Under the influence of many factors, such as the philosophy of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, Confucian ethics and morality, TCM nutrition and health preservation theory, cultural and artistic achievements, food aesthetic fashion, national personality characteristics and so on, the working people have created China cooking skills that will go down in history and formed a profound China food culture.
Historically, China's food culture has lasted for 1,711 years, divided into four development stages: raw food, cooked food, natural cooking and scientific cooking. More than 61,111 kinds of traditional dishes, more than 21,111 kinds of industrial foods, colorful banquets and colorful flavor schools have been introduced, and it has won the reputation of "cooking kingdom".
In terms of connotation, China's food culture involves the development and utilization of food sources, the application and innovation of tableware, the production and consumption of food, the service and reception of catering, the operation and management of catering and food industry, and the relationship between catering and national security, catering and literature and art, and catering and life realm, which is profound and extensive!
from the extension, China's food culture can be classified from the perspectives of times and techniques, region and economy, nationality and religion, food and tableware, consumption and level, folk customs and functions, showing different cultural tastes and reflecting different use values.
in terms of characteristics, China's food culture highlights the theory of nourishing and supplementing (vegetarian diet, attaching importance to medicinal diet and tonic), the theory of harmonious realm of five flavors (distinctive flavor, palatable taste, and the reputation of "tongue dishes"), the cooking method of changing the odd and the positive (kitchen rules-based, flexible), and the food concept of pleasing to the mind (gentle and elegant, educating and eating).
China's food culture directly affects Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, and is the axis of the oriental food culture circle. At the same time, it also indirectly affects Europe, America, Africa and Oceania, such as vegetarian culture, tea culture, sauce and vinegar, pasta, medicated diet, ceramic tableware and soybeans in China, benefiting billions of people all over the world.
China's cooking is not only skillful, but also has a tradition of paying attention to the aesthetic feeling of dishes, and paying attention to the harmony of color, fragrance, taste, shape and container of food. There are many ways to express the aesthetic feeling of dishes. No matter whether it is a carrot or a cabbage heart, all kinds of shapes can be carved, which is unique and achieves the harmonious unity of color, fragrance, taste, shape and beauty, giving people a special enjoyment of high spiritual and material unity.
In a word, China's food culture is a long-standing regional culture with wide vision, deep level, multi-angles and high taste. It is the material wealth and spiritual wealth that people of all ethnic groups in China have created, accumulated and influenced neighboring countries and the world in the aspects of food source development, tableware development, food conditioning, nutrition and health care, and food aesthetics during their production and life practice for more than 1 million years. China cuisine embodies the Chinese nation's food culture tradition, and it has many unique features compared with other countries' cooking. Flavors are diverse. The vast Chinese nation, due to the differences in climate, products and customs, has formed many different cuisines in Chinese diet since ancient times. As far as local division is concerned, there are four major cuisines: Bashu, Huaiyang, Qilu and Guangdong and Fujian. The four seasons are different. Throughout the year, it is the main feature of China's cooking to mix the diet according to the season. China has always followed the seasonal seasoning and side dishes, which are mellow in winter and light and cool in summer. Stew in winter and freeze in summer. All kinds of vegetables are replaced at four seasons and eaten at the right time. Pay attention to the beauty of dishes. Pay attention to the harmony of color, fragrance, taste, shape and container of food, which shows the aesthetic feeling of dishes in many ways. Chefs use their clever skills and artistic accomplishment to create all kinds of delicious food, which is unique in achieving the unity of color, fragrance, taste and shape, and gives people a special enjoyment of high spiritual and material unity. Pay attention to interest. China's cooking has paid attention to taste and interest since ancient times. It not only has strict requirements on the color, aroma, taste, shape, utensils, quality and nutrition of snacks, but also has certain elegant requirements on the naming of dishes, the way of taste, the choice of time, the rhythm of eating, the interspersed entertainment, etc., with novel ideas and full of fun. Combination of food and medicine. China's cooking skills are closely related to medical care. In China, it has always attached great importance to "the homology of medicine and food" and "the same function of medicine and food", and used the medicinal value of food raw materials to cook all kinds of delicious dishes to achieve the purpose of preventing and treating certain diseases. The homology of medicine and food means that medicine and food are the same. In Huangdi Neijing Tai Su, it is written: "Eating on an empty stomach is food, and patients eat medicine", which reflects the thought of "homology of medicine and food". (6) soup tonic. It is the most commonly used dosage form in traditional Chinese medicine. It was called decoction in ancient times, now it is called decoction, and it is called decoction in folk. Soup is very common on the dining table in southern China, with different practices. Among them, the characteristic health preserving and green soup: Tang Baobao are the main representatives, and its health preserving effect is affirmed by the public.
the soup mentioned in dietotherapy refers to a kind of soup with a small amount of food or a proper amount of Chinese medicine and a large amount of water.
The following three different ways can be used to prepare medicine in soup: First, put it directly after washing, or wrap it in clean gauze, and discard the medicine when the soup is cooked. Edible drugs such as ginseng, medlar, lotus seeds, and dual-purpose products can be eaten together. The second is to decoct the medicine with water to get juice, and then pour it into the cooking. Third, the raw materials are precious drugs such as ginseng, which can be processed into powder in addition to slicing and firing, and put in before the pot is lifted, so as to make full use of it and avoid waste.
the most common way to cook soup is to add water to it. The water should be filled at one time. If you have to add water halfway, you must add boiling water. On the heat, it is advisable to boil with strong fire first, and then use medium and small fire until the dishes are cooked.
soup can also be steamed or stewed in water. put the raw materials in a container, add enough water and seasonings, cover them, then steam them in a steamer, or stew them in a pot in water until the raw materials are cooked and rotten, which is a good way to warm up. "Food is the most important thing for the people", with the rise of returning to natural food, traditional food is increasingly favored by people. In fact, the origin of these foods has its wonderful legends.
steamed bread
according to legend, Meng Huo, the owner of Nanman Cave in the south of Shu, always attacked and harassed him, and Zhuge Liang personally led his troops to conquer Meng Huo. Lushui area is sparsely populated, miasma is heavy and Lushui is poisonous. Zhuge Liang's men put forward a superstitious idea: kill some prisoners of "Na Man" and sacrifice their heads to the river god of Lushui. Of course, Zhuge Liang couldn't promise to kill the prisoners of "Nan Man", but in order to boost morale, he came up with a way: using flour and dough brought by the army, kneading it into a human head and steaming it as a sacrifice instead of "Nan Man" to worship the river god.
Since then, this kind of pasta has been handed down and spread to the north. But it was so scary to be called "Man Head" that people replaced the word "Man" with "Man" and wrote "Steamed Bread". Over time, Steamed Bread became the main food of northerners.
mung bean cake
eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is almost no exception in all parts of the country. However, in addition to zongzi, there are also mung bean cakes as traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival. For example, in Wuhan, Nanjing and Wuhu, you will definitely eat mung bean cakes on this day. People in Xi 'an also eat zongzi on this day, but it is indispensable to eat it with mung bean cake. People in Xi 'an give gifts to relatives and friends during the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as zongzi and mung bean cake. This is a custom with a long history. Maybe people talk less and know less. As early as the tenth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1872), the commercial mung bean cake was introduced, which became a famous food in Xi 'an and Shaanxi together with crystal cake, and was famous far and wide. Xi 'an is a Muslim community, and Hui and Han compatriots live in harmony. Hui people are good at doing small businesses, especially making small food in family workshops. Their halal mung bean cakes are very popular. Han people also do it, less. Previously, most of them were produced and listed before the Dragon Boat Festival. Since the reform and opening up, it has been sold all year round, and a number of new food enterprises have been added, and mung bean cakes are much more refined than before. Many new varieties have been added, such as jujube paste stuffing and nut stuffing, which have good taste and long aftertaste.
Crystal Cake
Crystal Cake is a famous spot in Weinan, Shaanxi Province. It is characterized by a golden face and a silver band, which peels off the crisp, cools the tongue and oozes teeth, and is sweet, moist and palatable. Legend has it that Kou Zhun, the Song Dynasty official, was honest and fair, and won the hearts of the people. One year, Kou Zhun returned from the capital of song dynasty, Kyoto, to his hometown, Weinan, to visit relatives in the countryside, which coincided with his 51th birthday. The hard-earned villagers sent birthday peaches, noodles and plaques to congratulate him, and Kou Zhun held a birthday banquet. After three rounds of wine, Kou Zhun opened a delicate paulownia box, which contained 51 crystal-clear snacks. On top of the dessert, there is a piece of red paper, neatly written with a poem: "Public crystal eyes and crystal hearts can distinguish loyalty from traitors, and innocence is not stained with dust." The signature is Weibei laosou. Later, the chef in Kou Zhun also made this kind of dim sum, and Kou Zhun gave it a nice name according to its characteristics, called "Crystal Cake".
Iron Egg
Iron Egg is a famous snack in Taiwan Province Province. According to legend, on a rainy day, the salted egg is constantly returned to the pot because the sea breeze keeps blowing. Later, I was interviewed by Lin Mingyu, a reporter from Minsheng Daily in 1983, and wrote a report entitled "Grandma's iron eggs are hard to get". The report attracted many people's attention, and some media even came from Japan to interview them. After that, iron eggs became a famous snack in Danshui.
But now you don't have to go to the bow to eat iron eggs. Many manufacturers make iron eggs into instant vacuum-packed food, mainly in Taiwan Province and Hunan, because they are easy to carry and can make everyone feel delicious at any time at work or leisure.
rock candy
according to legend, during the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, there was a girl named Fusang, who was the maid of a big sugar shop in Neijiang, Sichuan who advocated the Yaxian family. Once, while Zhang Yaxian was away, she scooped up a bowl of syrup and was about to drink it. Zhang Yaxian came, and Fusang quickly poured the syrup into the pig tank, hid it in the woodpile, and put some chaff on it to cover it up.
A few days later, when Fusang held out the pig tank, it was full of many crystal-like things, which broke the entrance, crisp and pure and sweet, and its taste was better than sugar. Fusang talked about this strange phenomenon, and many people did the same thing. Because the sugar produced looks like ice and tastes like honey, people call it rock sugar.
jiaozi
jiaozi is a traditional food loved by the people of China. Its preparation method is to make a thin and soft dough with flour, then chop up fresh meat and cabbage, mix them with seasonings, wrap them and cook them in a pot until jiaozi rises to the surface. It is characterized by thin skin and tender stuffing, delicious taste, unique shape and insatiable appetite.
jiaozi, whose original name was Jiaoer, was first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in China.
at the end of the eastern Han dynasty, disasters were severe in various places, and many people were suffering from diseases. There is a famous doctor named Zhang Ji in Nanyang, whose name is Zhongjing. He studied medical books hard since childhood and learned from others, becoming the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang Zhongjing not only has a good medical skill, but also has a noble medical ethics. He has treated the poor and the rich seriously and saved countless lives. When Zhang Zhongjing was an official in Changsha, he often cured diseases for the people. One year, when the local plague prevailed, he built a cauldron at the entrance of Yamen, giving up medicine to save people, which won the love of Changsha people. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha to his hometown, he walked to the shore of the Baihe River in his hometown and saw many poor people suffering from hunger and cold, and their ears were frozen. He was very upset and determined to treat them. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, there were many people seeking medical treatment. He was as busy as a bee, but he always remembered the poor people with frozen ears. Following the example of Changsha, he told his disciples to set up a medical shed and cauldron in an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang, and open it on the day of the winter solstice to give medicine to the poor to cure their injuries.
Zhang Zhongjing's medicine is called "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction". Its method is to boil mutton, pepper and some cold-dispelling medicinal materials in a pot, then take them out and chop them up, make them into ear-shaped "Jiaoer" with flour bags, and then cook them in the pot and give them to patients begging for medicine. Each person has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After eating Quhan decoction, people feel warm all over, their blood is smooth, and their ears get warm. After eating it for a while, the patient's rotten ears healed.
Zhang Zhongjing gave up medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of the New Year, people celebrate the New Year, and also celebrate the recovery of rotten ears. They cooked food for the New Year just like Jiaoer and ate it on the morning of the first day. People call this kind of food "dumpling ears", "jiaozi" or "partial eclipse" and eat it on the winter solstice and the first day of the new year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened a shed to give medicine and cure patients.
it has been nearly 1,811 years since Zhang Zhongjing left, but the story of his "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction" has been widely circulated among the people. On the winter solstice and the first day of New Year's Day, people eat jiaozi, and they still remember Zhang Zhongjing's kindness in their hearts. Today, we don't need "Jiao Er" to cure frozen rotten ears, but jiaozi has become the most common and favorite food for people.
jiaozi-Snow Dumpling without cooking
Snow Dumpling is a specialty of linghu town, Huzhou City, while Zhenyuantong Snow Dumpling is the most authentic snow dumpling made by the traditional recipe of Linghu Lake and relying on pure hand. Zhenyuantongxue Dumpling is a traditional tea and food treasure, which is "white as snow and shaped like dumplings". Its inner embryo is like jiaozi's Melaleuca Cake, and a layer of snow-white powder made of rice flour and frosting is applied outside. It tastes crisp, sweet and salty, and it is an excellent tea and food snack.