Judging from the large number of exquisite pottery vessels and wine vessels unearthed from the Neolithic sites in Hunan, as well as the remains of grains and animal bones unearthed along with these pottery vessels, it is confirmed that the ancestors of Xiaoxiang lived as early as 8,000 or 9,000 years ago. Years ago, I got out of the primitive state of eating raw materials and drinking blood, and started eating cooked food. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Hunan was mainly the place where the Chu and Yue people lived. Many ethnic groups lived together, with different food customs and the practice of worship was prevalent.

When Wang Yi of the Han Dynasty explained "Nine Songs" in his "Chu Ci Zhangju": "In the past, in the southern Ying Wenyi of the Chu Kingdom, between Yuan and Xiang, the common people believed that ghosts loved temples, and their temples would have songs and music to encourage them. Music to the gods..." Every sacrificial event is always accompanied by banquets and dancing and music. Dinners are held together to worship gods and earth, celebrate ancestors, celebrate weddings, hold funerals, and welcome and see off guests. There are strict requirements on the variety of dishes, and they are also very particular about the color, aroma, taste and shape. For example, during the Warring States Period more than 300 BC, the great poet Qu Yuan was exiled to Hunan and wrote the famous poem "Chu Ci". Two of them, "Calling Souls" and "Big Moves", reflect the rich and delicious dishes, drinks and snacks used in such sacrificial activities at that time. There is a description like this in "Calling the Soul": "...Eat more, rice, rice, millet, wheat, and yellow rice. It is bitter, salty, and sour, and pungent and dry. The beef from a fat cow is more fragrant. It is more sweet and sour. The soup with Chen Wu is more bitter. The fried turtle and lamb are more bitter. The fried chicken is more spicy and unpleasant. "The dishes are rich." Colorful. You can eat rice, millet, wheat, and rice. It is sour, sweet, salty, and delicious. The beef tendon is soft and fragrant. The roasted turtle soup has a sour and bitter flavor. The lamb is also served with sugarcane juice, swan cooked in vinegar, braised pheasant, fried fat goose and crane, as well as braised chicken and turtle soup, which are delicious and strong-lasting." In addition, "Big Trick" It also mentioned that there are "Chu cheese" - Chu style cheese, "醢dolphin" - small pork sauce, "kugou" - dried dog meat, "Zhiya" - roasted crow, and "烝釫" - steamed Pheasant, "fried" - fried crucian carp, "que" - yellow bird soup and other dishes. From this we can know that in the dietary life of Hunan ancestors at that time, there were more than ten cooking methods such as roasting, roasting, stewing, frying, boiling, steaming, stewing, vinegar cooking, stewing, and sauce. The raw materials used are also natural resources with the characteristics of Hunan. In addition, according to the records in "Chu Ci", the snacks at that time were also very unique. Qu Yuan described it this way: "...the rice wine is made of honey, some. The scoop of honey is made of honey, and the wine cup is more solid. The frozen drink is made cooler when brewed. The wine cup is frozen, and there is some wine..." The interpretation in vernacular means: "There are fried honey glutinous rice cakes, steamed honey cakes, and caramel sugar. The iced glutinous rice wine is really refreshing and mellow, and the jade-yellow yellow rice wine is enough to make you intoxicated..." The above all illustrate that as early as the Warring States Period, Hunan The food life of our ancestors was quite rich and colorful, and their cooking skills were quite mature, forming a southern flavor dominated by sour, salty, sweet and bitter. As for the daily staple food of Hunan ancestors during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, archaeological and historical data confirm that there were rice, sorghum, beans, wheat, broomcorn millet, millet, millet, rice, etc., but mainly rice. Steamers, pots, cauldrons, etc. are used to steam rice. The steamed rice has non-sticky texture and is sweet and palatable. To cook porridge, use Li. Put the rice and water together in the Li and cook over high heat until the rice is cooked. After the rice, porridge and other dishes are cooked, they must be served in containers so that they can be eaten easily. At that time, the food utensils in Hunan were not only complete in variety, but also exquisite and elegant. In terms of materials, they mainly include pottery, bronze, iron, lacquer, etc. Although these food utensils have appeared since the Yin and Shang Dynasties, their shapes have their own characteristics in Hunan. In particular, the thousands of pieces of lacquerware unearthed from Chu tombs in Changsha, Hunan and other places have beautiful shapes, bright colors and smooth patterns. It has a long history. Among the three major categories of cooking techniques: hot cooking, cold cooking, and sweet cooking, each type of cooking techniques ranges from a few to dozens. Relatively speaking, the simmering skills of Hunan cuisine are even better, almost reaching the level of perfection. Simmering can be divided into red simmering and white simmering in terms of color changes. In terms of seasoning, there are clear soup simmering, thick soup simmering and milk soup simmering. Simmer over low heat for authentic flavor. Some dishes are crystal clear and mellow, some have pure and nourishing juices, some are soft and waxy, and some are crispy and fragrant. Many simmered dishes have become famous delicacies in Hunan cuisine.

Generally speaking, Hunan’s food customs mainly have the following background and characteristics:

(1) In Hunan, “eating” has a relatively rich social significance.

First of all, food is always an important part of people's weddings and funerals.

Marriage is called "eating wedding wine"; death is commonly called "eating meat"; after a new person is born, one must eat "full moon"; birthdays are celebrated with poached eggs and "longevity noodles". Secondly, "eating" is also one of the important social means for people. When friends and acquaintances meet, the first greeting is often: "Have you eaten?" When visiting a friend's house, being able to eat 10 or 12 dishes means it means I received the warmest hospitality from the host.

(2) In Hunan, due to geographical, climate and other reasons, rice is grown in most areas, and people’s daily diet is rice as the staple food. However, in a few mountainous areas, especially in some places in the mountainous areas of northern Hunan, dry food crops can only be grown with corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. as the staple food. The economy of these areas gradually developed, producing flue-cured tobacco or medicinal materials, which could be sold to the country in exchange for rice, so rice and corn gradually became the staple food. Sweet potatoes and potatoes are gradually separated from staple foods and become raw materials for making starchy foods, wine making, dried vegetables, etc., or feed for raising livestock. In Hunan, no matter in urban or rural areas, people eat three meals a day. The difference is that in cities, breakfast is more casual, dinner is the most important part of the day, and weekend meals are the most important part of the week. In rural areas, there is no obvious difference in the three meals a day. During lunar festivals or solar terms, the diet is generally more grand than in cities. Within a year, the most important thing is food around the Spring Festival. In addition, no matter in the city or in the countryside, almost every household has to make some pickles, dried vegetables, kimchi, fermented vegetables, and preserved vegetables according to the seasons. Whenever guests arrive, they are always served on the table to show off the housewife's craftsmanship and housekeeping abilities.

(3) People of all ages, regardless of gender, are generally fond of spicy food. Whether it is three meals on weekdays, a banquet in a restaurant or a drink with friends, there must be one or two chili dishes.

It is said that pepper is native to tropical areas of South America and was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty. Hunan's geographical environment was known as a "humid land" in ancient times, with rain and humidity. Chili peppers have the effect of keeping out cold and dispelling rheumatism; in addition, Hunan people eat rice as their staple food all year round. Eating chili peppers can directly stimulate saliva secretion and whet the appetite. As more and more people eat it, a habit of craving for spicy food has developed. Hunan people eat chili peppers in many ways. Soak large red peppers in a sealed sour jar. There is sourness in the spiciness, which is called "hot and sour"; combine red pepper, pepper, and garlic together and call it "spicy"; mince large red peppers and marinate them in a sealed jar. It is salty in the middle, which is called "salty and spicy"; chop the red pepper, mix it with dry rice powder, and marinate it in a sealed jar. When eating, it can be dry-fried or stir-fried, which is called "spicy"; crush the red pepper Finally, add garlic seeds, black soybean, and soak in tea oil. The aroma is strong, which is called "oil spicy"; grill the red pepper on the fire, then tear off the thin skin, and serve it cold with sesame oil and soy sauce. It is spicy and sweet, which is called "spicy oil". Spicy." In addition, dried and fresh chili peppers can also be used as cooking ingredients, and there are many ways to eat them. Especially in the Dong Miao Village in western Hunan, whenever guests arrive, they always serve meat stewed with dried chili peppers. When persuading guests, they always ask for "chili peppers" over and over again, instead of "meat", which shows that they are very fond of spicy food. Hunan cuisine is very popular with customers in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. People in the United States and Canada especially like to eat Hunan cuisine that is rich, fragrant, fresh, and spicy. In the United States, some Hunan restaurants hang signs with red chili peppers in front of their doors, saying "Hunan Chili Peppers." The aprons of waitresses in the restaurants are also embroidered with red chili peppers.

(4) Hunan people love bitter taste. According to literature, its origins can be traced back to the pre-Qin Dynasty. There is a poem in "The Songs of Chu·Zhaohun" that says, "It is bitter, salty and sour, but sweet and spicy." The "great bitterness" here is said to be tempeh. So this condiment made from beans has a history of more than 2,000 years. To this day, Hunan people still have the habit of eating black beans, such as "Liuyang Dougu", which is one of the famous local specialties. Others, such as bitter melon and tartary buckwheat, are also favorite foods of Hunan people. Hunan customs' addiction to bitterness not only has its historical origins, but also has its own local characteristics. Hunan is located in the subtropical zone, and the summer heat lasts for a long time. The traditional Chinese medicine of the motherland explains the meaning of heat as follows: the weather is dominated by heat, and the earth's qi is dominated by moisture. The combination of dampness and heat is called heat; if a person feels sick during the interaction of qi, it is a summer disease. And "bitterness can relieve fire", "bitterness can remove dampness", "bitterness can strengthen the stomach". Therefore, people appropriately eat bitter foods, which can help clear away heat, dehumidify, and calm the stomach, which is of great benefit to health care. Looking at the topography of Hunan, northern Hunan is mostly lake area, southwestern Hunan is mostly mountainous, and central Hunan is a typical hilly area. This regional difference has led to the diversity of food customs across Hunan. We divide it into three wind-eating areas, namely the Xiangxi wind-eating area, the central-southern Hunan area and the northern Hunan area. The Xiangjiang River Basin

Centered in Changsha, Hengyang and Xiangtan, it is the main representative of Hunan cuisine.

It is finely made, uses a wide range of materials, has varied tastes and is of various varieties. Its characteristics are: heavy in oil, rich in color, affordable, and in terms of taste, it pays attention to hot and sour, fragrant and fresh, soft and tender. In terms of preparation methods, it is famous for simmering, stewing, curing, steaming and stir-frying. Simmering and stewing should be done over low heat. Simmering makes the flavor more juicy, while stewing makes the soup as clear as a mirror. Preparation methods include smoking, marinating, and barbecued pork. The famous Hunan bacon is a smoked product that can be used as a cold dish, stir-fried, or Use high-quality original soup to steam; stir-fry to highlight freshness, tenderness, fragrance and spiciness, which is well known in the market. Famous representative dishes include: "Steamed sea cucumber in pot", "Steamed with cured meat", "Boiled pork with black bean sauce", "Spicy chicken", etc., all of which are famous dishes.

Dongting Lake District

It is famous for cooking river fresh food, poultry and livestock. The cooking methods of stewing, roasting, steaming and curing are often used. It is characterized by thick gravy, thick oil, salty, spicy and soft taste. . Stews are often served in hot pots, while folk people use steaming bowls to stew on clay stoves, commonly known as steaming bowl stoves. It is often cooked and eaten at the same time, and the stew is hot, tender and delicious. There is a local folk song that "I don't want to be a prince-in-law in the court, so I just want to steam the pot and cook it", which fully shows that the stew is widely loved by the people. Representative dishes include: "Dongting Golden Turtle", "BBQ Pork Dongting Mandarin Fish with Net Oil", "Butterfly Floating in the Sea", "Rock Sugar Hunan Lotus", etc., all of which are well-known famous dishes in the Dongting Lake area.

Mountain areas of western Hunan

Xiangxi cuisine is good at making mountain delicacies, smoked bacon and various cured meats. The taste focuses on salty, sour and spicy, often using charcoal as fuel, and has a strong flavor. Mountain flavor. Representative dishes include: "Braised cold mushrooms", "Braised Chinese cabbage hearts with chestnuts", "Xiangxi Sour Pork", "Fried Blood Duck", etc., all of which are famous delicacies in Western Hunan.

Overview of Hunan cuisine

***The same flavor is spicy dishes and cured dishes. Chaotian peppers, known for their strong spiciness, are produced throughout the province and are the main raw material for making spicy dishes. The production of bacon has a long history, and it is said that it has a history of more than 2,000 years in China. The dishes of the three regions have their own characteristics, but they are not completely different. They are similar while reserving differences, and they are interdependent and communicate with each other. Looking at the overall picture, it shows fine knife skills, beautiful shape and taste, variable seasoning, famous for sour and spicy, emphasis on original juice, various techniques, especially simmering and roasting. "The sound of the river flows down to the Dongting day and night." With the advancement of the times and the development of the country's economy, Hunan cuisine, this wonderful flower, will bloom more vividly and dazzlingly. "When spicy and powerful flavors meet, they can defeat countless people in the world." After pepper seeds spread widely in the southwest, northwest and southeast regions, they began to officially settle in the fertile and moist land of Hunan, and immediately took root, bloomed, and As a result, it multiplied and expanded and won the love of the people on this land. As a foreign product from the West, peppers were not rejected in Hunan, or suffered the same fate as onions, peppers and other crops. Instead, they received special courtesy and sparked sparks of passion. The reasons can be analyzed as follows:

The first level is the reasons of geography and climate. It is said that there is a "spicy belt" at the same latitude in the world, which runs from South America through the Pacific Islands, through the Asian continent to East Asia, Southeast Europe, and North Africa. Hunan is located at a point in this "spicy belt". Because Hunan is located in the transition zone between the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the southwest and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the northeast, and is located in a place where the warm and humid air currents of the Bay of Bengal compete with the warm and humid air currents of the Pacific Ocean, the annual precipitation reaches 1,300 to 1,800 mm. Rivers and lakes are densely covered, and the water network is continuous and crisscross. The floods released by the Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li rivers are supported by the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake, causing waterlogging. There may be a long drought without rain, or a rain will cause disasters, large temperature differences, high humidity, or The heat is unbearable, or the cold is overwhelming. People are often immersed in the cold and heat and are prone to dampness. Changsha Taifu Jia Yi said: "Changsha is a humid land, which is not conducive to longevity." On the one hand, this land is suitable for the growth and reproduction of subtropical plants, and the yield and quality of peppers are very impressive; on the other hand, The advantages of chili pepper in dispelling cold, removing dampness and relieving depression come into full play here, just like a hero. Chili peppers are particularly suitable for consumption in Hunan. Generally speaking, people from other provinces can accept the spicy flavor and texture of Hunan cuisine after arriving in Hunan for more than half a month without any obvious adverse reactions. Some people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong and even the three northeastern provinces who have worked in Hunan for many years have a taste for spicy food that is no different from the local Hunanese. Mr. Zhang Qijun, a Taiwanese philosopher, also talked about this in "Principles of Cooking", saying that he did not eat chili peppers before: "Don't say that you don't eat chili peppers. If you put a little chili pepper in the dish, you will not dare to eat the whole dish. With the rise of the Anti-Japanese War, it has arrived In Hunan, I saw that the dishes made by Hunanese peppers are so delicious. Try them. The more you taste them, the braver you will become. In less than half a year, you will be able to eat peppers like the Hunanese.

"On the contrary, when people from Hunan leave Hunan, such as entering Beijing or going south to Guangdong, Hainan, or Shenzhen, their desire to eat spicy food is greatly reduced, their ability to resist spicy food gradually deteriorates, and they even develop abnormal reactions such as cleft lip and sores due to eating spicy food. This is from the normal perspective. The two aspects prove the distinctive and strong regional characteristics of spicy food.

The second layer is the reason of economy and circulation. The landscape of Hunan is composed of "seven mountains, two rivers and one farmland", and it is located in a remote location. The land was barren and far away from the southeastern coast. The disadvantages of terrain, location and transportation made Hunan's economy in ancient times relatively closed and backward, and it was on the edge of politics, economy and culture. During Emperor Shun's southern tour, he collapsed in the wilderness of Cangwu (today's Yongzhou City). , which is the boundary of the sphere of influence in the Central Plains. Yelang Kingdom (today's Huaihua area in western Hunan) is the place where prisoners are exiled and distributed. Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in a poem: "I follow you to the west of Yelang with my sorrowful heart and the bright moon." "The ancient Furong Tower in Qianyang, Hunan Province today commemorates this famous "Western Poet" at that time.

These areas are still economically underdeveloped areas and are concentrated in the main poverty-stricken counties in Hunan Province. Transportation The inconvenience caused poor circulation, and sea salt has always been expensive here. Even in the turbulent years of the Jinggangshan revolutionary struggle in modern times, salt was still a very rare thing in the Hunan-Ganxi mountainous area. Chili peppers have the functions of stimulating taste and disinfecting, so they became a substitute for table salt. Second, it is difficult for rural people to buy seasonal vegetables from outside the province. Chili is delicious and cheap, and it can replace the edible and even medicinal value of salt. From this point of view, it is the first choice for "food delivery". A large bowl of cabbage is not worth a small spoonful of chili pepper. Chili pepper is the oil of the poor, so it has become the most affordable and practical vegetable for farmers. This can be seen from the saying that farmers in Baoqing (now Shaoyang City) in central Hunan have a load of dried chili pepper to welcome the new year. Its consumption is so large that farmers in Daxu Town, Jiangyong, Yongzhou even use dried chili peppers for cooking. According to a survey by the Rural Survey Team of the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Statistics, in 1999, the province's chili pepper sowing area was 1.15 million hectares, with an annual output. More than 300,000 tons of peppers were imported from Hainan and other places in the off-season. Adding the two together, the average consumption of peppers in the province by men, women, old and young is more than 10 kilograms per year. Today, due to economic development, the province as a whole. The decline in the degree of spicy food consumption and the obvious difference in the degree of spicy food consumption between residents in developed cities and remote rural areas continue to prove the relationship between the amount of chili consumption, especially the degree of spicy food consumption, and the local economy.

Third. This is the reason for spiritual culture. “If Hunan changes, China will change; if Hunan survives, China will survive. "If China is destroyed, all the people in Hunan will die." "The sense of mission of Hunan people with lofty ideals to take the world as their own responsibility is extremely prominent among all provinces in China. Two large-scale immigrations in the early Ming and early Qing Dynasties had a great impact on the character and folk customs of Hunan people. Both large-scale immigrations were caused by war. The population dropped sharply, with only ten houses empty, and a large number of outsiders moved into Hunan. This reorganization of the population gave rise to new folk customs in Hunan. Therefore, Wu Xinfu and others believed in "General History of Hunan" that the pioneering and enterprising spirit of the new immigrants was related to the Han people. The integration of ethnic minorities such as the Miao people has gradually formed the temperament of Hunan people who are rebellious, daring, hard-working, brave and strong. They are often called "mules" and "barbarians". This humanistic characteristic is consistent with the spiritual quality of Chili Pepper. Therefore, it is not surprising that Hunan people use the power of peppers to express emotions, convey meaning, and enhance their feelings. They have developed from a general taste for spicy food to large-scale production and production of spicy food. p>