Cir – Lesson 371
Chaogan in Beijing has a long history, evolving from folk foods of Aogan and Chaofei in Song dynasty. During Tongzhi reign in Qing dynasty, the restaurant called Huixianju made it without using starch, which got quite popular. In those years, there was a popular allegorical saying developed from Chaogan, “Chaogan without starch thickening – torturing heart and lung”. When eating Chaogan, the person should take a small dumpling in hand, and sip along the bowl ring.
In Qing dynasty, sales of Chaogan had two ways – from restaurants or peddlers carrying his outfits with a shoulder pole. Among the first kind, the most famous should be Huixianju outside of Qianmen.
The Chaogan made by Tianxingju in Beijing was awarded the title of Chinese famous snack by the National Cooking Association in December, 1997.
Chaogan was first invented by brothers of a Liu family, who ran a restaurant in Beijing called Huixianju. The three brother of Liu first sold boiled entrails, but the business was not much satisfied. Therefore, the three brothers often studied the ways to improve their products. Coincidentally, a famous reporter called Yang Manqing liked to visit snack bars in Beijing at that time, so he knew the Liu brothers well. When he knew their concerns, he suggested they take out the heart and lung from their product, then add soya paste and starch, but the name should not be stewed intestine but fried liver – Chaogan. He continued to tell the brothers that if people asked why it was called fried liver, the brothers should reply they the liver had actually been fried. Finally, he added that he would publish some articles to promote it for them. Hearing this, the brothers were very happy and followed what Yang had said. They soaked pork intestine in solution of soda and salt, then wash it with water and vinegar, and stew it with soft fire. When the intestine is well cooked, they took it out and cut into small segments. Then they sliced the fresh pork liver into strips like willow leaves. Next, they prepared seasoning. They put cooking oil into frying pan to fry anise, then put in raw garlic. After the garlic got yellow, put in soya paste. At the same time, they cooked soup with fine mushroom. When all these were ready, they began to make their Chaogan. First, they put the well cooked intestine segments into hot water, then garlic, soya paste, chopped onion, chopped ginger, mushroom soup. Next, they put in the slices of raw pork liver, and immediately thickened it with starch. Finally, they scattered some mashed garlic to finish their product. The soup of it is clear and bright, the pork intestine is soft and delicious, the liver is tender and fresh, so that the whole snack is tasty but not greasy, small wonder that it is one of the top snacks in Beijing.
(Source: bjchinese.bjedu.cn)