Hunan province is located in the south-central region, on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has a warm climate, abundant rainfall, abundant sunshine, four distinct seasons and favorable natural conditions, which is conducive to the development of family, animal husbandry, sideline and fishing. It is a famous land of fish and rice. It was recorded in Historical Records that Chu was "rich in terrain and free from hunger". For a long time, the proverb "the lake is wide and ripe, and the world is enough" has been widely circulated. Southeast Hunan is hilly and basin, and agriculture, animal husbandry and by-products fishing are very developed. Xiangxi is mountainous and rich in bamboo shoots, mushrooms and rare game. Rich products are diet and bamboo shoots, mushrooms and delicacies in the mountainous areas of western Hunan. In the long-term food culture and cooking practice, Hunan people have created a variety of dishes. According to research, as early as the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,111 years ago, various kinds of delicacies could be made in Changsha by steaming, boiling, cooking and other cooking methods. With the development of history and the continuous exchange of cooking techniques, Hunan cuisine with three local flavors, namely Xiangjiang River Basin, Dongting Lake Area and Xiangxi Mountain Area, has gradually formed. It has the following characteristics: first, the knife is exquisite and beautiful in shape and taste. There are as many as sixteen basic knife techniques in Hunan cuisine, and the specific application and evolution make the dishes change in various ways. For example, the "hundred pages of hair" are as thin as silver hair, the "hundred pages of comb" are shaped like comb teeth, the "beef tenderloin" is the same as tissue paper, and there are even innovative dishes such as "chrysanthemum squid" and "goldfish playing with lotus". The knife method is strange and lifelike, and it is ingenious. The cleverness of Hunan cuisine knife work not only focuses on the beauty of shape, but also takes into account the needs of cooking everywhere, so it can be shaped according to taste, with both shape and taste. For example, "Red Stewed Eight Baoji", the whole chicken is peeled, and the water is not leaked. The finished product is not only beautiful and beautiful, but also the meat is fresh, soft and crisp, and it is full of fragrance when eaten. Second, it is good at seasoning and is famous for its sour and spicy taste. Hunan cuisine pays special attention to the taste of raw materials, the prominence of main taste and the precision of connotation. The seasoning process varies with the texture of raw materials, such as "slip" when the flavor is started with a quick fire, "simmer" when the flavor is soaked with a slow fire, "bake" after seasoning, "steam" when cooking while eating, and so on. The taste is carefully tuned. There are many kinds of condiments used, which can cook a variety of dishes with sour, sweet, salty, spicy and bitter tastes. There are also some special condiments in Hunan, such as "Liuyang Douchi" and "Xiangtan Dragon Brand Soy Sauce", which are of high quality and strong flavor, adding a lot of color to Hunan cuisine. The flavor of Hunan cuisine is characterized by "sour and spicy", with acne as the main ingredient and acid in it. "Acid" is the acid of pickled vegetables, which is more mellow and softer than vinegar. Spicy is related to geographical location. Most parts of Hunan are low-lying, with warm and humid climate, which was called "lowly and humid land" in ancient times. Pepper has the effects of heating, appetizing, dehumidifying and expelling wind, so it is deeply loved by Hunan people. Over time, it has formed a regional and distinctive eating custom. Third, the techniques are diverse, especially the simmering. As early as the early Western Han Dynasty, the techniques of Hunan cuisine had many skills, such as soup, roasting, boiling, boiling, waxing, soaking, preserved, and rolling. After a long period of reproduction and change, to modern times, the more exquisite skill is simmering. Stew is divided into red stew and white stew in color change, and it is divided into clear soup stew, thick soup stew and milk soup stew in seasoning, all of which pay attention to slow fire and original flavor. For example, the "Zuan shark's fin" is mellow, and the "Dongting scarab" juice is pure and nourishing, all of which are outstanding in Hunan cuisine. < /SPAN> < /SPAN> Hunan cuisine is a local flavor dish with a long history in China. Hunan is located in central and southern China, with warm climate, abundant rainfall and superior natural conditions. Xiangxi is mountainous, rich in bamboo shoots, mushrooms and delicacies; Southeast Hunan is hilly and basin, with well-developed domestic animal husbandry and by-fishing; Northern Hunan is a famous Dongting Lake plain, which is known as "the land of plenty". In "Historical Records", it was recorded that Chu was "rich in terrain and free from hunger". According to historical records, Hunan cuisine existed before the Han Dynasty. By the Western Han Dynasty, Changsha had been a major city with concentrated politics, economy and culture in feudal dynasty, with rich specialties, developed economy and developed cooking technology. In 1974, many materials related to cooking techniques were found in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha. Among them, there are the earliest bamboo slip menus, which record 113 kinds of precious dishes and nine kinds of cooking methods, such as stewing, stewing, roasting, frying, frying, smoking and waxing. Changsha was also a place where scholars gathered during the Tang point period. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hunan cuisine had a new development and was listed as one of the eight major cuisines in China. Hunan cuisine is mainly composed of three local flavors: Xiangjiang River Basin, Dongting Lake Area and Xiangxi Mountain Area. The dishes in Xiangjiang River Basin are centered on Changsha, Hengyang and Xiangtan. Its characteristics: extensive materials, fine production and various varieties; The taste is fragrant, hot and sour, soft and tender, and it is famous for its methods of stewing, stewing wax, steaming and frying. The dishes in Tongting Lake area are good at cooking fresh river water, poultry and livestock, and they are often cooked by stewing, roasting and waxing, which are characterized by thick oil, salty, spicy and soft. Xiangxi cuisine is good at making delicacies, smoked bacon and various kinds of cured meat, and its taste focuses on Yu Xian, fragrant, sour and spicy. Hunan is located in the subtropical zone, with changeable climate, golden rain in spring, hot summer and cold winter. Therefore, Hunan cuisine pays special attention to seasoning, especially hot and sour, salty, fragrant and fresh. It is hot in summer, and its taste is light and fragrant. Winter is wet and cold, and the taste is heavy, hot and fresh. Hunan cuisine has a unique flavor, and its main famous dishes are "Donganzi Chicken", "Zuan Shark's Fin", "Steamed with Bacon", "Whole Duck with Bread", "Spicy Chicken with Spicy Pepper", "Turtle Sheep Soup", "Jishou Sour Meat", "Wuyuan Fairy Chicken" and "Crystal Sugar Xianglian". Hunan cuisine, also known as Hunan cuisine, is named because Hunan is called "Xiang" for short. Hunan cuisine is world-famous for its unique cultural background and taste style, and it is as famous as Beijing cuisine, Tianjin cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Liaoning cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and Shandong cuisine, and ranks as one of the eight famous cuisines in China. The formation of the characteristics of Hunan cuisine is inseparable from its unique historical, geographical and cultural background.

First, the geographical products and cultural heritage of Hunan cuisine

Hunan is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, mostly south of Dongting Lake, hence the name Hunan. It belongs to the middle subtropical region, with mild climate, four distinct seasons, fertile land and abundant rainfall. The landform features in the territory are surrounded by mountains and hills in the east, south and west, with Xuefeng-Wuling and Mufu-Luoxiao mountains. The hills and hills in the middle are undulating, and the mountains are green, and the seventy-two peaks of Nanyue are winding; There are plain lakes in the north, including the lakeside plain and Dongting Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in China, which is known as the "811-mile Dongting Lake". There are more than 5,111 rivers, most of which flow into Dongting Lake through the four waters of Hunan, Guizhou, Yuan and Li. Hunan belonged to Jingzhou, the world's Kyushu, in the Xia and Shang Dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was a territory of Chu. Since the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, there have been independent Changsha County and Qianzhong County (the Chu State was established in the Warring States period, and the Qin Dynasty was independent, and it was located in Changde today, when it was Linyuan County, and it was changed to Wuling County in the Han Dynasty); It has been changed frequently since then, but it is always an independent geographical administrative division. The ethnic composition in the territory is complex. In addition to the later Han nationality, there are many ethnic minorities called "Miao Man" and "Wuling Man" in ancient times. This unique geographical, historical, ethnic, customs and other cultural factors, * * * isomorphic became the social, historical and cultural background of the formation of Hunan cuisine.

Let's look at the relationship between climate, geography, product conditions and Huxiang drinking culture.

The unique geographical and climatic conditions make Hunan extremely rich in products. Mountain areas are rich in bamboo shoots, mushrooms, ferns and other delicacies and game animals. Rivers and lakes are rich in aquatic products such as fish, shrimp, turtles, snails and mussels, and waterfowl such as wild ducks (here we only talk about products and traditional food culture, which has nothing to do with the protection of wild animals such as wild ducks at present). The plains are rich in edible plants such as rice, sorghum and vegetables.

After two archaeological excavations in p>1993 and 1995, the world's earliest ancient cultivated rice was discovered in the Neolithic site of Yuchanyan, Daoxian County, Yongzhou, Hunan Province. It was determined by mass spectrometry accelerator in Peking University 14C Laboratory and the Anthropology Department of Harvard University in the United States, and it was determined that these rice were about 12,111 to 14,111 years ago. At the same time, in other areas of the Dongting Lake Plain, such as Pengtou Mountain and Chengtou Mountain, a large number of rice were discovered eight thousand years ago and six thousand years ago. These ancient rice remains are widely distributed with different characteristics, showing that they are not linear origins-development, but multi-sources, showing the extensiveness, diversity and rich composition of product resources in Hunan, and also proving that Hunan is one of the birthplaces of rice civilization in the world.

In the Neolithic site of Yuchanyan where ancient cultivated rice was found, a large number of animal and plant fossils were also unearthed. These animal fossils can be roughly divided into mammals, birds, fish, turtles, snails, insects and so on. After identification, the mammals include bears, raccoons, civet cats and deer (deer animals include water deer, sika deer, red deer, muntjac, musk deer, pigs, cows, sheep, bamboo rats, ferrets, porcupines, otters, pig badgers, dog badgers, crab-eating mongooses, spotted civet cats and painted faces). There are 27 species and genera of birds and birds, including geese, ducks, swans, herons, cranes and mandarin ducks, among which there are 18 species of aquatic birds; Fish include carp, grass carp, herring, and snakehead. Today, three of the four major fish are among them. Turtles and turtles include soft-shelled turtles, cryptonecked turtles, etc. There are many species of snails, including 7 species of mussels and more than 26 species of snails, among which 5 species are definitely food for human beings. This shows that Hunan is rich in edible resources, and shows that the ancestors of Huxiang have made full use of these resources.

Animal husbandry and aquaculture in Hunan has a long history and is very developed. The famous traditional livestock breeding livestock and poultry include Wuling Matou Sheep, Wuxueshan Sheep, Liuyang Black Goat, Lianyuan Black Goat, Xiangtan Shaziling Pig, Yizhang Pig, Taoyuan Black Pig, Puyuanping Pig, Qianshaohua Pig, Changsha Dawei Pig, Ningxiang Liushahe Flower Pig (two black pigs), Xupu Longtan Pig, Dongan Pig, Xinhuang Liangumbrella Pig, Suining Dongshan Pig and Luxi Pig.

as far back as the Zhou dynasty, Hunan was famous for "its livestock should be birds and beasts, and its grain should be rice" (Zhou Li zhi Fang Shi). Since the Han Dynasty, this property feature has been generally recognized by historians. For example, the Biography of Historical Records and Huo Zhi records: "Chu rice rice soup fish, fruit clams, do not wait for Jia." "Geography of Hanshu" records: "Jingzhou ... Valley is suitable for rice, and Chu people eat fish and rice, and the fruit is clams, and the food is often enough." Later, it became famous as "the lake is wide and ripe, and the world is full". Hunan rice is not only high in yield, but also good in quality. It has been the origin of Gong Mi since ancient times. It is evident from the rumor that one of Jiangyong's "three flavors" of fragrant rice is cooked. Because of the high quality and delicious taste of agricultural products produced in Hunan, many of them have been tributes since ancient times, such as the famous "Changsha turtle" (Changsha in a broad sense, which is rich in the lake areas of central and northern Hunan, and the historical tributes include "Dongting turtle" and "Jiuli turtle", for example, Hunan Tongzhi said: "The turtle was planted in Yuanjiang, Yuezhou