Mount Jiuhua Vegetarian Cuisine 九华山素斋

Mount Jiuhua Vegetarian Cuisine (九华山素斋) is the meat-free cooking of Mount Jiuhua (九华山) in Chizhou (池州), Anhui. It draws mainly on the monastery tradition of Chinese vegetarian cooking and is built on plants that grow on the mountain itself, such as lily bulbs and Solomon's seal.

Ingredients

The Chizhou city government lists the mountain's own produce as the base: lily bulbs (百合), Solomon's seal rhizome (黄精), rock tripe lichen (石耳), wood ear fungus (木耳) and greens, combined with tofu, agar (冻粉) and wheat gluten (面筋). The heritage notice adds local wild greens and mountain produce, and names Jiuhua Solomon's seal and lily among the main ingredients.

How it is made

Dishes are plain stir-fried, stewed or baked. Anything on a meat menu can be copied in shape from vegetarian ingredients, giving vegetarian 'chicken', 'duck' and 'fish' (素鸡、素鸭、素鱼). The heritage notice says the cooking keeps each ingredient's own flavour and limits sugar, salt and cooking oil, while also combining several ingredients in one dish; in its words, 'one melon can make dozens of dishes' (一瓜可做数十肴).

Flavour and texture

The food is mild rather than heavily seasoned; the Chizhou city government describes it as fresh and fragrant, crisp and tender.

Where it comes from

The Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area management committee traces the style mainly to monastery vegetarian cooking, one of three schools of Chinese vegetarian food alongside palace and folk cooking. Because the Ming and Qing courts paid attention to the mountain, food prepared for prayer rituals also borrowed the shaping skills of palace vegetarian cooking. The committee also points to the eminent monk Jin Dizang (金地藏) and the Chan master Wuxia (无暇禅师), who are said to have lived on Solomon's seal, wild greens and wild fruit while practising. In July 2024 the committee announced that the Jiuhua vegetarian food making technique (九华素食制作技艺) had been added to its county (district)-level list of intangible cultural heritage.