Furong xie (crabmeat foo yong)

[horas]

芙 蓉 蟹 - fu2rong2 xie4 or sometimes 蟹 芙 蓉 蛋 - xie4 fu2rong2 dan4 ('Crabmeat in egg foo yong' in Cantonese English)

芙 - fu2 - lotus

蓉 - rong2 - lotus

芙 蓉 - fu2rong2 - hibiscus/rosemallow/Chinese rose (hibiscus rosa sinensis)

蟹 - xie4 - crab

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/413/

Q:

Why is the dish named furong (hibiscus)?

First I thought the scrambled eggs (used to roll the crabmeat in) should traditionally be cut/formed like the (five) petals of the hibiscus flower, but I've never seen such a thing being done in the Chinese kitchen preparing furong.

[hzrt8w]

In Chinese food terminology, the term "芙 蓉" is just another (prettier) name for eggs - particularly scrambled eggs. When used as the title of a dish, you know it is related to eggs. For example, if I make scrambled eggs with BBQ pork, I can call it "叉烧芙蓉".

The position of where you put "芙蓉" has different implications.

If I say "叉烧芙蓉", it implies I use a little bit of BBQ pork to cook more eggs - an omlette.

If I say "芙蓉叉烧", it implies I use a little bit of eggs to cook more BBQ Pork.

In your case:

"芙蓉蟹" should mean crab is the main theme. I use a little bit of egg to cook with the crab.

"蟹芙蓉蛋" should mean eggs are the main theme. I use crab (meat) to make scramble eggs.

I am not sure how the name came about, that the name of a flower species is taken to represent eggs. I think there is a story behind it but I cannot recall.

[Ian_Lee]

芙蓉蟹 is a northern cuisine. Why has 蛋 become 芙蓉? There is a story behind it.

During the Qing Dynasty, the menu in restaurants in Beijing avoid using the term egg 蛋. Why? Because the egg is the metaphor of testicles. And in Beijing, the enunchs roamed around the restaurants and when they ordered food, they hated the word 蛋 because they didn't have the testicles.

So 蛋 became a taboo then in Beijing restaurants. Therefore those restaurant owners had to find fancy names to replace 蛋 in the menu.

[hzrt8w]

>>>>>So 蛋 became a taboo then in Beijing restaurants. Therefore those restaurant owners had to find fancy names to replace 蛋 in the menu.<<<<<

Ian: That explained why the word "蛋" needed to be replaced by another name. Do you know how the flower hibiscus (芙蓉) got tied in to this? Is there another story?

[horas]

I got some more information on revealing the hibiscus/lotus mystery

From the Lin Yutang dictionary:

芙蓉 面 - fu2rong2 mian4 - a pretty face

IMO it originates from the phrase: 'her face is like a flower' (or something like that)

So, fu2rong2 dan4 could mean 'beautiful egg'

hzrt8w:

I am not sure how the name came about, that the name of a flower species is taken to represent eggs. I think there is a story behind it but I cannot recall.

A.

Pondering about eggs and beauty, I could very dimly remember the ranking of beautiful face forms in Ancient China:

1. (round) moon-faced girls <----- the absolute #1

2. probably oval/egg-shaped faced girls?

3. melon seed [瓜子 - gua1zi3] - faced girls

4. any other?

B.

Pondering about eggs and flowers:

If you ever visit China Restaurants in Germany and ordered Fu yung egg, it is highly probable that you would get that dish practically sauceless and with a salty taste.

But in Indonesia, that dish (with crabmeat filling) still bears its original Cantonese name (Fuyong hai) and it is traditionally served sweet-and-sour (I believe this is a distinctive feature of Cantonese cuisine). That means in this case, the (eggs) wrapping is splashed over with sweet-and-sour sauce. Because that sauce mostly contains tomato paste/puree, it is blood-red in colour. So if one lets one's imagination run wild, one surely could perceive the dish as a red hibiscus.

Ian_Lee:

And in Beijing, the eunuchs roamed around the restaurants and when they ordered food, they hated the word 蛋 because they didn't have testicles.

If it's on the menu, they could surely order that missing accessory, couldn't they?

[horas]

*

I've found a (cooking term) definition of fu2rong2 which sort of supports what hzrt8w has said:

http://tinyurl.com/8ov7o

芙 蓉 - fu2rong2

- cotton rose, hibiscus, lotus;

- to cook a dish using rose, or lotus,

- to cook a dish using egg-white as the second main ingredient

Correction:

I've mixed up the Chinese characters of different hibiscus species in my previous postings.

A.

芙 蓉 [fu2rong2] - hibiscus mutabilis (Dixie rosemallow, Cotton rose, Confederate rose)

"Neither a confederate (it hails from China but has taken a liking to the US southland), nor a rose (it's in Malvaceae, the hibiscus family)."

http://www.floridata.com/ref/h/hibis_mu.cfm

B.

扶 桑 [fu2sang1] - hibiscus rosa-sinensis (these Chinese characters also denote an archaic form of the name Japan) = bunga raya (state flower of Malaysia) = China rose/Chinese hibiscus

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Malvales

Family: Malvaceae

Genus: Hibiscus

Species: rosa-sinensis

http://tinyurl.com/bnv6n

I rather like China Roses (4:40) which was sung dreamily by Enya.

http://www.bearzcave.com/asf.htm

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[horas]

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Ian Lee:

芙蓉蟹 is a northern cuisine

*

Are you sure? Does somebody possess Yan Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook (by Yan-Kit So) to check if it's Northern or Southern (Guangdong) cuisine?

Chinese food in New York project:

http://tinyurl.com/9bysx

index of Yan Kit's book:

http://tinyurl.com/dg5kr

[kNOwTaste]

horas:

No 芙蓉蟹, but it has a Fu-yung Egg Slices.

" Fu-yang is Chinese for lotus. In poetry it is used to describe the pretty face of a young woman, and it is indeed a fitting adjective for the Eastern dish."

It is a Shanghai dish.

kNOwtaste

[Jo-Ann]

I couldn't find anything in Yan Kit's "Classic----", but Chang's ency. of "Chinese Cooking----", and the Weichuan series have it as Cantonese.

Just a thought ---- Since scrambled eggs often get the name 'cassia' because of the appearance of the 'cassia' flower:

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=cassia

---- I wonder if the Chinese Hibiscus gives the name Fu Yong because of the stigma resembles a cassia. (in a small way)

http://images.google.com/images?q=Chinese+hibiscus&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

[horas]

kNOwtaste:

It is a Shanghai dish.

*

http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/termdetail/0,7770,1280,00.html

Chinese cuisine

Definition:

The combined cuisines of China have often been compared to French cuisine as having made the greatest contribution to the world of food.

Chinese cooking styles have been divided into five main regions: Southeastern (Canton), East Coast (Fukien), Northeastern (Peking-Shantung), Central (Honan) and Western (Szechuan-Hunan).

Cantonese cuisine is famous for its meat roasting and grilling, fried rice, and bird's nest and shark's fin soup.

The province of Fukien is noted for its multitudinous selection of soups and for its seafood dishes.

The light, elegant Peking-Shantung style originated the famous peking duck, and is highly acclaimed for its subtle and artful use of seasonings.

China's Honan province is the home of sweet-and-sour cooking, and the Szechuan-Hunan school is known for its hot, spicy dishes.

Mandarin cooking and Shanghai cooking are not regional designations, but terms used to describe cooking styles. The word mandarin means "Chinese official," and mandarin cooking suggests an aristocratic cuisine that gleans the very finest elements from all the regions.

Shanghai cooking refers to a cosmopolitan combination of many Chinese cooking styles.

--Copyright © 1995 by Barron's Educational Series, from The New Food Lover's Companion, Second Edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst

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[kNOwTaste]

"Are you sure? Does somebody possess Yan Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook (by Yan-Kit So) to check if it's Northern or Southern (Guangdong) cuisine?"

"...Chinese cooking styles have been divided into five main regions: Southeastern (Canton), East Coast (Fukien), Northeastern (Peking-Shantung), Central (Honan) and Western (Szechuan-Hunan).

Mandarin cooking and Shanghai cooking are not regional designations, but terms used to describe cooking styles. The word mandarin means "Chinese official," and mandarin cooking suggests an aristocratic cuisine that gleans the very finest elements from all the regions.

Shanghai cooking refers to a cosmopolitan combination of many Chinese cooking styles..."

Horas:

You asked for what Yan Kit’s has to say about Fu-Rong dish, therefore I quoted what she has to say. Find yourself a copy of her book and look at page 148 under the heading of: “An Eastern or Shanghai Menu”, Fu-Rong Egg Slices is listed as the first picture.

Even your own link http://tinyurl.com/9bysx is quoting Yan-Kit and listed Eastern School as Shanghai.

I will not quote food network if I were you as a source for Chinese cuisine considering it has not a single Asian cooking show in its lineup. It is a network more about entertainment/life style than about cooking. For that author to say that Fujian represents the Eastern region and Shanghai is just a style shows that the person has no clues about Chinese cuisines.

Shanghai cooking may be a “cosmopolitan combination of many Chinese cooking styles” but it is based solidly on both Jiangsu and Zhejiang cooking, both of which are much more influential than Fujian cuisine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_cuisine

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E8%8F%9C

Yan-Kits’s is definitely not the last word on Chinese regional cooking and Fu-Rong dish may not be from Shanghai, but I am simple quoting her at your request.