Awakening lion and dim sum meet sparks, Shunde guy’s original “Lingnan Awakening Lion Cake” became popular on the Internet

Text/Photo by Ouyang Zhiqiang, all-media reporter of Yangcheng Evening News

Flour, lard, and white sugar are three raw materials. After 3 hours of kneading, frying, coloring, and finishing touches, a colorful, lively, and crispy “Lingnan Lion Crisp” is made. Recently, Chen Xiaodong, a young teacher at the secondary vocational school in Shunde District, Foshan, created a “Lingnan Lion Wake Cake” which has become popular on the Internet. He innovatively combined the elements of the Foshan cultural card of the Lion Dance with the pastry to give Chinese pastries new vitality. .

The pastry is a classic Cantonese dessert. The pastry products are relatively simple. Chen Xiaodong, a new Shunde native born in 1999, has a unique approach. He not only made the “Lingnan Wake Up Lion Cake”, but also combined the cultural elements of the Dragon Boat Festival to make dragon boat cakes and zongzi cakes. . In the future, zodiac cakes will also be made, in order to incorporate more trendy elements into the dishes.

Incorporate trend elements into creation

As early as 2020, when Chen Xiaodong participated in the competition, he started to make lion crunches. Due to the limited time for the competition, he made a simple version. Later, after he slowly improved it, he had the current results.

In order to do a good job of lion awakening, Chen Xiaodong read a lot of books about lion awakening, and made up for the lack of art skills. After laying the foundation, he spent a week to continuously improve it, such as coat color, eyes, bags under the eyes, eye sockets, etc., and immediately adjusted any areas that were not good. The perfected lion looked lifelike.

Chen Xiaodong strives for perfection, and every part is stuffed. The Lion’s Horn is a cookie that is baked and inserted into it. It took him two days to make it. The nose and other parts are stuffed with lotus seed paste, which is not only beautiful but also tastes good.

The whole process of Chen Xiaodong’s wake-up lion cake is very cumbersome. He said that there are 10 steps to make a lion crunchy cake, which are interlocked. Opening the cake is the most important step.

Chen Xiaodong told reporters that there are about 5 colors of each lion crunchy, and each color needs to be opened separately, and it takes about an hour to open a color. The final assembly is also a technical task. It takes at least one or two hours to complete the small parts such as eyebrows, mouth, and eyes.

Naughty boy on the road to counterattack

Before getting into the catering industry, Chen Xiaodong was seen as a mischievous person in the eyes of his family. He set up street stalls, delivered flyers, and worked in the kitchen to chop vegetables. When he went out to work, he was always impatient and serious, so he could not work for a long time.

Since 2015, Chen Xiaodong has changed a lot after he entered Liang Kauju Vocational and Technical School to learn cooking. Then he was admitted to Shunde Vocational and Technical College and Hanshan Teachers College. From secondary vocational to college to undergraduate, Chen Xiaodong continued to improve his cooking skills and innovated Chinese pastry production. During this period, Chen Xiaodong participated in various vocational skills competitions and won many honors.

According to Liang Jichang, director of the Economics and Management Department of Shunde District Secondary School, Chen Xiaodong has three distinctive characteristics, namely youth, concentration and innovation. After the lion crunchy cake is finished, the school will fully support Chen Xiaodong to develop the zodiac cake in the future. The school will give him a better platform and policy support. He hopes that while passing on his technology to students, he will continue to innovate and achieve growth in teaching and skills. In the future, he will not only become a famous chef, but also a famous teacher.

“I hope that Chinese noodles will become international and have influence in the world.” Regarding future development, Chen Xiaodong said that in the short term, he hopes to open a Michelin three-star restaurant in Guangdong. “After all, the dream of a chef is to open a restaurant, and the dream of opening a restaurant is to become a Michelin restaurant.”