Research 5 Restaurants

The most famous restaurant offering the Water Banquet in Luoyang: Zhenbutong Restaurant 

Luoyang Zhenbutong Restaurant (真不同饭店)

Established in 1895, the Zhenbutong Restaurant has gone through a history of 109 years. It’s a brand name store in China as well as a famed Chinese and international restaurant. The address is as follows: No. 359 Zhongzhou Dong Road (you can take a bus there, or you can spend 6 to 7 Yuan taking a taxi there from the downtown area.)The most popular dishes and snacks in Luoyang: the cooked dishes with peonies on their tops, deep-fried meat balls, peaflours-made noodlesBoasting a history of more than one hundred years, Zhenbutong is popularly beloved for its authentic Water Banquet which has been highly evaluated by many national leaders and superstars. Besides the Water Banquet, most Luoyang specialties and classical household dishes are also served here.

Address: No.359, East Zhongzhou Road, Lao Cheng District, Luoyang
Average Cost: about CNY70 per person (around USD12)

Lao Luoyang Restaurant (老洛阳面馆)

Lao Luoyang is not a restaurant in large scale, yet features its antique decoration style and elegant atmosphere. It is a popular restaurant especially serving all kinds traditional Luoyang snacks like Paste Noodles, steamed dumplings, Steamed Radish in Nourishing Soup, etc.

Address: No. 36, Shachang Nan Road, Xigong District, Luoyang
Average Cost: about CNY30-50 per person (around USD5-9)

Luoyang Old Town Cross Street (洛阳老城十字街)

Being built in Sui Dynasty (581AD – 618AD) and Tang Dynasty (618AD – 907AD), the street has a history of thousands of years. It is surrounded by several historic sites like Lijing Gate, Drum Tower, and Octagon House, offering a great chance to admire the glory of ancient Luoyang. Come nightfall, it becomes a street full of local life with various snacks stalls, red lanterns, and shouts of vendors on quite a number of corners and attracts large crowds seeking genuine local flavor.

Address: Xinghua Street, Laocheng District, Luoyang

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Research 4 Luoyang soup banquet

Hawthorn soup

A sweet and sour appetizer, this is served to whet the guests’ palates. The bright colours and airy texture make this dish a perfect starter to a long feast.

Stir-fried vegetable with savoury soup base

You may wonder how did this unappetizing plain Jane become one of the main dishes? Some say it appeared at a dinner in 1973 between the ex-Chinese Premier Zhou En Lai and then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when the chef impressed his honorable guests with a soup topped with a stunning yellow peony flower made of cooked eggs. Guests today may still find such elaborate decorations in most high-end restaurants that serve the Water Banquet.

Sweet and Sour Pork and Assorted Sweet Congee

Due to their popularity, these two dishes can be commonly found on Chinese meal tables and not just the Luoyang Water Banquet. They are normally served as complimentary dishes to add a sweet twist to the otherwise spicy and savoury combination.

Meatballs in Soup

One of the finale dishes – the word “meatball” in Chinese is “Wan Zi”, which sounds like “completion”, which is why it's one of the last dishes to be presented.

The trick to experiencing a truly authentic taste of the Luoyang Water Feast is to remember that chain restaurants are amongst the first places to avoid. One of the most well-loved Water Feast restaurants is Guan Ji. This a family-run restaurant which also boasts of a 50-year history in dining. But that’s not all. It offers an experience too. 

Located in a family courtyard along a side alley of the Luoyang Old Street, its humble and inconspicuous facade is so discreet that you might easily miss it. 

The dining experience is called the Water Feast, based firstly on its literal description since the dishes mostly take a soupy form. Secondly, it’s a metaphorical reference to the unique feast through its rapid serving speed – dish after dish, just like waves hitting the shores one after another. 

The Water Feast has a direct relationship with the climate of Luoyang, with winters that tend to be dry and cold, even in the ancient times. In order to keep warm, soup-based cuisine were favoured along with a generous dose of spice. With the passage of time, the Water Feast became a highly localised and popular cuisine that was not just limited to the dinner tables of the privileged.

Research 3 Luoyang soup banquet

A tradition dating back to the ancient Tang dynasty and one that has become a tradition in Henan, the Luoyang Water Banquet is one of the most ancient Chinese banquets preserved till date. But this is not just a grand feast.

The Luoyang city government has such high regard for their culinary heritage that in 2013, they tabled an official set of service standards and guidelines for restaurants serving the banquet. Included in the stipulations is a strict 8-4-8-4 serving sequence, and that only natural mineral water has to be used for cooking. The requirements even state the ingredients that must be used for certain dishes. It is little wonder that the Water Banquet, also known as the Water Feast, has been named as one of the top three icons of Luoyang city, alongside with the peony flower and Longmen Grottoes.

The entire banquet is made up of 24 courses, starting with 8 appetizers, 4 main courses and 8 complimentary dishes. The feast concludes with 4 finale dishes. Different restaurants may have varying combinations of the individual dishes, they may also interpret the same dish differently. However, the menu should include some of the more commonly recognized signature dishes of a Water Banquet.

Luoyang Shui Xi (Water Feast)
As the dish most peculiar to Luoyang, the Water Feast is famed as 'Top Banquet under the Heaven' and parallels the well renowned Dumpling Banquet in Xian. It originates from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and has a long history of over one thousand years. There are in total 24 dishes accompanied by different soups, hence the name of the feast. The dishes combine meat and vegetables together and are served according to a very strict order. You can delight your taste buds with the abundance of flavors that include sour, sweet, salty and hot.

Luoyang Yan Cai (Steamed Radish in Nourishing Soup)
Served first in the Water Feast, this is an imperial dish. It is said that when Empress Wu Zetian (the first Chinese empress) governed the nation in the Tang Dynasty, a farmer discovered a huge radish in Luoyang and he presented it to the empress. The royal cooks steamed it with delicacies of all kinds, making it taste like succulent bird's nest soup (Yan Wo in Pinyin). The empress was greatly satisfied and praised it as the 'succulent mock bird's nest soup'. The dish is made by steaming radish threads and then mixing them with chicken threads, pork threads, sea cucumber threads and seaweed threads in a nourishing pork soup. It not only tastes fresh and delicious, but also appears like a beautiful peony blossom.

Research 2 History of Luoyang soup banquet

Luoyang in Henan province was China’s capital for nine dynasties, spanning more than 1,000 years. Its soup banquet has been popular for just as long. The banquet comprises 24 dishes – eight cold and 16 hot – served successively throughout a meal, like running water. It is consequently known as a shuixi (literally water banquet.)

Luoyang’s location, surrounded by mountains on all sides, brought about its distinct cuisine. Limited access and arable land in earlier times resulted in a dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables. Soups of all descriptions consequently became the local culinary specialty.

Tang Empress Wu Zetian (624-705) put Luoyang dishes on the national menu. After one visit, she and her royal retinue were deeply impressed with Luoyang soups, because they contrasted favorably with those they dined upon in the imperial court in Chang’an (today’s Xi’an). Having obtained recipes, upon their return the Empress and her court officials saw to it that these soup dishes were prepared daily and served to guests and visiting dignitaries.

Before long the dishes became popular in everyday households.

Other than the eight cold dishes of chicken, beef, preserved duck egg, lotus and vegetables, Luoyang’s main hot dishes are local specialties combining meat and vegetables, generally served with soups made from chicken, duck, fish, or pork, plus fresh vegetables and mushrooms.

The banquet starts with the Peony Bird’s Nest, which actually has no contributions from the swift, instead consisting of shredded radish, soup stock and an egg fashioned to resemble a peony.

Made with simple and obtainable rather than exotic ingredients, Luoyang soup dishes are both tasty and nutritious.

Research1 brief

                               

                                  The taste of  Luoyang  

                                                                             未到洛阳

Brief

 Luoyang in Henan province was China’s capital for nine dynasties, spanning more than 1,000 years. Its soup banquet has been popular for just as long. The banquet comprises 24 dishes – eight cold and 16 hot – served successively throughout a meal, like running water. It is consequently known as a shuixi (literally water banquet.)

Luoyang’s location, surrounded by mountains on all sides, brought about its distinct cuisine. Limited access and arable land in earlier times resulted in a dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables. Soups of all descriptions consequently became the local culinary specialty.

Tang Empress Wu Zetian (624-705) put Luoyang dishes on the national menu. After one visit, she and her royal retinue were deeply impressed with Luoyang soups, because they contrasted favorably with those they dined upon in the imperial court in Chang’an (today’s Xi’an). Having obtained recipes, upon their return the Empress and her court officials saw to it that these soup dishes were prepared daily and served to guests and visiting dignitaries.

Before long the dishes became popular in everyday households.

Story

The "Swallow Dish" of the first hot course. It is said that when Wu Zetian was in Luoyang, a giant turnipweighing tens of kilograms grew in Dongguan. Farmers thought it was a miracle and dedicated it to the Empress. Wu, tired of sumptuous feasts, was curious about what dishes could be made from turnip. The imperial cooks studied it and decided to steam the shredded turnip mixed with starch, then blend it in a broth. The Empress was very impressed by the swallow's nest-like flavor and complimented it, giving it its present name. In October 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied the Prime Minister of Canada to Luoyang. Chefs Wang Changsheng and Li Daxiong made the Swallow Dish and the two leaders ordered it twice. Because there was a carved peony in the dish, Premier Zhou remarked, "Luoyang's peonies are the best in the world. It even grows in these dishes. They should be called the 'Peony Swallow Dish'." The name has since been applied.

List

1.introduce Luoyang soup banquet.

2.Peony swallow dish      

3.Rural wedding

4.Soup banquet in exclusive restaurant.-Zhen bu tong Restaurant.