Chaozhou cuisine originated in Chaozhou and has a history of thousands of years. According to historical records, Chaozhou cuisine can be traced back to the Han Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Influenced by the cooking skills of the Central Plains, it developed rapidly. When Han Yu was in the tide in the Tang Dynasty, he praised the delicacy of Chaozhou cuisine and said, "... Zhang holds a vest column, so it looks strange." There are dozens of others, which are beyond reproach. " By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Chaozhou cuisine had entered its heyday, and there were many famous shops, famous teachers and famous dishes in Chaozhou. In modern times, due to the exchanges between overseas Chinese with Chaozhou nationality, Chaozhou cuisine has absorbed the essence of famous food at home and abroad, and the dishes are more colorful and the quality is improving. Today, Chaozhou cuisine has developed into one of China's famous dishes with unique Lingnan cultural characteristics.

Chaozhou cuisine, as a part of Chaoshan culture, is also inseparable from the geographical and natural environment, humanistic customs and long-standing traditional history and culture. Let's take these aspects as the starting point and discuss the characteristics of Chaozhou cuisine from five aspects.

1. Being good at cooking seafood

Being good at cooking seafood can be said to be the most prominent feature of Chaoshan cuisine. A wide range of materials is a characteristic of many Chinese cuisines. However, among many cooking materials, Chaozhou cuisine is the only one that is particularly good at cooking seafood. Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood, first of all, because Chaoshan area is rich in seafood. Chaoshan area has a long coastline, from the eastern end to Shangdong Town, Dongjie Town, Raoping County, and bordering Zhao 'an County, Fujian Province. From the west end to Haifeng County, this coastline is winding and winding, * * * more than 311 kilometers long, and this coastline is covered with islands and reefs. The surging sea faced by Chaoshan Plain is an inexhaustible source of abundant seafood. Chaoshan area is rich in seafood. Under the control of the law of human existence of "relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on the sea to eat the sea", Chaoshan has had the habit of eating seafood in a very ancient time. The custom that Chaoshan people like to eat seafood has gradually formed a feature of Chaozhou food culture in the long historical process. When Chaozhou cuisine is formed and developed, this feature naturally becomes a prominent feature of Chaozhou cuisine. Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood, which is reflected in two aspects. The first is seafood dishes, which account for a large proportion in Chaozhou cuisine. Chaozhou Cookbook, edited by Zhu Biaochu, a famous master of modern Chaozhou cuisine, * * * collects 133 traditional Chaozhou dishes, of which 42 are seafood dishes, not including freshwater fish, accounting for 32%. Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood, which is reflected in the second aspect, that is, the cooking skills of Chaozhou cuisine in cooking seafood are diverse and fine. There are more than ten kinds of common cooking methods for Chaozhou cuisine, and most of them can be used by Chaozhou chefs to cook seafood dishes, such as frying, cooking, stir-frying, soaking, frying, stewing, etc. What's more worth mentioning is that Chaozhou chefs can use different cooking methods according to the different characteristics of different seafood when cooking seafood. Seafood is rich in nutrition, delicious in taste, various in variety and open in grade. High-grade seafood dishes can be sold for thousands of yuan, and low-grade seafood dishes can also be sold for more than ten yuan. For these reasons, seafood dishes have become the focus of consumption in the catering industry today, and eating seafood has become a trend in people's diet today. Therefore, Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood and is very suitable for today's dietary trends. Today, any Chaozhou restaurant must have a seafood pool made of glass in front of it, with all kinds of raw seafood, and the words "raw seafood" must be written on its signboard. Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood, which can be said to be one of the important reasons why Chaozhou cuisine is popular with people.

second, the taste is fresh and fresh

, which is the outstanding feature of Chaozhou cuisine in terms of taste. When we say that Chaozhou cuisine is fresh and fresh, we mean that Chaozhou cuisine emphasizes the original taste and highlights the two characteristics of "clear" and "fresh". It can also be said that this characteristic of Chaozhou cuisine is relatively strong compared with other Chinese dishes, such as spicy, sour and sweet. The "clearness" of Chaozhou cuisine is mainly manifested in its light, bright and shiny color; In the aspect of seasoning, control the weight of various condiments, especially irritating condiments, so that the taste of dishes tends to be clear and fragrant; Secondly, in the process of cooking dishes, strictly control the amount of oil used, so as not to make the dishes look too fat. Paying attention to the characteristics of "freshness" mainly emphasizes that cooking materials should be fresh, such as fresh seafood and fresh vegetable materials. The two aspects of Chaozhou cuisine, namely "clearness" and "freshness", complement each other and complement each other. "Freshness" is the basis of "clearness". If all the cooking materials have deteriorated, what is the "lightness" of the cooked dishes? It is precisely because Chaozhou cuisine emphasizes "lightness" that it can better reflect the original taste of fresh raw materials. The reason why Chaozhou cuisine highlights its fresh features is inseparable from the geographical and natural environment and the traditional history and culture of Chaoshan. Chaoshan area is located between the tropics and subtropics, and the annual precipitation is large and concentrated, which makes the in-situ temperature here humid. In order to adapt their bodies to this geographical and natural environment, Chaoshan people pay special attention to their diet, try to keep it light, avoid eating too thick and spicy food, so as not to cause excessive fire, and drink cold water such as bamboo cane, reed root and Hedyotis diffusa all the year round. These important reasons determine that Chaozhou cuisine can only highlight the characteristics of freshness in taste. Chaozhou cuisine is fresh and fresh, which should be said to be a style of Chaozhou cuisine. Chaozhou cuisine, as a part of Chaozhou food culture, is also a part of Chaoshan culture. Therefore, we should explore the origin of Chaozhou cuisine from the perspective of the whole Chaoshan culture. Historically, Chaoshan is located in a water town in the south of the Yangtze River with a beautiful environment, so the culture bred on this land must also have the characteristics of "purity" and "beauty". Zhu Biaochu, a famous doyen of Chaozhou cuisine, believes that the characteristics of Chaozhou cuisine, which are fresh and fresh, also make Chaozhou cuisine more adaptable. Master Zhu's view is very pertinent, because Chaozhou cuisine is fresh and fresh, which makes it possible for anyone, whether you like sour food or spicy food, to taste Chaozhou cuisine and accept it, instead of being too spicy or sour for some people to eat, as some dishes in other cuisines do.

Third, vegetarian dishes have their own characteristics

The vegetarian dishes of Chaozhou cuisine have their own characteristics. Just like Chaozhou cuisine, it is good at cooking seafood. Because of the fertile land and abundant rainfall in Chaoshan alluvial plain, Chaoshan area has been very suitable for growing all kinds of vegetables and fruits since ancient times. The most fundamental experience of Chaozhou cuisine chefs in cooking vegetarian dishes is that "vegetarian dishes are cooked with meat, but you can't see meat when you see vegetables". In the process of cooking vegetables, fruits and vegetables repeatedly for a long time, Chaozhou cuisine chefs deeply realize that the biggest feature of these vegetarian dishes, such as vegetables, fruits, gluten, rotten branches and so on, is that they are light and boring. How to solve this contradiction? The most fundamental way is to add meat-scented soup or old hen, ribs, red meat and other animal raw materials to stew in the cooking process, so that the aroma of vegetables and the aroma of meat can be kneaded into a compound delicious food. This delicious food is rich in sweetness, and it is a perfect combination of vegetarian and meat, which is inexhaustible and memorable. This is called "vegetarian dishes and meat cooking". According to historical records, the well-known Chaozhou vegetarian dish "Protecting the Country" originated in the Southern Song Dynasty. For more than a thousand years, with the continuous improvement of chefs in previous dynasties, this vegetarian dish has now become a rare dish at Chaozhou cuisine banquets. Its biggest improvement is that sweet potato leaves were first cooked with clear water, but now it is replaced with high-quality soup; At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a story that a monk cook cooked "eight treasures vegetarian dishes" with a white towel full of thick broth, thus winning the championship in Kaiyuan Temple cooking competition. It can be seen that Chaozhou cuisine chefs have a long history of cooking Chaozhou vegetarian dishes with the method of "cooking vegetarian dishes without meat". There are many kinds of traditional Chaozhou vegetarian dishes, such as "eight treasures vegetarian dishes", "national protection dishes", "chess piece tofu", "glass cabbage" and "thick mushroom mustard", but none of the cooking methods of Chaozhou vegetarian dishes are separated from "vegetarian dishes are cooked with meat, but vegetables are not cooked with meat", which shows that this cooking rule plays an important role in cooking Chaozhou vegetarian dishes. Being good at cooking seafood and vegetarian dishes have their own characteristics, which are the two most distinctive aspects of Chaozhou cuisine. They are like two dazzling pearls in Chaozhou cuisine art garden, one meat and one vegetable, which complement each other. Chaozhou vegetarian dishes bring the rural scenery of Chaoshan area to the dining table, so that people can enjoy the delicious natural vegetables after tasting the distinctive seafood, which makes the Chaozhou cuisine banquet more Chaoshan-like, so Chaozhou cuisine banquets are generally accompanied by 1-2 vegetarian dishes.

Fourth, the unique congou tea in the banquet room

Congou tea is a tea ceremony culture with local color in Chaoshan area. It has a long history and is rooted in thousands of households. It can almost be said that wherever there are Chaoshan people, people brew congou tea. It has a strong Chaoshan local flavor in terms of equipment, water use, procedures and drinking methods. We can even say that congou tea is a hipster. First of all, from the historical development of Chaoshan culture, Chaozhou cuisine and congou tea are both cultures with Chaoshan local characteristics, and both "drinking" and "eating" belong to Chaoshan food culture. Therefore, in the process of long-term development, these two forms of Chaoshan food culture are close to each other, so as to highlight their local colors and characteristics; Secondly, congou tea plays an extremely important role in Chaoshan people's life. When friends and relatives get together, they should treat each other with congou tea, and the banquet of Chaozhou cuisine is also a social form or a gathering of friends and relatives, so congou tea should also be used. The third and most important point is that the most prominent feature of congou tea is that the amount is small and the tea is thick and mellow. The teacup is only half the size of a ping-pong ball, but it is full of tea fragrance after drinking, so this form of tea ceremony is very suitable for drinking between banquets. When Chaozhou cuisine is served with congou tea, it really adds a lot of color to Chaozhou cuisine, which not only adds the local color of Chaozhou cuisine, but also conforms to people's eating rules. When people finish a rich dish, they drink a small cup of congou tea, which not only relieves the greasy taste, but also removes the odor in the mouth, so that they can better taste the delicious taste of the next dish, thus making people have rhythm and rhythm in the process of eating. In the banquet of Chaozhou cuisine, the procedure of serving congou tea is generally that when the guests are seated, they will serve the first congou tea, which will be interspersed for 2 ~ 3 times in the future, and it is best to serve congou tea after the more greasy dishes, and when the banquet is over, they will serve the last congou tea.