There are five main characteristics of the food culture in the Red Chamber:

First, the variety of food is rich.

There are one ***186 kinds of food in A Dream of Red Mansions, with various names, showing the luxurious life of the aristocratic class in feudal society. For example: sour bamboo shoots and chicken skin soup, lotus leaf soup, pheasant soup, bad goose web, ham stew, rouge goose breast, steamed duck with wine, roasted venison and so on.

second: the eating utensils are exquisite.

In China's food culture, the combination of food utensils and food itself can constitute the whole connotation of "gourmet". Wang Han, a famous poet, wrote the poem "Night Cup of Grape Wine", from which the expression form of Chinese food culture-"Wine" must be filled with "Night Cup". The perfect combination of "utensils" and "food" can enhance people's appetite for food and enjoy the happiness brought by food. The catering culture of the Red Chamber is more prominent in this respect, and its tableware, tea set, wine set and table set are all very gorgeous. For example: gold plate, gold bowl, silver plate, agate bowl, jade cup, amber cup, green jade bucket, ebony three-inlaid silver chopsticks, four-stare ivory gold chopsticks, glass lamps and so on.

thirdly, there are various dietary activities.

The diet in A Dream of Red Mansions revolves around colorful activities. In China's food culture, eating, drinking, playing and having fun are always linked together, only because people have different interests and different forms of "playing". Masters like Grand View Garden, Ning and Rong Mansions are no exception. According to statistics, in A Dream of Red Mansions, there are more than 31 banquets with activities. For example, Jin Yuanyang issued a three-announcement dental order, Shouyihong Qunfang held a night banquet, a crab banquet, and so on.

fourth: the diet in the brothel is more important than health.

besides "tasting and having fun", the diet in A Dream of Red Mansions pays more attention to health. The nutritional value of its food is mainly aimed at prolonging life and keeping fit. For example, in the forty-ninth session, Jia Mu ate stewed venison in winter. The whole body of deer has medicinal value. Its meat is a high-grade nutritional and medical food suitable for winter tonic. It has always been valued by the medical profession and gourmets. The Herbal Medicine for Dietotherapy in the Tang Dynasty said: "Meat is the main tonic, benefiting qi." He also said: "If you eat it after September and before the first month, you will make up for weakness, benefit the five internal organs, regulate the blood vessels, and you will not eat it from the outside, causing chills." Venison should not be eaten between February and August in the lunar calendar, it can make people feel cold. Jia Fu eats venison in winter, which is to follow this food rule.

fifth, the diet of the red chamber emphasizes both "southern flavor" and "northern flavor".

the so-called "southern flavor" mainly refers to Jiangsu and Zhejiang flavors, Jiangnan flavors, including Jiangsu and Nanjing flavors, and Huaiyang flavors along the river bank. On the sixty-second occasion, there was "steamed duck with wine", which was a famous dish in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period. Jiuniang, formerly known as Jiuniang, "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record" says that "shochu is made of rice, which is called rice burning. Those whose shochu is not steamed are wine girls, and it tastes delicious. If you mix it with spring water, it will become honey shochu. " Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Food List" mostly uses wine girl as seasoning. The eighth time there was "Bad Duck's Foot", a famous dish in Suzhou, and the sixty-second time "Rouge Goose Breast" was a famous dish in Suzhou. In A Dream of Red Mansions, the southern flavor is the main flavor, but it also has the northern flavor, such as the new chestnut powder cake steamed with sweet-scented osmanthus sugar in the thirty-seventh episode, and the chestnut cake is the northern flavor. This kind of food is the most common in the north. First, the chestnuts are fried and mashed, ground into fine powder, mixed with yam cake and white sugar, and then steamed to eat. The food in A Dream of Red Mansions has both North and South flavors, because Cao Xueqin was born in the south and grew up in the north, and it was also the inevitable result of the mutual dissolution of the north and the south at that time.