Zhejiang cuisine has a long history. "Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic Su Wen Yi Dao Fa Fang Lun" said: "The city of the East, the beginning of heaven and earth, the fishing of salt, the seaside near the water. People are addicted to salt, so they are safe. " There are records in The Land of Chu and Yue ... "Rice, rice, soup and fish" in Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi. It can be seen that Zhejiang cuisine has a history of thousands of years. In addition, archaeologists from China excavated an early Neolithic cultural site in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang in 1973. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are a large number of indica rice, chaff, water chestnut seeds, gourds and dates, as well as more than 40 kinds of animals such as pigs, deer, tigers, elk (four elephants), rhinoceros, geese, crows, eagles, fish, turtles and crocodiles. At the same time, ancient pottery stoves and a number of daily-use pottery such as pots, cans, pots, plates and bowls were unearthed. According to the research of scientists, these cultural relics are about 7000 years ago, and they are one of the earliest Neolithic strata found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coast.
2. Spring and Autumn Period
During the Spring and Autumn Period of Wuyue, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Yueji (now Shaoxing), the capital of Yue State, made use of its superior geographical environment and resources, and under the influence of the economy, culture and technology of the Central Plains countries, after ten years of life and lessons, the agriculture, commerce and handicraft production in Qiantang River Basin developed rapidly and laid a solid material foundation. In order to restore the country, Gou Jian stepped up his armament and built a large chicken farm in Jishan, Shaoxing, formerly called Jishan, to prepare chickens for the front. Therefore, the oldest dish in Zhejiang cuisine is Shaoxing's famous dish "Clear soup and Yue chicken". Secondly, Hangzhou's "Song Saoyu Soup" comes from "Song Wusao Fish Soup", which has a history of 880 years. From Liangzhu in the suburb of Hangzhou to Hemudu in Yuyao, an ancient site of human activities, it is proved from the bones of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and ducks that the cooking materials of Zhejiang cuisine were quite rich four or five thousand years ago. Traditional famous dishes such as Dongpo meat, bacon, honey sauce fire recipe and Huatuo chicken are all inseparable from these cooking materials.
3. After the Southern and Northern Dynasties
After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Jiangnan was spared from war for hundreds of years, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened in Sui and Tang Dynasties, the offshore sideline business in Ningbo and Wenzhou was expanded, and foreign trade and economic exchanges were frequent, especially in the Five Dynasties (AD 907), when Qianliu and wuyue made Hangzhou their capital, the economy and culture developed day by day, the population increased dramatically, and business flourished. It was once known as "the wall is 20 miles, and the room is 430,000". Economic development and trade exchanges have greatly promoted the development and rise of cooking, making the cooking skills of court dishes and folk diets at that time develop by leaps and bounds.
4. Southern Song Dynasty
Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhejiang cuisine played a major role in "Southern Cuisine". Nandu in Song Dynasty was called the second great migration of the Chinese nation, which played a great role in further promoting the innovative development of southern cuisine centered on Hangzhou. In this great migration, a large number of celebrities, dignitaries and working people in the north moved south and settled in Zhejiang, bringing the cooking culture of Kyoto in the north to Zhejiang, which made the cooking skills between the north and the south widely exchanged, the catering industry flourished and famous dishes came into being. Wu's dream, the old man's repeated victories in West Lake, and the meticulous past events in Wulin all record the prosperity of Hang Cheng food market and the delicacy of Hang Cheng food. According to the records in Meng Lianggu, Volume XVI, Tea Shop, there were more than 280 kinds of colorful dishes in Hangzhou at that time, and the cooking skills reached 15 or more. There are many exquisite and luxurious restaurants, and ordinary restaurants are "all over the streets", and the cooking flavor is both north and south, which is a prosperous scene. For hundreds of years since the Southern Song Dynasty, although the political center is in the north, Zhejiang is bound to be one of the regions with the richest material resources, developed culture and prosperous industry and commerce. A large number of famous chefs from the north gathered in Hang Cheng, which enabled hangzhou dishes and Zhejiang cuisine to enter the development stage from the bud, and Zhejiang cuisine has since stood in the national Lai cuisine forest. Up to now, the famous dishes in the Southern Song Dynasty for more than 800 years, such as stuffed orange with crab, steamed sheep with soft-shelled turtle, preserved Dongpo, South fried eel, Qunxian soup and two-color kidney, are still famous at high-end banquets. In Shaoxing, besides clear soup and Yue chicken, there are braised chicken, frozen meat, fried shrimp chicken and coconut bran shrimp balls. Ningbo's pickled vegetable soup, yellow croaker, roasted moss, rock sugar turtle, pot-cooked eel, Huzhou's old-fashioned shrimp, colorful shredded eel, Jiaxing's fried crab powder, fried shrimp and crab, etc. It has a history of hundreds of years. Wenzhou is close to Fujian, influenced by Fujian cuisine, and its cooking is light, mainly seafood. Three pieces of fish rolls, three pieces of shrimp and other dishes have a long history.
5. After the Republic of China
Hangzhou dishes first introduced new dishes such as Longjing Shrimp. However, hangzhou dishes-based Zhejiang cuisine is basically divided into three schools. One school is the "Beijing Gang" restaurant with northern flavor, which is a large group of dishes valued by the culinary community. It mainly cooks high-grade raw materials, such as shark fin, sea cucumber, bird's nest, bear's paw, roast suckling pig and roast duck (Beijing roast duck), which is the strongest in Hangzhou. Another Hui Gang, which specializes in braising in soy sauce, is mainly distributed in Hangzhou, Nanjing and other places. The dishes are mainly tasty, heavy oil, heavy sauce, heavy color and economical. The other group is local food, real local food. Hangzhou has a large-scale building outside the West Lake Building, which was built in the Qing Dynasty and is famous for its vinegar fish and shrimp in Longjing. Wang Runxing, who owns the Qinghe Square in the city, is called "Imperial Meal". Fish head tofu, commonly known as Mulang tofu, is good at meat and pickled bamboo shoots. Shaoxing has Lan Xiang Pavilion, coconut bran, shrimp balls, special vinegar fish and other standard dishes. There is Dongfuyuan in Ningbo, East Zhejiang, and famous dishes such as pickled vegetable soup, yellow croaker and rock sugar turtle are authentic local traditional dishes in Ningbo.
Zhejiang cuisine has its own unique cooking methods. In addition to people's regional taste preferences, rich specialty products are also one of the factors.
Song Sao Fish Soup is a kind of "West Lake Vinegar Fish", which is made by boiling mandarin fish in water, adding a little soy sauce, sugar and more vinegar to the original soup after the fish is boned. The production of West Lake vinegar fish is simple, and it is made through slaughter, knife processing, boiling, taking out and adding seasoning, but the technical standard is very high. This cooking method is unique among the famous dishes in China. Shaoxing's famous dish braised chicken with white fish has a similar situation. Put the chicken and white fish (salted yellow croaker with dry salt) in a bowl without adding oil, and it will taste delicious after steaming. Ningbo is rich in yellow croaker. Boil yellow croaker and pickles together to make pickle soup, which is rich in flavor and fresh in mouth. Jiaxing used to be rich in hairy crabs. In addition to the snack bar, restaurants and restaurants don't sell whole lake crab, but always use crab powder (that is, lake crab's meat). Wenzhou, an important town in southern Zhejiang, pays attention to using soup, and "three slices of shrimp" and "three-line fish" all use high-grade hanging soup. In addition, Hangzhou's crock dish "Flower Tube Chicken" and "Longjing Shrimp" with tea as raw materials are both unique cooking techniques.
6. After the founding of New China.
Like other major cuisines in China, Zhejiang cuisine has developed rapidly. Zhejiang Province has also set up various schools and cooking research institutions specialized in cultivating cooking talents, extensively exchanged cooking culture, and further improved the facilities and conditions of the catering industry.
7. Since11970s and11980s.
Zhejiang cuisine is still the protagonist of traditional cuisine. In the late 1980s, some traditional dishes were no longer popular. Instead, it is "soft-shelled turtle, river eel" and now the new prawn, scallop, blue crab, cream crab, bright red shellfish, abalone, small sand fish and so on. The most important thing is that the outlets of catering services are increasing year by year, especially the development of private economy, which has a strong momentum. By the end of 1992, the number of private individual restaurants in Hangzhou had soared to more than 4,000. In the supply of varieties and cooking, private individuals basically practice "killing and cooking now", and the taste is at the request of consumers, which forces state-owned stores to follow suit. Under the influence of "south wind", some varieties of old Hangzhou cuisine were replaced by new prawns and ribbons. Some traditional dishes have been innovated, and Shao cuisine still occupies the main position. Ningbo has taken advantage of seafood, and Wenzhou cuisine has developed many famous dishes with seafood as raw material.