Yangzhou is a world-famous historical and cultural city in China. The green poplar castle, the clear moon, picturesque and poetic, with its profound cultural heritage, attracted the praise and praise of people of all ages.
Huaiyang cuisine, one of the four world-famous cuisines in China, has captivated countless diners at home and abroad with its unique flavor. Huaiyang cuisine is the representative flavor of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Yangtze River) and Huaihe River. Yangzhou is the birthplace and center of Huaiyang cuisine.
Huaiyang cuisine can be found in literature, starting from "Huaihai is only Yangzhou" in Shangshu. From the pre-Qin dynasty to the Han and Jin dynasties, Yangzhou has been a "cooked food list" in history. Sui and Tang dynasties, Ming and Qing dynasties were especially prosperous. Especially after the Grand Canal was dug, Yangzhou became a land and water transportation hub for salt and water transportation, material distribution and import and export ports, and once ranked third among the top ten cities with a population of over 611,111 in the world. As a result, all directions converge, sails and walls stand everywhere, merchants gather together, literature and soil are like clouds, economy and culture are highly developed, and history is known as "Yang Yi Er". In addition, Yangzhou is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River at about 121 degrees east longitude and 33 degrees north latitude, with a suitable climate and abundant products. Located in the area of rivers and water networks, the flora and fauna are fresh, such as fresh crucian carp, purple crab, spring onion, ginger bud and duck eggs mentioned in Su Dongpo's poem "Yangzhou sends a little tour with soil", and fresh bamboo shoots, shad and "crab wrapped in a bamboo basket, shrimp packed in a bamboo cage and fish pierced with wicker" described in Zheng Banqiao's poems are everywhere; Seafood producing areas are also close at hand. These constitute the strength of cooking raw materials with distinctive personality. With its geographical advantages of distribution and focus, it can extract the essence of cooking skills in Wu Chu and condense the essence of's food culture. It not only exercises exquisite cooking techniques such as knife and fire skills that are amazing to the world, but also brews the flavor characteristics of "fresh and peaceful, rich and pure, moderate salty and sweet, suitable for both north and south" that can adapt to all directions. As a result, the delicious food is repeated, the beauty is full of market, the poems and songs are praised endlessly, and the famous people's poems are especially difficult to enumerate. The "Manchu banquet", which was once praised as "the delicious food in the southeast", was also first seen in Yangzhou Painting Boat Record.
It is on the basis of this historical background and economic status that Huaiyang cuisine was born, and its food culture is so profound that it is unparalleled in the world. Therefore, it has long established its position as a major flavor cuisine in China.
Yang Chu, with the kitchen knives in the "Three Knives in Yangzhou", went to five continents. In the west, there are many people who know "stewed lion's head" and "Yangzhou fried rice" From time to time, the other side of the ocean calls to order food, naming famous dishes such as "Wensi Tofu". In the sea, Huaiyang cuisine is widely distributed all over the country and has become the object of people's pursuit. For example, in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the Great Hall of the People and the Beijing Hotel in Beijing, Huaiyang cuisine has always been one of the main flavors. These are closely related to the artistic and scientific connotation of Huaiyang cuisine accumulated in the long historical optimization. From this, it can be understood that it was not an accidental choice to use Huaiyang cuisine in the "first banquet of the founding of the People's Republic of China" at the beginning of the People's Republic of China. Today, Huaiyang cuisine is a famous chef, and its masters are like a forest. They not only inherited and carried forward the fine traditions, but also understood that innovation is the soul of development and the driving force of prosperity. They kept exploring and innovating, and innovative dishes emerged one after another. Innovative banquets such as the banquet in the Red Chamber, the banquet in Manchu and Han Dynasties, the Banqiao Banquet and the Meilan Banquet followed, which aroused widespread interest at home and abroad. Huaiyang cuisine is steadily reaching a new height.
China cooking is culture, science and art. Huaiyang cuisine is one of its great crystallization, and it is also a major embodiment of the essential characteristics of China cooking, which is "taste as the core and cultivation as the purpose".
Looking back at the long history of cooking in China, except for Shandong, Sichuan and Guangdong, the ancient cuisines are the only Huaiyang cuisines with the title of cities and regions below the provincial level, also known as Weiyang cuisines.
China in ancient times is divided into Kyushu and Yangzhou. It is only universal with Wei, so the ancients love to call Yangzhou Weiyang, and Huainan is also one of the nicknames of Yangzhou. Therefore, the dishes under the "Yangzhou Kitchen Knife" have two nicknames: Huaiyang Cuisine or Weiyang Cuisine.
It should be said that a history of Huaiyang cuisine is a history of Yangzhou people's existence, struggle and development. It is also a Yangzhou cultural history! From low to high, from rough to exquisite, from depression to glory, is the basic context of Huaiyang's cooking history.
As early as about 4,111 years ago, the ancestors of Yangzhou had already broken away from the ignorance of eating animals and drinking blood, surpassing the primitive budding times of burning meat on Fuxi fire and burning valley on Shennong stone, and used ceramic cookers to cook cooked food on fire! The pottery age can be regarded as the formative period of Yangzhou cooking.
Yangzhou entered the ancient Han Dynasty, that is, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains. Bronze Ding, Wei (cooking utensils), Ding cook the meat, Wei cooking dishes, as well as Zun, Lu (wine utensils), Zhong (banquet enjoyment utensils) and four chicken dishes (with sacrificial offerings to cattle, sheep and pigs) belonging to this period were unearthed at the broken mountain pass in Yizheng. Records in Shangshu: There were "Huaiyi tribute fish" in the Xia Dynasty, which seems to be the original literature record of Huaiyang cuisine; "Zhou Li Zhi Fang Shi" records that "Yangzhou is in the southeast ... its valley is suitable for rice", which shows that Yangzhou is a natural land of plenty. These are enough to prove that Yangzhou cooking about 3111 years ago has entered the bronze culture era.
in 468 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, destroyed the ancient Han kingdom, dug the Han ditch and built the Han city, which was of epoch-making value not only to Yangzhou urban construction but also to Yangzhou cooking. The record of "King Wu Guan's pot" used as a wine paddle in Zhou Li and the "Tao Ge with hard prints" unearthed from the Golden Dam in the northwest of the city show that Fu Cha introduced a whole set of dietary experience in the late Spring and Autumn Period. This is the first work that foreign food culture has influenced Yangzhou cooking.
After the dispute between the seven heroes in the Warring States Period, Yangzhou cuisine made great strides towards the realm of civilization, and won the title of "Huai Yang flavor in East Chu".
after the Qin dynasty, Yangzhou realized the transformation from natural division to administrative division. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, the king of Wu, built Guangling, the capital of Yangzhou, and became the capital of southeast China, hence the name "Huaizuo Mingdu". Because of the benefit of cooking salt and casting copper, the financial resources are rich, the scholars are elegant and the country is generous. Bao Zhao's "Wu Cheng Fu" says: "When the past was in full bloom, cars hung on their shoulders, people rode on their shoulders, and the songs fluttered to the ground!" Yangzhou people are rich, and their pockets are bulging. Naturally, they are not hungry, and then they are full and eat well. The bronze tripod unearthed from the tombs of Han Dynasty in the suburbs of Yangzhou, as well as lacquered eating utensils such as bowls, plates, pots and spoons, are very elegant, which not only tells us that the development and research of tableware in Yangzhou is in the leading position in the country and has its own personality; Moreover, it also reflects the exquisite diet of Yangzhou people at that time.
Mei Cheng, a lyricist, wrote "Qi Fa", in which "diet" and "outing banquet" are the second. The recipes he described at the grand banquet in Yangzhou at that time were based on various cooking methods such as frying, boiling, roasting, stewing, etc., and the five flavors were harmonized as the standard. They were made of rotten bear's paw with sauce, thin plates of roasted animal's loin, fresh carp meat filaments and fresh vegetables, and luxuriously gargled with topaz, perilla and orchids. Therefore, "Seven Hair" is not so much a satirical theory as the first one. The rotary stone mill of the Han Dynasty was unearthed in Fenghuang River, Yangzhou, which indicates that wheat flour can be processed in the Han Dynasty, outlines the staple food structure of Yangzhou, which is mainly rice with pasta, and reveals the long history of Yangzhou's exquisite pastry raw materials. "Luxury has been said in Yangzhou since ancient times, and the smoke and the moon are everywhere." Although the restaurant in the Eastern Han Dynasty is small in scale, the swaying "wine" shop and the famous flag dish "raw fish" clearly tell people that the curtain of the development of Huaiyang cuisine has opened! Therefore, it was only after that that Jin Xie Xuan, who was appointed as Guangling's photo in Yangzhou, personally made fish sticks and sent them to Henan to honor his wife.
in the sui dynasty, Yangzhou cuisine made a leap forward that was second to none in the world at that time! Thanks to one person-Emperor Yangdi. The ancient canal connects the five water systems of the sea, the Yellow River, the Huai River and the Qian River, and immediately promotes Yangzhou to the position of the national hub for the exchange of cooking talents, skills and raw materials. The beans, wheat and miscellaneous grains in the north go south, and the grain, tea, fruit, salt and aquatic products in the south go north, all of which will be stationed in Yangcheng. Emperor Yangdi, on the other hand, was fortunate in Jiangdu, bringing Central Plains cuisines from Chang 'an and Luoyang into Yangcheng Sui Palace along with the dragon boat, and then spreading them to folk restaurants. What's more, at the place where the sail wall suddenly passes, "cook a hundred sheep at night for wine", and the state and county pay tribute to delicacies, and the chef deliberately fights. It is reported that the food that was paid at that time was fish, crab and honey ginger; The history of local officials gave a banquet to present treasures, and Zhao Yuankai was favored because of his peculiar smell, thus being promoted to Jiangdu County. To what extent are the dragon boat banquets and labyrinth banquets luxurious? From 53 famous dishes such as "Wuwei Wuyang Stewed in Beiqi" recorded in Shi Jing of Sui Dynasty, we can get a glimpse of the information inside. As a result, Yangzhou chefs have weathered the storm, seen the world, absorbed the essence, and the overall skill level has been upgraded from the "quasi-advanced" of the Han Dynasty princes to the highest "emperor level" of the Sui Dynasty. As recorded in the Five Dynasties Taogu's "Qing Yi Lu", they have created famous dishes such as "Golden Dragon, Phoenix and Crab". Yangzhou cooking industry flourished because Emperor Yangdi lived in Yangzhou, but the wine glasses did not decline because Emperor Yangdi was buried in Yangzhou.
Yangzhou, located at the throat of going north to Beijing on the Maritime Silk Road, developed into the southeast economic center in the Tang Dynasty. It's very important to have a three-point bright moon in the world, and Yangzhou accounts for two points! "Every merchant meets his wife at sunset, and the spring breeze and wine in one city merge." Yangzhou's food market has been stimulated to be hot, and its cooking skills are superb. Citizens and foreign businessmen are "rich, riding cranes to Yangzhou". Why? Li Bai's poem says, "Jade bottles sell fine wine, and there is a cup between them." The excavation of Yangzhou marine fish fossils in the Tang Dynasty demonstrates that cooking materials have advanced from livestock, poultry, river fresh and wild vegetables to seafood! Drinking tea has also become a favorite of Yangzhou people. The Tang Dynasty's note novel "The Record of Immortals in Yucheng" once described the Guangling tea-basking, which "sells a cup of tea to the market every denier". Yangzhou's delicious food attracted great attention of the royal family and became a first-class tribute. When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei appeased An Lushan and gave gifts to the palace, among them was Yangzhou's "golden spoon with a flat nose". All these factors make Huaiyang cuisine develop to a new peak.
Huaiyang cuisine, as a "system", was basically formed in the Tang Dynasty.
In the spring of the eighth year of Song Qingli, Ouyang Xiu, a great literary master, brought good news to Yangzhou cuisine. This drunkard often held banquets in Pingshantang with his guests, and his articles were too defensive, and he was full of words. Since then, Su Li has also known Yangzhou, and she has been cooking fish bellies and chicken heads with four scholars flying snow, which has created a precedent for injecting fresh blood into Huaiyang cuisine, and the elegant and handsome literati style of Huaiyang cuisine has since emerged, and it has been enduring for years. The collision of north-south styles of cuisines finally broke out again in Yangzhou. In 1125 AD, when the Jin people invaded, Song Huizong fled to Yangzhou City in a panic, and the small city cooked hundreds of sheep with spring lanterns to eat and drink. After a year, Hui Qin was taken into exile, and Emperor Gaozong and 41,111 members of his country's royal family also fled into Yangzhou City. "Walking in" the jade stewed with gold is not empty talk, but also wants to eat and drink! Although Yangzhou was plundered, it is also true that the catering industry was abnormally promoted under the background of national subjugation.
Since then, the imperial court has been far from Yang, and Yangzhou has become the crossroads of the Song and Jin regimes. There is confrontation and docking between the north and south food cultures. Yangzhou, a city with prosperous food and wine, set up a "Koryo Pavilion" and hosted nine dishes according to the imperial court's system of hosting a banquet in Lin 'an.
The emperor's visit is undoubtedly equivalent to holding a nationwide cooking skill competition and a great exchange of food culture in Yangzhou, which is naturally beneficial to the formation and development of Huaiyang cuisine.
during the yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, especially in the prosperous period of Kangxi and Qianlong, Huaiyang cuisine entered the second climax.
the yuan dynasty listed Yangzhou as the food supply base of the imperial palace. In the 16th year of Yuan Dynasty, Yangzhou Eagle House captured Lu Hua Red Mansion, and was responsible for fishing and hunting in the lake and mountain fields for meals in the inner room.
Zhu Yuanzhang has a special liking for Huaiyang cuisine, and he ordered the chef to specialize in internal meals. After Zhu Di, the prince of Yan who started from Yangzhou, seized power and ascended the throne, he moved to Beijing, and many young chefs went north with the palace, which is the official record of Huaiyang cuisine taking root in Beijing. Emperor Zhengde's southern tour of Yangzhou and prince and the showgirl, of course, did not forget Huaiyang delicacies, and every one of them could not be left behind. Their favorite foods are shad, swordfish and squid, which are the specialties of Yangzhou area, and they are called the Yangtze River Sanxian. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Records of Yangzhou recorded: "Yangzhou's diet was extravagant, the system was exquisite, the market was full of products, and it boasted the appearance of the river ..." It shows that the ostentation, exquisiteness and richness of Yangzhou's diet at that time had already taken pride in Jiangnan.
by the Qing dynasty, Huaibei was a prosperous and wealthy town, and the pivotal position of salt transportation made Yangzhou the top food center in the southeast, which led to "the feast was the most precious and wrong in the north of Shejiang River" (Records of Yangzhou Prefecture by Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty). A major factor of "being the most important" is the emperor's favor. Huaiyang cuisine has increased its influence on the imperial dining hall in the Forbidden City. In addition to fruits and seasonings, there are still 1152 wild animals such as wild geese, pheasants and quails. During the Qing Qianlong period, Baoying donated about 128,111 kilograms of lotus root starch every year, in addition to local products such as Qin You Dong Tang and Jieshou Dried Tea. According to Eating in the Palace, there are more than 1,111 kinds of dishes that the Qing emperor likes to eat, among which there are more than 61 kinds of Huaiyang flavor dishes such as braised lion's head and stir-fried shrimp. A typical example is that Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, is a salt inspector in Yangzhou and contributes southern flavor to Kangxi emperor every year. The so-called "fish and shrimp are often full of water, and the lake is full of lotus seeds, regardless of money."
Kangxi and Qianlong toured the south, and Huaiyang cuisine was even more grand. According to the Record of Yangzhou Painting Boat, "Before and after Shangmai Street, the temples were all big kitchens for the boss to eat and drink."
Later generations often use the word "expensive" when commenting on Huaiyang cuisine. This should be related to the food consumption of salt merchants and river officials in Huai River, which is also a great guarantee for the growth of Huaiyang cuisine. Xu Qianfang's "A Brief Introduction to Yangzhou Local Customs" said: "Yangzhou aborigines mostly make a living from salt affairs, are accustomed to glitz and are good at dishes, so Yangzhou banquets are famous all over the world, and dim sum is extremely refined, especially soup-wrapped oil cakes." The style of huge scene, elegant environment, strange dishes, strict selection of materials and exquisite utensils formed by the dietary norms of salt merchants and salt officials is basically a replica of the main characteristics of Huaiyang cuisine.
A large number of classic dishes have poured into the dining table, such as Bayonet Fish, Saddle Bridge, sunflower meatballs, soup-filled meat buns, three sets of ducks and shredded pork. Li Dou records: "The expert in cooking is the best. For example, Wu Yishan fried tofu, Tian Yanmen fried chicken, Jiang Zhengtang ten pig heads, Wang Nanxi mixed sturgeon, Shi Pangzi fried pork with shredded pear, Zhang Sihuizi whole lamb, Wang Yinshan boneless fish, Wang Wenmi's clam cake, Guan Dagudong soup, fish confused, Kong Zhian crab noodles, Wensi monk tofu, and Xiaoshan monk saddle. The popular market of Yangzhou catering industry has been further developed. There are more than 51 famous restaurants with surnames recorded in the Record of Yangzhou Painted Boat. On the Slender West Lake, Sha Fei is painted, and boatswain cooks, so as to help you have fun. This shows that by the Qing Dynasty, the layout of Yangzhou catering market tended to be reasonable, the management tended to be flexible and the service tended to be thoughtful.
The involvement of literati was the catalyst for Huaiyang cuisine to reach its peak in the middle of Qing Dynasty. Literature has been involved in Yangzhou cuisine since Han Fu, Tang Poetry and Song Poetry, but especially in Qing Dynasty, at present, we can enjoy at least more than 211 poems about the history of food, picking materials, dishes, banquets, cooking, restaurants, food customs and drinking, which makes Huaiyang cuisine more elegant and greatly improves the cultural taste.
After the founding of New China, especially in the more than 21 years since the reform and opening up, the story of spring has been sung everywhere in Yangzhou cuisine. The contemporary Huaiyang cuisine, marked by the banquet in the Red Mansion, has pushed food culture, food science and food art to a new commanding height with newer, greater momentum, more sophisticated skills and more beautiful pursuit!
to be honest,