There is a record in Confucius' Family Talk: King Zhao of Chu crossed the river flat, as big as a bucket, as red as the sun, cut open and eat it, as sweet as pulp. Zhao Haoqi sent someone to ask Confucius for advice. Confucius said: this is a symbol of good luck! Only successful people can get it. From then on, this land was named Pingxiang, the hometown of Shi Ping.

Judging from the origin of Pingxiang place names, this fertile soil surrounded by green mountains and green waters has formed an indissoluble bond with food. According to archaeological data, a large number of unearthed cultural relics, such as bronze wares and pottery pots in Yongzheng, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in Pingxiang, and Tao Yi in Tao Ge, prove that Pingxiang has formed a system of drinking, drinking and music for a long time. In the second year of Baoding in the Three Kingdoms (AD 267), Pingxiang established a county magistrate, and there were post offices, help shops, help shops, restaurants and other units engaged in catering and accommodation. Pingxiang is the intersection of Ganjiang River system and Xiangjiang River system, where officials and businessmen change ships, thus contributing to the prosperity of Pingxiang catering industry. Many historical celebrities also left many poems praising wine and food in Pingxiang. Pingxiang's food style is deeply influenced by Wu Chu culture, especially Chu culture. In addition, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a war in the north, and a large number of people from the Central Plains moved south to Pingxiang. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a large number of people from Fujian and Guangdong moved into Pingxiang. Therefore, many characteristics of Pingxiang's diet style have been formed. After more than 2,000 years of development, the working people of past dynasties created material civilization, but also made the cooking culture related to "eating" prosperous. In the symphony of smoky fire and knives, spoons and pots, chefs interpret the magic and charm of western Jiangxi cuisine with local unique products. For example:

The fragrance of glutinous rice in Daan in winter, the fat mutton in Changping Mountain, the smoothness of Yangqi Mountain Chicken, the sweetness of martial arts and winter bamboo shoots, the fresh fragrance of carp, the spicy rice noodles with beards, the lush Ami Valley in early spring and the golden bacon in winter.

These dishes with strong local flavor are based on local delicacies and local products. They are skilled in knife skills, pay attention to cooking, pay attention to making soup, use sauces and seasonings, and cook with techniques such as stewing, stewing, frying, frying and steaming. After cooking, the taste is fresh and tender, or smooth and tender, or dry, crispy, colorful and unique. Taste characteristics are salty, fresh, fragrant and spicy, and sauce color and strong flavor are rarely used to avoid sweetness, but individual beets are preferred.

There are countless special dishes in Pingxiang, and the traditional ones are: three floors (Pingxiang chop suey), red and white belly tip, vermicelli mutton, live-roasted carp, rice noodles, lotus blood duck, boiled taro with beef in casserole, crispy river fish, hand-torn dog meat with chestnuts, fried Taiji map (Monopterus albus), spicy sauce (beef brisket) and so on.

Pingxiang's dim sum snacks are also quite distinctive. There are many kinds of rice snacks, such as Pingxiang rice noodles, rice tofu, rice paste rice cakes, hard rice and hemp chips, hollow hemp balls, all kinds of brown seeds, glutinous rice balls, Amigu, Ma Shi, scallion oil rice cakes, pictographic water snacks and so on. This is related to Pingxiang being located in the hometown of Taoxiang in the south of the Yangtze River.

Pingxiang people love spicy food. Even if a sumptuous banquet is placed in front of them, if there are no two or three spicy foods, they will say that they can't eat. This eating habit is related to Pingxiang's location in a "low and humid place". As the saying goes, "fish fart and peppers stink." Braised fish head, grass carp loin, eel and loach stir-fried Chili. Pepper can be compatible with almost all animal raw materials, and their flavors complement each other. Pingxiang's "small stir-fried dishes" are the representative of this kind of dishes. Pingxiang's spicy tastes include fresh, spicy, burnt, rotten, lobster sauce and spicy sauce, from which colorful and mouth-watering spicy dishes are derived. The spicy taste is long and hearty. Pingxiang people are unique in the processing of peppers. Paving peppers, white peppers, fried red peppers, hot sauce and spicy moldy tofu are all good side dishes.

Some people will say that Pingxiang people only know how to put peppers in cooking, which is absurd and one-sided. In fact, Pingxiang cuisine has many taste types, and spicy food is only a part of home cooking. There are more than 500 kinds of local official dishes and folk dishes recorded in Pingxiang's recipes in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, but there are no spicy dishes. In the Pingxiang-style cookbooks compiled and published by Pingxiang Cuisine Association 1996, spicy dishes are also a small part, but more are delicious dishes with different flavors.

Pingxiang's bacon bacon is also a must. In the Book of Changes, it is recorded that "looking at the sun turns to fire, saying bacon". Every year after the winter solstice, when farmers kill pigs for the New Year, they will smoke bacon and bacon to prepare for the reception in the first month. All livestock, poultry and their internal organs, fish, taro and tofu can be smoked. Before smoking, they will be pickled for 2- 10 days, and then hung in a fireplace more than one meter high to burn firewood, tree pits, sawdust and tofu. Smoke slowly with slow fire. After half a month, it was taken off, washed and dried in the sun, and the color was golden red. If immersed in a tea tank, it can be used for several years. Bacon bacon can be steamed or fried. Pingxiang's "pork belly steamed" and "fried donkey meat with winter bamboo shoots" are delicious and unforgettable.

Today, when time and space enter the reform and opening up, Pingxiang cuisine is also a fusion of east, west, north and south, seeking novelty and difference. On the basis of inheriting and carrying forward the traditional flavor, Pingxiang cuisine keeps pace with the times and moves towards a higher realm of "excellent health care, nutrition, cultural taste, color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils", which has opened up a new world for Jiangxi cuisine.

Three major river basins and four major cuisines

Due to different geography, climate, customs and characteristics, cooking has formed different local flavors. As far as the dietary characteristics of the Han nationality are concerned, there are currently four major cuisines, eight major cuisines and ten major cuisines, and the classification of cuisines is still increasing. However, in general, China cuisine can be roughly divided into four major cuisines: Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Shandong cuisine. Judging from the naming of cuisines, although they are named after provinces, their influence far exceeds the boundaries of provinces. All the eating customs are influenced by it, and the taste and cooking are generally the same. This is the category of cuisine. Of course, within a cuisine, there are many schools or branches, which are just "small differences" in "Datong". As far as the four major cuisines of Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine and Jiangsu cuisine are concerned, the scope of Shandong cuisine is not only Shandong, but also the North China Plain, Beijing and Tianjin, Northeast provinces, Shanxi and Shaanxi, all of which are the taste and eating habits of Shandong cuisine and become the backbone of northern cuisines. On the other hand, Sichuan cuisine is centered on the land of abundance and extends to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the two lakes and the Yunnan-Guizhou region. Cantonese cuisine is mainly in the Pearl River valley, and Fujian and Guizhou are also affected. Jiangsu cuisine, also known as Huaiyang cuisine, is a vast area in the lower reaches of Huaihe River and Yangtze River, as well as cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. Of course, this is only a rough division, and some bordering areas overlap.

The origin of cuisines can be traced back a long time, because the characteristics of dishes are based on the natural conditions of products. Zhang Hua's Natural History. The Jin Dynasty's Five People clearly pointed out: "Southeast people eat aquatic products, while northwest people eat land animals." "Those who draft products, soft-shelled turtles, clams, snails, and clams think that they are delicious and don't know their fishy smell; For people who eat land animals, raccoons, rabbits, mice and finches all feel rare, but they don't feel delicious. " "Where there are mountains, there are fish in water". In other words, "relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea." This is the main condition for the formation of cuisines. It is "today's four seas and Kyushu, separated by special mountains and rivers; The diet of the land is different. " (Qi Cheng)

Based on products, the difference in taste is an important factor in the development of cuisines. "National Customs" said: "Eating habits vary from place to place. The south likes to be fat and fresh, and the north likes to chew (onion and garlic), each of which is suitable and cannot be strong. " This kind of eating hobby has become a habit that people can't move. "Diet is like a dialect, and it varies from place to place. As long as the taste is right and the taste is wrong, as a person's temperament is not harmonious, he will live a different life. " Only in the last hundred years, with the development of transportation, economy, science and civilization, the distance between regions has been shortened, and products are no longer accidental products, making products no longer the only basis for their cuisine, but this dietary custom that has been passed down for thousands of years is still not easy to change.

In addition to the above factors, the difference of cooking methods is also one of the important conditions that can not be ignored in the formation of cuisines. Yuan Mei, a food connoisseur and critic in the Qing Dynasty, wrote two completely different cooking methods, North and South, to make pork tripe: "Fried in oil, it is best to be crisp, which is the method of northerners;" Nanren white water wine simmers two columns of incense, which is extremely bad. "Visible, before Yuan Mei, cooking has formed the characteristics different from other cuisines. Qian Yong put it more concretely in "Lu Yuan Cong Hua Zhi Dong": "The same dish has different tastes. For example, northerners love thick and southerners love light; Northerners are rich in food, most of which are beautiful, while southerners have beautiful food and fruits. Each has its own beauty, and it's quite complacent. "

By the end of the Qing dynasty, the different characteristics of the four major cuisines were more distinct. "Qing Qian Chao" describes the food situation in the late Qing Dynasty, saying: "The differences in eating habits in different places are caused by convention. Then northerners like onions and garlic, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Sichuan like spicy food, Cantonese like light food, and Sioux people like sugar. " The characteristics of local cuisines are also analyzed in detail: "Suzhou people especially like fat meat in their diet, and their cooking methods are all mixed, but they use more sugar and add five spices." "Fujian people and Cantonese people eat a lot of seafood, and they must have soup when eating. Cantonese people are good at making trouble and do not seek progress. " "Hunan people and Hubei people like to eat spicy food. Although it was eaten before the abbot, it was full of treasures, no peppers and mustard, and a lot of soup. " "Northerners eat scallions and garlic, and they are also produced in the north to win ..." And so on. Although the quotation is not enough to explain the whole picture of the cuisine, we can see the characteristics of the four major cuisines in China. [