Culture Restaurant Shaguoju

Shaguoju was set up in the 6th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty or 1741, and mainly offered "Plain Meat in a Casserole". According to the historical records, "Plain Meat" was the top-class sacrifice used in the palaces of the Qing Dynasty. Shaguoju was located in the watchman's house outside the prince's mansion where the night watchmen were given the leftovers after

sacrificial ceremonies. Later the watchmen asked the chef from the mansion to boil the meat in a big casserole with traditional Manchu cooking methods as braising, singeing and plain boiling, thus the Plain Meat Casserole came into being and continued its fame for three hundred years.
Chefs of Shaguoju, by using the plain boiled meat, cooked various dishes such as: the "All Pork Banquet", Deep Fried Pork and Liver, Fried Pork, Tossed Pork Skin and Jelly Fish, and Marinated Pork Intestine. Dishes made of gut are extremely famous.
Dishes cooked in a casserole are tender but not greasy and they taste even more delicious if dipped with the specially made sauce. In those years, there were some local sayings about Shaguoju indicating the popularity of its food, such as: "it is already too late when the sun rises" and "the spanner of Shaguoju closes at noon".
With a hundred-year development, the casserole dishes of Shaguoju are even richer in variety. Besides pork dishes made with cooking methods of stewing, singeing and boiling, chicken, fish, shrimp, crab, sea cucumber, shark's fin and seafood are all included in casserole dishes. There are also plain or milky sauces and meat or vegetable dishes. In addition, Shaguoju offers a "Court Dish" which is a Beijing food and full of Beijing flavor.