Zhejiang cuisine, referred to as Zhejiang cuisine. It is developed from three local flavors of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing.
Features: pay attention to knife work, fine production, more changes, rich in local atmosphere.
Representative dishes: West Lake vinegar fish, Longjing shrimp, dry fried bell, oil braised spring shoots, West Lake lettuce soup, called chicken, Dongpo meat, etc.
Zhejiang is bordered by the sea in the east, with a coastline of thousands of miles, rich in seafood, such as the famous Zhoushan fishery of yellow croaker, striped fish, grouper, splendid lobster and oysters, clams, shrimp, crabs, as well as mussels, Elephant Mountain green crabs, Wenzhou cockroaches and farmed shrimp developed in recent years. Northern Zhejiang is the "Hangzhou, Jia, Lake" great plain, the river fork is all over, the famous Taihu Lake South LinhuZhou, freshwater fish precious species, such as mandarin fish, crucian carp, green shrimp, lake crab, etc. and four large fish production is extremely large. It is also the main producer of rice and silkworm mulberry, and is known as the "land of fish and rice". In the southwest, there are lofty mountains and mountains, and the mountain treasures and wild game have always been famous, such as Qingyuan's shiitake mushrooms and Jingning's black fungus. The central part is the Zhejiang Basin, that is, the Jinhua Granary, and the famous Jinhua ham is made of "Jinhua Two-Headed Bird", one of the lean pigs in the country. Coupled with the world-famous Hangzhou Longjing tea and Shaoxing old wine, they are indispensable and superior raw materials in cooking.
The history of Zhejiang cuisine
The history of Zhejiang cuisine can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn period of Wuyue. In order to restore the country, the Yue king stepped up his armaments, and set up a large chicken farm at Jishan In present-day Shaoxing City, which used to be called "Jishan", and this front line was prepared for the battle of grain and grass chickens. Therefore, the most ancient dish in Zhejiang cuisine should be the first to promote the famous dish of Shaoxing "Clear Soup Yue Chicken". The second is Hangzhou's "Song Sister-in-law Fish Soup", from the "Song Five Sister-in-law Fish Soup", which has a history of 880 years. Found from the two ancient sites of human activities in Liangzhu on the outskirts of Hangzhou and Yuyao Hemudu in eastern Zhejiang, it is proved from the skeletons of pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other skeletons that the cooking raw materials of Zhejiang cuisine have been quite abundant 4000 to 5000 years ago. Traditional famous dishes such as Dongpo meat, salty pieces, honey juice fire recipe, and chicken called Huahua are inseparable from these cooking ingredients.
The Southern Song Dynasty built the capital of Hangzhou, and a large number of famous chefs gathered in Hangzhou, so that Hangzhou cuisine and Zhejiang cuisine entered the state of development from the bud, and Zhejiang cuisine has since stood in the list of national cuisines. For more than 800 years, the famous dishes of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as crab stuffed orange, turtle steamed sheep, Dongpo preserved pork, southern stir-fried eel, Qunxian soup, two-colored loin, etc., are still famous dishes on high-end feasts.
In Shaoxing, in addition to the clear soup Yue chicken, the fish button chicken, the fish frozen meat, the shrimp oil chicken, the shrimp balls; Ningbo's pickle soup yellow fish, moss small square grilled, rock sugar turtle, pot roasted eel, Huzhou's old shrimp, colorful eel, Jiaxing's fried crab powder, fried shrimp and crab, etc., all have a history of hundreds of years. Wenzhou is close to Fujian, influenced by Fujian cuisine, the cooking is light, mainly seafood, such as three silk fish rolls, three pieces of knocked shrimp and other dishes also have a long history.
After the Republic of China, Hangzhou cuisine first introduced new dishes such as Longjing shrimp. However, Hangzhou cuisine is the main Zhejiang cuisine, which is basically divided into three major factions, one is to cook the northern flavor of the "Beijing Gang" restaurant, that is, the big gang dish that is equally valued in cooking, mainly to cook high-grade raw materials, such as shark fin soup, sea cucumber, bird's nest, bear paw and roast suckling pig, hanging oven duck (Beijing roast duck), which is the strongest in Hangzhou. Another faction of Hui Gang, which specializes in braised pork, is mainly distributed in Hangzhou, Hu (Wuxing) Ningbo and other places, and the dishes are mainly flavored, heavy oil, heavy mustard, heavy color, and economical. The other gang is local cuisine, a truly indigenous cuisine. The larger building in Hangzhou is the West Lake Building, which was opened in the light years of the Qing Dynasty and is famous for the Vinegar Fish and Longjing Shrimp in the West Lake. There is Wang Runxing of Qinghefang in the city, known as "Imperial Rice". Fish head tofu, known as wooden nut tofu, pieces of meat, pickled bamboo shoots to master. Shaoxing has Lan Xiang Restaurant, shrimp balls, specially cooked head belly vinegar fish and other standard Shao dishes. There is Dongfu Garden in Ningbo, Zhejiang East Ningbo, and famous dishes such as pickle soup yellow fish and rock sugar turtle are authentic Ningbo local traditional dishes.
Unique cooking method of Zhejiang cuisine
In addition to people's preference for regional tastes, rich specialties are also one of the factors.