The Scrambled Ear Piece------Saving the Emperor

腾冲炒饵“大救驾”

The scrambled ear piece is a special snack of Tengchong in Yunnan Province. It is made of processed, cooked, compressed rice in the shape of thin pies. Apart from piece, it can also be cooked as noodle, i.e. rice noodle. Emperor Yongli of Ming Dynasty moves his imperial government to West Yunnan after Qing Dynasty army headed by Wu Sangui breaks into Kunming in Early Qing Dynasty. Li Dingguo, the leader of the insurgent peasant army Daxi ，is discontented with the imperial court all long. Believing that personal enmities must be forgotten at a time of national crisis, he gets rid of old grudges and joins the imperial army of Ming Dynasty resolutely and persistently. As Emperor Yongli is still hotly pursued by Qing army, Li Dingguo orders the great general Jing tongwu to escort to Tengchong . It is very late when they arrive there. Exhausted and hungry, they finds a resting place. In order to have them eat something as soon as possible, the owner stir-fries the ear piece. Emperor Yongli then repeats the pleasing phrase saying “the ear piece has saved my life”. Therefore Scrambled Ear Piece is also called Saving the Emperor.