The archives of the Qing Dynasty Interior Ministry, kept a lot of the emperor's meal list, the content of these lists is very detailed, the emperor today where to eat, eat what dishes, each dish with what utensils, how much to do a small amount of, are recorded very clearly.
Usually, the emperor had to have more than 20 dishes per meal, four kinds of staple food, two kinds of porridge (or soup). Dishes to chicken, duck, fish, goose, pork and seasonal vegetables, supplemented by mountain seafood, exotic fruits and other fruits. The emperor ate rice is specially cultivated yellow, white and purple rice, as well as tribute from all over the top "tribute rice". At the same time, the head of the local administration each year, but also according to the required number of deer, roe deer, deer tail, deer tongue, deer tendon, bear, wild boar, wild duck, tiger bone, goose, pig, salted fish, sturgeon and koeluga, perch, Luan fish, milk wine, milk oil, bird's nests, shark's fin, sea cucumber, etc., the Mongolian Princes will also be offered to the Yellow Sheep. Mountain treasures and sea food have everything.
In the Qing dynasty palace diet, the most representative of the Empress Dowager Cixi's diet. According to records, the Empress Dowager Cixi's meal is usually more than a hundred dishes, used to serve food utensils and tableware is also very sophisticated. Before the meal, advanced food fruits and tea. In the dishes, pork category about 10 kinds of chicken, duck, mutton each has several kinds of baked, steamed, fried and other cooking methods are complete, the Imperial Chef will also have to rack their brains, will be arranged into a variety of dishes such as dragons, phoenixes, butterflies, flowers, and other auspicious patterns, or spelled out as a "blessing", "life", "ten thousand years! ", "life", "ten thousand years", "Ruyi" and other characters. Cixi's Imperial Kitchen there is no lack of "famous chefs, big names", such as Wang Yushan, specializing in "scratch fried", known as the "four big scratch" - - scratch fried pork, scratch fried pork, fried pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork and pork. -The four main ingredients of the dish are fried pork loin, fried fish fillet, fried pork loin flower, and fried shrimp.
Chinese emperors "can't get enough"
From the Northern Qi Dynasty onwards, the Guanglu Temple became responsible for the court's dietary institutions, this setup was extended to the Qing Dynasty. The Sui and Tang dynasties also opened a second imperial dietary institutions - the temple in the province of the Food Bureau. The Gwanglu Temple was mainly responsible for food for rituals, court banquets, and meals for officials in the capital, and had a staff of several thousand. The Imperial Household Food Bureau was responsible for the emperor's daily meals, and was headed by the Bonggong, who ensured that the food supplied conformed to the emperor's dietary taboos.
The emperor's meals have a set of procedures that must be followed. Take the Southern Song Dynasty as an example. In the hour when the emperor will eat, in the temple in the province and the emperor to eat between the Jia Ming Hall, the guards are tight, no one is allowed to pass. Temple in the province of a person first shouted: "dial food!" Immediately appeared more than 10 dressed in purple "yard family", the right hand holding a yellow embroidered dragon cloth covered food box, the left hand holding a red embroidered handkerchief, food box on the Jiamei Hall meal table. The emperor's dishes served up, the first silver products to test whether the meal is poisonous, and then also by the specialists "taste meal", to determine that there is no problem, the emperor can eat.
Now everyone is three meals a day, and the emperor of the Qing dynasty is two meals a day, breakfast is about 6 to 8 o'clock in the present, dinner in the afternoon 2 to 4 o'clock. Every day, the emperor before the meal, first consult the meal list, which states which dishes are made by whom, in order to be ready for the emperor to verify and order. The emperor ordered dishes, if there is no special instructions to be removed and replaced, the imperial kitchen every time to prepare. In the emperor's meal table also set up another several cases, in order to prepare the reward. After the emperor's meal, the remaining food can be given to others.
Orrganically, enjoy such a sumptuous meal is a kind of enjoyment, but the emperor ate and not enjoy. For example, there was a rule in the court of the Qing Dynasty that people could not show what they "like to eat"; even for very favorite dishes, but also to strictly abide by the "eat vegetables but three spoons" of the family law.
According to the Rites of Zhou, the emperor had to be accompanied by music during meals. Although later generations did not closely associate music with the emperor's daily meals, they added various rules to show the emperor's honor. For example, the emperor was to eat alone, and if he was pleased, he could enjoin others (e.g., the empress, concubines, imperial sons and daughters, or favorites) to eat with him.