The dietary customs in Zhejiang have a long history, which is recorded in history books, with a history of at least 2,000 years. According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Gou Jian, King of Yue, traveled around Zhejiang with rice and soup, and Lu Yu's children also fed and drank with rice and soup by themselves. (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue) It is also recorded in the biographies of Historical Records Huo Zhi that "the land of Chu Yue, rice soup fish ..." Soup, called thick soup with five flavors in ancient times, refers to fish soup made from fish. This shows that people not only cooked fish soup, but also used "fruit wins clams" as table food. Zhang Hua's Natural History has a similar record.
After Wei and Jin Dynasties, China entered a chaotic period of so-called "five chaotic flowers blooming", and the economic and cultural center began to move southward from the Yellow River basin. Nobles from the Eastern Jin Dynasty came to settle in Zhejiang. North-South customs began to communicate, and food customs were rich.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, thick soup and other dishes were popular in Zhejiang, especially thick water shield, which became famous in southern food. The so-called "thousands of miles of thick soup, how can it be combined with Lu Wei?" ((Four Biographies of Southern History Cui Zu) In Shaoxing, wine-making is quite popular. In addition to Shao wine as a tribute, women born and married by the people also brew "daughter wine". Jin's "Nancaodiao" contains: "Southerners have wives of several years old, that is, they make big wines ... Women want to get married, but they send bad wines to welcome guests, which are called female wines." During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yue liquor became famous all over the world. Zhejiang tea was very popular at that time. Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" contains: "Tea is above Huzhou in western Zhejiang and below Zhou Mu in Hangzhou; East Zhejiang to Yuezhou, Mingzhou to Wuzhou, Taizhou to Taizhou. " Du Ji, a famous culinary expert at that time, wrote in Memorabilia: "Du Ji, who can taste different things, is good at salt and plum." The "Stone with Belly" they created is particularly delicious and used as a tribute.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Qian Liu established the wuyue in Zhejiang. At that time, the Central Plains was at war for years, while Wu Yueguo spent more than 70 years in peace. The economy is prosperous and food is abundant. According to "Song Shi wuyue Family", if Sun Chengyou has a wife, Qian Wang will take his sister as his concubine. Every time he drinks, he kills thousands of people and eats dozens of meals. He likes to eat fresh fish, from driving to the north, and using camels to store water to raise fish. Once, when Sun was entertaining guests, he pointed to his banquet and said, "Today, at the banquet, slugs in the south, red sheep in the north, shrimps and fish in the east and corn in the west are all available, which can be described as rich and small." At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty moved south, and Hangzhou became the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. A large number of princes and nobles in the north crossed the river to the south, forming another custom exchange between the north and the south, which promoted the great development of food customs.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many restaurants in Lin 'an, and food stores and snacks were all over the streets. There are more than 20 famous official and private luxury restaurants here. The former includes Lehe Building, Hefeng Building, Zhonghe Building, Feng Chun Building and Taihe Building, while the latter includes Xichun Building, Sanyuan Building, Shangxin Building and Kazuki Watanabe musician Building. There are more than ten pavilions on each floor, covered with heavy curtains, and the gold and silver wine vessels are exquisite and luxurious. At that time, the wines served were Qionghualu, Penglai Spring, Blue Bridge Romantic Month, Piaoyuchun, Fenghechun and so on, and the famous dishes were "Silver Carp", "Perch Silver Carp", "Linglong Zhuang" and ". As for the snack business, it is more prosperous. Wu's "Dream" contains: "Hang Cheng Street, trading day and night, three or four drums at night, tourists began to sparse; The drums are ringing, and the morning market seller has opened a shop again. "Selling points include fried sausages, sesame cakes, steamed cakes, cakes, ice cream, five-flavor porridge, jelly bean porridge, meat porridge, blood soup, sheep blood, powder soup and so on. Its famous snacks include quail eggs, mutton fat leek cakes, jiaozi with sand, steamed stuffed bun with crab meat, shredded chicken noodles, fish skin noodles and so on. According to "Old Wulin Stories" and other books, there are more than 100 kinds of snacks.
Because a large number of northerners come from the south, "most hotels in Beijing are run by people in Beijing." Northern foods were also introduced to Zhejiang, such as Li's soup, Zhang's glutinous rice balls, ghee noodles, Hu cakes, Populus euphratica and ten kinds of sugar were sold on the benchmark.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the dietary customs in Zhejiang developed further. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, drinking was very popular in Zhejiang. At that time, there was Penglai wine in Yuezhou and Douchi wine, Coix seed wine, yellow wine, crucian carp wine and Dongyang wine in Shaoxing. Li Shizhen once mentioned in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Dongyang wine is better as medicine, and its wine has been famous since ancient times." Cooking techniques have also been further improved. The Gourmet Spectrum written by the chef Cixi in Qing Dynasty with Qingqu recorded 4 12 methods of making exquisite food. Diaoding Collection written by Jian Yue, a Shaoxing salt merchant, is a rich collection of recipes, which also describes many recipes of Jiangnan-style dishes. In particular, Yuan Mei, a famous poet in Qing Dynasty, co-wrote a menu with the Garden, summarizing the cooking techniques of hangzhou dishes at that time, including "Taiwan Province Soup Rotten Meat", "Honey-preserved Ham", "Hometown Meat", "Fried Turtle in Sauce", "Dry Steamed Duck", "Native Fish", "Eel Noodles" and "Roasted Goose". It is also equipped with a "dim sum spectrum" that specifically introduces snacks from all over Zhejiang, such as "Bazhen cake", "Hemp seed cake" and "green onion". It can be seen that Zhejiang's diet was rich at that time.
In the long-term production practice and life practice, the people of Zhejiang have actively utilized the rich local natural resources, created many dishes with local characteristics, and accumulated valuable experience. Finally, they established their own school and became one of the eight famous dishes in China. Zhejiang cuisine occupies an important position in southern food, which is characterized by fresh ingredients, fine production, bright color, delicious taste, various varieties and emphasis on nutrition. Cooking methods mainly include frying, frying, frying, stewing, stewing, roasting, steaming, roasting and frying. The main raw materials of Zhejiang cuisine are pork, fish and shrimp, eggs, vegetables, beans and some game. In particular, meat, fish, poultry and bamboo shoots account for the largest proportion. Now there are more than 500 kinds of dishes that are often supplied on the market. Zhejiang cuisine is represented by the local flavors of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, each with its own characteristics and different flavors.
Zhejiang-style snacks are rich in Jiangnan local characteristics. According to different hobbies and tastes and the actual situation in different places, people have created all kinds of snacks and snacks throughout the ages. Its cooking techniques mainly include steaming, boiling, frying, roasting, baking, frying, frying and brewing. Different places have different flavors, salty, sweet, meaty, vegetarian, fragrant, crisp, soft, waxy and colorful.
According to the geographical location, natural environment and resource conditions, as well as the different political, economic and cultural conditions in different parts of the province, in terms of food customs, it can be roughly divided into three main wind-receiving areas: Hangjiahu Plain, Southwest Hilly Mountain Area, Southeast Coastal Town and Island Area. The dietary customs, customs and cooking methods handed down from generation to generation in various regions have their own characteristics, and there are some foods with special flavors that the masses like.
The dietary customs in Zhejiang Province have the following characteristics: First, the cooking methods of many dishes come from the people, which have been inherited and evolved for a long time and are constantly developing. Such as West Lake vinegar fish, has a history of hundreds of years. Originally, it was "cut live herring into large pieces, blanched with oil and cooked with sauce, vinegar and meat", and then it was changed to "blanched" and steamed; Now, put the live grass carp in clear water to starve to death to make it spit out mud, then put it in boiling water to cook, and finally cook it with various seasonings. Another example is the "South Meat" produced in Jinhua and Yiwu, which was very famous in the Southern Song Dynasty. Now, the "southern meat of hometown" and "southern meat bamboo shoots" cooked by the old method are still popular dishes.
Secondly, in the process of its development, Zhejiang's dietary customs have been influenced by foreign countries, which has changed. During the Southern Song Dynasty, many restaurants in Hang Cheng were run by Bianjing people. It was at this time that cooking techniques such as explosion and frying came from the north. For example, when Zhejiang people cook eels, they are used to frying them in oil and sauce. Later, referring to the northern method, they changed "frying" to "frying" and added garlic paste, which became the "raw fried eel" cooked in the north and south. Others, such as making laba porridge with walnuts and pine nuts, drinking Tu Su wine on the Lantern Festival, and raising children's "soup-cake parties", also infiltrated the old customs of the Central Plains.
Thirdly, most dietary customs reflect people's psychological state, mainly praying for good luck, exorcising evil spirits and wishing a bumper harvest, among which homophonic, homophonic, pictographic and pun foods symbolize happiness, happiness, auspiciousness and prosperity. For example, there are fish every year, seeking cleverness (Qingming), getting older (rice cakes), being sweet every day (sugar cane), giving birth to your son early (red dates, peanuts, longan, litchi) and so on. For pregnant women, use "instant meat", and the meat should be cut square; I wish the elderly a long life, using "longevity noodles", noodles will not break when cooked and eaten, and so on.
Fourth, many food customs are accompanied by beautiful and moving folk stories, which entrust people's love, hate and rich imagination. For example, fried juniper (Qin Gui), lotus seed soup, Song Saoyu, green jiaozi, Qigong cake, Dongpo meat and anchovies. In some places, special drinking customs are related to major local events and become historical records. For example, Zhoushan's "Tucheng soup rice" commemorates the sinking of Erhai City in early September of the eighth year of Qing Shunzhi, and the soldiers and civilians died; In Haining, brown sugar and taro were burned on August 23rd to commemorate the Taiping Army's capture of Shi Xia in Xianfeng decade of Qing Dynasty.
Fifth, in different seasons, its diet varieties also change. Especially seasonal snacks have the most styles. For example, in spring, there are spring rolls with leek sprouts and shredded pork, stewed children with onions and shrimp dumplings. In summer, there are Babao mung bean soup, West Lake fresh lotus seed soup, cold scouring (rice noodles) and so on. In autumn, there are sweet-scented osmanthus fresh chestnut soup, crab steamed stuffed bun, sugar-fried chestnuts, etc. In winter, there are crispy mutton, stewed tofu with green vegetables and glutinous rice.