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Chinese cuisine/Cantonese cuisine/Buddha's delight

Template:Chinese Buddha's delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi, lo han jai, or lo hon jai, is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine. It is sometimes also called Luóhàn cài (Template:Zh).

The dish is traditionally enjoyed by Buddhist monks who are vegetarians, but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available as a vegetarian option in Chinese restaurants. The dish consists of various vegetables and other vegetarian ingredients (sometimes with the addition of seafood or eggs), which are cooked in soy sauce-based liquid with other seasonings until tender. The specific ingredients used vary greatly both inside and outside Asia.

Tradition

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As suggested by its name, it is a dish traditionally enjoyed by Buddhists, but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available in Chinese restaurants (though often not including all of the ingredients) as a vegetarian option. It is traditionally served in Chinese households on the first day of the Chinese New Year, stemming from the old Buddhist practice that one should maintain a vegetarian diet in the first five days of the new year, as a form of self-purification. Some of the rarer ingredients, such as fat choy and arrowhead, are generally only eaten at this time of year.

Ingredients

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The following is a list of ingredients often used in Buddha's delight, each of which, according to Chinese tradition, is ascribed a particular auspicious significance. As the dish varies from chef to chef and family to family, not every ingredient is always used in every version of the dish.

Main ingredients

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Commonly used main ingredients

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Less commonly used main ingredients

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Seasonings

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  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features". Archives.starbulletin.com. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Lin, Florence (1976). Florence Lin's Chinese Vegetarian Cookbook. Shambhala. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-87773-252-5. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c d Young, Grace (5 May 1999). The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing. Simon & Schuster. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-684-84739-9. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  4. ↑ a b "The Ginkgo Pages Forum - Blog: Jai a delight in the Chinese new year". Ginkgopages.blogspot.com. 2006-01-26. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  5. ↑ a b c Hsiung, Deh-Ta; Simonds, Nina (1 June 2005). Food of China. Murdoch Books. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-74045-463-6. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "Buddha's Delight Recipe". Taste.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  7. ↑ a b c Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named archive1
  8. ↑ a b Hsiung, Deh-Ta (19 February 2002). The Chinese Kitchen: A Book of Essential Ingredients with Over 200 Easy and Authentic Recipes. St. Martin's Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-312-28894-5. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Hu, Shiu-Ying (2005). Food Plants of China. Chinese University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-962-996-229-6. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  10. ↑ "Buddha's Delight Recipe at". Epicurious.com. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
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