Chen called "bean dish" a "raw flowerpot" in "Records of Years Old": "On the 10th day of Tanabata in Beijing, waterlogged mung beans turned into peas, which is convenient for watering every day. When the buds grow to five or six inches, the seedlings can stand on their own feet, so they can be placed in small pots, which can be called "raw flowerpots" or "fermented flowerpots". In the Song Dynasty, eating bean sprouts was quite common. Bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and mushrooms have always been listed as three vegetarian dishes. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, bean sprouts were eaten mainly in cold salad. "The Legacy of Yiya" records its prescription: "Soak mung beans in cold water for two nights, wait until the water rises, wash them twice and dry them. Clean the floor in advance, sprinkle water, spread a layer of paper, put beans on the paper and cover the pot. Sprinkle water twice a day until the buds grow out and shell them. Boiling soup is slightly simmered, mixed with ginger vinegar, and the meat is especially suitable. " After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some people used edible wild vegetables or aquatic plants as soup, fried them, and scalded them with chicken juice and dolphin juice. Among all kinds of bean sprouts, pea seedlings are more delicious. Note in "Clearing the Banknotes": "Pea seedlings are common in vegetables elsewhere, but they are regarded as rare in central Fujian. Every time at the banquet, I see several floating green leaves in the clear soup, and the stems are six or seven inches long. However, at the time of purchase, two are counted as one, and each is twenty or thirty dollars. " Eating bean sprouts requires pinching the roots and beans, so it was called "pinching vegetables" in the Qing Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, scholars began to pay attention to the fact that bean sprouts should be turned into soup. There is a bean sprout in the "Suiyuan Food List": "Bean sprouts are soft and crisp, and I quite like them. Cooking must be cooked and rotten, and the taste of ingredients can be harmonious. Can be paired with bird's nest, soft with rigidity, white with white. However, accompanying you is extremely expensive because of its meanness. Many people scoff at this. I don't know that only Wo can accompany Yao Shuner. "Chao Fu and Xu You, both of them are hermits. Yao wanted to give up the throne, but he refused. Yao wants to give way, and his nest is called seclusion.
In the menu of bean sprouts, there is a dish called "fried silver bars", which is quite famous in Qin cuisine. The raw materials are mung bean sprouts, shredded onion, refined salt, white vinegar, pepper, pepper and sesame oil. This dish is cooked by fire, and the peppers are fried to deep red. After the bean sprouts are put into the pot, boil with vinegar and ignite, and stir fry for 40 to 50 seconds to keep the bean sprouts crisp and tender. Fried bean sprouts are usually served with shredded chicken. "Silver Miao shredded chicken", "Fried shredded chicken with vegetables", "Chicken velvet silver strip" and "Silver needle mixed with shredded chicken" all have local names. Shandong cuisine is also fried with sticky egg paste. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a practice of "filling bean sprouts with shredded chicken ham", and its operation method was really unimaginable. There is a story in "Notes on the Qing Dynasty", in which a noble man was cheated by his chef and took bean sprouts as a luxury. One day, a nobleman went to visit his relatives because they borrowed money from him. When eating, he saw bean sprouts on the table and asked the relative: You always say you are poor, so why do you use such extravagant things for dinner? This is what I usually use, one hundred and twenty taels of silver per plate. Relatives told him that bean sprouts are cheap, but in fact they only cost two or three pence. The nobleman came home and asked the chef. The cook cut off the bean sprouts, covered them with shredded peppers and added sesame oil and soy sauce. He said that three pence is too expensive for the poor to eat with salted bean sprouts, and the bean sprouts that shopkeepers eat on weekdays are really expensive. Therefore, it deceived the nobility. Western countries call bean sprouts one of the four great inventions of China food. The other three are tofu, sauce and gluten. In fact, there are more than four kinds of food inventions in China. It is said that bean sprouts were also introduced to the west when Li Hongzhang went to Europe after Guangxu Gengzi. Because of the saying "Li Hongzhang chop suey", bean sprouts are simply called "chop suey" in Quebec, Canada.