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Beggar’s Chicken, a local Changshu dish in birth, so to speak, makes a perfect cuisine in China. As its legend goes, a beggar once got a chicken by chance. Since he had no cooker to cook with, he stuffed some ingredients he could find in the wild, coated it in mud and roasted it over a campfire. Surprisingly, the taste and smell of the chicken turned out great. Nevertheless, its early history was not a glorious one, because local people didn’t think highly of it due to the beggar’s humble social status.
Things changed for the better when Emperor Qianlong, who loved to tour around the country secretly in plain clothes, came to lands south of the Yangtze. Happily or unhappily, the emperor once found himself penniless while touring around this part of the land. He was alone and had no one to turn to, so he starved for days. A kind beggar saw this and invited him to share a beggar’s chicken. It was under this dire circumstance that Qianlong found the chicken especially delicious and asked for the name of it. Sensing his nobility, the beggar boasted that the chicken was called Nobleman’s Chicken. At this, the emperor nodded his appreciation.
Later, local people found out the emperor’s real identity and the story got around. Consequently, the chicken became greatly popular, not only among grass roots, but also at the table of the nobility.
Shop recommended: No. 358, Xingfu Street.
Service number: 0512-52849999.
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