What does the legendary "Imperial Food" look like? Is it really delicious?
When people think of imperial meals, they will think of delicacies from mountains and seas, fine wines made from golden bottles, the most exquisite delicacies in the world, and the perfection of the art of food and drink, etc. These are all correct, but the emperor's collection of delicacies from the mountains and seas was more to test his control over the world; the display of gold wine in the imperial dining room was more to reflect the wealth, majesty and glory of the royal family. All pursuits of beauty have political purposes. Taste is secondary, authority is primary. The taste of the royal meal is not good.
At this point, the last emperor Puyi is obviously the most powerful to speak. "The First Half of My Life" specifically mentions the imperial meal: "The most expensive event that consumes manpower, material and financial resources is eating."
When it's time to eat - there is no fixed time, it is entirely up to the emperor himself - I said, "Pass the meal!"... A procession like a dowry had already walked out of the imperial dining room. This was a team of dozens of well-dressed eunuchs, carrying seven large and small dining tables and dozens of vermilion lacquer boxes with golden dragons painted on them, and marched straight to the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart.
Empress Dowager Longyu had about a hundred kinds of dishes for each meal, which were displayed on six dining tables. This was the pomp she inherited from Cixi. Mine was less than hers, and there were usually about thirty kinds of dishes. . (Author's note: This is just a light meal. The number of dishes for a big meal must be multiplied ten times.)
After these dishes are put out after various procedures, they have no use except to show ostentation. The reason why it can be quickly placed on the table as soon as the meal is passed down is because the imperial kitchen has been prepared half a day or a day ago and is waiting on the fire. They also know that since Guangxu, the emperor has not relied on these things that have long been past their prime to satisfy their hunger. What I actually ate every meal was the dishes sent by the Queen Mother. After the Queen Mother died, the four concubines took over. Because the queen dowagers or concubines have their own dining rooms, and they use high-end chefs to cook delicious dishes, there are always about twenty kinds of dishes for each meal. This is the dish that is placed in front of me. The dishes cooked in the imperial kitchen are placed far away, just for show.
Puyi used four sentences to evaluate the imperial food he ate: flashy but not real, expensive but not beneficial, nutritious but not nutritious, and bland and tasteless.
How much food is wasted and how much money is wasted by eating like this? No one has calculated the specific amount. However, "Qing Huidian" records that the emperor used twenty-two kilograms of plate meat, five kilograms of soup meat, one kilogram of lard, two sheep, two chickens, and three ducks every day. Three, as well as milk tea from sixty cows, twelve cans of spring water from Yuquan Mountain (the emperor only drinks water from Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs), a pound of butter, and ten bags of tea. This is only a regular supply, and does not include the considerable quantities of deer, wild boar, roe deer, pheasant and other game that are regularly and irregularly delivered from various places; abalone, shark's fin, salmon, clams and other aquatic products; as well as bird's nests, lilies, fresh bamboo shoots and other specialty products. . Puyi recalled that when he was five years old, he had to "eat" 810 kilograms of meat and 240 chickens and ducks in a month. He, the Empress Dowager Longyu, and the four concubines in their "family" of six people ate 14,642 kilograms of pork in a month, and the combined silver was 2,342 taels, 7 cents, and 2 cents. In addition, there are "added dishes" every day - much more dishes than the normal supply. Puyi's family spent 14,794 taels, 1 qian and 9 cents of silver on royal meals for a month.
Puyi bluntly said: "In addition to embezzlement and enrichment, almost all of this money was wasted to show the dignity of the emperor."
In fact, the finances of the late Qing Dynasty were very difficult, and the East Wall was demolished. The Western Wall could not be demolished, and the idea of ??selling off the palace collections was even considered. In order to build the Summer Palace, Emperor Tongzhi had a falling out with his uncle, Prince Gong Yixin, and the root cause was the issue of money; Emperor Guangxu had to pay a lot of compensation, and all he thought about every day was how to raise money; in the three years of Emperor Xuantong's reign, the court had to deal with The "New Deal" was not implemented well, and a very important reason was the lack of money. However, Emperor Guangxu’s wedding, royal meals and other expenses cost more than 5.5 million taels of silver!
Emperor Guangxu once heard that his master Weng Tonghe ate eggs for breakfast. He was very envious and said that Master Weng was really rich and eggs were too expensive. I only eat one or two when I have special occasions. Because the "cost" of Yushan's eggs is five taels of silver each, which is equivalent to the price of a chicken farm. Weng Tonghe was stunned by what he said and did not dare to expose it. Guangxu did not know until his death that eggs were common food for ordinary people, costing only a few copper coins each.
In short, the imperial meal is full of monarchical privileges and does not taste good. The emperor and ministers could not eat well, but they had to taste this taste. This is what power tastes like.