Imperial Banquet Dish (Khan's table at Khanbaliq)
Spiced Rice and Mutton from the Court of the Great Khan
FestiveReconstruction🧂 🌶️ 🍄moyen1 h 30
A fragrant rice simmered with tender mutton, fresh ginger, cinnamon, and dried fruit. A festive Mongol-Chinese dish, opulent and golden, like those served in the Khan's halls where, Marco says, thousands of men ate at once.
Why this dish? At the court of Kublai Khan in Khanbaliq, Marco Polo discovered feasts of incredible richness: rice, fatty mutton, fresh ginger and cinnamon — spices that Europe paid a fortune for. This dish evokes the imperial table that so dazzled him.
Now hear the most marvelous thing. In the palace of the Great Khan, I ate in halls so vast that six thousand men could fit. There they served mutton and rice on golden platters, perfumed with fresh ginger and cinnamon — spices of which a single pound costs a full purse back home. Never did a Christian king keep so magnificent a table, and I, a merchant's son, sat there not far from the throne.
Ingredients
- •Rice — full bowl (precious base)
- •Mutton shoulder — a good piece (fatty meat)
- •Fresh ginger — one root (signature spice)
- •Cinnamon — one stick (fragrance)
- •Dried dates or apricots — a handful (sweetness)
- •Mutton fat — as needed (cooking)
How it was made : At the Yuan court, cuisine blended Mongol (mutton, milk), Chinese (rice, noodles), and Persian (spices, dried fruit) traditions, brought by caravans. Rice, a prestige food, and spices marked rank: only the powerful consumed them in abundance.
Sources : Marco Polo, *The Description of the World* · Hu Sihui, *Yinshan Zhengyao* (Principles of Correct Diet, Yuan court cuisine, 1330)