As the saying goes, "Food is the most important thing for the people", and eating is the top priority in life. Just like a book about local history, there must be an introduction to local food culture. Because food culture is an important part and reference of a regional culture. The members of our group come from two different areas, Yangzhou and Yancheng, and have great interest in each other's culture. But "regional culture" is really a very broad word, covering a wide range, so we decided to reflect the richness of regional culture from one side-food culture.
The local food culture is the concrete creation of human long-term adaptation to the environment. It has accumulated thousands of years of ancient cultural thoughts, expressed the homesickness language of civil society, reflected the comprehensive influence of regional society, economy and culture under certain historical conditions, including food flavor, manners and etiquette, formation and development, and also reflected the interaction between geographical environment and human activities from one side.
Speaking of eating, Yangzhou's eating has long been praised by the world. As the saying goes, "Eat in Yangzhou, wear in Suzhou and play in Hangzhou", it can be seen that Yangzhou people have long been famous for their exquisite diet. Yangzhou's food culture is rich in regional, folk and social environment factors, and it also brings infinite glory and pride to Yangzhou. It is a shining golden signboard. In the course of history, Yangzhou's food culture has been enriched and enriched, and later the intervention of literati was the catalyst for Yangzhou cuisine to reach its peak in the middle of Qing Dynasty. The involvement of literature in Yangzhou cuisine can be traced back to Han Fu, Tang Poetry and Song Poetry, especially in the Qing Dynasty. Now we can enjoy more than 200 poems about the history of diet, dishes, banquets and food customs in the Qing Dynasty, which makes the style of Huaiyang cuisine more elegant and the cultural taste greatly improved.
The ancestors of Yangzhou had already got rid of the ignorance of eating animals and drinking blood as early as 4000 years ago. In 468 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, destroyed the ancient Han Dynasty, dug a Han ditch and built Seoul, which was of epoch-making significance not only to the urban construction of Yangzhou, but also to Yangzhou's cooking.
Yangzhou food is divided into two parts: Yangzhou cuisine and Yangzhou snacks. The main characteristics of Yangzhou cuisine are: strict selection of materials, meticulous knife work, prominent main ingredients, attention to original flavor, attention to pyrotechnics, good at stewing, mellow soup, thick but not greasy, light and fresh, unique shape, slightly salty and sweet, suitable for both north and south. Yangzhou chefs are good at food carving. Yangzhou cuisine is also represented by three heads in Yangzhou: the red chamber banquet, the three-headed banquet and the whole lotus root banquet. These are the three pearls of Yangzhou cuisine.
The banquet in A Dream of Red Mansions is an innovation of dishes. The author Cao Xueqin has lived in Yangzhou for a long time, and his grandfather Cao Yin once hosted a banquet for Liu Sibai when he went to Yangzhou to meet Emperor Kangxi. Mr. Feng Qiyong, President of the Red Cross Society of China, wrote after eating Yangzhou's classic food "A Dream of Red Mansions Banquet": "The world food belongs to Yangzhou, and three sets of ducks stew silver carp heads. Last night, there was a new banquet in the Red Chamber, and Kyushu was gluttonous. " And exclaimed: "The red chamber cuisine is really the system of Yangzhou cuisine." Zhang Qijun, a famous gourmet in Taiwan Province, also predicted that "1,400 years of prosperity will eventually make Yangzhou the center of life enjoyment in the south; Its dishes have become representatives of southern cuisine. "
Three-head banquet is a banquet developed from three famous traditional dishes in Yangzhou: braised silver carp head, stewed lion head and roasted whole pig head. Silver carp head tastes mellow, lion head is fat and tender but not greasy, and the whole pig head is full of fragrance, which is full of local flavor.
Baoying, known as the water town and lotus root town since ancient times, has innovated more than 50 kinds of lotus root dishes according to the ancestral production method, forming a unique lotus root mat. This dish launched by Baoying Hotel has been welcomed and praised by Chinese and foreign guests.
Yangzhou's famous dishes include eight-treasure gourd, roast pig's head, Yangzhou lion's head, boiled dried silk, three sets of ducks and a series of other dishes. You must try them.
Babel gourd, this dish is named after it looks like a gourd. The whole duck is boneless, and eight kinds of fillings, such as glutinous rice, fresh peas, cooked ham, lotus seeds and lilies, are brewed into gourd shapes, steamed and put on a plate.
Roasting the whole pig's head is to remove the bones and hairs from the fresh pig's head, cut it from the middle, wash it, put it in a pot, add seasonings such as soy sauce, salt and rock sugar, and cook it until it is rotten. The finished product of this dish should be "crisp and rotten without losing its shape", with bright red color, fat and sweet taste, soft and mellow entrance, oily but not greasy, rich aroma, salty and sweet taste and extraordinary flavor.
There are two kinds of lion heads in Yangzhou. The first kind is braised lion's head, which is red and bright in color, attractive in fragrance, fat but not greasy, and melts in the mouth. It is suitable for all ages in Xian Yi. The other is stewed lion's head with crab powder. The meat is tender, the crab powder is fresh and fragrant, and the marinade is mellow.
"Boiled dried silk", also known as "boiled dried silk in chicken sauce", is a refreshing and nutritious delicacy. Its delicious flavor has always been praised as delicious on the table, and it is a housekeeping dish in Huaiyang cuisine. The raw material is mainly Huaiyang square dried bean curd, and the requirements of knife work are extremely fine. After cooking, the fresh flavor of various condiments is compounded into dried tofu, which is extremely rare and delicious. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan six times, and local officials in Yangzhou once "loved Qianlong" with "Nine Silk Soups".
Three sets of ducks are simply domestic ducks with wild ducks and wild ducks with pigeons. Domestic duck meat is delicious, wild duck meat is tight and fragrant, pigeon meat is loose and tender. The soup is fresh, spicy and multi-flavored, which complement each other and become delicious in winter. As the saying goes, "It is better to eat one or two birds than half a catty of animals." Three birds eat together, adding freshness in freshness and beauty in beauty, and its taste is absolutely unique. The high nutritional value can be imagined.
Let's take a look at the snacks in Yangzhou. The top ten points are: Sanding Steamed Bun, Melaleuca Oil Cake, Double Sesame Cake, Emerald Steamed Bun, Dried Vegetable Steamed Bun, Wild Duck Cabbage Steamed Dumpling, Glutinous Rice Steamed Dumpling, Crab Steamed Dumpling, Cecer Steamed Dumpling and Shredded Chicken Roll. The top ten flavor snacks are: bamboo shoot pot stickers, Yangzhou cakes, crab shell yellow, fried eggs, salty pot stickers, radish crisp cakes, shredded chicken rolls, three fresh pot stickers, sweet-scented osmanthus sugar lotus root porridge and three-color oil dumplings. The top ten special snacks are: Sixi jiaozi, raw lotus root clip, tofu roll, bamboo shoots, red bean jiaozi, Wuren cake, scallion cake, Huangqiao biscuit, shrimp dumplings and bamboo shoot wonton. I have to mention two famous teahouses in Yangzhou-Fuchun Teahouse and Ye Chun Teahouse. The traditional name of Fuchun Tea House, "Sandingbao", was rated as a special food and won the Golden Top Award for quality products of the Ministry of Commerce. Melaleuca oil cake and jadeite are known as "Yangzhou double wonders". The fragrant tea "Kuilongzhu" sold in Ye Chun Teahouse is made from Zhu Lan in Yangzhou, Longjing in Zhejiang and Kuizhen in Anhui. At the same time, Huaiyang is the main food and snacks, such as soup dumplings, roasted scallion oil, steamed dumplings, shredded pork and so on.
Speaking of Yancheng, there are also many delicious foods that are famous and mouth-watering. Three meals a day, stir-fry and stir-fry, the established folk diet custom, looks extremely relaxed and anyone can cook it, but if you want to eat delicious food, you have to pay attention to some cooking skills. Yancheng's food culture is also very rich, and the recipes mainly inherit Weiyang cuisine, mainly soup, which is salty. Cooking skills are varied, but everyone feels vulgar. The following cooking customs are mainly used by households.
Cooking is a common cooking custom in local folk families. It is a method of using hot oil and fire to quickly stir-fry raw materials in a pot. This kind of cooking is relatively simple, especially suitable for cooking small dishes such as silk, chips, strips and diced at home, so it is commonly used in general families.
Frying is a common cooking method. The main ingredients are fried with a small amount of oil. Many families like to make meat food in this way.
Burning is a cooking custom that most families pay attention to. Suitable for dried animals and plants and other raw materials, often used to make braised pork and braised fish, with good color and delicious taste.
Frying is a method of frying raw materials in a hot oil pan, and it is also one of the more exquisite cooking customs of local families. Generally, after frying, add spices such as salt and pepper, sauce and pepper, such as fried chicken legs.
Slipping is the method of using oil or boiling, and then using seasoning sauce to slip, such as sweet and sour fish and seafood crispy rice. A few families will make this method.
Stir-frying is also a common cooking custom in folk families. It is named because of the urgency of fire and the concentration of oil. Suitable for crispy boneless raw materials, such as fried prawns, kung pao chicken and shredded pork with chopped green onion.
Stewing is a cooking custom that local families often make soup. Suitable for raw materials that are not easily cooked and need to be simmered for a long time, such as stewed turtle, stewed old hen soup, casserole, old duck pot and so on.
Mixing is mainly used for raw and cooked lettuce that can be directly eaten. It is a common custom for local families to make cold dishes. Such as cold cucumber, cold celery and so on.
Lotus root glutinous rice balls are local delicacies in Yanfu area with a history of more than 200 years. Lotus root dumplings can be used as both seasonal snacks and banquet delicacies. They are characterized by smooth and uniform outer layer, transparent dark brown color, sweet and refreshing stuffing, rich osmanthus flavor in soup and delicious taste.
Funing cake, also known as jade belt cake, is produced in Funing, Jiangsu Province. High-quality glutinous rice, pure sugar, refined oil and high-grade candied fruit are selected and processed in proportion. Its strip shape is complete, angular, uniform in thickness and uniform in size. Funing pie has the characteristics of white color, thin slice, moist, soft and waxy, affordable and instant burning. But it is not suitable for long-term storage. Sweet taste, rich nutrition, suitable for all ages.