China News Agency, Guangzhou, January 5th, title: Cantonese-style traditional Poon Choi is innovated in the inheritance and takes advantage of the prepared dishes to enter more families
Author Wang Jian Yang Daiqing
The traditional New Year is getting closer. In Guangdong, a pot of Poon Choi, which symbolizes a happy reunion, is the best choice on the New Year’s Eve dinner table.
Poon Choi originates from the Hakka traditional "Fat Cai Poon Choi" and is very popular in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.
However, the cooking of Poon Choi not only requires a large number of dishes, but also has a cumbersome production process, so people generally eat it during Chinese New Year or other festive occasions.
In order to promote Poon Choi to more places, You Shunfa, a district-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Cantonese-style Poon Choi production skills, boldly innovated on the basis of inheriting traditional Poon Choi production skills, making Poon Choi into pre-made dishes, making it a daily dish for ordinary people. Popular food on the table.
"My grandfather and father are well-known local chefs, and they make a living by hosting banquets for the neighbors. I have been learning cooking from them since I was 10 years old. I have also supported my family by cooking all my life, and I have done a lot of work. But they have never left their culinary skills.” As a native of Guangzhou, You Shunfa has had an indissoluble bond with Poon Choi since he was 10 years old, and now, in his seventies, he is still sticking to this traditional craft.
More than ten years ago, You Shunfa established a company engaged in processing Poon Choi, and regarded Poon Choi as the company's biggest feature.
"The purpose of establishing this company is to let more people eat Guangzhou's traditional Poon Choi at any time." You Shunfa told reporters that there was no concept of prepared dishes at that time, but all kinds of food produced by the company were actually prepared dishes. Serve by simply warming up.
"The key to the delicious Poon Choi is the soup inside. The soup in our family has been passed down from generation to generation and is made from more than 20 kinds of ingredients." You Shunfa said that his family's Cantonese-style Poon Choi production skills have been passed down To the fourth generation, it has a broad and profound inheritance foundation.
In order to better inherit and protect this traditional skill, the "Fa Ji Poon Choi" led by You Shunfa collected and sorted out relevant literature and materials, carried out project research, compiled academic materials related to this skill, and finally successfully developed its own characteristic. After customers get the Poon Choi, they only need to add the soup, cook the ingredients and eat them.
"With this soup, no matter when it is eaten, it is a traditional taste."
"From the traditional Poon Choi that is made and eaten now to the prefabricated Poon Choi that is now vacuum-packed, solving the soup is only part of the problem. From the selection of ingredients to the production of soaked hair, we have gone through many trials and errors. " You Shunfa said.
You Shunfa demonstrated to the reporter the process of making a Poon Choi serving for 6 people.
A total of 18 ingredients are divided into two layers, the upper layer is meat dishes.
"This floor basically retains the traditional dishes, such as chicken, roast duck, sea cucumber, flower maw, etc. Each dish has a beautiful meaning, like chicken, which means good luck, and hair vegetables, which heralds wealth." You Shunfa said that for ingredients such as sea cucumbers and fish maw that need to be soaked, they also adopt the traditional way of soaking. .”
As a prepared dish, both meat and vegetables have been cooked in advance.
How to choose vegetarian dishes and how well they are cooked is a test of skill.
"For vegetarian dishes, we fully consider the eating habits of modern people. In addition to traditional ingredients such as mushrooms, carrots, corn, yuba, etc. are also selected as the second layer of ingredients. These ingredients can not only cook for a long time, but also can fully absorb the soup. The taste of juice." You Shunfa said.
Daughter Xiaoyou is the main inheritor of You Shunfa's skills.
"Watching my parents work in the catering industry since I was a child is very hard. The catering industry works day and night, especially in Guangzhou where the summer is long and you have to spend a long time by the fire." Xiaoyou told reporters that for more than ten years, watching his father have been Insisting on making traditional Cantonese cuisine made her understand the meaning of her father's perseverance. Now she is learning from her father to make traditional Poon Choi and other traditional Cantonese dishes.
"The skill of making Poon Choi has been passed down to the fourth generation in our family. I hope to help my father fulfill his wish, so that consumers across the country can eat traditional Cantonese-style Poon Choi." Xiaoyou said that in recent years, along with With the rise of prefabricated dishes, they continue to innovate on the basis of tradition, and have initially developed one-person and two-person pot dishes.
"My greatest wish at present is to hope that this Poon Choi, which symbolizes a happy reunion, can go to more places and enter the daily tables of more families, and it will last from generation to generation." You Shunfa said that besides his daughter, he It is hoped that more young people will see the cultural connotation carried by this craft and actively participate in the inheritance of this traditional craft.
(use up)