With its unique flavor, the famous dish of Boshan, the tofu box, traveled to thousands of households in Boshan and competed for the state banquet at the Great Hall of the People. has aroused great interest from Chinese and foreign guests.
However, its formation is little known.
As early as the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a man with the surname Dengke and his nickname Zhang Jiu at the south end of Boshan Street. He worked as a master chef in a large brand called "Zhentai Silk and Satin House" in the capital. This man is smart, capable, and highly skilled. He is known as "the number one chef in Boshan" in Kyoto.
Around the time of Guangxu, Zhang Dengke, who was in his fifties, returned to his hometown to recuperate due to illness. In less than a year, his illness was cured. Some merchants in Boshan. Knowing that Zhang Dengke was a master of cooking, they jointly opened a restaurant with him in Shantou, where the kiln industry was very developed at that time, and named it "Qingheju".
One day, Zhang Dengke’s shopkeeper when he was in Beijing went to Zhoucun to handle goods and stopped by Boshan to visit him. It was already evening when the guests arrived at the Qinghe gathering. All the dishes prepared in the restaurant were sold out, and there was no decent dish to entertain the guests. Zhang Dengke had an idea and used Boshan's high-quality tofu as the main ingredient to make a box-style "vegetarian dish". The main ingredients are fried young tofu, dried shrimps, fungus, amomum villosum powder, etc. and are packed into the box. The entire appearance looks like a box. Shape, deep-fried until golden brown, and after hooking up, it feels like a gold box. During the dinner, the guests who were tired of eating delicacies from all over the world were full of praise when they tasted this unique vegetarian dish.
When a guest asked about the name of Zhang Dengke's dish, he had no choice but to tell the truth. When the guest saw the shape of the dish and tasted it, he blurted out: "It really looks like a gold box, so let's call it a gold box." One of the guests present was very elegant and took over the conversation and said: "According to the way of eating, it is more reasonable to call it a gold box than to open the box to get the treasure."
As a result, the dish "Gold Box" gradually appeared at the banquets of some kiln owners in the mountains. When this dish appeared, it was in a "big box shape", which was very inconvenient to eat. Zhang Dengke changed it into several "small boxes" to form a "big box". Because this dish is a vegetarian dish, Shantou people call it tofu box according to the local naming convention. People who like to be more "fussy" may still call it "unlocking treasures" or "gold boxes".
In the darkness of society, Qingheju could never recover its credit, and the store was on the verge of bankruptcy. At this time, Zhang Dengke's shopkeeper in Beijing repeatedly invited him to the capital. Taking advantage of this, Zhang Dengke returned to Beijing and brought the craft of making "tofu boxes" to the capital. From then on, "Boshan Tofu Box" appeared in the banquets of some merchants in the capital, and gradually the dish "Boshan Tofu Box" was often seen in the family banquets of some bureaucrats.
With the prosperity of Boshan's "three major industries" (coal, colored glaze, and ceramics), more and more transactions were done with Beijing, and food exchanges were also valued. The "Boshan Tofu Box" was passed back to Boshan. It has become a "household dish" in restaurants and restaurants.
In the early years of the Republic of China, there was a "Tongxinju" restaurant on the hilltop where Boshan Tofu Box was born. The owner was Li Tongxin, who was known as "Master Tian" because of his superb cooking skills. He changed the shape of the "box" to "tower" based on the "tofu box" method, and renamed the Boshan tofu box "Shuiman Jinshan Temple", giving this dish new meaning. "Shuiman Jinshan Temple" consists of four layers of small boxes, small at the top and large at the bottom, in the shape of a tower. When serving food, sprinkle an appropriate amount of good white wine around the plate. After lighting it, turn off the lights and it will be quite smoky. The feeling of the golden pagoda appearing and disappearing in the water.
Later, at Boshan's banquets, as long as the dish was box-shaped, it was called "Boshan Tofu Box", "Gold Box" or "Opening the Box to Get Treasures"; The "tower-shaped" one is called "Shuiman Jinshan Temple" and it has been passed down to this day.
When I have time, I would like to introduce their specific situation in detail. . .
Welcome everyone to visit my great hometown Boshan and try the delicious Boshan cuisine.