Finger Zen, whose vivid shape makes it hard to tell whether it is real or not. Having a table of vegetarian dishes with an appealing smell and vivid colors is indeed a rare pleasure.

The “Unimaginable” Steamed Sliced Pork

At a birth or wedding feast in Hengyang, among all the dishes on the table, the middle one is the most important one, which is always steamed sliced pork. For Hengyang people, steamed sliced pork implies happiness, longevity and wealth. Its strong, appealing smell corresponds to the most sincere wishes from friends and relatives. At the most popular restaurants, steamed sliced pork is cooked in an unimaginable way. From its appearance, it’s hard to imagine that the glittering and translucent pork slices are, in fact, made of vegetables. The dish is named “Unimaginable,” because it would surprise anyone who has tasted it without knowing its true nature.

Among the eight widely-celebrated local odds, one is steamed sliced pork made of wax gourd, which is the famous delicacy mentioned above. The primary material for Unimaginable is the wax gourd. To cook the dish, ingredients matter a lot.

Gao Feng is a famous local chef. Having been engaged in cooking for 17 years in Hengyang, he is a veteran in selecting food materials. According to him, big and straight wax gourds with a growth period of over two months will have a soft mouthfeel and is the best material for the dish. After the material is selected, next, Gaofeng will perform the magic of turning wax gourd slices into pork slices. The first step is shaping the wax gourd. After cutting a piece of cambered wax gourd, peel it and cut crosswise it, which would give it the texture of the pork skin of steamed sliced pork. Cutting skills matter a lot for the dish. He must cut it uniformly.

Excellent steamed sliced pork with wax gourd not only is cut into exquisite shape but also has good taste and color. To give the dish a good taste, auxiliary materials of preserved vegetables, shiitakes, and fermented soya beans are necessary. Coloring the wax gourd is a key step for cooking the dish.

The name Unimaginable was derived from the Buddhist culture of Hengyang. After being introduced to Hengyang in the Southern Dynasty, Buddhism has been prevailing hitherto. With pilgrims and tourists coming around for its reputation, Hengyang has been a popular Buddhist pilgrimage. The reason for the exuberant vitality of Buddhism here is connected with Zhu Rong, the God of Fire, worshipped in the Zhurong Temple at the peak of Mount Heng. Zhu Rong, originally named Zhong Li, lived in Mount Heng according to “The Classic of the Mountains and Seas”. Legend has it that it was he who gave kindling to humans so that humans can eat cooked food.

Made of the wax gourd, the unimaginable steamed sliced pork will, naturally, have an incredible taste. It looks like meat, and it tastes like meat too, because the auxiliary food materials used are the same as those used in the real steamed sliced pork. It has the taste of the preserved vegetable and the fresh taste of the wax gourd, and it’s as chewy as meat. It’s a combination of various flavors. So there is no need for people to worry about getting weight while enjoying it.

Cooking procedures:

Pour soy on the wax gourd evenly, and then deep fry it after 5-7 minutes. Turn it over from time to time during frying so that the colors on both sides are consistent, and take it out when it is golden and has the texture of fat. Cut it into 5-cm-thick slices. Put wax gourd slices in a bowl, color it again, and then put fired preserved vegetables and shitakes on it. After a 15-minute-steaming in the steamer, the dish is well done. After placing the bowl upside down on a plate, to increase the strong mouthfeel, dress it with starch sauce.

The Magu Longevity Soup

Another widely known delicacy is the Magu Longevity Soup. In the early morning of the fair day, Gao Feng usually goes there where there are always better food materials. Lingzhi mushroom is a key material for cooking the dish of Magu Longevity Soup. Being called as elixir grass, Lingzhi has been applied as a medicine some one thousand years ago due to its anti-aging and anti-anaphylaxis functions. At the fair, there are various kinds of Lingzhi. The Lingzhi used in Magu Longevity Soup is the red Lingzhi. It has a growth period of 3-5 years. Eating Lingzhi will not increase weight. Instead, it can make people strong and sound.

In addition to Lingzhi, cooking Magu Longevity Soup still needs another 16 materials. To cook thick and delicious Magu Longevity Soup, Gao Feng is very careful about the process of stew and the selection of materials. Wolfberries, Chinese cabbages, and needle mushrooms are necessary. First, he stews the vegetarian soup stock with needle mushrooms, shiitakes, and fresh mushrooms. Stew it with low fire for a long time. It takes over 12 hours to stew the vegetarian soup stock. To maximize the effect of Lingzhi in the soup stock, it is needed to chop it into powder before putting it into the soup. This step is the biggest test for the cutting skills of a chef and requires years of practice. Lingzhi powder like this can be used to cook the soup.

After the vegetarian soup stock is stewed well, Gao Feng puts cooked corn into a mixer, mixing it uniformly with the soup stock, then heats the screened mixture to bring out a better taste, and then he puts wolfberries and fish slices into the soup as the last step. However, the fish slices are not made of real fishes. They are made of tofu and other materials. Gao Feng then starts to make vegetarian fish slices. A proper proportion of the ingredients is necessary. A wrong proportion will not lead to good fish slices. The proportion is three spoons of wheat flour, one spoon of starch, a half piece of tofu, some salt, some vegetarian fish flour, and a spoon of water.

Tofu is tender and smooth. It has a good mouthfeel. Adding the vegetarian fish flour is to give it the taste of fish. Such a mixture will create a tender and smooth mouthfeel. After being boiled in water, the grain of the fish meat will be very clear, and the gloss of fish meat will come out. They will look fresh fish slices. He usually boils the fish slices for 1 minute and takes them out. After being shorted boiled, they can be eaten. The surprise of vegetarian fish slices lies in not only its vivid appearance but also its taste which is very close to that of fishes.

In Hengyang, a legendary story about the delicacy of Magu Longevity Soup is widely circulated. The story goes that Magu was a maid of Lady Nanyue (South Great Mountain), the first female Taoist, and the founder of Shangqing School. Magu Longevity Soup was created by later generations in memory of Magu. Lady Nanyue had been practicing Taoism in South Great Mountain until her death at 83. According to legends, Magu had been following her and practicing Taoism in the South Great Mountain. They reclaimed vegetable fields, planted and ate Lingzhi, so both of them lived a long life. Lady Wei still looked like a 10-year girl at the age of 83. As for Magu, legends say that she once witnessed the process of the sea turning into fields (a Chinese myth). It indicates that she had lived a very long time. So, the later generations used the dish of Magu Longevity Soup to wish old people a long life.

Sweet Potato Slices

In Hengyang, villagers have the custom of making various vegetarian local products by themselves. One local product, a snack, can be seen on the Spring Festival dinner of every household. The must-have snack is sweet potato slices during the Spring Festival. In the village, sweet potatoes are planted by many households. After being cleaned and peeled, sweet potatoes are steamed over the oven for over 1 hour until they are very soft and then be mashed for further processing. Locals have a long history of eating sweet potatoes.

Processing mashed sweet potatoes into slices requires good skills. On a wooden board specially made, a piece of white gauze wetted with water is placed, and then mashed sweet potato is planed. The proper weight of a sheet is 0.1 kilogram. Planed sweet potato sheets must be dried under strong sunlight on baboon boards. Before this step, it is necessary to place a layer of needle leaves on the bamboo board to prevent sweet potato sheets from sticking to the board and getting deformed. Sweet potato sheets dried in the sun for a whole day will be cut into around 10-cm-long and 5-cm-wide rectangular pieces for convenient eating. The next step is to deep fry them until they are gold and crispy. Usually, people will put some sesames on sweet potato slices in the end.

On the Spring Festival’s Eve, each household will take out a wooden box specially made for containing local vegetarian products. Since it comprises nine cells, it is called a nine-cell-box. Traditionally, it would be passed from generation to generation. There are some rules to follow while putting food in the box. If the guests are the most respected ones, people will put the best food they cooked in the middle to show respect for guests.

The box’s name “nine-cell-box” has an implied meaning. At the Spring Festival, people will treat their guests with food contained in the box. The number “nine” implies a lot of money. For old guests, it means long life. More and more people believe that vegetarian diets are conducive to health and longevity.

Yanshou (longevity) Village is a small village lying at the hillside of Mount Heng. The name of the village is related to a widely circulated story. The name of Yanshou Village was derived from a pavilion in the village, called Yanshou Pavilion. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a salt trader named Yang Erchen. He came to South Great Mountain many times to spend the summer and pray for long life. And whenever he came here, he felt his body was healthier. In memory of his stay in the mountain, he built the Yanshou Pavilion. Legends say that he lived to 103. Now in Yanshou Village, many villagers like eating vegetarian dishes, so there are many long-lived people in the village.

The merits of vegetarian diets can be proved by the lasting beauty and longevity of Soong May-ling. During the time when she lived in Hengyang with Chiang Kai-shek, Soong May-ling had a fondness for vegetarian dishes, which benefited her a lot. She made a speech in the US in 1943 to promote the vegetarian dishes of China. It’s rumored that Soong May-ling’s long lifespan is connected with vegetarian dishes. She came to South Great Mountain 7 times and lived near a temple. She understood the scientific bases behind Buddhist diets, which influenced her later diet habits, making her healthy and long-lived.

Vegetarian Dishes in Temples

Influenced by the concept that many medicines come from food, people consider Mount Heng as a place for praying for health and longevity. Being connected to the old saying of “live as long as the South Mountain,” South Great Mountain has been attracting many people to pray for happiness and longevity. Except for the vivid vegetarian dishes in restaurants, those cooked in temples of Hengyang are also very popular.

In temples, vegetarian dishes are cooked more simply, but eaten in a more complicated way. Before dinner, it is required to recite Buddhist scriptures, and during the meal, wasting shall be avoided. Pilgrims say that vegetarian dishes in Fuyan Temple, the biggest local temple, taste best. Dayue is the abbot of the temple and is very proud of the temple’s vegetarian dishes. He often says that the secrets of the delicacy lie in the vegetable garden of the temple. The monks plant green vegetables there. In the mountain, the temperature difference between night and day is big, so there are fewer insects. They use organic fertilizer, i.e. the dung of bats, to fertilize the vegetables. The vegetables are very green, and they are watered with the mineral water from the mountain. The water is unpolluted, so the vegetables grow very well and taste very good.

In the garden, there are cabbages and vat for fermenting bat dung. The fresh green filling the garden tickle people’s appetite. The white radish is bigger than the average ones. They are about half a meter in length. The good taste of Hengyang’s vegetarian dishes partly benefits from advantageous local geographical conditions.

Summary

Through the ages, Hengyang’s vegetarian dishes have been handed down and innovated. Hengyang, with its reputation, has attracted countless tourists who have come here to pray for longevity. Unimaginable, Magu Longevity Soup and sweet potato slices, three representative local delicacies, not only bring to the Hengyang people a visual feast and gustatory enjoyment but also reflect the unique culture and sincere wishes of the people here.