Gu Qingsheng's collection of essays on food culture "Talking about China Cuisine"

China people who dare to eat

cultural monosodium glutamate

China people eat concepts. Or in a popular way: eating culture. This makes the diet problem social (even artistic), not just a physical activity.

Japanese people are full of food all day, so naturally, the process of drinking tea is also refined into a tea ceremony close to philosophy, which means seeking truth in the breeze, bright moon, flower arrangement and utensils. China people are even more remarkable. They regard three meals a day as conscientious homework, and take pains to pursue the amazing artistic effect. "It's delicious!" It is a popular compliment. Therefore, the piety of gourmets is no less than that of painters or sculptors, and their experience of beauty is even more comprehensive: color, fragrance and taste-even the hidden tongue is mobilized and becomes a tool for appreciation.

When a big dish is put on the table in an orderly way, it's like opening a curtain over a certain artwork, and one or two heartfelt cheers can be heard from time to time-of course, this is what the chef hiding in the background is looking forward to. The guests toasted each other as if they were having a small ribbon-cutting ceremony. Then they did their jobs and waved chopsticks frequently. Jin Shengtan's comments on Water Margin and Zhi Yanzhai's comments on A Dream of Red Mansions are nothing more than that: make a little eyebrow criticism between the lines. Whether it's cold dishes or stir-fried dishes, they must finally stand the "cool comment" of chopsticks.

In China, the launch of every banquet is shrouded in a warm atmosphere like the launch of a new boat. And every diner is a skilled old sailor-or a potential judge. No wonder the owners of restaurants are good at seeing the faces of their guests. You can know the chef's level by looking at the guest's face. The highest state of China culture is the word "happiness". This is also a Chinese character that China people love most. And eating is the best foil to this kind of happiness. Cheerful, the host is naturally satisfied. The traditional wedding banquet was brought to the extreme by the Manchu-Han banquet in the Qing Dynasty. From its name, we can feel the meaning of "national unity" and "strong alliance". Authentic Manchu-Han banquet should be eaten for three days and nights, and the tea and dishes are not repeated. This is a carnival with China characteristics: a marathon of food culture! Eating is the most daily ceremony and the most intensive festival in China.

Westerners who believe in Christ are used to drawing a cross on their chests before eating, chanting "God bless" and thanking God for the bread and salt. Most people in China are atheists, but when they drink wine, they feel like masters of their own house. A full meal (it would be better if you could hold a poem) is the closest freedom to them. It can be seen that this nation lacks a sense of religion, but it has a strong artistic atmosphere. In my imagination, gourmets are folk artists with ancient traditions.

Western food reflects the shadow of private ownership, and they manage their own dishes in their own way-using knives and forks is to facilitate the division of interests. Chinese food embodies the most simple * * * productism. China people gathered around the table and inherited the genetic genes of the primitive clan commune. Everyone ate meat and drank wine, and everyone could have a piece of the action. It is difficult to break the tradition of pot rice. Fortunately, the dining table in China is also the most cohesive place, and the outlaw style of sharing weal and woe is very popular. China people can have the illusion that all the people in the world are brothers and the world is one, and this virtual affection greatly increases their appetite after all. Therefore, when people in China eat, they are also eating the environment, atmosphere and even interpersonal relationships. Talk and eat, eat and listen. This is a kind of eating that goes beyond eating. I always think that China people's food is the most emotional and human.

China people have four cuisines and eight flavors. Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Qilu cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Northeast cuisine and even Shanghai Benbang cuisine ... seem to be separated by warlords. But in my eyes, it's more like dividing art schools. Qilu cuisine from the hometown of saints can be called classicism. The lingering Huaiyang cuisine belongs to romanticism. If spicy Hunan cuisine is critical realism, spicy Sichuan cuisine is magical realism-a pepper is sometimes worse than a cannonball, which fully mobilizes our tongue's imagination. Of course, it can also be converted in other ways: Shanghai cuisine belongs to the graceful school of Yang Liuan Xiaofeng Canyue, while Northeast cuisine is equivalent to the unrestrained school of river of no return and Langtao, who have gone through the ages ... < P > I like to ponder a series of special dishes: Kung Pao diced pork, shredded pork with fish flavor, Mapo tofu, husband and wife lung slices, ancient meat, braised pork with plum vegetables, assorted vegetables, sweet and sour tenderloin, bean fish, and so on. It is no exaggeration to say that these dishes, which are elegant, vulgar, gentle or high-pitched, have been passed down by hundreds of millions of people and cultivated for thousands of years, and they are like a "dream order" that attracts wind and drinks dew. Chinese food that is more luxurious and elegant than dreams!

I once had an ideal to open a restaurant with epigrams to name all kinds of old and new dishes, such as changing the boiled eel to Shuilongyin, the pickled fish to Yujiaao, the spicy chicken to He Xinlang, the onion mixed with tofu to Niannujiao, the roasted pigeon to Zhegutian, the wax gourd pot soup to Xijiangyue, and even the fried peanuts. Besides, there is no way to change things like ants climbing trees, lion's head, fresh ground, and light shadow beef. They are very poetic in themselves. Many dishes have a rich and simple feeling, and once they are changed, they are tasteless. For example, an emperor named the folk vegetable, tofu and meatball soup Pearl, Jade and White Jade Soup, which was exquisite, but after all, it looked carved and artificial. I'd better not learn from that stupid emperor.

The reason why some dishes are unusual is that they have allusions. While we are eating vegetables, we are also eating allusions invisibly-we can hold it precariously with chopsticks. For example, in the diffuse aroma of beggar chicken, the figure of the unknown beggar is clearly shaking-he is not begging, but is clearly giving a delicious meal to future generations. There is Dongpo pork (and Dongpo elbow), which is obviously influenced by the great poet of the Song Dynasty. And we are also eating his old man's legacy and his fame. In Su Dongpo's works, there is indeed a poem "Ode to Pork" (enough to prove that Dongpo meat is not a myth): "If you clean the wok and lack water, the firewood can't afford to smoke. Don't rush him when he is ripe, he will be beautiful when the heat is enough. Huangzhou good pork, the price is as low as dirt, you refuse to eat, and the poor don't understand cooking. Get up in the morning and play two bowls, and you can't control yourself. " Su Dongpo invisibly served as the image ambassador of braised pork and made advertisements for nearly a thousand years. I always thought that Su Xueshi had two indelible contributions to the common people, one was the Su Causeway built in the West Lake in Hangzhou, and the other was the Dongpo Meat, which is really an old meat in another sense. Great minds think alike, and there was a great man who loved braised pork: Mao Zedong. He believes that fatty braised pork nourishes the brain and makes people smart. Chairman Mao's poems are no less bold than Su Dongpo's-the most interesting thing is that he even has the courage to write "roast beef with potatoes" into his words. Mao Shi braised pork will be recommended as the main item in Hunan restaurants with Maojia cuisine or Shaoshan cuisine as the golden signboard all over the country.

can you say that eating Chinese food is not eating culture? Culture is a more important condiment than oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, ginger and chopped green onion. Sprinkle a little cultural monosodium glutamate, and you can have a different feeling.

China people who dare to eat

China people are brave, especially in their diet. This is a nation that dares to eat almost anything. Eating bark, wild vegetables and even Guanyin soil during the famine period can naturally be regarded as a necessity (including the Red Army on the Long March taking off cowhide and taking stew to drink). In peacetime, they are still keen on eating all kinds of strange foods. Eating snakes (which is the incarnation of the devil in the Bible in the west) is all right. In the ancient Lingnan area, it was renamed "Mao Yi", which is a bit arty or pretentious. And eat scorpions I attended a banquet in a restaurant outside Beijing's Andingmen, and the climax was that a large plate of scorpions was placed in the center of the round table, which was blown up by Huang Cancan. At that moment, I couldn't help thinking: China people's mouths are really "poisonous"-how dare they fight poison with poison? Of course, what is passed down as a much-told story is eating poisonous puffer fish, and the old Jiangnan proverb "Eat puffer fish to the death" is quite like a martyr's desperate poem. Therefore, since I was a child, I have the impression that the first person who can ignore life and death is a revolutionary, and the second is a gourmet.

I don't know if there has been a title of gourmet in western society besides politicians, thinkers, artists and military strategists. In China, gourmets are almost a tradition. Although it has always been similar to "idleness", it is also quite enviable. In European civilization, gourmets were absent for a time, just like the explorer they admired, for China, it was an imported word after modern times. But privately, I think that a gourmet is also an explorer who stays at home-"parents are here, so he doesn't travel far", so China people have to indulge in another kind of adventure, that is, the curiosity of delicacies. Gourmets use recipes instead of maps, cups instead of compasses, chopsticks instead of paddles, sailing in their own taste, and also enjoying the infinite scenery. This kind of adventure psychology is brought into full play on the problem of puffer fish. The puffer fish is equivalent to the "forbidden fruit" in China's food culture-a fatal temptation, and its delicacy is exaggerated because of its mystery and danger. Instead of flinching, gourmets are eager for it. This courage, I am afraid that even Adam and Eve who are dereliction of duty will sigh.

Shennong (Emperor Yan) is a prehistoric gourmet. "Shennong tastes a hundred herbs", not only for the sake of eating, but also for identifying the species, taste and nutritional value (including medicinal value) of plants. He greatly enriched the "vegetable basket project" of later generations. In my imagination, the ancestor of China people was a potherb digger, and his costume and expression were somewhat similar to that of Li Shizhen, an old Chinese doctor who later compiled Compendium of Materia Medica: he was wearing straw sandals, carrying a bamboo basket and carrying a small hoe. There is a Shennongjia in Hubei, which is said to be his open-air "canteen". Without Shennong, who dares to be the first in the world, our food will be greatly reduced.

Even Confucius, an old pedant in the Spring and Autumn Period, advocated that "food is not tired of essence, and food is not tired of detail". When he was running a private school, he didn't like to accept cash, but he was more willing to accept bundles of dried meat from his disciples to cover his tuition. Visible food is the oldest "hard currency". Confucius is a teacher of our nation in every respect. He also influenced generations of gourmets who strive for perfection, and made diet develop into culture and become elegant. China's cookbooks (from thread-bound manuscripts to printed type) are definitely much thicker than the Four Books and Five Classics if piled up. In the eyes of gourmets, it can be read as a poem. For example, Su Shi explained the secret of roast pork (later named "Dongpo pork"): "More fire, less water." How refined. As for Yuan Mei, he wrote Poems with the Garden and Menu with the Garden-before opening the bow, he was as pious as a penholder when holding chopsticks, and as unrestrained as a penholder when playing with chopsticks ... Of course, the poet's eating style is more elegant after all, and Menu with the Garden can only be used to peep at the food of China people. There are also many extravagant or barbaric foods that have been ignored intentionally or unintentionally. For example, the so-called "eating monkey's brain alive" (locking a live monkey with a wooden cangue, knocking on the skull and sucking its brain juice with a straw) is absolutely cruel. It reflects the darkness of human nature. China people's diet, there are some anti-cultural things, not without criticism. Mr. Lu Xun said: "The food problem can not only reflect the material civilization of the society, but also reflect the social situation of a certain society and expose various social ills."

Louis Simpson wrote an American Poetry: "No matter what it is, it must have a stomach, which can digest rubber, coal, uranium, the moon and poetry. /Like a shark with a shoe in its belly. /It must swim across the vast desert,/and make a roar similar to a human voice all the way. " When I think of ancient China, I seem to see a huge stomach: in addition to miscellaneous grains, it is also filled with bird's nest, shark's fin, bear's paw, sea cucumber, tiger bone, etc., and even the elixir, afterbirth and human blood steamed bread in the ignorant age ... This is a stomach with amazing digestive ability, which has been crawling for thousands of years. Its stomach acid can corrode stone or metal. China people's appetite is really too big, too good.

Since the end of the 2th century, "environmental protection" has become an increasingly important topic in the world, and China people's all-encompassing recipes are also worthy of scrutiny and criticism.

I looked up the menu of Manchu-Han banquet in Qing Dynasty, and found that there were dragon liver (mostly replaced by giant salamander or pangolin), phoenix marrow (mostly replaced by peacock or flying dragon), elephant cloak (that is, elephant trunk, which can also be replaced by rhinoceros nose and stubby nose), roasted owl (roasted owl), lion milk (female lion's breast), leopard fetus, scarlet lips, monkey brain and leopard fetus. It involves many wild animals that are now on the verge of extinction. I literally smelled a bloody smell. There is no shame: my delicious ancestors, did they unconsciously aggravate this ecological crisis? The tireless pursuit of food has virtually caused their mistakes. It's all because of desire. And the evil consequences of gluttony have become more and more obvious at present.

How many wild tigers, leopards, elephants and bears are left in China? How many Chinese alligators and giant salamanders are left?

closing the ancestral recipes, I express my remorse to these endangered animals with the feeling of atonement-including writing this article. The introduction of the Wildlife Protection Law has regulated the appetite of China people. Some things can't be eaten, which is virtually equivalent to eating away at one's own future and the only earth. Rare animals protected by law are equivalent to "forbidden fruits" in modern society. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden for stealing the forbidden fruit. Alas, the original sin of human beings is always related to eating. I regard the extinction of some species as another original sin committed by human beings.

Our awareness of environmental protection should start from the table every day. Knife and fork must be legal and responsible.

When my friend Zou Jingzhi went to Xiangxi, he met a shopkeeper quietly selling giant salamander and asked him if he wanted to eat it. He flatly refused. It's not that he can't afford the high price, but that he feels that "he has already joined Greenpeace ideologically." If everyone in China has such awareness, the negative effects of food culture will be reduced to zero. Zou Jingzhi wrote an essay called "Bad Eating". Eating endangered animals is naturally a bad habit. I hope China people's misdeeds in this respect can be completely eradicated.

It's a pity that I recently went on a business trip to a mountainous area in a southern province, and I still heard that local rich people entertained VIPs with pangolin stew. Once discovered by law enforcement agencies, they lied that pangolin was killed by a vehicle while climbing a highway. It is absolutely the vanity of China people to raise the price and the level of banquets with illegal food. That night, I dreamed of a bloody pangolin. This is undoubtedly a nightmare.

Some people in China eat dog meat. This is especially true in neighboring South Korea, which is separated only by a strip of water. There seems to be nothing wrong with this, because dogs are not endangered rare animals. Europeans and Americans are quite vocal about this, and even want to ask for it.