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Dragon Boat Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. Besides dragon boat racing, hanging calamus and eating wormwood cakes, eating zongzi is also a very pleasant activity.
According to historical records, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Emperor Qianlong's diet was very elegant, and he had strict requirements on the variety, origin and cooking methods of meat, fish and vegetables, and eating zongzi was no exception. He asked the chef in the imperial chef to choose high-quality glutinous rice, pork, salted egg yolk and fresh Biluochun Longjing tea when preparing the ingredients of Zongzi, in order to let Yukou taste the most authentic taste of Zongzi.
Enjoy zongzi when you are dry, and the chef of the Imperial Chef will put the prepared zongzi in front of the dish. This is because Emperor Qianlong thought that zongzi looked like a dragon boat, and they should be placed in the most conspicuous position to convey the festive atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival.
In addition to the ingredients and layout details of the chef, there are some tips for eating zongzi. For example, Emperor Qianlong loves to add Biluochun Longjing tea when he eats zongzi. The aroma of tea can be soaked in zongzi, which tastes better. At the same time, tea can also relieve the greasy taste and make it more refreshing.
In modern times, with the changes of the times, people's tastes and practices for zongzi are slowly changing. The spirit of paying attention to the quality of ingredients and small details like Emperor Qianlong is still worth cherishing.
During the Qianlong period, zongzi were offered during the Dragon Boat Festival, and a "zongzi mat" was set up to show that people and gods shared delicious zongzi. On the Dragon Boat Festival, the palace ate nothing but zongzi, so it was called "Zongzi mat". Ordinary people eat zongzi, three or two at a time is enough, but before emperor Qianlong, more than 1000 zongzi should be put for him to enjoy.
According to the food list recorded in the eighteenth year of Qianlong, there were 1276 zongzi on the dining table of Emperor Qianlong, piled up like a hill! In addition, 400 zongzi should be placed on the queen's desk, and the rest, such as the empress dowager and concubines, are not well treated. There are 650 zongzi on their desk.