Chinese culture has a long history and is broad and profound, of which food culture is even more colorful and has been passed down for thousands of years.
Because China is vast, the land is vast, and the climate, customs, and humanities of various places are different, so there are different food cultures throughout the country.
Different regions, with different cuisines. For example, sichuan and other places have a humid climate, so the people of Sichuan like to eat spicy, used to drive away the cold and keep warm, while the northern region is more irritable, so the people often drink porridge and eat steamed buns.
When people travel, they not only appreciate the local beauty, but more importantly, eat the local food, each place has a different special snack, which is really good for foodies.
Among the many cuisines in China, there is a kind of cuisine that is very special, because its ingredients are more complex, with dozens of ingredients, and this cuisine is called "smorgasbord".
Everyone has heard of smorgasbord, or eaten smorgasbord, but do you know who invented it? The man who invented the smorgasbord was Li Hongzhang.
When it comes to Li Hongzhang's name, it can be said that it is a household name and everyone knows it. Li Hongzhang was one of the "Four Pillars of the Court" in the late Qing Dynasty, who established the Foreign Affairs Movement and suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and made great achievements in battle.
The world's evaluation of Li Hongzhang is also mixed, but today we are not here to discuss Li Hongzhang's merits and demerits, but to understand how he invented the hodgepodge.
In the twenty-first year of the Qing Dynasty (1896 AD), Li Hongzhang attended the coronation ceremony of Nicholas II of Russia. At that time, the traffic was not developed, and it took a long time to go back and forth, so Li Hongzhang considered the problem of eating by himself.
Li Hongzhang was not accustomed to the meals cooked by foreigners, so he took a few cooks with him and asked the cooks to cook for him, and he also ate Chinese rice.
After Li Hongzhang attended the ceremony of Nicholas II, he did not return to China, but went to the United States. After Li Hongzhang arrived in the United States, he invited the Americans to eat the Fa and let them taste the food made Chinese.
Originally, Li Hongzhang only invited a few Americans to dinner, but after the Americans ate, they all said that they were very delicious, so they attracted more American celebrities to eat.
Li Hongzhang saw their eager eyes, and he was not willing to refuse, so he asked the cook to hurry up. But I didn't eat it fast! The Americans ate very quickly, finished all the cook's dishes, and they shouted that they wanted to eat.
Li Hongzhang saw that there were not enough dishes to eat, but he could not say, so he hurriedly thought of a way. Li Hongzhang asked the cook to clean up the unfinished dishes on the table, no matter what dishes were concentrated on a plate, and then heated up before sending them.
The cook asked Li Hongzhang if he could do this? Li Hongzhang said yes, they can't eat it! So the cook brought these dishes to the table, and the Americans saw that there was another delicious taste, so they devoured them, and while eating, they said that they good!
After the Americans had eaten enough, they burped a full meal and then asked Li Hongzhang what kind of dish it was? Li Hongzhang said that this is called "big mix", so Americans remembered the name of the dish and began to make this dish in restaurants in the United States.
Suddenly, a hodgepodge of smorgasbords was popular in the United States, and everyone liked to eat it, which swept the United States for a hundred years. When this dish spread to the people, people renamed the smorgasbord to the smorgasbord, so it sounded good.
After the smorgasbord spread to various places, the local people reformed it according to the characteristics of each place, so there were various versions of the smorgasbord.
References include "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", "Chinese Food Culture", "A Brief History of China", etc