Excerpted from Guide to Crossing the Qing Dynasty, reproduced with the authorization of zhanghua.
When it comes to crossing, it can reflect the disunity of everyone's tastes. Some people want to experience the life of the harem, some people want to experience the life of the emperor, some people like beautiful clothes, some people like houses in Beijing, but in any case, most customers will have to go through the customs when they cross the Qing Dynasty-have a good meal!
Speaking of it, other food tours through travel agencies are often complained by customers, mainly because China people have different cooking and eating habits according to different periods. For example, some dynasties did not have the technology of "frying", some dynasties lacked spices, and some dynasties lacked the most modern ingredients. In a word, my great Chinese food didn't appear overnight.
Ingredients and seasonings
In contrast, our society had an advantage when it crossed into the Qing Dynasty. Because the Qing Dynasty is close to modern times, whether you talk about frying, boiling, frying or ups and downs, everything from Manchu Chinese noodles to European-style meals can basically satisfy your appetite.
But in the final analysis, the eating habits of the Qing dynasty are still different from those of our modern times in some aspects. The first is vegetable ingredients.
Vegetables in our modern daily diet basically appeared in the Qing Dynasty, but some of them are still rare. Their characteristic is that most of them have the word "foreign" or "western". For example, "persimmon", namely tomatoes and tomatoes, was probably introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty, but it has always been regarded as an ornamental plant. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that people generally began to eat it.
So if you go through the early Qing Dynasty and order in a restaurant, the first thing you say is "scrambled eggs with tomatoes", and you will probably be kicked out of a wonderful flower.
Also with the word "foreign", there are cabbage, onions and so on. , with the word "west", and zucchini. The others are lettuce and cauliflower, and the fruits are papaya and strawberry. These new varieties were just introduced into China in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and their social acceptance was not high. Of course, if you travel to the late Qing Dynasty and eat high-end western food, that is another matter.
Then there are meat ingredients.
In terms of livestock meat, pork was common in the north of Qing Dynasty. During this period, the cooking methods of pork were relatively mature and the price was relatively low. In addition, the Shaman belief in Manchu traditional folk customs has also brought various new methods of cooking pork, so people generally take pork as the main livestock meat.
Followed by mutton, which is also one of the traditional livestock meat in China. However, people in the Qing dynasty often had a particularly clear concept of love and hate for mutton, that is, they either loved mutton very much and felt that there was nothing wrong with mutton, or they didn't like its taste, although they didn't eat it.
As for other livestock meat, the restrictions on beef in Qing dynasty were not as good as those in previous dynasties, and there were many folk eaters, but they were still not as common as today. However, due to the Manchu descent of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Eight Banners princes owned a large number of pastures in the northeast, and there were special personnel to "kill livestock" and regularly presented many "game" to Beijing every year.
The quantity of these "game" is much higher than the consumption of these nobles, so extra game, such as deer and roe deer, is often sold locally in Beijing, and the price is not too expensive. Well-off families can buy them occasionally to adjust their tastes.
In addition, Manchu people had the habit of eating horse meat before entering the customs, but it was not common after entering the customs, probably because horse meat was not delicious.
In addition, as in modern times, chickens and ducks were mainly popular in Qing Dynasty, followed by geese. As for game, there are pheasants, which are very common in the market. Fried pheasant melon is not only a famous dish on the table of flag bearer, but also common in inland provinces.
Finally, the seasoning.
The traditional seasonings of China cuisine, especially spices, have always been pepper, ginger and dogwood, which are also called "three spices". Later, in the Tang Dynasty, peppers began to spread widely. Pepper was introduced in the late Ming dynasty, so in the Qing dynasty, the "three spices" familiar to the people became pepper, ginger and pepper. In short, you don't have to worry that your tastes will be very different after crossing into the Qing Dynasty.
Take it twice a day.
After talking about ingredients, let's talk about the time of eating, which is the so-called "meal system". The dining system in Qing Dynasty varied from person to person and from place to place, with different habits such as "one meal system", "two meals system" and "three meals system".
One-meal system is more common in marching, because in an emergency, one meal a day is often used. In addition, it is said that there was a serious drought during the Kangxi period, so that Emperor Kangxi set an example and practiced frugality, eating only one meal a day, but it was later cancelled with the relief of the drought. In short, the one-meal system is too hard to be common.
Three meals, which means three meals a day. Compared with the unusual one-meal system, the three-meal system in Qing Dynasty was relatively common. On the one hand, in the Qing Dynasty, the three-meal system was widely practiced in the south, probably because the sunshine time in the south was longer than that in the north, the climate was mild, and people spent a long time in activities. On the other hand, in the late Qing Dynasty, influenced by western food, the northern part of the Qing Dynasty gradually changed to a three-meal system.
The two-meal system was the most common in the north of Qing Dynasty. Most of the time, the Qing court and the people in Beijing followed the two-meal system. Our travel agency is mainly in Beijing, so you should be prepared for a two-meal system.
The so-called two meals are nominally called "breakfast" and "dinner", but their meal time is different from our modern three-meal system, and the meal time of different classes is also different.
According to the system, the two-meal system in Qing Palace is breakfast at 6: 30 in the morning and dinner at noon 12: 30. In fact, breakfast is usually between 5 am and 3 pm 1 1, and dinner is usually between 1 1 and 3 pm, according to the host's wishes.
However, in the two-meal system of Wang Fu and aristocratic families in Qing Dynasty, breakfast was usually around noon 12, and dinner was around 5 pm. As for the folk, breakfast is usually around ten o'clock in the morning and dinner is usually around six o'clock in the evening.
Eat two meals a day. Aren't they hungry? That's a good question This actually involves a very important issue, that is, the so-called "rice" standard.
We modern people drink a glass of milk and eat two pieces of bread in the morning, which is called "breakfast". In the concept of Qing people, what can be called "rice" must be a more formal meal. Those who can't meet the standard of "rice" are called "points"
Therefore, whether it is "one-meal system" or "two-meal system", it only refers to "meal". In addition to "rice", there can be various "points" to match. Of course, how many "points" you can eat every day is also related to class. For wealthy families like the imperial palace and aristocratic families, there is breakfast before noon, lunch around noon and supper around evening.
If all of them are "ordered", it can reach six or seven meals a day. And the average poor family, when they go out in the morning, will have some "breakfast" at most, and the rest "points" will not be enjoyed.
Restaurants, restaurants, food stalls
Besides the ingredients and meal system, what you need to know is the problem of diet and ostentation. Just like we have dinner today, some people attend formal banquets, some people have a large-scale dinner, some people order two dishes casually in the restaurant, and some people cook their own home-cooked dishes. You should also distinguish these in the Qing dynasty.
The first place to eat is a restaurant. The name of the restaurant is generally called "a hall", such as Juxiantang and Huixiantang. A restaurant is usually a big house with several yards, a stage and other buildings. All the furnishings are luxurious and exquisite, so they are reserved for the rich, which is somewhat similar to the current high-end clubs.
The food served in this restaurant is noodles. The so-called banquet is somewhat similar to our present banquet. Each table consists of a large set of dishes, the most common form is "four or four seats in the end", from cold dishes to hot dishes to big dishes and snacks.
According to the different components of summer sleeping mat, it can be divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower, and the gap between each level is also very obvious. For example, an official position on a table, a square table, can only sit six people at most, sometimes meet guests, or even only sit one or two people, but there are dozens or hundreds of dishes. And the lowest rural seats, a round table can sit up to ten people, and there are only about ten dishes.
Restaurants are dedicated to receiving seats, and they are all big scenes, usually dozens of tables, and rarely receive small scenes. However, although this kind of diet is expensive, it is by no means acceptable to ordinary people, but the dishes can only be said to have moderate taste.
Moreover, there is little cooking in the restaurant dishes, but more stew, which is determined by the scene they are in. In other words, when you eat in a restaurant, you eat the luxurious atmosphere, not necessarily the exquisite taste.
In short, don't go to the restaurant if you just have a light meal with a few friends or something. On the one hand, people basically don't accept the end of a seat. On the other hand, many restaurants are so-called "cold restaurants", which don't fire at all on weekdays, but only when there is an appointment.
The second place to eat is a restaurant, and its name is usually "a certain building", such as Qingyun Building and Dongxing Building. The layout of the restaurant is much smaller than that of the restaurant. It is often a courtyard with one or two entrances, or a two-story pavement, which is more in line with our modern concept of "restaurant".
In the Qing dynasty, restaurants were generally equipped with many private seats to serve noodles. Compared with restaurants, the scene is smaller, with four or five tables or one or two tables, and the dishes are mostly stir-fried, which is an occasion to reflect "craftsmanship" and experience "taste". In addition, there are very few scattered seats to provide food for ordinary diners.
Restaurants and restaurants in Qing Dynasty generally have their own specialties, but in contrast, restaurants tend to be ostentatious, while restaurants tend to be tasteful, so if you want to have a good meal with three or five friends, the best choice is to find a good restaurant.
In addition, the amount of cooking in restaurants in the Qing Dynasty was not large, and there were many kinds to taste. Moreover, the relationship between the store and the customer is generally close, so as to satisfy the guests as much as possible, especially when some restaurants meet distinguished guests or regular customers, they will provide extra "dishes" to close the relationship between the guests and the store.
The third kind of place to eat is the restaurant, as the name implies, the pattern of the restaurant is much smaller. If you travel to the early or middle Qing Dynasty and want to order two dishes in a restaurant like modern times, then you may go to a teahouse, where people also sell fried dishes, not restaurants or restaurants. As mentioned above, restaurants and restaurants are mainly made of noodles, so it is definitely inappropriate for you to order two fried dishes at will.
In the late Qing Dynasty, this kind of shop, mainly cooking, was gradually separated from the teahouse, and it was called the rice shop, also known as the "Erhun shop". If you want to grab a few dishes, or grab a drink somewhere, this place is the most suitable.
As for smaller restaurants, most of them sell staple foods, such as steamed buns, pies, pancakes and noodles. , even the cooking is gone. Of course, no matter whether you can cook or not, restaurants are not the place where nobles should set foot.
The fourth place to eat is called a rice stall, which is also a roadside stall. Generally, they sell snacks, especially to the poor.
Anyway, you can still see some differences. After knowing this, you can prepare to cross to the Qing Dynasty to eat!