Patriotic soup

Patriotic soup, called hu gog chai in Teochew and hùguó cài in Mandarin, meaning protect the country dish, is a vegetable soup that originated with the Teochew people. It is said to have been created as an improvised dish in the last year of China's Song dynasty. According to local people in Guangdong, before the Battle of Yamen the last Song emperor, Zhao Bing, and the remnants of his court took shelter in a monastery at Chaozhou, where the monks served an impromptu vegetarian soup of edible plants, edible mushrooms, vegetable broth and lard. The emperor liked it and named it the soup for safeguarding the nation, and after his death preparing it became a way to honour him. The soup became part of Teochew cuisine. Since the Ming dynasty cooks have commonly used sweet potato leaves, though amaranth, spinach, water spinach and other leafy greens are also used, sometimes with beaten egg, shredded cured ham, tofu or cellophane noodles. Restaurants in Guangdong often decorate it with a taijitu diagram, and the most authentic version is homemade and plain.