The origin and development of E cuisine and its historical allusions.
The traditional E cuisine is centered on the Jianghan Plain and consists of three kinds of local flavors of Wuhan, Jingzhou and Huangzhou, including the four major schools of Jingnan, Xiangyang, Ezhou and Hanshin. Wuhan cuisine has more varieties, focusing on knife work and fire, paying attention to color matching and modeling, especially the simmering soup technology has unique features. Jingzhou cuisine is famous for cooking freshwater fish, various steamed dishes are more distinctive, the gravy is thin and clear, and it is important to maintain the original flavor. Huangzhou cuisine is good at burning, frying, thick juice and heavy flavor, rich in rural characteristics. Jingnan cuisine is active in Jingjiang River, including Yichang, Jiangling, Honghu and other places, specializing in stewed game and small aquatic products. Xiangyang flavor is prevalent in the Han River basin, including Guanghua, Fancheng, Suizhou and other places, mainly meat and poultry dishes, proficient in baking, grilling and stir-frying. Ezhou flavor spreads to the hills of Southeast E, including Huanggang, Xishui, Xianning and other places, and is famous for processing grain, bean, vegetable and fruit, and the combination of staple food and side dishes is its specialty. Han-Shin flavor is rooted in the ancient Yunmeng Daze, including Hankou, Shinyang, Xiaogan and other places, known for cooking large aquatic products and simmering soups.
The production of E cuisine is characterized by delicate craftsmanship, thick juice and bright gravy, fresh taste and mellow flavor, and winning by quality. Methods of steaming, simmering, deep-frying, burning, frying mainly, pay attention to freshness, tenderness, softness, smoothness, coolness, focusing on the original color, affordable. Famous dishes include: steamed Wuchang fish, chicken velvet rack fish maw, Zhongxiang coiled dragon, simmered chicken, Shinyang three steamed, scattered braised eight treasures, dragon and phoenix with three fresh bean skins, Dongpo cake, noodle nests and so on more than hundreds of varieties.
The famous dish "Dragon and Phoenix Match" has a legend. According to legend, after Liu Bei recruited his wife from Wu, he brought Mrs. Sun back to Jingzhou; Zhuge Liang set up a banquet to receive him, and ordered the chef to use Jingzhou's specialties such as big eel and phoenix chicken to cook, which was highly praised by Liu Bei, and was then named "Dragon and Phoenix Matching".
Dongpo Cake: In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in the hinterland of Edong, there is a city of Ezhou, which is a city of lotus and fish, and a city of outstanding people. As early as in the Three Kingdoms, Ezhou was the capital of the Sun-Wu regime, and the historical reasons have led to the accumulation of a food culture with local characteristics. Su Dongpo, a great writer in Song Dynasty, left his footsteps on the tourist attraction "Xishan" in Ezhou. It is said that when Su Dongpo traveled to Xishan Mountain for the first time, he rested in Lingquan Temple, and the monks cooked tea in the spring water of the Bodhisattva in the temple, and entertained him with the special fragrant oil wheat noodles and fried cakes, and he did not want to have this kind of crispy and crunchy fried cakes which were very suitable for his taste. From then on, the western mountain not only became Su Dongpo poetry and fugue place, but also became his tea and Zen enlightenment place.
In 1864, when the governor of Hunan and Guangdong Province, Mr. Wen traveled to Xishan Mountain, the monks of Lingquan Temple still served him with this cake, and when Mr. Wen asked about the name of the cake after eating it, the monks said that it was called "Dongpo Cake". Official Wen learned of the origin of the cake, immediately inscribed "door moored warships remembering Gongjin, I come to tea to continue the Dongpo". Dongpo cake then became a famous Ezhou pastry.
Dao Guan Chicken: There is a household dish called "Dao Guan Chicken" in Jing Chu land. This dish was taken because of the name of the place, but there is an interesting story about its alias: in the beautiful city of Songzi in the Jingzhou region, a lot of vehicles from the north to the south have to go through a small town called "Shadoguan". In the town's small restaurant, there is an old lady Du, a handful of good food. Especially her roast chicken, sauce flavorful, evocative, everyone who has eaten are full of praise.
Many long-distance drivers and merchants passing through the town would come to the store of Mrs. Du to taste this delicious food. In this way, Grandma Du's fame gradually spread, and many foreign diners also came to the store, and the business of the store became more and more prosperous. Later, "Dao Guan Chicken" was also known as "Du Pao Chicken".
Pushing the boundaries of innovation Han manager said, E cuisine has always been "no steam is not a seat," said. In keeping the original traditional steamed vegetables shape, color, juice, taste on the basis of in-depth excavation and refinement more suitable for modern tastes of the local steamed vegetables, in order to highlight the dishes more fat and tender and fragrant. Hubei people are famous for their love of soup. They have chosen to simmer the soup with local chickens from the Hubei countryside, and improved it while adhering to the traditional premise to make the meat flavor more mellow and the soup more delicious.
Wuhan snacks have been known as "one of the wonders of China", such as soft and refreshing three fresh bean skins, the unique flavor of hot noodles, fluffy and tasty noodle nests and spicy and delicious beef noodle soup and so on.