Sh-030: Manchu-Han Imperial Feast I (Yipin Tofu & Zhuachao Liji)

This is the final installment of the Shandong Cuisine series.

This time, I would like to change things up and introduce the history and contents of the well-known "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast".

The Truth and Fiction of the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast

The term "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" is known worldwide as a symbol of the glory of the Qing imperial court. However, this term does not exist in the official institutional records of the Qing Dynasty, such as the Collected Statutes of the Great Qing. It was not an official event of the imperial court.

Imperial banquets were held by dividing them into the Manchu Feast which inherited the traditions of the Manchu people, and the Han Feast to appease Han Chinese bureaucrats.

The "Manchu" and "Han" in the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast represent the two major ethnic groups in the Qing Dynasty: the Manchus and the Han Chinese. It is a common mistake, but it is not the "Mangan" (full house) of Mahjong.

This distinction was based on a political intention to maintain the identity of the Manchu people while seeking harmony with the majority Han Chinese bureaucrats. This is clearly different from the era of foreign dynasties other than the Qing, such as the Yuan.

Therefore, in the first place, during the Qing Dynasty, it was institutionally impossible for both the "Manchu Feast" and the "Han Feast" to be served together in official imperial ceremonies. It makes sense that the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast did not exist officially in the court.

If so, why is the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" passed down today as the supreme banquet of the imperial court? The reason lies outside the court. After the Qing Dynasty was established, as the political and cultural fusion of the Manchus and Han Chinese progressed, banquets that combined the Manchu and Han feasts were spontaneously created "outside the court."

In fact, after the Qing Dynasty entered the Shanhai Pass, Beijing became the center of politics and culture, and opportunities for high-ranking officials from both the Manchu and Han sides to interact, both publicly and privately, increased. In these social settings, the "meat-eating" style preferred by the Manchus and the traditional baked confection known as "bobo" began to fuse with the traditional and sophisticated cooking techniques of the Han people. Before that, Qing banquets involved spreading animal skins on the ground, where the emperor and his subordinates would sit down heavily, drink alcohol, and gnaw on meat on the bone. There were no chairs, let alone tables. That was what a Manchu banquet was like.

That's right. To put it extremely, for example, imagine if a country called AM took control of a country called FR, and the hamburger, which is the national food of AM, fused with the course meals of FR.

Against the backdrop of this fusion, the Court of Imperial Entertainments (not a Buddhist temple, but something like a central government ministry today), which was in charge of ceremonies, devised eclectic banquet names such as "Upper Feast" and "Middle Feast" to reduce the trouble and budget of preparation. This opened the way for dishes mainly consisting of Manchu pork and mutton to coexist with delicate Han vegetable and seafood dishes on a single menu. However, the Manchu Feast and the Han Feast were still separate. Even if traditional Chinese dishes were served at a Manchu feast, or mutton on the bone was served at a Han feast, a fusion of the two was never actually born.

Actually, there is a theory that it originated from an attempt by the Kangxi Emperor to merge the "Manchu Feast" and the "Han Feast" at a New Year's banquet, but this was only a one-time attempt, and even in the subsequent large-scale Qian-Sou Banquet (a grand banquet held in the Qing Dynasty, which valued the virtue of respecting the elderly, where thousands of elderly Manchu and Han people were invited), the Manchus and Han were seated on different days.

Given this background, it can be said that the origin of the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" was not the imperial kitchen, but rather the local government offices and bustling streets of cities where bureaucrats and merchants traveled.

The concept of the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" was not established by the imperial court. It is reasonable to consider it a culture (or a totality thereof) that was spontaneously formed in the private sector and government offices through the mutual penetration of social food culture over several decades.

And a style of banquet that became the direct origin of the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast was born at the Confucius Mansion in Qufu, Shandong Province.

This is also the reason why I brought the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast into the Shandong Cuisine series.

The 196 Dishes of the Manchu-Han Feast at the Confucius Mansion and the Bestowed Tableware

When talking about the fusion of Manchu and Han food culture in the private sector and local government offices, the Manchu-Han Feast passed down at the Confucius Mansion in Qufu, Shandong Province, cannot be left out. Or rather, it is safe to say that the term "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" was born from here. Very detailed and concrete records remain.

The Confucius Mansion, the headquarters of Confucianism, had long recorded and maintained banquets based on strict etiquette in order to welcome emperors and imperial envoys with the highest hospitality. And the "Manchu-Han Feast," consisting of 196 dishes in total, was positioned as the first-class banquet at the Confucius Mansion during the Qing Dynasty.

The 196-course menu is not only rich in variety, but also possesses a remarkable aesthetic beauty, with every dish served in special tableware.

Confucius' philosophy, which emphasizes 'propriety' (li), has been preserved in the culinary system since ancient times.

Furthermore, an exquisite set of silver tableware called the 'Manhan Banquet Silver-Inlaid Copper-Tin Antique-Style Zoomorphic Water and Fire Tableware' specifically commissioned for this feast is still preserved in the inner residence of the Confucius Mansion.

This tableware set consists of a total of 404 pieces, and every single vessel features a 'double-layered structure'.

By filling the lower layer with hot water, it serves the practical function of a warming dish to maintain a constant temperature for the food. This isn't a modern buffet; we are talking about hundreds of years ago. Can you believe it?

According to tradition, this tableware was bestowed by the Qianlong Emperor and the Empress when they visited the Confucius Mansion to perform the Confucius worship ceremony in the 36th year of the Qianlong reign. This bestowal carried the significance of an expensive wedding dowry for when the Qianlong Emperor's daughter married Kong Xianpei, the 72nd Yansheng Gong (Duke Yansheng). Because imperial law at the time forbade marriage between Manchus and Han Chinese, the Qianlong Emperor took the highly unusual step of having his daughter adopted by his favorite official, Yu Minzhong, before the marriage. He went to such lengths to fuse the bloodline of Confucius with the dynasty. To celebrate this marriage, he ordered the Guangdong Chaozhou-based goldsmith and silversmith Yang Yihua to spend several years crafting 404 pieces of tableware inlaid with jade, agate, and diamonds.

The 196 dishes served using this special tableware included Han Chinese cuisine covering delicacies from land and sea, as well as Manchu traditions such as whole roasted lamb. Specifically, high-status dishes such as the following were included.

• Yifu Shuangfeng (One Hatching Two Phoenixes): A steamed dish using a whole chicken, symbolizing the prosperity of descendants.

• Yudai Xiaren (Imperial Belt Shrimp): A stir-fry featuring carefully selected shrimp beautifully decorated to resemble an imperial belt.

• Dangchao Yipin (First Rank of the Current Dynasty): A top-tier hot pot dish celebrating the Yansheng Gong's status as the first rank of the current dynasty.

Each dish carried a blessing, making it a magnificent banquet celebrating the fusion of Confucius' descendants and the Qing dynasty lineage.

Of course, the Emperor and Empress also attended the banquet.

However, it is said that the emperors did not always welcome only luxurious ingredients. In fact, there is a record that when the Confucius Mansion's chef served 'Glazed Apricot Leaves'—spring apricot leaves coated in molasses—to the Qianlong Emperor, who was tired of the luxurious food of the palace, the Emperor enjoyed it. Furthermore, 'Stir-fried Bean Sprouts,' which infused the aroma of Sichuan peppercorns into the sprouts, also received the Emperor's praise and was later formalized as an important banquet menu item at the Confucius Mansion. This anecdote shows that the extravagant 'Manhan Banquet' did not rely solely on high-end ingredients or dishes requiring elaborate techniques. Rather, it is better interpreted as being established through the Confucian spirit of 'never tiring of fine food or finely minced meat' (moderation and propriety), combined with the ingenuity of hospitality, and realized through both human wisdom and extravagant luxury.

Records from the Yangzhou Huafang Lu

While the 'Manhan Banquet' at the Confucius Mansion shows the connection between the imperial court and local government offices, there is literature that records the concrete appearance of the Manhan banquet in urban commercial society.

It is the 'Yangzhou Huafang Lu' (Records of Painted Boats in Yangzhou), written by Li Dou during the Qianlong era.

In Volume 4, 'New City North Records,' of this book, a detailed menu of the 'Manhan Banquet' provided to the hundreds of officials who supported the Qianlong Emperor's southern tour is recorded and remains to this day. This is the oldest and most systematic record of a Manhan banquet currently confirmed. At the time, Yangzhou was home to salt merchants who had built wealth through the salt monopoly, and they were competing to cultivate a unique and extravagant food culture.

It is said that these salt merchants competed to renovate their private gardens to win the Emperor's favor and sent for famous chefs to entertain the Emperor and his accompanying officials. To procure meals for the massive number of accompanying officials all at once, the salt merchants transformed all the temples and Taoist monasteries around the 'Shangmaimai Street' into what we would call central kitchens or large-scale kitchens today. This allowed them to use religious facilities scattered throughout the city as temporary, massive preparation sites, realizing a dynamic method of providing meals of uniform quality to hundreds of officials.

That... well, the scale and the ideas were so extraordinary that I am simply at a loss for words.

By the way, while this article focuses only on the food of the Manhan Quanxi, the 'Yangzhou Huafang Lu' of course also records, with illustrations, the sleeping quarters, rest areas, baths, tea service, places to relieve fatigue, traffic flow, facilities, places for accompanying animals to rest, feed, repairs for broken items, materials, tools, substitutes, maps, and staff placement for the hundreds of officials, all at the same level of detail as the Manhan Quanxi. It is well worth a look.

The menu structure recorded in the "Yangzhou Huafang Lu" possessed a hierarchical structure ranging from appetizers to main courses and desserts. The order of service and the specific plates to be used were all predetermined.

Looking at this composition, one can read a flow that begins with seafood, moves to animal meat imitating the classic Eight Treasures, and then continues to local Huaiyang cuisine (Huaiyang cai), such as the famous Yangzhou dish "Wensi Tofu Soup." In particular, Wensi Tofu is a soup invented by the monk Wensi of Yangzhou's Tianning Temple, in which tofu is sliced as thin as hair, serving as a symbol of the exquisite knife skills favored by literati. In addition to this, the Manchu staple "Bobo" and steamed dishes are arranged, showing that the food cultures of the Manchu and Han were not merely placed side-by-side, but integrated into a single banquet.

The salt merchants of Yangzhou who supported these banquets kept excellent private chefs in their respective residences, and by exchanging their techniques, they created new dishes one after another. During his southern inspection tours, the Qianlong Emperor was very fond of Yangzhou chefs and had them accompany him to be employed in the Imperial Kitchen in Beijing. As I have discussed in past blogs, the movement of these chefs led to the influx of the refined "Huaiyang cuisine" cooking methods of the south into the Qing court in the north, which resulted in raising the quality of the imperial meals.

The "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" was not transmitted in a one-way direction from the court to the provinces, but was refined through a continuous spiral of technical exchange between local commercial society and the imperial kitchen.

The system of the Four Eight Treasures and the ecological impact of rare ingredients

One of the factors that determines the value of the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" as a cuisine is the existence of the "Eight Treasures," which covers extremely rare and hard-to-obtain ingredients. Originally, the Eight Treasures in the world of Chinese cuisine meant super-luxury ingredients, but in the Qing Dynasty's Manchu-Han Imperial Feast, its value cannot be measured solely in the financial context of expensive ingredients.

It was also a symbol of imperial power, which could govern and collect the blessings of nature from far-off places, extracted from a vast territory.

In the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast," this is further subdivided, and a total of 32 types of ingredients, eight from each of the realms of mountain, sea, bird, and plant, are systematized as the Four Eight Treasures.

The contents of these "Four Eight Treasures" are defined as follows.

• Mountain Eight Treasures: Rare land parts consisting of camel hump, bear paw, monkey brain, ape lips (meat around the mouth of certain fish), elephant trunk, leopard fetus, rhinoceros tail, and deer tendon.

• Sea Eight Treasures: Treasures of the water and sea consisting of bird's nest, shark fin, large sea cucumber, large fish maw, sturgeon cartilage, abalone, sea lion meat, and giant salamander.

• Bird Eight Treasures: Prey of the sky consisting of red swallow (a certain migratory bird), white crane, quail, swan, partridge, colorful bird (beautiful birds like peacocks), turtle dove, and red-headed hawk (a type of bird of prey).

• Plant Eight Treasures: Fungi and plants of the earth consisting of lion's mane mushroom, white wood ear, bamboo fungus, rare wild mushrooms, morel, high-quality shiitake, daylily flower buds, and cloud-scented mushrooms (wild mushrooms with a strong aroma).

Even today, the development of logistics networks is essential for securing ingredients, but in the Qing Dynasty, it was necessary to collect rare ingredients from the east, west, south, and north.

In the imperial court, the highest-grade wild animals and plants of the land were presented to the Emperor as tribute by local officials from various regions every year.

Naturally, the procurement of these wild animals and rare ingredients not only placed a serious burden on the ecosystem but also became a factor that strained the national finances.

In fact, there is a record that in the era of the Qianlong Emperor, more than 10,000 taels of silver were spent annually just on the procurement of fruit.

You might not get a sense of it, but 10,000 taels of "silver," which was used as currency, is about 400 kg.

Very roughly, calculating at today's silver market price, it is about 135 million yen.

With just the fruit, that is.

After the Daoguang Emperor, from the 18th to the 19th century, as the national power of the Qing Dynasty declined, such extreme procurement of luxury ingredients was naturally forced to shrink. This was on the eve of the Opium War.

Beyond the direct context of reduced budgets for ingredient procurement, it also meant that logistics networks and the tribute system from the provinces were paralyzed, and the ruling power itself, which had collected rare delicacies from the mountains and seas across its vast territory, was lost.

And because proper records remain, comparisons can be made.

When the Old Summer Palace was burned by the Anglo-French forces in 1860, the table of the Xianfeng Emperor, who had fled to Rehe, was set with only a dozen or so dishes.

When the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor, while fleeing west, had no choice but to stave off hunger on the road with humble mantou (a staple food made from corn flour).

Thus, the 'Manchu Han Imperial Feast' featuring the 'Forty-Eight Delicacies' was a symbol of extremely unstable authority that could only be maintained during the political and economic peak of the Qing Dynasty.

All things are impermanent.

Strict Etiquette at Imperial Banquets

The 'Manchu Han Imperial Feast' was not merely a dinner party for lining up and eating luxurious food. It required extremely strict dining etiquette.

If the 'Manchu (or) Han Imperial Feast' had been a dinner party intended solely for the Emperor's luxury, such strict etiquette would not have been necessary. After all, one could just eat. In reality, because the dining setting itself was a political space that made the Emperor's absolute power felt and reaffirmed the status order of the officials, harsh physical rituals were imposed.

At formal state banquets, attendees had to perform harsh physical rituals, totaling 'kneeling thirty-three times and kowtowing ninety-nine times' as the banquet progressed. This thorough physical constraint shows that the dining space was a place for visually and viscerally instilling the Emperor's absolute power.

While eating, one is being disciplined.

Yes. Intense stress and intense pleasure.

It is a system very close to 'brainwashing' in the modern sense.

This is likely the essence of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, and the essence of Kong Family Cuisine. And, perhaps, it can also be seen as the hidden system of Confucianism.

The strictness extended to the fine etiquette of how to eat at the table. The Qing court introduced the etiquette of serving meals as defined in the 'Quli' (Summary of the Rules of Propriety) of the 'Book of Rites,' an ancient Chinese classic on etiquette, and applied it even more strictly than at the time. Representative norms included the following:

• Wu Tuan Fan: A rule that one must not roll rice into large balls to eat, which was to prevent giving the impression of being base or competing for food as if starving.

• Wu Fang Fan: A rule that one must not return food to the dish once it has been brought to the mouth, which was strictly prohibited as an act that gives an unclean impression to those around.

• Wu Liu Ge: A rule that one must not eat hurriedly with large mouthfuls or make loud noises while chewing, which was intended to warn against excessive obsession with food.

You may have seen these manners somewhere before; yes, these manners were transmitted to Japan and are taught in homes and schools. The teachings of Confucianism have been passed down and inherited in modern Japan (though you may not realize it).

It may be a system designed to create a populace obedient to authority, cloaked in the guise of etiquette. Thinking of it that way, the "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" might actually be quite frightening.

Incidentally, the process of serving the banquet also proceeds under precise time management and spatial staging. First, before the banquet begins, the "Fengxiang Shangshou" ceremony is performed, and incense is burned in the room while ancient music is played. After that, cold appetizers, "bobo" (pastries), tea, and palate-cleansing pickles are served in sequence.

Before and after the main dishes (hot soups and meat dishes) appear, noble huanjiang (alcoholic beverages) are reverently poured by court ladies-in-waiting. Furthermore, hearty roasted dishes like "Gualu Shanji" (hanging-oven pheasant) and "Shengkao Paorou" (roasted roe deer meat), which evoke memories of the Manchu hunting culture, are served, and the meal concludes with vegetable dishes, dim sum, and soup.

These procedures were controlled to match the tempo of the music, and it is said that the attending officials had no choice but to follow the order solemnly.

Could they even remember the types or tastes of the dishes?

Lists and sequences of the dishes served remain, but the fact that there are few records of people enjoying the food at court might be because there was indeed intense stress.

Transmission and Development in Modern Times

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the skilled chefs who had once worked in the imperial kitchens and longevity kitchens scattered among the public, bringing their secret techniques to the city. Thus, specialty restaurants where even ordinary citizens could experience the flavors of the Qing imperial court were born, centered in Beijing. Let us briefly touch upon the most famous success story, "Fangshan Restaurant," which opened in Beihai Park in Beijing in 1925.

Fangshan Restaurant was originally founded as a small teahouse called "Fangshan Teahouse," serving imperial dim sum and snacks that were once made in the imperial kitchens. As the name "Fangshan" (imitating the imperial meal) suggests, it pursued the faithful imitation of imperial meals, and eventually, its high level of skill was recognized, leading it to develop into a full-scale restaurant.

Here, famous dishes once served at court, such as pea flour cakes, kidney bean rolls, and minced meat sesame cakes, are still handmade today, inheriting the recipes of that time.

In addition, "Tingli Guan" (Listening to Orioles Pavilion) inside the Summer Palace also offers elegant imperial cuisine based on the menus of the former longevity kitchens. Registered as a Chinese national-level intangible cultural heritage, its techniques are still being preserved today.

The provision of imperial cuisine in modern times is forced to compromise due to modern laws regulating the protection of wild animals and the trade of endangered species. Naturally, one cannot (usually) use ingredients that were once lined up in the "Manchu Han Imperial Feast," such as bear paws, orangutan lips, or monkey brains, as they were.

To address this challenge, modern imperial chefs have applied the cooking principles passed down through generations, developing techniques to reproduce the former aesthetics and textures using alternative ingredients. For example, to reproduce the unique gelatinous quality and rich flavor of bear paws, a method is used where beef tendon and venison are precisely processed and simmered for several days. Instead of shark fin, high-quality alternative fibers made from agar or mung bean starch are used, allowing one to simulate the luxurious texture of the past by having them absorb the umami of the soup.

The development of this alternative technology is not merely nostalgia, a compromise, or even a technique for making money (?!).

Let's try it in a Japanese home

The glamorous appearance of imperial cuisine gives the impression that it is impossible to reproduce at home. However, the essence of its flavor creation lies in the careful preparation of ingredients and traditional heat control, that is, the technique of manipulating heat conduction.

If the imperial chefs of that time were to visit a typical Japanese supermarket and use the latest cooking appliances to reproduce imperial cuisine, it would easily surpass the imperial cuisine of that time.

With that said, we finally move on to two recipes for reproducing the traditions of the Qing imperial court and the Kong family at home, using ingredients that can be procured in Japan.

The first one we will reproduce is a representative dish of Kong family cuisine, which is also famous as a staple at Beijing's "Fangshan Restaurant" and "Tingli Guan": Yipin Tofu. The original "Yipin Tofu" requires a meticulous process of hollowing out a large piece of tofu and stuffing it with high-end ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, shrimp, and Jinhua ham, then steaming it. For reproduction at home, I have arranged it into a practical recipe that simplifies these advanced knife skills while reproducing the crispy texture on the outside, the silky smoothness on the inside, and the rich umami of the mushrooms.

Yipin Tofu

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

Cotton tofu: 1 block (approx. 350g to 400g)
Long green onion: 1/2 stalk
Shimeji mushrooms: 50g
Potato starch: 3 tbsp
Cake flour: 1 tbsp
Salad oil: 3 tbsp
Sesame oil: 1 tbsp

Seasonings

Water: 1/2 cup
Soy sauce: 1 1/2 tbsp
Mirin: 1 tbsp (adjust to taste)
Chicken bouillon powder: 1/2 tsp
Doubanjiang (spicy bean paste): 1/2 tsp
Water-diluted potato starch: as needed

Cooking Steps

1. Cut the cotton tofu in half lengthwise, then divide into bite-sized pieces about 1.5 cm thick. Place them on a draining rack to let the moisture drain naturally. (If you are short on time, you can place them on a heat-resistant plate and microwave for about 1 minute at 600W without plastic wrap to quickly remove excess moisture.)

2. Slice the long green onion diagonally, and trim the stems off the shimeji mushrooms and break them into small pieces.

3. Mix the potato starch and cake flour in a bowl, and coat the tofu pieces evenly after wiping off any excess moisture.

4. Blending potato starch and cake flour in a 3:1 ratio creates a thin, crispy coating when pan-fried.

5. This is because using only potato starch makes the coating too hard, while using only cake flour loses the crispiness; mixing them allows for the release of moisture while forming a light, crispy, porous coating.

6. Heat the salad oil in a frying pan, arrange the tofu, and cook over medium heat.

7. At this time, do not touch them frequently with chopsticks. Let them cook slowly for 5 to 6 minutes until one side is naturally crispy and releases from the pan, then flip and cook both sides until golden brown before removing to a plate.

8. Wipe any excess oil from the pan, heat the sesame oil, and stir-fry the long green onion and doubanjiang. Once fragrant, add the soy sauce, mirin, water, chicken bouillon powder, and shimeji mushrooms, and bring to a boil over medium heat.

9. Once the shimeji mushrooms have softened, pour in the water-diluted potato starch to thicken the sauce, then return the tofu to the pan and gently coat it with the sauce.

10. Serve on a plate and garnish with chopped green onions if desired.

Next, we will recreate Zhuachao Liji, which uses traditional techniques from the Beijing Imperial Kitchen, said to have been devised by Wang Fengnian, a court chef at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Zhuachao is a technique where meat is quickly fried and instantly coated in a sweet and sour sauce. It is characterized by a lighter coating than the typical Japanese sweet and sour pork, maintaining its crispiness even after cooling. To achieve this light texture, the way the coating is made and the management of the sauce's consistency are crucial. Please give it a try.

Zhuachao Liji

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

Pork tenderloin (or pork loin block): 250 grams
Egg white: 1
Cornstarch: 4 tablespoons
Flour: 1 tablespoon
Frying oil: as needed

Seasoning

Salt: 1/3 teaspoon
Sake (or Shaoxing wine): 1 tablespoon
Ginger juice: 1 teaspoon

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Sugar: 4 tablespoons
Brewed vinegar: 2 tablespoons
Soy sauce: 1 tablespoon
Water: 2 tablespoons
Cornstarch: 1 teaspoon
Sesame oil: 1 teaspoon

Cooking Steps

1. Slice the pork into thin pieces about 5 millimeters thick and 2 centimeters wide.

2. In a bowl, rub the salt, sake, and ginger juice into the meat and let it sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to penetrate.

3. Add the egg white to the seasoned meat and mix, then gradually add the cornstarch, flour, and a little water, adjusting until the surface of the meat is coated in a thick, sticky batter.

4. Heat the frying oil to 170°C, carefully add the coated meat one piece at a time, and fry for about 2 minutes until the batter sets.

5. Remove the meat once, raise the oil temperature to 190°C, and return the meat to the oil to double-fry for about 30 seconds. (The purpose of this double-frying is to gently cook the inside of the meat during the first 170°C fry, and then to rapidly vaporize the moisture in the batter during the 190°C second fry to increase internal pressure, ensuring a crispy texture that won't become greasy even after cooling.)

6. In a separate frying pan, mix the sweet and sour sauce ingredients well, pour them in all at once, and heat over medium heat until the mixture bubbles vigorously and thickens into a clear glaze.

7. Once the sauce has thickened sufficiently, add the freshly fried meat and quickly move the pan to evenly coat the surface of the meat with the sauce.

8. Finish by drizzling with sesame oil and serve immediately on a plate.

The Future of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast

Admittedly, the "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" of the past might be summarized as "the pinnacle of extravagant, colorful imperial cuisine."

When Japan was booming during the bubble economy, many Japanese visited the Fangshan Restaurant, indulging in events where they paid millions of yen to enjoy the cuisine for three days and three nights.

However, as you may have gathered from reading this article, the "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" is not merely a collection of luxurious delicacies; it is a historical product born from the complex intertwining of political, ceremonial, and cultural processes.

I hope you have come to understand that it is not just about the positive aspects like taste or culinary technique, but that by learning about the process of its birth and implementation, it is not something to be enjoyed lightly or taken for granted.

It was a fleeting, dreamlike act in the grand scope of Chinese history, where two peoples clashed, established a relationship of dominance, achieved a fusion of cultures, and while incorporating elements from both sides, eventually vanished, swept away by the currents of history.

However, the Manchu and Han peoples once truly respected each other's cultures, understood the symbolism embedded within them, and created a system that could be called the pinnacle of a single culture.

The banquet dishes you participate in next may also hold various political and cultural implications.

Perhaps you, as you digest them, are the one to inherit that system and carry it forward to the next stage.

With the passage of time, there are things that change and cultures that fade away.

I would like to put down my pen while reflecting on what we can read from those records and how we can turn them into our own happiness.

Well then, the first part of the Shandong cuisine series concludes here for now.

See you next time in the 'Guizhou Cuisine' series!