Sheng Kee, which has been hidden in the housing estates of Hong Kong for more than half a century, is an old restaurant with a bit of quackery.
The wood-carved "Sheng" signboard, hand-made chandeliers made from empty wine bottles, rattan screens and antique wooden chairs, as well as the clerks dexterously walking sideways between the tables, never forgetting to greet the regular customers in a spirited way. The heroic and free style of the hidden dragon.
Passing through the restaurant, under an old tree in the corner of the courtyard, there is a row of army green tents. The legendary master chef Yang Jiu of Shengji is standing under the shed, stirring sauerkraut with an iron pot with a diameter of nearly one meter. The fungus and fungus are fragrant and full of wok gas. There are taro, radish and braised pork in the pots next to it.
"This is the soul of Poon Choi." Yang Jiu sneaked out of his busy schedule and raised his chin towards the stewed pork without stopping.
After frying the ingredients needed for Poon Choi one by one, and handing it over to the staff to put them on the plate, Yang Jiu had time to catch his breath, and talked to the reporter about his relationship with Poon Choi with a cup of hot lemon tea.
The staff is arranging the pot dishes cooked by Master Yang Jiu.
Photo by Han Xingtong
All in all, from 1994 to now, he has been cooking Wai Cun Poon Choi in Sheng Kee for nearly 30 years. This traditional Hong Kong-style Chinese New Year delicacy has always stayed in the depths of his taste buds since he tasted it when he was young.
For countless Hong Kong people like Yang Jiu, Poon Choi not only entrusts many best wishes such as "full bowl" and "family reunion", but also contains a kind of hard nostalgia that accumulates day and night The bitterness, hotness, sourness and sweetness of the food are endless aftertaste in the hearty feasting.
Poon Choi made by Master Yang Jiu.
Photo by Han Xingtong
Which version of Poon Choi origin story have you heard?
There are different opinions about the origin of Poon Choi. "Have you heard the story of the emperor eating Poon Choi?" The version told by Yang Jiukou is the most widely circulated, and it began in the late Southern Song Dynasty.
In order to avoid the Yuan army, the emperor of the Song Dynasty and his subjects fled south to Wusha in Dongguan and the surrounding villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong. The villagers treated the emperor warmly when they saw the emperor.
However, there was no good food in the remote village, so the villagers hurriedly heated up the only food they had, and put them in wooden basins to offer to the emperor. The hungry and cold Emperor Song thought it was the most delicious food in the world.
From then on, villagers would eat Poon Choi to celebrate happy events and festivals such as the New Year, until today.
Another theory is that Wen Tianxiang, who was hunted down by Yuan soldiers at that time, fled to Baoan County, Guangdong, which is close to the sea. The local villagers brought him the food at home. Song soldiers cooked the vegetables, but there were no tableware. , Song Bing ate around the pot, and Poon Choi was born.
Yang Jiu was born in Siu Lek Yuen Village, Sha Tin, a traditional walled village in Hong Kong.
According to Yang Jiu's childhood memories, Weicun Poon Choi is actually evolved from "Nine Big Gui".
As the name suggests, there are usually nine dishes served in the same big basin.
The name "Jiu Da Gui" not only speaks a lot, but also has an extremely rich and solemn meaning.
Poon Choi.
Photo provided by the interviewee
When Yang Jiu was a child, whenever there was a wedding or wedding in the surrounding village, or every year or festival, the whole village would gather together to lay out a grand banquet. In the ancestral hall or open place in the village, there would be tables, stools, bowls and chopsticks.
In the past, wooden pots were used, but later they were replaced by antimony pots, which were burned in a small stove. Everyone gathered around the steaming pot vegetables, talking and laughing happily, and tasting the delicious food.
"At most, there are two or three hundred people eating together, and the cooking pot is bigger than this table." Yang Jiu gestured, the scene of thousands of people eating Poon Choi together was full of voices and shocking, and the scene remained forever in his memory.
On that day, "everyone in the village who knows how to cook will come to help, and those who can't cook will be responsible for arranging and serving dishes." Yang Jiu's father, who is only eight or nine years old, is in charge of cooking every year with his skills praised by everyone. Yang Jiu squatted aside to add firewood and raise his salary, watching his father cook.
Over time, I also "looked" at cooking.
So when Yang Jiu grew up in the countryside to be more than ten years old, she joined the catering industry when she came out to find her first job. She was ups and downs in the ups and downs of the times, and then went north to start a business, but in the end she went back to Shatian, Back in Wai Village, I went into Sheng Kee's kitchen to study how to cook Poon Choi, trying to restore the original flavor of my childhood village.
Sheng Kee is a time-honored brand with a strong flavor of the rivers and lakes.
Photo by Han Xingtong
The importance of Poon Choi
In recent years, the Poon Choi on the market has been determined to innovate and has a wide variety. Those who pursue luxury have added abalone, sea cucumber, and scallops;
But Yang Jiu is not jealous, "It's not that I can't do it, but I don't want to do it." For many years, he has always insisted on the twenty-one dishes of the traditional Weicun Poon Choi - ancient white-cut chicken, open-fired duck, mushrooms , Fa Cai, Dried Oysters, Prawns, Dace Balls, Wai Cun Braised Pork, Pig Skin in Oyster Sauce, Fresh Eels, etc.
Hong Kong people always pay attention to meaning. Yang Jiu introduced that Poon Choi has the meaning of "sitting together, family reunion, and auspicious celebration". When a plate of Poon Choi is served on the table, the food is full, which not only satisfies the different preferences of the whole family , also has the meaning of wishing the person who eats a lot of money and prosperity.
The ingredients in Poon Choi also have auspicious meanings, "Pork represents a fat house, bamboo sticks represent contentment and happiness, fish balls represent surplus every year, and prawns represent laughter..."
The traditional New Territories Weicun Poon Choi, although each village uses local ingredients depending on what products are available in the village, there may be a little difference, but generally speaking, the food has been established, there are established combinations, and the arrangement is also carefully thought out: the less flavorful It will be placed on the bottom layer, such as pig skin and bamboo sticks, and the taste is strong like braised pork. It will be placed on the upper layer, so that the lower layer can absorb the rich sauce, and the taste and taste are connected.
Put some more expensive ingredients with less sauce on the top layer, which already has a meaty taste, which is not only good-looking, but also allows people to eat the best first, such as chicken and prawns.
The ingredients are stacked layer by layer from bottom to top in order, usually about six layers, with radish and pig skin on the bottom sixth layer; bamboo sticks and squid on the fifth layer; stewed pork on the fourth layer; There are three layers of mushrooms; the second layer is fried eel and dace balls; the first layer is chicken, fried shrimp, etc.
There is also etiquette when eating, don't mess with the chopsticks, dig the bottom first and eat.
When eating, you should sandwich it from the first layer to the bottom, and eat it layer by layer from top to bottom, from the freshest chicken and shrimp at the beginning, to the radish and pigskin with the essence of pot juice at the end, and the more you eat, the more delicious you can taste it. To Poon Choi's unique layers and umami.
"Hidden master" sticks to the flavor of the surrounding village
"We make poon choi, mostly in winter, and there are mainly several festivals, such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Winter Solstice, Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival. We almost call it a day." Spring Festival is the peak period of influx of orders, according to Yang Jiu's recollection In the past few years before the epidemic, there were more than 3,000 orders during the Spring Festival. Some customers came from afar to make reservations from Guangdong, but the grand occasion ceased later, and the number of orders last year has shrunk by more than half.
Now that the first phase of "customs clearance" between Hong Kong and the Mainland has been implemented, Yang Jiu hopes that the business will gradually improve.
Master Yang Jiu who is busy.
Photo by Han Xingtong
Having been cooking Poon Choi for so many years in the back kitchen, he is already familiar with the characteristics of the ingredients, the strength of the stir-frying, and the amount of sauce. However, I can find a few things from my own experience, "For example, when I was not skilled enough in cooking shrimp, the heads of the shrimp would easily fall off after cooking for too long, so I can't use it because the taste is not good."
The seventy-year-old Yang Jiu already looks like a master of the world. He comes to Shengji every day to cook a big pot of vegetables, then washes his hands and goes back to the village, which makes the reporter miss several times.
He still plans to cook Poon Choi for a few more years. After all, sometimes guests can’t help but praise him when they eat the smooth pork, which is enough to satisfy him and make him happy for a long time.
With the sound of firecrackers to eradicate the old year, time condenses, and Yang Jiu seems to be the child who is always guarding the stove, stubbornly holding on to the best taste in memory. There is exactly the same atmosphere, as if there are some traditions inherited from generation to generation and beautiful imaginations about reunion hidden there.
Writer: Han Xingtong
Photographer: Han Xingtong
Video reporter: Liang Yuan
(WeChat public account of China News Service)