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Nanchang jar soup with chicken and pitaya flower

Nangchang Jar soup is a

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

cuisine of China, and it is meat soup which is carried by jar and stored in a big crock. Similar to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

soup, the Jiangxi jar soup can be made from various ingredients from pork-bone, chicken and duck to different kinds of Chinese medicinal materials like

ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus '' Panax'', such as Korean ginseng ('' P. ginseng''), South China ginseng ('' P. notoginseng''), and American ginseng ('' P. quinquefolius''), typically characterized by the presence of ginsenosides ...

, codonopsis and

Chinese wolfberry Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry () is the fruit of either ''Lycium barbarum'' or ''Lycium chinense'', two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. ''L. barbarum'' and ''L. chinense'' fruits are simil ...

.Cuisine，Health & Nutrition. China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. Year vol#
/ref> Nonetheless, the Jiangxijar soup has its own uniqueness which makes it differ from other kinds of Chinese soup.

Uniqueness

Without pot cover, each soup jar is covered by silver foil with a tiny hole for letting out steam within when the soup jar is heated.
Accessed 1 Nov, 2016 Being stored in a little soup jar which is put in a big crock, ingredients are heated by the air heat around the little soup jar, inside the big crock, instead of getting heat directly from fire of by transferring heat from the big crock.

History and folktale

As a famous

cuisine, Nangchang Jar soup has a long history of over a thousand years. There even are some folktales about the origin of this soup. There was an honest and thrifty official named Tangbin in

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

. Tangbin worked hard and always did people favors. In order to help more poor people, Tangbin put all his food ingredients in a big jar to make soup for poor people. Since the food ingredients were stored in big jar with high temperature for a day, the flavor of the soup become nicer. People appreciated that and did the same soup. As time went by, people or the following generations followed their ancestors. And this soup, which is invented by Tangbin has become a famous soup in today's China.

Health benefits

Since

jar soup combines various ingredients together, its nutritive value is high which also matches Chinese people dietary habit. Chinese people prefer soup at their dining-table, they believe that having soup can help them derive nutrients to build a strong body. Moreover, Chinese people believe that having soup can somehow reduce the intake of other staple food, which is good for getting fat.

References

Chinese soups Culture in Jiangxi

Uniqueness

History and folktale

Health benefits

See also

References