Huaiyang cuisine, one of the four major cuisines in China, has attracted countless diners at home and abroad with its unique flavor. Huaiyang cuisine is a typical flavor in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. Yangzhou is the birthplace and center of Huaiyang cuisine.
Huaiyang cuisine can be found in the literature, starting with "Huaihai only has Yangzhou" in Shangshu. From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han and Jin Dynasties, Yangzhou has always been a "cooked food" in history. Sui and Tang Dynasties and Ming and Qing Dynasties were particularly prosperous. Especially after the Grand Canal was dug, Yangzhou became a land and water transportation hub for salt water transportation, material distribution and import and export ports, and once ranked third among the top ten cities in the world with a population of over 600,000. As a result, all directions gathered, sails and walls lined up, merchants gathered, and the economy and culture were highly developed, which was called "Yang Yier" in history. In addition, Yangzhou is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, east longitude 120 degrees, north latitude about 33 degrees, with a suitable climate and rich products. Located in the river network area, the animals and plants are fresh, such as fresh crucian carp, purple crab, green onion, ginger bud and duck eggs mentioned in Su Dongpo's poem "A Little Tour to Yangzhou", and fresh bamboo shoots, shad, "crabs wrapped in bamboo baskets, shrimps packed in bamboo cages and fish pierced with wicker" described in Zheng Banqiao's poems abound; Seafood producing areas are also close at hand. These constitute the strength of distinctive cooking materials. With its geographical advantages of distribution and concentration, it can extract the essence of Wu Chu's cooking skills and concentrated food culture. It not only exercises exquisite cooking skills such as knife and fire skills that amaze the world, but also brews the flavor characteristics of "fresh and peaceful, rich and pure, moderate in saltiness and sweetness, suitable for both north and south" that can adapt to all directions. As a result, there are many delicious foods, full of beautiful scenery, full of praise for poems and songs, and it is even more difficult to enumerate celebrity poems. The "Manchu-Han Banquet", once known as "Southeast Cuisine", 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 profound food culture is unparalleled in the world. Therefore, it has already established its position as the main flavor food in China.
The fabric of kitchen knives in "Yangzhou Three Knives" in Huai River has spread to five continents. In the west, many people know "stewed lion's head" and "Yangzhou fried rice", and the other side of the ocean calls from time to time to order food and name famous dishes, such as "Si Wen Tofu". At sea, Huaiyang cuisine is widely distributed all over the country and has become the object of people's pursuit. For example, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the Great Hall of the People and Beijing Hotel in Beijing, Huaiyang cuisine has always been one of the main flavors. All these are closely related to the artistic and scientific connotations accumulated in the long historical optimization of Huaiyang cuisine. 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. Nowadays, Huaiyang cuisine is a famous chef and a master like Lin. They not only inherit and carry forward the fine traditions, but also know that innovation is the soul of development and the driving force of prosperity. They constantly explore and innovate, and innovative dishes emerge one after another. Later, innovative banquets such as the Red Mansion Banquet, Manchu-Han Banquet, Banqiao Banquet and Meilan Banquet appeared, which aroused widespread interest at home and abroad. Huaiyang cuisine is steadily reaching a new height.
China's cooking is culture, science and art, and Huaiyang cuisine is one of its great crystallization, which is also a significant embodiment of the essential characteristics of China's cooking "taking taste as the core and taking nourishment as the purpose".
Looking back at China's long cooking history, apart from Shandong, Sichuan and Guangdong, the ancient cuisine is the only Huaiyang cuisine named after cities and regions below the provincial level, also known as Weiyang cuisine.
China was divided into Kyushu and Yangzhou in ancient times. It is only common with Wei, so the ancients loved 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 survival, 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 cooking history.
As early as about 4000 years ago, the ancestors of Yangzhou had already got rid of the ignorance of eating animals and drinking blood, and surpassed the primitive budding era of Fuxi burning meat and Shennong burning valley, and cooked food on the fire with ceramic cookers! The pottery age can be regarded as the formation period of Yangzhou cooking.
Yangzhou entered the ancient Han Dynasty, that is, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains. Bronze Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding recorded in Shangshu: "Huai Yi Gong Yu" appeared in Xia Dynasty, which seems to be the original document record of Huaiyang cuisine; "Local Records of Li Zhouzhi" records that "Yangzhou is in the southeast" ... its valley is suitable for rice ",which shows that Yangzhou is a natural land of fish and rice. These are enough to prove that Yangzhou cooking about 3000 years ago has entered the bronze culture era.
In 468 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, destroyed the ancient Han kingdom, dug Han ditch and built Seoul, which was of epoch-making value not only to Yangzhou urban construction, but also to Yangzhou cooking. The record of "Wu Wang Guan Hu" used as a wine paddle and the "hard seal" unearthed in Jinba, northwest of the city show that Fucha 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.
The battle between the seven heroes in the Warring States period led to the return of Yangzhou cuisine to Chu, and Yangzhou cuisine strode to the realm of civilization, winning the title of "Huaiyang cuisine in East Chu".
After Qin Dynasty, Yangzhou realized the transformation from natural division to administrative division. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, the king of Wu, established Guangling as the capital of southeast China, hence the name "Huaizuo Du Ming". Because of the benefit of cooking salt and casting copper, it is rich in financial resources, elegant scholars and generous countries. Bao Zhao's "Wu Cheng Fu" says: "In the past, when flowers bloomed, cars hung on their shoulders, people rode on their shoulders, and songs fluttered!" Yangzhou people are rich and have bulging pockets. Naturally, I am not hungry, and then I am full and eat well. The bronze ding unearthed from Han tombs in the suburbs of Yangzhou, as well as lacquered utensils such as bowls, plates, pots and spoons, are all very exquisite, which not only tells us that the development and research of tableware in Yangzhou is in a leading position in the country and has its own personality; But also reflects the diet of Yangzhou people at that time.
The lyricist Mei Cheng wrote Seven Immortals, among which Diet and Picnic Banquet came second. The recipes he described at the Yangzhou banquet at that time were based on various cooking methods such as frying, boiling, roasting and stewing. And take the five flavors as the standard. They are made of rotten bear's paw with sauce, thin roasted animal loin, fresh shredded carp and fresh vegetables, and they gargle luxuriously with topaz, perilla and orchids. Therefore, Seven Hairs is not so much a satirical theory as the first one. The rotary stone mill unearthed in Fenghuang River in Yangzhou indicates that wheat flour can be processed in the Han Dynasty, outlines the main staple food structure of Yangzhou, and reveals the long history of Yangzhou's exquisite pastry raw materials. "Yangzhou has a luxury since ancient times, and smoke and the moon are everywhere." Although the restaurants in the Eastern Han Dynasty were small in scale, the swaying "wine" shops and the famous flag dish "sashimi" clearly told people that the curtain of the development of Huaiyang cuisine has been opened! Therefore, Xie Jinxuan, who was later 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 cooking achieved a second-to-none leap in the world! Thanks to one person-Emperor Yang Di. The ancient canal connects the five major water systems of the sea, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River and the Guizhou River, and immediately promotes Yangzhou to the position of the national hub for the exchange of cooking talents, skills and raw materials. Beans, wheat and miscellaneous grains in the north go south, and grain, tea, fruit, salt and aquatic products in the south go north, all of which will enter Yangcheng. On the other hand, Yang Di was lucky in Jiangdu. He brought Central Plains cuisine from Chang 'an and Luoyang to Yangcheng Sui Palace with the dragon boat, and then spread it to folk restaurants. What's more, in the place where the sail wall suddenly passes, "a hundred sheep are cooked for wine at night", and the prefectures and counties pay tribute to delicacies, and the chefs deliberately fight. It is reported that the food paid at that time was fish, crab and honey ginger; In history, local officials gave a banquet to present treasures, and Zhao Yuankai was favored by his peculiar smell, so he was promoted to Jiangdu County Chief. To what extent are dragon boat banquets and labyrinth banquets luxurious? From the 53 famous dishes recorded in the Book of Songs in the Sui Dynasty, we can get a glimpse of the information. As a result, Yangzhou chefs have experienced wind and rain, seen the world and absorbed the essence, and their overall skill level has been upgraded from the "quasi-advanced" of the Han Dynasty governors to the highest "emperor level" of the Sui Dynasty. According to Gu Tao's Qing Louis in the Five Dynasties, they created famous dishes such as "Golden Dragon, Phoenix and Crab". The cooking industry in Yangzhou prospered because Emperor Yang Di lived in Yangzhou, but the wine glasses did not decline because Emperor Yang Di was buried in Yangzhou.
Yangzhou, located in the throat of the Maritime Silk Road north to Beijing, developed into the southeast economic center in the Tang Dynasty. The bright moon is very important in the world, and Yangzhou accounts for two points! "Every businessman meets his wife at sunset, and the spring breeze and wine of a city merge." Yangzhou's food market is stimulated to be hot and its cooking skills are superb. Citizens and foreign businessmen are "extremely rich, riding cranes to Yangzhou". Why? Li Bai said in his poem, "Jade bottles sell wine every other cup." The excavation of marine fish fossils in Yangzhou in Tang Dynasty shows that cooking materials have changed from livestock, poultry, seafood and wild vegetables to seafood! Drinking tea has also become the favorite of Yangzhou people. In the Tang Dynasty, the notebook novel "You Xian Lu in Yucheng" once described Guangling drying tea, "selling a cup of tea to the city every denier". Yangzhou's delicious food attracted great attention from the royal family and became a first-class tribute. When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei appeased An Lushan, they gave gifts to the palace, including Yangzhou's "flat-mouthed golden spoon". All these factors make Huaiyang cuisine develop to a new peak.
As a "system", Huaiyang cuisine was basically formed in the Tang Dynasty.
In the spring of Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, a great literary master, brought the gospel to Yangzhou cuisine. This drunkard often holds banquets with guests in Pingshan Hall. His articles are too defensive and full of words. From then on, Su Li also knew about Yangzhou, and made fish-belly and chicken-head together with four scholars, which created a precedent of injecting fresh blood into Huaiyang cuisine, and the elegant and handsome literati style of Huaiyang cuisine rose from then on, lasting forever. The collision between North and South cuisines finally broke out again in Yangzhou. In AD 1 125, Song Huizong fled to Yangzhou City in panic when the Jin people invaded, and hundreds of sheep were cooked by spring lanterns in the small town to eat and drink; A year later, Qin Hui was exiled, and Emperor Gaozong and 40,000 members of his country's royal family also fled to Yangzhou City. "Walking in" is not empty talk, but also wants to eat and drink! Although Yangzhou was plundered, it is also a fact that the catering industry developed abnormally under the background of national subjugation.
From then on, the court favored Yang, and Yangzhou became the crossroads of the Song and Jin regimes. There is confrontation and docking between north and south food cultures. Yangzhou, a city full of delicious food and wine, set up the "Koryo Pavilion" and set up nine dishes according to the system of the imperial banquet in Lin 'an.
The emperor's journey is undoubtedly equivalent to holding a national cooking skill competition and a great exchange of food culture in Yangzhou, which is naturally conducive to the formation and development of Huaiyang cuisine.
During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in the prosperous period of Kanggan, Huaiyang cuisine entered the second climax.
The Yuan Dynasty listed Yangzhou as the grain supply base of the imperial palace. In the 16th year of Yuan Dynasty, the Eagle House in Yangzhou captured the Red Mansion in Lu Hua, and was responsible for fishing and hunting in the wild places of lakes and mountains for dining in the inner room.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a special liking for Huaiyang cuisine, and ordered Chu Yang to specialize in internal meals. Judy, the prince of Yan who set out from Yangzhou, moved to Beijing after taking power, and many young chefs went north with the palace. This is the official record that Huaiyang cuisine took root in Beijing. Emperor Zhengde's southern tour of Yangzhou, the prince and the geisha, of course, did not forget Huaiyang cuisine, and everything could not be left behind. Their favorite foods are shad, saury and squid, which are all specialties in Yangzhou area and are called the Three Immortals of the Yangtze River. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Records of Yangzhou recorded: "Yangzhou's diet was extravagant, its system was exquisite, its products were common, and it boasted of its river surface ..." It showed that Yangzhou's diet at that time was ostentatious, exquisite and rich, and it was already proud of Jiangnan.
In the Qing Dynasty, Huaibei was a prosperous and prosperous town, and the pivotal position of salt transportation made Yangzhou sit on the throne of the southeast catering center, which led to the emergence of "the most luxurious banquet in the north of the Yangtze River" (official record of Kangxi Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty). One of the most important factors is the emperor's favor. Huaiyang cuisine has greatly increased its influence in the imperial dining hall of the Forbidden City. Besides fruits and seasonings, 65,438+0,052 game such as wild geese, pheasants and quails are needed. During the reign of Qing Qianlong, Baoying donated about 1.28 thousand Jin of lotus root starch every year, in addition to Qin Youdong sugar, Jieshou dry tea and other local products. According to "Palace Diet", there are more than 100 kinds of dishes that the Qing emperor likes to eat, including more than 60 kinds of Huaiyang-style dishes such as braised lion's head and stir-fried shrimp. A typical example is Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions. He is a salt supervisor in Yangzhou and contributes southern flavor to Emperor Kangxi every year.
Kangxi, Qianlong's southern tour and Huaiyang cuisine are even more grand. According to the record of Yangzhou boathouse, "before and after going to the street, there are big kitchens in the hall to prevent the boss from having a hundred lawsuits for drinking."
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 of Huaiyang cuisine, which is also a great guarantee for the growth of Huaiyang cuisine. Xu's "A Brief Introduction to Yangzhou" said: "Yangzhou aborigines mostly make a living from salt affairs, are used to glitz and are good at cooking, so Yangzhou banquets are famous all over the world, and snacks are extremely fine, especially soup packets and 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 lot of classic dishes were poured on the dining table, such as bayonet fish, saddle bridge, sunflower balls, soup packets, three sets of ducks and boiled dried silk. Li Dou recorded: "Cooking experts are the best. For example, Wu Yishan fried tofu, Tianmen fried chicken, Jiang Shi pig's head, Wang Nanxi mixed sturgeon, Shi Pangzi fried shredded pork pear, Zhang Sihuizi whole lamb, Wang Yinshan boneless fish, Wang Wenmi's clam cake, Guan Da bone hole soup, fish confused, hole crab noodles, monk tofu, Xiaoshan monk saddle. The mass market of Yangzhou catering industry has been further developed. There are more than 50 famous shops with surnames recorded in Yangzhou Painting Boat Record. On the Slender West Lake, Sha Fei is painted, and the boatswain cooks to help you enjoy yourself. This shows that in the Qing Dynasty, the layout of Yangzhou catering market tends to be reasonable, the management tends to be flexible and the service tends to be thoughtful.
The intervention 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 200 poems about food history, material selection, 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 since the reform and opening up for more than 20 years, the stories of spring have been sung everywhere in Yangzhou cuisine. Contemporary Huaiyang cuisine, symbolized by A Dream of Red Mansions, 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, Yangzhou, an oriental paradise since ancient times, still has rich food wealth left by predecessors. According to the statistics of catering enterprises with a certain scale in the early days of liberation, there are 22 teahouses such as Fuchun, 78 restaurants such as Tianfengyuan and about 250 snack bars such as Deyuexiang in Yangzhou. After the establishment of the catering company, efforts were made to tap traditional skills, restore and increase the fine points of famous dishes, and increase Muslim vegetarian dishes; 1984 set up the city cooking association and opened a green channel for the scientific and theoretical research of Huaiyang cuisine. Immediately, the door of foreign exchange was opened, and the banner of Huaiyang cuisine was flying high in the United States, France, Japan, Australia, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiyuan and Shenzhen, which also created a large number of cooking technical talents, including senior chef, pastry chefs, service engineers and famous artists. By 1987, the number of employees in Yangzhou catering industry has reached 1 10,000, and there are 7 1 family in urban catering outlets.
Jiu Yan Di Yi Yan
China First Man-Han Banquet
Man-Han banquet has always been regarded as a classic banquet in China. Man-Han banquet appeared in the prosperous period of Kanggan in Qing Dynasty. Emperor Kangxi left Yangzhou for his southern tour, and then set up a Manchu-Chinese banquet. Emperor Qianlong visited the south of the Yangtze River six times, and Yangzhou officials and gentry took over the driving, still bearing full seats along the way. Since then, the Manchu-Han banquet has gained great fame, and it has been followed by various places, and it has been listed as the reception of six imperial envoys and hundreds of officials. Its scale and style originated from the Manchu-Han banquet in Yangzhou. On the basis of Kanggan Man-Han Banquet, Yangzhou Man-Han Banquet is the first Man-Han Banquet in China.
Yangzhou Manchu-Han Banquet has a food culture compatible with North and South. The banquet has the characteristics of nomadic people in the north. It is good at barbecue, mainly beef and mutton, and its style is simple. The Han banquet takes Huaiyang flavor as the main axis, integrates the essence of Jiangnan flavor, and focuses on fresh river, fresh river and seafood, with diverse techniques, elegant style, fresh and colorful. Manchu-Han banquet is a masterpiece of cooking in raw material selection, cooking methods, technology, dish design, vessel selection and cooking procedures. There are many records of Man-Han Banquet and Man-Han Banquet in the Records of Yangzhou Painted Boat, Diaoding Collection, Suiyuan Food List and Yangzhou Zhi Zhu Ci, which confirm each other from different angles and provide more detailed historical materials.
In order to make Yangzhou Manchu-Han banquet go from history to the present, experts and scholars in Yangzhou cuisine have spared no effort. From the luxury of history to the exquisite dishes now, there is a choice and development that comes from tradition and can be higher than tradition. No longer use some rare raw materials that are contrary to animal protection regulations, and the design of dishes strives to be appreciated by modern people and conforms to the consumption trend of modern people.
Yangzhou Manchu-Han banquet is gorgeous and luxurious. Experts and scholars in Yangzhou catering industry and Yangzhou guesthouse made an overall design for the Manchu-Han banquet in Yangzhou. The banquet was divided into two groups, each group 108 dishes. In order to give tasters more choices, there are four modes: six banquets in three days, four banquets in two days, two banquets in one day and fine banquets. There are 36 dishes in each banquet, corresponding to 36 days. The dishes of "Man" and "Han" are presented alternately in the banquet, so that diners can appreciate the charm of "Zhonghe" food culture. In the banquet layout, tableware design, art music, vivid sculpture, catering procedures and other aspects to highlight the royal style. The dishes condense the technical attainments of Huaiyang's culinary masters and show the charm of Huaiyang's flavor, which is "the best in the southeast".