The topic of where the food capital of Asia is has been raging for many years. Pearl of the Orient Hong Kong is the most integrated and complete cuisine, followed by Kyoto, Japan, which is famous for its high-quality cuisine, Singapore, which is famous for its tastes in China, India and Malaysia, Beijing, which is famous for its multi-ethnic traditional cuisine in China, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan cuisine, and Guangzhou, the capital of Cantonese cuisine, all of which have many fans.

But this year, apart from Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, the city hosting the Asian Food Festival has another place that is a little strange to many gourmets-Hangzhou.

besides the west lake, longjing tea, silk and Alibaba, what kind of confidence does Hangzhou have to stand on the podium as the food capital of Asia?

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The history of Hangzhou without cuisines and the integration of wuyue

/ People in Hangzhou really don't eat the water shield of the West Lake /

Last month, a friend from Beijing visited Hangzhou for the first time and named it "the most authentic Hangzhou food". I chose an old brand, and ordered ham and tofu, sauced duck, smoked fish, braised pork, dried celery, fried bell, and a pot of sliced Sichuan.

My friend was puzzled when he saw the dishes on the table: Where is the vinegar fish in West Lake? What about shrimp in Longjing? What about water shield soup?

I smiled and answered: Hangzhou people eat at their own homes, and they never do this. No one will put tea in the stir-fried shrimp, which is "for tourists only"; In addition, people in Hangzhou really don't eat water shield of West Lake.

My friend almost dropped his glasses in shock: "What? Hangzhou people don't even eat West Lake water shield? "

From the perspective of geographical determinism, Hangzhou can only be regarded as a "little brother" compared with the Wu and Yue cultures with a long history in the surrounding areas, such as Suzhou, Xichang, Jiahu and Ningshao. In the Spring and Autumn Period, this was the "three no-cares" zone at the junction of Wu and Yue. By the Qin Dynasty, when the first emperor visited the south, Hangzhou was still a beach.

It was after the Sui and Tang Dynasties that the city was really built in a strict sense.

Today, Hangzhou has become the regional center of Hangjiahu Plain and Ningshaoping Plain. But underneath, Hangzhou people are always a little unsure of food culture: the original landmark dishes are not delicious and popular among the people. What ordinary people really like is the inflow from the surrounding "cultural highlands".

But from another angle, this unique historical origin also makes Hangzhou cuisine full of inclusiveness. The table "Hangzhou Home Cooking" I ordered earlier is actually a blend of exquisite Huaiyang cuisine, Shanghai-Ningbo cuisine with thick oil and red sauce, crispy and glutinous Shaoxing cuisine, and even the dietary customs of Henan Central Plains brought by the southern crossing of Song Dynasty.

Yes, the weakness of history and culture can sometimes be an all-inclusive gene in diet. Hangzhou is undoubtedly a very typical example.

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There is a building outside the lake, but there is a sweet tower in the city

/ There is no distinction between the north and the south /

The southern crossing of the Zhao and Song royal families not only built a developed economic foundation for Hangzhou, but also brought the urban gene of leisure and enjoyment.

the so-called warmth and lust. After meeting the needs of the hungry, Hangzhou's diet has undergone earth-shaking innovation since the Southern Song Dynasty. Hangzhou has almost become the gourmet capital of the world in the works describing the scenery of the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Mengliang Lu and Xian Chun Lin 'an Zhi. Whether it's mutton and crisp cheese of nomadic people in the north, pastry, powder soup and deep frying of Han people in the Central Plains, or fish, shrimps, crabs and shellfish produced in the south of the Yangtze River, you can find traces here.

Today, the most famous Southern Song Dynasty dish "Crab-stuffed Orange" is the perfect combination of Central Plains fruits and southern aquatic products. It is summed up in a sentence in Dream Liang Lu: "The diet is confused, and there is no difference between North and South."

under the influence of this atmosphere, Hangzhou people's tolerant tongues have also been achieved.

There is a saying in Hangzhou: "The building outside the lake is the tower in the city". In addition to stating the qualifications of these two century-old restaurants as "big brothers" in this city, they also wrote two completely different factions of Hangzhou cuisine: "the gang on the lake" and "the school in the city".

In a nutshell, the fish, shrimp, poultry and fresh vegetables used in "Lakeside Gang" combine the fresh and elegant artistic conception of Huaiyang cuisine with the technique of combining oil and slurry cooked in the Central Plains, which is original and clear. For example, fried sweet beans, sliced fish, drunken shrimp, and even sliced pork with snow bamboo shoots belong to this category.

"City Pie" is made of meat, especially pickled sauce, which is deeply influenced by the cross-border diet represented by Shaoxing and the thick oil red sauce represented by Ningbo, Shanghai. It is full of tension, rich and long. For example, fish head tofu, Dongpo meat, steamed pork with dried plum vegetables, salted pieces, salted bamboo shoots, honey sauce fire recipe and so on.

it looks clear and thick, static and moving, and it seems that water and fire are incompatible. But in Hangzhou, they can really appear on the menu of the same restaurant and on the same table. Cause and effect each other and grow separately.

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The place with the fastest iteration of food formats

/ Nightmare of restaurants, paradise for eating goods /

Time has come to modern times. With developed logistics, population migration and taste integration, the first salmon caught from the North Atlantic can lie on the plates of diners in China the next day.

Although this revolutionary new catering format has made the catering culture of some cities that respect tradition gradually decline, it has achieved another rebirth in a place like Hangzhou, which has inclusiveness in its bones.

at the end of 2118, according to a statistics of catering industry by a portal website, Chengdu is the city with the largest number of people eating out, Guangzhou is the city most willing to spend money on food, and Hangzhou is the city with the fastest iteration of recipes.

Hangzhou people are always fascinated by the new mode, new play, new taste and new ingredients of restaurants, which is undoubtedly a nightmare for restaurants.

Therefore, Hangzhou has never been a paradise for restaurants, but it has always been a paradise for eating goods. Many restaurants that can stand out from here walk all over the country like grandma's family, which is unfavorable.

At the same time, as a city with strong tourism attributes, Hangzhou's diet has also developed a distinct echelon. High-end Chinese food, French food and Italian food from the West Lake; Affectionate Japanese cuisine on Zhongshan Road; Go to the alleys of Dadou Road, Shengli River Food Festival, green tea, and old fried shrimps; Then go to legendary noodle restaurants and Jianghu stalls all over the street. Hangzhou is a city where you can always find what you want to eat and eat well.

In the legendary swordsman, when Ling Huchong came to Hangzhou for dinner and drinking, he used jade cups and pear wine, which was especially exquisite. As if in Hangzhou, the food has become ceremonial.