The taste that Chaozhou cuisine pursues, first of all, is the original flavor, natural flavor and original flavor of the food, which has been said before. However, this does not mean that Chaozhou cuisine does not attach importance to seasoning. The so-called "five flavors" in ancient times include salt, sauce, sugar (meat sauce), plum, honey, pulp, onion, ginger, leek, onion, dried tangerine peel, pepper and mustard seed. Most of them are natural products, and some are man-made products. Almost all these seasonings have been inherited by Chaozhou cuisine, and even the oldest salt and plum used to "mix soup" are still used in conjunction with some Chaozhou cuisine. Later, coriander (coriander) and garlic (garlic) moved from the western regions, pepper and pepper moved from overseas, mustard sauce and local fish sauce, orange oil, plum sauce and Puning bean paste were added, which enriched the seasoning of Chaozhou cuisine more and more.
Although there are many seasonings, the key is to "tune". A clever Chaozhou cuisine chef will never add seasonings according to the weight and proportion stipulated in the recipe, but will consider what to add and how much to add according to multiple factors such as dishes, seasons, serving order and customer tastes. Appropriate restrictions are very strong and random. In other words, seasoning is not only a skill, but also an art. Dealing with the sea every day is easy to form a worship of strength and technology; Adventure life at sea (including production, commerce and naval battle) requires courage, wisdom and extraordinary muscles; The fluidity and relative independence of life at sea make people at sea love freedom, and they can show their independent and uninhibited personality. At the same time, they need to resist natural disasters or foreign invasions with group strength. The beauty of personality advocated by marine civilization seems to be more in line with the essence of human life. [4] Chaozhou cuisine should not only respect individuality, but also maintain its original flavor. Many seafood products are boiled in water, leaving the right to taste to diners. In Chaozhou cuisine, a dish named "boiled" appeared. Such as boiled green dragon, boiled mussel, boiled whitebait, boiled urine shrimp and boiled clam.
Boiled vegetables lie in maintaining their original flavor, which is doomed to be tasteless. Chaozhou cuisine is the seasoning of these boiled vegetables. A clever Chaozhou cuisine chef will never add seasonings according to the weight and proportion specified in the menu. For example, a famous Chaozhou dish, boiled snails, is made by putting snails in boiling water, turning them with iron shells, immediately picking them up, pouring soup, pouring them into a big soup bowl with good taste, mixing well, putting them into a prepared dish (the juice in the bowl is unnecessary), mustard sauce and plum sauce. Some diners eat according to their tastes, which can keep the color white, crisp and delicious. Another example is Chaozhou, which belonged to Bamin in ancient times and didn't like snakes before. In the past ten years, the trend of eating snakes has become more and more fierce, and a different Cantonese way of eating has been deduced: the soup is fresh in order to rinse out the original flavor of snake meat; The sauce is Puning bean sauce. This way of eating can also be seen in Longyan, indicating that Fujian has also been influenced by Chaozhou cuisine.
Corresponding to cooking, Chaozhou cuisine is also named after seasoning, which shows that Chaozhou cuisine attaches importance to seasoning from another angle. Such as beef with sand tea, stewed sheep with south milk, shrimp with black beans and garlic, shrimp with winter vegetables, anchovies with silver thread in winter vegetables, eel with plum sauce, etc. The dishes named after bean paste alone include boiled aconite with bean paste, roasted quail with bean paste, roasted chicken with bean paste, roasted pigeon with bean paste, roasted duck with bean paste, roasted crab with bean paste and steamed meat with bean paste.
2. Artistic terminology
The name of a dish itself comes from poems, allusions, idioms or beautiful legends. A dish (dish) list itself has a high literary appreciation value, and a platter is more reshaped, so it has a greater decorative art nature, such as "proud as a peacock" and "A Hundred Birds in the Phoenix", which are colorful, piled up and carved, luxurious and warm; Flowers, birds, animals and landscapes carved from fruits and vegetables are lifelike and pleasing to the eye; Due to the advantage of material plasticity, dim sum is lifelike in various exquisite and beautiful three-dimensional shapes, which makes diners imagine, feast their eyes and eat a lot, adding a lot of interest ... Chaozhou cuisine makes a good article on the word "fun", the so-called "three-point food, seven-point fun", and appreciates the profoundness of Chaozhou cuisine food culture from the fun.
Chaoshan people's flexible personality characteristics allow chefs to find another way according to the curiosity of customers, put aside the specific content of dishes and find another way. Although this kind of dishes can not directly reflect the characteristics of dishes, elegant names increase the artistic appeal of dishes, which can arouse people's interest, stimulate association and stimulate appetite. Its names include interesting names composed of quatrains, clever names composed of vivid legends, elegant names composed of historical allusions and ordinary names created by humorous jokes. These artistic names all reflect a profound aspect of China's food culture. Most of them are local famous dishes, and their names have long been accepted and recognized by people. Although the number of such dishes is small, they can be well preserved. The reasons are as follows.
3. Virtual and real naming method
This is a naming method to beautify a certain feature of dishes. Its name consists of notional words and function words. It is characterized by the fact that it is false and real, and the raw materials can be known from the name of the dish. At the same time, it is somewhat elegant, so it is highly respected by chefs and gourmets. The name of Chaozhou cuisine also reflects this artistic beauty. Crystal lobster, fried hibiscus oysters, bergamot ribs, chess tofu and Taiji horseshoe are all artistic names.
If further classified, the names of Chaozhou cuisine can be divided into the following categories:
The first is festive, that is, with some auspicious wishes, it is pleasing to the eye.
Thousand-year-old unicorn fish, carp, crossing the dragon gate and longevity are indispensable dishes, especially on holidays and major celebrations. Zhang Huayun said: "Recently, there was a sweet platter with braised sweet potatoes and taro, which called happiness from now on. Just like a national dish, it turns vulgarity into rareness and decadence into magic. The merits of others are also. " Since ancient times, people in our country have loved to say auspicious words, so it is acceptable for everyone to use happy words on festive occasions. [ 10](P 102)
The second category is exaggerated luxury, that is, exaggerated imagination of food, dubbed luxury, in order to improve the level of banquet.
The flower of the Han River, the autumn chrysanthemum in the garden, and the treasures in the bamboo forest. All fall into this category. The table is full of jewels, which is enough to satisfy some people's show-off psychology.
The third category is allusions, that is, the names of dishes contain stories, which are of great significance.
Ethnic food takes sweet potato leaves as the main raw material. There is a legend about its origin. According to legend, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty fled south to a temple in Chaozhou, where he went hungry. The monks wanted to cook a hearty meal for them, but there was nothing delicious in the temple. Finally, I had to pick a handful of tender sweet potato leaves in the back garden and cook them into soup. After eating it, Emperor Song was able to satisfy his hunger and was named as a "national treasure dish". Later, this dish spread to various stores and became a famous dish after being developed by famous teachers. The story derived from this is circulated among the people, which shows the charm of this dish. The name "national food" not only makes Chaozhou cuisine full of cultural sentiment, but also shows the cooking technology of Chaozhou cuisine with a long history.
The fourth category is artistic, that is, using gorgeous words to make the names of dishes poetic.
Jade pillow cabbage, this wonderful and literary association, mostly comes from literati, which can make people have aesthetic association. Among the traditional dishes of Chaozhou cuisine, there is a well-known and deeply loved beet "Tai Chi taro". Its making method is to put hot and sweet Chaozhou taro paste in the soup nest, and put deep black bean paste on one side, which is harmonious, symmetrical, lively and smart, reflecting a kind of harmonious beauty that is both opposite and unified, soft and magnificent, and expressing a kind of wishful, healthy, clear, festive, auspicious and happy wish.
Fourthly, some suggestions on standardizing the naming of dishes.
The name of Chaozhou cuisine is very particular, and there are many dishes that are widely spread, which are both practical and artistic, reflecting the history of Chaoshan food culture, as well as the customs, ways of thinking and values of foreigners, with strong regional cultural characteristics. Make full use of these characteristics to name dishes, which makes people feel genuine and unique, and produces a sense of local culture, natural beauty and credibility.
The psychological strategies and methods of naming dishes are almost the same as those of store names. However, when naming dishes, we should not only be proficient in social psychology, grasp the needs of food consumers, but also be familiar with cooking knowledge, so that the naming of dishes can have a preliminary effect in social perception, enhance appetite and form a good impression on food consumers.
The spread and inheritance of food culture can not be separated from the name of the dish, and the production and operation of food enterprises can not be separated from the name of the dish. The importance of the names of dishes determines that the names of dishes should not be made up at will or arbitrarily, but should conform to the naming rules. Chaoshan's geographical environment has a broad vision, a comfortable and clear mood, and advocates authenticity, which can be regarded as the blending point of "land culture" and "water culture". Chaozhou cuisine is famous for its rich raw materials. It flies in the sky, runs on the ground, grows in the ground and swims in the water. What is allowed to eat is delicious food. The reason first depends on the marine culture of Chaoshan. The unique geographical environment, unique climate and rich product resources have formed the unique regional, historical and cultural styles of Guangdong cuisine, while the Chaozhou cuisine style of "irregular food" and "fresh food" has given greater play to the regional and urban resource advantages of Chaoshan cuisine culture. The connotation of Chaozhou cuisine culture has been injected into a newer, higher, deeper and broader realm. The harmonious development and survival of man and nature is more reflected in all kinds of fresh, simple, natural and delicious dishes. Starting from the concept of returning to nature and living a quiet life, people's aesthetic needs have always been a part of cooking. However, the aesthetics of modern people are changing. The beauty of the past is not necessarily equal to the beauty of today. The beauty here is not necessarily equal to the beauty there. The pace of modern people's life is accelerating, and the requirements for cooking are becoming simpler and simpler. They also demand conciseness and conciseness in the pursuit of culinary beauty, and oppose triviality. Modern aesthetics emphasizes individuality. In an ordinary living environment, people especially appreciate aesthetic objects with individual colors. For the daily diet, those dishes, snacks and dining methods with distinctive personalities are always more popular. Freedom is a higher level of aesthetics, and human eating activities have now gone out of the past fixed mode and pursued a free way. The popularity of buffet style is the concrete embodiment of people's pursuit of food freedom. This is also the product of the times and the characteristics of the times. Therefore, the naming of Chaozhou cuisine should also conform to the change of people's diet concept and promote the intimate and harmonious relationship between man and nature.
The development of Chaozhou cuisine should be tailored to local conditions, maintain localization and highlight local characteristics. At present, many places ignore the characteristics of local cuisine, and it is difficult to grasp the original flavor by pursuing imitation too much, which makes some cuisines taste very bad and loses the original flavor and unique charm of Chaoshan food culture, which is also a direct destruction of Chaoshan food culture resources. Therefore, in order to strengthen the development of Chaozhou cuisine cultural resources, we must attach importance to highlighting the local characteristics of Chaozhou cuisine and jointly create a gourmet brand with strong Chaoshan flavor. For some traditional famous dishes, we should carry forward and innovate constantly; Marine fish dishes, mainly fish varieties, should have Chaoshan style and characteristics The eight scenic spots in Shantou have elegant names, which can actually be used to name Chaozhou cuisine (the best materials are local specialties of the scenic spots), such as "Hongying in the Bay", "Yi Yun in Longtan", "Qi Hao in Lotus Peak" (based on Dahao fish balls), "Yingnan Cuise" and "Yingyuan Yingsheng". The dishes named after the eight scenic spots in Chaoshan have artistic characteristics and publicize the scenery in Chaoshan. Of course, the names of dishes should be realistic, and some dishes in the banquet menu should have proper names. At present, the most widely used art dishes are banquet menus, which add interest, enliven the atmosphere and improve the quality of banquets. For example, the names of dishes on the wedding table are often used with the words "Lian Li, Bing Di, Yuanyang, Lily" to express good wishes to the newlyweds; Most of the dishes on the birthday table are auspicious words such as flat peach, ginkgo, white crane, pine and cypress, which are entrusted with the feelings of looking forward to the happiness of the elderly. When appreciating the names of these dishes, it is easy to confuse people if they are not checked with the names of the dishes. Therefore, when making menus, we should add proper nouns to artistic names in a specific way, so that people can understand them at a glance without losing elegance.
In a word, the naming of Chaozhou cuisine is obviously influenced by Chaoshan culture. The naming of Chaozhou cuisine with its own characteristics always has more or less the unique Chaoshan landscape characteristics and the charm of marine culture and folk culture. This has an important role and positive significance in improving the status of Chaozhou cuisine in the national cuisine and enhancing the collective competitiveness of the market.