China has a long history, and its culinary art is well-known in the world. Chinese food is attractive for its color, fragrance, taste and shape. For a long time, due to the different natural environment, culture, customs and habits in different regions, China cuisine has formed local cuisines with different flavors. As a local flavor, Beijing's cooking is a collection of different local flavors. Northern cuisine is dominated by Shandong taste and is good at cooking seafood. Sichuan chefs love to put dry and fresh peppers in their cooking, and Sichuan cuisine is famous for its spicy and spicy spices. Cantonese cuisine has a wide range of materials, and they pay attention to freshness and crispness. Huaiyang cuisine pays attention to the original flavor, especially oily but not greasy, light and delicious. Tan Jiacai is salty and sweet, as the saying goes: "The south is sweet and the north is salty," but Tan Jiacai takes care of both.

China people eat concepts. Or in a popular way: eating culture. This makes the diet problem social (even artistic), not just a physical activity.

Japanese people are full of food all day long, and naturally the process of drinking tea is also refined into a tea ceremony close to philosophy, which means seeking truth in the breeze, bright moon, flower arrangement and utensils. China people are even more remarkable. They regard three meals a day as conscientious homework, and take pains to pursue the amazing artistic effect. "It's delicious!" It is a popular compliment. Therefore, the piety of gourmets is no less than that of painters or sculptors, and their experience of beauty is even more comprehensive: color, fragrance and taste-even the hidden tongue is mobilized and becomes a tool for appreciation.

When a big dish is put on the table in an orderly way, it's like opening a curtain over a certain artwork, and one or two heartfelt cheers can be heard from time to time-of course, this is what the chef hiding in the background is looking forward to. The guests toasted each other as if they were having a small ribbon-cutting ceremony. Then they did their jobs and waved chopsticks frequently. Jin Shengtan's comments on Water Margin and Zhi Yanzhai's comments on A Dream of Red Mansions are nothing more than that: make a little eyebrow criticism between the lines. Whether it's cold dishes or stir-fried dishes, they must finally stand the "cool comment" of chopsticks.

In China, the launch of every banquet is shrouded in a warm atmosphere like the launch of a new boat. And every diner is a skilled old sailor-or, in other words, a potential judge. No wonder the owners of restaurants are good at seeing the faces of their guests. You can know the chef's level by looking at the guest's face. The highest state of China culture is the word "happiness". This is also a Chinese character that China people love most. And eating is the best foil to this kind of happiness. Cheerful, the host is naturally satisfied. The traditional wedding banquet was brought to the extreme by the Manchu-Han banquet in the Qing Dynasty. From its name, we can feel the meaning of "national unity" and "strong alliance". Authentic Manchu-Han banquet should be eaten for three days and nights, and the tea and dishes are not repeated. This is a carnival with China characteristics: a marathon of food culture! Eating is the most daily ceremony and the most intensive festival in China.

Westerners who believe in Christ are used to drawing a cross on their chests before eating, chanting "God bless" and thanking God for the bread and salt. Most people in China are atheists, but when they drink wine, they feel like masters of their own house. A full meal (it would be better if you could hold a poem) is the closest freedom to them. It can be seen that this nation lacks a sense of religion, but it has a strong artistic atmosphere. In my imagination, gourmets are folk artists with ancient traditions.

Western food reflects the shadow of private ownership, and they manage their own dishes in their own way-using knives and forks is to facilitate the division of interests. Chinese food embodies the most simple * * * productism. China people gathered around the table and inherited the genetic genes of the primitive clan commune. Everyone ate meat and drank wine, and everyone could have a piece of the action. It is difficult to break the tradition of pot rice. Fortunately, the dining table in China is also the most cohesive place, and the outlaw style of sharing weal and woe is very popular. China people can have the illusion that all the people in the world are brothers and the world is one, and this virtual affection greatly increases their appetite after all. Therefore, when people in China eat, they are also eating the environment, atmosphere and even interpersonal relationships. Talk and eat, eat and listen. This is a kind of eating that goes beyond eating. I always think that China people's food is the most emotional and human.

China people have four cuisines and eight flavors. Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Qilu cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Northeast cuisine and even Shanghai Benbang cuisine ... seem to be separated by warlords. But in my eyes, it's more like dividing art schools. Qilu cuisine from the hometown of saints can be called classicism. The lingering Huaiyang cuisine belongs to romanticism. If spicy Hunan cuisine is critical realism, spicy Sichuan cuisine is magical realism-a pepper is sometimes worse than a cannonball, which fully mobilizes our tongue's imagination. Of course, it can also be converted in other ways: Shanghai cuisine belongs to the graceful school of Yang Liuan, while Northeast cuisine is equivalent to the unrestrained school of river of no return and Langtao ...

I wonder if there have been any titles of gourmets in western society besides politicians, thinkers, artists and militarists. In China, gourmets are almost a tradition. Although it has always been similar to "idleness", it is also quite enviable. In European civilization, gourmets were absent for a time, just as the explorer they admired was an imported word for China after modern times. But privately, I think that a gourmet is also an explorer who stays at home-"parents are here, and they don't travel far", so China people have to indulge in another kind of adventure, that is, the curiosity of delicacies. Gourmets use recipes instead of maps, cups instead of compasses, chopsticks instead of paddles, sailing in their own taste, and also enjoying the infinite scenery. This kind of adventure psychology is brought into full play on the problem of puffer fish. The puffer fish is equivalent to the "forbidden fruit" in China's food culture-a fatal temptation, and its delicacy is exaggerated because of its mystery and danger. Instead of flinching, gourmets are eager for it. This courage, I am afraid that even Adam and Eve who are dereliction of duty will sigh.