Jumping Over the Wall for this Soup

Abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw presented on a platter

Today is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the Chinese like to mark the occasion with a dinner that could be equated to Thanksgiving. Family members get together around the table and have a feast that includes tong yuen, or glutinous rice dumplings filled with black sesame paste in a sweet soup.

This evening we were invited to a Christmas party that doubled as a Winter Solstice dinner at Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant in Burnaby.

On the menu were dishes like lobster stir-fried with mung bean vermicelli, soy sauce chicken, sweet and sour deep-fried fish, bok choy with yuba, or tofu skin, and fried rice. We didn't have tong yuen, but baked sago pudding with red bean paste.

The highlight was Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, served in a massive tureen. The clear broth was so flavourful, soaking up the ingredients it had been cooked with -- abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, Chinese ham, goose webs, shiitake mushrooms, and conpoy.

The soup was given this name with a tale that the smell of it was so tempting that a vegetarian Buddhist monk could not resist and would jump over the wall to try it.

This particular soup was delicious, the broth was clear and hardly oily; we ate the abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw separately with abalone sauce.

Whenever I get the opportunity to have Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, it reminds me of when I first tried it back in the late 1990s in Hong Kong.

I was a young journo at the time trying to learn as much as I could, and had one assignment to interview a chef about this dish. I went to a Chinese restaurant in a hotel and the chef explained all the different ingredients in the soup (at the time it included shark's fin), ginseng, and a curious slightly round disk about 1cm in diameter with a small hole in the middle.

The hotel public relations manager and I asked what this was.

"Deer penis," the chef sheepishly replied, adding it was supposed to be for men's virility.

We giggled and asked, does it have any effect on us women?

He didn't have an answer and went back to the kitchen.

We drank the soup and it was delicious, having been simmering for hours on the stove.

That evening I went home and could not sleep! I was tossing and turning for ages.

The next morning I called up the PR manager and asked her if she was able to get some shut eye.

"I couldn't sleep either!" she exclaimed and we wondered if it was because of the deer penis in the soup...

 

Tempting Chinese Delicacy

Very large abalone and fish maw surrounding sea cucumbers

The first time I ate the classic dish Buddha jumps over the wall was back in the late 1990s in Hong Kong in Shang Palace in the Kowloon Shangri-la.

Still relatively new in journalism but keen to try new things, I did a story about Buddha jumps over the wall, interviewing the chef at the restaurant about the ingredients and how the soup got its name.

The broth (top left), with shark's fin (top right)

As the story goes, the smells from kitchen near a Buddhist monastery tempted a monk to "jump over the wall" to eat the dish, which contains meat.

And it's understandable why someone would find it hard to resist with such premium ingredients as sea cucumber, shark's fin, abalone, conpoy, fish maw, chicken, Jinhua ham, ginseng and mushrooms. Some varieties include taro and quail eggs.

The version I tried had thin slices of deer penis in it, geared towards boosting mens' testosterone... The hotel public relations woman and I giggled at the thought of having this ingredient in our soup and we thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

However that evening I find it practically impossible to sleep. I was tossing and turning for hours and by morning was a sleep-deprived wreck.

I called the public relations woman to tell her about my sleepless night and she immediately exclaimed, "Me too!" We had a good laugh.

Conpoy with slices of Jinhua ham

We still have fond memories of this experience decades later.

Fast forward to a few days ago and I got a chance to eat the same dish again in Vancouver, well Burnaby. At Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant in Crystal Mall, the chef there makes Buddha jumps over the wall that is not presented in individual pots, but in a giant soup tureen and the ingredients carefully arranged and presented on platters.

There were large abalone and fish maw too, but thin sea cucumber, and tiny scraps of shark's fin -- I was surprised to even see that there. We were given two rounds of the soup, one with conpoy and Jinhua ham, the other with a very large, meaty mushroom.

Next came the abalone, fish maw and sea cucumber presented with abalone sauce. 

Needless to say after two bowls of soup and this dish, we were half full already.

Sea cucumber, fish maw and abalone

As Coca-Cola was available I got a glass and was glad I did -- there was quite a bit of MSG in the dishes, and the Coke helped counteract feeling thirsty.

I can say despite the caffeinated Coke I slept quite well that night...