Liaocaichuantongpengrenjiyi
01 · Historical Records
At present the traditional making craft of Liaoning cuisine is mainly distributed in Shenyang, Jinzhou, Dandong, Yingkou, Huludao, Tieling, Fushun, Liaoyang, Anshan, Chaoyang, Fuxin and other places in Liaoning. Liaoning is the birthplace of the Qing dynasty. The older generation of inheritors, including Liang Zhong, Wang Zhanshan and Yan Qinghong, combined the essence of traditional Shandong cuisine techniques with the characteristics of Manchu, Mongol, Korean and Han ethnic dishes, using raw materials produced in Liaoning and drawing on the advantages of the Northeast's climate, mountains and rivers, and gradually formed the Liaoning cuisine school.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Liaoning cuisine is the abbreviated name of the Liaoning cuisine system. It is a local cuisine created by using green food raw materials produced in Liaoning and its distinctive cooking techniques, combined with the ethnic characteristics, regional features, dietary customs and cooking methods of the Liaoning area, and it takes palace cuisine, princely-house cuisine, market cuisine, folk cuisine, ethnic cuisine and seafood cuisine as its basic framework. Liaoning cuisine has a rich variety of dishes and pays particular attention to the use of local specialty ingredients; represented by the Lumingchun Restaurant in Shenyang and the Qunyinglou in Dalian, it has famous dishes cooked with mountain delicacies and game as well as exquisite dishes made from seafood. Liaoning cuisine is skilled in more than 30 techniques such as braising (pa), quick-frying with sauce (liu), frying, deep-frying, stewing (hui) and roasting, and is especially noted for 'pa'. The large pan-flip in 'pa' dishes is a unique skill of Liaoning cuisine; dishes such as 'three whites braised' (pa san bai) come out of the pan neat and uniform without losing their shape. In operation it advocates a slow fire and meticulous work and pays attention to seasoning, having the characteristics of one dish with many flavours, a clear distinction between salty and sweet, crisp-tender and fragrant-crisp textures, bright colour and rich taste, tight sauce clinging to the starch glaze, and high nutritional value. The overall characteristics of Liaoning cuisine are attention to heat control, mellow and fragrant richness, original juice and original flavour, and plainness and good value; the dishes are cooked tender but not raw, thoroughly done but not overdone, thoroughly soft but not dry and fibrous, crisp outside and tender inside, crisp outside and soft inside. With umami as the core, it accommodates sour, sweet, bitter, hot and salty, and has many dishes with rich, fragrant flavours. The cooking craft of Liaoning cuisine had already reached a considerable level in the Liao and Jin periods. Its disciples in turn brought Liaoning cuisine to the general public and founded a number of restaurant enterprises in various parts of Liaoning, forming the Liaoning cuisine market system. Liaoning cuisine carries the deep cultural deposits of Liaoning and displays the ethnic flavours and dietary customs of the Liaoning area; it is an important part of Chinese food culture.
The great pan-toss
The signature technique of Liaoning cuisine: the pan is lifted and the whole contents tossed and caught again, requiring a steady wrist and full commitment so the fire and juices are not lost and the dish keeps its shape.
Thick-sauced bai san bai
Pork knuckle, trotter and belly are braised together; the starch is bound at the last moment so it clings without running, and the dish leaves the pan in perfect order, matching the skill of the pan-toss.
How six families of Liaoning dishes draw their materials
Court, princely, folk, customary, ethnic and seafood dishes draw on different conventions while sharing the same techniques, forming the skeleton of Liaoning cuisine.
Slow cooking and the order of seasoning
Liaoning cooking builds flavour in layers: a base taste first and refinements after, so the order of seasoning cannot be reversed, and tenderness without rawness comes from slow cooking rather than fierce frying.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The traditional cooking craft of Liaoning cuisine has Shenyang as its distribution centre; Jinzhou, Dandong and Yingkou enjoy the convenience of seafood thanks to their ports, while western and northern Liaoning are rich in mountain delicacies and game; the same 'pa' dish is garnished differently on the coast and in the mountains. Local inheritors in turn divide the cuisine into six categories — palace cuisine, princely-house cuisine, market cuisine, folk cuisine, ethnic cuisine and seafood cuisine — each with its own approach to ingredients and seasoning. Among the representative establishments, the Lumingchun Restaurant in Shenyang leans towards mountain delicacies, game and stewed or braised dishes, while the Qunyinglou in Dalian, being close to the sea, excels in seafood; one mountain and one sea, the two restaurants form the two main lines of Liaoning cuisine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, through restoration and protection, the master-apprentice transmission of Liaoning cuisine has developed soundly. The transmission and development of its cooking craft is a historical witness to the social development of Northeast China and has accumulated rich assets for the development of Chinese cooking techniques; it possesses considerable historical, economic and social-cultural value. Liu Jingxian (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in May 1944, a native of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Liaoning Cuisine Traditional Cooking Craft. A national special first-class chef. His representative dishes include 'Youlong Xifeng' (roaming dragon teasing phoenix), 'Fengtui Baoyu' (phoenix-leg abalone), 'Hongmei Yudu' (red-plum fish maw) and the Luming Banquet. He is devoted to the promotion and transmission of Liaoning cuisine, having taken on more than three thousand apprentices and taught more than seventy refresher courses for cooks, training more than thirty thousand Liaoning cuisine cooks for the whole country. He serves as a guest professor and adviser at several relevant professional institutions of higher education, and has produced more than ten textbooks and monographs, including 'The Cooking Methods of the Lumingchun Restaurant'.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Jingxian 05-2904
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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