海参 Sea Cucumber

大连独特的地理位置（北纬北纬38°43′至40°10′之间）、适宜的气候环境给野生海参的生长提供了绝佳的条件。每一个海参的诞生都是造物的奇迹。而绝佳的环境和长时间的酝酿造就了大连海参绝妙的口感。

海参入馔，由来已久。早在三国时期，吴国沈莹在《临海水土异物志》中就称海参为“土肉”：“土肉正黑，如小儿臂大，长五寸，中有腹，无口目，有三十足，炙食。”可见，那时人们对海参的烹饪比较简单。直到明清时期，海参才逐渐成为宴席上品。说到海参的烹饪，就不能不提到清代才子袁枚，他与纪晓岚齐名，合称“南袁北纪”。袁枚是一位不折不扣的美食家，著有《随园食单》一书，将饮馔之书提升至艺术的层面。《随园食单》是我国饮馔食事中的一部重量级作品，书中详细记述了我国古代的三百二十六种菜肴饭点，可谓味兼南北、美馔俱陈，为我国的饮食史保存了不少宝贵史料。《随园食单》的海参三法，曰红煨，曰做羹，曰凉拌：“海参，无味之物，沙多气腥，最难讨好。然天性浓重，断不可以清汤煨也。须检小刺参，先泡去沙泥，用肉汤滚泡三次，然后以鸡、肉两汁红煨极烂。辅佐则用香蕈、木耳，以其色黑相似也。大抵明日请客，则先一日要煨，海参才烂。尝见钱观察家，夏日用芥末、鸡汁拌冷海参丝，甚佳。或切小碎丁，用笋丁、香蕈丁入鸡汤煨作羹……”

大连海参的烹饪承袭了《随园食单》中的方法，主要以红烧、凉拌、熬粥为主，另外还发明了烤海参、做海参鸡蛋羹等新的烹调方法。毫不夸张地说，大连海参烹饪堪称绝活。海参的妙处不在味道，而在口感，使食客得到味觉上的满足。品尝时不能用筷子，要用羹匙，一匙一匙地挑起送入口中。吃起来有香滑软糯之感者，便为上乘之作；如若感觉隐隐然与牙齿作对，则为火候不到。说到这里还要补充一句，海参并非令人欲罢不能的美食，但就它的营养价值而言，却非一般珍馐美味可比。

Dalian's unique geographical location（north latitude 38°43′ to 40°10′）and favorable climate are ideal for wild sea cucumbers to grow. The birth of each of them is a life miracle, and strict environment and time control have ensured their wonderful taste.

Sea cucumber, as a cooking material, has a long-standing history, which can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period (A.D. 220-280), when Shen Ying of Wu Kingdom, wrote in The New Marine Species and Coastal Conditions and Customs:“‘Soil meat'(sea cucumber, as it is picked up from the sea bed) is shaped like a child's arm, of five cun long (cun: a unit of length, equals 1/3 decimetre), with stomach and thirty feet but no mouth or eye, edible through grilling.”It was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that sea cucumber had become a top-grade seafood. When it comes to the way of cooking this delicacy, one person must be mentioned: Yuan Mei, a gifted scholar in the Qing dynasty, who was on par with Ji Xiaolan (a master of literature in the Qing dynasty), and the two scholars shared the reputation of“YUAN in the south and JI in the north”. Yuan Mei was also a veritable gourmet, who wrote Suiyuan Recipe to raise Chinese dietary to an artistic level, and thereby made his book a major work in Chinese dietary. A total of 326 ancient recipes were included in this book, covering a variety of north and south delicacies and offering precious data for the study of Chinese dietary. With regard to sea cucumber, Suiyuan Recipe expounds three cooking styles: stew, thick soup and salad. “Sea cucumber is tasteless with a fishy smell and silt inside, thus it is hard to cook. Since it is strong and thick, light soup is not suitable for cooking. Instead, one must pick some smaller thorny sea cucumbers and put them into water to remove the silt, and then put them into broth for three times, before finally putting well-cooked chicken and pork in soy sauce as well as ingredients like mushrooms and black fungus into the broth and simmer it until tender. If you have guests come tomorrow, you should at least stew sea cucumbers today to ensure its tender taste. I still remember the wonderful taste of the dish served from the kitchen of a local officer Qian in summer time, which was made with cold vegetable salad mixed with shredded sea cucumbers, mustard and chicken liquid. It's quite delicious. Or you may use thick chicken soup mixed with diced sea cucumbers, diced bamboo shoots and mushrooms to make a soup…”

Dalian cooking style inherited the method described in Suiyuan Recipe, mainly braising in soy sauce, making salad or porridge. Also, Dalian chef had invented new ways of cooking: roast sea cucumber, or steamed egg custard with sea cucumber and other seafood. It is not exaggerated to say that Dalian cooking style takes unique technique. The merits of sea cucumber do not lie in its flavor, but its taste, which is a good way to satisfy the sensitivity of your taste buds. Do not use chopsticks to taste it, but with a soup spoon to send a small amount each time to your mouth. A soft and smooth feeling means that the sea cucumber is cooked just right. If you feel something is stuck among your teeth, that means it was cooked improperly. There's one thing I would like to mention: sea cucumber is not a seafood you tend to get addicted to, but in terms of its nutrition value, there's few delicacies can even compare.