It is said that in the Qing Dynasty, after the Queen gave birth to the prince, she suffered from postpartum frail due to her weak stomach condition. Imperial Physician prepared all kinds of precious tonic for the queen, but she had no appetite to eat anything. Day by day, the Queen had serious loss in weight. Qianlong who was the King became anxious and worried, he then summoned the Imperial Physician and Imperial Kitchen and passed down a decree, no matter what method they use, all of them must cure the Queen’s disease.
The Imperial Kitchen thought that it would better to eat appropriately rather than just taking medicines, so they improved the traditional idea of having chicken soup after confinement, by adding the chicken and pork belly into the precious medicinal herb soup. The body condition of the Queen became fully recovered after having the pork belly chicken soup. The Queen had a better appetite after having consumed the pork belly soup. After a period of dietetic regulation, the Queen’s stomach disease had been cured and her complexion was also became more ruddy and glamorous. Qianlong was happy and grateful about that, he then named the dish as ‘Pepper Pork Belly Chicken Pot’. Since then the dish was widely spread in the country, and now it evolved into the ‘Pork Tripe Stew Chicken’.
This story is not without a medical basis, according to ‘Compendium of Materia Medica’ records, pepper’s function is to warm the body and stomach and cease vomiting function. With the finest pepper, pork belly and chicken, refined it into a delicious concentrated soup. Aww, so appetizing! Consuming the soup could prevent us from stomach pain. It is also the best dish to have in the winter for those who have a weak and ‘cold 寒’ stomach!