The ancients said that food is the most important thing for the people, and the problem of eating has always been the most concerned issue for people. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the grain supply of Beijing imperial court depended on grain transportation to a great extent, thus forming a complete grain transportation and storage system. With the abundance of material, the taste of delicious food permeates every corner of old Beijing. Even "foodies" are the people who can survive the most.

Old Beijingers pay attention to food, which is incomparable in other places. Beijing nursery rhymes sing: small Toona sinensis, tender yellow buds, fragrant and fragrant when pinched; Scrambled eggs and mixed tofu are delicious. Just try it. Beijing dishes not only have the taste of home, but also are full of the grasp of natural seasonal changes. Mr. Liang Shiqiu, a famous writer, once said: If there were no bean juice and big candied haws, would it still be Beijing? The writer's heart is keen, which also shows the importance of "what to eat" for Beijing culture and life.

There are many department stores in the capital and soups and delicacies in southern Jiangsu. No matter at home or on a westward journey, you can almost taste the delicacies and snacks from all over the country, which is known as "Jingshi Pinhui" and "Jingshi Wu Pin". Up to now, snack streets in Beijing are still very lively, such as Wangfujing snack street and Shichahai snack street (the original Qianmen snack was moved). In the Qing Dynasty, some foods in Beijing became more and more popular, while others were more difficult to taste. Pan of the A Qing Dynasty praised the Beijing gourmet crowd with poems at the end of his book "The Sound of Emperor Jing Ji":

Good food, the five gods are fighting; Beijing cuisine is fried in the north, and Lu Xian lives among all kinds of flavors.

The economic ability of citizens living in Beijing determines the scale and depth of consumption. Beijing, where businessmen from all over China are gathered, together with local officials and gentry who "eat the imperial grain", has derived many street life and entertainment industries with unique local characteristics from the demand. There are so many snacks in Beijing that you can see them everywhere when you go out, so they are commonly called "serving food" or "serving tea". In the Qing Dynasty, Du Men Zhu Zhi Ci vividly wrote:

Where does the sunset play go? The banquet is in Liuhe. Three big money to buy fragrant flowers, cut cakes and make a fuss. A bowl of sweet porridge in the morning, only tea soup and tea. Candied sugar ear cake, hanging stove sesame seed cake, aiwowo. Forks are just on fire to sell, and hard noodles are called cakes. The wonton of steamed dumplings is full of dishes, and there are new dumplings. Fried tripe oil and liver incense enema, Mushu Huangcai Pian 'er soup.

This interesting poem on bamboo branches depicts the diversity of snacks in Beijing. In addition to the old Beijingers, other people living in Beijing come from all corners of the country and have a demand for many local specialty snacks, so that "there is no fish, there is no rice." .

Pan Zaijing, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, introduced a variety of Shi Jing cuisines in Ji Sheng.

Pigs and sheep are divided into two wings, and the pack returns to the streets of Japan; Millet grain accumulates in thousands of warehouses, and Yunfang is exhibited outside the city.

Camel bees in bear's paw, crispy mallet buttermilk cake in elk's tail; Wild cats, pheasants, ground raccoons, shrimps, miscellaneous sheep.

Beijing cuisine is graded. Beijing cuisine with time-honored brands and complete categories, and even local "local restaurants" were all sky-high at first, which made many people flinch. At the same time, however, the diversity of Beijing-style food varieties has eliminated this class nature from the inside. Elegant gentlemen can taste Beijing flavor, down-and-out scholars are not ashamed to eat Beijing flavor, and working people can also taste Beijing flavor. "jiaozi lies on its head, and pancakes spread eggs on its feet." Sugar piles, sesame cakes and mung bean cakes on the street sometimes make it little known here, as well as delicious snacks and cheap food stalls, which have a far-reaching "gourmet taste" distance among the shouts of vendors.

In the history of China, the basic production pattern of farming in the east and grazing in the west, rice in the south and wheat in the north has been formed. As the saying goes, "Southerners are meticulous and northerners are rough". The gathering of ten thousand people in the capital, the balance between thickness and agriculture and animal husbandry, is manifested in Beijing-style cuisine. There are about 200 or 300 kinds of snacks in Beijing, including side dishes and wine (such as boiled sheep's head, fried belly, roasted sheep's head in Bai Kui, pickled mustard tuber chopping board, etc.). ), pasta used at the banquet (such as steamed buns, minced meat biscuits, yangyaner steamed buns, Five Blessingg Shoutao, Ma Rongbao, etc.). ), as well as various snacks as snacks or breakfast snacks (such as Aiwowo, snowballing, etc.). ). Among them, bean juice, enema, fried liver, Mapo tofu and Zhajiang Noodles have the most Beijing flavor.

In the late Qing Dynasty, there were delicacies in Beijing, which were expensive and cheap street snacks. With the improvement of transportation mode, many tropical fruits have also entered Beijing. On May 21st, the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), Yun tasted the fresh litchi from Shanghai, which was "red and tender, and the juice was sweet and plump, several times as much as that of the bottler". He couldn't help but sigh, "Today's land and water transportation, all the fresh things in the southeast, such as shad and loquat, have won the appetite of northerners, and our chances of winning are greater than those of the ancients."

Xinfenglou Restaurant, which belongs to Xiangchang, is a famous new Shandong restaurant in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. It is famous for its fried pork belly, bobo roast duck, almond yuanxiao and vegetarian noodle soup. It is famous for "dry steaming point", "rotten duck liver", "mullet egg", "fried chicken" and "steamed duck with rotten noodles". In particular, its "Stewed Purple Abalone with Chinese Cabbage" is a unique skill in Beijing: select high-quality small purple abalones to operate, then cook them, make them into flower knives, select Chinese cabbage, and hang soup to roast them. Coriander is bright in color, tender and smooth in taste and unique in flavor.

Western food has also entered Beijing. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more "foreigners" in the market, and the "foreign flavor" of Beijing naturally increased, and various "fan restaurants" gradually appeared. The famous condemnation novel "Evil Sea Flower" in the late Qing Dynasty specifically mentioned western-style restaurants:

Besides, Dongjiaominxiang used to be a gathering place for embassies of various countries. There are the most houses in the alley, which is very lively. This restaurant opened by the chef in the embassy is specially prepared for foreigners who come in and out of the embassy. They can also eat and live. This is a very suitable hotel.

It can be seen that western-style restaurants have been common in foreign "embassy areas" in the past, but they have only widely appeared since 1900. Take Six Kingdoms Hotel in Beijing as an example. In the book "Generous Bamboo Poems in Beijing" published in the second year of Xuantong (19 10), the exotic food and lively scenes in the six countries' hotels are described as follows: "When the exotic people guess, the two foreign flavors will open up. There are not many foreign friends, and the red top flowers come every day. "

Inevitably, foreign cuisines have attracted Beijing officials, who have nothing to do, and often patronize the six countries' hotels in twos and threes, adding some fun to China's gourmet life. Some officials, gentry and businessmen even changed the traditional food customs, saying that "utensils must be western-style and food must be western-style" and "most of the guests who entertain Japan are Chinese restaurants. Today's Six Kingdoms Hotel, Dechang Hotel and Chang 'an Hotel are all western-style feasts. "In the past, drinking yellow wine from Liuquanju was widely recommended, but now it is not necessary to use Samsung brandy and beer." Modern drinks have gradually become the first choice and favor of all kinds of new youth and upper class.

There are many restaurants in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty, which are called "Eighth Floor", "Eight Houses", "Ten Restaurants" and "Eight Da Chun". In addition, there are various unknown restaurants. The biggest difference between Ju and Tang is that Ju only holds banquets and does not hold church meetings. Therefore, it is relatively small, and it is the place where ordinary officials or scholars who go to Beijing to take the exam stay. The eight famous residences include Fuxingju, Wanxingju, Tongxingju and Dongxing outside Qianmen, Wanfuju in Dashilan, Guangheju in the northern part of Caishikou Hutong, Tongheju in Xisi and Shaguoju in Xidan. Among them, restaurants in the south of Shi Jing, Fuxingju in the north of Kannonji Road outside Qianmen, Wanxingju in the west of food street, Tongxingju in Dashilan and Dongxing in the south of Shang Mo Road are also called "Four Prosperities". Among them, Fuxingju's shredded chicken noodles are quite famous. It is said that Emperor Guangxu, who ate too many delicacies, would go there to eat a bowl of shredded chicken noodles every time he visited the eight hutongs.

Everyone in old Beijing knows that the famous casserole house pays attention to materials, and the piglets in Zhangjiawan, Tongxian County are specially used to make 66 kinds of white meat. There are many people in the land, and it is only sold for half a day. There used to be a saying in old Beijing: the cover of casserole house is that business is booming. Guangheju is the place where Mr. Lu Xun invited friends to get together. Originated from the Jiangnan flavor brought back by Liuxia Jiangnan. During the Daoguang period, it evolved into a southern-style restaurant specially opened for southerners. Among them, South Fried Kidney Flower, Tofu Brain, Steamed Fish with Panshi, Steamed scallops and Steamed Yam Mud were once famous.

In the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, imperial cuisine was in charge of the palace, which consisted of four rooms (dining room, tea room, meat room and dried meat room) and five bureaus (meat bureau, vegetable bureau, stove hanging bureau, dim sum bureau and entertainment bureau). The emperor has a rice spectrum, and a hundred people have annual food. Palace diet is generally wasted, so Yong Zhengdi once gave the canteen an imperial edict:

Where there is more porridge, rice and vegetables, do not abandon the ditch. Or eat with the waiter. People who cannot eat feed cats and dogs. If there are no more, dry them and feed them to the birds.

With the decline of the central power of the Qing court, the prestige of the royal family has been declining, and some court foods have also flowed into the people, gradually becoming the food shared by the whole people. Man-Han banquet was once the memory of old Beijingers. Palace cuisine pays attention to the perfection of color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils. It has both the characteristics of palace cuisine and the essence of local flavor, mainly in Northeast China, Shandong, Beijing and Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, which is also the goal of some officials and gentry to pursue food. Specifically, the materials are extensive and precious, and the dishes are modeled and standardized. The name of the dish implies auspiciousness and wealth, colorful snacks and elegant utensils, which can be described as the essence of Manchu-Chinese food culture.

During the Republic of China, those chefs and caterers who used to serve in the royal "Imperial Restaurant" started a new career with the exquisite skills of "Beijing cuisine", and improved and popularized them, so that court dishes with Beijing flavor gradually entered the homes of ordinary people and led the trend of food culture. Manchu-Han banquet highlights the special flavor of Manchu-Han banquet. Barbecue, hot pot and shabu-shabu are almost indispensable dishes, and at the same time, it shows the characteristics of Han cooking. Roasting, frying, frying and roasting are both the treasures and the highest realm of Chinese food culture.

The Manchu-Han banquet was originally a banquet held by the Manchu people in the Qing court. Generally speaking, there are at least 108 kinds of dishes at the Manchu-Han banquet (54 kinds in the south and 54 kinds in the north), which need to be finished within three days of the ceremony. Full seats are divided into six grades, and Han seats are divided into five categories, including group meals, cold meals, hot meals, snacks, milk cakes, milk skins, side dishes and green sauces. Generally, there are more than 70 products, ranging from a few to dozens. Bird's nest, shark's fin, sea cucumber, Hericium erinaceus and other dishes are often indispensable. Manchu-Han banquet dishes are salty and sweet, with exquisite materials, extensive materials, fine materials and all-encompassing delicacies. Of course, due to the wide variety of Manchu-Chinese banquet and complicated production, few people can eat a complete Manchu-Chinese banquet except the royal banquet. Beijing people's staple food is corn flour and millet flour, and expensive rice is only used to cook porridge; Because they can't afford meat, strong foods such as onions, garlic and peppers are very popular.

Shake the bamboo and hang the wine room, and the streets smell the wine deeply. Half a catty knife small dining tables, Pepsi Fengyun big jars. In Wang Zengqi's works, drinking in Beijing can be roughly divided into several levels: drinking 13 cents is a level, drinking Erguotou is a level, drinking red grain Daqu, Deng Hua Daqu and even Hengshui Laobaigan is a level, drinking eight famous wines is a level and drinking Maotai is the highest level. The "banquet" in a relaxed place mostly belongs to three levels, which is the lowest level. They sometimes drink Erguotou, but there are many complaints about Erguotou, which are not worth a dime. 13 cents, they drank "clothes" and found the taste "smooth". Some of them even think that the taste of Daqu is unbearable, and the famous Anleju also sells draft beer in hot weather. At 1942, advertisements in Guangzhou were widely circulated, saying that "If you want to know the taste of Yanjing, you can only go to the Qing Palace in the Summer Palace to make spiced beef" and "You can go to Beijing to make noodles", which also became a unique identity value.

Health preservation and philosophy culture in diet are also constantly sublimated in cooking. The life of Beijing flavor may be a dish of "onion mixed with tofu, and the door is clear." Of course, the literati's emphasis on diet actually reflects the richness of street life and the peace and comfort of society.

In the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Mei recorded the cooking and matters of various dishes in "Suiyuan Food List". "All cooking things must be assisted. It is necessary to make it clear, thick and thick, and soft. " "Tofu is well cooked, far better than bird's nest; Seaweed is not cooked well, not as good as bamboo shoots, and even rises to the view of natural Confucianism. Yuan Mei said, "Everything has its own flavor, and it should not be confused. Just like sage teaching, he is willing to educate because of his talent. Broad bean green, broad bean yellow, green and tender, old and yellow, changing from green to yellow too quickly, and the songs about food are passed down from mouth to mouth, which also shows the prosperity of food culture.

Therefore, the material is rich, and the catering presents multiple complexities. Diet is not only a natural behavior to satisfy people's appetite and maintain their lives, but also a kind of consciousness, concept, cultural etiquette and communication mode, which deeply affects the changes of people's lifestyle.