Speaking of the origin of oily gluten, it was first fried by a master in a nunnery. To go to Huishan in the past, you had to pass through Wuli Street. There is a Dade Bridge at the end of Wuli Street and a nunnery by the bridge. This nunnery is close to Huishan and has a quiet environment. On the occasion of the Bodhisattva's birthday at the four o'clock festival, many old ladies from Wuxi Chengxiang come here to recite Buddha's name and sit all night. Sometimes they recite seven Buddhas and stay in the nunnery for six or seven days. There is a cook in the nunnery, and the vegetarian food she cooks is somewhat famous. As the saying goes, "There are no tricks to tofu and louvers." What she cooks is extraordinary, she knows how to cook it, and it tastes good. Master Shitai cooks vegetarian dishes, usually using raw bran as the main ingredient, braised in braised vegetables, stir-fried in shreds, and cooked in soup. The old lady was really satisfied with the food. When meeting the wives or young ladies of wealthy families, the master prepared raw bran with fine winter bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms, and each dish attracted endless praises at the vegetarian banquet. There are many people who often come to the nunnery to pray for Buddha, and there are many lay people who come to have a vegetarian meal. No wonder the cook is always tired of cooking bran and soaking it in a small vat.
One time, dozens of old ladies from the countryside who had originally agreed to come to the nunnery to pray and sit up all night did not come that day for unknown reasons. The cook had prepared several tables of raw bran for vegetarian meals too early in the morning, so why didn't she worry about it. Raw bran becomes rancid overnight and cannot be eaten overnight. The cook first put some salt in the bran vat, but was still uneasy, fearing that something might go wrong in the vat. She thought about it and tried to open a frying pan and fry the raw bran to prevent it from going rancid. It could still be used as a vegetarian dish in the Ming Dynasty. There was too much oil in the pan. When the oil boiled, the master was afraid that the raw bran would not be fried thoroughly, so he specially cut it into small pieces, threw a handful into the pan, and turned it over several times with a spatula. Hey, that's weird! I saw pieces of raw bran in the pot swelled into golden and clear hollow balls, scurrying up and down in the boiling oil. The master used a tweezer to pick up the crispy balls with his fingers, and smelled the fragrance with his nose. It tastes quite fresh. She was so happy that she hurriedly came to see all the teachers. They all praised it and named the deep-fried bran hollow dumplings "Yougluten". The cooking master had a new plan in his mind: there was a new general added to the vegetarian banquet in the nunnery!
It goes without saying that the cook is very skilled and skilled. From then on, the nunnery started a vegetarian diet, including stir-fried gluten, stuffed gluten bamboo shoots, gluten soup, vegetarian dishes, and delicacies. Every day, I only worry about the number of vegetarian tables being opened, so I don’t have to worry about not having many guests. When the news spread, nunneries and temples everywhere began to imitate the method, adding oil and gluten varieties to vegetarian meals. Not long after, oil and gluten shops opened one after another in Wuxi. Oily gluten has entered thousands of households, and meat-stuffed gluten, gluten-fried shredded pork, and vegetable-cooked gluten have become daily meals. As for those restaurants and restaurants, the chefs are even more like the Eight Immortals who have crossed the sea, showing off their magic skills and cooking many famous traditional dishes of Wuxi.