Fujian dishes are usually marinated in wine and taste sour with a tinge of sweetness. "Buddha Jumps the Wall" is a famous dish with interesting ingredients. Made from shark's fin, shark's lip, fish maw, abalone, dried scallop, squid, sea cucumber, chicken breast meat, duck chops, pork tripe, pork leg, minced ham, mutton elbow, winter bamboo shoots, mushrooms and others. This lot is then seasoned and steamed separately and then put into a clay jar, mixed with cooking wine and some pigeon eggs. The jar is first covered and put over intense heat and then simmered. Four or five ounces of liquor are added while the ingredients simmer for another five minutes.he result is totally tantalising.

    How 'Buddha Jumps the Wall' got its unusual name is explained by a local fable. A Fuzhou scholar went picnicking with friends in the suburbs and he had put all the ingredients he had with him in a wine jar, which he heated over a charcoal flame. The tantalizing smell spread all the way to a nearby temple and was so inviting that the monks, who were supposed to practice vegetarianism, could not resist and jumped over the wall to partake in the hearty dish. One of the friends wrote a poem in praise of the delicious dish, in which one line read: "Even Buddha himself would jump over the wall to taste this dish". Thus the name, 'Buddha Jumps the Wall'.