Shuangsha Radish Egg Dumplings

Shuangsha Radish Egg Dumplings

　　  It is said that when Su Dongpo was demoted and sent to serve as an official in Huizhou, Guangzhou, the monk Foyin was not angry upon hearing the news but delighted instead. Fond of traveling far and wide, he was thrilled that Su Dongpo would be coming to Guangdong and thus decided to follow him along the way. On their journey to take up the post, they passed through Shuangsha in Huangpu. It was already late in the evening—time for dinner.

    Foyin was not only a monk who enjoyed wine and meat but also a renowned food connoisseur with very refined tastes. He recalled the words from the Heart Sutra: “Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The same is true of feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness.” If there is a positive, there must be a negative—just like life, where there are ups, there are downs. One shouldn’t be too constrained by thoughts. He decided to test the innkeeper and requested a dish that was “dry and wet, golden and silver, meaty and vegetarian, floating and sinking.”

    The innkeeper was stumped—what did “dry and wet, golden and silver, meaty and vegetarian, floating and sinking” even mean? He thought hard but couldn’t come up with anything.

Su Dongpo, seeing this, called the innkeeper over and whispered something in his ear. Upon hearing it, the innkeeper’s face lit up with joy and he hurried into the kitchen at the back. Before long, a bowl of radish egg dumpling soup was served.

    In the clear broth floated half-moon-shaped egg dumplings, while beneath them lay sliced strips of radish. The outer layer of the egg dumplings was moist from the soup, but once you bit into one, the minced meat inside was completely separate from the broth—dry. That was the “dry and wet.” The egg dumplings were pan-fried until golden before being added to the boiling soup, and the broth also contained snow-white strips of radish—that was the “golden and silver.” The radish was a vegetarian ingredient, while the meat and eggs were meaty—this fulfilled Foyin’s request for “meaty and vegetarian.” On the surface of the soup floated the egg dumplings, while the radish sank to the bottom—wasn’t that the “floating and sinking”?

    Foyin had no choice but to pick up his chopsticks and start eating. After one taste, he found the soup truly delicious and extraordinary. And so, the fame of “Shuangsha Radish Egg Dumplings” spread far and wide.