What we call gourmets now were called taste buds in ancient times, referring to those who are very good at tasting.

There are some famous taste experts in every era, but most of the most famous ones were concentrated in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

This also indirectly illustrates the unprecedented height of cooking level in that era, because without delicious food, there would be no gourmets.

Among those who knew the taste in ancient times, Shi Kuang and Yi Ya were the first to recommend it.

Yi Ya was a famous shaman, also known as Di Ya. He was the patron of Duke Huan of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period because he was good at cooking.

"Lu's Spring and Autumn Period·Jingyu" says: "The combination of Zi and Mian can be known by Yi Ya's taste." Zi and Mian are both rivers in Qi State. Put the water of the two rivers together, and Yi Ya can know it by tasting it.

There is indeed something superb about distinguishing which is Zishui and which is Mianshui.

Shi Kuang was a blind musician named Ziye in the Spring and Autumn Period of Jin Pinggong.

"The Biography of Wang Shao in Northern History" said: "When the teacher ate in the Kuang, it was said that it was cooked with salary. The minister of Jin Ping looked at it, and it turned out to be an axle." When you pick up the rice bowl and taste it, you can tell what kind of firewood it is made from, and the taste is really extraordinary.

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Labor salary refers to firewood chopped with worn-out tools. The rice made with it will probably have some peculiar smell, but it is not something that ordinary people can distinguish.

By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were obviously more people who knew the taste found in historical records than the descendants of the previous dynasties.

Xun Xun, a minister and writer of the Western Jin Dynasty, was a very prominent one. He was successively worshiped as the Supervisor of the Central Committee, the Attendant of the Central Committee, and the Secretary of the Secretariat, and was favored by Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty.

Once he was invited to have dinner with Emperor Wu, and he said to the people sitting next to him: "This meal is cooked with wages of labor." People didn't believe it, so Emperor Wu immediately sent someone to ask the cook, who said that when cooking,

Burning a broken wheel was indeed labor wages.

His deeds are so similar to Shi Kuang's, it is doubtful that one of them may be affiliated with ancient historians.

Fu Jian, who claimed to be the King of Qin in the former Qin Dynasty, had a nephew named Fu Lang, whose courtesy name was Yuanda, who was called Qianliju by Fu Jian.

After Fu Lang was transferred to the Jin Dynasty, he was appointed as the official minister of Wai Sanqi.

He is considered to be the best among those who know the taste. He can even tell which part of the animal's body the meat he eats is located.

Sima Daozi, the royal family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and King of Kuaiji, once hosted a banquet for Fu Lang, which included almost all the delicacies from the south of the Yangtze River.

After the banquet, Sima Daozi asked: "What delicious food in Guanzhong can be compared with Jiangnan?" Fu Lang replied: "The dishes at this banquet taste good, but the salt is a little bit salty." Later, when he asked the waiter, it turned out that it was true.

in this way.

Someone once killed a chicken and cooked it for Fu Lang to eat. Fu Lang took a look and said that the chicken was raised in the open air and not in a cage. This was indeed the case.

Fu Lang once ate a goose and pointed out which piece of meat had white hair and which piece of meat had black hair. People didn't believe it.

Someone specially killed a goose and carefully recorded the similarities and differences in the coat color. Fu Lang's words later were accurate.

This is a rare gourmet, and it is impossible to reach such a state without long-term accumulation of experience.

Among those who could distinguish between raw and cooked salt was Liu Ziyang, a minister of the Wei State. He "eat cakes and knew salt was raw", and was known as "the most exquisite taste" at that time.

Among the Jin people, there is also Huangfu Mi, who calls himself "Mr. Xuan Yan" and is also a master of taste recognition.

Huangfu Mi once visited his friend Wei Lun. Wei Lun asked his servant to bring out some dry food for him.

When Huangfu Mi tasted it, he knew that the main ingredient of the dry food was wheat flour, but it contained three fruit flavors: apricot, plum, and tangerine.

So he asked Wei Lun: "The three kinds of fruits have different ripening seasons. How do you combine them into one?" Wei Lun smiled and said nothing.

After Huangfu Mi left, Wei Lun sighed and said: "This man's ability to taste is far superior to Liu Ziyang's. I mixed the wheat noodles with apricot juice when the apricots were ripe, and then mixed them with the plum and nai when they were ripe.

Li and Nai Juice, that’s why it has three flavors!” In the eyes of many literati, their experience of taste is different from that of ordinary people, and they often place their own interests in wine and food, neither seeking luxury nor luxury.

Indulge.

Gu Kaizhi, a famous painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is known as the three greatest talents in painting, painting and ignorance.

The way he eats sugarcane is different from ordinary people. He starts from the tips, which are not very sweet, and gradually works his way up to the root. The more he eats, the sweeter it becomes. He also said that this is called "gradually getting better."

From the Jin Dynasty onwards, the trend of Chinese food began to change, which had nothing to do with the efforts of the literati. In the past, the food was all about fat and fat, but now it has turned to light and timeless beauty, and it has indeed entered a different world.