Ping Le Roast Meat

Ping Le Roast Meat

　　Ping Le Roast Meat is a specialty dish from Ping Le Town, Mengjin County, Luoyang City, Henan Province. The Ping Le Roast Meat from Mengjin boasts bright colors, a soft yet chewy texture, and an aroma that is rich without being greasy.

　　In the 1850s and 1860s, Ping Le Roast Meat was originally created by Guo Jili, a native of Ping Le Village in Ping Le Town, Mengjin County, and has a history of over a hundred years. It is characterized by a combination of meat and vegetables, tender and refreshing texture, and a flavor that is neither greasy nor heavy. Currently, this craft is being passed down by Guo Sui Xin and his son Guo Lei, descendants of Guo Jili and operators of Meishilin Shuixi Garden in Ping Le Town. Nowadays, during festivals or celebrations such as weddings and funerals in Ping Le Town and surrounding areas, the banquets held are called “Official Tables,” and roast meat is an indispensable delicacy on these tables. It has been included in the city’s intangible cultural heritage protection list.

　　1 A Unique Delicacy on the “Official Table”

　　　　Ping Le Village in Ping Le Town, Mengjin County, is located at the site of the ancient capital of the Han and Wei dynasties and got its name from the Ping Le Observatory built by Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty to house the bronze horse statue of Fei Lian.

　　　　When people talk about Ping Le Town in Mengjin County, they immediately think of the nationally renowned Ping Le Bone-Setting Technique and farmer-created peony paintings. But many don’t know that Ping Le Town also has a famous dish—roast meat.

　　　　Meishilin Shuixi Garden is located southwest of the Ping Le Town government building. Its manager, Guo Sui Xin, is the fifth-generation inheritor of Ping Le Roast Meat. Counting from his ancestor Guo Jili, Ping Le Roast Meat has a history of over a hundred years.

　　　　Guo Jili was born in 1842 in Ping Le Village and came from a poor family in his youth. In the 1850s and 1860s, to support his family, he became a kitchen assistant at a prince’s residence through an introduction. Guo Jili was intelligent, eager to learn, and humble, and he picked up a lot of culinary skills. Once, when important guests were visiting, the prince asked the chefs to prepare a dish that was different from the usual delicacies but could still highlight local characteristics. After much thought, Guo Jili created a dish: using local sweet potato starch, sweet potato noodles, pork belly, and chicken eggs as ingredients, he parboiled the sweet potato noodles until they were 60–70% cooked, chopped them up, and mixed them with minced meat, sweet potato starch, scallions, ginger, garlic, and a secret blend of seasonings, then added fresh meat broth. He spread the mixture into a rectangular block, fried it in oil until 70% cooked, steamed it in a basket for an hour, and after removing it from the basket, sliced it into strips and served it in blue-flower-patterned porcelain bowls made in Luoyang. The honored guests praised it highly, saying the dish combined meat and vegetables without being greasy. Because the initial shape of the dish was spread out during preparation, it was given the homophonic name “roast meat.”

　　　　Roast meat is fragrant, soft, and delicious, and is also very popular among the people. After a century of history, it remains fragrant in the ancient capital and has become a beloved dish for people in Ping Le Town and surrounding areas, with almost every household knowing how to make it. In Ping Le Town and nearby regions, banquets held during festivals or celebrations such as weddings and funerals are called “Official Tables,” and roast meat is an essential dish on these tables.

　　2 Carefully Selected Ingredients for Fragrant Meat

　　　　Recently, in the kitchen of Meishilin Shuixi Garden, the reporter saw Guo Sui Xin busy preparing dishes with the chefs. On a large stove, a multi-layered steamer was steaming roast meat. Soon, seven or eight bowls of shiny roast meat were taken out of the steamer. Guo Sui Xin sprinkled some chopped coriander on top, making the white and green colors especially enticing. I picked up a piece and put it in my mouth—it was soft and tender, not sticky or greasy, with the sweetness of the starch complementing the aroma of the meat perfectly. It was truly a fine dish.

　　　　The best ingredients from nature make the most authentic flavors. To ensure that this classic delicacy remains the same for a hundred years, every year during the sweet potato harvest season, Guo Sui Xin buys tens of thousands of pounds of sweet potatoes and processes them into sweet potato starch and noodles himself. Although the process is tedious and the cost is high, Guo Sui Xin believes it is worth the effort.

　　　　One of the ingredients of roast meat—pork belly—is now hard to find, so Guo Sui Xin goes to the market to select free-range pigs to ensure the meat is tender and flavorful. For chicken eggs, he purchases them from households in nearby villages. “The yolk of free-range eggs has higher viscosity. Only by using free-range eggs can we ensure that the starch and meat bind together without falling apart,” Guo Sui Xin said. “Actually, the cooking technique for roast meat is public knowledge, but the standards for ingredient selection are very high. If you lower the quality of the ingredients, the deliciousness of the roast meat will be greatly reduced.”

　　3 Spare No Effort in Passing It On

　　　　Due to the high-quality ingredients used in Ping Le Roast Meat, the complicated production process, and the impact of various other cuisines, the inheritance of Ping Le Roast Meat is facing a crisis.

　　　　Guo Sui Xin’s grandfather, Guo Ruo, traveled to Luoyang and Xi’an to learn how to make this famous dish in order to pass it on. In 1959, he founded Si Hai Chun Restaurant in Ping Le Town, which later closed for various reasons. In 1978, Guo Sui Xin invested 5,000 yuan to reopen Si Hai Chun Restaurant. Relying on roast meat as the signature dish and honest business practices, the restaurant operated successfully. In 1996, Guo Sui Xin renamed the restaurant “Meishilin Shuixi Garden.”

　　　　In 2002, Guo Sui Xin developed a roast meat food container and launched a countryside food promotion campaign, which was well received by the surrounding community, resulting in a continuous stream of orders. At the same time, he opened his doors to recruit apprentices to learn the art of making roast meat and personally taught them.

　　　　Guo Sui Xin stated: “As long as it helps pass on the craft of making roast meat, I am willing to teach anyone who wants to learn without holding anything back!”