From the Neolithic Age to the Yin and Shang Dynasties, grain processing has been relatively primitive and simple. Ancestors processed grains by grinding plates, sticks, Chu Jiu, etc. And it is difficult to provide a large amount of clean rice without shell. In the Zhou Dynasty, the appearance of stone was a leap in the primary processing method of grain. Stone is a millstone. The primary processing of grain has changed from grinding to grinding. With the popularization of stone mill, the diet of Zhou people has been greatly improved.

Meat began to be processed.

Compared with grain processing, the meat processing in Zhou Dynasty was more exquisite. And as the primary processing of meat, it is as important as the later cooking. In particular, the selection, cutting and cooking of all kinds of meat enjoyed by the royal aristocrats in the Zhou Dynasty during sacrifices and banquets were all handled by special official departments "inside and outside". Zhou people have fully understood how to choose healthy livestock and poultry without disease and special odor, and identify all parts of livestock and poultry before slaughter. When eating, all kinds of dishes have a fixed position, and eating is also carried out according to certain procedures, which is determined by the different shapes of meat cut out.

The appearance of babel

The appearance of "eight treasures" in the Zhou Dynasty marked the formation of cooking as an important art, and showed the superb skills and scientific diet of Zhou people. Take the finless porpoise as an example. First, wash and peel the pig, fill the stomach with dates, wrap it in wet mud, dry it, peel the mud and take it out. Then coat the pig with rice flour paste, stir-fry, cut into pieces, prepare seasoning, then put it in a small pot, put it in a large iron pot, simmer for three days and three nights, and season it with sauce and vinegar after taking out. This dish adopts three cooking methods: roasting, frying and stewing, with as many as ten processes. "Eight treasures" pioneered the use of various cooking methods to cook dishes, and all kinds of dazzling dishes in later generations were developed on this basis. Even the names of dishes were copied from "eight treasures", and there are still "eight treasures cakes", "eight treasures noodles" and "eight treasures porridge" and so on.

The four major cuisines were born.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various ethnic groups merged, and the food culture gradually formed two major flavors: North and South. In the north, the ancient Qilu food culture has a long history, and the cooking technology is relatively developed, forming the embryonic form of Shandong cuisine, the earliest local flavor dish in China.

In the south, the Chu people unified half of the southeast and occupied today's "land of plenty". There are swordfish in spring, shad in summer, fat ducks in autumn and vegetables in winter. Throughout the year, aquatic products, livestock and poultry, vegetables and vegetables are listed, which provides superior material conditions for the development of cooking technology. Because of the integration of folk customs, folk customs and eating habits of many ethnic groups in the south, the embryonic form of Jiangsu cuisine has gradually formed today.

In the west, Qin occupied Cuba and Shu, and then sent Li Bing to transform the flooded land into a "land of abundance". In addition, the arrival of a large number of Hanzhong immigrants, combined with the local climate, customs and the traditional diet of ancient Bashu, produced the predecessor of Sichuan cuisine, which has a great influence so far.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, troops were sent to annex Guilin, Nanhai and Xiangxiang counties to establish Nanyue State. In the eleventh year of Emperor Gaozu, he was made King of South Vietnam. Taking advantage of Guangzhou's location in the southeast coast, the mild climate in the Pearl River Delta, abundant products, various edible animals and plants and convenient land and water transportation, the political, economic and cultural center of Lingnan was established. The food here is more developed. Nowadays, Guangdong's food culture is actually that Zhao Tuo introduced the advanced cooking arts and appliances from the Central Plains into the mountainous areas, combined with local food resources, and made delicious food with "flying, diving, moving and growing", which has been passed down to this day and produced Cantonese cuisine.

At this point, Shandong cuisine (including Beijing, Tianjin and other northern cuisines), Jiangsu cuisine (including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui cuisines), Guangdong cuisine (including Fujian, Taiwan, Chaoshan and Qionglai cuisines) and Sichuan cuisine (including Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Yunnan cuisines) were formed.

Chi zai Han Tang

With the complete birth of China's unification, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had the most complete diet management system in China at that time. Among the officials in charge of the daily affairs of the emperor, there are taiguan, tangguan and daoguan related to food activities. They are "main diet", "main cake bait" and "main rice selection" This is a huge bureaucratic system. The food expenses of the emperor and the harem are equivalent to the property of 20 thousand middle-class people in the Han Dynasty.

During this period, the spread of food culture in China intensified. Zhang Qian and others not only introduced products such as gourd, walnut, coriander, flax, carrot and pomegranate from the Western Regions, but also introduced products such as peaches, plums, apricots, pears, ginger, tea and food culture from the Central Plains to the Western Regions. Today, among the cultural relics unearthed from the Han tombs in the former Western Regions are wooden chopsticks from the Central Plains. One of China's traditional barbecue techniques, iron plate barbecue, also spread to Central Asia and West Asia through the Silk Road very early, and finally formed kebabs that local people like to eat.

Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty was the center of world culture at that time, which provided convenience for the exchange and integration of various ethnic food cultures. Great changes have taken place in the traditional diet structure of the Hu Hanmin ethnic group. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, "eating meat and drinking cheese" began to become a common dietary feature of the Hu Hanmin ethnic group in the whole northern and northwestern regions.

We eat about 160 kinds of vegetables every day today. However, about half of the common vegetables in 100 are native to China and about half are imported from abroad. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains introduced many kinds of vegetables and fruits, such as alfalfa, spinach, Brassica, gourd, beans, garlic and coriander, grapes, almonds, watermelons and pomegranates, as well as spices such as pepper and sugar, through exchanges with ethnic minorities in the northwest. At the same time, the cooking methods of the western regions were also introduced to the Central Plains.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, various Hu foods introduced from the Han Dynasty gradually spread in the Yellow River valley and were loved by the majority of Han people, especially boiled or rinsed sheep and roasted whole sheep.

The Han and Tang Dynasties were also a period of gradual changes in China's traditional diet. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hu Chuang, as a kind of seat, was introduced into the Central Plains from the Western Regions and gradually became widely used. Because sitting on the Hu bed requires two feet on the ground, which changes the traditional kneeling posture of the Han nationality. The new changes in furniture from Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties also reached a climax. On the one hand, the height of the traditional bed plan is constantly improving; On the other hand, the types of new high-rise furniture have increased, such as chairs and tables. It's already in use. After the appearance of tables and chairs, it is natural for people to sit around a table and eat.

There were many exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and foreign food culture, and people's material life had an atmosphere of advocating the western regions. The food flavor and clothing in western countries are very beautiful, and worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things has become a general trend. At that time, in Chang 'an, there were many hotels run by conference semifinals, accompanied by beautifully dressed Hu Ji. Literati such as Li Bai frequented these hotels, and many poems in Tang poetry mentioned these hotels and Hu Ji. Restaurant Hu and Hu Ji have become an important feature of food culture in Tang Dynasty.

Tea is in Liaojin.

With the trade of tea, tea food also penetrated into the daily life of Liao and Jin nationalities. In the important wedding ceremony of Jin people, tea and food are formal. The so-called tea food is just a high-grade "cooler" that Han people often eat, that is, fried dough sticks and other foods with large soft fat and small soft fat, coupled with a plate of honey cakes. Only when the whole banquet is over and all the guests who come to the wedding are entertained will they go to Ming Jian. Tea has become a drink that only the rich can sip, while the rough can only drink cheese.

Kublai Khan's instant-boiled mutton

In the Yuan Dynasty, the territory of the empire developed unprecedentedly, which also brought about the extensive development of food culture. During this period, instant-boiled mutton was born under the impetus of Kublai Khan; Moon cakes have become an indispensable snack in Mid-Autumn Festival. Yuan Dadu became the birthplace of the first historic roast duck restaurant; It has produced a famous dish that everyone is willing to taste so far-roast whole sheep.

However, the Mongols' Western Expedition and the Muslims of all ethnic groups from Persia, Central Asia and Arabia who came from the East in various capacities or voluntarily in the Yuan Dynasty merged with the local ethnic groups and became a new ethnic group in the Yuan Dynasty-Hui nationality, and jointly created and developed the Muslim food culture in China with other Muslim ethnic groups.

The luxury of the court

The imperial court in Ming dynasty was extravagant in diet. The vegetables in the palace include chicken fir in southern Yunnan, smallpox tripe in Wutai Mountain and seaweed in the East China Sea, such as seaweed, asparagus, kelp, antlers and laver. Artemisia shoot rotten in the south of the Yangtze River, pine nuts in Liaodong, yellow flower lily in the north of thistle, yam potato in Zhongdu, moss in the south, yellow bamboo shoot in Wudang, Polygonatum sibiricum and black essence. Walnut, jujube, magnolia bark, Man Qing, bracken and other vegetables, dried and fresh fruits and local products are all available in Beishan.