Zhejiang cuisine has a long history. Huangdi's Classic of Internal Medicine, Su Wen, Appropriate Theory of Guiding Fa Fang said: "The city of the East is the place where heaven and earth began, where salt is fished, and the seashore is near the water. Its people are addicted to salt, so they are safe and delicious." There is a record of "the land of Chu and Yue ... rice, rice, soup and fish" in Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi. It can be seen that Zhejiang cooking has a history of thousands of years. In addition, Chinese archaeologists excavated an early Neolithic cultural site from Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in 1973. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are a large number of indica rice, chaff, many cores of water chestnut, gourd and Zizyphus jujuba, and the remains of more than 4 kinds of animals such as pigs, deer, tigers, elk, rhinoceros, geese, crows, eagles, fish, turtles and crocodiles. At the same time, ancient pottery stoves and a number of domestic pottery such as kettles, cans, pots, plates and bowls have also been unearthed. According to the research of scientists, these cultural relics have a history of about 7 years ago, which is one of the earliest Neolithic strata found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coast.
2. Spring and Autumn Period
During the Spring and Autumn Period of Wuyue, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the capital of Yue (now Shaoxing) was "Huiji". With its superior geographical environment and resources, under the influence of the economy, culture and technology of the Central Plains countries, after "ten years of life and lessons", the agricultural, commercial and handicraft production in Qiantang River Basin developed rapidly and laid a solid foundation. Gou Jian, the King of Yue, stepped up his armament in order to restore the country, and set up a large chicken farm in Jishan, Shaoxing, which used to be called "Chicken Mountain" to prepare chickens for the front line. Therefore, the oldest dish in Zhejiang cuisine is Shaoxing's famous dish "Clear soup and Yue chicken". Secondly, Hangzhou's "Song Saoyu Soup", which comes from "Song Wusao Fish Soup", has a history of 88 years. From Liangzhu, a suburb of Hangzhou, and Hemudu, Yuyao, an ancient site of human activities, it is proved from the bones of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and ducks that the cooking materials of Zhejiang cuisine were quite rich four or five thousand years ago. Traditional famous dishes such as Dongpo pork, salted meat, honey sauce fire recipe and Huatong chicken are all inseparable from these cooking materials.
3. After the Southern and Northern Dynasties
After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Jiangnan was spared from war for hundreds of years, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened in Sui and Tang Dynasties. The maritime sideline business in Ningbo and Wenzhou expanded, and foreign economic and trade exchanges were frequent, especially in the Five Dynasties (AD 97), when Qian Liu, wuyue, established its capital in Hangzhou, the economy and culture became more developed, the population increased dramatically, and business flourished. There was once a "parallel wall of 2 miles, which opened. The development of economy and the exchange of trade all gave a great impetus to the development and rise of cooking, which made the cooking skills of court dishes and folk diets at that time develop by leaps and bounds.
4. Southern Song Dynasty
Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhejiang cuisine played a major role in "Southern Food". Known as the second migration of the Chinese nation, the Southern Crossing of the Song Dynasty played a great role in further promoting the innovation and development of southern cuisine centered on Hangzhou. In this great migration, a large number of celebrities, dignitaries and working people in the north moved to the south and settled in Zhejiang, bringing the cooking culture of Kyoto in the north to Zhejiang, making the cooking skills between the north and the south widely exchanged, the catering industry thriving and improving, and the famous dishes came into being. Wu Zimu's Dream of Liang Lu, West Lake Old Man's Record of Numerous Victory, and meticulous Wulin Old Stories all record the prosperity of Hangzhou's food market and the delicious food in the city. According to the record in Volume 16 "Tea Hotel" of Menglianglu, there were more than 28 kinds of colorful dishes in Hangzhou at that time, and there were more than 15 kinds of cooking techniques. There were many exquisite and luxurious restaurants, and ordinary restaurants were "everywhere", and the cooking flavor was both north and south, which was a prosperous scene. For hundreds of years since the Southern Song Dynasty, although the political center is in the north, Zhejiang is bound to be one of the richest in terms of material resources, developed in culture and prosperous in industry and commerce. A large number of famous chefs from the north gathered in Hang Cheng, which enabled Hangzhou cuisine and Zhejiang cuisine to enter a state of development from the bud, and Zhejiang cuisine has since stood among the national Lai cuisines. Up to now, more than 8 years' famous dishes in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as crab stuffed orange, steamed sheep with turtle, Dongpo preserved, south fried eel, qunxian soup and two-color kidney, are still famous at high-end banquets. In Shaoxing, in addition to clear soup and Yue chicken, braised chicken, frozen meat, fried shrimp chicken and coir shrimp balls are served. Ningbo's pickled vegetable soup, yellow croaker, small roasted moss, soft-shelled turtle with rock sugar, braised eel in pot, Huzhou's old-fashioned shrimp, colorful shredded eel, Jiaxing's fried crab powder, fried shrimp and crab, etc., all have a history of hundreds of years. Wenzhou is near Fujian, influenced by Fujian cuisine, and its cooking is light, mainly seafood, and dishes such as three-piece fish rolls and three-piece shrimps have a long history.
5. After the Republic of China,
Hangzhou cuisine first introduced new dishes such as Longjing shrimp. However, Zhejiang cuisine, which is dominated by Hangzhou cuisine, is basically divided into three factions. One faction is a "Beijing Gang" restaurant that cooks the northern flavor, that is, a big group of dishes that are valued by the culinary community, and mainly cooks high-grade raw materials, such as shark's fin, sea cucumber, bird's nest, bear's paw, roast suckling pig and roast duck (Beijing roast duck), which is the strongest in Hangzhou. Another Hui Gang, which specializes in braising in soy sauce, is mainly distributed in Hangzhou, Xing Wu, Ningbo and other places. The dishes are mainly tasty, heavy oil, heavy sauce, heavy color and economical. The other group is local Lai, a real native cuisine. Hangzhou has a large-scale building outside the West Lake Building, which was opened in the Qing Dynasty, and is famous for its vinegar fish and shrimp in Longjing. Wang Runxing, who has the Qinghefang in the city, is called "imperial rice". Fish-head tofu, known as Mulang tofu, is good at meat and pickled bamboo shoots. Shaoxing has Lanxiang Pavilion, coir, shrimp balls, specially cooked fish with vinegar and other standard dishes. There is Dongfuyuan in Ningbo, East Zhejiang, and famous dishes such as pickle soup, yellow croaker and rock sugar turtle are authentic local traditional dishes in Ningbo.
Zhejiang cuisine has its own unique cooking methods. In addition to people's regional taste preference, rich specialty products are also one of the factors.
Song Saoyu Soup is a kind of "West Lake Vinegar Fish", which is made by boiling mandarin fish in water, removing bones from the fish, putting the fish back into the original soup, adding a little soy sauce, sugar and more vinegar without adding oil. The West Lake vinegar fish is simple to make, and it is made by slaughtering, knife processing, boiling, taking out and adding seasoning, but the technical standards are very high. This cooking method is unique among famous dishes in China. There is a similar situation in Shaoxing's famous dish, braised chicken with white fish. Put the chicken and white fish (dried salted yellow croaker) in a bowl without refueling, and its flavor will be fragrant after steaming. Ningbo is rich in yellow croaker, and the yellow croaker and pickles are cooked together to make a pickle soup with strong taste and fresh mouth. Jiaxing used to be rich in hairy crabs. Except for snack bars, restaurants and restaurants did not sell the whole lake crab, but always cooked dishes with crab powder (that is, meat from lake crab). Wenzhou, an important town in southern Zhejiang, pays attention to the use of soup, and "three pieces of shrimp" and "three threads of fish" all use high-grade hanging soup. In addition, the clay-baked dish in Hangzhou "called Huatong Chicken" and the "Longjing Shrimp" with tea as ingredients are all unique cooking techniques.
6. After the founding of New China,
Zhejiang cuisine, like other major cuisines in China, has developed rapidly. Zhejiang Province has also set up various schools and culinary research institutions that specialize in cultivating culinary talents, and extensively exchanged culinary cultures, further improving the facilities and conditions of the catering industry.
7. Since 197s and 198s,
Zhejiang cuisine still plays a leading role in traditional cuisine. At the end of 198s, some traditional dishes were no longer popular. Instead, it is "soft-shelled turtle, river eel" and now metapenaeus ensis, scallop, blue crab, cream crab, fresh red shellfish, abalone, small sand fish and so on. The most important thing is that the outlets of catering services are growing year by year, especially the development of private economy, which is fierce. By the end of 1992, the number of private individual restaurants in Hangzhou had soared to more than 4,. In the supply of varieties and cooking, the practice of private individuals basically implements "killing and cooking now", and the taste is at the request of the eater, which forces state-owned stores to follow suit. Under the influence of the "south wind", some varieties of old Hangzhou cuisine were replaced by metapenaeus ensis and Ribbon. Some traditional dishes are innovative, and Shao dishes still occupy the main position. Ningbo has taken advantage of seafood, and Wenzhou cuisine has developed many famous dishes with seafood as raw materials.