Luck in a bowl: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall
The classic winter soup, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, is packed with auspicious sounding ingredients, writes Bernice Chan
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a dish that dates back several centuries to the Qing Dynasty and is made in Cantonese and Min, or Fujian, cuisines.
The curious name comes from the story of a monk who walks by a home where someone is cooking a fragrant soup. It smells so good that the monk, who according to the dictates of his faith, should have a vegetarian diet, jumps over the wall and eats some of the soup. When he is caught eating a dish with meat, he replies it was so good that even Buddha would jump over the wall to eat it.
Kowloon Shangri-La Chinese executive chef Mok Kit-keung recalls that in his younger years of training in the kitchen, the soup was served from a giant tureen similar in shape to the Shaoxing rice wine jars that were traditionally used, where the opening was only large enough for the ladle to go in, which concentrated the aromas. But today, many restaurants prefer to serve the soup in individual portions.
"While a large tureen has more flavour because it has so many ingredients, it's harder for the server to make sure each person has each ingredient in their bowl," he explains.
The chef, who also oversees the hotel's Shang Palace, says the soup served in the restaurant features about 15 ingredients, including chicken, fish maw, abalone, sea cucumber, American ginseng, bamboo pith, deer tendon, wolfberries and mushrooms.