Hunan cuisine, also known as Hunan cuisine, is one of the eight major cuisines with a long history in China, which was formed as early as the Han Dynasty. Xiangjiang River Basin, Dongting Lake Area and Xiangxi Mountain Area are the three local flavors.

Hunan cuisine is well-made, with a wide range of materials, changeable tastes and various varieties. The color is oily and heavy, and it is practical; Pay attention to spicy, delicious and tender taste; The method of making is known as stewing, stewing, waxing, steaming and frying. The theme of Hunan cuisine is cooking. In fact, many people in Hunan are also afraid of spicy food, and they want to eat that kind of spicy food, which leads to the result of eating more rice. Therefore, the main function of Hunan cuisine is cooking.

The representative dishes of official Hunan cuisine are represented by Zuan Hunan cuisine, such as Zuan tofu and Zuan shark's fin. Representative dishes of folk Hunan cuisine include chopped pepper fish head, stir-fried meat with pepper, Xiangxi Waipo, Jishou sour meat, beef powder, Chenzhou fish powder, Dong 'an chicken, goldfish playing lotus, Yongzhou blood duck, steamed bacon, sister dumplings, Ningxiang tasty snake, Yueyang ginger and spicy snake and so on.

basic characteristics

Hunan cuisine has always attached importance to the matching of raw materials and the mutual penetration of tastes. Hunan cuisine is especially hot and sour. Because of the geographical location, Hunan has a mild and humid climate, so people like to eat peppers to refresh themselves and get rid of dampness. The dishes cooked with pickled vegetables as seasoning and pepper are appetizing and refreshing, which are deeply favored and become a unique local food custom. At the same time, stir-frying is also a specialty of Hunan people's cooking.

The cooking characteristics of Hunan cuisine

have a long history. Among the three cooking techniques, namely, hot cooking, cold cooking and sweet blending, there are several kinds of each technique, and dozens of others. Relatively speaking, the simmering kung fu of Hunan cuisine is better, almost reaching the point of perfection. Stewing can be divided into red stewing and white stewing in color change, and clear soup stewing, thick soup stewing and milk soup stewing in seasoning. Slow stew, original flavor. Some dishes are crystal clear and mellow, some dishes are pure and nourishing, some dishes are soft and waxy, some dishes are crisp and delicious, and many stewed dishes have become famous and delicious in Hunan cuisine.

Generally speaking, the dietary customs in Hunan mainly have the following background and characteristics:

(1) In Hunan, "eating" has rich social significance.

First of all, in such important events as people's weddings and funerals, eating is always an important content. Marriage is called "eating wedding wine"; Dead people, commonly known as "eating meat"; If you add a population, you must eat a "full moon"; For your birthday, you should eat poached eggs and eat "birthday noodles". Secondly, "eating" is also one of people's important social means. When friends and acquaintances meet, the first greeting is often: "Have you eaten?" When you visit a friend's house, you can eat 11 or 12 dishes, which means that you have received the most enthusiastic hospitality from your host.

(2) In Hunan, due to geographical and climatic reasons, rice is cultivated in most areas, and rice is the staple food in people's daily diet. However, in a few mountainous areas, especially in some places in the mountainous areas of northern Hunan, corn, sweet potato and potato can only be the staple food for planting dry food crops. The economy of these areas has gradually developed, producing flue-cured tobacco or medicinal materials, which can be sold to the country in exchange for rice, so rice and corn are gradually used as staple foods. Sweet potato and potato are gradually separated from staple food and become raw materials for making starchy food, brewing wine, sun-dried vegetables, etc. or feed for raising livestock. In Hunan, people eat three meals a day, whether in urban or rural areas. The difference is that in cities, breakfast is more casual, with the heaviest dinner in a day and the heaviest weekend diet in a week. In the countryside, there is no obvious difference between three meals a day. Every lunar festival or solar term, the diet is generally more grand than that in the city. Within a year, the diet around the Spring Festival is the most important. In addition, no matter in the city or the countryside, almost every household has to make some pickles, dried vegetables, pickles, preserved vegetables and preserved vegetables according to the seasons. Whenever a guest arrives, the table is always served to show the housewife's skills and housekeeping ability.

(3) regardless of gender, age and age, they are generally fond of spicy food. Whether it's three meals on weekdays, a banquet in a restaurant, or a drink between three friends and four friends, there must be one or two Chili dishes.

It is said that pepper originated in tropical South America and was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty. Hunan's geographical environment is called "lowly and wet land" in ancient times, which is rainy and humid. Pepper has the effect of keeping out cold and expelling wind and dampness; In addition, Hunan people eat rice as their staple food all year round, which can directly stimulate saliva secretion, stimulate appetite and stimulate appetite. When more people eat, they form a spicy custom. People in Hunan eat peppers in a variety of ways. Soak the red pepper in a sealed acid jar, and it is sour in the spicy, which is called "sour and spicy"; Combine red and spicy, pepper and garlic, which is called "spicy"; Chop the big red pepper and marinate it in a sealed jar, which is salty and spicy, so it is called "salty and spicy"; Chop the big red pepper, mix the dry rice powder and marinate it in a sealed jar. When eating, it can be dry-fried or mashed, which is called "spicy"; After crushing red pepper, add garlic seeds and fragrant black beans, and soak in tea oil, which has a strong fragrance and is called "oily and spicy"; Barbecue the big red pepper in the middle of the fire, then tear off the thin skin and mix it with sesame oil and soy sauce. It is spicy and sweet, which is called "fresh and spicy". In addition, dried and fresh peppers can also be used as cooking ingredients, and there are many ways to eat them. Especially in Miao Village, a Dong township in western Hunan, whenever guests arrive, they always use dried Chili stew to entertain them. When persuading guests, they always politely invite them to eat "Chili" again and again instead of "meat", which shows that they are very fond of spicy food. Hunan cuisine is popular with customers in Europe, America and Southeast Asia, especially in the United States and Canada. In the United States, in front of some Hunan restaurants, there is a sign painted with big red pepper, which reads Hunan pepper, and the apron of the waitress in the museum is also embroidered with big red pepper.

Steamed bacon

(4) Hunan people love bitter taste. According to documents, its origin can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. There is a poem in "Chu Ci Evocation" that says "be bitter and salty, be sweet and do something". The "great bitterness" here is said to be lobster sauce. So this condiment made from beans has a history of more than 2111 years. Up to now, Hunan people still have the habit of eating lobster sauce, such as "Liuyang lobster sauce", which is one of the famous local specialties. Others, such as bitter gourd and bitter buckwheat, are also favorite foods of Hunan people. The bitterness of Hunan customs not only has its historical origin, but also has its local characteristics. Hunan is located in the subtropical zone, with a long summer heat. Traditional Chinese medicine explains the meaning of summer heat: weather dominates heat, local gas dominates humidity, and humid heat is steamed, which is called summer heat; When people are in the midst of qi communication, they feel sick, which is summer sickness. And "bitterness can purge fire", "bitterness can dry dampness" and "bitterness can strengthen the stomach". Therefore, people eat some bitter food properly, which is helpful for clearing heat, removing dampness and regulating stomach, and is of great benefit to health care. Looking at the topography of Hunan, the northern part of Hunan is mostly a lake area, the southern part of Hunan is mostly a mountainous area, and the central part of Hunan is a typical hilly area. This geographical difference leads to the diversity of dietary customs in various parts of Hunan. We divide it into three wind-eating areas, namely, Xiangxi wind-eating area, central and southern Hunan wind-eating area and northern Hunan wind-eating area.

the taste characteristics of Hunan cuisine

"When the spicy taste is strong, it will beat countless people." After the pepper seeds were widely spread in southwest, northwest and southeast regions, they began to formally settle in this fertile and humid land of Hunan, and immediately took root, blossomed, borne fruit, multiplied and expanded here, winning the love of the people in this land. As a kind of foreign goods from the west, pepper has not only been rejected in Hunan, or has been left out by crops such as onions and peppers, but has been given special courtesy and sparked with passion. The reasons can be analyzed as follows:

The first layer is the reasons of geography and climate. It is said that at the same latitude in the world, there is a "spicy belt", which runs from South America to East Asia, Southeast Europe and North Africa through the Pacific Islands, and Hunan is on a dot of this "spicy belt". Because Hunan is located in the transition zone between Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the southwest and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the northeast, and it is in the place where the warm and humid airflow in the Bay of Bengal competes with the warm and humid airflow in the Pacific Ocean, the annual precipitation is as much as 1,311-1,811 mm, and there are many rivers and lakes, and the water network is continuous and vertical. The underwater flood discharge water of Hunan, Guizhou, Yuan and Li is supported by the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake to form waterlogging, or there is no rain for a long time, or it is a disaster, and the temperature difference is large. Jia Yi, a teacher in Changsha, said: "Changsha is a lowly and humid place, which is not conducive to longevity." In this land, on the one hand, it is suitable for the growth and reproduction of subtropical plants, and the yield and quality of pepper are very considerable; On the other hand, the advantages of pepper in removing cold, dampness and depression are displayed here, like a hero's place. Pepper is especially suitable for eating in Hunan. Generally speaking, people from other provinces can accept the spicy flavor and taste of Hunan cuisine for more than half a month without obvious adverse reactions. Some people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong and even Northeast China who have worked in Hunan for many years have the same degree of passion as local Hunan people. Mr. Zhang Qijun, a philosopher in Taiwan Province, also talked about this point in the Principles of Cooking, saying that he didn't eat Chili at first: "Don't say that you don't eat Chili, put a little Chili in your dish, and you won't dare to eat the whole dish. With the rise of the Anti-Japanese War, when I arrived in Hunan, I saw that the dishes cooked by Hunan people's peppers were delicious. Taste it, the braver you taste, and in less than half a year, you can eat Chili like Hunan people. " On the other hand, when Hunan people leave Hunan, such as going to Beijing or going south to Guangdong, Hainan and Shenzhen, their appetite for spicy food is greatly reduced, their ability to resist spicy food is gradually degraded, and even abnormal reactions such as cleft lip and sores appear due to spicy food. This proves the distinct and strong regional characteristics of spicy food from both positive and negative aspects.

the second layer is the reason of economy and circulation. Hunan landform is composed of "seven mountains, two waters and one field", which is remote, barren and far from the southeast coast. The disadvantages of topography, location and transportation make the ancient Hunan economy relatively closed and backward, and it is on the edge of politics, economy and culture. Shun Di's southern tour collapsed in the wilderness of Cangwu (now Yongzhou City), which is the boundary of the sphere of influence of the Central Plains. Yelang country (now Huaihua area in western Hunan) is the place where prisoners are sent to exile. Li Baiyou, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said: "I am worried about the bright moon, and I will follow you until Yelangxi." Today, the ancient Furong Building in Qianyang, Hunan Province commemorates this famous "western poet" at that time.

Up to now, these areas are still economically underdeveloped, and they are concentrated in the main poverty-stricken counties and districts in Hunan Province. Inconvenient transportation causes poor circulation, and sea salt has always been expensive here. Even in the eventful years of modern Jinggangshan revolutionary struggle, salt is still very rare in Hunan and Jiangxi mountainous areas, and pepper has the function of stimulating taste and disinfection, which just happens to be a substitute for salt. Second, it is difficult for seasonal vegetables outside the province to enter the local area. Rural people's purchasing power is low, pepper tastes delicious and cheap, and it replaces the edible and even medicinal value of salt to some extent, so it is the first choice for "sending rice". From this point of view, a large bowl of cabbage is not worth a spoonful of pepper, which is the oil of the poor, so it has become the most affordable and practical vegetable for farmers. There is a saying that farmers in Baoqing (now Shaoyang City) in central Hunan have a load of Chili peppers to dry the New Year, which shows that their consumption is large. Farmers in Daxu Town, Jiangyong, Yongzhou even eat directly with dried peppers. According to the rural investigation team of Hunan Provincial Bureau of Statistics, in 1999, the planting area of peppers in the province was 1.15 million hectares, with an annual output of more than 311,111 tons. In that year, more than 311,111 tons of off-season peppers were imported from Hainan and other places. Adding the two items together, the per capita consumption of peppers in the province was more than 11 kilograms per year. Today, due to the economic development, the overall degree of spicy food in the whole province is declining, and the obvious difference between developed cities and remote rural residents continues to prove the relationship between the consumption of pepper, especially the degree of spicy food, and the local economy.

the third layer is the spiritual and cultural reasons. "My Hunan changes, then China changes; If I live in Hunan, then China will live. " "If China dies, unless Hunan people die." The sense of mission that Hunan people with lofty ideals take the world as their responsibility is extremely prominent in all provinces of China. Two large-scale immigrants in the early Ming and early Qing dynasties had a great influence on Hunan people's character and folk customs. The two major migrations were caused by the war, which led to a sharp drop in population, and a large number of foreigners moved to Hunan. This regrouping of population led to the emergence of new folk customs in Hunan. Therefore, Wu Xinfu and others believe in the General History of Hunan that the pioneering spirit of new immigrants and the integration of Han and Miao ethnic minorities have gradually formed the temperament of resisting perseverance, daring to do things, being patient and hardworking, and being brave and tough, and are often called "mules" and "Man Zi". This humanistic feature is connected with the spiritual essence of pepper, so pepper and "spicy people" hit it off. It is not surprising that Hunan people use the momentum of peppers to express their feelings, express their feelings and strengthen their minds. It is not surprising that they have developed from a general passion for spicy food to a large-scale process of growing and making spicy food.