Speaking of Empress Dowager Cixi, I think everyone's first reaction is to scold her. She once said that she had overused China's material resources to win the favor of the country and regarded China in the late Qing Dynasty as a treasure house for foreign countries. But today Xiaobian put aside politics and talked about the connection between Cixi and food.
As a queen mother who was in charge of state power, she was bound to enjoy all the delicious food in the world. As for the Qing Dynasty at that time, she really swam in the water flying in the sky and running underground to eat as much as she wanted, which made Cixi a gourmet.
don't talk about Cixi's diet. Her luxury is well-known at home and abroad. Cixi has 1 bowls of different dishes at each dinner. There is nothing in common between dinner and dinner except what Cixi asks. In other words, as long as Cixi doesn't say that she will cook it next time, it will be OUT. There are at least 2 bowls of dishes in the two "snacks" besides dinner. Nowadays, it is often said that breakfast should be like the emperor. It seems that it is not easy to really do it.
From the quality point of view, there are 128 famous chefs from all over the country in Empress Dowager Cixi's royal chef. They have their own characteristics, and everyone's expertise is different. Moreover, the materials used are all top-grade national purchases. Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi eats top-class state banquets every day.
The dish "Clear Soup and Tiger Dan" is very popular in Cixi. It mainly uses the testicles of the Siberian tiger. Hunt the male Siberian tiger, then take off the testicles and stew them in the prepared chicken soup for three hours. You know, the chicken soup here is not the common chicken soup in our family, but the fresh chicken soup cooked by many chefs. Then take out the tiger's testicles, peel them and marinate them in seasoning for two hours. Finally, cut it into very thin slices with a knife, put it in the shape of a peony flower on the plate, and dip it in onion, ginger, garlic, vinegar and other juice to eat. For modern people, not to mention the clear soup, even the chicken soup for boiling testicles is rare to taste.
In fact, one of Empress Dowager Cixi's favorite foods in her life is an unusual roast duck. How much do you love to eat? Judging from the court meal list seen so far, there is a hanging duck on Cixi's table almost every day. Hanging furnace duck is now hanging furnace roast duck. Cixi is Manchu, Manchu people like to eat barbecue, and Empress Dowager Cixi likes barbecue very much. In her imperial tea dining room, there is a department called Hanging Furnace Bureau, which specializes in making roast duck for Cixi.
Empress Dowager Cixi was so keen on eating that she could eat all kinds of dishes, but she dared not eat one kind of food, and no one in the court dared to cook it for her. That is beef.
nowadays, beef is the most common food on the public table. Whether it's barbecue or hotpot, beef is a common and affordable dish. But in the late Qing dynasty, beef was forbidden in the court. In the era when there was no mechanical survival in ancient times, the bull market was the main productive force of farming, and the emperor also relied mainly on agriculture to maintain national stability. You know, farmers have no fields and they have to resist when they are hungry. Therefore, every dynasty regarded cows as sacred creatures. Cixi has always kept a respectful distance from oxen and never ate them. In 193, Princess De Ling, who returned from studying in Western Europe, entered the palace for the first time. When Empress Dowager Cixi entertained her for dinner, there were more than 1 kinds of dishes on the table, including pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, vegetables and all kinds of sweets. The Princess De Ling was dazzled. But there is no beef. She doesn't understand why there is no beef, because in Europe where she lives, beef is edible and there are often beef cattle specially raised for food.
Cixi later explained: "Eating beef is a great sin."