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look at boat dwellers' cuisine
Latest Updated by 2002-04-26 15:16:09
THE boat dwellers of South China, who live on the sea all year round, have created their own unique cuisine. Their dishes, though rather simple and not well-known, are often outstanding and nourishing, according to Nanhai Fishing Village, a restaurant serving them.
Making full use of their unique life style, the boat dwellers' cuisine features a lot of seafood. One famous dish is "fishing village soup," which is highly nutritious and is made from stewing many varieties of seafood. As fishing needs a lot of labor, a boat-dwelling family usually has several children. Mothers breast-feed their babies, so they need to eat something highly nutritious. This dense soup, which is milky-white and delicious, can help mothers secrete more milk.
"Chicken with sea horses," which is cooked with salt, sugar, sea horses, American ginseng and red Chinese dates, is also good for diet therapy, especially for men, as it is conductive to strengthening stamina and nourishing kidneys. Traditionally, the chickens were fairly fat and tasted a bit greasy owing to the leftover seafood they were fed with by the boat dwellers, but the restaurant uses chickens not so fat to suit customers' tastes. However, with the cooking method just the same, the dish is still tender and refreshing with more essence in the broth.
"Shrimps boiled with rice wine" gives full play to the freshness of shrimps by using rice wine the boat dwellers make according to an ancient recipe. The fragrance of the wine fills the boat during the course of cooking, so there is a saying that "the wine cooked at the stern can intoxicate those at the helm."
"Crabs with ginger and vinegar for childbirth" is believed to help new mothers in postnatal recovery and is regarded by boat-dwelling women as a treasure in aiding them to regain normality.
With hundreds of different dishes, the choice is endless. Diners thinking of eating boat-dwellers' cuisine should be careful of one of their taboos – don't turn the fish over if you dine with other people, as they see this as an omen of turning over their boat. In addition, most boat dwellers do not eat beef due to their religious belief, so there is no hope of finding beef in their dishes.
Editor: Weiwei
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By:Lan Xiaoke Source：
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