Fanji Cured Meat,Unforgettable”Heavy Taste”
3 min read
Fanji Cured Meat is a famous snack local to Xi’an which manifests the Northwestern food culture,but where does the cuisine originate from specifically?The answer is that the brand of Fanji was started by Mr.Fan Fengxiang and his son in the year of 1925,ninety years old up to date.
The story was passed down that in the Tang Dynasty,a government official named Fan and his family lived in the east of Chang’an City.The family was upright. One year,because the south of Shaanxi Province suffered from the flood,many civilians fled from famine to Chang’an.When Mr.Fan and his family had viewed those refugees,they decided to contribute the grains from their own granary to relieve them of the hunger.Once,when Master Fan himself passed by the east gate of his mansion on his way home,he caught the sight that a ragged young boy kneeling down by a corpse wailing.Upon inquiry,he learnt that it was the boy’s mother who died on the way fleeing and the young boy could not afford the burial.Master Fan had deep sympathy over this boy,ordered his servants to help him with the funeral and give him one hundred taels of silver as a gift.
A decade later,this young man made a great fortune out of the business of Cured Meat.To repay the kindness of Master Fan,this boy took the occasion of the celebration for Master Fan’s Eighty-year-old Birthday to prepare quality-cooked Cured Meat inside a coffin made of the finest timber before sealing it up and delivering it to Fan’s mansion.As there were so many guests on the birthday party, the Fan’s did not pay attention to this gift and moved the coffin to the woodshed in the backyard,since when the coffin had remained there for several years.
Afterwards,Master Fan offended the royal court and was reduced from his office and became a civilian.A mishap that brought deep resentment and depression to Master Fan and hnally led to his death.In less than several years,the familv property was also sold off and their lite had become harder.At that point,the familv found the coffin placed in the woodshed and considered selling the coffin to get by.Nonetheless,it was so heavy that even with several people trying to lift and move this coffin,it remained unmoved.Mrs.Fan was surprised somehow,and had someone uncover the coffin to check the cause.As the inside of the coffin was exposed,it turned out that a full coffin of Cured Meat was there,emitting fragrant scent and shining sparkly.
Mrs.Fan asked someone of her family to sell some of Cured Meat in the street and found that all had been sold out soon with unanimous praise of the patrons. Many expressed their deep pity not to have the chance to buy the meat.The news spread very fast,and as a result many patrons visited there to reserve the snack. Consequently,the Fan’s opened shop in front of its mansion,and the business went very well.As the Cured Meat found in the coffin would qet run-out soon,Mrs.Fan showed resourcefulness in this emergency:she bought some fresh meat and boil it into new cured meat with the aravv in the coffin,such to maintain its original taste. Gradually,the Fan’s shop grew reputable for the business of Cured Meat.
