Sea cucumber and Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant

Sea cucumber

Sea cucumber in the world has about 1,100 varieties and 40 varieties are edible. Modern science proves that sea cucumber is rich in various amino acids and vitamins necessary in the human body and has unique sea cucumbers acidic mucopolysaccharide and sea cucumber saponin.

Sea cucumber is an old and magical marine organism, and its history may be dated back to more than 600 million years. Chinese started to recognize the edible of sea cucumber since the Ming Dynasty. According to Grains and Crops Zu (五杂俎) written in the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty. Sea cucumber, living in the seashore of Liaodong (Dalian), is mildly nutritious and can be compared to ginseng (人参). So it is called sea cucumber (海参).

And according to Materia Madica of Food (食物本草) written in the late Ming Dynasty. "Sea cucumber, living in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, shaped like an insect, black color, is nutritious, and it is the most precious dish." It can be seen that during the late Ming Dynasty and the earth Qing Dynasty, sea cucumber was started to be regarded as a precious dish in the senior banquet.

We put the live sea cucumbers into the hot water of 50'C and then takes out a sea cucumber and slightly massages it, and then massage the sea cucumber, drag the sea cucumber careful and slowly. About 5min later, a sea cucumber, with a thickness of 3cm and a length of 8cm, after being stretches surprisingly becomes a 30cm-wide and 50cm-long film as thin as 0.003mm.

Then, in the sea cucumber, the colloid appears. If the sea cucumber as we have seen, is stretched so long and transparently, its collagen must be very rich.

And it's even more amazing is that when we put the sea cucumbers back to the hot water, it returns to its shape. The sea cucumber that has been stretched into a thin film is put into the hot water of 50'C, and it swiftly returns to its original shapes, that’s the magic effect of sea cucumber.

From Chinese traditional medicine, sea cucumber may nourish kidney and enrich Qi, and also nourish blood and benefit the marrow. So, at that time, sea cucumber has been used as precious medicine and food.

Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion 葱爆海参

Sea cucumbers always with a lot of sand and the strong fishy smell is not easy to cock. Though the sea cucumber is highly nutrient and very good for our health, its strong fishy smell makes it a challenge for chefs to cook it into a delicious dish. Until when people learned that they could stew it with the shallot, the Sea Cucumber Feast found its place on the menu. Chefs of Shandong cuisine are generally good at making sea cucumber, especially the typical Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion.

Braising with scallion is the unique cooking skill of Shandong Cuisine.

1. After cutting into sections, the excellent scallion is fried in an oil pot until it is golden yellow;

2, Subsequently, the prepared high-quality wild prickly sea cucumbers from Jiaodong Peninsular are braised with the scallion oil, and a layer of thick cooking liquor is poured into making the flavor of scallion and sauce penetrate the sea cucumbers;

The most famous restaurant for Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion is Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant. It is said that the annual sales volume of this dish may reach over millions.

(check the raw materials of Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion,  No.181 of 199 Chinese dishes)

Luan Pubao 栾铺包 and Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant 丰泽园

On the morning of August 15. 1930 (lunar calendar), the Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant, Shandong cuisine, opened in Beijing hosted by Luan Pubao.

Beijing, in Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties, the best place, where the emperor lives, attracted a significant number of high officials and nobles. Sichuan (deputy head of the legislative bureau) of Sichuan. Zhongtang (prime minister in feudal) of Shandong, Scholar in Jiangsu and members of the Imperial Academy of Guangdong, all settled in the capital, but they missed the taste of hometowns. So, the cuisines of the northern and southern China converged in the capital one after another. After the Song Dynasty, Shandong cuisine has become representative of north China's food. During the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, Shandong cuisine became the main imperial court foo. In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republican period, Shandong cuisine has taken the leading position of food in Beijing.

1, Luan Pubao 栾铺包, the founder

Luan Pubao, born in an impoverished family in Fushan, Shandong, and losing his father in his tender age, came Beijing all alone. Wishing to become a somebody. With the recommendation of his townsman, Luan Pubao luckily was employed by Xin Feng Lou Restaurant, one of the top eight restaurants of Beijing City, to do chores. By his smartness and efforts, Luan Pubao soon began to the Hall Manager.

He was very sociable and was admired by these people at that time - for example, Zhang Zudin 张作霖. Zhang, for some time, was the generalissimo of the Republic of China and called Luan brother intimately. Even the acting president of the Republic of China Li Zhongren 李宗仁 also had a very close relation with Luan. 

2, The name of Feng Ze Yuan 丰泽园

Feng Ze Yuan 丰泽园 was an imperial garden named by Emperor Kangxi (AD 1654 - 1722) for carrying out agriculture research and experiments, located in the Zhongnanhai. The word Feng 丰 means ample food and clothing. The Emperor hoped the people could have ample food and clothing. The word Ze 泽 means benefiting every people. (Yuan 园 is the garden.)

On a summer's morning of 1930, a group of men gathered at Feng Ze Yuan of Zhongnanhai, the head of whom was Luan Pubao, the former Hall Manager of Xin Feng Lou Restaurant.

One of the top 8 restaurants in Beijing city. They discussed establishing a hotel. They wanted to set up a restaurant, or a large restaurant. A proper name was under discussion; many people put forward their proposals. And all were with their reasons. Finally, an intellectual Li Qi, a well-educated scholar, said that "your ideas are all not good, we are now meeting at the Feng Ze Yuan. And it is an imperial garden where the emperor did the farm work. The name of this garden implies that the country would be prosperous and the people would live at peace. It is a symbol of harvest, and the grace of the emperor would be bestowed on his people. If we take the meaning, and name our new hotel as Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant. Isn't it more meaningful? Feng Ze Yuan means we are rich in a variety of cuisines, and the taste of our dishes is delicate".

So, Luan Pubao named his new restaurant as Feng Ze Yuan. And asked Li Qi to write the name on the signboard. On the Mid-Autumn Day of 1930, Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant opened the business. Luan led over 20 best chefs of Shandong Cuisines from Xin Feng Lou restaurant to the Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant. He is then specialized in serving Shandong Cuisine. The whole menu covers more than 300 dishes, including of ager, shark fin, shark lip, duck and fish.

3, Development of Feng Ze Yuan

Shandong Cuisine could be divided into three schools. One is Jiaodong school, whose specialty is seafood. The second is Jinan school, whose specialty island products, the last one is Qufu school, that is Confucius school, which is mainly featured with fitness and elegance. These schools held different stands and focused on one cuisine to launch their brand. Luan Pubao did not follow them.

He introduced the same mainstay as the most well-known eight restaurants of that time in Beijing. Poached Wang Shizhen, the mainstay of Taifeng Restaurant, Mou Changxun, the chef of Xin Feng Lou Restaurant. For the cuisines of the eight restaurants and the representative dishes of them. He poaches the chef of them, that's why the cuisines of Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant are so classic. They had various signature dishes.

They had various signatures dishes, like stewed sliced fish, stewed cuttlefish roe soup, chicken slice with egg-white, braised intestines in brown sauce, and hotchpotch. There are all its famous dishes.

Some eaters stress on the taste, some eaters stress on the atmosphere. Still, some think highly of the feeling, and others attach importance to the environment. For some eaters, the nice color, flavor, taste, appearance and dinnerware collocation must be all included. The customers’ cavil advanced Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant cuisine's grade and quality.

Luan Pubao, who was good at the restaurant business took the classical Jiaodong cuisine, Jinan cuisine and Confucius cuisine, which are all Shandong Cuisine, to the dinner table of Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant. This idea attracted many eaters, such as Chinese painting masters Qi Baishi 齐白石 and Zhang Daqian 张大千. There were many visitors, at that time, Mei Lanfang 梅兰芳 served in North China Theater. After his performance in the theater at night. He would come here to have a meal.

It was inheriting the tradition of typical ingredients and careful cooking procedure. Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant business became blooming. And socially distinguished personages came here continuous steam. At that time the most popular dishes among eaters was Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion.

Through the elaborate operation of Luan Pubao, Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant gradually developed into the biggest and most renowned restaurant of the time in Beijing.

(there is a Chinese teleplay to describe Luan Pubao's story, the name is "Legend of the shopkeeper 传奇大掌柜," the Youtube channel link: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIj4BzSwQ-_tRNPguMHZ3xGiulMIY_g3T

Wang Yijun 王义均 and Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion 葱爆海参

Wang Yijun, the master of Shandong cuisine, in the First Cuisine Contest of China, made the dish, Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion. And thus, won the first prize and was rated as one of the "top ten chefs", as the master of contemporary Shandong cuisine.

Wang Yijun is a national scarce cuisine master. Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion is the specialty dish of him. Over more than 60 years, Wang Yijun experienced the hard development history of Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant in person and witnessed development and changes of Shandong cuisine in Beijing.

In the spring of 1946, the 14-year-old Wang Yijun was recruited into Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant. His first job was to clean the ladle. Finished the work, the cuisine master would throw it to the lower shelf of the chopping board with a bang. Then I would pick it up, immerse it in the wooden basin for a while. And then clean it. If there were still crust on the pan after cleaning, I would polish it with furnace ashes.

He did not expect the job of cleaning a ladle lasted three years. Thinking of the fact the manager Luan Pubao was also of a new incomer origin. Wang Yijun worked from dawn to nigh without compliance. He hoped that he would also distinguish himself one day. Wang Yijun would set his mind on cuisine learning. For example, if a certain dish was cooked with this ladle, let's say, stewed sliced fish with rice wine sauce, there would be some soup left in the ladle. Then he would taste the soup; he remembered what the taste of the delicious dish was - tasting the soup left in the label. At the time cleaning the label he would know how's the dish cooked by every master and what's the taste of every dish. For Mr. Wang and others, coming from their hometown (Fushan of Shandong), they must start from the apprentice go through chopping food and collocating food, and then finally cook dishes on the stove. Many years of experiences must be undertaken. What's more, the master must think highly of you. If you had the potential, and you were hardworking and had good morality, and thus a master paid attention to you. You were qualified to cook dishes on the kitchen stove.

Eight years passed and Wang Yijun finally saw his dawn. In 1954, Wang Yijun began to learn cooking skills following Mou Changchun. The marvelous dishes and superb cooking skills of masters made Wang Yijun admire the master very much.

The soup cooked by Wang Yijun was extremely delicious. Wang Yijun's diligence and comprehension capability were adored by the master. The old master taught their cooking skills to modest and assiduous Wang Yijun in successive. More than 60 years later, Wang Yijun won the nickname of "King of Soup" and the reputation of "King of Sea Cucumber."

In the early years, the sea cucumber dishes cooked by many Shandong cuisine restaurants were featured with dim color, excessive gravy, and a mild taste. Basing on sea cucumber's naturally strong fishy smell. Wang Yijun adopted the practice of combating the strong fishy smell with a strong flavor. He made the dish very tasty with strong color and gravy. So that the color, fragrance angle taste of the dish was to the point.

In 1983, in the Great Hall of the People, the sea cucumber cooked by Wang Yijun got the highest score. That year there were many chefs from Shandong and the northeast. On the day of the competition, seven or eight dishes of sea cucumber were served. And I ranked first. Just imagine that every restaurant had its stunt. The traditional practice was with abundant gravy. With abundant gravy, it is suitable for soaking the rice. However, in the competition, you would be taken in if the practice of abundant gravy was adopted. My practice was to roll the dish in the gravy once. After the meal, there would be a little oil. There was also gravy, but not so much.

The black stichopus japonicus with white and slight yellow scallion is reddish brown and lustrous. The sea cucumber is soft and tender, and the sauce is mellow. The reason that the scallion flavored sea cucumber cooked by Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant is so delicious lies on, besides the unique cooking skill, the specially prepared gravy.

The Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion cooked by Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant differs from other restaurant is that Feng Ze Yuan Restaurant has its preliminary preparation process of sea cucumber. In the past, for the convenience of storage and transport, people made the sea cucumber into trepang. It is said that 12.5kg fresh sea cucumber after being dried with salt would turn into only 0.5kg trepang. If sea cucumber dish was made at that time, mostly the soaked sea cucumber was used. The amount of sea cucumber generated from trepang concerns the quality of the sea cucumber dish. How many small sea cucumbers weighs 0.5 kg. 120 or 130 sea cucumbers should be sold for 0.5kg. These are sea cucumber of Changxing island produced in Dalian. The barbs on them are very good. How much could they be produced into? Around 3.5kg to 3.75kg. If we are only for the production rate. The trepang can be produced into 6kg. However, they do not suggest soaking them into so much. Otherwise, the quality of the sea cucumber will be affected, especially the taste.

Soaking of trepang in the cooking process of the dish plays a very important role. There is a lot of knowledge in various processes, like cleaning, soaking, and boiling. The well-soaked sea cucumber must be cured with pure water for 24 hours to 35 hours. Only the sea cucumber soaked like this will be plump and cooking resistant and have a good taste.

In the event of a high production rate, the sea cucumber will be very thick and full of water. At the time of cooking it, it will shrink. Thus, the taste will be not good, as the seasoning can not permeate the sea cucumber. The more you boil it, the smaller it will be. A sea cucumber of this size will be boiled into such a small one. However, if you soak it for an appropriate time, it will be cooking resistant and tasty. The final taste of the dish will be quite different.

Concluding Remarks

Eighty years have passed, from the original small shop to the current pseudo-classic building with traditional architecture charms. The famous old shop in Beijing from the appearance to the content has changed quietly. In a time of increasing multiplicity, Shandong cuisine ruling the roost that time has to face the attacks from the major styles of cooking through the nation. Things are changing all the time, who can tell the next popular style of cooking?