Lion's Head Meatball

Lion's Head Meatball is a dish originating with the court of the Shogunate and now found in the cuisine of the Scarlet Dynasty and Lookshy. It consists of a very large meatball formed from ground Pork, mixed with Cloud Ear Fungus and water chestnuts along with soy and Rice Wine. The meatball is slowly cooked and steamed in a soup of chicken stock with cabbage leaves and sometimes ginger or onions. When served, the large meatball is said to resemble the head of a lion, with a cabbage leaf below as its mane.

The dish is too hearty and large to be served as Dynastic Dim Sum, but is favoured by many Dynasts of martial inclination, particularly Legion officers of House Cathak. The upper ranks of Lookshy's General Staff also dine upon it regularly, and some outcaste dragonlords and strategoi of the Imperial Legions favour it as well. It is considered to be a meaty, invigorating dish, strengthening the warriors who eat it.

A variation of the dish is also found in Dynastic cuisine, known as 'Four Happy Balls', serving the same ingredients with much smaller meatballs and a broth reddened with soy sauce. Those who prefer the immense meatball of the traditional preparation often scoff at this approach, considering it effete and unfit for a martial table.