30/03/2018
Yan Du Xian soup 腌笃鲜
（Bamboo shoot soup with pickled and fresh pork)
Bamboo shoot is the most seasonal food in China’s spring. After Spring festival, the different dishes made by bamboo shoot start to stage on the tables of Shanghai families and restaurants, among which a bamboo shoot soup which called Yan Du Xian soup, or Yi Du Xi in Shanghai dialects is the most popular one.
Among the three Characters of Yan Du Xian, Yan means pickled pork, Xian is fresh pork, the word Du in middle explaining how this soup cooked—stewed slowly. Even not mentioned in the name of dish, bamboo shoot plays the key role in creating the freshness of the soup. Yan Du Xian soup stands for the dietetic philosophy of Chinese people-eat the one as fresh as from earth directly to table(bamboo shoot), while eat one preserving the taste of time(pickled pork).
Shanghai’s spring is cold and wet, therefore we need something to fill and warm the stomach. A bowl of Yan Du Xian soup is a good choice. With this one soup you can enjoy the meat, chew the fresh fibre of bamboo shoot, and taste the soup mixed with the two flavors.
Yan Du Xian soup used to be a dish in AnHui Cuisine(one of the Eight Major Cuisines of China), but got its fame in Shanghai and its surrounding areas. Today, Shanghai restaurants try to add more ingredients into the soup, like Bai Ye Jie(Tofu skin in knot shape), or small wontons.
Making Yan Du Xian soup does not require cooking skills, a housewife can cook a delicious soup. From end of Feb there are some restaurants in Shanghai start offer Yan Du Xian soup. As the bamboo shoot is a seasonal food and only tender to eat for one and a half month, the serving period of the Yan Du Xian soup in most of restaurants is only one and a half month.
“One rice with lard and one Yan Du Xian soup”
“Yan Du Xian already finished this year.”
“Really? Since when?”
“Since today”
“Oh, that is too bad....”
“Sorry, but the bamboo shoot is not tender to eat any more.”
This is the conversation between me and a waiter in a restaurant today. When got to know Yan Du Xian soup has already been stopped serving, i realize this Spring is almost gone.
