Puyi, the last emperor, described the royal meals in detail in his book "The First Half of My Life". He said that the most expensive event in terms of manpower, material and financial resources was eating.

When it was time to eat, the emperor only had to say "pass the meal", and the little eunuch in front of the emperor said "pass the meal" to the eunuch guarding in front of the Yangxin Hall, and then passed it down one after another. Before the echo disappeared, dozens of neatly dressed eunuchs

Carrying a single table and holding a red lacquer box, they entered the main hall one by one. Before the dishes were delivered, they had to be tasted by the eunuchs. It was called a meal tasting. The purpose was to detect whether anyone had poisoned the dishes. After the emperor sat down, a eunuch

He shouted: "Put the lid on the bowl," and the emperor began to eat.

Behind this series of seemingly solemn and majestic formations, there are actually many problems hidden.

For example, one day the emperor ordered the meal to be served earlier than before. The emperor would not wait for the diners to wait for the kitchen to be ready before serving the food like today's diners.

You can only wait for the dishes, but never wait for the dishes. In order for the emperor to have hot meals at any time, the dishes and staple food can only be prepared in advance, and the dishes are placed in special insulated containers to ensure that the emperor

No matter where you go, you can have your meal immediately if you pass it on at any time.

But doing this will cause a big problem. First of all, these meals prepared for the emperor in advance cannot choose dishes that pay attention to heat and taste, because these dishes will be very unpalatable if left for a long time, so this aspect is

The optional range of the emperor's royal meal menu is limited.

Secondly, after most dishes are kept warm for a long time, their own nutrients and taste will be greatly reduced. Therefore, many imperial dishes look good, but their real taste is not flattering. This is why the last emperor Puyi described the imperial dishes as

It's like offering it to the dead, to use his original words, but it's really not delicious, it's the same, and it doesn't taste good.

Therefore, Puyi said that he never eats food made in the imperial dining room. In fact, most of the food in this form is used for show and is not actually delicious.

So what does he eat?

According to Puyi's account, he actually ate dishes sent by the Queen Mother for every meal, because the Queen Mother or the concubines had their own imperial kitchens, and the dishes they used were all cooked by senior chefs. They were also delicious, and every meal was delicious.

There were about 20 dishes in total, and these were the dishes that were placed in front of the emperor, while the dishes prepared in the imperial kitchen were placed far away, just for show.

It was actually very difficult for ancient emperors to have an after-dinner fruit. According to historical records, on June 29, the 25th year of Qianlong's reign, Fujian sent a total of 40 lychees. Except for the empress dowager who got two of the 40 lychees, the rest

The favored concubines in each palace will have one, and the unfavored ones will have none at all. Naturally, in addition to the 40 lychees being distributed to the concubines in the harem, the princes, grandsons, princes and ministers cannot be ignored. In the end, they will really be able to

There may not be many words in Emperor Qianlong's mouth. From this, it seems that the emperor is really a bit miserable.