These four poems are from Du Fu's "Quetrains". The poems and the cooking methods are as follows:
1. Two orioles singing green willows: it is the middle of two boiled eggs. Peel off two round egg yolks, steam them with seasonings, garnish with a few tender green vegetables, and put them in a bowl.
2. A row of egrets ascending to the sky: cooked egg whites are cut into shreds, with a vegetable leaf underneath, lined up in a formation, and placed in a porcelain basin.
3. Xiling Qianqiu Xue: It is a pinch of fried egg whites. Cut the egg whites into fine strands like goose feathers and put them in a basin.
4. Menbo Dongwu Wanli Boat: It is a bowl of clear soup with a few eggshells floating on it.
Story background: According to legend, there was a famous chef in ancient my country who was knowledgeable and talented. All the dishes he cooked were named after Tang poems, and everyone called him "Chef Poetry". There was a scholar who believed in his talent. He was not convinced by this "Cook Poetry" and wanted to tease him.
Once, he deliberately presented a difficult problem and asked the master chef to prepare a table of "poetic dishes" with only two eggs. The "poetry chef" said: "It's not difficult to make two eggs for a banquet. Wait until I finish it." He took out two eggs from the basket, and after a while, the banquet was ready. I made four dishes using each line from Du Fu's "Queju".
Extended information:
quatrains
Two orioles sing in the green willows, and a row of egrets ascends to the blue sky.
The window contains Qianqiu snow of Xiling, and the door is docked with a ship thousands of miles away from Dongwu.
From: Author Du Fu? Dynasty Tang Dynasty
Translation: Two orioles sang gracefully among the green willow trees, and a neat group of egrets rushed straight into the blue sky. Sitting in front of the window, I can see the snow that never melts all year round on the west ridge, and the ships that have traveled thousands of miles away from Soochow are moored in front of the door.
Appreciation:
"Quatrain" is the name of the poem, but it does not directly indicate the content of the poem. This form is convenient for writing about a scene or object and expressing the author's feelings at a moment. What the poet saw occasionally triggered his inner passion, and he wrote down his own feelings without thinking about the topic for a while, so he used the metrical "quatrains" of the poem as the title. Du Fu wrote a group of poems in this form, consisting of four poems, with "quatrains" as the general title. "Quatrain·Two Orioles Singing the Green Willow" is one of them. The poem uses natural beauty to convey a fresh and relaxed mood.
In the first two sentences, "yellow" is used to line "emerald", and "white" is used to line "green". The colors are bright and bring out the vitality of early spring. The first sentence is about orioles sitting on willows and singing, and the second sentence is about egrets flying into the sky. The space is much wider, from bottom to top, from near to far. The first two sentences of "The window contains thousands of autumn snows in the Xiling Mountains" have already pointed out that it was early spring and the autumn snow in winter was about to melt, which gave readers a moist feeling.
The last sentence further describes Du Fu's complicated mood at that time - saying that the ship came from "Soochow". This sentence means that the war has been calmed down, transportation has been restored, and the poet feels emotional after seeing things and misses his hometown.