Su Shi, a gourmet in the Song Dynasty, once tasted elbow, tofu, pork belly, etc.

1. Introduction to Su Shi Su Shi (1037-1101), also known as Zizhan and Hezhong, was also known as Tieguan Taoist and Dongpo layman. He was known as Su Dongpo, Su Xian and Po Xian in the world.

A native of Meishan, Meizhou (now part of Meishan City, Sichuan Province), his ancestral home is Luancheng, Hebei Province. He was a writer, calligrapher and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, and a famous figure in water control in history.

His father is Su Xun and his younger brother is Su Zhe. The three father and son are collectively called "Three Su".

2. The Origin of Dongpo Elbow When Su Shi first entered his official career, he was very talented and became famous in the capital. He was promoted step by step and made many friends because of his fame.

One time, Su Shi hosted a banquet for guests and needed to cook a specialty dish. Wang Fu, his good wife, decided to entertain the guests with Su Shi's hometown dish "Meishan Elbow".

However, due to a moment of negligence and forgetting the time, the surface of the elbow was burnt a little brown. Wang Fu hurriedly added various seasonings to cover up the burnt smell, and then cooked it carefully.

When the pot was removed, a miracle happened. When Su Shi tasted it, the slightly yellow pork elbow was more fragrant than usual. He quickly garnished it with some green onions and crushed peanuts and recommended it to all the guests.

Su Shi's anecdotes and allusions 1. Exam-taking anecdotes In the second year of Jiayou's reign (1057), Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi won the appreciation of the examiner Mei Yaochen with his essay "On the Perfection of Honesty in Punishments and Rewards" and recommended it to the examiner Ouyang Xiu.

Ouyang Xiu also appreciated it very much and wanted to promote it to the first place. However, he was afraid that the article was written by his disciple Zeng Gong. In order to avoid suspicion, he ranked it as the second one.

As a result, after opening the test paper, I discovered that the article was written by Su Shi.

When it came to the re-examination of the Ministry of Rites, Su Shi again ranked first with "Spring and Autumn Duiyi".

2. Building Su Embankments "Su embankments are built everywhere on the east slope." Su Shi built many embankments in his life.

In the autumn of the tenth year of Xining (1077) in the Northern Song Dynasty, Xuzhou was besieged by floods.

Su Shi informed everyone to "prepare buckets, store earth and stones, and accumulate wild rice." At the same time, he urgently dispatched 5,000 people to reinforce the city foundation and build the city wall high.

3. Gourmet master Su Shi himself was a gourmet. There are many records of Su Shi’s invention of gourmet food in Song Dynasty notebook novels.

When Su Shi learned about Hangzhou, in May and June of the fifth year of Yuanyou, there was heavy rain in western Zhejiang and Taihu Lake flooded.

Su Shi directed the dredging of the West Lake and the construction of Su dike.

The people of Hangzhou thanked him.

During the Chinese New Year, everyone would carry pigs and wine to pay him New Year greetings.

Su Shi instructed his family to cut the pork into cubes, cook it until red and crispy, and then distribute it to everyone. This is the origin of Dongpo Pork.