A typical display of dishes eaten at the Zhenyuan vegetarian feast. Yang Mei
The ancient city of Zhenyuan, located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, is host to numerous historical sites and a cuisine that boasts unique features. Zhenyuan’s renowned vegetarian feast can be traced back to the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and is a local food culture rooted in a combination of the local Buddhist and Taoist diet and folk vegetarian dishes. Its ingredients mostly consist of fresh vegetables, fruits, and beans. It now has a history of more than 400 years and was designated as a provincial intangible cultural heritage item in 2019.
There were many temples in Zhenyuan in the past. As consumption of meat is forbidden for monks and nuns of Buddhism and Taoism, they used seasonal vegetables to cook tasty dishes and treat temple visitors with them. Gradually a whole set of vegetarian meal preparation techniques were developed, and became popular in Zhenyuan beyond the temples. On the basis of the temple’s culinary techniques, the people overtime have continued to add to and improve those dishes, gradually developing a high-quality Zhenyuan vegetarian feast.
The key features of the Zhenyuan vegetarian feast are: first, it used to be made at temples, mostly by monks and nuns; second, its ingredients are plant-based; third, it draws from the cooking techniques of meat, and the vegetarian dishes are also named similar to the meat ones they imitate; fourth, the superb ability of imitating meat dishes not only means that the vegetarian food looks like meat, but it also tastes like meat, such as vegetarian chicken, duck, and fish. By the Qing Dynasty, the vegetarian food originating from Zhenyuan’s temples had evolved into a vegetarian feast that was known for its excellent taste.
The main ingredients of Zhenyuan vegetarian feast are soybean products, with sides consisting of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and medicinal herbs. The selection of materials is rigorous, mostly using three mushrooms – which are rock tripe (an edible lichen), yellow fungus, and snow fungus – and seasonal vegetables. This feast also requires deft knife work, and aims to achieve a similar form and taste of the meat-based dish it is based on – but with different ingredients. The secret of knife skills for vegetarian dishes is cutting “chicken” into threads, cutting “duck” into chunks, cutting “fish” into slices, and cutting “fish” into fillets. The techniques of using heat, seasoning, cooking, and plating are also important. There is a rich diversity of flavors such as salty, sweet, sour, and spicy, further processed by steaming, stir-frying, deep-frying, and other cooking methods. The vegetarian feast features appetizing colors, aromas, and tastes.
Being healthy and green, the vegetarian feast has been loved and promoted by many discerning gourmands. The Zhenyuan vegetarian feast keeps attracting new fans to come and savor its rich delicacies that have survived and thrived for over four centuries.
