Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty especially liked to eat pig's trotters. He often asks the chef in the palace to cook this dish for him. Usually he goes to the harem concubines' house and asks for pig's trotters. When foreigners come to see the Qing Dynasty, Master Qianlong must prepare pig's trotters in the Imperial Chef. In addition, when entertaining ministers, you must also go to the pig's trotters. Also praised the pig's trotters as delicious and let them eat together. It can be said that Emperor Qianlong was obsessed with pig's trotters.
But the pig's trotters that Emperor Qianlong ate were completely different from what we ate today. It's not braised in brown sauce, nor stewed in soybeans. They are just boiled with water and added with a little salt. At that time, this practice was called braised pork. Many people can't eat like this, it's tasteless and greasy, but Emperor Qianlong especially likes to eat like this.
Every time Emperor Qianlong gave a banquet, the ministers were particularly miserable, because they had to eat the pig's trotters that the emperor liked to eat but were hard to swallow. Because it is the imperial meal that Emperor Qianlong likes to eat, and it is for the ministers to eat, so I can't help but eat it. At that time, when attending banquets, many ministers often secretly wrapped the seasoning in glutinous rice or brought some salt, and then wrapped it on pig's trotters when eating, but the taste was only slightly better and it was particularly difficult to swallow, so the ministers were particularly painful. Some ministers also secretly hid the trotters in their robes after biting them off, left their bones on a plate and pretended to have finished eating them, and then lost them at work.
Emperor Qianlong likes to eat delicious pig's trotters and share them with ministers, which is very good, but I didn't expect his practice to get such a response, either thrown away or swallowed.