China's food culture has a long history and has become a major feature of traditional culture. Until now, we can still see many cuisines from thousands of years ago, which are distributed in various regions of our country and are still loved by people. At the same time, China's cuisine has also become a way to export culture to the outside world. In 2012, China produced the first large-scale food documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue" filmed using high-definition equipment, which caused heated discussion at home and abroad for a time.
Tips: Pot rice, also known as clay pot rice, is a special dish in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, belongs to the Cantonese cuisine, made of tiles "pot", in the fire control is more flexible, the rice cooked out is also more fragrant, between the teeth to leave fragrant, endless aftertaste.
However, few people know that a few decades ago, Japan also made a food documentary about our country. The documentary is called "Chinese Food Culture", which introduces the classic cuisine of various parts of China in the 80s of the last century, and there are even some delicacies that we have hardly heard of now.
A documentary on Chinese food shot in Japan
Filmed in 1985, the documentary has five episodes, and in the first four episodes, it introduces various cuisines in Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan and Jiangnan provinces. Although due to the technical limitations of the time, the picture was not as high-definition as the current documentary, but it can be seen that the Japanese were still taking it seriously when preparing to shoot this documentary. The documentary was planned by a well-known Japanese food company named Kameko Man Co., Ltd. The filming team is also a professional documentary production team - Iwanami Film Studio.
Tips: Horseshoe cake is a traditional cake dish in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Pantang horseshoe cake is made by grinding the horseshoe (water chestnut) into a pulp or steaming dried horseshoe flour with water and sugar.
At that time, our country did not neglect these guests who came from afar, and they all showed their full sincerity to cooperate with their shooting, showing them a variety of cuisines in our country. The documentary was also shown on flights from Japan to China to promote the country's rich and colorful food culture to tourists.
The first place the film crew arrived was in Beijing, where they introduced a dish called "Oolong Tuzhu". This dish is not small, and it belongs to one of the dishes in the Manchu Han table. It is called because after the whole dish has been plated, it looks like a dragon with a dark body spitting out a jewel. The body of the dragon is actually a sea cucumber, and this orb is a quail egg.
Tips: Oolong Tuzhu is a traditional dish that is one of the Manchu and Han Chinese dishes. The finished product is characterized by a fresh and strong taste and a soft and smooth taste. After plating, the shape resembles a oolong spit bead. Hence the name. The characteristics of oolong spit beads: sea cucumber oil is bright, the dishes are beautiful, and the umami taste is strong.
At that time, these were quite expensive dishes, belonging to the "court cuisine", and ordinary people could not afford to eat them. However, the dishes eaten by ordinary people have also been recorded by camera, such as the nationally famous old Beijing bean juice, and the focal circle shaped like a doughnut.
In this documentary, a traditional dish is also introduced: a poinsettia of tofu. It is said that the origin of this dish can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. At that time, Liu Bang's grandson Liu An summoned eight alchemists to refine the elixir of immortality in order to refine it. But in the end, he did not get the elixir, but inadvertently made tofu, a food. Therefore, later generations referred to Liu An as the "god of tofu". Through the lens, we can see that a poinsettia of tofu contains eight precious ingredients, including sea cucumber, dried scallops, crab yellow, shrimp and so on. Tofu looks like a white round cake, is placed in the center, the surface of the tofu is painted with seasonings meilan bamboo chrysanthemum "four gentlemen", and the plate is also decorated with a variety of vegetables, which can be said to be very delicate.
Tips: In 195 BC, during the Yingbu Rebellion, Liu Bang was seriously injured. After the formulation of the "White Horse Alliance", he died in Chang'an, with the title of Emperor Gao and the temple name Taizu, and was buried in Changling. Chairman Mao commented that Liu Bang was "the most powerful among the feudal emperors."
I believe everyone has heard that "fish and bear paws cannot be both", but in this documentary, there are not only fish, but also bear paws. "Fish" is a live-eaten Kunming Lake fish, it is said that it takes only 4 minutes to make this dish, and when it is brought to the table, the carp mouth on the plate is still open and closed, and it will not die completely until it is opened 81 times. However, this dish is no longer visible, and I believe many people have heard about it for the first time.
"Bear paw" refers to braised bear paw, and it is said that the taste of this dish is very soft and sticky, and the taste is also very fresh. But now we can't eat this dish, because now all bears are listed as protected animals, and there are no bears that are farmed as food livestock. Therefore, as a law-abiding citizen, don't think about the idea of hitting the bear paw anymore.
Tips: The fish of Kunming Lake fish use carp. The carp is large in scales, with two whiskers on each side of the palate, and lives alone or in small groups in ponds, lakes and rivers with calm and aquatic grassy mud bottoms. There is a migratory habit in places with small waters.
Why are there no dairy products in the traditional food of our country
After watching the documentary that records china's cuisine, it is not difficult to find that in most of the dishes in our country, dairy products are basically invisible. In our lives, dairy products usually come in the form of milk, yogurt, milk flakes, etc., and they are rarely seen at the dinner table. Conversely, in many countries in the West, dairy products are an essential part of the menu.
Tips: Bean juice is made of mung bean as raw material, the starch is filtered out to make vermicelli and other food residues after fermentation, with stomach nourishment, detoxification, fire clearing effect.
In the history of our country, only nomadic peoples living in remote areas have adopted dairy products as a meal. This is because China's ancient society was dominated by agricultural civilization, livestock were used to cultivate land or as a means of transportation, and the more special horse was strictly controlled as a military resource.
But this is only one of the reasons, and another reason is that due to the influence of geographical environment, social development and other factors, many people in East Asia are more likely to have lactose intolerance than people in the West. In fact, humans are born with lactose intolerance, but Westerners have been eating dairy products for centuries, so they have gradually adapted to this food. On the other side of the globe, we, on the other hand, use legumes to meet our protein needs.
Tips: Lactose intolerance, also known as lactose indigestion or lactose malabsorption, refers to a state in which the body does not produce lactase that breaks down lactose. It is an innate hereditary expression that occurs frequently in the Asian region.
Even now, Chinese and Western cultures have exchanged, collided and merged many times, and in recent years, the fried chicken that has been loved by young people will also be accompanied by cheese, but we still rarely add dairy products to the dishes that are served on the table. Most of the time, we still consume protein through legumes. For example, when eating breakfast, we often choose soy milk and fritters, as well as buns, noodles, wontons and so on.
But our country is not completely free of dairy products, and many ethnic minorities have been making dairy products for hundreds of years. In Yunnan, there is a famous dairy product called "milk fan", which is made of milk. When people make it, they will pull the milk into thin slices, and then wrap these "milk slices" on bamboo skewers and hang them, air drying until it turns milky yellow. This food is a specialty of Dali and is very popular in the local area.
Tips: Milk fans are mainly produced in Eryuan County, Dali Prefecture, and are specialties, and are also produced in Xizhou Town and Xiaguan Town in Dali City, especially in Eryuan Deng Chuan.
In addition, there is another food that is now as popular as fried chicken, which is also a dairy product, that is, milk tea. Nowadays, milk tea shops all over our country can be said to be blooming everywhere, and we may not need to take a few steps to see a milk tea shop on the street. But the premise is that fresh milk is indeed used in the raw materials of this cup of milk tea, rather than being mixed with various chemical additives.
Tips: The name bubble tea originally came from the bubbles that formed when the milk tea was shaken, not the interesting pearls in the drink. This drink is known by many other names, including "pearl tea", "boba tea" and "tapioca tea".
In fact, our acceptance of dairy products is getting higher and higher, especially among young people. The beauty of food knows no borders, and as long as you find the right way to taste them, it's a wonderful experience. I believe that in the future, lactose intolerance will slowly disappear among us.
What does food mean in our lives
In addition to simply satisfying the most basic human appetites, food has more meaning in our lives. First, humans need nutrients from food to stay healthy. Due to differences in age, gender, and physical activity levels, each person's needs for energy and nutrients are also different.
Tips: Nutrition refers to the role of human beings in absorbing the nutrients they need from the outside world to maintain life activities such as growth and development. Or the process by which the human body obtains and utilizes the substances and energy necessary for its life activities.
Food has a lot of symbolic meaning, it can not only express the relationship between people and the environment, but also make the connection between the two closer. Therefore, food is actually an important part of social culture. When a person eats alone, the food is not social, but when the food is eaten by a group of people, it has more complex meanings. In human society, food is a means for people to establish relationships and close distances. For example, in China, people will eat dumplings during the Spring Festival, this is because the Spring Festival leaves the old and welcomes the new, and the pronunciation of dumplings is similar to that of "more years of intercourse", so dumplings are also given a festive meaning.
Tips: Dumplings originated from the ancient Chinese dumplings, formerly known as "Jiao'er", a traditional Noodle Dish of the Han People, which has a history of more than 1,800 years. It was invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a native of The Eastern Han Dynasty Nanyang Nieyang (present-day Dengzhou, Nanyang, Henan), and was originally used for medicinal purposes.
In our country, people usually invite guests to dinner to make new friends or to bring relatives and friends closer together. In the South, there is a custom known as "morning tea", where many people will drink morning tea while chatting or talking about business. Different foods can convey different meanings and can indicate the degree of intimacy of the relationship between people. When we receive guests, in order to show respect, we tend to choose more expensive dishes, and the etiquette will be more formal. We should be more casual when eating with close friends, perhaps cooking directly at home, or solving problems at roadside food stalls or fly restaurants. When we eat with our lovers, we pay more attention to the atmosphere during the meal, for example, many people will choose to eat candlelight dinner.
Tips: Morning tea, Chinese social eating customs. Morning tea customs are most common in southern China, especially in Yangzhou, Taizhou, Yancheng, Lixiahe and Guangdong in Jiangsu. When it comes to the traditional culture of Guangdong, morning tea is one of the most colorful. Food in Guangzhou, taste in Xiguan.
In some cases, food can also be used as an expression of social status. We know that in ancient times, the emperor who was the Ninth Five-Year Emperor ate different things from ordinary people. Those more rare and expensive foods are often used to represent wealth and status, such as Li Bai's poem "Ten thousand cups of wine in a golden bottle, and a jade plate is ashamed of ten thousand dollars", although he does not directly describe it, but we can already feel that the organizers of this feast must have a fairly high status or have rich property.
Tips: Li Bai's lyrics, the Song people already have biographies (such as Wen Ying's "Xiangshan Yelu" volume), in terms of its founding significance and artistic achievements, "Li Baici" enjoys an extremely high status.
People in different regions and different nationalities will have different food customs, and once this custom is formed, it will continue to be passed down and become a habit of people. When these people move to other regions or countries, they will continue to maintain their traditional eating habits, tastes and cooking methods, which are difficult to change unless they are in very special circumstances.
In China, the staple food in the south is usually rice, while the staple food in the north is pasta such as steamed buns, bread, and buns. Even when traveling or moving abroad, people tend to make the staple food they are accustomed to eating as their first choice. There are many Chinese living abroad, and even after many years, they still maintain the habit of eating Chinese food.
Tips: Qingming dietary custom: eat green dumplings. During the Qingming Dynasty, jiangnan has the custom of eating green dumplings. Qingdunzi is also an essential food used by people in Jiangnan to sacrifice ancestors, and because of this, Qingdunzi is particularly important in the folk food customs of Jiangnan.
Many times, people celebrate important events or festivals by eating special foods, such as Americans eating turkey on Thanksgiving day in the United States, while in our country specific foods are provided for specific social events. For example, Zongzi of the Dragon Boat Festival, mooncakes of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tangyuan of the Lantern Festival, and so on.
Food practices are also influenced by the interaction of different societies and cultures. For example, in China, in the past, people generally ate longevity noodles and peaches on birthdays, because peaches also have the meaning of longevity, which is reflected in "Journey to the West". In recent years, under the influence of Western culture, many people will eat cakes, light candles and sing birthday songs at birthday parties.
Tips: Turkeys were first domesticated into poultry in Oaxaca, Mexico, roughly equivalent to the European Neolithic period (the European Neolithic period is about 5,000 BC). Turkey was imported into Europe at the end of the fifteenth century, and was introduced to China even later.
In the traditional culture of our country, food has a specific symbolic meaning on many occasions and can convey different messages. In ancient times, people would put red dates, peanuts, cinnamon balls and lotus seeds on the beds of newlyweds, which means "early birth of your son". Oranges represent good luck and have the meaning of "success", and tangyuan means "reunion". In the ancient wedding customs of our country, the man should send wine or fish to the woman, wine means long-term, fish means more than every year. We should often hear people of the older generation say in our lives that when eating pears, we cannot eat them separately, because "dividing pears" and "separating" are homophonous.
brief summary
Rich food culture has become a major feature of our country, many people come to taste our country's cuisine, and are full of praise, which is actually inseparable from the wisdom and efforts of our people. At the same time, China's traditional culture is broad and profound, as the successor of the inheritance of culture, we should take its essence to remove its dross, and retain and carry forward those excellent traditional cultures.