A bowl of mutton soup for winter
Editor's note: On winter days, Quanyangzhai restaurant in suburban Kunming saw the mutton woks boiling with bubbles, and the fragrance permeating the surrounding air invited in crowds of dinners. Boiled for four or five hours, the fresh mutton soup looks milky and tastes great. A bowl of the soup warms up the diner heart and soul.
A chosen mutton piece is burned and cleared before being put into a boiling wok (Xinhua Net/Zhang Nan and Liu Yun)
A bowl of mutton soup for winter
On the severe winter days, folks in Yunnan province enjoy mutton and mutton soup for keeping out the cold. In suburban Kunming, the mutton hotpot at a restaurant called Quanyangzhai, or whole-sheep camp, is particularly favored by residents of the city.
At around 7:00 am, the Quanyangzhai owner Lu Youhua would came to the restaurant, dealing with the slaughtered goats with the workers. “To clear up and anatomize a sheep, two or three hands are needed,” said Lu.
Around four or five hours later, a boiled mutton bulk is taken out for cut-up. (Xinhua Net/Zhang Nan and Liu Yun)
The adopted sheep are castrated rams that come mostly from the Yunnan ethnic areas of Chuxiong, Dali and Luquan. Without a strong smell, the wether meat tastes fine and smooth. In sheep selection, Lu Youhua said the extremely fat or thin should be avoided. “Too much fat is oily, and mutton that is too lean tastes bad at times.”
Through coodination of several hands, a wether was soon anatomized into four pieces. Throwing the mutton bulks into a wok, Lu added a pack of Chinese medicinal herbs. Lu’s wife Yang Lishui said the herbs need to be stir-fried and packed up first. Then they were boiled with mutton, so that the hot pot would taste better and more nourishing.
The mutton hot wok and related condiments (Xinhua Net/Zhang Nan and Liu Yun)
The raw mutton in the wok was boiled by high heat and then simmered by gentle fire. Around four or five hours later, a wok of tasty mutton was ready. In serving themselves, diners first filled a bowl with mutton soup and two spoons of leek bits were added. Having got a share of home-cured garlic by Lu Youhua and made a dipping sauce out of chili, pepper and spicy red pepper, they glutted themselves with delicacies. Lu said old customers of his restaurant would couple the mutton with a pot of warm liquor, while chatting about life.
On winter days, the mutton woks at Quanyangzhai are boiling with bubbles, with fragrance permeating the surrounding air. The steam in the breeze warmed up the dinners and passers-by alike, rendering in them a ruddy complexion. It was the worldly vapor and fresh mutton soup that had granted dinners a warm winter.
Diners glut themselves with delicacies at the Quanyangzhai restaurant. (Xinhua Net/Zhang Nan and Liu Yun)
Lu’s wife Yang Lishui(C) checks the bill for a diner. (Xinhua Net/Zhang Nan and Liu Yun)
Writing by Han Wenping; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue