Xinyang cuisine: People in southern Henan are "able to eat" and are very particular about food. Most housewives are masters of cooking, and men are good at cooking everywhere. The food is not salty or light, but slightly spicy. Daily cooking is mainly frying and stewing, followed by stewing and boiling. When entertaining guests, there can be steaming, frying, frying, frying, frying, mixing, marinating and so on. Oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, monosodium glutamate, spiced powder, spicy powder and Chili powder are the basic seasonings for cooking. Most of the dishes are cooked food, and raw food often appears in summer and banquets. There is a saying in shopping malls and Xinxian County that "it takes a piece of fat to grow crops", because the mountains are low and the water is low, the water quality is sour and iodine-deficient, and lard is used for cooking, especially in the busy farming season, which is labor-intensive. Vegetable oil is water oil, only used to mix lettuce and stir-fry food. In shopping malls, people also prefer to prepare dishes with waxy lard with strange smell. Smelly canned fish, air-dried smoked mutton, dried duck eggs, stinky tofu rolls, stinky tofu residue, etc. Is considered delicious. Chinese New Year's bacon can be eaten after the 15th day of the next lunar month.
Origin of fish head wine: According to Zhou, an associate researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of Henan Academy of Social Sciences, fish head wine, which is popular all over the country, originated in Xinyang area. Xinyang people pay the most attention to the guests' "good wine and good drink", and there is a saying that "strange wine does not blame food". Several guests will feel dissatisfied if they are not drunk. So they try their best to propose a toast, and more is to order wine. In the old days, literati made elegant orders, but now it is popular in your legend, and the most common thing is to draw fists. In addition, the host has low qualifications and should propose a toast to the guests and elders. In order to make the guests drink more, aim the fish head at the first guest when serving the whole fish. This person must drink fish head wine, and the person referred to by fish tail should accompany him to drink fish tail wine. People who don't eat fish head wine and drink fish head wine don't use chopsticks on fish, and others are not allowed to use chopsticks to eat fish first. Generally, 2-3 cups of fish head wine and 2 cups of fish tail wine 1-2 cups. In recent years, there is a saying that "the first three tails, four backs, five stomachs and six" is intended to persuade guests to drink more. ?
Shopping Mall Diet: In the past, five counties in the south of Guangshan (Shangcheng, Huangchuan, Gushi, Xinxian and Guangshan) were all named after their own social and humanistic characteristics, such as "Eating Home", "Playing Home" and "Speaking Home". Shopping malls are known as "eating at home" because of their exquisite food and exquisite eating. Legend has it that when the British and French allied forces entered Beijing, Cixi arranged two retreats, north and south. Zhou Zupei, a Beijing official who was still a college student at that time, arranged 10 more chefs to wait for South Zhejiang in his hometown in advance. But then Cixi and Xianfeng fled to the Jehol in the north, and these chefs stayed in the shopping mall. At the same time, they brought the way of imperial cuisine and the wind of northern cuisine to the shopping mall, and integrated with the food culture of the shopping mall, forming a unique food custom. Especially cooking fish is the most distinctive. A fresh fish can have more than 50 kinds of changes, such as fish balls, fish cakes and fillets. When the guests arrived, the table in the hall was covered with tablecloths, with ten cold dishes, and red and green paper mats (used to wipe chopsticks, plates and spoons) were placed under the wine glasses and plates. Guests sit on the left and right seats, leaving a gap at the lower left of the seat, which is called "open seat". After a round of drinking, Mr. Xi (the waiter at the dinner party) is holding a hot dish. The dish container is covered with a lid and a menu is stuck on it. After a while, Mr. Xi opened the lid, let the guests look at its color and smell it first, and then the host led the chopsticks to taste it. When serving, the dishes are usually fried three times, and the fourth one must be served with soup, or hung snacks or sweets. The three grades are constantly changing until the guest leaves and the guest leaves. If the guest of honor does not leave, the banquet will last until sunset or midnight. Finally, the dishes on the table are four bowls and two snacks, which guests generally don't eat. The snacks they don't eat are wrapped in paper by Mr. Xi. After the banquet, each guest has a bag, which is called "bag taking". ?
Eating habits in Xinxian County: People in Xinxian County are particular about eating vegetables, and there is no food for three meals a day. And most of them are cooked dishes, with occasional cold salad, which is also very thorough. Before eating, mix all kinds of condiments and seasonings together to make them have good color, fragrance and taste. Hospitality meals are usually full of dishes. Even poor families have to borrow money to entertain their guests. Besides three meals, they have to spend "noon" and "evening", including soup and sweets. ? Many housewives are experts in cooking. They can cook all kinds of good dishes, such as stir-frying, frying, stewing, roasting, stewing and frying. At ordinary times, friends and relatives must treat each other with food and wine, at least eight or nine dishes. In case of weddings, funerals and funerals, a banquet should be held, and a table of rice should be divided into more than 20 to 30 dishes. A grand banquet is called "double lifting seats", that is, every dish is double, which is also called "eating one seat and watching another". There are often as many as 50 dishes. In recent years, the hospitality in cities and towns tends to be "cold dishes" and "hot dishes", that is, all kinds of cold dishes are used first, then served in "hot bowls" (hot pots and all kinds of hot dishes) and eaten after drinking.
In addition to learning new cooking methods, the way of hospitality in rural areas also retains the habit of roasting large pieces of meat and frying fish to show gratitude to hospitality. ? The main traditional dishes for entertaining guests or holidays are: tiger skin (braised pork), steamed pork, stewed chicken, fried fish, soybean oil roll, jiaozi with egg meat, eight-treasure rice, fried meatballs, slippery meat, hotpot mutton, turkey, ribs, meatballs, stewed beef, Chili dog meat, heart-lung soup, salted duck eggs, spinach sesame oil salad and glutinous rice. There are also blood tofu, fish cake, stewed gourd and pumpkin stewed loach in the south. ?
Dietary customs in Xixian County: People in Xixian County usually live a simple life, mainly consisting of rice, noodles, miscellaneous grains and vegetables, and are willing to eat better meals on holidays or when visiting relatives. The people in the south of the county mainly eat rice, the middle is a mixture of rice and flour, and the north is mainly flour and miscellaneous grains. The people of Xixian county are warm and hospitable. As the saying goes, "it is better to have a poor meal than to be poor for a hundred days", that is, they try their best to make tourists rich. Those who have guests or come to reward them at weddings and funerals are often treated as guests. Specially invited chefs buy the required chicken, fish, meat and eggs, vegetable seasonings and ingredients, which are skillfully mixed by the chefs and baked into seats. Regular banquet: First set out eight cold dishes, including four dizzy dishes and four vegetarian dishes, and then serve hot dishes and soup one by one. In the middle of the table in winter, there is a warm pot. The quantity and quantity of rare dishes in hot dishes show the richness of the banquet. Look at the chef's skill by the color, fragrance and taste of the dishes. Hot dishes are accompanied by miscellaneous food (served first, so that guests can satisfy their hunger), braised pork (chicken, fish and belly) slices, braised ileum, braised pork (pork, beef, mutton and chicken), diced Chili chicken, stir-fried blood liver, braised whole fish, braised whole chicken and braised spring rolls in chicken soup (fried with tofu skin and meat foam). According to the needs of different dishes, the ingredients are mushrooms, black fungus, day lily, magnolia slice, ginger, onion, garlic and so on. Soups include salted meat (fish) pill soup, stewed chicken soup, sliced chicken soup, sliced belly soup, mutton (beef) broth, sweet (salted) egg soup, sea cucumber soup, squid soup and tremella soup. Usually, eight cold dishes and ten hot dishes (including soup) are served for weddings and funerals. When serving hot dishes, the last dish must be braised fat. As the saying goes, "big meat comes to the table, but there are not many dishes", so big meat comes to the table and ends with four bowls of soup. If the guests come, there are still eight cold dishes, but the quality can be improved. The number of hot dishes varies from 16-20, and the number must be even. 198 1 year, merchants from five branches in Hong Kong came to discuss business, and Xixian Guest House cooked 60 non-sample dishes at one meal. It's not surprising that you have so much money. In this county, there used to be a kind of "rich and never-ending" banquet, in which countless dishes were served in turn. ?
Food custom in Guangshan: Guangshan people are warm and hospitable. During the Spring Festival, they will invite spring wine or entertain overweight relatives and friends at ordinary times. The banquet was quite rich. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, when there were eight dishes on the dining table, the host would say apologetically, "No dishes, just a few bowls of dried vegetables. Strange wine doesn't blame food, so let's drink more. " In the 1960s, the number of dishes increased. Usually serve eight dishes at a time, a warm pot and several cold dishes (such as braised pork and lettuce). In the 1980s, banquets were richer in content and varied in color. Not once, but while eating. Generally, there are eight cold dishes and four stir-fried dishes (such as shredded pork, chicken kidney and belly slices). ), four stir-fry dishes (such as sweet and sour fish, spring rolls, braised chicken, lotus root clip or eggplant with meat, etc. ), four steamed vegetables (such as rice flour meat, sweet potato cake, etc. ) and four soups (such as stewed trotters, lotus seed soup, round fish soup, etc.). ) There are fruit wine and white wine with beer or other drinks on the table for guests to choose from.
When the first dish is served, the host personally puts it on the table, toasting one by one and being polite; When the "Zi Yuan" dish was served at the banquet, the host raised his glass again to show his enthusiasm.