Vegetarian Feast

Vegetarian Feast

　　China has traditionally been a predominantly vegetarian society, originally unrelated to Buddhist vegetarianism. The records the phrase, "eating vegetables and wandering freely, like an unmoored boat." Later, Han Chinese Buddhists inherited this fine tradition, transforming it from a cultural practice into a religious one. Back when old Baotou only had three traditional dishes—cold bean sprouts, meat, and a large stew—the vegetarian feast became one of the city’s renowned dishes. The master of vegetarian feasts was Venerable Longmiao, abbot of Miaofa Temple (originally named Lian Juxiang). Born in the tenth year of the Xianfeng era (1860 AD), he continued to prepare vegetarian feasts until his death in 1921, including one for the 70th birthday of Zou Yaochen’s (also known as Zou Baobao) father, a wealthy tycoon from West Baotou. The vegetarian dishes mainly used tofu products and fresh vegetables, supplemented with winter bamboo shoots, mushrooms, wood ear fungus, daylilies, and more, and were cooked to achieve appealing color, aroma, taste, and presentation, mimicking the qualities of meat dishes. There were also homemade vegetarian wines (fermented from yellow millet porridge, spleen-strengthening and kidney-nourishing herbal juices, rock sugar, red dates, longan flesh, and raisin juice). A full vegetarian feast was refreshing and light, leaving diners free of worldly thoughts and evoking a feeling of drifting along rivers and lakes. In the early years of the Republic of China, Baotou restaurants offered vegetarian dishes with distinctive flavors such as Stir-Fried North and South (mushrooms stir-fried with dried bamboo shoots) and Wei Chi’s White Robe (wood ear fungus stir-fried with mung bean sprouts, where Wei Chi is a compound surname). The most skilled vegetarian dishes created by Baotou masters Huang Yongcheng and Hao Chengxiang included “Roast Duck” made from wheat gluten—crispy-skinned and tender-fleshed—and “Braised Chicken,” with soft skin and firm meat that tasted increasingly like chicken the more you chewed.