Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a Chinese soup that is said to be so tasty that it made the vegetarian Buddha go off his vegetarian diet. He supposedly literally jumped over a wall to get at whatever smelled so good while it was cooking.
I don’t know. To my western tastes it looks fibrous and fishy. These are qualities that if taken alone I do not find appetizing. When brought together, they compose a dish that makes me say: I’ll pass.
Even though I will not eat Buddha Jumps over a Wall, the ingredients and the name are so intriguing that I am moved to describe them to you.
It has shark fin in it. Despite the fact that some rave about the anti-cancer properties of shark fin, I will still pass.
Like any other food made for consumption by humans, the exact ingredients probably depend on who is making the soup. But traditionally the soup has contained shark fins, shrimp, dried sea cucumbers, mushrooms, ginseng, and something called wolfberries.
Buddha soup by some recipes can take up to three days to cook and can contain as many as 30 ingredients.
Some additional ingredients used in some variants of the soup are scallions, quail eggs, bamboo shoots, chicken, pork feet, fish maw, lamb, turnips, carrots, cinnamon, star anise, rock candy, dark soy sauce, bamboo leave and lotus leaves.
Shark fin is one of the more difficult ingredients to deal with. Some cooks say it should be soaked in vinegar over night. Given how tough the shark fin must be to take this kind of treatment even before it is cooked, one wonders what made the first gourmet think of eating it. Hunger I guess.
Just looking over the ingredients of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup it is obviously high in protein and calcium.
I am sure it will come as no surprise that some people claim that Chinese soups in general confer many health benefits to the consumer. I don’t know about Buddha jumped over the wall in particular , but some have claimed weight loss and the easing of tummy aches from eating the soups of China.
For those who like to know the origins of their cuisine, the Buddha soup is said to come from Fuzhou, in Fujian province.
Don’t attempt it unless you are a serious and patient cook.
Chinese Cuisine: Buddha Jumped Over the Wall
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What is the most Exotic thing you have ever put in your mouth?
Delicious Monsters, Inedible Mutants and Dragon’s Blood
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