Puyi once wrote about his diet life in My First Half Life: The emperor eats and there is another set of language, and there is absolutely no mistake. The emperor eats, which is called "eating"; The food eaten by the emperor is called "imperial diet"; The chef who cooks for the emperor is called "Imperial Chef"; Sending meals to the emperor is called "delivering meals"; The kitchen dedicated to the emperor is called "Imperial Chef". In addition to the imperial dining room, there are living dining room, upper dining room, expensive dining room, fragrant dining room, happy dining room and broken dining room in the palace. Although they are all kitchens, they are divided into three or six categories with strict grades.
Puyi's diet has "three stresses": nutrition, taste and style; There are also "two noes": every meal must not be repeated, and it cannot be repeated every day. In this way, the chef has a division of labor such as meat bureau, vegetarian bureau and dim sum bureau, and all kinds of personnel perform their duties. Usually Puyi's meals are: breakfast, lunch, dinner, around 4 pm, and a snack.
According to Xuan Tong's rough list in February, 2004 (that is, a draft menu in March of the Republic of China 1 2000), Puyi's breakfast consists of 27 vegetarian dishes, including "Fat Chicken with Mushroom", "Three Fresh Duck", "Braised Mutton", "Boiled White Meat" and "Braised Tofu". According to Pu Jie, Puyi's younger brother, when Puyi was eating, there was a small red kang table in front of him, supported by a high stool, and then a generous table with various dishes on it. On the left of Puyi, there is a small table with pickles. There are three tables of staple food on the right front, such as heart, rice and porridge. There will be a hot pot in winter.
Burning bear's paw was listed as the first course of the banquet in the middle of Qing Dynasty, and it was a must for the Manchu-Han banquet. In the Qing Dynasty, there were records of cooking bear's paw in the books such as The Secret of Shi Xian Hong, Notes of Xiangzu and Grand View of unofficial history in Qing Dynasty, and there were also many masters in cooking bear's paw in the imperial dining hall in Qing Dynasty. Bear's paw, one of the eight treasures, is one of the four famous dishes in China along with Hericium erinaceus, bird's nest and sea cucumber. Boiling bear's paw is very particular. Fresh products can be used directly. After hair removal, claw removal, bone removal, and repeated stewing, once the hair is completely exposed and the odor such as turpentine is removed, you can start cooking. Frozen products need to be thawed before being used as fresh products; Dry products need to be made by water swelling, softening, decontamination and degreasing. In a sense, this "burning bear's paw" can be described as a contest between "Sichuan chef" and "Imperial chef".
The chef this time is Zhou Haiqiu, a famous chef of Sichuan cuisine. At this time, Zhou Haiqiu's paw is fresh. But he didn't know that the guest who tested the quality of his "burning bear's paw" was the last Chinese emperor Puyi who had eaten countless delicacies. Suddenly someone said, "Please ask Master Zhou to go upstairs." I thought something was wrong and walked into the banquet hall in fear and trembling. Unexpectedly, everyone at the table stood up to welcome him. One of them came up to him with a glass of wine and said, "This is a glass of wine from Mr. Puyi. Please drink! " He had to take the glass and drink it, but he didn't know why Puyi wanted to propose a toast to him. After the banquet, Puyi's entourage told him: "Puyi praised your' roasted bear's paw' for its delicious taste, so I propose a toast to you to show my gratitude. Puyi has eaten bear's paw many times and feels a little fishy. The bear's paw he ate this time satisfied him the most. "
Bear's paw, a dense collagen connective tissue mainly composed of collagen fibers, is a precious raw material with taste effect and a dish with great difficulty in cooking. Generally speaking, the back palm of bear's paw is better than the front palm, and the young palm is better than the old palm. Pay special attention to softness and hardness when puffing wool and cooking claws. Only if the hardness is moderate, it will be smooth and smooth, and it will be comfortable and not greasy. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that bear's paw tastes sweet and salty and enters the spleen and stomach. It has the effects of nourishing qi and blood, expelling pathogenic wind and dampness, and strengthening spleen and stomach, and can be used for treating spleen and stomach weakness, wind-cold-dampness arthralgia and various deficiency diseases.