Since ancient times, people in the Yellow River valley and the Yangtze River valley in China have obvious differences in their eating habits. The diet life of "southern rice north" has always been the habitual diet of our people. At this point, China's cooking, whether in the selection of materials, taste, or in the preparation method, style, have formed their own strong local characteristics. Generally speaking, it can be divided into two types: "southern flavor" and "northern flavor"
1, staple food: natural environment difference-south rice north.
Since ancient times, the north is rich in wheat and the south is rich in rice. Wheat producers, flour is the staple food, while northerners are good at cooking pasta, and there is a saying that "one side eats all kinds". In the production of pasta, there are steaming, frying, frying, roasting, stewing, stewing, marinating and cold salad. You can make it at will, so don't be stingy with the taste.
Since ancient times, working people in the north have cultivated a large number of crop varieties, such as wheat, corn, sorghum, naked oats, buckwheat and so on, which are adapted to the soil and water in the north through long-term family activities and long-term directional cultivation. This provides rich staple food raw materials for the production of northern pasta. Therefore, people in the north are very rich in all kinds of foods with flour and miscellaneous grains as the main raw materials. The daily food of northerners is rolls, noodles, sugar packets and cakes. Its pasta is not only exquisite in production technology, but also smooth and tender in taste. It is called Lamian Noodles, Daoxiao Noodles, Daoxiao Noodles and Fish Noodles, which are the four major pasta dishes in the north, and is deeply loved by people of all ethnic groups in the north. Not only do they eat pasta every day, but almost every family cooks pasta.
Jingjiang River is south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, facing the lake, and is rich in rice and aquatic products. For a long time, most of the working people here have taken rice as their staple food, and rice noodles, cakes, jiaozi, fried piles and other flavor foods are all made of rice. Southerners believe that pasta can only be used as a snack. The food they make changes with the seasons and the customs of the masses. Such as all kinds of dumplings, square cakes, cakes, muffins, rice cakes, radish cakes, glutinous rice cakes, fried sugar rings and so on. , is the favorite of local people.
In terms of folk festivals, there are also great differences in eating reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. Eating jiaozi in the north is inseparable from pasta. Jiaozi is shaped like an ingot and sounds like "making friends". New Year's Eve has the double auspicious significance of making money and making friends. In the south, rice cakes and fish are necessities to keep old. The rice cake is made of glutinous rice and glutinous rice mixed into powder, which means "high every year", while the fish contains the double meanings of "more than every year" and evil spirits.
2. Cooking: Social environment difference-fine in the south and heavy in the north.
One side of the soil and water support one side. The influence of the natural climate in the north and south makes the social environment in the north and south different. Generally speaking, the diet in the south is more refined, while the diet in the north is rougher. There are regional changes in biodiversity. The temperature in the north drops, and the number of biological species decreases. With the temperature rising in the south, the number of biological species is also increasing. Where there are abundant biological species, there are abundant food types. Winter in northern China is very long, and people mainly live on Chinese cabbage and radish stored in winter. One of the top ten monsters in Northeast China is "pickled sauerkraut in a big jar and a small jar". Pickled sauerkraut is a good way to store Chinese cabbage. The south is evergreen, and there is no "dead winter". Rich food raw materials are the foundation of meticulous work. Differences in economic life, cultural life and personality between the north and the south also have a great influence on diet.
I often hear a big word in the northeast. Manchu folk song: "carry a long bow, ride a big horse, and hang a big wine gourd around your waist." The environment is big forests, grasslands, big oil fields and big factories. They are called big girls, big boys and big men. Related to eating are green onions, big sauces, big cakes, big steamed buns, Chinese cabbage, eating meat with big mouths and drinking in big bowls. "There are 200 grams of steamed bread, half a meter of fried dough sticks, potatoes as big as a baby's head and thick vermicelli as thick as chopsticks. This restaurant has a large menu. Not only is the plate large, but the quantity is also sufficient. The same dish, Harbin can be more than three times that of the south. " Northeasters come to Jiangnan and don't like the small bowls and saucers there. They don't have enough to eat. Stewing is a common cooking method in Northeast China. Everything is stewed, without complicated procedures, colors and shapes, which saves worry and effort. Even if you eat soup with meat, you are happy.
The sea bowl commonly used by farmers in Shaanxi has a capacity of 2 liters and is shaped like half a basketball. Chaozhou people's cup for drinking Kung Fu tea is as thin as paper, as white as jade, and it sounds like a chime. Its capacity is only 4 ml, and it is shaped like half a table tennis ball. The difference between the two is 50 times. The diet in the south is meticulous, and the meat is cut thin and neatly coded. Dim sum sketches in the southeast region are exquisite, and street snacks are colorful. In Jiangsu, eels can cook more than 100 different dishes; A swordfish can be made into a swordfish feast. Note: "If the steamed bread you make is as big as a walnut, it should be eaten in a steamer. You can clip a pair of cards. The matter of Yangzhou is also. Yangzhou has the best fermentation, with less than half an inch of hands and high relaxation. Small wonton is as small as longan and served with chicken soup. "
3. Taste: Differences in cultural environment-sweet in the south and salty in the north.
Since ancient times, there have been different tastes and characteristics in different parts of China. Judging from the cooking history of China, there are only two earliest local cuisines, namely southern cuisines and northern cuisines. The food raw materials reflected in The Book of Songs are mainly pigs, cattle and sheep, and only a few aquatic products such as carp and bream represent the northern flavor from Qin Jin in the west to Qilu and the Yellow River valley in the east. However, most of the food raw materials reflected in "Singing in the South" are aquatic products and poultry, which have the southern flavor of the Yangtze River basin. This is a clear dividing line. The difference between the north and the south is not limited to raw materials, but also people's dietary tastes are very different. In the Qing Dynasty, Qian Yong said in "Luyuan Conghua": "The north is strong and the south is weak." There are several versions of Wei Ge circulating all over China. For example, "the southern taste is sweet, the northern taste is salty, the eastern food is spicy, and the western food is sour." Spicy taste is widely accepted, and spicy taste is unique to Sichuan. Less crispy and exciting, old and rotten. Autumn and winter are strong, and spring and summer are light. "
Sweet in the south and salty in the north is a natural feature of China people's diet, which mainly reflects the influence of the environment on people's diet taste. The humidity in the south is high, the human body evaporates less, there is no need to add too much salt, and sugar cane is rich, so southerners love sweets. The north is dry, and the evaporation of human body is large, so it needs more salt and likes salty taste. In addition, the northern climate is cold, and people are used to eating salty and greasy dishes. When the climate in the south is hot, people tend to have a light diet; Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan and Guizhou are rainy and humid, so people can only eat spicy food to drive away wind and dampness. These are all natural requirements for the body. Only in this way can we achieve physical balance and ensure health.
Shanxi people love sour taste. The water in the Loess Plateau contains a lot of calcium, and acetic acid can help calcium precipitate and prevent stones in the body. Shanxi people love sauerkraut, especially Yanbei. "Everything is sour, radish and cabbage are reduced, including poplar leaves and elm money. When someone came to propose to the girl, the mother first asked: How many sauerkraut jars are there in that family? There are many acid tanks, indicating that the family is thick. "
4. Customs: Differences in ethnic environment-glutinous rice in the south and milk in the north.
Judging from the diets of many ethnic minorities in China, the influence of regional environment and climatic conditions and the differences in lifestyles in specific environments have created different styles and characteristics of the diets of various ethnic groups in China. Although the diets of different ethnic groups are quite different, on the whole, there is a common dividing line between ethnic groups, that is, the distribution of ethnic groups whose main food is milk food and those whose main food is rice. From the northeast to the southwest, there seems to be a diagonal line separating them, while from the north Korea region in the northeast to Yunnan and southern Tibet, it just forms a crescent-shaped winding line. The people who mainly eat milk are basically distributed in the north, and the people who mainly eat rice (glutinous rice in ancient times) are basically distributed in the south. "Milk in the North" and "Glutinous Rice in the South" can summarize the dietary characteristics of ethnic minorities in China. At the junction of these two areas, there is a way to cook Gu Mi's "milk porridge" with milk [6].
Today, the typical herding nationalities in China are mainly Kazaks and Mongolians in pastoral areas. According to ancient literature, the dietary characteristics of nomadic ethnic groups such as Kazakhs and Mongolians are "no food", that is, there is not a grain in their diet. Today, milk and meat still account for a large proportion in the diet of these two ethnic groups. The varieties of milk food eaten by the northern nationalities are rich and colorful. Dairy food is divided into two categories: food and drink. Milk foods include milk skin, cheese, cream, white oil, milk tofu, milk cake, milk fruit, milk cake, yogurt bumps, milk porridge and so on. Milk drinks include yogurt, milk tea, butter tea, koumiss, milk wine (milk wine) and so on.
In China, Ewenki, Daur, Tu, Yugur, Tajik, Tibetan, Russian, Uygur, Tatar and Kirgiz also drink milk. The main food consumed by these ethnic groups is milk, followed by horse milk and camel milk.
In southern China, the ethnic groups whose staple food is rice are Korean, She, Zhuang, Maonan, Mulao, Miao, Yao, Li, Yi, Hani, Lahu, Jinuo, Jingpo, Achang, Bai, Qiang, Wa, De 'ang and Dai. Except the Korean nationality, all the other nationalities here are located in the south of the Yangtze River. Considering that the rice culture on the Korean peninsula spread from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, this is also the development of the "Nannuo" diet. Among these ethnic groups, Zhuang, Buyi, Dong and Dai are the most representative. These ethnic groups belong to Baiyue in history, and Baiyue distribution area is the area where wild rice and cultivated rice originated in China. Representative foods include rice cakes, various glutinous rice, two-in-one rice and glutinous rice cakes.