Li Hongzhang Mixed Braise 李鸿章杂烩

How it is made

In the description published with the 2018 listing, chicken is the main ingredient, cooked with rehydrated sea cucumber, oil-puffed fish maw and rehydrated squid, all braised together. A Shanghai Observer (上观新闻) feature describes a fuller claypot version on a chicken-stock base: sea cucumber, fish maw and fish slices, ham and free-range chicken, pigeon eggs, shiitake mushrooms and dried bamboo-shoot slices, more than ten ingredients in all.

Each ingredient is cut, shredded or pre-cooked as it needs, then laid into the pot by colour so the mixture stays orderly. The pot is brought to the boil, seasoned with salt and cooking wine, and more stock is poured over and braised until it turns gelatinous.

Flavour and texture

The finished braise is rich and fragrant without being greasy, and salty-savoury. Shanghai Observer also finds a cured-meat aroma in the rich stock of the claypot version.

Where it comes from

A popular story dates the dish to Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896. His foreign guests cleared their plates and wanted more, but the kitchen had too little left to make new dishes. He had the remaining ingredients braised with stock in one pot, and when the guests asked what it was, he said "hao chi duo chi" (好吃多吃, "if it tastes good, eat more"), which the story links to the English word "hotchpotch". The dish was first called "Li Hongzhang chop suey" (李鸿章杂碎), and the name was later changed to za hui (杂烩) by Zhang Boju (张伯驹) because za sui carried an unflattering sense in northern slang.

Shanghai Observer contrasts this with the many invented food legends and points to a written record: in his Travels in the New World (新大陆游记), Liang Qichao (梁启超) wrote that chop suey houses appeared in America after Li's visit and that their menus advertised "Li Hongzhang chop suey". It adds that the stir-fry of shredded meat, bean sprouts, celery and onion sold under that name in overseas Chinese fast-food restaurants is not the Hefei dish.

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