The recipes we’re cooking from this month are very, very old.
Most of them are from around 1330, when Mongols ruled over China and the imperial pharmacist Hu Sihui wrote the very first book on Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine, 饮膳正要 or “Important Principles of Food and Drink.”
As a culinary encyclopaedia, this book catalogued regional recipes that eventually permeated into the national cuisine of the whole of China. Today, many of the most iconic Chinese dishes had roots in recipes from this book, which we’ve taken the liberty to serve them to you tonight.
- Menu, April 2018 -
FAT CHICKEN DUMPLINGS, or DEBONED CHICKEN MORSELS
with sprouting ginger, vermicelli, sichuan peppercorn
PEKING DUCK, or ROAST DUCK FROM THE 14TH CENTURY
roasted with sheep’s stomach, onions, and finely ground coriander
POPPY SEED BAO
NOODLE SOUP, or HANGING NOODLES
in duck and mutton broth with sweet melon and vinegar
CHINESE SWEET PUDDING, or EARTH IMMORTAL CONCENTRATE
candied Chinese yams, apricot kernel, goat’s milk custard