Headline: Wei Shuihua

Headline: Laurent-New Weekly, Executive Chef of the American Embassy in China

No:1 1

In p>1861, after the signing of the Beijing Treaty between Prince Gong and Britain and France, it was said that he had hosted a banquet in honor of the envoys of the two countries.

The British arrived first, but they refused the invitation from China, and the food and drinks on the table remained untouched. Later, when the French saw a table full of Chinese food, their forefinger moved greatly, and they mingled with friends in China and had a good time.

This is probably the first recorded official banquet for foreign guests in China, and it was later written into the essays of scholars, which became evidence that the British Empire was arrogant and French gentlemen were approachable.

the plot of drinking milk tea in the picture of Emperor Qianlong's hunting dinner

In fact, this difference in attitude towards food may not be due to the different personalities of the British and French ministers, but behind it, it contains various internal causes of the two countries' nationalities, religions and history. If Prince Gong can gracefully put on a tea set, add some high-calorie Shaqima and pea yellow, and invite British envoys to have a Chinese-style Manchu-Chinese afternoon tea, they may have a completely different understanding of each other's social attitude.

more than p>31 years later, Li Hongzhang, the "Oriental Bismarck", visited Europe and America and invited foreigners to dinner. Li Zhongtang's knowledge is much higher than that of Prince Gong. Although he didn't leave a specific menu, he can still vaguely see Li Zhongtang's style of inviting guests to dinner in the "Li Hongzhang Chowder" that has been popular in the United States so far: sea cucumber and chicken as the base; Chicken soup, lard seasoning, squid, ham, scallops hanging fresh, mushrooms, yuba, bamboo shoots, cabbage and other vegetables to increase the layering.

This kind of stew is what you want to get. Compared with its eponymous "Zuo Zongtang Chicken", the style is not much higher. Unfortunately, the cost was too high. Later, the American Chinese food chain "chop suey" was changed to "chop suey", and the materials were also turned into cheap shredded pork bean sprouts, but its reputation in the eyes of foreigners remained.

how to treat foreigners to a delicious Chinese meal is not only related to diplomatic etiquette and international image, but also an opportunity for us, a big country where "food is the most important thing for the people", to re-examine ourselves.

When what we are used to is put on a broader stage, we benchmark it with folk customs, religions and cultures that we are not familiar with, and finally the * * * part is both national and world-wide.

no: 2er

Zhou Enlai is the name that shows the most results when searching for "entertaining foreign guests" on the Internet.

As a senior international student who has traveled around Japan and France, he is well versed in foreigners' appreciation of Chinese food. In dozens of banquets including Kissinger and Nixon, Premier Zhou arranged Beijing Roast Duck in almost every banquet menu.

Although it is called "Beijing", Beijing Roast Duck is not Beijing at all. It is a national famous dish that combines the characteristics of Cantonese roast flavor, Jiangnan waterfowl and Shandong burrito. The title of "national cuisine" is not an exaggeration at all.

At the same time, the roast duck is also in line with the eating habits of Europeans and Americans: the duck meat is good and has no bones. Although our ancestors in the Book of Rites also taught us not to bite our bones, China people have long forgotten the lessons of our ancestors when faced with boiled chicken, sheep scorpions and hairy crabs. However, Europeans and Americans generally have the habit of eating but not getting out, and think it is impolite to spit while eating. A well-sliced roast duck is essentially not much different from the chicken breast that Europeans and Americans often eat.

The way to eat roast duck is also full of ritual: spread a cake, spread it with sauce, add green onions and cucumbers, add duck skin and duck meat, and finally roll it up and bite it. China people's requirements for food are "color, flavor and shape", and shape, that is, setting the plate, is the last one. However, foreigners often attach importance to the sense of ritual in dining. The roast duck with exquisite dishes and unique eating methods gave them the motivation to taste new things.

the most important thing is the taste. There is often a combination of "A and B" in western food, such as fried lamb chops with potatoes, grilled bologna with cheese and broccoli pasta. This collocation is based on the logic that the two ingredients are complementary in taste, but relatively independent in taste, which is completely different from the "collocation" in which we fry and stew different ingredients together.

Roast duck is one of the few exceptions. It takes into account the combination of fat, vegetables and starch, and its nutrition tends to be balanced. Cake, green onion, cucumber and roast duck are all treated separately and put together before serving, ensuring the relative independence of taste; The mix and match of various ingredients neutralizes the spicy of green onions and the greasy of roast ducks. In essence, it is similar to the combination of grilled bologna with cheese and broccoli pasta.

No:3

Of course, the roast duck is good, but it is impossible to sit alone. With this panacea, it is not a pure Chinese meal without many cups and dishes to keep up.

China is very big, and there are many categories and genres of Chinese food, but many cuisines are not easily accepted by foreigners. For example, Sichuan cuisine with fresh and spicy sesame as the background color. Like Fuxia Dunlop, only a few people can immerse themselves in Chinese food for decades, and finally fully accept spicy food. If you don't live in northern Europe for decades and fully integrate into the local cultural circle, few Chinese can accept canned herring and pickled raw shark meat.

In fact, Fu Xia's resume didn't go deep into the mainland of China from the beginning. As an Englishman, she first came to Hong Kong, a British colony at that time. After tasting shrimp dumplings, rice rolls, barbecued pork and roasted goose, I "fell in love with this country" and decided to come to the mainland to learn to cook.

Therefore, the cuisines that are more acceptable to westerners are often the coastal developed areas that opened earlier, especially the Chinese food in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, represented by Subang cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Guangfu cuisine and Chaoshan cuisine. If you have to show the profoundness of a big food country, it's not bad to have a few strong Shandong dishes. For example, soft fried shrimps, kung pao chicken, crispy fried oyster yellow, conch with sauce, red grilled elbow and so on.

In a word, those with good taste, easy to chew, no bone spitting, non-irritating taste, rich in oil and high in calories, crispy and tasty can all be preferred, and it is even better if the raw materials are seafood or poultry familiar to foreigners.

If we have to show the existence of Sichuan cuisine in the four major cuisines, it is not bad to serve boiled cabbage at the expense of work. However, most westerners can distinguish the subtle differences between different kinds of cheese and bread with their tongues, but they can't taste the chicken soup and ham poured into the cabbage.

No:4

Diet, like mother tongue, comes from deep-rooted childhood memories, so we can make westerners fall in love with some Chinese food, but never try to change their dietary preferences. Just like a child who grew up with snacks, rice and noodles, although he can distinguish the quality of bread through training, it is still difficult to make a meal of bread.

Chinese food that many foreigners eat in their own country is not authentic Chinese food. Photo/The Big Bang Theory

A young man who came to Canada, after working as a foreign teacher in Shandong for two years, learned how to make jiaozi, learned how to dip in old vinegar, and after returning to Canada, learned how to let the chefs in Chinese restaurants change Zuo Zongtang's chicken into sweet and sour tenderloin or pot-wrapped meat. But when someone asked him what his favorite Chinese food was, his answer was: Jiaodong honey three knives. This is a replica of maple syrup bread. A British girl who traveled to Penang, Malaysia, watched Chinese stall owners stir-fry kway teow, stew duck soup, pot bak Kut teh and braised chicken feet with great interest in swatow street snack night market, but when she was finally hungry, she silently chose a fried food shop in the corner and sat down to eat. Still the familiar smell of fish and chips. These are true stories. Although the truth is cruel, it is full of humor that makes China people laugh.

Therefore, when inviting foreigners to eat Chinese food, respect is the most important criterion to remember: Europeans and Americans are fond of sugar, because Europe was short of sugar for a long period of time. Even though the Crusades snatched sugarcane seeds from Arabs, it has not been widely planted because of the climate. It was not until the discovery of the New World that a huge sugarcane planting base was established in the Caribbean. Knowing this history, we might as well order some walnut cheese, rock sugar taro, sesame glutinous rice balls and double skin milk for them with sympathy and tell each other that there are also great desserts in Chinese food.

Europeans and Americans formed the system of separate meals very early, which has something to do with nomadic civilization and marine civilization's pursuit of high efficiency. Therefore, subconsciously, foreigners always think that it is an unsanitary habit for us to put chopsticks and spoons into the same dish. Knowing these cultural backgrounds, we might as well put chopsticks and spoons next to every dish. This is not about stress, but about letting the other side enjoy the fun of sitting around a table in a harmonious farming civilization, and at the same time taking care of their psychological concerns about eating together.

Due to religion, legend or other reasons, Europeans and Americans are also more afraid to see the shape of the whole animal except the turkey on the table. This problem is also easy to solve. Roast whole sheep is changed to roast lamb chops, squirrel mandarin fish is changed to vinegar fillets, and whole chicken stewed with mushrooms is changed to crock chicken pieces. The same smell, but it has made the other person out of sight of the "body" for the net.

-END-

After reading Yuan Mei's Menu with the Garden, Liang Wendao once asked this question: "Has the word' Chinese food' ever appeared in this classic book which is expensive for China?"

Yes, standing still and overemphasizing the concept of traditional Chinese food does not show how confident we are. And those innovative Chinese restaurants that conform to the eating habits of more people on earth, even those that are made with Chinese food and western food, may better demonstrate the tolerance, intelligence and progress with the times of our big food country. This is the significance of Michelin Chinese food list which has been repeatedly criticized and firmly rooted in China.