The most lively scene in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is Lu Xueguanglian's poems, in which the part about "food" is particularly vividly written.
Baoyu got up early in the morning, ran to Jia's mother's room, shouting to eat, the servant sent over the breakfast, the first dish was steamed lamb with cow's milk, the anxious Baoyu took a few sips of tea to make rice, accompanied by pheasant melon seeds, and hurriedly finished eating.
The "highlight" of this day's diet is a piece of fresh venison, the wives bring iron stoves, iron forks, wire masks, Xiangyun and Ping'er take off their bracelets, and Zhang Luo made roasted venison. Xiang Yun also has his own "crooked reasoning" about this: a big bite of meat and fishy food, spit out a mouth full of splendid articles, isn't it interesting and tight!
Venison, pheasant melon, steamed lamb with cow's milk, from the perspective of ingredients, these dishes in Jia Fuli have a strong "northeast wind". This can also be glimpsed in Wu Jinxiao's rent payment, and on the list presented by Wuzhuangtou to Jia Zhen, the big deer, roe deer, wild boar, bear paws, deer tendons, deer tongue and other ingredients accounted for a considerable proportion.
According to the current mainstream view of red studies, Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", was born in the family of zhengbaiqi wrapping clothes in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, great-grandmother Sun Shi was Kangxi's nursing mother, and grandfather Cao Yin was once an official to Jiangning weaving, which was a prominent official eunuch family. Although Cao Xueqin's youth mainly lived in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the family diet still retained a lot of Manchu customs, which is also reflected in the details of the meal in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
The Reason why the Jia Family in the novel and the Cao Family in reality have a special love for northeastern ingredients is because the Qing Dynasty originated between the White Mountains and Black Water, and has long been accustomed to a nomadic lifestyle, coupled with the cold climate of the place of residence, rich in various mountain treasures and wild game, forming a dietary habit that is very different from the Han nationality. The noble house of the Qing Dynasty is still like this, and the "taste of northeast" in the royal diet will naturally not be absent.
According to the book "Forbidden City Banquet" co-authored by Yuan Hongqi and Gu Yuliang and illustrated by Su Zhenglou, in the Qing Dynasty court dining system, from ingredients to methods, "northeast elements" can be seen everywhere, which can be called the absolute protagonist on the table of the imperial concubine.
Beginning with the Zhou Dynasty thousands of years ago, feudal monarchs of successive dynasties held grand "new recommendation" ceremonies during the harvest season, the purpose of which was to express gratitude for the food given by nature, and the varieties of sacrifices varied according to the seasons.
As a major feature of the traditional agricultural society, the new rite of recommendation was still continued during the Qing Dynasty, from the court to the people, every month would take out seasonal vegetables, fruits, aquatic products and other items to sacrifice to the heavens and ancestors.
"Forbidden City Banquet" takes the month as the main line, sorting out the new ingredients recommended by the Qing court throughout the year, we may wish to take a look at what are there:
Carp, green leeks, duck eggs in the first month, lettuce, spinach, shallots, celery, mandarin fish in March, king melon, lettuce, brassica, artemisia, radish in the first month, cherry, eggplant, chicks in April, peach, plum, apricot, mulberry, fern, melon seed, goose in June, du pear, watermelon, grape, apple in June, pear, lotus seed, hazelnut, pheasant in July, yam in August, chestnut fruit, wild duck, persimmon and goose in September, pine nut, soft date, mushroom, fungus in October, silver fish, venison, december indigo buds, green bean sprouts, Rabbits, locusts.
On this long list of ingredients, such as du pear, soft dates, mushrooms, venison, hazelnuts, etc. are all famous products in the Northeast region.
Before entering the customs, the Jurchens often used these specialties such as mountain treasures and mink skins to trade with the Guannei in order to obtain grain, iron and other necessities of life. After the establishment of a unified Qing Dynasty, they were also included in the recommendation of new ingredients and became part of the food culture of the Qing court.
Food color, human nature also. After the solemn new recommendation ceremony, seasonal ingredients will naturally become delicacies on the table to satisfy people's appetites. The cooks of the Qing Dynasty's Ministry of Internal Affairs did their best to provide the emperor, the empress dowager, and the concubines with exquisite workmanship and taste of royal delicacies.
Ginseng, which grows in deep mountains and wild forests and is regarded as a tonic product, is very popular in the court, and according to the Qing Palace archives, the ginseng consumed by yongzheng thirteen years of tai hospital alone is as much as 230 kilograms.
How ginseng should be eaten has almost become a "manifestation": the Qianlong Emperor believed that the effect of taking ginseng was the best, and three grams of thunder a day could not be moved, and some people ground ginseng into powder, or took it after soaking in wine.
Ginseng with a unique aroma, paired with light civilian ingredients tofu and mushrooms, boiled over low heat to form a pot of "mushroom ginseng stewed tofu", mellow and long taste is appetizing.
The pheasant melon that Baoyu ate for breakfast in "Dream of the Red Chamber" was a common side dish in the Court of the Qing Dynasty. Its main ingredient is diced pheasant, and the auxiliary ingredients are salted pumpkin, salted cucumber or salted mustard, mixed and fried in oil.
Before entering the customs, whenever the Jurchens went out hunting and fighting, they would carry some pheasant melons with them, adding a salty flavor to the monotonous daily diet. Even in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the court finances became more and more abundant, the habit of eating pheasant melon was still retained, and the words "butter pheasant melon" could still be seen on the breakfast menu during the Qianlong Southern Tour.
As nomadic peoples, the Manchu rulers not only ate beef and mutton and all kinds of mountain delicacies and wild game, but dairy products played a pivotal role in their dietary lineage. In the daily diet of the uterine, milk, butter and other foods are indispensable. At large and small court banquets, milk tea made by the supervision of Guanglu Temple and boiling tea is a must-have drink.
Qinggong milk tea is salty, made of cow and goat milk, brick tea, add salt, the production process is very exquisite, tea soup should be boiled to constantly raise tea to ensure that tea milk is fully integrated. The containers containing milk tea vary according to the status level, the milk tea bowl commonly used in Qianlong is white jade depicting gold inlaid with rubies, and other princes and nobles mostly use silver-encrusted birch bowls and tin bowls.
During major festivals, milk is also one of the common ingredients on the table. The necessary tits for the Lantern Festival are made of milk and flour and noodles, the Dumplings of the Dragon Boat Festival are in addition to the common dates, Chengsha fillings, and special milk dumplings with cow's milk, and the Mid-Autumn Festival has a delicate cream mooncake.
Nowadays, all kinds of hot pots bloom everywhere are also very popular in the Qing Dynasty court.
The tradition of eating hot pot (also known as "warm pot") in the Qing Dynasty can be traced back to before the establishment of the dynasty, and the winter in the Guanwai area was particularly long, and people liked to eat hot meals in the ice and snow. Everyone sits together in front of the hot pot to make shabu-shabu, and at the end of the meal, you can also make a hot rice as a staple food, which can not only satisfy the stomach, but also drive away the cold, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
The hot pot seems simple, and in the court, various new tricks have been derived. The "Feast of a Thousand Sorrows" held by the Qianlong Emperor was mainly based on warm pots, and according to the age and status of the elderly who attended the feast, the shape of the hot pot and the richness of the ingredients were also different.
One of Empress Dowager Cixi's favorite foods is chrysanthemum hot pot, which has a clear aroma of chrysanthemum petals, sprinkled into the pre-prepared chicken soup, and some fresh sashimi and raw chicken slices, which look elegant and eye-catching, and have a fresh taste in the mouth.
The "eating" in the Court of the Qing Dynasty not only paid attention to the methods and ingredients, but also took great care in the naming of dishes, intending to eat a "good color head", daily diet and auspicious meaning integrated, many "harmonic stems" came into being.
In the TV series "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", when it came to the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor, officials everywhere racked their brains to give the most chic and valuable gifts that could please the emperor. Liu Yong, who had never taken the usual path, carried a bucket of ginger to the court and gave it to the emperor as a birthday gift in front of the ministers.
Qianlong was very surprised at first glance: What kind of medicine is sold in this gourd of Liu Luo's pot? In the face of the emperor's surprised eyes and the accusations of his colleagues, Liu Yong did not hesitate to explain: "This bucket of ginger is posed as the shape of a mountain, and it is connected to 'a bucket of ginger mountain', that is, 'unification of the jiangshan', is this not the best wish for the emperor and the Qing Dynasty?" ”
Liu Yong's anecdotes of "a bucket of Jiang Shan" are mostly fabricated ingredients, but in the Qing Dynasty court diet, there are not many dishes that win with "harmonic sound".
Jing Qi, the imperial chef of the Qianlong Emperor, made a dish called "Chicken Rice Lock Double Dragon", which mainly consisted of sea cucumber, yellow eel and chicken breast. Among them, the sea cucumber and yellow eel resemble dragons, and are homophonous with "long", and the word "lock" implies the meaning of Jiangshan Yonggu, qianlong longyan dayue, directly reward Jing Qi sanpin top wear. Because he can cook and take names, he can even walk in the clouds, jing qi can be described as the lucky one in the imperial kitchen.
The Jiaqing Emperor's birth mother, Qianlong's concubine Wei Jiashi,also known as Concubine Ling, was deeply favored by Qianlong for giving birth to six children. One of the ways Qianlong expressed his heart was to reward Lingfei with "lotus ducks" many times. Although this dish is not expensive, it is rich in nutrition and profound meaning, "lotus seeds" and "pity" and "lianzi", containing the good wishes of early birth of takako and many children. To be able to receive such a food reward was a great honor for the harem concubines of that year.
In fact, there are many "harmonic dishes" such as chicken rice lock double dragon and lotus duck.
In the spring, we should eat "five xin" to kill bacteria and drive away the cold, and "xin" is homophonous with "new", taking its meaning of retiring the old and welcoming the new. On the eighth birthday of the Buddha in early April, the whole palace must eat boiled soybeans, because of its rounded appearance, it is inherently known as "knotted beans". The "Forbidden City Banquet" also mentioned that at a Mid-Autumn Festival banquet during the Cixi period, the auspicious phrase "Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival" was spelled out with four bowls of bird's nest dishes, which were gold and silver duck, assorted chicken shredded chicken, three fresh fatty chickens and sea cucumber stewed duck.
From the Guanwai products at the new recommendation ceremony to the mountain treasure wild game in the palace feast, the "taste of the northeast" is indispensable, but not all, in the three meals a day of the emperors and concubines in the Forbidden City.
From the 80 court dishes restored from the "Forbidden City Banquet", it is not difficult to find that the Qing Dynasty court food system has undergone an evolution process from "Manchu food as the mainstay" to "Manchu-Han integration" and "north-south communication".
At the beginning of the customs, the Qing court's eating style was very rough, and beef and mutton, dairy products, and various game games firmly occupied the "c position" of the table. However, from the Kangxi Period onwards, with the continuous influx of tribute products from various provinces into the capital, as well as the pace of commodity trade between the north and the south, the wisdom of the imperial cooks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had a broader space to display. Cherry meat, Su-made meat, bird's nest red and white duck in Su Bang cuisine, Jiangnan dessert pine nut zongzi candy, osmanthus chestnut cake, jiaodong area of pot collapse chicken, pot collapse fish and other dishes, all have their own "loyal fans" in the court.
The richness and complexity of the Qing Dynasty court diet is far more than this: eating utensils, etiquette regulations, seating arrangements at banquets, etc., are closely related to the hierarchy of the feudal era; paying attention to the quality and quantity of dishes is on the one hand, Kangxi, Qianlong, Cixi and other emperors also have their own advantages in food and health; subtle changes on the tables of different monarchs reveal information about the rise and fall of the dynasty...
One meal and one vegetable, three meals a day, seem to be the most common, but in fact, there are many kinds of learning inside. A "Forbidden City Banquet" conveys the fireworks of the world within the yellow tiles of the red wall, and in a funny and mouth-watering way, let us experience a leisurely history of the Forbidden City with food as the protagonist.