A study of Guangdong's food culture

Guangzhou has been an important town in southern China since ancient times. After Qin Shihuang unified Lingnan, Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs quickly merged, and Guangzhou became the center of Lingnan culture. There are many rivers and branches in ancient Guangzhou, with abundant rainfall and pleasant climate. It is surrounded by hills in the west, east and north, with lush forests and grass, rich fruits in Lingnan and many birds and animals. The south faces the sea, and the beaches are vast, producing many salty and fresh water products and amphibians, which makes ancient Guangzhou one of the regions with the richest food resources in China. The formation of Cantonese cuisine has a long history, and a large number of Central Plains immigrants to Lingnan made Guangzhou's food culture deeply influenced by the Central Plains. As early as the Han and Wei Dynasties, Guangzhou's snake dishes, roasted geese and fish soup had been influenced. At the end of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Song fled south with his kitchen, and many court delicacies spread to Guangzhou folk. After the Opium War, missionaries and businessmen from Europe and the United States flooded in, and thousands of businessmen gathered in Guangzhou, which provided a wide market for the development of the catering industry. Guangdong cuisine draws on the strengths of Central Plains cuisine and western food, and then absorbs the advantages of local dishes in Guangdong. Just like Guangzhou's culture, it blends ancient and modern, connecting China and the West, forming a unique Guangzhou food culture different from other parts of China, and winning the reputation of "Eating in Guangzhou", which is famous at home and abroad. Numerous tourists come here to taste delicious food and feel this unique Lingnan food culture.

The most obvious feeling in Guangzhou is that there are many restaurants and restaurants. As long as you want to eat, you can eat rich and varied foods anytime and anywhere. Tea market is the most attractive feature of Guangzhou's diet. In the past, there was only "morning tea" in Guangzhou, but now it has developed into three tea markets: morning, noon and night. Almost all restaurants and restaurants set up tea markets. As soon as the guests were seated, the waiter immediately greeted them: "How many? What kind of tea to drink? " The tea market provides all kinds of salty, sweet and dry snacks, such as buffet, to suit your needs, and the price is very affordable, which can be consumed by the general public. Guangzhou tea market has become an important social occasion for friends to meet and exchange ideas, an important way for family members to get together and enjoy family life, an effective buffer for modern tense and fast-paced life and work, and an important way for some people, especially the elderly, to relax. One morning paper, one cup and two, sit for hours, eat, watch and chat, and care about family affairs, state affairs and what's going on in the world. Cantonese cuisine has a wide range of exotic ingredients, such as snakes as dragons, chickens as phoenixes, cats as tigers, mice as deer, flying in the sky, crawling on the ground and swimming in the water. Cantonese cuisine pays attention to freshness, smoothness, lightness in summer and autumn, and richness in winter and spring. It uses unique seasonings, and uses techniques such as boiling, roasting, soaking, frying, boiling and simmering to cook dishes with unique local flavor. The "raw seafood" of Cantonese cuisine has its own characteristics. Many restaurants and restaurants have not decorated their halls properly. First, the seafood pool at the entrance should be designed to display dozens of raw seafood to attract customers. Boiling and drinking herbal tea in Cantonese cuisine is a pioneering work for Guangzhou people to adapt to the geographical and climatic environment and adapt to local conditions. "What is boiling today?" It is a necessary topic for housewives to meet and chat, and there is a lot of knowledge in it. Cantonese restaurants have a variety of dishes. Every once in a while, restaurants will create new dishes with new raw materials and different combinations, so as to enhance their competitiveness, and new food trends are often set off in the market, which is the strong vitality of "eating in Guangzhou".

analyzing the natural landscape and human environment of "eating in Guangzhou" has rich cultural connotations. First, it is open. Guangzhou is located along the coast with convenient transportation, and has been an important port for economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries since ancient times. The open environment endows Guangzhou people with an open way of thinking, which is reflected in an "all-you-can-eat" open mind in diet. Hotels and restaurants with flavors from north and south are all over the streets of Guangzhou, and almost all major cuisines in China and flavors from all over the world can be found. The second is compatibility. An open culture must be compatible at the same time. Lingnan culture has the characteristics of eclecticism and accommodating all rivers, which has also been fully reflected in Guangzhou's diet. The third is pioneering. Guangzhou people dare to eat anything, and are good at exploring traditional local flavor foods and eating methods, constantly transplanting and transforming, and bringing forth the new. There is such an ancestral motto among Cantonese chefs: "There is tradition, but there is no authenticity." It embodies the courage and pioneering spirit of Guangzhou people who dare to be the first in the world. In addition, Guangzhou people do not waste their food, and they can't finish eating and "pack" it back, which reflects the virtue of Guangdong people who cherish food and are thrifty. Guangzhou cuisine has raised eating and cooking to the artistic level, which has become an important part of Lingnan culture, greatly enriched the connotation and characteristics of Lingnan culture, and had a far-reaching impact on the catering culture in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

With the development of economy, the progress of society and the continuous expansion of opening to the outside world, Guangzhou's food culture is constantly developing and changing. On the one hand, Guangzhou's food culture has been impacted by foreign cultures, such as the western fast food culture represented by McDonald's and Kendeji, which has occupied the market of many young people and children and brought about new changes in many people's living customs and cultural concepts. On the other hand, the continuous improvement of people's living standards has laid an economic foundation for the development of food culture in Guangzhou, and "food in Guangzhou" is also facing good development opportunities, showing the following development trends: First, the combination of food and tourism. The setting of restaurants and hotels is compatible with the development of tourist attractions, attaches importance to the protection and construction of time-honored brands, and promotes each other with the overall planning of tourism products; The tourism department holds the "Guangzhou International Food Festival" every year, which attracts visitors from all directions, widely promotes Guangzhou food culture, and effectively combines food and tourism. Second, dining is convenient. In view of the rapid development of modern work and life, all kinds of food, semi-finished products and fast food have developed rapidly and been widely welcomed. Third, food nutrition is scientific. From "full eating" to "good eating", Guangzhou people have gradually paid attention to the scientific collocation of nutritional structure, paying attention to food supplement, dietotherapy and medicinal diet, and their study and research on nutrition is in the ascendant. Fourth, the raw materials are naturalized. People in Guangzhou pay more and more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development. Safe vegetables and meat have become a common concern of the public, and the market demand for green food and pollution-free food is expanding day by day. Fifth, the taste of food. Restaurants and restaurants in Guangzhou pay more and more attention to decoration, elegant style and comfortable environment. The hall furnishings, dishes naming and waiters' costumes all reveal the taste of food culture. Coupled with melodious music, or set up dance art, fashion show, or set up karaoke, so that diners can eat and drink in the beautiful artistic atmosphere. This combination of diet and culture and art makes the taste of Guangzhou cuisine constantly improve, and diners will enjoy more and more rich food culture.

Guangdong culture and dietary customs

People's choice of food depends not only on their personal physical characteristics, the conditions of the times and the surrounding natural environment, but also on their cultural characteristics. Different cultures have different standards and consumption patterns of food. For example, China people regard the liver, kidney, heart and lungs of animals as delicacies, so-called "shape-supplementing", while Americans feed them to cats and dogs, thinking that they are not good for people's health; China people are not used to eating snails, but the French regard them as treasures; India is the country that raises the most cattle in the world, but they would rather starve to death than eat beef. Even the milk shipped to India by the United Nations Relief Agency can only be dumped into the sea, which is closely related to their traditional culture (religious belief).

Dietary custom is a distinctive branch of Guangdong culture. Cantonese cuisine is well-known at home and abroad, and "Eating in Guangzhou" has long been famous in the world. The reform and innovation of diet can never be separated from the category of culture. By describing and analyzing the phenomenon of diet in Guangdong, we can see through the cultural connotation contained in its lifestyle.

Choose a variety of ingredients and eat everything

As one of the eight major cuisines in China, Cantonese cuisine is famous for its extensive selection of ingredients. In Cantonese cuisine, animals and birds, delicacies, wild vegetables and flowers are all prohibited. Snakes, rats, finches, insects, dogs and cats are jaw-dropping ingredients in other cuisines, but they are regarded as table treasures. For example, people in other provinces are afraid to eat snakes. For example, in ancient times, there was an idiom that "the shadow of a snake is reflected in a glass", and even people mistakenly thought that the shadow of a snake would be scared to get sick, let alone eat it. In Cantonese cuisine, snakes are the best choice. Cantonese people have a long history of eating snakes, but they are the best choice in Cantonese cuisine. There is a song about eating snakes in "The Tales of Foreign Bodies in South Vietnam": "The snake is long and long, and it is a feast for guests." Today, there are nearly 51 kinds of snake gizzards in Guangdong, and there are many restaurants with snakes as their basic dishes. Many foreigners and foreigners come to Guangdong to taste snake gizzards as a pleasure.

In fact, Cantonese people's omnipotence is a reflection of their open mind in diet. As the saying goes, one side of the soil and water support one side of the people, and different geographical environments have created different regional personalities. Guangdong is the only place for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, which has formed an open thinking structure of Cantonese people. At the same time, because it is located in the frontier, the control of the dynasties over it is weaker than that of the mainland, and it is less influenced by orthodox feudal thoughts. The influence of the traditional culture of the Central Plains on it is constantly weakening, thus having greater freedom and tolerance.

Learn from others and pay attention to reality

Cantonese cuisine was formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties. It is based on the local food culture, absorbing the essence of domestic Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu and Sichuan cuisines and the cooking techniques of western food. For example, soaking, grilling and Sichuan in Cantonese cuisine were transplanted from the northern explosion, grilling and frying, and other methods were borrowed from western food and gradually formed.

All similar cultures can explore the relationship from historical contact. In the comparison of the same things between the two places, the greater the qualitative similarity, the more obvious the mutual spread. The openness of Guangdong culture is bound to be compatible, which makes the food culture inclusive and promotes the development of food customs unconsciously.

While learning from others, Guangdong food customs can gradually abandon some bad habits in foreign food and form a style that is not luxurious and practical. Cantonese people pay attention to small but refined diets. Even if they entertain guests, they will never be extravagant and waste. They take full food and good food as the principle, which is in sharp contrast to some places in the north. The extravagance of northerners is precisely due to the formality of etiquette, which certainly has its generous and lovely side, but it should be noted that the red tape in diet cannot be accepted by the behavior of modern society. Of course, this doesn't mean that Cantonese people don't pay attention to etiquette. On the contrary, Cantonese people pay great attention to politeness when they treat guests, so that guests can come on impulse and enjoy themselves, and that kind of extravagance that is divorced from reality is unwilling to be done by pragmatic Cantonese people.

The pragmatic spirit of Guangdong people's current diet style is the inevitable result of the development of modern society. Guangdong people do not live up to their reputation, but pay attention to reality. The spirit of realism in Confucian culture has little influence on Guangdong. On the contrary, they are influenced by the realistic attitude of westerners. This kind of influence has formed that Guangdong people can learn from others' strengths in diet, but at the same time maintain a pragmatic attitude. Elaborate pursuit of enjoyment

The preparation of a delicious dish depends on the orderly cooperation among all links. Cantonese cuisine has very strict requirements in ingredients, knife work, heat, cooking time, cooking, wrapping, utensils, serving methods and many other links. If you cook fish, you should kill it and cook it, so as to keep the delicious taste of the fish; Another example is the production of its platter, which must pay attention to the choice of ingredients in order to achieve the effect of beautiful shape and rich taste. A good platter is not only a dish of delicacies, but also a work of art, which is pleasing to the eye and appetizing.

In Cantonese cuisine, nothing is better than chicken gizzards. There are hundreds of kinds of chicken dishes, which can make guests taste dozens of kinds of chicken dishes without repetition. Almost every famous restaurant has its own signature chicken, such as Wenchang chicken in Guangzhou restaurant, Carved chicken in Beiyuan restaurant, Zhuhou chicken in Foshan, and white-cut chicken in Qingyuan, and so on. Such as white-cut chicken, you must choose small hens or castrated chickens, and Qingyuan Sanhuang chicken is the best. The most important thing in the production is the heat, which is suitable for those who are just cooked and slightly bloodshot after cutting. If they are overdone, the meat will become old, and the characteristics of white-cut chicken will be lost. The delicacy of food preparation is inseparable from the Cantonese culture that emphasizes personal value and pursues enjoyment. Enjoyment is not a one-sided pursuit of eating, drinking and having fun, it belongs to a moral category, corresponding to asceticism. Abstinence rejects worldly wealth and enjoyment, and suppresses desires to achieve certain social goals or moral self-improvement. From the perspective of moral types, Guangdong culture does not belong to asceticism, but shows a tendency of hedonism, full of secular enjoyment of human nature and emotional appeal, manifested in the pursuit of comfort, happiness and a better life, with the aim of working hard and enjoying it to the fullest. The word "enjoyment" has always been given derogatory meaning in China culture, and it is always associated with getting something for nothing, thinking that enjoyment is the bourgeois way of life, and it seems that only the bourgeoisie is entitled to enjoy it. In fact, enjoyment is a very advanced way of life for human beings and an inevitable cultural choice when human civilization develops to a certain extent.

Since the reform and opening-up, Guangdong's dietary customs have developed to a higher level, which has strongly impacted the traditional values, and the traditional Confucian concept of "a gentleman living in poverty" and content with "eating and drinking" has been seriously challenged. Confucianism regards integrity as the only criterion to measure personality, and guarding the poor as a symbol of upholding integrity. The essence of this thought is to limit human beings to the lowest living standard. In the tide of reform, Cantonese people realize that it is desirable not to live in luxury, but they must not take poverty as the criterion to judge their conduct, which enables them to open their minds and bravely pursue the continuous improvement of their living standards.

Dietary custom is an important cultural phenomenon. Food not only contains organic substances that can be used by human beings to maintain life, but also needs to be labeled with consent by culture for each food and its consumption mode. Similarly, Guangdong people's choice of their diet is also the result of the long-term subtle influence of their culture. The reform and innovation of food can be ever-changing, but it must be based on culture in order to be accepted and liked by people.

The colorful food culture is an important window for Guangzhou's economic and social development. "Eating in Guangzhou" is the praise of Chinese people for Guangdong's food culture. Guangdong food culture has a long history and profound accumulation, which is not only rich in connotation, but also has extremely strong southern Guangdong characteristics: extensive selection of cooking materials, exquisite and unique cooking methods, emphasis on food and beauty, unique aesthetic concept, and organic combination of color, fragrance, taste and shape. It is believed that with the construction and development of Guangzhou as a modern central city, the potential of "food in Guangzhou" is unlimited, and the future prospect will be even more brilliant.