When Chinese people eat, they eat concepts.Or in a popular way: what you eat is culture.This makes eating a social (even artistic) issue rather than a mere physical activity. The Japanese are full of food all day long, so they naturally refine the process of drinking tea into a tea ceremony that is closer to philosophy, which means seeking truth in the breeze, bright moon, flower arrangement and utensils.The Chinese are even more amazing. They regard three meals a day as conscientious homework, painstakingly pursuing the amazing artistic effect. "It's delicious!" is a popular compliment.Therefore, the piety of gourmets is no less than that of painters or sculptors, and their experience of beauty is even more comprehensive: color, smell, taste-even their hidden tongues are mobilized and become a tool for appreciation.

When a large set of dishes is presented and arranged in the center of the table in an orderly manner, it is like lifting the curtain over a certain artwork, and one or two heartfelt applause can be heard from time to time-of course, this is hidden. Expected from a chef at the table in the background.The guests toasted and celebrated, as if they were performing a small ribbon-cutting ceremony.Then they each performed their duties, frequently waving their chopsticks.Jin Shengtan's comment on "Water Margin" and Zhi Yanzhai's comment are nothing more than this: some eyebrow comments in lower case between the lines.Regardless of whether it is cold dishes or stir-fried dishes, they must finally stand up to the "cool comments" of chopsticks.

In China, the launch of every banquet table is shrouded in a warm atmosphere like the launch of a new ship.And every diner is a skilled old sailor—or in other words, a potential judge.No wonder the owner of the restaurant is very good at reading the faces of the customers.You can tell the level of the chef by looking at the faces of the guests.The highest state of Chinese culture is the word "happiness".This is also a Chinese character that Chinese people love most.And eating is the best way to bring out this joy.Be beaming, the host is naturally satisfied.The traditional wedding banquet was brought to the extreme by the Manchu Banquet in the Qing Dynasty.From its name, you can feel the meaning of "great national unity" and "union of strong and strong".The authentic Man-Han banquet has to be eaten for three days and three nights in a row, and the tea dishes are not repeated.This is a carnival with Chinese characteristics: a marathon of food culture!Eating is the most daily ritual and the most intensive festival in China.

Westerners who believe in Christianity are used to crossing their chests before meals, saying "God bless" and thanking God for the bread and salt. Most Chinese are atheists, but they are full of the feeling of being in charge when drinking wine.A full meal (it would be even better if you can write poems with your claws) is the closest kind of freedom to them.It can be seen that this nation lacks a sense of religion, but has a strong artistic atmosphere.In my imagination, foodies are folk artists with ancient traditions. Western food reflects the shadow of private ownership. Individuals do their own thing and manage their own plates—the use of knives and forks is to facilitate the division of interests.Chinese food embodies the simplest communism.The Chinese gather around the table, inheriting the genes of the original clan commune. Everyone eats meat, drinks wine, and everyone gets a share.The tradition of big pot rice is hard to break.Fortunately, the dining table in China is also the most cohesive place. The heroic style of sharing blessings and sharing difficulties is very popular.Chinese people can have the illusion that they are brothers all over the world and that the world is one by having dinner together. After all, this kind of virtual family relationship greatly increases their appetite.So when Chinese people eat, they also eat the environment, the atmosphere, and even the interpersonal relationship.Talk and eat, eat and listen.This is eating beyond eating.I have always thought that Chinese food is the most emotional and humane.

Chinese people have four major cuisines and eight flavors.Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Qilu cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Northeast cuisine and even Shanghai local cuisine... It seems like a warlord separatist regime.But in my eyes, it's more like dividing art genres.Qilu cuisine, which comes from the hometown of saints, can be called classicism.The lingering Huaiyang cuisine belongs to romanticism.If the spicy Hunan cuisine is critical realism, the spicy Sichuan cuisine is magical realism—a pepper, sometimes more powerful than a cannonball, fully mobilizes the imagination of our tongues.Of course, other methods can also be used to convert: Shanghai cuisine belongs to the graceful school of Yangliuan Xiaofengwanyue, and Northeast cuisine is equivalent to the bold and unconstrained style of going from the east to the east...

I like to think about the names of a series of special dishes: Gongbao diced pork, fish-flavored shredded pork, mapo tofu, husband and wife lung slices, ancient meat, pickled pork with preserved vegetables, assorted vegetables, sweet and sour pork tenderloin, watercress fish, white chicken, ground three delicacies , Candied pineapple... It's like playing with meaningful and vivid lyrics: Bodhisattva Man, Recalling Qin'e, Huanxisha, Yu Meiren, Linjiang Fairy, Butterfly Flower, Manjianghong, Yulinling, Yijianmei, Magpie Bridge Fairy, Qinyuanchun, Qingyu case or something.It is no exaggeration to say that these elegant, vulgar, gentle, or high-pitched dish names have been recited by hundreds of millions of people and cultivated for thousands of years. ".More luxurious and elegant Chinese cuisine than a dream!

I once had an ideal, to open a Ci Pai restaurant, and use Ci Pai to name various old and new dishes, such as changing boiled eel to Shuilongyin, pickled fish to Yujiaao, spicy chicken to He Xinlang, and shallots. Tofu was renamed Nian Nujiao, roasted pigeon was renamed Partridge Sky, winter melon soup was renamed Xijiangyue, fried peanuts were even renamed Bu Suanzi, casserole fish head was renamed Shui Tiao Ge Tou... Later, I thought about it. Think, feel too complicated, or forget it.What's more, things like ants climbing trees, lion heads, ground delicacies, and lamp shadow beef can't be changed. They are very poetic in themselves.Many dish names have a sense of simplicity and simplicity, and they will become boring once they are changed.For example, a certain emperor named the folk vegetable, tofu and meatball soup Pearl Jade White Jade Soup. It is more than exquisite, but it looks carved and artificial after all.I'd better not learn from that stupid emperor.

The reason why some dish names are unusual is that they have allusions.While we are eating vegetables, we are also eating allusions invisibly - we can hold it up with chopsticks.For example, amidst the fragrance of beggar chicken, there is clearly the figure of the nameless beggar swaying -- he is not begging, he is clearly giving a delicacy to future generations.There is also Dongpo meat (and Dongpo elbow), which is obviously inspired by the great poet of the Song Dynasty.And we are also eating his old man's legacy and his fame.There is indeed a song "Ode to Pork" in Su Dongpo's works (which is enough to prove that Dongpo meat is not a myth): "Wash the pan, keep the water low, and the firewood and the pot will not be able to smoke. Don't rush him when he is familiar with it. When the fire is full, he will Self-beautiful. Huangzhou’s good pork is as cheap as dirt. The rich don’t want to eat it, and the poor don’t know how to cook it. Get up in the morning and drink two bowls, and drink it yourself.” Su Dongpo invisibly served as the image ambassador of braised pork, It has been advertising for nearly a thousand years.I have always thought that: Su Xueshi has two indelible achievements that benefit the common people. One is the Su embankment built in the West Lake of Hangzhou, and the other is the contribution of "Dongpo meat" to Chinese food culture-this is indeed another A sense of "ancient meat".Heroes see the same thing, and there has also been a great man who loves braised pork in contemporary times: Mao Zedong.He believes that fatty braised pork nourishes the brain and makes people smart.Chairman Mao's poems are no less bold than Su Dongpo's—the most interesting thing is that he even had the courage to write "potatoes and beef" into his lyrics.Hunan cuisine restaurants with Maojia cuisine or Shaoshan cuisine all over the country will recommend Mao's braised pork as their main item.

Can you say that eating Chinese food is not eating culture?Culture is a more important condiment than oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, minced ginger and green onion.Sprinkle a little bit of cultural MSG, you can eat a different feeling.