On the morning of November 12, the Tianjin traffic radio program "Traffic Light" launched the topic of "Beijing is not a food desert", but in the process of interacting with the audience, the male anchor frequently denied the audience's message, and was finally questioned by his partner when "Qianlong cabbage is a cold dish", which led to the male anchor's sudden anger and slammed the door, resulting in a broadcast accident.
At present, there is a lot of discussion about the professional quality of the host, but what we want to talk about today is the "fuse" itself - what is Qianlong cabbage?
Portrait of Qianlong. Source/Network
The source of Qianlong cabbage
Qianlong cabbage is indeed a cold dish.
The method of Qianlong cabbage is to tear the tender core of the cabbage leaves, add sesame paste, sugar, honey, balsamic vinegar, mix together, and finally sprinkle some white sesame seeds. The reason why the young leaf part was chosen is because it is easy to taste here and the taste is better.
Because of the sesame sauce, it adds a mellow taste to the cabbage, and it is a typical winter cold mix.
Qianlong cabbage. Photography / Koala, Source / Figureworm Creative
So, how did such a sesame sauce mixed with cabbage have anything to do with Qianlong? As we all know, Qianlong is one of the "four major food spokesmen" in ancient times, and there are countless "food legends" in the folk, and Qianlong cabbage is no exception, there are also half-true legends, or even more than one.
The most circulated version is that on Chinese New Year's Eve night of the year, Qianlong Microfu paid a private visit and came to Wang Ruifu's small liquor store to eat. The vegetables in the winter capital mainly rely on cabbage, but the treasurer is smart and mixes it with the secret sesame sauce at home. Qianlong ate the Cabbage with the aroma of sesame sauce, sweet and sour, and immediately praised it. After eating and chatting with the boss, he found that the small shop did not even have a name, so he gave a name to "All One Place", because the whole capital is only open for this restaurant.
At that time, Wang Ruifu did not go to his heart, until a few days later, several eunuchs came to the shop and sent a tiger head plaque that was "all in one place", saying that this plaque was rewarded by the Qianlong Emperor's imperial pen. Wang Ruifu suddenly realized, and since then changed the name of the store to "All in One Place". This brand has been passed down to this day, and the roasted wheat produced today is famous in Beijing.
In order to commemorate this legendary experience, Wang Ruifu decided to call this cold dish "Qianlong cabbage". Sure enough, with the blessing of the emperor's name, Qianlong cabbage immediately became one of the famous dishes in the capital.
Qianlong micro-service private interview in film and television dramas. Source/Screenshot of the TV series "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan"
The legend is a legend after all, and the authenticity of Qianlong Cabbage's origin is similar to the probability of falling in love with Xia Yuhe on the shore of Daming Lake. At present, it is generally believed that Qianlong cabbage is actually an innovative dish developed by a catering group at the beginning of this century.
However, there is one thing to say, Qianlong is indeed an authentic cabbage lover.
In his time, there was neither greenhouse farming nor refrigerators, and Chinese cabbage was almost one of the few vegetables that Beijing residents could eat during the cold winter months, and the emperor was the same. It may be that he eats cabbage every day, and Qianlong has a strong affection for cabbage. The Bottom File of the Qing Palace Meal recorded "stewed sauerkraut hot pot", "red and white duck stewed cabbage hot pot" and "fat chicken fire smoked cabbage". Qianlong even gave cabbage to people and gave the noble concubine "cabbage a pint".
Qianlong's descendants also have a fondness for cabbage. Daoguang New Year's Day will eat "duck cabbage pot one pin" and "lamb shredded sauerkraut pot one pin"; at the imperial meal of Guangxu New Year's Day, the light meat slice stew cabbage must be eaten twice.
It can be seen that finding an emperor who loves cabbage to endorse his cold mixed vegetables also has a certain rationality.
Of course, the folk cuisine endorsed by Qianlong is far more than a dish of sesame sauce mixed with cabbage. In the search engine input "Qianlong eats all say good", found countless results, Qianlong is endorsed by a series of customs snacks, whether north and south, sweet and spicy, rice noodles, three days and three nights can not be finished.
Longjing shrimp. Source/Network
And every food that is endorsed has a roughly the same story: Qianlong got lost, hungry, came to a certain place, ate a bite... Traditional cuisine was born.
Qianlong got lost from Heilongjiang to Liangguang, and the well-known writer Ma Boyong even made a "Qianlong Lost Map" for Qianlong. It can be seen that "road fool" may be the "strongest driving force" for the birth of food.
Qianlong lost map. Draw/Ma Boyong
The difference between Chinese and Western salads
Just as "Qianlong cabbage" has nothing to do with Qianlong, in the West, there is also a "cold mixed dish" that has the same situation, that is, Caesar salad.
The dish is as simple as Qianlong cabbage, with Roman lettuce and cloves topped with a little Caesar sauce.
Caesar Salad. Photography / JackF, source / figureworm creative
"Caesar Salad" is of course not related to Caesar the Roman Emperor, but its name is more reasonable than "Qianlong Cabbage", because its inventor is called Caesar.
Caesar Cardini, a Mexican, is the owner and chef of an Italian restaurant. Regarding the birth of "Caesar Salad", the most common saying is that one day, Caesar's restaurant came with many friends and guests, but there were very few ingredients left in the kitchen, and Caesar could only choose a few according to the existing materials, and "Caesar Salad" was born.
In fact, the Western "cold mix" salad has a long history, dating back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Etymologically, Salad evolved from the spelling of the Latin word sal (salt). In the Western food system, salads are mainly appetizers or side dishes, and it was not until the last 10 years that they began to become a staple food for healthy people.
Vegetable salad. Source/Виктор Иден, Photography/Figureworm Creative
Now that that that's it, can "coleslaw" and "salad" really be equated?
"Cold mixed vegetables" is only one of the Chinese vegetable making methods, and it is a "non-mainstream" one, usually for the sake of refreshing. In the eyes of Westerners, the main way to eat vegetables is to "eat raw". Western popular food cooking methods are relatively single, mainly frying, frying, boiling, roasting, burning, in addition to cooking, other methods are not suitable for making vegetables. Therefore, Westerners generally choose to eat vegetables raw.
China's daily diet is generally more diverse in cooking methods, in addition to the above, there are stir-frying, stewing, stewing, etc., which can be used to cook vegetables, the taste and texture are much better than raw food. Since there are better options, why should we mainly eat raw vegetables? What's more, salad can be used as a staple food in the West, while Chinese cold dishes are usually just a prelude or a snack.
In addition, the soul of salad lies in the sauce, and western salad sauces are roughly divided into two categories, namely liquid vinaigrette (including classic vinaigrette and Japanese vinaigrette) and thick mayonnaise (and its derivatives: Thousand Island sauce, honey mustard sauce) and dairy sauce (yogurt, cheese, etc.). In general, the taste is still based on sour and sweet, and sometimes the use of some spices increases the layering of the taste.
Mayonnaise mayonnaise. Source/Network
The Chinese "salad" has a lot of juice and is also very wild, which can be described as "five flavors and miscellaneous chen". From sesame sauce and mustard to soy sauce, white vinegar, old dry mother, plus chili oil, sesame oil, how to combine, all depends on our own taste.
Honey mustard sauce. Source/Network
In a sense, "Qianlong Cabbage" is one of the members of the "Liang Menu Yuan" in the Chinese food menu, whether it is a delicacy has nothing to do with cool and hot, of course, it is not related to whether it is "found by Qianlong".
Resources:
1. Li Shu edited "Fu Tao Series: What the Emperor Eats"
2. Li Zhiting and other editors-in-chief of "The Complete Book of the Ai XinJue Luo Family"
3. Lin Zhengqiu; Xu Hairong edited the Dictionary of Chinese Cuisine