According to local people from the Guangdong province,[1] prior to the Battle of Yamen, the last emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Bing, and his regime's remnants, sought shelter in a monastery at Chaozhou. The monastery's monks served an impromptu vegetarian soup made of edible plants, edible mushrooms, and vegetable broth. The emperor loved the soup and named it "protect the country dish" or "soup for safeguarding the nation" (護國菜).[2][3] A later generation named it in English "patriotic soup". After Zhao Bing died, the preparation of the soup became a way to honor the last Song emperor.
Preparation
The soup became a part of Teochew cuisine, and its recipe evolved over time. Although the Chinese since the Ming dynasty commonly use sweet potato leaves, other varieties include amaranth, spinach, ipomoea aquatica and other leafy greens; and alternative broths such as beef or chicken.[4][5][6] Other ingredients are often added such as beaten eggs,[7] shredded dry cured ham, tofu, cellophane noodles, etc. Guangdong Province's restaurants routinely decorate the soup in a taijitu diagram. However, the most authentic version of the soup typically is homemade and simply prepared just using leaf vegetable, edible mushrooms, and vegetable broth.[8]
^Fang Xiaolan (方曉嵐 ); Chen Jilin (陳紀臨) (2012). Traditional Chaozhou Cuisine (外婆家的潮州菜) (in Traditional Chinese). Hong Kong: Wan Li Book Co. Ltd. (萬里機構). pp. 90–91. ISBN9789621446237.
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