#元气过新年 #
Beijing was the capital of the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty in China. The Qing Dynasty was founded by the Manchus, and from the time the Manchus entered Beijing in 1644, the Manchus remained an important part of the city for two or three hundred years. And Beijing's food culture, therefore, inevitably marked by the Manchus. For example, various dairy products, such as various manchu pastries. In that year, Tang Lusun and others moved to Taipei, remembering the food of the old capital, and often lamenting the height of the sea and the sky. Mr. Yu Youren wrote "Looking at the Mainland": "Bury me on the high mountain, look at my continent; the mainland is not visible, only crying!" Tang Lusun and others wept not only for the mainland and their hometown, but also for the cheese, milk utah, saqima, and leth tiao in old Beijing.
But in the Manchu food customs, the seats are lined up, and these dairy products and pastries have to stand back. The first is meat! pork! And it's a rough and unadorned white boiled meat!
The manchus and pigs have their origins. As early as a thousand years ago, in the history books, there is such a record:
"Ru Lou is in the northeast of Fuyu for more than a thousand miles, coasting the sea, and the south is depressed with the north, and it is unknown where the north pole is. Its land is mountainous and dangerous. Its human form resembles Fuyu, and its speech is not the same as that of Fuyu and Guli. There are grains, cattle, horses, and linen. Many people are brave. There is no maharajah, and each has an adult. Between the mountains and forests, often cave dwelling, everyone is deep nine ladders, to more is better. The earth is cold, and the drama is in the husband's life. Its custom is to raise pigs, eat their flesh, and clothe their skins. Winter is coated with pig paste, several points thick, to withstand the wind and cold. Xia was naked, hiding his front and back with a ruler cloth to cover his body. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms Karasuma Xianbei Dongyi)
The Ru Lou mentioned in it is one of the ancestral peoples of the Manchus. The founding of the Ming Dynasty will have many Hui people, so the customs of the Ming Dynasty are fond of eating beef and mutton and not good pork. In the Qing Dynasty, pork finally turned over. As the most important source of meat in China today, one of them is the promotion of this custom from the Qing Dynasty. Of course, the second reason is that the population pressure is increasing, pigs are faster than cattle and sheep, and the meat production rate is high, so it cannot keep up with the growing meat needs of the people. This is a digression.
As the saying goes, "three generations are officials, and the party knows how to eat and wear", food is like advanced martial arts, it is difficult to learn without a teacher. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Guanwai was still a bitter cold place, with less oil and less salt. Even decent spices are not matched, and of course it is impossible to talk about eating delicious food. Don't say that the ordinary Manchurian people, that is, Nurhaci, who has been "three generations of officials", the daily diet is still not much better, it is good to have meat to eat, and you still want to study how to eat? corrupt! People who experienced the era of material shortage in the 20th century were shocked to see Mr. Lu Wenfu's "Foodie". A door slowly pushed open in front of them, and the inside of the door was full of subtle mysteries, indescribable. Even we modern people, watching "China on the Tip of the Tongue", can't help but be moved, and then the index finger is moved. But at that time, Nurhaci's style was still relatively simple, and he really couldn't see "Gourmet" or "China on the Tip of the Tongue", so his purpose was: "Eat first, eat enough and then say!" ”
Adhering to this tradition, the Manchus' carnivorous style is very simple. Large pieces of pork, thrown into white water and cooked, without any condiments (in fact, there is no lid). Once cooked, eat with a small blade.
Originally, this was a product of a special era, and it is estimated that Nurhaci himself did not expect that this nation would enter the Central Plains at that time. And this way of eating white boiled meat was passed down as the arduous and simple spirit of the ancestors and became the royal family of the Qing Dynasty! At court ceremonies, highly favored courtiers were often able to "appreciate meat", and it was this kind of boiled meat that was rewarded. This is the highest level of praise from the imperial court for courtiers. The person who receives this treatment must eat all the meat and leave nothing left. Otherwise, it is likely that it is not a matter of appetite, but a question of loyalty or disloyalty.
I'm going to die!
This way of eating is also tolerated by the Manchurian ancestors in the deep mountains and old forests. The group of courtiers under the steps, not to mention the generations of the Miao Miao Bell Ringing Ding Food Home, most of them are also a bit of identity, have eaten and seen. Like this rough and pristine way of eating, how can you stand it for these people who are eager to chew out eight flavors? (Press: Qing Dynasty salt merchants in the eating of poor luxury, there is a dish of "Surapi", which is mashed and refined from the skirt of a turtle and re-solidified) Even if there is a little taste, not even salt!
To tell the truth, not only the Han officials who are proficient in food culture can't stand it, but the Manchus themselves after Sinicization can't stand it! But this is a state ceremony, a court grace, and you have to eat it if you can't stand it! What should I do if I can't eat? Think of it. There are roughly two ways to do it, but they are all made from one point of view, that is, the container for eating meat. After so many years, the ceremony has improved a bit, and the ministers can't be grasped by hand, right? As long as there is a bowl, it is easy to do.
It is said that there was an empress dowager who ate Jai Ru vegetarian food and suddenly had a bad appetite and could not eat. The emperor was very anxious and changed countless cooks, to no avail. Because it is difficult for qiao women to cook without rice, the cooks are highly skilled and rectify various dishes, but the empress dowager does not eat that. In the end, there was nothing he could do, and he saw that the empress dowager was dying. Suddenly, a cook stepped forward and went into the kitchen to make a bowl of vegetarian noodle soup, and served it to the empress dowager to eat this fragrant!
Everyone is surprised, where is this master who jumped out? What else can I do with vegetarian noodle soup? How to make it is also vegetarian noodle soup! Could it be that Lafayette likes to eat this bite? If someone else does it, it still won't work. Only this one did it and succeeded immediately.
Finally someone with sharp eyes sees the problem. It turned out to be the height of summer, and the heat was unbearable. Every time he went into the kitchen, he put a hand towel on his shoulder. The hand towel was originally soaked in chicken soup and put on the shoulder, and no one checked it. Mixed into the kitchen, a hand towel is dipped in boiling water, and it becomes a pot of original chicken soup.
The princes and ministers ate white boiled meat, and this was the trick copied. It doesn't matter if we don't let the seasoning be used, we can use it secretly.
So two ways were invented. The first method is to make a bowl of salt-rich stone. The slices of meat are served in the bowl, rubbing the bowl, and then eating, ah, salty!
But this trick is too limited. The court ceremony may not allow you to bring your own bowl, and even if you can borrow some taste, it is limited after all, unless you beat a bowl with pure salt.
So the second method came into being, which is almost the same as the chicken soup hand towel. First of all, prepare a pot of prepared spices, mainly soy sauce, and Take Wuxi, Jiangsu as the best, and add the rest of the spices and spices as appropriate. Secondly, get a stack of paper with strong water absorption, cut it into small pieces, throw it into the spice pot, and the heat is limited to not boiling the paper into pieces. In this way, the seasoning penetrates the paper through the pot. When it's time to eat meat, take the paper with you, put it in a bowl, rinse it with boiling water, and reduce it to a bowl of spices. Eat!
The one who said this trick was too fake! Can't be seen by others? The question is who is hiding it from? But whoever catches up with eating white boiled meat, from the prince down to the guards, they all play like this, and they also turn a blind eye. The commotion has gone on, and no one has benefited. In fact, pork slices into thin slices, with different ingredients, there are such ways to eat in the north and south of the river. Originally one of the oldest ways to eat pork, Sichuan's garlic paste white meat, Shanghai's white cut meat, are plump meat slices, fresh and fragrant, eating taste is infinitely beautiful. No matter how strongly people eat white boiled meat without oil and salt, even the royal family is too impersonal.