The thought of the fish head

Author: Gu Qingsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: "The Thoughts of the Fish Head" is not a recipe book but a collection of insights into culinary delights. Through a series of exquisite and elegant essays, it blends humor, making the delicious, fragrant, and flavorful food even more charming and alluring. Gu Qingsheng uses vivid and aromatic language to steam, fry, stir-fry, braise, and roast, capturing the essence of life's vicissitudes. It leaves readers refreshed in spirit, their appetites whetted, and immersed in a satisfying reading experience as they savor the scents, flavors, and the bustling streets of the market. Excerpt: Donglaishun: Warm the World with a Sizzle (1903), Donglaishun was established at the northern entrance of Wangfujing Street in Jinyu Hutong, with founder Ding Deshan, styled Ziqing, a native of Cangzhou, Hebei. Before this, Ding Ziqing earned a living delivering yellow soil to coal depots. During the Qing Dynasty, there was a "dismounting stone" at Donghua Gate, inscribed with "Civil officials alight from carriages, military officials dismount," which became a horse stable due to the heavy traffic. Ding Ziqing invested all his hard-earned savings to build a shed and hung a sign for "Donglaishun Porridge Stall," selling corn cakes and millet porridge. The imperial horse stable was then managed by an eunuch named Wei Yan, who loved the noodle soup from the stall and adopted Ding Ziqing as his foster son. In 1912, a fire destroyed the porridge stall at Dong'an Market, but Wei the Eunuch generously helped Ding Ziqing rebuild a three-room tiled house, renaming it "Donglaishun Lamb Restaurant," which sold lamb soup and offal. The hot pot meat dish originated from Kublai Khan's army during the Yuan Dynasty. One winter, during a distant campaign, the soldiers ran out of food and boiled water, sliced frozen lamb, and seasoned it with improvised condiments, finding it surprisingly delicious. After winning the battle, they were rewarded by Kublai Khan, who promoted the dish throughout the army. Ding Ziqing hired a master chef with exquisite knife skills from the Zhengyanglou Restaurant in the Front Gate area. He standardized the lamb's origin, meat cuts, and knife techniques. The sliced lamb was arranged on blue-and-white porcelain plates, with the meat visible through the plate's patterns. Ding Ziqing revolutionized the condiments: sesame paste and soy sauce as the main ingredients, with fermented tofu and leek flowers as secondary, plus a touch of shrimp sauce, cooking wine, and chili oil, creating a unique flavor profile of salty, spicy, braised, fermented, and fresh. "Donglaishun Lamb Restaurant" became a favorite among drivers, laborers, and even high-ranking officials, scholars, and writers. It was renamed "Donglaishun Restaurant" when it became known as "Warm the World with a Sizzle." For centuries, selecting the right meat has been a secret to its prosperity. Donglaishun sourced its lamb from the black-headed sheep of Dong Ujimqin and West Ujimqin banners in Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, specifically castrated male sheep aged one to one and a half years, known as "" (eunuch sheep). These sheep were castrated at weaning, losing their gender characteristics and reproductive abilities. The meat is tender and free of any gamey or off-putting flavors. Only five cuts are taken from each sheep: the top sirloin, cucumber strips, hip, big and small forks, accounting for 35-40% of the clean meat.
Top Sirloin: The muscle wrapping the spine between the first and third ribs, with a natural marble-like pattern when sliced.
Cucumber Strips: The muscle wrapping the femur, named for its resemblance to a cucumber.
Big Forks: The muscle and fat wrapping the hip bone.
Small Forks: The area connecting the top sirloin to the root of the hip bone, composed of a flat-shaped muscle mixed with lean meat and fat.
Hip: The muscle connected to the cucumber strips, wrapping the femur. All these cuts are tender and colorful when sliced. The black-headed sheep come from non-epidemic areas, and their meat undergoes pre-slaughter and post-slaughter inspections. Skilled Imams perform the slaughter according to Islamic dietary standards. In the past, Donglaishun set up a bamboo shed in the courtyard for slicing lamb. At night, they used buckets of water to freeze the floor, creating an ice shed where the chefs sliced the meat. Eating hot pot lamb has two styles: "civilian" and "martial." The civilian style involves using chopsticks to gently stir small meat slices in the boiling pot, cooking them for a few turns until they change color, then placing them on a small plate and mixing them with condiments from a bowl. It is a refined and elegant way to enjoy the meal, often paired with a small bottle of Erjiu, a popular Beijing liquor. The martial style involves dumping the lamb slices into the pot, quickly boiling them, then rolling them in condiments and eating them with large bites and big gulps of wine. Southerners prefer hand-sliced lamb, which is thin and skillfully tossed by the chef into the plate without falling. In late 1975, the Beijing Sixth Machine Tool Factory developed a hot pot meat slicer. In 1994, Donglaishun won a bronze medal for cold and hot dishes and a gold medal for pastries and hand-sliced lamb at the first National Muslim Culinary Competition. Donglaishun's century-old copper pot continues to innovate, developing new dishes like fried lamb tails and braised lamb strips while rediscovering over 400 traditional Muslim dishes, Beijing roast ducks, and Western pastries, creating a unique culinary system that combines frying, roasting, stir-frying, and hot pot. In March 1998, Donglaishun Restaurant grandly reopened at the new Dong'an Building, establishing 62 franchises domestically and registering its trademark in 50 countries worldwide.