The court banquet in Song Dynasty was divided into several grades. According to the Records of History of Song Dynasty (volume 1 13), after Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (1023- 103 1), the first-class banquet was in Ying Ji Hall, the second-class banquet was in Chenzi Hall, and the third-class banquet was in Huanggong Hall. "Dream of Liang Lu" and "Dream of Tokyo, Lu Hua" both recorded the first-class banquet held in Ying Ji Hall. Here, according to these two kinds of documents and the records of the History of Song Dynasty, it is briefly relayed as follows:
A first-class banquet is naturally very ostentatious. Before the banquet, "a minister plans to set up a mountain building in the Dianting, like the immortals in Kowloon, the six tributes and the five phoenixes, and the minister frog sings on its side." Decorated with lanterns and colorful curtains, it is not difficult to imagine a luxurious scene. According to the level, all officials and foreign guests sit in the main hall (upper hall), the side hall (blossoming hall) and the corridors on both sides, and the cushions under the buttocks are also strictly classified. Everyone has inedible food in front of his seat. This kind of food is called "watching dishes". There are also different levels of watching. Ordinary people have rice cakes (equivalent to today's dumplings), oil cakes, jujube towers, and pigs, sheep, chickens, geese, rabbits and even flesh and blood.
After the banquet was announced, the royal wine was poured first. There are a series of performances such as ventriloquism, playing music and dancing during the pouring. Every time you drink a glass of wine after drinking, there must be performances of music, dance and acrobatics. All the men and women who participated in the performance wore red scarves and colorful clothes. Song Dynasty stipulated that the whole banquet was usually nine glasses of wine.
The food for drinking is not set out at the beginning, and it is not served until the third cup. What kind of snacks are served? Dream Liang Lu is different from Tokyo dream Lu Hua. "Tokyo Dream" records that the drinks served in Three Lamps District are: meat (probably white meat), salty black beans (such as black beans), fried meat (I don't know whether it is fried meat in oil pan or fried meat in water like today's fried belly), and double hump grooves (probably hump-shaped jiaozi, with two cooking methods: boiling and steaming). The fourth snack is: roast bone (probably roast bone, similar to today's KFC's flesh and blood connection), cable powder (probably twist and so on), white meat, and Hu cake (sesame cake). The dishes and snacks provided by Wujiu are: Qunxian Shao (which may be mutton kebabs with various vegetarian dishes), smallpox cake (which may be a sesame seed cake), Taiping Robbie (a pie), dried rice (fried rice), shredded pork soup (similar to today's West Lake beef soup) and lotus cake. The sixth kind of wine is served with fake giant fish (which may be pasta in the shape of giant fish) and honey-floating crisp flowers (which may be the Japanese cuisine "Tempura" or "Sweet Bula" today). In the seventh lamp, we will provide lamb chops (lamb chops and the like), Hu cakes (sesame cakes) and golden sausages (similar to today's sausages, the color is golden yellow). The eighth cocktail party provides fake sand fish (which may be similar to fake giant fish), single steamed bread (which may be small steamed bread with stuffing) and belly soup. On the ninth lamp are rice with water (porridge) and string rice (shredded pickles and the like).
The first volume of Lu You's Notes on Laoxue Temple also recorded nine kinds of dishes and snacks hosted by Ying Ji Temple for the envoys of the State of Jin, namely: meat, salted black beans, fried meat, lotus seed meat, oil cakes, bones, white meat, Hu cakes, a group of immortals, Taiping, fake fish, flower noodles and so on. The records are brief, but the types of things are similar.
Judging from the names of these dishes and snacks, the materials used in the State Banquet in the Song Dynasty were very common, not only were there no rare delicacies such as bird's nest, bear's paw, ginseng and abalone wings commonly used in high-end hotels today, but even ordinary fish, shrimp and aquatic products were not used. Presumably, the cost should not be very large.
The imperial court is frugal, but corrupt officials are extravagant, such as Cai Jing. It costs more than 1300 yuan to make crab yellow steamed bread at a subordinate's banquet. Cai Jing once entertained a guest and was in high spirits after drinking, so he ordered to take out ten salty and black bean cakes bribed by Jiangxi officials. The guests found that they were all made of yellowbird seeds. At that time, the Cai family had more than 80 kinds of cakes (Du Xing Magazine by Song Zengmin). Another story can reflect the extravagance and waste of Cai's diet from one side: a man bought a woman as a concubine in Beijing (the capital of Song Dynasty, now Kaifeng) and claimed to be the cook of Cai Jing's family. One day, the host asked her to make steamed buns, but she refused. The host asked her, since she worked as a chef in Cai's family, what reason can't she make steamed buns? The woman replied, "I am a person who specializes in cutting shallots in the steamed stuffed bun kitchen." (Record of Luo Songda Jing He Lin Yu). It can be seen that there is a reason why the heroes of the Water Margin only oppose corrupt officials and not the emperor.