is well known in the world, overseas Chinese and Chinese expatriates making a living overseas, the most common industry is the restaurant industry. Wherever there are Chinese people, there should be Chinese restaurants, and Chinese food can be said to be "food" by the world. This phenomenon was keenly observed as early as the beginning of this century by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the forerunner of the revolution. Dr. Sun Yat-sen said in his book "Strategies for the Founding of a Nation": "The evolution of modern civilization in China has lagged behind others in everything, except for the progress of food, which is still inferior to that of other countries." Dr. Sun Yat-sen's statement is very correct, and in fact, as Dr. Sun Yat-sen said, the Chinese civilization in modern times, by the impact of Western civilization in pieces, all people with knowledge of the pulse of the disease. However, Chinese restaurants are very different, actually able to land in Europe and the United States, all over the world, invincible, so far almost every corner of the world have Chinese restaurants. This strong contrast has attracted the attention of academics, but there is not a more convincing explanation. We believe that the spread of Chinese restaurants around the world is not an isolated and accidental phenomenon, and that the reasons for this are inextricably linked to Chinese food culture. Therefore, exploring certain characteristics of Chinese food culture will help us to explain this phenomenon.
When it comes to Chinese food culture, many people will praise Chinese recipes as well as the color, aroma, taste and shape of Chinese food. But if we want to explore food culture from a comparative perspective, an actionable approach is to grasp the essence of Chinese food culture. There is no identification without comparison. The author here believes that a more feasible approach is to start from the perspective of dietary lifestyle when discussing Chinese food culture. In fact, Chinese food culture actually refers to the dietary lifestyle of Chinese people. And in order to talk about Chinese food culture, Chinese culture must be involved, and the two are extremely closely related. Therefore, it is necessary for us to first elaborate on certain characteristics of Chinese culture.
What kind of culture is Chinese culture? It is necessary to understand the geography of early Chinese culture, because the earlier it was, the more the culture was constrained by the environment. China is located in the southeastern part of the Asian continent, with vast deserts, grasslands and the Gobi to the northwest and a vast ocean to the southeast. Although the land in the Yellow River Valley, the main hotbed of Chinese culture, was fertile, the rest of the environment was harsh, windy and rainy, and the conditions for survival were not good. After the emergence of civilization, the culture at that time was characterized by a strong sense of realism, with a strong ethical and moral dimension. This is because a society needs moderation and less desire, and when a society needs something, it is often when it lacks something. Chinese culture has been characterized by precocity from the very beginning. Marx once argued that Chinese civilization is a precocious baby, with a markedly advanced character in its development. Western civilization, on the contrary, is quite different. The Greek civilization, which is the childhood of Western culture, is written in the history of civilization with its unique wave of warmth, and Marx once thought that the Greek civilization was a baby with normal development. The soil for the survival of Chinese culture was gradually arid in the process of its development, and gradually became unfavorable for agricultural production. Since the soil and other factors were very unfavorable for agricultural production, the suffering of reality could not produce the romance of culture, and thus Chinese civilization was characterized by its strong morality and abstinence throughout the whole period. During the pre-Qin period, the various schools of thought questioned each other, exhausting their efforts but going in the same direction, with the aim of establishing an ideal world free from strife. But this is only an ideal. At the time of the Warring States period, the powers were in strife, and compared with each other in terms of strength. In the end, Qin unified the world by encouraging military service and rewarding cultivation and warfare, which is what the people's heart wants. It is also the choice of history as to how the people should live when the world is in strife. Only by unifying the world will there be no "a few kings and a few emperors." (Cao Cao's words) (Cao Cao's words)
In the pre-Qin period, China's southern state of Chu was also the flow of romanticism, but it was soon overwhelmed by the realism of the north, after the Qin Shi Huang united China, the book with the same text, the history of the future is the history of the son of heaven unification. In order to maintain this unity, China's feudal society allowed the king to have supreme authority, but at the same time gave him a lot of feudal etiquette for constraints; China had the world's first fair civil service system for the selection of government officials - the imperial examination system; China's history called for the Qing officials, and once they appeared, they would be sung and worshipped. So although China does not have a religion in the strict sense, some of its features are similar to those of religion and it has its own gods; if this phenomenon is also regarded as a religion, then the Chinese style of religion is extreme idealism in the sense of reality. The extreme idealism of Chinese history is also due to this, and it has its own gods, only that the gods it creates are incarnated in real people, and it is impossible for real people to act as ideal gods, so the movement of creating gods has been endless in Chinese history until today. Or the Chinese religion is a kind of multi-god worship rather than one-god worship, what the god of wealth, the god of medicine, the god of the stove, the god of Mazu, etc., are regarded as gods and worshipped. Chinese culture also has two other characteristics: one is the absolute pursuit of applicability and the elimination of all impractical things. From the history of Chinese science and technology, we can see that, historically, all practical technology is very developed, such as agricultural science and technology and medicine are very developed, while some non-practical things cannot be developed. The knowledge of optics and geometry of the Mohists in the pre-Qin period did not continue to be developed after the Han Dynasty, when Confucianism was the only religion practiced in China. China did not produce basic disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology. Of course, alchemy was developed in the emperor's quest for immortality, which did include knowledge of chemistry. China's handicrafts were very well developed, while modern machine-based industrial production, such as the steam engine, was not invented in China. Before the fifteenth century, the vast majority of the world's inventions were produced in Chinese hands, but modern science, which required a series of experimental means to produce after the modern era, failed to be produced in China: Chinese culture exhibits the characteristic trait of benevolence. At the core of Confucius' thought is the idea that "the benevolent loves others," and because of this benevolence, the Chinese practiced a system of multiple inheritance, which on the one hand allowed for the dispersal of property, and on the other hand limited long-distance migration, which was a major factor in the Chinese settling down in their homelands. This system of inheritance limited the development of commerce, which led to the creation of the idea of multiple births, which led to an increase in the population of the society, giving rise to more multiple births and more multiple births, and the pressure of the population of the society was always there, as long as the productivity of the society was able to support as many people as it could, and as many people as it could.
The many characteristics of Chinese food culture, embodied in the food culture, directly affects the development of Chinese food culture. First of all, because of population pressure and the existence of a variety of other reasons, so the Chinese diet from the pre-Qin Dynasty onwards, is based on grains, meat less grain, supplemented by vegetables and vegetables, which is the typical structure of the meal. This is the typical structure of rice and vegetables. Rice is the staple food, while vegetables are for the purpose of rice, i.e., to help rice go down the throat. Why do we need to help the rice go down the throat? That is because the staple food is not palatable and there must be a substance to assist it so that people can eat it. Of course, the function of vegetables and the function of salt have **** the same point, but not the same as salt. This prompted the primary purpose of Chinese cooking is to decorate the diet, so that the unpalatable food becomes exquisite; secondly, because of the Chinese culture to pursue shirt, the development of Chinese handicrafts, so cooking in the diet processing technology in the world is second to none, reflecting the shirt characteristics of Chinese culture. All these make Chinese food culture have the following characteristics. First, China's cooking technology is developed, many Westerners seem inedible items, after the Chinese chef's labor, so that people see and appetite; Second, the Chinese people's recipes are wide-ranging, where all the food can be eaten, no taboos; Third, China's rescue of the writings of the famine is particularly large, in order to prepare for the year of famine in order to fill up with wild food for the use of famine; Fourth, the Chinese people will be the pursuit of food as the pursuit of the most joyful in life, to eat has become the first Eating became the first requirement. Since the Chinese people can not eat as they wish, there is a poem to prove it:
The red sun patrols the sky late in the afternoon, the belly of the virtual reality of their own know.
It is not difficult to be full in life, only when the weather is favorable.
So it has long been difficult to eat and dress without worrying, so eating occupies a special place in the life of the Chinese, and the evidence is endless.
In addition, we can analyze certain features of Western food culture that may deepen our understanding of Chinese food culture. The Western diet, because initially it was mainly based on animal husbandry, meat has always been a high proportion of the diet hear, in modern times, the proportion of planting increased, but the proportion of meat in the diet is still higher than that of the Chinese. Because of the natural flavor of meat, so the westerners do not need to decorate the diet, the natural flavor of the inner food limit the development of cooking, Europeans in the show of affluence, more than the tools of the diet to show, such as a variety of utensils of how much and luxury to become the content of the content of the lecture. In addition, they do not eat this kind of life easy to satisfy things as the pursuit of life's most joyful. The pursuit of life in the West, exactly the same Chinese proverb can be highly summarized, that is, "full of ambiguous thinking about lust". They are more in pursuit of love, Western culture reflects a "love culture", while Chinese culture reflects a "culture of eating".
But we should also point out that there are many features of the Chinese diet that cannot be seen in the daily lives of ordinary people. Palace food and marketplace food are better and more comprehensive expressions of these characteristics. Civilian festivals, such as the Spring Festival, may partly show these characteristics, but the Spring Festival is a fleeting moment in a 365-day year, like a flash in the pan.
Culture is not superior or inferior, and neither is food culture. The difference is simply the way of life or the way of eating under different environmental conditions. But how to understand and analyze this difference is very important. The purpose of this book is an attempt to do so, and it is not clear whether it will be recognized by the majority of readers. In most cases, I belong to the kind of "far from the kitchen", I do not know how to cook, and I am not a gourmet, but I know that "a meal and a porridge when thinking about the hard-earned," in this sense, I have some views on Chinese food culture, and I will put them into writing, I hope to get the guidance of the Fangjia. I hope to get the party's guidance
[edit]Beijing's food
-- Beijing eight bowls
Kinze
Min to food is the day, eating is the first need of life. Whether Chinese or foreigners, no one can live without eating. What to eat, how to eat, each country, each nation, each family, each person has their own way of eating.
Diet is a culture, and the Chinese food is famous all over the world. It is also an indisputable fact that Chinese food is delicious and foreigners love to eat it. Chinese food culture has a long history. Over the past thousands of years, people have been summarized has formed the Chinese cuisine of the eight major cuisines, namely, Lu, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Anhui school.
Beijing is a world-famous ancient capital and a city of history and culture with a history of more than 3,000 years. Successive emperors and kings have built the capital of Beijing, all of which have accumulated deep contents for the culture of Beijing. Food culture, one of the contents of various cultures, is profound and profound. As the formation and evolution of the eight major Chinese cuisines, it has also experienced a long historical process. Although Beijing cuisine is not within the eight major cuisines, but Beijing cuisine is one of the main local dishes in China.
The special political status of Beijing in history has made the people living in the city complex and diverse, which is reflected in the diet, which is also diverse. The different tastes of people from all walks of life have resulted in a wide variety of diets. There are eight authentic cuisine, there are local flavor snacks, but also Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, Korean and other nationalities of burning, grilling, shabu-shabu, as well as foreign fast food and so on. The current catering market is unprecedentedly prosperous. The appetite, quench your thirst for everything.
The food is eaten all over, what else is good to eat? People wonder what people in old Beijing ate. It can be said that, before the liberation of the old Beijing really rich people are not many, the royal relatives, dignitaries eat is the sea food, while the ordinary people can fill their stomachs on the good, in the event of red and white celebrations can eat on the "eight bowls" on the very good.
What are the "eight bowls" in old Beijing? People under the age of sixty have never seen, some have never heard of, and even more have never eaten. Many people in modern times have eaten all the "good restaurants" in Beijing, and then nostalgia, nostalgia for the old Beijing food.
The old Beijing "eight bowls" is actually a common and affordable dishes, that is, the chicken, duck, fish and meat through the eight carefully cooked into the color and flavor of the best, with the traditional ceramic bowls put on the table food. "Eight bowls", to put it bluntly, is a big bowl of three yellow chicken, a big bowl of yellow fish, a big bowl of elbow, a big bowl of meatballs, a big bowl of rice flour meat, a big bowl of buckled meat, a big bowl of loose meat, and a big bowl of ribs.
The "Eight Great Bowls" of Old Beijing were a rare delicacy in the lives of the people of Old Beijing. It was a must for birthdays, weddings, funerals and children's full moons. Because before the liberation of China is not like now there are so many hotels, restaurants, and most of the common people are poorer, meet the red and white celebrations are in the home, the village set up a large shed to entertain friends and relatives. So in those days, the chef who did this kind of food business was called a "hut runner".
Usually, there are "four dry", "four cold", "four hot", "eight dishes" on the banquet table, "eight bowls" and so on. Later, the restaurant dishes gradually evolved into "four cold" or "six cold", eight hot dishes, ten hot dishes, twelve hot dishes. For the sake of aesthetics, the bowl was changed to a plate.
The old Beijing "eight bowls" is popular among the people, but it was once a delicacy in the Imperial Palace. According to legend, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled the road to meet the people's family wedding, tasted the folk "eight bowls". After returning to Beijing, the Imperial Household Catering according to the folk practice of cooking, feasts for the civil and military.
Old Beijing "eight bowls" was once lost, until now there are very few people will do, so it is difficult for people to eat. However, I heard that the "Old Beijing Impression" located in Wanping Theater Building in Lugouqiao recently, in order to promote the folk food culture, seeks for the secret recipe of the "eight bowls" production, and ultimately seeks for the folk who will make the "eight bowls" of Old Beijing. Finally, we found a senior chef who can make the "Eight Big Bowls" in old Beijing. The old man taught him the recipe for making the "Eight Big Bowls". Based on this recipe, the old man taught the recipe to the old man, and through repeated trial and error, the recipe was finally a success. After the launch of "Old Beijing Eight Bowls" in "Old Beijing Impression", it was said that the dishes were highly praised, and the original and authentic Old Beijing flavors finally saw the light of day. At present, the "Eight Big Bowls" of Old Beijing in "Old Beijing Impression" have developed and innovated many new varieties on the basis of traditional production, and have also launched the "Eight Big Bowls" series according to modern tastes, including the seafood dishes and the "Eight Big Bowls" series. series, including seafood "eight bowls", beef and mutton "eight bowls", venison "eight bowls", poultry "eight bowls" and "eight bowls". Eight Bowls", "Eight Bowls" of beef and mutton, "Eight Bowls" of venison, "Eight Bowls" of poultry, "Eight Bowls" of lower products, and "Eight Bowls" of vegetarian dishes. Consumers come to "Old Beijing Impression", not only can eat affordable "eight bowls", but also can watch the "Old Tianqiao Stunt Art Troupe" wonderful stunt performance, really enjoy themselves, and make people forget to come back. The city's main attraction is the "Eight Big Bowls", which are affordable.
[edit]Halal diet
Zhang Baoshen
Beijing is a city of Chinese nationalities, in which there are more than 200,000 Muslims of all nationalities who believe in Islam. Beijing's long history and culture and the charm of a modern metropolis have attracted more and more people from all walks of life in Islamic countries to visit, tour and travel, and international exchanges have become increasingly frequent. In particular, the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing in 2008, when more than 40 athletes from Islamic countries will participate, and Muslims from more than 100 countries and regions will come to Beijing for sightseeing and traveling. This undoubtedly gives Beijing's halal food industry provides unprecedented development opportunities and higher requirements.
Beijing's halal food has a long history and unique flavor, and is an important part of Beijing's food culture. The origin of Beijing's halal diet is synchronized with the introduction of Islam to Beijing and has a history of thousands of years. In the Yuan Dynasty's court cookbook "Drinking Meals on the Go", there are records of halal food. The Yuan Dynasty, a widely circulated encyclopedia of life, "home must use the whole collection of things", specifically listed in the "Hui Hui food" chapter, including many Hui dietary varieties. In the Yuan miscellaneous drama "leopard monk since the return of secularism", there is also such a lyrics: "small Liu Tu sells the fat mutton, a consistent banknote a whole hoof ...... horse back to the back of the baked cake is very big, yellow barbarians vegetables rotten flavor essence strange ...... "
Ming Dynasty, Beijing, the halal diet has been quite common.
Ming Dynasty Yongle years, "Yan Wang sweeps the north", the capital of Beijing, a large number of Hui migrated from the south to the north, settled in Beijing, so that the south of the halal food production techniques into Beijing, promoting the development of Beijing halal diet. From the Yuan and Ming dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, after hundreds of years of development, Beijing's halal diet has been very rich in variety, a variety of unique flavors, colors and tastes of the dishes and snacks, into the palace, became the imperial food. Later, some of them were spread out of the palace, popular in the city, and became famous halal food. Now still for the Beijing halal restaurant specialties "it like honey", "osmanthus lamb", "sesame tenderloin", "salt popping Sandaan "
In the Qing Dynasty, the Imperial dishes were once served in the Imperial Palace.
In the Qing Palace Imperial Meals, the Halal Whole Lamb Banquet Seat is one of the great palace banquets after the Manchu Han Banquet. Yuan Mei, a poet in the Qianlong period, wrote in "with the garden food list": "the whole sheep method of seventy-two kinds, each time you can eat but eighteen or nineteen kinds only. This is the technique of dragon slaying, home cooks are difficult to learn, a plate and a bowl, although all is lamb, but the flavor is different." The whole goat feast is to use all different parts of the whole goat, either roasted or shabu-shabu, either boiled or fried, to cook a variety of different flavors, different names of the dishes. In 1968, when Premier Zhou Enlai hosted a banquet for visiting Pakistani guests, he asked Yang Yonghe, the famous Halal master of Yiyishun, to prepare a whole sheep banquet and a variety of Halal dishes. The whole sheep feast and a variety of halal dishes, by the guests of honor unanimously praised. Today, the "Hongbinlu" and other halal restaurants of the whole sheep feast, is still a brand dish.
Republican period, with the development of national industry and commerce, Beijing's halal food industry formed a mature market. Halal restaurants opened in the Qianmen area are: Yuanxingtang, two benefit Xuan, with the and Xuan, with the benefit of Xuan, Western Pavilion, Western Sacred Pavilion, Qing Banquet House, Zui Fangyuan, Changyue House, with the House (pie week), En Yuanju (fried pimples) and dozens of other. There are also Zhongshan Park Ruizhenhou, Dong'an Market Donglaishun and Xidan Yiyishun, etc. In 1930, in the busy Xidan intersection, the halal restaurant "Xilaishun" opened for business, immediately stirred up the capital. One of the reasons for this is that the manager of Xilaishun Restaurant was the famous halal chef Zhuxiang. Zhuxiang, formerly known as Zhulianxiang, is a famous halal cuisine innovator. Because of his culinary skills, the end of the Qing Dynasty, served in the Imperial Palace Imperial Cuisine. In the early years of the Republic of China, he also went to the "Two Benefits Xuan" and other restaurants to guide the cooking skills, and brought out many senior students. Zhuxiang knowledgeable, open-minded, in the innovation of halal dishes, boldly absorbed some of the techniques of Western food and Chinese cuisine in the north and south, created a "fried mutton tail", "raw steak mutton", "fried Gansu chicken ", "oil burst tripe" and other new halal dishes more than a hundred kinds, and the first halal sea food dishes, in the peer and diners enjoy a good reputation. Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang is Hui, often to Xilaishun banquets and meals, and Zhu Xiang formed a deep friendship. This led to many celebrities in the cultural and theater circles to patronize Xilaishun. After the peaceful liberation of Beijing, the National Political Consultative Conference, the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang and many other important meetings, have been held here to host banquets. In Zhuxiang and many other halal cooking masters of innovation efforts, Beijing's halal food in the Beijing food culture has been unique, famous.
According to the various Beijing Halal Recipes that have been published, there are more than 500 varieties of halal dishes in Beijing. Many old names, such as Yue Sheng Zhai sauce beef and mutton, Dashun Zhai sugar fire roast, pie Zhou's pie, bean juice Zhang's bean juice, sheep's head horse's white water sheep's head, popping tripe Feng's popping tripe, rice cake king of the cake, etc., are centuries-old famous food, renowned at home and abroad.
Recently, the Beijing Municipality held the "Second Halal Cooking Service Skills Competition", more than 50 halal catering enterprises of nearly 300 players to participate in the preparation for the Olympic Games halal cooking. Borrowing the wind of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing's halal food industry will have a faster development.
The United States
Reviewing the history and habits of the American diet, you will find that there are a lot of very interesting things, is that you never know. At the beginning of the 10th century, the rich people in the United States like to eat swan, ordinary people eat pork chops, steak, chicken, duck and lamb, etc., but the poor people only eat vegetables. At that time, the poor people liked to eat a kind of "delicious cake", which was made of minced pork, raisins, plums, sour fruits and camphor grass. Lobster, oysters, crab meat and mutton, which are now considered delicacies of the table, were considered unappealing at the time and were only used as pig feed, not for human consumption.
The history and habits of the American diet, you will find that there is not often quasi-ben, is that you never know into the. At the beginning of the 10th century, the rich people in the United States like to eat Tianhe, ordinary people eat pork chops, steak, chicken, duck and mutton thousand, but the poor people only eat Chikorai. At that time, the poor people liked to eat a kind of "delicious cake", which was made of minced pork, dried pork, green plums, sour fruits and grass. Dragon lanterns, oysters and crab meat, and mutton, which are now considered to be delicacies of the table, were not considered to be of great importance at that time, and were only used for feeding, not for human consumption. At that time, when the master returned from a hunting trip, he often made meat cakes from the offal of the hunted animals for his servants to eat because. This suburb is regarded as "trampling". By the eighteenth century, Americans also ate a large 1 of meat and birds of prey, including geese, rabbits, pine roasting and even ...