Presumably, all readers have heard the term "full of Han Chinese", which now means to describe the richness of dishes and the grandeur of the banquet. Pushing forward a hundred years, the word is literal, that is, the luxurious banquet created by the Manchus and Han Chinese during the Qing Dynasty.
In addition to the Manchu and Han dynasties, the Qing Dynasty also had a thing called the "Feast of a Thousand Sorrows", which began during the Kangxi Dynasty. Named after the poem "The Feast of a Thousand Sorrows" given by The Kangxi Banquet, it was also an extremely luxurious royal banquet, and the richness of the dishes was staggering.
All of the above reflects that the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty paid great attention to pomp and circumstance in eating this piece, in fact, it was not only the banquet, but even the emperor's daily meals. The custom that had been passed down since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty was still the same until the Cixi Conference.
According to the dictation of the staff of the Imperial Dining Room of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi had to serve 100 dishes per meal, and each plate did not carry a heavy sample. Although Cixi could eat at most four or five dishes when she did eat them, the imperial dining room had to cook according to the specifications of 100 dishes.
Well, there is a problem here, how can the imperial dining room cook so many dishes at the same time. According to common sense, only one or a few dishes can be made together, if so, when all 100 dishes are made, won't the previous ones be cold? In the Qing Palace drama, we often see that when the emperor says that he is hungry, the imperial dining room serves hot dishes, why is this?
In fact, when the imperial dining room finishes the previous dish, it will be simmered over a small fire all the time. So, until the last 100th dish is made, the first dish can still be warm, but the taste is really not fresh. And these simmered stoves are not turned off for a long time. Therefore, as long as the emperor said that he was hungry, the imperial dining room had a way to serve him hot dishes. I have to say that the old ancestors are still smart.
However, it was a hot dish that the emperor ate in his mouth, which was another matter. Every time before the emperor ate, he had to try the poison one by one through the eunuchs, and the dishes that were originally still warm were cold again after the eunuchs tried it. Therefore, although it was a hot dish, the emperor finally ate it cold.
So that in the later period, the emperor basically rarely ate in the imperial dining room. But the cooks in the imperial dining room will not rest because of this, whether the emperor eats or not, each meal still has to cook enough dishes, after all, the pomp and circumstance still has to be there. And the emperor does not eat the dishes of the imperial dining room, where does he eat?
It turned out that in the back, the emperor generally ate private dishes made by harem concubines. In order to please the emperor, the concubines of the Qing Dynasty were all multi-skilled and could cook at the most basic. Because in order to be pampered, they cook more than the cooks in the imperial dining room. The most important thing is that they are all freshly made, the dishes are fresh, and they are still hot in the mouth.
The "Qing Shilu" records that the meals eaten by the Guangxu Emperor were basically made by concubines, and sometimes Empress Dowager Cixi would even send meals to Guangxu. The reason why Guangxu was poisoned by Cixi was precisely because Cixi put arsenic cream in the meal sent to Guangxu. If he had eaten the imperial dining room, he would not have been poisoned. After all, the eunuch had to try poison, and with so many dishes, who knew which one Guangxu would eat, and it was not realistic to poison all of the 100 dishes.
From this point of view, although the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was beautiful in front of people, even the most basic meal was a difficult problem, and even fresh hot dishes were difficult to eat. In contrast, we modern people are still much more comfortable. We can also have steaming meals as soon as we are hungry, after all, the takeaway industry is so developed now, and in this piece of eating, every modern person is his own emperor.