Guzhen Laorenqiao Beef 固镇老任桥牛肉

Where it comes from

The Guzhen county government traces authentic Guzhen beef to Qiaodong (桥东), a Hui Muslim village in Renqiao whose families have slaughtered cattle and sold beef for generations. The cattle are not injected with water, and the meat is firm. The town government says beef and mutton from Renqiao and Qiaodong villages sell faster than they can be supplied in Nanjing and Shanghai. In Guzhen itself, restaurants specialising in beef and mutton have multiplied in recent years, and the county says a visitor has not really been to Guzhen without eating beef.

How it is made

The banquet works through almost the whole animal: face, tongue, ears, tail and hooves, ribs, liver, heart, tripe, omasum, intestines and tendon, together with good yellow-cattle beef (黄牛肉). Dishes are boiled, braised, stir-fried, pan-fried or deep-fried.

Clear-stewed brisket (清炖牛腩), the dish the county publicity department used to illustrate Laorenqiao beef, starts with fatty, tender brisket soaked in water until it is white and free of blood, then rubbed with sesame oil. It is boiled with seasonings and a lot of ginger and spring onion, then simmered over a low flame until soft but still in pieces. The broth comes out clear, with ginger, spring onion and sesame oil floating on top. Beef knee is cooked the same way, bone and meat together, until the meat is pure white and melts in the mouth.

How it is eaten

The showpiece is the whole beef head. It comes after smaller beef plates such as sliced cold beef, tripe stir-fried with king oyster mushroom and tenderloin flash-fried with spring onion, and is carried in on a large tray, reddish-purple and glossy. Diners slice it with a small knife; the dark red face meat is soft but chewy. A head is too big for most tables to finish, so it suits a large group eating slowly over drinks, with a few cold vegetable dishes to offset the richness. Staff will also cut it into pieces.