Fujian Cuisine · FFET10024
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall
A jar-braised dish of Fuzhou whose making craft is on the national intangible heritage list.
An opened Buddha-jumps-over-the-wall jar shows abalone, sea cucumber and shiitake in rising steam, beside a bowl of sea clams poached in chicken broth, a plate of lychee pork and a small bowl of red lees, with a wooden ladle in front.
The regional cooking of Fujian, using sea produce and mountain ingredients together, with a strong tradition of soups.
The page for the national ICH item Juchunyuan Buddha-Jumps-Over-the-Wall Making Techniques calls the dish a noted dish of Fuzhou, Fujian, says it took shape in the Daoguang period of the Qing, and places it in Min cuisine. It also describes a jar-braised dish in which meat, seafood and vegetable ingredients are prepared in stages and then simmered slowly in a wine jar. A Fuzhou city government page gives another account: the dish was first called Fushouquan and began at a banquet given by an official of the Fuzhou money bureau in 1899, the 25th year of Guangxu.