"The Appearance of Jia Baoyu" in "A Dream of Red Mansions" consists of two paragraphs. The first paragraph describes his appearance when he returns from the temple: he wears a purple gold crown with hair accessories, and a golden forehead decoration with two dragons fighting for a pearl; he wears a red jacket with golden butterflies and colorful silk flower knots, and a blue silk gauze robe with flower patterns; he wears small morning shoes with a green satin base. His face is like the moon in mid-autumn, his complexion is like spring flowers, his temples are sharp like a knife, his eyebrows are like ink paintings, his face is like peach petals, and his eyes are like autumn waves. Even when he is angry, he still looks like he is smiling, and when he looks serious, he still shows emotions. There is a gold worm pendant on his neck, and a multicolored silk cord is tied to it, with a beautiful jade attached.
After a while, when he sees Lady Wang coming back, he has changed his headwear: his short hair around his head is braided into small braids, with red silk at the ends. The braids merge into a large braid, black and shiny like lacquer, with four large pearls hanging from the gold octagonal ornaments; he wears a silver and red old coat, still wearing a necklace, a jade pendant, a name tag, and a protective amulet; his lower body is partially exposed with loose flower-patterned trousers, silk-edged ink-splashed socks, and thick-soled red shoes. His face appears powdered, and his lips are like coated with lipstick; his gaze is affectionate, and he often laughs when speaking. His natural elegance is all in his eyebrows, and his countless emotions are piled up in the corners of his eyes.
In "A Dream of Red Mansions," almost all important characters have their own unique favorite dishes. In the eighth chapter, when Bao Yu goes to find Bao Chai, he is invited by Aunt Xue to have dinner. When he is drunk, a pot of sour bamboo shoot and chicken skin soup is served by the servant, and Bao Yu drinks two bowls of it.
In the sixty-second chapter, it is mentioned again. When the kitchen sends various delicacies such as duck and goose, Bao Yu only eats a bowl of rice soaked in shrimp ball and chicken skin soup. Jia Baoyu has a powdered face, lips like coated with lipstick, affectionate glances, frequent laughter, and a variety of expressions in his eyebrows. The secret of his skincare is hidden in this chicken skin. The aging of a person is mainly reflected in the face, with skin relaxation and wrinkles being caused by a decrease in elastic protein. Chicken skin contains a large amount of sulfur and chondroitin, which are the most important components of elastic fibrous proteins.
Now, I will introduce the recipe for shrimp ball and chicken skin soup:
Ingredients: 150g shrimp meat, 50g fresh scallops, 50g pork belly, 50g chicken skin, 50g spinach, 2 eggs. Pour an appropriate amount of water into a pot, add the chicken skin, and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Remove and cool, then remove the fat and cut it into diamond-shaped pieces. Cut the spinach into inch-long sections and put them into a blender. To extract more juice, add a little salt and blend until crushed, then strain the spinach juice with a cheesecloth. Remove the skin from the pork knee and cut it into chunks. Cut the chicken breast into strips and put them together with shrimp meat and scallops into the blender. Add water and blend until the meat becomes a paste. Pour out a portion of the meat mixture and set it aside. Pour the spinach juice into a bowl and mix it thoroughly with the other half of the meat mixture. Then, beat two egg whites in another bowl until foamy. Pour half of the egg whites into the green meat mixture and stir vigorously, adding some salt. Repeat the same process with the original color meat mixture, stirring for 2-3 minutes. Pour cold water into the pot and form the meat mixture into balls. Cook the balls in boiling water over high heat for about 1 minute, then remove them. Skim off any foam from the soup in the pot, add cooking wine, monosodium glutamate, and salt for seasoning, then add the chicken skin and balls. Once the soup boils, it can be served.
