1. Food culture

The history of food culture in China started earlier and developed rapidly. As early as 111,111 years ago, our ancestors knew how to bake food. After the advent of more advanced containers or drinking vessels such as pottery and clay pots, people can cook, mix and collect food more conveniently, and their eating habits have entered the cooking stage. Seven or eight thousand years ago, during the Peiligang cultural period, there was already a saying that the king had "twelve dishes to eat" in the Xia and Shang Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, cooking methods such as stewing, frying, frying, boiling, sauce, wax and roasting were developed and fully mastered, and spread to Central Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia. During the feudal period, the imperial court meals of each dynasty represented the highest level of diet at that time. It can be seen that China's food culture has a long history and is quite rich in content.

First of all, China's diet is very particular about workmanship. It pays attention to 1. Material selection, which is the primary skill of China chefs, is the basis for making a good China cuisine, and requires rich knowledge and skilled application skills. The raw materials used in each cuisine, including main ingredients, ingredients, auxiliary materials, seasonings, etc., have a lot of stress and certain rules. In a nutshell, it is the word "fine" and "fine", which is what Confucius said: "You are never tired of fine food, and you are never tired of fine food". The so-called "refined" refers to the selected raw materials, taking into account their varieties, producing areas, seasons, growth periods and other characteristics, with fresh, tender and excellent materials as the best. 2. Handicraft, that is, the chef handles the raw materials by knife, making them into a neat and consistent shape needed for cooking, so as to adapt to the heat, heat evenly, facilitate the taste, and maintain a certain shape beauty, which is one of the keys of cooking technology. As early as ancient times, China attached importance to the use of knife-cutting, and after repeated practice by chefs of past dynasties, it created rich knife-cutting methods, such as straight knife-cutting method, slice knife-cutting method, oblique knife-cutting method (marking knife lines on raw materials without cutting them off) and carving knife-cutting method, and processed raw materials into pieces, strips, wires, blocks, diced, granules, velvet, mud and other forms and pills and balls. Once again, the "temperature" is mastered, and the temperature is one of the keys to forming the flavor characteristics of dishes. It is divided into strong fire, medium fire, low fire and other different firepower. We must be familiar with the heat resistance of various raw materials, skillfully control the time of using fire, and be good at mastering the performance of heat transfer objects. We can also determine the order of cooking according to the tenderness, moisture content, shape and size of raw materials, and the thickness of whole pieces, and use them flexibly to make the cooked dishes tender, crisp and rotten. Mastering "five flavors and three materials, nine boiling and nine changes, will win with it, without losing its reason."

II. Dietary structure

Since the pre-Qin period, the dietary structure of China people was based on plant food such as grain, beans, vegetables, fruits and cereals, and there was a clear line between staple food and non-staple food. The staple food is grain, the non-staple food is vegetables, plus a small amount of meat. According to a feast recorded in Old Wulin, there are more than 211 dishes. Among them, 41 dishes are made of pigs, ducks, fish, shrimps and other things by roasting and cooking, 42 dishes are made of fruits and preserves, 21 dishes are made of various vegetables, 29 dishes are made of dried fish, 17 drinks and 59 snacks. There are many kinds of foods involved, such as aquatic land and all kinds of creatures in the sky and underground, which almost eat everything, forming a dazzling diet. It can be seen that in the Southern Song Dynasty, China's food culture became mature. According to a survey, people in China eat more than 611 kinds of vegetables, six times more than those in the west. In fact, vegetarian dishes are common food in China. China's staple food is mainly rice and wheat, and millet, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes and all kinds of sweet potatoes also occupy a place. In addition to rice noodles, all kinds of pasta, such as steamed bread, noodles, fried dough sticks, porridge, cakes and varied snacks make people's dining tables colorful.

Third, dietary differences

China has a vast territory, diverse geographical environment, rich climatic conditions and a wide variety of animals and plants, which provide a solid material foundation for China's diet. In the long life practice, our ancestors constantly bred and created a variety of food resources, which made China's food sources extremely extensive. And all the regions in the north and south have their own styles and habits. The temperature in the north is lower than that in the south, especially in winter. Therefore, foods such as fat and protein account for a large proportion in the diet of northerners, especially in pastoral areas, where the herdsmen's diet is mainly dairy products and meat. Southerners eat mainly plants, and residents have the habit of drinking vegetable soup and eating porridge. For example, the dishes in Shanghai in the south are mainly light and pay attention to hierarchy. Although there are many kinds of complex flavors, they are peaceful in taste and distinctive in texture. It has the characteristics of fresh and beautiful, gentle, diverse flavor and rich flavor of the times. Low sugar, low fat, meat and vegetable collocation and nutrition collocation. In the north, the diet is relatively rough. To put it bluntly, if you hear that a northerner can cook, it will be very strange, just like hearing that a southerner eats casually. Southerners eat casually, and most of them don't want to live. Northerners, on the other hand, only want to live and have a good meal. Of the eight major cuisines, the south accounts for the vast majority, and there are various schools, leaving only two cuisines in the north, namely Beijing cuisine and Shandong cuisine. Strictly speaking, they were drawn out to preserve the rugged style of northerners, and they can't compete with Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine at all. Southerners open restaurants in the north to enrich and carry forward the national food culture; Northerners go to the south to open restaurants, but it is just to let the villagers who are tired of eating fresh things not forget their home-cooked tastes, which is a bit like opening a bitter meal. The northern diet pays attention to simplicity and reality, while the southern diet is carefully crafted.

The main reasons for this difference in diet culture are geographical location, climate difference, social factors, national culture and so on. However, with the development of time, the diet of the north and the south is not as distinct as before. For example, the north also loves southern dishes and the south often eats jiaozi and steamed bread.

Fourth, local food

China is a vast country, and each region has different food characteristics. Here I mainly introduce the food culture characteristics of Changsha.

Changsha's diet belongs to Hunan cuisine. Hunan cuisine is a local flavor dish with a long history in China. Hunan cuisine is good at being fragrant, sour and spicy, and has a strong mountain flavor. Hunan cuisine has a long history. As early as the Han Dynasty, it has formed a cuisine, and its cooking skills have reached a fairly high level. It has fine production, extensive materials, varied tastes and various varieties. Its characteristics are: strong oil color, emphasis on practical benefits, and emphasis on sour and spicy taste, fragrant and fresh, soft and tender. In the preparation method, it is known as simmering, stewing, waxing, steaming and frying. Simmer and stew pay attention to cooking with low fire, simmer with thick juice and stew with clear soup like a mirror; The method of making bacon includes smoking, marinating and barbecued pork. The famous Hunan bacon is a smoked product, which can be served as cold dish, hot fried or steamed with high-quality original soup. Stir-frying is fresh, tender, fragrant and spicy, which is well known in the market. Therefore, Changsha people also like to eat Chili very much.

The most famous snacks in Changsha are stinky tofu, tasty shrimp, stinky tofu in Huogong Palace, and tasty shrimp in Nanmenkou (honoring old women in Changsha dialect), which are the favorites of Changsha citizens. The stinky tofu in Changsha can be described as "stinky tofu". Black color, strange smell at first. But don't be scared by these. After tasting them, you will definitely be impressed. Chairman Mao once said, "The stinky tofu in the Fire Palace smells bad and tastes delicious.". Tasty shrimp is also spicy and delicious, and the more delicious it is, Wang Han, a famous Hunan host, is also a loyal FANS of tasty shrimp. There are also Changsha rice noodles, sugar and oil Baba, onion and oil Baba and so on. . . . They are all eaten and want to eat again.

China's food culture is extensive and profound. It is influenced by natural, social, national and other factors, showing distinct regional differences, which not only embodies the rich connotation of China's food culture, but also fully demonstrates the wisdom of people of all ethnic groups in China. It is the hard-working people who have created this rich and magical food culture.