The reason is that the pedigree of the northern diet mainly revolves around "eating well", while that of the southern diet mainly revolves around "eating well". These are two different levels and two different realms. Therefore, "eating from the south to the north" is an inevitable trend of social development, just like "southern opera moving to the north".
Although in the folk, the North and the South still stick to their respective dietary preferences and traditional habits, hot pot, seafood and cakes that southerners like have entered the hinterland of northern cities and are quietly changing the eating habits of northerners, while noodles, roast duck and steamed bread that northerners like are isolated, marginalized and even withdrawn from the battle of urban food culture.
However, apart from the strong inequality of food culture between the north and the south, both southerners and northerners have their own ideas and unique skills in "being able to eat".
Southerners' dishes are famous for their exquisiteness and delicacy, and they pay special attention to feelings. The biggest feature is that they pay attention to material selection. Perhaps it is because the mountains and rivers in the south are beautiful and colorful, and the aesthetic concepts of southerners are mostly soft and elegant. The dishes in the south are naturally branded with this distinctive regional brand, not only full of color, fragrance and taste, but also the design and color of tableware, the detailed decoration of dishes and, of course, the dining environment, which are particularly exquisite and pleasing to the eye.
This is proved by the fact that most Chinese restaurants in major cities in China are decorated in southern style. As far as cooking methods are concerned, whether it's roasting, stewing, steaming, stewing, broiling, frying and mixing, southerners have a set of complicated and exquisite procedures, pursuing freshness, tenderness, fragrance and smoothness to satisfy various subtle experiences of taste buds.
Northerners' dishes are bright in color and heavy in taste. The biggest feature is that they use local materials and pay attention to cooking. The raw materials for cooking in the north are not as rich and varied as those in the south, but they are all very common things, and chefs in the north can also make distinctive flavors.
For example, the famous roast lamb head in Lanzhou is cooked to half-cooked, then cut in half across the board, coated with sheep oil, and then barbecued in the oven with low fire. The whole process of roasting sheep's head is very complicated, including brushing oil nine times, brushing soy sauce twice, vinegar twice, cumin twice, chili oil three times, spreading fennel powder once, pepper once, sesame once, adding chopped green onion once, coriander once and onion once. In about half an hour, you will have finished.
In cooking, it is difficult for northerners to compete with southerners in materials, knives and colors, but only when they are ready can northerners have the capital and confidence to compete. For example, Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck and Donglaishun Rinse Meat. I am very particular about materials and bakers. Even in the northern folk, there are often amazing "roast squares", such as choosing a whole pork arm with a thin skin and tender meat of more than a foot, hanging it on a shelf with an iron hook, roasting it with charcoal fire, sometimes with strong fire, sometimes with slow fire, and roasting it for several hours until the skin is burnt and the meat is cooked.
On the table, first a plate of crispy skin, then a large piece of white meat, very delicious. A piece of ordinary good pork, as long as it is cooked well and handled properly, becomes a good dish. Compared with southerners, I think northerners make the best use of everything and the concept of making the best use of everything is more worth promoting. After all, the stomach is not an experimental field, and it is impossible to eat everything.
North and south, besides rice, noodles, fish and meat. Cooking habits, tastes and styles are also very different. For example, porridge is millet porridge and rice porridge in the north, with a few dates at most. But southerners put not only vegetables, but also ham and preserved eggs in porridge, and even zongzi are wrapped in sausages and preserved eggs. In addition, southerners like sweet, while northerners like salty. Southerners like to fry dishes separately, while northerners like to cook them in one pot and so on.