Zhu Yuanzhang was born in plain clothes. He lived in poverty when he was a child and was forced to become a monk. Once, there was a famine in his hometown. He hasn't eaten for three days in a row, and he is starving. A kind old woman handed him a bowl of soup. Zhu Yuanzhang felt delicious after drinking it and asked the old woman what the soup was called. The old woman casually joked that it was called "Pearl Jade White Jade Soup", but it was actually a vegetable soup made of broken rice, Chinese cabbage, spinach leaves and tofu. Because Zhu Yuanzhang was hungry and thought the soup was delicious. It is said that after he became emperor, he often ordered the chef to make this soup for him, and he still remembers that painful experience vividly.
Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang personally invented a soup, which is the "sour plum soup" that we like to drink and often drink in summer. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang used to be a vendor selling ebony. At that time, the plague was rampant, and Zhu Yuanzhang was unfortunately ill.
When he was struggling to get ebony from the warehouse, he suddenly smelled the sour taste of ebony and was refreshed. So, he took ebony as the main ingredient, accompanied by hawthorn and licorice, boiled it into soup and took it every day. A few days later, his plague miraculously recovered. Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang has turned to selling sour plum soup that can dispel the plague. People bought one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang was able to get rich quickly, which laid the economic foundation for his later resistance to Yuan Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he still had a soft spot for sour plum soup. He often drinks sour plum soup to get rid of body fat, invigorate qi and soothe the nerves. So sour plum soup became a daily health drink in the court of Ming Dynasty. Soon, folk shops specializing in sour plum soup also appeared. Beijing's time-honored brand "Jiulong Zhai" is the most famous, and it is known as "the first sour plum soup in Kyoto". The plum soup world even regards Zhu Yuanzhang as the ancestor, and it is not difficult to find Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait in many plum soup shops.
Nowadays, Beijing roast duck is famous all over the world, and foreigners come to Beijing to taste this famous dish. In fact, roast duck originally originated in Nanjing and was also related to Zhu Yuanzhang.
It is said that after Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, Nanjing was designated as the capital. He loves duck meat, but if he eats too many boiled, braised and steamed ducks, he will feel bored and depressed all day. Chefs have racked their brains to change the traditional cooking methods and use charcoal roast duck to make it fresh, fat and not greasy. It was named "Roast Duck" by Zhu Yuanzhang. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his son Judy, the prince of Yan, seized the throne and moved to Beijing. The roast duck technology spread to Beijing and was further developed. The famous "Quanjude" roast duck restaurant in Beijing was opened in Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty, and it is still popular today, thanks to Zhu Yuanzhang, who loves roast duck.