Stone tongue
Kung pao chicken is a famous Sichuan cuisine, fried with diced chicken and peanuts, with garlic, ginger slices, sweet noodle sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, monosodium glutamate and wet starch. Not only delicious, but also soft and crisp, both rigid and soft, with excellent texture. This dish was first created by Ding Baozhen, Governor of Sichuan during Guangxu period. Ding, a native of Guizhou, was a scholar of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty and once served as the governor of Shandong. Later, when he was guarding the border, he was named "Prince Shao Bao" for his meritorious service in resisting foreign enemies, and he was called Ding in history. Ding Baozhen likes to eat diced chicken with Chili, fried chicken with soy sauce and fried chicken with peanuts. Xiafu's diced chicken is spread all over Sichuan and is famous all over the world. This "official dish" became a "local dish" and was named "kung pao chicken".
Li Taibai, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, was lucky enough to create a famous dish. In the first year of Tang Tianbao (AD 742), Li Bai was called by Xuanzong and went to Beijing to worship the Hanlin. He steamed the fat duck and presented it to Xuanzong, together with materials such as presbyopia, Lycium barbarum, Notoginseng and so on (after entering the steamer, the mouth was sealed with leather paper). Xuanzong praised it after eating it, and could not help but ask, "What dish did you offer?" Li Baifeng said, "I'm afraid your majesty is tired, so I have to make up for it." Xuanzong was overjoyed and said, "This dish is rare in the world and can be called Taibai Duck."
Du Fu was born into a culinary family, and Du Shenyan, a great poet of his ancestors, was in a high position. Du Fu has a family background and has certain attainments in cooking. It is said that when he settled in Chengdu Caotang, he made a guest appearance as a "Five Willow Grass Carp". Because this dish was originally created by Du Fu and cooked with five kinds of filamentous materials (cool willow leaves), it was named "Du Fu Wuliu Grass Carp" and has since become a famous Sichuan dish. Du Fu also created a kind of chicken dish, which is called "Du Fu's black-haired chicken" by the world, which is the traditional name of his ancestral home in Henan. Until now, many restaurants in Zhengzhou are still using this dish to attract customers.
There is a famous dish "Pan Fish" in Beijing, which was invented by Pan Zuyin, an academician of the Qing Dynasty. He used live fresh carp, top mushrooms, shrimp and other ingredients, steamed chicken soup, no oil, delicious. This Hanlin master is a frequent visitor to Guangheju Restaurant in Beijing, so he taught the shopkeeper and chef how to cook fish, making this dish one of the famous dishes in Guangheju. 1930, Guangheju closed down, its chef moved to Tongheju to cook, and "Pan Yu" became a famous dish in Tongheju.