China's cooking is culture, science and art, and Huaiyang cuisine is one of its great crystallization, which is also the main embodiment of the essential characteristics of China's cooking "taking taste as the core and taking nourishment as the purpose". Looking back on China's long cooking history, apart from Shandong, Sichuan and Guangdong, it is the only Huaiyang cuisine known as the first of the eight major cuisines.
Huaiyang cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and Guangdong cuisine are also called the four major cuisines in China. Huaiyang cuisine, which began in the Spring and Autumn Period, flourished in Sui and Tang Dynasties and flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties, is known as "the best in southeast China and the best in the world". Many iconic banquets featured Huaiyang cuisine: 1949 the first banquet in founding ceremony, People's Republic of China (PRC), 1999 the 50th anniversary banquet of People's Republic of China (PRC), and the banquet hosted by General Secretary Jiang in 2002 for US President George W. Bush, all featured Huaiyang cuisine.
Huaiyang cuisine is the general name of the flavor dishes in Huai 'an (now Chuzhou), Yangzhou and Zhenjiang. Huaiyang cuisine was formed in Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in Qing Dynasty. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huai 'an (now Chuzhou District of Huai 'an City) and Yangzhou were both famous metropolises in China, and both had their own food culture traditions. Huai cuisine is one of the four major cuisines in China, which was famous throughout the country during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huai cuisine and Yang cuisine began to penetrate each other and gradually merged, and the northern and southern flavors merged in one furnace, forming a unified cuisine.
Another said: At that time, this area belonged to Huaiyang Road, and the government ruled in Yang Shan (now Chuzhou), so it was called Huaiyang.
Huai 'an, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang are located in the north and south of the Yangtze River, next to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Geographically, they are important transportation hubs connecting the north, south, east and west, and have been rich land of fish and rice since ancient times. Huai 'an and Yangzhou were quite prosperous as early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, Huai 'an and Yangzhou not only developed cultural exchanges, but also understood that Huai 'an and Yangzhou were already concentrated consumption areas at that time! The fame of Huaiyang cuisine can be traced back to 1000 years ago. Like the development and heyday of the cultural exchange between Huai 'an and Yangzhou, it experienced the Tang and Qing dynasties and reached its peak in the Kanggan period of the Qing Dynasty. During the frequent southern tours of the two emperors, it made several stops in Huai 'an and Yangzhou. During the Qianlong period, Huaiyang cuisine became one of the four major cuisines in China.
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Cultural origin
Huaiyang cuisine can be found in the literature, starting with "Huaihai only has Yangzhou" in Shangshu. From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han and Jin Dynasties, Yangzhou has always been a "cooked food" in history. Sui and Tang Dynasties and Ming and Qing Dynasties were particularly prosperous. Especially after the Grand Canal was dug, Yangzhou became a land and water transportation hub for salt water transportation, material distribution and import and export ports, and once ranked third among the top ten cities in the world with a population of over 600,000. As a result, all directions gathered, sails and walls lined up, merchants gathered, and the economy and culture were highly developed, which was called "Yang Yier" in history. In addition, Yangzhou is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, east longitude 120 degrees, north latitude about 33 degrees, with a suitable climate and rich products. Located in the river network area, the animals and plants are fresh, such as fresh crucian carp, purple crab, green onion, ginger bud and duck eggs mentioned in Su Dongpo's poem "A Little Tour to Yangzhou", and fresh bamboo shoots, shad, "crabs wrapped in bamboo baskets, shrimps packed in bamboo cages and fish pierced with wicker" described in Zheng Banqiao's poems abound; Seafood producing areas are also close at hand. These constitute the strength of distinctive cooking materials. With its geographical advantages of distribution and concentration, it can extract the essence of Wu Chu's cooking skills and concentrated food culture. It not only exercises exquisite cooking skills such as knife skills and fire skills that amaze the world, but also brews the flavor characteristics of "fresh and peaceful, rich and pure, moderately salty and sweet, suitable for both north and south" that can adapt to all directions. As a result, there are many delicious foods, full of beautiful scenery, full of praise for poems and songs, and it is even more difficult to enumerate celebrity poems. The "Manchu-Han Banquet", once known as "Southeast Cuisine", was also first seen in Yangzhou Painting Boat Record. It is on the basis of this historical background and economic status that Huaiyang cuisine was born, and its profound food culture is unparalleled in the world. Therefore, it has already established its position as the main flavor food in China.
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Flavor characteristics
Huaiyang is located at the intersection of north and south, where land and water meet. Huai 'an (mainly Chuzhou District of Huai 'an today) was also a famous metropolis in Ming and Qing Dynasties. From the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Yangzhou was one of the most prosperous cities in China. Therefore, Huaiyang cuisine has the following characteristics:
The taste is fresh and peaceful, salty and sweet, moderate in shade, suitable for both north and south. Moreover, the selection of Huaiyang cuisine pays special attention to freshness; Fine production, pay attention to knife work, especially melon carving is well known; The seasoning is light and delicious, emphasizing the original flavor, paying attention to the soup, and the flavor is fresh; Bright colors, refreshing and pleasing to the eye; Beautiful shape, unique and novel, vivid and realistic.
There are many dishes and a huge system.
Fine workmanship, special attention to knife work, pay attention to the modeling and carving of dishes. Good color, fragrance and shape.
The selection of materials pays attention to seasonal freshness, and the proportion of raw materials is fresh river. "Drunken crabs don't watch the lights, pheasants don't watch the lights, swordfish don't watch Tomb-Sweeping Day, and sturgeon don't watch the Dragon Boat Festival." Make good use of heat energy in cooking, and be good at stewing, stewing, stewing, steaming, roasting and frying.
Elegant style. Yangzhou is famous for its thin-skinned, juicy and delicious snacks. As the saying goes, "Sichuan food tastes better".
Most of the raw materials are aquatic products, which are fresh, mild, fresh and slightly sweet. Famous dishes include stewed crab powder and lion's head, boiled dried silk, three-piece duck, crystal meat (pictured), Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish, crisp eel in Liangxi and so on. Its dishes are exquisite and elegant.
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Huaian cuisine
Huai 'an (now Chuzhou) is known as Huainan, and Huai 'an is called "the first male state in southeast China" by poets. Huai cuisine refers to Huai 'an (now Chuzhou District) and Huaiyin (now Huai 'an City), and the cuisines in Huaibei City are collectively called, with Huai cuisine as the representative. Shangshu records that there was a tribute of fish in the Xia Dynasty, which seems to be the original literature record of Huai cuisine and even Huaiyang cuisine. Huai cuisine is one of the four classic cuisines in China, which was famous all over the country in Sui and Tang Dynasties. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development of Huaiyang banquet reached a climax. The Annals of Huai 'an recorded in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty: "Huai 'an has a luxurious diet, sophisticated system, full of goods in the market, and praised the river table. This "system" includes the norms and rules of catering. In the Records of Huai 'an Prefecture during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, it was recorded: "To the north of the Minjiang River, the banquet was full of treasures, and Huai 'an was the best. Folk or extended guests, the abbot's display, mixed music words, unique taste, and the cost of the banquet. "During the Qianlong and Jiaqing years, there were many records about Huaiyang Banquet.
Mei Cheng (now a native of Huai 'an, Jiangsu) was a great poet in the Western Han Dynasty. In his masterpiece "Seven Hairs", there is a passage to persuade the king of Chu to taste delicious food, praising the delicious food in his hometown Jianghuai as "the best in the world": the cows are rich and the vegetables are bamboo shoots. The sum of fat dogs, goat skin. The food in Chu Temple is Juan's food. I don't understand, and it will be scattered after a sip. So yiyi felt uncomfortable and yiya reconciled. The diaphragm of the bear's paw net is peony sauce. Roasted in thin soup, roasted in fresh carp. Autumn and yellow are vegetarian, and dew is ru. Lan Ying's wine, wash your mouth. A meal on the ridge, a baby of a leopard. Small meals and big sips are like soup and snow. This is also the most beautiful in the world ... The recipes described at the family banquet at that time used many cooking methods, such as frying, boiling, roasting and stewing. Based on the five flavors, we make the paws with rotten sauce, the thin brand of roasted animal tenderloin, fresh shredded carp and fresh vegetables, and gargle luxuriously with topaz perilla and orchids soaked in wine, so "seven hairs" is not so much an allegory.
Huai cuisine is rigorous in material selection and artistry based on materials; Fine production and elegant style; Pursue original flavor, freshness and peace. "Drunken crabs don't watch the lights, pheasants don't watch the lights, swordfish don't watch Tomb-Sweeping Day, and sturgeon don't watch the Dragon Boat Festival." This principle of changing with time ensures that the ingredients on the plate come from the best state, and people can experience the wonderful Huai cuisine at any time.
Huai cuisine is very particular about swordsmanship, which is fine, especially melon carving. The dishes are exquisite in shape and mellow in taste; Make good use of heat in cooking, pay attention to firepower, and be good at stewing, stewing, stewing, steaming, burning and frying; Most of the raw materials are aquatic products, which are fresh, mild, fresh and slightly sweet. Famous dishes include stewed crab powder lion's head, boiled dried silk, three-piece set of duck, crystal meat dish, squirrel squid and so on. Its dishes are exquisite and elegant.
People's Republic of China (PRC)'s founding Prime Minister Zhou Enlai loved Huaiyang cuisine in his hometown all his life and always cared about its development. After liberation, Zhou Enlai lived in the West Flower Hall of Zhongnanhai, and still maintained a simple diet habit during the war years: most of the dishes were Huaiyang dishes, mainly vegetarian dishes. The raw materials of meat dishes are mainly fish, meat and shrimp, and chickens eat very little, which is said to easily get angry. Master An Zhenchang, who once cooked in Zhou Enlai's home, said that people in Zhou Enlai like Huaiyang cuisine and cakes: Pingqiao tofu, fried mushrooms with green vegetables, crispy eel (equivalent to soft-pocked long fish), tomato fillets, carp radish soup, stewed lion's head, pickled mustard tuber spring rolls, Huai 'an soup dumplings and so on.
Since 2002, Huai 'an has held the "China Huaiyang Cuisine Culture Festival" at the end of September1early October every year, which has promoted and developed Huaiyang cuisine.
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Yangzhou cuisine
There is a saying in Shangshu Gong Yu that the Huaihai area is Yangzhou. Later "Weiyang" was used to refer to Yangzhou. Therefore, Yang cuisine is also called Weiyang cuisine. It should be said that a history of Weiyang cuisine is a history of Yangzhou people's survival, struggle and development; It is also a Yangzhou cultural history! From low to high, from rough to exquisite, from depression to glory, is the basic context of Weiyang's cooking history.
As early as about 4000 years ago, the ancestors of Yangzhou had already got rid of the ignorance of eating animals and drinking blood, and surpassed the primitive budding era of Fuxi burning meat and Shennong burning valley, and cooked food on the fire with ceramic cookers! The pottery age can be regarded as the formation period of Yangzhou cooking. Yangzhou entered the ancient Han Dynasty, that is, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains. Bronze Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
"Li Zhouzhi Local Records" records: "Yangzhou is in the southeast ... its valley is suitable for rice", which shows that Yangzhou is a natural land of fish and rice. These are enough to prove that Yangzhou cooking about 3000 years ago has entered the bronze culture era.
In 468 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, destroyed the ancient Han kingdom, dug Han ditch and built Seoul, which was of epoch-making value not only to Yangzhou urban construction, but also to Yangzhou cooking. The record of "Wu Wang Guan Hu" in Zhou Li and the "hard seal" unearthed in Jinba, northwest of the city show that Fuxi introduced a whole set of dietary experience in the late Spring and Autumn Period. This is the first work that foreign food culture has influenced Yangzhou cooking.
The battle between the seven heroes in the Warring States period led to the return of Yangzhou cuisine to Chu, and Yangzhou cuisine strode to the realm of civilization, winning the title of "Huaiyang cuisine in East Chu".
After Qin Dynasty, Yangzhou realized the transformation from natural division to administrative division. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, the king of Wu, established Guangling as the capital of southeast China, hence the name "Huaizuo Du Ming". Because of the benefit of cooking salt and casting copper, the financial resources are extensive, and the literati and the country are spared. Bao Zhao's "Wu Chengfu" says: "In the heyday of the past, cars hung on their shoulders and people drove them. What is wrong with punishment? Grazing? Naturally, I am not hungry, and then I have to eat well when I am full. The bronze ding unearthed from Han tombs in the suburbs of Yangzhou, as well as lacquered utensils such as bowls, plates, pots and spoons, are all very exquisite, which not only tells us that the development and research of tableware in Yangzhou is in a leading position in the country and has its own personality; But also reflects the diet of Yangzhou people at that time.
The rotary stone mill unearthed in Fenghuang River in Yangzhou indicates that wheat flour can be processed in the Han Dynasty, outlines the main staple food structure of Yangzhou, and reveals the long history of Yangzhou's exquisite pastry raw materials. "Yangzhou has a luxury since ancient times, and smoke and the moon are everywhere." Although the restaurants in the Eastern Han Dynasty were small in scale, the swaying "wine" shops and the famous flag dish "sashimi" clearly told people that the curtain of the development of Huaiyang cuisine has been opened! Therefore, Xie Jinxuan, who was later appointed as Guangling's photo in Yangzhou, personally made fish sticks and sent them to Henan to honor his wife.
In the Sui Dynasty, Yangzhou cooking achieved a second-to-none leap in the world! Thanks to one person-Emperor Yang Di. The ancient canal connects the five major water systems of the sea, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River and the Guizhou River, and immediately promotes Yangzhou to the position of the national hub for the exchange of cooking talents, skills and raw materials. Beans, wheat and miscellaneous grains in the north go south, and grain, tea, fruit, salt and aquatic products in the south go north, all of which will enter Yangcheng. On the other hand, Yang Di was lucky in Jiangdu. He brought Central Plains cuisine from Chang 'an and Luoyang to Yangcheng Sui Palace with the dragon boat, and then spread it to folk restaurants. What's more, in the place where the sail wall suddenly passes, "a hundred sheep are cooked for wine at night", and the prefectures and counties pay tribute to delicacies, and the chefs deliberately fight. It is reported that the food paid at that time was fish, crab and honey ginger; In history, local officials gave a banquet to present treasures, and Zhao Yuankai was favored by his peculiar smell, so he was promoted to Jiangdu County Chief. To what extent are dragon boat banquets and labyrinth banquets luxurious? From the 53 famous dishes recorded in the Book of Songs in the Sui Dynasty, we can get a glimpse of the information. As a result, Yangzhou chefs have experienced wind and rain, seen the world and absorbed the essence, and their overall skill level has been upgraded from the "quasi-advanced" of the Han Dynasty governors to the highest "emperor level" of the Sui Dynasty. According to Gu Tao's Qing Louis in the Five Dynasties, they created famous dishes such as "Golden Dragon, Phoenix and Crab". The cooking industry in Yangzhou prospered because Emperor Yang Di lived in Yangzhou, but the wine glasses did not decline because Emperor Yang Di was buried in Yangzhou.
Yangzhou, located in the throat of the Maritime Silk Road north to Beijing, developed into the southeast economic center in the Tang Dynasty. The bright moon is very important in the world, and Yangzhou accounts for two points! "Every businessman meets his wife at sunset, and the spring breeze and wine of a city merge." Yangzhou's food market is stimulated to be hot and its cooking skills are superb. Citizens and foreign businessmen are "extremely rich, riding cranes to Yangzhou". Why? Li Bai's poem said, "Jade bottles sell alcohol, between cups and lamps." The excavation of marine fish fossils in Yangzhou in Tang Dynasty shows that cooking materials have changed from livestock, poultry, seafood and wild vegetables to seafood! Drinking tea has also become the favorite of Yangzhou people. In the Tang Dynasty, the notebook novel "You Xian Lu in Yucheng" once described Guangling drying tea, "selling a cup of tea to the city every denier". Yangzhou's delicious food has attracted great attention of the royal family and become a first-class tribute. When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei appeased An Lushan, they gave gifts to the palace, including Yangzhou's "flat-mouthed golden spoon". All these factors make Huaiyang cuisine develop to a new peak.