How to eat crab roe soup dumplings

Crab roe soup dumplings are a traditional snack in Jiangsu. The ingredients used to make crab roe soup dumplings are very particular. The filling is crab roe and crab meat, the soup is original chicken soup, and the production process is exquisite. The main ingredients include live hairy crabs, hens, pork skin, high-gluten flour, etc. Crab roe soup dumplings have enjoyed a high reputation since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its characteristics are that the skin is as thin as paper and it breaks when blown. It is "uniquely" made, "beautiful" in shape and "strange" in eating method. The most famous ones are Nanjing Longpao Crab Roe Soup Dumplings, Jingjiang Crab Roe Soup Dumplings, Taixing Quxia Crab Roe Soup Dumplings, Zhenjiang Yanchun Crab Roe Soup Dumplings, and Huai'an Wenlou Crab Roe Soup Dumplings. Nanjing holds the Longpao Crab Roe Soup Dumpling Food Culture Festival throughout the year. So let’s learn how to eat crab roe soup dumplings!

1. According to historical and cultural legend, crab roe soup dumplings were already produced during the Three Kingdoms period. In the late Three Kingdoms period, when Zhuge Liang was seriously ill, he thought of the former lord Liu Bei, who had left Soochow Wu shortly after marrying a daughter-in-law. Sun Shangxiang was forced by Sun Quan to stay in her parents' home. Later, Sun and Liu each proclaimed themselves emperors and the two sides fought. Liu Bei was defeated and died of illness in Baidi City. Upon hearing the news, Mrs. Sun missed the love she had with her husband and was in great pain. She climbed up the Lingyun Pavilion on Beigushan Mountain, looked west to offer sacrifices, and then jumped into the river to commit suicide. Zhuge Liang was busy with the expedition and had no time to pay tribute to the spirits. Now that he is still alive, he sends people to Soochow to pay tribute and fulfill his wish. Zhuge Liang summoned the lieutenant Wu Laotou who had followed Liu Bei to the Soochow Wu, and asked him to go to the Soochow Wu to pay tribute to Lady Sun. Old Wu asked what items to bring for the tribute, and Zhuge Liang said to bring meat buns. When Old Man Wu heard this, he realized that this was a sacrifice made by the prime minister when he crossed the Lu River. He did not kill any living beings, but used meat wrapped in dough instead of human heads. After hearing the instructions, Old Man Wu said goodbye to the Prime Minister, took a boat to Jingkou, Dongwu, and told the local officials that he was there to pay tribute to Madam Sun. Upon hearing this, the prefect did not dare to neglect it and arranged for Old Man Wu to stay in the inn. After settling in, Old Man Wu found some flour and used a knife to chop the pork into pieces and mix it with the seasonings. He then remembered that his wife loved eating crabs when she was alive, so he got some crabs, cooked them, peeled out the crab roe and crab meat, and mixed them with the pork filling to make the filling. The next day, some local officials and entourage paid tribute with Old Man Wu. After arriving at the bank of the Beigushan River, Old Man Wu asked people to set up the incense table, light the incense and candles, put forty-nine meat buns on sticks, and take out the sacrificial text written by the prime minister and read it out. When everyone saw the bulging meat buns with patterned patterns on them, they didn't know what they were. After reading the sacrificial text, Old Man Wu threw these toys into the river. After the memorial service, everyone asked Old Man Wu. What was thrown into the river just now? Old Man Wu smiled and said mysteriously that this was Mrs. Sun’s favorite food when she was alive, "crab roe soup dumplings." Old Man Wu had lost a few teeth and spoke a little sloppily, so everyone heard the word "hot" as "soup" and echoed that it was "crab roe soup dumplings." Crab roe soup dumplings are a specialty of Longpao, Liuhe, Nanjing. Longpao crab roe soup dumplings have a history of nearly two hundred years and are said to have been a tribute to the imperial court. It originated during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. According to legend, when Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River for the sixth time, he met Emperor Jing in a dragon robe. After tasting the buns stuffed with crab roe and crab meat specially made for him by the villagers, he was very pleased and praised them as "delicious, delicious" repeatedly. The villagers were also flattered and called this kind of buns "Qianlong soup buns." At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Master Tao Ji from Liuhe, Nanjing founded the "Taipingchun Restaurant", inherited the traditional craftsmanship of Qianlong soup dumplings and reprocessed the fillings, adding a variety of ingredients to make the soup dumplings taste better and renamed them "Crab Roe Soup Dumplings". In the 1930s, Tao Ji passed the art on to Qin Youfa, Yi Chunbing and Shen Laoer, who continued to run the business, which was well received by diners and became famous in the town. In the 1960s, Zhou Yuchun, the successor of Qin Youfa from Nanjing, took over "Laohongyuan" and inherited and developed the crab roe soup dumplings craft. Since the 1980s, the favorable situation of reform and opening up has provided excellent opportunities and environment for the development of the soup dumpling industry in our town. Restaurants such as "Six Eight Restaurant" and "Yangtze River Hotel" have emerged and achieved good social and economic benefits. In 2004, with the care and support of Nanjing Catering Chamber of Commerce, the "Nanjing Catering Chamber of Commerce Longpao Crab Roe Soup Dumplings Branch" was established, consisting of 24 soup dumpling shops, which made the Longpao Crab Roe Soup Dumplings industry bigger and stronger, unprecedentedly prosperous and famous both at home and abroad.

2. Method 1/3 The skin of the crab roe soup dumpling is very fragile, so you must be careful to lift it up. Of course, you can also use a spoon. People who eat it often will be very skilled in using chopsticks to clamp the two sides of the dumpling. Only experts do this. 2/3 The crab roe soup dumplings are served right out of the oven, so they are very hot. You have to make a hole in them and blow out the soup inside before you can eat them, otherwise you will burn your tongue and miss out on the delicious food... 3/3 Not only the soup is hot, but the filling is also hot, so don't be in a hurry when eating.

Note: Don't eat too many soup dumplings, especially girls, because crab roe is cold in nature. When eating crab roe soup dumplings, remember not to drink cold beer.

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