1|||Huogongdian Flavor Snacks
Huogongdian Authentic Snacks
Dear friends:
Hello, everyone! Welcome to Huogongdian (Fire Palace). Whenever people talk about Hunan cuisine or Hunan's local snacks, Huogongdian is always mentioned. Huogongdian is a time-honored Chinese brand well known both at home and abroad, hailed as the birthplace of Hunan-style snacks and a leading representative of Hunan cuisine, with a profound historical heritage. It is comparable to Quanjude and Donglaishun in Beijing, and Goubuli in Tianjin. This is because Changsha's modern catering industry—its formation, scale, and characteristics—all began with Huogongdian and are inextricably linked to it. It is the only surviving fruit of Hunan cuisine and Hunan-style snacks with an unbroken lineage. Following in the footsteps of China's traditional catering time-honored brands Quanjude, Donglaishun, and Goubuli, it is yet another traditional time-honored Chinese brand, recognized by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce as a "China Well-Known Trademark." This brand, spanning two and a half centuries, is a representative public venue in Changsha and even Hunan that integrates folk culture, religious culture, and culinary culture. In particular, Huogongdian's snacks are renowned throughout Hunan, and the visit of the great leader Mao Zedong made Huogongdian famous around the world.
Huxiang culture has a long history and is broad and profound. Its cultural elements of pragmatism, pioneering spirit, and hands-on practice have accumulated the cultural heritage of the Hunan cuisine brand. This high starting point of Hunan cuisine culture can be seen from the records of Qu Yuan, a representative figure of Huxiang culture, in his poem "Zhao Hun" (Summoning the Soul) from the Chu Ci: "Bitter, salty, sour, and pungent flavors are all blended; the tendons of fat beef, stewed till fragrant..." (meaning sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy—all are delicious; the clear-braised fat beef tendons are fragrant and savory). The large number of food relics unearthed from the tomb of Xin Zhui, wife of the Marquis of Dai at Mawangdui—one of China's "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries"—further demonstrates that more than 2,000 years ago during the Western Han Dynasty, Hunan cuisine was already remarkably rich: of 310 bamboo slips, more than half recorded food, dining utensils, and seasonings, documenting and reflecting the abundance of Hunan cuisine ingredients, the variety of cooking methods, and the distinctiveness of flavors. Moreover, in May 1999, archaeologists excavating Tomb No. 1 of the Han Dynasty at Huxishan in Yuanling County unearthed China's first Hunan cuisine recipe book, *Meishi Fang* (Recipes for Fine Food), which further confirms the prosperity and long history of Hunan cuisine.
Huogongdian is located on Pozi Street in Changsha. It was originally a temple for worshipping the Fire God, also known as "Qianyuan Palace." As everyone knows, Changsha is a famous historical and cultural city, and its ancestors have always had the custom of worshipping the Fire God. During the Ming Dynasty, there was already a small temple here dedicated to the Fire God Zhurong, commonly known as the Fire God Temple. Later, due to years of neglect, it fell into disrepair. It was rebuilt in the 12th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1747). In the 6th year of the Daoguang reign (1826), local gentry Cai Shiwang and others advocated that the gentry and merchants of the provincial capital rebuild the Fire God Temple and expand its scale. Huogongdian was thus divided into a front courtyard and a rear courtyard. The front courtyard included the ancient archway, the opera stage, and the Fire God Temple; the rear courtyard included three temples—the God of Wealth Temple, the Miluo Pavilion, and the Pucí Pavilion—covering a total area of over 6,000 square meters. It formed a large temple complex with a layout extending south to Pozi Street, east to Bao'an Lane, and west to Sanwang Street. Taking the meaning of "Qian Yuan Heng Li Zhen" from the *I Ching* (Book of Changes), it was named "Qianyuan Palace," expressing people's good wishes for peace, disaster relief, and blessings. The three characters "Qianyuan Gong" above the central gate of the ancient archway were written by the Qing Dynasty calligrapher Huang Ziyuan. Every year during the sixth lunar month, a temple fair was held here, along with large-scale sacrificial activities. At these times, Huogongdian was crowded and bustling. Of course, the most enticing attraction was the grand opera stage, where the sounds of drums, stringed instruments, singing, and storytelling merged into a harmonious melody. Various performances of folk arts—quyi, acrobatics, paper-cutting, martial arts—were dazzling and delightful. Before one realized it, mealtime had passed, and one could simply order the aromatic stinky tofu, the tempting "dragon fat pig's blood," or "braised pig's trotters" from nearby to satisfy one's hunger.
No wonder the famous calligrapher He Shaoji, after watching the temple fair operas at Huogongdian and tasting the snacks, spontaneously composed a couplet for the ancient opera stage. This couplet is still inscribed on the two side pillars of the stage today: "Forms arise from emptiness, embodying so much worldly ways and human feelings—one should seek the real within the void; flavor emerges from bitterness—look at the loyal ministers and filial sons through the ages, all finding sweetness returned from bitterness." The horizontal plaque reads "A Song of Balmy Breeze." It was precisely this "Song of Balmy Breeze" that made the temple fair flourish and the temple's incense burn even brighter, and Huogongdian began to become a place where performers made their living. With the temple at its center, storytellers, physiognomists, fortune-tellers, street performers, antique dealers, clay sculptors, stilt walkers, lacquer carvers, shadow puppeteers, and puppeteers gathered, hawking their wares to make a living. Over time, it gradually formed a layout with activities in all directions, and Huogongdian evolved into a temple market integrating worship and incense offerings, storytelling and physiognomy, tanci and opera performances, and snacks and dishes—as bustling as the City God Temple in Shanghai, the Confucius Temple in Nanjing, and Tianqiao in Beijing—passed down from generation to generation, embodying a rich folk character.
Today's Huogongdian, after expansion, has renovated the Fire God Temple, established the Fire Museum, restored the ancient opera stage, and revived the temple fair. It remains authentic, restored to its original state. In the midst of deep nostalgia, people once again see the temple fair that reflects the local customs of old Changsha after more than 50 years: dragon dances, rickshaw rides, listening to Hunan opera, watching Hunan theater, eating Hunan cuisine, tasting Hunan dim sum, and sampling snacks...
Today's Huogongdian temple fair is retro in form but even richer in content, with folk customs more intense and varied. The Mid-Autumn Folk Custom Temple Fair, the Longhui Huayao Temple Fair, the Zhangjiajie Maogusi Cultural Temple Fair, the Dong Ethnic Song and Dance Temple Fair... local songs, local dances, local benches, local tea, local dishes, local accents—together with the calls of the barber's carrying pole ("hot on one end, cold on the other"), the sound of a white-haired, wrinkled old woman chopping chili peppers, and the arias of Huagu opera excerpts—all join in singing the unique nationwide folk custom brand temple fair that blends fire temple culture with Hunan cuisine culture.
Having said all this, everyone must be wondering: temples are everywhere in China, and food is everywhere in the land. Why is it that Huogongdian's Hunan cuisine and snacks can coexist with the temple fair and become the only temple-palace in China where "a palace contains a temple, the temple contains a stage, and beyond the stage there is food"?
It is precisely the passing down of these crafts from generation to generation that has achieved Huogongdian's Hunan cuisine food culture and fire temple culture. Temple fair, temple opera, temple food—Hunan cuisine and snacks—converge into a temple market, bearing witness to the simple folk customs, folk food, and folk ways of the land of Hunan for thousands of years. The simplicity of fire temple culture is of course one important factor, but what is even more remarkable is the "one-scoop merit" of Huogongdian's culinary culture. As the gate couplet of Huogongdian reads: "A unique marvel of the Star City, no ordinary skill; guests through the ages look up to its great fame."
Huogongdian's cuisine was born alongside the temple fair. It originated among the common people but was refined in the marketplace, rising above the folk level. This "refinement" and "elevation" benefited from Huogongdian's use of the temple fair as a marketplace, gathering chefs of various famous snacks and Hunan dishes from all walks of society. Their skills were mostly inherited from their ancestors as family trades for making a living. With genuine skills and upright character, the snacks and Hunan dishes they made stood out from ordinary social food flavors and established a school of their own. Famous snacks include Jiang Erdie's stinky tofu, Jiang's daughter's Sister Rice Balls, Hu Guiying's pig's blood, Deng Chunxiang's braised pig's trotters, Zhou Fusheng's Dutch powder, Zhang Guisheng's fried sanzi, Li Ziquan's Immortal Bowl Rice, and Luo San's rice noodles. Traditional classic Hunan dishes include Dong'an Chicken, Steamed Cured Meats, Clear-Stewed Turtle, Hair-thin Beef Tripe, Red-Braised Shark's Fin, Braised Pork, Boatman's Fish Pieces, and Braised Beef Tripe, among others—carefully selected ingredients, fine workmanship, elegant presentation, and mellow flavors, making them living "fossils" of traditional Hunan cuisine.
According to historical records, Jiang Erdie began learning the craft from his father at age 12 and became highly experienced, inheriting the secret recipe for making stinky tofu and ensuring this uniquely local snack variety was passed down. He was particularly particular about the selection of ingredients for making stinky tofu. The soybeans had to be fresh in color and plump in grain; the tofu blanks had to be neither too old nor too tender; the fermentation brine had to be made from superior ingredients such as Fujian shiitake mushrooms, fresh winter bamboo shoots from Dawei Mountain in Liuyang, Liuyang River qu liquor, and Liuyang fermented black beans. The tofu blanks were soaked in the specially prepared brine for 24 hours, then removed, drained, and fried over a slow fire. The resulting stinky tofu was crispy outside and tender inside, with a delicate texture—black as ink, fragrant as fine wine, tender as flakes, soft as velvet—"smelly when you smell it, fragrant when you eat it." When Mao Zedong returned to Hunan in 1958, he still remembered the Huogongdian
"stinky tofu" he had eaten in his youth, and only after tasting it again did he fulfill his wish.
Another famous snack, Sister Rice Balls, is also exquisitely crafted and widely renowned, created by the two daughters of Jiang Liren, a coppersmith at Huogongdian. The rice balls made by the Jiang daughters were glutinous and soft, fresh and sweet, with an endless aftertaste. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the famous playwright Tian Han, while in Hunan, was a regular at Huogongdian and particularly loved Sister Rice Balls. In 1987, a Taiwanese compatriot calling himself "A Returned Traveler from Dongting" revisited Huogongdian. Recalling the times he and Tian Han had tasted snacks together at Huogongdian, he was overcome with emotion and happily wrote: "Fried tofu, fragrant within its stench; a guest recalls it in Taiwan. When young Tian Han returned to Hunan, Sister Rice Balls were his breakfast."
The Hunan cuisine and snacks that Chairman Mao tasted at Huogongdian during his return to Hunan are also a testament. The dishes were not of high grade, but the craftsmanship was extraordinary, representing the highest standard of Hunan cuisine at the time. The authentic Hunan flavors of classic dishes—Dong'an Chicken, Hair-thin Beef Tripe, Clear-Stewed Turtle, Braised Dog Meat, Soft-Shelled Turtle with Fish Maw, Spinach and Three Delicacies Soup, Red-Braised Tendon—and the fresh fragrance of snacks like stinky tofu and shredded chicken rice noodles won the Chairman's repeated praise. Out of remembrance, today's Huogongdian people named this meal the "Chairman's Banquet." In 2002, at the 12th Chinese Chefs' Festival, it was recognized as a "Chinese Famous Banquet" and won the highest industry award of 2002, the "Chinese Golden Chef Award."
As for Hunan dim sum, traditional products such as Deyuan steamed buns have emerged, rivaling Tianjin's Goubuli. The buns are praised for being "white in color, fluffy and light, with translucent skin showing the oil, and delicious filling." Old Changsha residents have long had the custom of "sitting in teahouses." Teahouses mainly operated in the morning market, and in summer also had a night market. They sold not only plain tea but also buns, pastries, and snacks like sunflower seeds and peanuts. There were many types of buns and pastries, with dozens available year-round. Buns were divided into two major categories: savory and sweet. Savory buns included fresh meat, barbecued pork, and soup dumplings; sweet buns included crystal sugar, red bean paste, rose, salted vegetable, and jujube paste. Rolls included spring rolls, horseshoe rolls, silver-thread rolls, and brain-marrow rolls. Dumplings included boiled, pan-fried, and steamed. There were also various shaomai, cakes, tangyuan, rice cakes, and fried dough items. Thus the teahouse pastry business was a major trade in the catering industry, running neck and neck with the restaurant business. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China period, famous teahouses in Changsha included Deyuan, Xu Songquan, Banjianglou, Putianchun, Dongtingchun, and Wufangzhai, which generally hung advertising signs reading "Famous Mountain and Water Teas, Seasonal Fresh Fine Pastries" to attract customers. Besides restaurants and teahouses, Changsha's noodle and rice noodle shops also flourished. As early as the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty, there was a guild for noodle and rice noodle shops. By the late Qing and Republican periods, many famous shops had emerged, such as the Ganchangshun noodle shop, the Heji and Huang Chunhe rice noodle shops, and Yang Yuxing and Banyating, which sold both noodles and rice noodles. Many restaurants and eateries also sold noodles and rice noodles. All of these share a lineage with Huogongdian.
Therefore, Huogongdian is like a museum, deeply preserving the life of Hunan cuisine: from the various delicacies in Qu Yuan's "Zhao Hun" from the Chu Ci, to the "fine fish" recorded in the pre-Qin *Lüshi Chunqiu · Benwei Pian*—"Among the fine fish are the trout of Dongting and the fry of the East Sea; the fish of the Li River..."—to the more than one hundred precious dishes recorded on bamboo slips unearthed from the Mawangdui Han tomb; from famous dishes handed down by historical celebrities, officials, and tycoons—such as the fish recorded in the calligrapher Huaisu's *Shi Yu Tie* (Post on Eating Fish), Zeng Guofan's beloved "Stuffed Crucian Carp" and "Three Combinations Soup," Zuo Zongtang's "General Tso's Chicken," Peng Yulin's "Jade Fragrance Waist," Tang Shengzhi's "Dong'an Chicken," Tan Yankai's "Zu'an Cuisine" series, and Mao Zedong's favorite "Braised Pork" and "Fire-Baked Fish"—to distinctive local dishes circulating among the people of Hunan. For example, in *Great Changes in a Mountain Village* by the famous writer Zhou Libo, a single snakehead fish can be made into more than ten delicious dishes such as "Butterfly Crossing the River" and "Swallow Diving into the Sea." And in Guo Moruo's *Hongbo Qu* (The Wave Song), the savory "Hair-thin Beef Tripe" is vividly described... This is a reflection and transmission of the folk customs, folk ways, folk sentiments, and folk food of a region and a period of history, full of rich traditional Huxiang cultural characteristics.
The Hunan cuisine brand Huogongdian is also a microcosm of the living fossil of Huxiang culture. Huogongdian was founded in the 12th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1747). From this time onward came the golden age of Huxiang culture's prosperity. From the influence of Huxiang cultural thought to the rise of the Xiang Army, to the visits of Huxiang cultural representatives such as Zeng Guofan and Mao Zedong, Huogongdian's business philosophy has always been grounded in the implementation of the essence of Huxiang cultural thought—people-oriented, upholding "folk customs, folk ways, and folk food" as its mission, and pursuing harmonious development. Snacks, stir-fries, tanci, storytelling, street performances, and sacrificial rituals—dazzling in variety—satisfy hunger, delight the spirit, and pray for disaster relief and blessings, all seeking a harmony of life and diet and a harmony of social peace and freedom from calamity. Just as Huxiang culture is renowned alongside Qilu culture, Heluo culture, Bashu culture, Wu-Yue culture, and Lingnan culture, Huogongdian is equally famous as the City God Temple in Shanghai, the Confucius Temple in Nanjing, and Tianqiao in Beijing. It has not only become a highlight of urban commercial economy in its era but also records the development history of China's urban commercial economy and culture.
Huogongdian not only integrates food culture, fire culture, and temple fair culture into one palace, forming a nationwide unique multi-cultural transmission mode of "a shop containing a palace, the palace containing a temple, beyond the temple a stage, and within the stage food," but also passes down traditional snacks from folk master performers, deeply imprinting them with the distinctly regional Huxiang folk customs and folk food culture. They have unique flavors, are passed down from generation to generation, and have enjoyed enduring popularity.
For more than two hundred years, Huogongdian has originated from tradition yet risen above it, offering food that is delicious and unforgettable. After tasting Huogongdian's stinky tofu, the great leader Mao Zedong said with emotion: "Changsha Huogongdian's stinky tofu—smelly when you smell it, fragrant when you eat it." And former Premier Zhu Rongji, during the group discussion of the Hunan delegation at the National People's Congress in 2003, also said affectionately: "Food culture is very important to Changsha. I once salivated at the very thought of Huogongdian's snacks..." Peng Dehuai, Ye Jianying, Hu Yaobang, Li Tieying, Wang Zhen, Wang Shoudao, Xu Teli, Huang Kecheng, and other Party and state leaders, as well as the famous mathematician Hua Luogeng, economist Li Yining, writer Kang Zhuo, and playwright Tian Han, all visited Huogongdian to taste its snacks. Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, after tasting Huogongdian's stinky tofu, recorded in his notebook that "stinky tofu is one of the famous dishes of Changsha's Huogongdian." Former U.S. President Kennedy's brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, after visiting Huogongdian and tasting the snacks, bought Huogongdian's lard glutinous rice cakes to take back to the United States for
his family to share.
As an inclusive and open culture, one of the greatest characteristics of Huxiang culture is its ability to keep pace with the times. From the Huxiang scholar Wei Yuan's "opening one's eyes to see the world" and "learning the advanced techniques of the barbarians to control them," to the rise of Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army that pioneered the Self-Strengthening Movement; from Wang Chuanshan's idea that "when instruments change, the Way changes too," to Tan Sitong's philosophy of benevolence that reconciled ancient and modern, Chinese and Western—all clearly demonstrate the spirit of Huxiang scholars who carried forward Huxiang culture with an attitude of inheriting tradition, pioneering progress, and bold innovation. And generation after generation of Hunan people have always inspired the brilliance of the Hunan cuisine brand with strong perseverance, an open mindset, and an innovative spirit.
A thousand years of Huxiang culture, broad and profound. It nourishes a thousand years of Hunan cuisine, with deep roots.
Because Huxiang culture emphasizes statecraft and practice, and esteems Neo-Confucianism without becoming empty and impractical, it influences the Hunan cuisine prepared by Hunan people to emphasize palatability and the pursuit of "flavor." Because it esteems Neo-Confucianism, has a pragmatic concept of statecraft, and practices personally, Hunan people's beloved Hunan cuisine emphasizes spiciness and the pursuit of "refreshingness," with distinct personality, allowing people to taste a hundred flavors within the spice. Because of the constraints of Neo-Confucianism and the concept of statecraft, which emphasize personal practice but are limited to political ethics, Hunan cuisine reached its zenith in high society, giving rise to official Hunan cuisine. Its innovation and popularity in turn drove the wave-like innovative development of Hunan cuisine throughout society, making Hunan cuisine emphasize refinement and the pursuit of "harmony"—combining the freshness of Cantonese cuisine, not losing the grandeur of Shandong cuisine, and not lacking the literary elegance of Huaiyang cuisine—drawing on the strengths of many, uniquely distinctive. This has made Hunan cuisine widely popular for its fine knife work and the beauty of both form and flavor; uniquely distinctive for its expertise in seasoning and emphasis on sour, spicy, fresh, and fragrant flavors; endlessly memorable for its wide selection of ingredients and ever-new flavors; and, through the constant competition of famous chefs from generation to generation, fully displaying the characteristics of Hunan cuisine: "Mashed sour pickled vegetables, flattened like a mirror that can reflect a person's face; wonton soup so clear and clean you could grind ink and write with it; noodles so supple and ribbon-like you can tie them in knots; vinegar so mellow and fragrant you could drink it as wine..." This is the profundity of a thousand years of Hunan cuisine.
A scholar once said: "In traditional Chinese culture, what most makes the Chinese people proud and attracts world attention is China's food culture." Sun Yat-sen also said: "In the evolution of modern Chinese civilization, everything falls behind others, except the progress in cuisine, which even the civilized nations of the world have not yet surpassed." Mao Zedong also confidently said: "I believe that Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine will be China's two great contributions to the world."
Therefore, fully absorbing the nourishment of Huxiang culture and operating Hunan cuisine as a culture. Enriching the heritage of Hunan cuisine with the essence of Huxiang culture, enriching the connotations of Hunan cuisine with Huxiang folk culture, elevating the taste of Hunan cuisine, and making the Hunan cuisine brand a calling card for Hunan. The reason Huogongdian could become a China Well-Known Trademark is precisely its rich cultural heritage, integrating food culture, fire culture, temple fair culture, tea culture, and religious culture into one.
Today's Huogongdian, while preserving the original Fire God Temple, ancient opera stage, and Huogong Teahouse, has renovated the ancient archway and built the West Building Food Street, banquet hall, stone archway, and waterside pavilion. Today's Huogongdian has a more beautiful environment, full of antique charm, with flavorful snacks at reasonable prices, forming a unique phenomenon of "fire temple culture" in southern China. As the fire is passed on though the fuel is spent, and drink and food are enjoyed in harmony, the culinary culture bred and developed by the "fire temple culture" ignited by fire culture exists alongside history and advances with the times. At Huogongdian, you can not only taste flavorful snacks, eat authentic Hunan cuisine, and sample famous teas and fine pastries, but also listen to tanci and Hunan opera and witness the grandeur of the fire temple, bringing every visitor here endless joy and spiritual enjoyment.