Chapter 13 Section 2 The Formation and Development of the Seven Major Cuisines

There are currently four major local cuisines in China (subdivisions are not limited to this number), namely Su, Cantonese, Sichuan, and Lu.The formation of the four major local cuisines all have their own far-reaching historical and geographical origins. The first common feature of the four major cuisines is that they are all formed in the internal and external economic and cultural exchanges of various regions. The birthplace of Su cuisine is Suzhou and later Yangzhou and Hangzhou.Suzhou is the capital of the State of Wu, and the economic and cultural exchanges between Wu and Chu are relatively close. It is recorded in "Songs of Chu: Zhaohun" that the State of Chu hired Wu chef to make delicious hot and sour soup.At the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Yue destroyed Wu and Chu destroyed Yue, which was another great economic and cultural integration of Wu, Yue and Chu.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty unified Fujian and Yue, and migrated more than 40,000 Minyue people to live scattered in the Jianghuai area. Of course, Fujian cuisine was added to Su cuisine.Afterwards, the Soochow, Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen all determined to manage East China. With the development of economy and transportation, cities such as Jinling, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Wenzhou rose one after another, giving Jiangsu cuisine Added a lot of stamina.Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty excavated the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which prospered Huai'an, Yangzhou and Hangzhou, and greatly enriched Jiangsu cuisine.During the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of chefs from the Central Plains moved from Bianjing to Lin'an, which made Su cuisine absorb a lot of ingredients from northern cuisine.Today's Su cuisine is the product of this long history.

The birthplace of Cantonese cuisine is Guangzhou. For more than 2,000 years, Guangzhou has been the political, economic, and cultural center of Lingnan. Qin, Han, Dongwu, Eastern Jin, and Southern Dynasties Song, Qi, Liang, Chen and Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing In ancient times, batches of people from the Central Plains settled in Lingnan; Lu Xun and Huang Chao successively led the peasant army from East China to Guangzhou, which enabled the eating habits of Lingnan and Lingbei to be exchanged again and again, and Cantonese cuisine absorbed. The ingredients of the Central Plains and East China cuisines.Many Chaozhou in Guangdong are immigrants from Fujian and Vietnam, who are good at cooking sea vegetables; the Hakka people have brought the eating habits and cooking skills of the Central Plains people. These two branches have gradually become an integral part of Cantonese cuisine.Guangzhou is also the oldest seaport and overseas trading base in China, with a history of at least 2,000 years. Many foreigners settled in Guangzhou in many dynasties, which made Guangdong transplant many foreign vegetables and cooking habits, and made Cantonese cuisine absorb Some ingredients of foreign cuisine, especially Southeast Asian cuisine.

The birthplaces of Sichuan cuisine are Ba (today’s Chongqing) and Shu (today’s Chengdu). Ba and Shu are two ancient kingdoms, commonly found in oracle bone inscriptions. Ba, Shu and Yin, Zhou, Chu, and Qin have frequent economic and cultural exchanges. In the end, it was merged by Qin, and the relationship with Qin was even closer. The Sichuan-style kimchi jar unearthed in Xianyang is the physical evidence of the food culture exchange between Bashu and Qin.After the Warring States period, many branches of Zhuqiang migrated from the Hehuang area to the southwest, and some of them settled in the western area of ​​Sichuan.The Cheng-Han regime during the Sixteen Kingdoms included more than 100,000 refugees from the Di, Qiang, and Han uprisings who entered Sichuan from the northwest region; One) more than 100,000 fell into Sichuan.At the end of Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong led another peasant army into Sichuan.It can be seen that Bashu has had frequent economic and cultural ties with Zhuxia, Qiang and Baiyue since ancient times, and the exchange of food culture is not a problem.

Shandong cuisine, more precisely, should be Qi and Lu cuisine, and its birthplace is Linzi and Qufu, the former capitals of Qi and Lu.Qi State is located in the east of Shandong Peninsula, near the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. After the decline of Linzi, Qingdao and Yantai inherited and developed the food traditions of Qidu. Qi’s chefs are good at cooking sea vegetables.Qufu inherited the court cuisine of the Zhou Dynasty, and the later Confucian cuisine was the development of the court cuisine of the Zhou Dynasty.Confucian cuisine has also absorbed the skills of cooking seafood from Qi cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Cantonese cuisine.After the decline of Qufu, Jinan inherited and developed the tradition of Shandong cuisine.

The second common feature of the four major cuisines is that the hinterland is deep and wide, and the food resources are rich, which is also the material basis for the development of the catering industry.The Soviet system is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and faces the East China Sea. The planting and breeding industries are very developed, and the marine fishing industry ranks first in the country.The Cantonese family is backed by the Five Ridges and faces the South China Sea. The climate is mild. Vegetables, melons and fruits are constantly fresh. Seafood and delicacies are abundant. The Pearl River Delta is also a rich food production base, and there are many imported food materials.The Sichuan system has the fertile Sichuan Basin, which spans the temperate zone and the subtropical zone. The agricultural and sideline industries are very developed, known as "Tianfu". Except for the lack of seafood, all food resources are not inferior to those produced in the hinterland of other cuisines.The Shandong family has the products of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the rich base of the Shandong Peninsula, and a steady stream of valuable local products in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China.In short, the food resources of the four major cuisines are very rich, and each has its own advantages.

After the Song Dynasty, restaurants of the four major cuisines appeared one after another in major cities in China.In order to adapt to the local habits of each city, some changes must be made to the traditional methods of foreign cuisines. For example, the standard method of Cantonese white-cut chicken is to soak in slightly boiling soup until it is just cooked, and the bone marrow is still stained with blood, so as to ensure that the chicken is tender. The umami and tenderness of the rice, but in the north, it must be cooked.Restaurants of various cuisines meet in the same city, and they often observe each other, learn from each other's strengths, and develop their own strengths.Or imitate the dishes of other cuisines to enrich their own menus, which has produced many neutral dishes.Among various cuisines, there is often me in you, and you in me, which also improves the level of the entire Chinese cuisine, such as fried kidneys in oil, fried shrimps, braised double winter (mushrooms, bamboo shoots), stir-fried diced chicken, etc. , which cuisines can be included in their own menu (Figure 9).

The third common feature of the four major cuisines is that the base of seasoning is the same. All dishes are inseparable from the two bases of freshness and aroma. Thousands of flavors in thousands of dishes evolve from these two bases. from.Fresh dishes require fresh ingredients, such as live fish, live shrimp, live crab, live chicken, fresh mushrooms, fresh bamboo shoots, fresh lotus root, etc. The methods are mostly steamed, boiled, boiled, stir-fried, etc.The seasoning can be done at one time (that is, the original taste), it can be cooked and thickened, or various dipping sauces can be used.Soy sauce, oyster sauce, tomato sauce, sweet and sour, fermented glutinous rice, ginger juice, minced garlic, coriander, etc. can be used to enhance the freshness.Strong coriander uses a wide range of materials and has many methods. Whether it is steamed, boiled, roasted, stewed, simmered, fried, fried, roasted, braised, smoked, etc., you can make a variety of strong-flavored dishes, such as crispy, fragrant, Oily, incense, milky, spicy, musty, burnt, spicy, hemp, coconut, spicy, onion and garlic, etc.

Each of the four major cuisines has its own characteristics, which is a sign of a mature cuisine.This feature is related to certain conditions such as products, climate and historical status. The first feature of Cantonese cuisine is that it uses a wide range of ingredients and selects them carefully.Fresh seafood and game are the top dishes.Such as poultry, in addition to the common three birds, pigeons, quail, etc. are often used as food.Grouper, pomfret, abalone, fresh scallop, prawns, cream crab, sea turtle, eel, etc. are the most recommended for seafood; salamander, shanrui, soft-shelled turtle, mountain grouper, pangolin, civet cat, turtle, snake, and grass are the most appreciated for game. Birds, partridges, blue peacocks, ostriches, etc. domesticated in recent years (in order to protect endangered wild animals in recent years, cranes, salamanders, pangolins, sea turtles, green peacocks, etc. have been fasted).Cantonese cuisine is very particular about the selection of ingredients, such as white-cut chicken, Qingyuan chicken and Wenchang chicken are the best (boiled chicken made from these two chickens has the characteristics of crisp skin, smooth meat, soft bones and delicious taste); grouper Mouse spot is the best; pomfret is the best; shrimp is the best deep-sea lobster, offshore prawns (called prawns in the north) and Jiwei shrimp at the junction of salty and fresh water; turtles are the best turtles; goose is the best in Sihui and Qingyuan. The black-maned goose is the best.Many Cantonese restaurants have aquariums and caged game, and customers can choose, slaughter, cook and eat immediately.

The second feature is that the taste is clear, fresh, refreshing and smooth.Most of the methods are steamed, fried and slipped.This has something to do with the climate. Lingnan is hot for a long time, and the taste needs to be refreshing; it is also a long-term habit of eating seafood and other fresh ingredients, which has cultivated a traditional hobby of pursuing original flavors.People in Lingnan mostly eat dishes with strong aroma and oily gas, such as boiled dog meat, stewed pork, fried oysters, braised white squid (conger eel), braised pork knuckle, etc., in winter. The third feature is the rich side dishes.This is related to the abundance of products. Northern Guangdong is rich in mushrooms, and the Pearl River Delta produces fresh straw mushrooms all year round, as well as bamboo shoots, white fungus, stone fungus, and cauliflower.Due to the suitable climate, the freshness of the four seasons is constant. Regardless of the cold or heat, there are tender green, sweet and crisp vegetables as condiments.Fruits and fragrant flowers are also used in dishes according to the season, such as pineapple, lychee, plum, coconut, banana, chestnut, sword flower, evening fragrance flower, etc., which are all good condiments for Cantonese cooking or soup.Cantonese cuisine is rich in condiments, meat and vegetables are well prepared, not greasy, and it is also in line with food hygiene.

The fourth feature is that porridge and snacks are particularly rich.Because Lingnan is hot for a long time and sweats a lot, it needs to replenish water and easily absorbed nutrients in time. All kinds of meat porridge is an ideal and convenient food.Porridge shops (many big restaurants also have porridge products) make a large pot of porridge with old hen, pork bones, scallops, bean curd sticks, etc. , Shrimp, crab, frog, meatball, shrimp ball, pork offal, beef, chicken, duck and other pre-prepared porridge ingredients, with ginger, onion, pepper, etc., to make a variety of porridge, ready to serve customers.Cantonese people are good at imitating and creating, and Guangzhou is the hub of long-term communication between China and foreign countries. Cantonese dim sum is also very rich. It is also constantly being innovated, and it is called "weekly snacks", which makes people never get tired of eating.

A very prominent feature of Sichuan cuisine is heavy oil and strong taste, and a preference for spicy food. This is related to the climate in the Sichuan Basin. There are many fogs, cloudy days, heavy humidity, and spicy food makes the body surface easy to disperse.Sichuan people love to eat "Mao Du Hot Pot" (spicy hot pot with beef tripe and beef offal as the main ingredients), "Ma Po Tofu" (this dish has seven flavors of spicy, spicy, oily, hot, salty, tender, and smooth) characteristics) and some other spicy dishes, all have the traditional color of Sichuan cuisine. Another feature is that it is good at using common materials to make a variety of delicious dishes.For example, if you pick up a piece of half-fat and half-lean pork, in the hands of a Sichuan chef, you can make delicious salt-fried pork, double-cooked pork, cornel (fish) fragrant meat (spicy dishes made with kimchi, pickled peppers, etc.), Sauce fried diced pork, crispy pork slices, sweet roasted white (bean paste, potato chips sandwiched pork), salty roasted pork (taro, sprouts sandwiched meat), steamed pork, sweet and sour pork, boiled spicy pork, etc., each dish Each has its own personality. Sichuan people are also good at making snacks, such as spicy beef head meat, strange flavor chicken, camphor tea duck, rabbit meat in sauce, kimchi, glutinous rice balls, glutinous rice with eight treasures, bean curd, etc. This is the third characteristic. Shandong cuisine has an aftertaste of palace cuisine. Its first feature is the exquisite materials. It is good at using high-grade materials such as bird's nest, shark's fin, abalone, fish maw, sea cucumber, venison, mushroom, white fungus, and clamsma oil to make delicious dishes. big dish. Due to the long cold period and fewer vegetable varieties in North China, chefs of Shandong cuisine have been trained to be good at cooking high-calorie, high-protein dishes, which is the second characteristic of Shandong cuisine.Such as crispy roast duck, Jiuzhuan fatty sausage (roasted and deep-fried pig large intestine, comparable to roast duck), boneless roast chicken (crispy and bone-free roast chicken), pot-roasted Yellow River carp, braised conch, fried oyster yellow, etc. They are the best of these dishes. Being good at seasoning soup is the third characteristic of Shandong cuisine.The traditional habit of Lu chefs is to prepare a pot of flavored soup (with old hen, pig's trotters, etc.) next to the frying pan. It's a good tradition.It is also good at making milk soup. Jinan's milk soup cattail has a long-standing reputation. Since the capitals of the Six Dynasties and the Southern Song Dynasty were all in the Soviet region, and the North-South Grand Canal has been open for more than 1,000 years, the major cities and towns in East China have become places where the people of the North and the South meet for a long time. The taste is both north and south.Su chefs can not only cook stir-fried, refreshing southern dishes, but also good at cooking high-calorie and high-protein delicacies such as stewed elbow with ham, lion head, and fried eel paste.In the menu of Jiangsu cuisine, there are also many neutral dishes that are acceptable to people from both the north and the south. Because it is rich in lake crabs and river delicacies, river delicacies are particularly prominent, which is the second feature of Su cuisine.Such as crab roe lion head, crab roe bird's nest, shrimp soup and shark's fin, West Lake sweet and sour fish, steamed shad (Fuchun River specialty), fresh lotus root meat clip, Taihu lake crucian carp soup with thick sauce, duck soup with lotus seeds, etc. . The Soviet-style snacks and snacks are also exquisite, which is the third feature.Such as pine nut ice meat sweet cake, steamed buns filled with soup, crab roe siu mai, Ningbo glutinous rice balls, etc., are well-known throughout the country. Vegetarian dishes have a long history. In the pre-Qin period, people had the habit of "fasting" when they offered sacrifices, encountered solar and lunar eclipses, or encountered major natural disasters.But as a cuisine, it was gradually formed after the Han Dynasty when Taoism and Buddhism prevailed.The Taoist way of keeping in good health advocates that people eat more fresh vegetables and wild fruits, as well as stamen tea. Taoism does not abstain from meat, so it has not formed its own unique teaching meal, but it has strengthened the Chinese dietary tradition of balanced diet.Buddhism eats all vegetarian food. There are aristocrats and commoners who believe in Buddhism. The dishes in temples are fine and thick, and the dishes gradually become more and more, forming a vegetarian cuisine.Buddhism was the most popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, had more than 109,000 households, a population of about five or six hundred thousand, and more than 1,300 Buddhist temples.Jiankang (now Nanjing), the capital city of Nanliang, also had more than 500 monasteries and more than 100,000 monks and nuns.After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism declined slightly. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City still had more than 100 temples, and there were countless Buddhist temples in the country.In the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Buddhist temples were similar to those in the Tang Dynasty, which shows that the Vegetarian Department has a considerable mass base.With the prevalence of vegetarianism in society, special chapters introducing vegetarian methods appeared in some dietary works. Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" in the Northern Wei Dynasty specially created a special "vegetarian" album, introducing 11 kinds of vegetarian methods.In the Song Dynasty, special vegetarian restaurants appeared. Wu Zimu collected 36 types of vegetarian dishes and 26 types of vegetarian pastries from vegetarian restaurants in Lin'an in his "Meng Liang Lu".The names of vegetarian dishes are relative to meat dishes.In the Song Dynasty, there were also special books introducing vegetarian dishes, such as Lin Hong’s "Shanjia Qinggong" and Chen Dasou's "Benxinzhai Vegetable Recipes" (the former focuses on introducing vegetarian dishes, and the latter introduces all vegetarian dishes), both reflecting the importance of vegetarian dishes. development and the needs of society.Chinese vegetarian dishes are rich in raw materials, which also makes vegetarian dishes very useful.In particular, Chinese tofu products have become an important raw material for vegetarian dishes. Many famous mountains and temples have vegetarian dishes that are well-known both at home and abroad. Yin Temple, Baoguang Temple in Chengdu, Qingyun Temple in Dinghushan, Guangdong, etc. all have excellent temple dishes, especially tofu dishes.Vegetarian food was not only popular among the people, but also entered the court. The imperial dining room of the Qing Dynasty had a special "vegetarian bureau" with more than 20 full-time vegetarian chefs.There are some vegetarian restaurants in major cities in modern times, such as Gongdelin in Shanghai and Caigenxiang in Guangzhou, all of which are very famous.In order to meet the needs of the society, many large restaurants have some vegetarian dishes for customers to choose from, such as braised luohanzhai, stewed tofu with fresh pea kernels, fresh mushrooms in oyster sauce, roasted double winter (mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots), roasted gluten with lettuce, fried potherb mustard, Stir-fried vegetables and so on.Vegetarian dishes are rich in various minerals, vitamins, trace elements and crude fiber, etc., which play an important role in a balanced diet and have been valued by more and more people.Chinese vegetarian dishes have great prospects for development. Halal cuisine became popular with the introduction of Islam.Before the introduction of Islam, some ethnic minorities in Northwest my country, such as Qiang and Uyghur, were already good at cooking beef and mutton.Islam was first introduced into China by the Arabs (Dashiguo) in the Sui Dynasty. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a large number of Arabs came to China's southeast coast and northwest regions by sea and land.In the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Arabs came from the east, and a large number of them were naturalized in China, gradually forming a Hui nationality. All Hui people believed in Islam, so Halal cuisine is also called Huihui cuisine. In fact, there are Uighurs, Dongxiang people and some Han people who believe in Islam in China. People and others, calling Huihui cuisine just expresses the mainstream of this cuisine.Hui people live scattered in many cities and towns across the country, and most of them are engaged in catering business. The Halal department mainly uses cattle and sheep. Pigs, dogs, horses, donkeys, mules and scaleless fish are forbidden in Islam.Chicken, duck, and goose account for a large proportion of the menus of halal restaurants in the south, and the recipes of chicken, duck, and goose dishes are mostly influenced by various southern cuisines.The Halal Department inherits the fine cooking traditions of nomadic peoples in Northwest China and Northeast China in ancient times. Famous dishes include Whole Lamb Mat and Roasted Whole Lamb.Other dishes such as hot-boiled mutton, roasted mutton (sliced ​​mutton seasoned, grilled and eaten around the stove), kebabs, deep-fried or water-fried belly kernels, loose Dan (beef or sheep louver), mutton pilaf, etc. , are the famous delicacies of this cuisine.Halal-style snacks and pastries are also very famous. The mutton dumplings, mutton steamed buns, beef (sheep) offal soup, yellow rice bean paste soft cake, yellow rice jujube cake, etc. in northern halal restaurants are all very special.The cakes in southern halal restaurants are famous for saqima, egg pans, cakes, walnut cakes, etc. Other cakes are mostly imitated from various southern cuisines. Therapeutic cuisine, also known as "medicinal diet", is a combination of various traditional Chinese medicines and certain meat dishes or soups, especially stews, such as Chinese yam, stewed squab with wolfberry or stewed bamboo shredded chicken, stewed partridge, etc. Partridge, etc. (replenishes weakness), Gastrodia elata stewed fish head (replenishes the brain), Chinese angelica, stewed eggs with Shouwu (replenishes blood and soothes nerves), astragalus, stewed deer tendon or dog meat with Codonopsis, bullwhip, etc. (replenishes qi and strengthens yang), Tianqi stewed chicken feet Or pig's knuckles (Boundary Tonic), Poria cocos boiled tortoise (to remove dampness), Hasma oil, tremella stewed quail (moisturizes the lungs and sleep), astragalus, Chinese yam stewed three snakes (to replenish blood, remove rheumatism) and so on. Therapeutic dishes have always been handled by full-time chefs in the imperial dining rooms of feudal emperors.Among the folks, it is included in various cuisines.Specialized therapeutic restaurants used to appear only sparsely, mainly developed in recent years.With the development of preventive medicine and people's emphasis on diet and health care, the introduction of dietotherapy dishes in recent years has emerged in China's diet culture and has increasingly attracted attention from all over the world. In Tokyo alone, nearly 30 medicated diet restaurants have opened in recent years.