Yu Deling, an American writer who wrote two years in the Forbidden City, blood and tears in Yingtai and other works reflecting the court and social and political life in the late Qing Dynasty, was summoned to the palace by Cixi as a "female official". She wrote in the book "Royal Fragrance": "The life of Empress Dowager Cixi can be said to be for' eating' ..."
-"Eat" in luxury and ostentation and extravagance.
Empress dowager cixi ate in the same way as the emperor. Her life-saving dining room has eight yards, 108 rooms, and is run by * * * 128 people, which is extremely luxurious and ostentatious. As long as she says "pass the rice", eunuchs of all sizes will line up for you, and the dishes must be set at once.
The Qing palace system has two meals in the morning and evening, breakfast at noon, dinner at noon and snacks at night. There are more than 100 kinds of food in Cixi's two dinners every day. Even the white rice should be carefully selected and filled with three or four assembled dining tables. "Snacks" are not too few, usually around 40 or 50 bowls, and at least 20 bowls of dishes should be served. One year, Cixi went to Fengtian by train, and the temporary chef occupied four carriages, one of which was equipped with 50 stoves, each of which was responsible for cooking two kinds of dishes, not counting all kinds of handymen, and only the chef used 100 people. Prepare 100 kinds of conventional dishes and 100 kinds of cakes, fruits, sweets and dried fruits for each meal. During the dinner, Cixi sat alone and enjoyed it. In fact, Cixi really has too many dishes to move chopsticks, just those in front of her. If a dish in the distance catches her attention, the eunuch will bring it near. When she finished eating, nine times out of ten, the plate she removed was still intact.
Network mapping
However, Cixi does not eat snakes and eels. She thinks these two kinds of food are dragons and can't be eaten. This is quite scientific in nutrition, because both snakes and eels are high-cholesterol foods.
"Eating" a handful of flowers is addictive
According to the medical records of the Qing court, Cixi likes chrysanthemums and often eats them while picking them. There is a kind of white chrysanthemum called snowball, whose petals are delicate and white as snow. After picking it, wash it with warm water, rinse it with dilute alum warm water, take it out and drain it, and eat it. But not directly, but dipped in chicken soup. There are also sliced sashimi or raw chicken slices in the chicken soup pot, with a little soy sauce and seasoning.
Cixi's real name is Laner, and Magnolia is also her delicious food. Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, when the magnolia trees in the palace are in full bloom, the full petals will be picked and sent to the chef. The chef peeled off the whole petals, soaked them in flour mixed with chicken soup, divided them into sweet and salty ones, and put them in an oil pan to fry them thoroughly to make fragrant magnolia slices. When the lotus is in full bloom, the lotus slices made in the same way are also snacks that Cixi can enjoy at any time. It is said that Cixi also invented a sweet sauce made of roses and sugar, which has a wonderful fragrance and taste.
Besides eating flowers, Cixi also loves to drink flowers. She often dries roses, jasmine flowers and wild winter flowers and drinks them together in tea. When you feel low energy, you often use tea from Chrysanthemum morifolium instead of tea to relieve symptoms. Cixi is very particular about drinking flowers. The water used for making tea is the spring water brought from Yuquan Mountain that day. The utensil for drinking tea is a white jade teacup. Two eunuchs were holding a saucer with tea in the middle and flowers on both sides, and then they all shouted, "Lafayette wants tea!" " From a nutritional point of view, flowers are really delicious. For example, chrysanthemums can clear the liver, improve eyesight, refresh the mind, roses can reduce fat and lose weight, beauty and freckle, and jasmine can cool down and relieve summer heat and relieve emotions. But people with symptoms of pollen allergy need to be cautious.
Flowers are fragrant, and Cixi loves to eat smelly ones. Wang Zhihe's stinky tofu is inseparable from her every meal.
"Eating" is beautiful
There are many popular sayings about Cixi's beauty care, including many extravagant and eccentric living habits, such as drinking human milk, taking pearl powder and using jade. It should be said that these things were precious and rare things that ordinary people could not enjoy at that time. They may be able to take care of their skin as rumored, but here I want to say that Cixi eats for "beauty". Isn't there a "stomach" in the traditional Chinese character "skin"? Visible skin and eating.
It is said that Cixi spends several hours dressing herself every day, and all the beauty products she uses contain food. For example, there is rice flour in palace powder, and rouge is made of fresh rose petals. In addition to Chinese medicine, there are also shochu, sugar and honey. There is glutinous rice in huoxiang powder.
Network mapping
The most noteworthy thing is chestnut powder. Peel off the shell of chestnuts, and there is a soft skin on the surface of nuts, which is the endocarp of chestnuts. This skin is chestnut. The chestnut powder in Cixi is made of the first-class chestnut endothelium produced this year, ground into fine powder and blended with honey. The use method is equivalent to that of the current mask. Chestnut Chestnut is a rare beauty medicine with a sweet taste. When used with honey, it can make skin smooth and wrinkle-free, and prevent aging.
Baoyuan decoction is said to be the secret recipe of diet therapy with mysterious color in the Qing palace, and it is also the secret recipe of beauty of Cixi. This soup consists of five raw materials: crucian carp, lean beef, pig's trotters, raw hawthorn and red dates. It is boiled in a casserole, then the floating foam is removed, and the surface oil is removed after cooling. When drinking, the soup is heated. Beef can invigorate qi and nourish blood and nourish the spleen and stomach; Crucian carp is easy to digest and can enhance disease resistance; Pig's trotters are rich in collagen, which can moisten cells; Jujube can replenish qi and blood; Hawthorn helps digestion and relieve stagnation. This soup is really nutritious.
I once read a document about dietotherapy and breast enhancement, which mentioned a kind of food called "Jade Girl's Breastfilling Crisp". It is said that it was specially developed by the imperial doctor of the Qing Dynasty for Cixi. The materials are peanuts, soybeans and red dates, each taking half a catty. Drying peanuts and soybeans with skins, grinding into powder, chopping red dates, adding water, mixing evenly, kneading into small balls, flattening into cakes, and baking. Soybean is related to estrogen secretion; Peanut is rich in protein and oil, which can moisturize the skin; Jujube can promote fluid production, regulate endocrine and promote the development of secondary sexual characteristics. It should be said that this is a delicious snack that is both delicious and beneficial to the increase of mammary gland secretion.
"Contribution" from "Eating"
In China catering market, western food has entered a period of accelerated development. Broadly speaking, anything that is not Chinese food can be called western food, but in the industry, western food is defined as "European food", including dinner and simple meal. Western food in this sense first came to China with missionaries in the17th century. According to records, Tang Ruowang, a famous missionary known as "Mafa" by Shunzhi, once entertained Beijing officials with western food.
1840 The Opium War broke out, which opened the closed door of China. With the influx of westerners, western food began to appear in major port cities. During Guangxu period, the earliest "vermicelli halls" appeared in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Tianjin Kistler Forest, founded in 1903, is still in business today.
Network mapping
If Cixi lived for "eating", she also made great contributions to "eating", that is, promoting the promotion of western food in China.
It is said that Cixi is interested in all kinds of western things, including western food, especially French bread. The Opium War gave her a taste of "foreigners". In order to please foreigners, she often entertains the foreign minister's wife with rich western-style banquets in the palace. In this way, Plutocratic family families in Beijing also followed the court customs, and western food gradually became popular. By 1930s, western food had become a way of life in China's upper class. Especially in Shanghai, eating western food in international hotels became one of the most fashionable social ways.