Sushi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Lüliuju vegetarian cuisine cooking craft is a traditional vegetarian-making craft circulated in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, founded in Nanjing and radiating to surrounding areas. The Lüliuju vegetarian restaurant was founded in the late Qing dynasty in the then-fu city of Jiangning Prefecture, characterized by operating vegetarian dishes, and formed and inherited its cooking craft. Counting from Chen Bingyu, who laid an important foundation for the craft's formation and development during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, there have been five generations of inheritors to this day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The ancient city of Nanjing lies on the bank of the Yangtze River, in a north-subtropical humid climate, with distinct four seasons and abundant rainfall; within the city it is embraced by mountains and wound through by rivers and lakes. The Lüliuju vegetarian cuisine cooking craft stresses the use of vegetarian raw materials such as vegetables, fungi, and soy products, processed through manual techniques of wrapping, stacking, rubbing, pounding, pinching, and rolling, and using dozens of cooking methods such as frying, quick-frying with sauce, quick-frying, stir-frying, steaming, boiling, and scalding, to make various delicious dishes. The craft uses Jiangnan's abundant vegetables, fungi, and soy products as raw materials, stressing season, quality, and freshness, making good use of local specialties such as chrysanthemum greens, wolfberry sprouts, osmanthus sprouts, and nuts, and selecting different raw materials according to the dish variety and even the season. Its cooking process is refined, and its shaping lifelike. It organically combines Jinling's handmade vegetarian cuisine with the rich culinary skills of the Jiangnan region, with fine knife work and emphasis on variation, mostly using methods such as frying, quick-frying with sauce, quick-frying, and stir-frying, characterized by original flavor, freshness, tenderness, crispness, and fragrance. It excels at using characteristic methods to draw stock for umami, able to draw both red and white umami stocks from entirely vegetarian materials; it is also good at the manual skill of "supporting meat with vegetarian," making pictographic and shaped dishes such as vegetarian knife fish, vegetarian beef, and eight-treasure duck, achieving "whatever meat has, vegetarian has," with shapes and flavors similar to meat dishes, able to pass as the real thing. The traditional vegetarian cooking craft is relatively completely preserved by Lüliuju. On the basis of inheriting ancient Chinese vegetarian cooking craft, and combined with Nanjing's local culture, customs, products, and natural conditions, Lüliuju vegetarian cuisine cooking formed its own distinctive craft style. This craft is a principal representative of the traditional processing craft of Jiangnan-area vegetarian products, and its cooking process and cultural connotation reflect the diversity of China's traditional vegetarian cooking craft.
Wrapping, folding, rolling and shaping
Vegetables, fungi and bean products are worked by wrapping, folding, rolling and shaping before they become dishes.
Dozens of cooking methods
Dozens of methods—frying, swivelling, quick-frying, stir-frying, steaming, boiling and blanching—give vegetable ingredients the savoury character of meat dishes.
Vegetables shaped to look like meat
Vegetable dishes are shaped to resemble fish, beef or eight-treasure duck, so that wherever meat is served there is its vegetarian counterpart.
Vegetable stocks, clear and red
The kitchen can draw clear and red stocks from vegetable ingredients alone, giving two different foundations for a banquet.
Seasonal greens of Nanjing
The kitchen follows the seasons, choosing Nanjing greens such as chrysanthemum shoots and osmanthus buds by dish and by month.
Five generations from Chen Bingyu
Counting from Chen Bingyu of the late Qing there have been five generations of inheritors, alongside widespread home cooking of vegetarian food in Nanjing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The islets of Jiangxinzhou and Baguazhou, with their shoals and sandy lowlands, have since ancient times been given mainly to vegetable cultivation, providing the vegetarian cooking with uniquely favorable natural conditions and high-quality raw materials. In the Nanjing area, ordinary households also cook vegetarian food, with a fairly high degree of public participation.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sushi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The survival of the Lüliuju vegetarian cuisine cooking craft in Nanjing and the middle and lower Yangtze rests on the stable material supply of Jiangnan vegetables, fungi, and soy products. The islets of Jiangxinzhou and Baguazhou, with their shoals and sandy lowlands, have since ancient times been given mainly to vegetable cultivation, and local households also often cook vegetarian food themselves, with a fairly high degree of public participation; this bottom-up foundation means Lüliuju's craft is not isolated in a single shop. From the perspective of inheritance, the Lüliuju vegetarian restaurant was founded in the late Qing dynasty in the then-fu city of Jiangning Prefecture, characterized by operating vegetarian dishes, and formed and inherited its cooking craft. Counting from Chen Bingyu, who laid an important foundation for the craft's formation and development during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, there have been five generations of inheritors to this day. This thread of succession explains both the shop's own line and the fact that Nanjing's local vegetarian food has always had someone carrying it on. Within the single city of Nanjing, the practice of stressing season, quality, and freshness and making good use of local specialties such as chrysanthemum greens, wolfberry sprouts, and osmanthus sprouts echoes the seasonal snacks of the Qinhuai area, so the craft is both banquet skill and household craft—this branch holds a prominent place in the Jiangnan vegetarian recipe system, each with its own strengths alongside the vegetarianisms of Huzhou and Changzhou. Within Nanjing, the practice of stressing season, quality, and freshness and making good use of local specialties such as chrysanthemum greens, wolfberry sprouts, and osmanthus sprouts also echoes the seasonal snacks of the Qinhuai area, so the craft is both banquet skill and household craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Youming 03-1427
- Zhang Zhijun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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