Drink a bowl of "Ming Dynasty soup" in Malaysia
At the beginning of March, in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, Malaysia, the front desk of Hong'an Restaurant often received calls from diners asking about the hidden dishes of "Yao Zigen Tong" in the store. This is a food trend blowing from China – at this time, the global synchronous broadcast of the costume court food drama "Shang Food" has exceeded 1 billion in China, and has also set off a boom in Malaysia. The food cooked by yao Zizhen (wu Jinyan), the heroine of the play, has attracted food bloggers to follow suit, and Hong'an Restaurant has also taken advantage of this boom to try to reproduce the food in the play and attract a large number of diners to taste it.
In the era of mobile Internet, how can Chinese food culture better go out? The square-inch screen in people's hands has become a new carrier, and the visual high-quality food content has become a new bridge to open up cultural integration.
Durian stewed chicken soup in "Shang Food". Photo courtesy of the interviewee/China News
A drama of a thousand dishes A restaurant in Malaysia reproduces the Imperial Meal of the Ming Dynasty
Durian stewed chicken soup, peppery soup, anti-sand taro... This is a three-course replica of Liu Bizhong, who has recently received a lot of praise as the head chef of Hong An Restaurant in Malaysia. Liu Bizhong's attempt at these new dishes was inspired by the restaurant manager Hong Mingxiong.
Hong Mingxiong is a "fan" of the Chinese court food drama "Shang Food", which involves thousands of dishes and delicacies, covering eight famous Chinese cuisines, which opened his eyes.
Wang Wei, director of "Shang Food", told China News that there are more than 200 dishes with the names of the dishes displayed in the play, but more than 1,000 dishes are actually made. "There are many dishes on display at the feast, and many of them have not been photographed, and they are also placed in front of concubines or civil and military officials."
Different from the prop dishes used in most film and television dramas, the dishes in "Shang Food" are all real materials, trying to let the audience experience the feeling of "color, aroma and taste" off-screen.
To enhance the appetite of the dishes, the food team selects high-quality ingredients, adopts exquisite cooking methods, and enhances the steam during the meal preparation process, and pairs them with exquisite utensils, so that all dishes appear in exquisite shapes.
"There are 15 resident chefs in this show, including a food consultant, a teacher and five chefs, all of whom are at the level of head chefs." Wang Wei introduced that in addition to these resident chefs, the dishes that encounter special craftsmanship will also be adjusted to the chef, such as the production of "Yuanchuan Tu" (Note: The heroine Yao Zigen in the play imitates the cold dishes made by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty) invited the non-hereditary heirs who made state banquet carvings for the Great Hall of the People.
Yao Zizhen, played by mainland actor Wu Jinyan (second from left), is cooking. Photo courtesy of the interviewee/China News
Behind the fictional story "durian stewed chicken soup" is real history
"Malaysia is rich in durian, and the introduction of nourishing and nutritious soups not only allows gourmets to taste early, but also diversifies the finished local durian products." For the durian stewed chicken soup launched by Hong'an Restaurant, local diners gave it a high evaluation.
This durian stewed chicken soup appears in the scene of Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji's banquet for overseas envoys in "Shang Food". Did this dish really exist in the history of the Ming Dynasty?
"Legend has it that in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West to bring it back to China, because the fruit could only be ripe once a year, named 'Nostalgia', and later generations took its harmonic pronunciation as 'durian'. Durian chicken stew is a local dish with full color and flavor, belonging to the Cantonese cuisine. For the origin of durian stewed chicken soup, Teng Xincai, the historical consultant of ShangShi, a professor at Chongqing Three Gorges College, and a director of the China Ming History Society, conducted a rigorous study.
In February 2020, when director Wang Wei first saw the script, the screenwriter had already examined a large amount of historical information. The era set in "Shang Shi" is the end of the Ming Dynasty, the reign of Emperor Akihito Hongxi, and Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty. The "History of Ming" records that "it was shi yu who was rich and envied, and the rice millet was exported to millions of stones outside the capital division, and the prefectural and county warehouses were abundant, until the red rot was inedible."
Teng Xincai introduced that after more than 50 years of recuperation, the Ming Dynasty has gradually embarked on the right track of development, and social wealth has been fully accumulated. Dietary consumption has a good material basis, royal banquets naturally will not be small family temperament, "Chinese chefs do rich meals, cook sheep and slaughter fat cattle" and "overflow nine mash, water and land Luo Bazhen" is a common thing.
According to Teng Xincai's research, most of the dishes in "Shang Food" have documentary basis, including phoenix tires from Wei Juyuan's "burning tail feast" in the Tang Dynasty, turtles dressed everywhere, twenty-four solar terms of steamed wontons, etc., as well as foods restored according to the Ming Dynasty eunuch Liu Ruoyu's "Zhi Zhongzhi" to record the customs in the palace, including bao'er rice, Pepsi Daji box, lavender, lu bud soup, buluo clip, silk nest tiger's eye candy, etc.
"In a fictional historical story, there is a 'real' history." This is Zhang Jinkui, a researcher at the Institute of Ancient History of the Chinese Academy of History and vice president of the China Ming History Society, on the evaluation of "Shang Food". Zhang Jinkui wrote that another difficulty brought about by the Yong and Xuan eras was that the social atmosphere at that time still emphasized simplicity in general, and the dishes could not be too extravagant.
In addition, a large number of frequently used ingredients, such as chili peppers and potatoes, were not introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, and if the story is created carelessly, there may be cross-over jokes. Looking closely at the plot, it is found that the protagonist is not obsessed with creating new dishes, but focuses on the same origin of food and food, and carries forward the core elements of Chinese food culture, which can be described as unique.
The shooting scene of the costume drama "Shang Food". Photo courtesy of the interviewee/China News
Food culture going to sea is more efficient to "see" than "taste"
In the first month, it is good to drink pepper wine and eat water dim sum, eat jujube cake fried in February, eat roasted bamboo shoot chicken and eat cold cake in March, drink cinnabar, xionghuang and calamus wine in May, eat rice dumplings, eat warm noodles with garlic and water..." The play shows Chinese's good diet from the first month to December, restoring the recorded Chinese cuisine, which can let the audience understand the history and development of Chinese festival traditions and festival customs. Talking about the original intention of the creation of "Shang Food", Yang Le, general manager of Huan Entertainment Film and Television, told China News.
In recent years, China has focused on promoting the "going out" of Chinese food culture. In the era of mobile Internet, people's attention is focused on the square inch screen, and "seeing" can show the effectiveness of cultural dissemination more than "tasting".
In 2012, the food documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue" was broadcast in China, and after being disseminated online, it quickly became the talk of overseas Chinese. From ingredients to folklore, it evokes the homesickness of the wanderers, "saliva swallowing into the stomach, tears flowing down the cheeks."
In February last year, Guinness World Records published an article announcing that influencer blogger Li Ziqi once again refreshed the Guinness World Record of "the most subscriptions of YouTube Chinese channels" with 14.1 million subscriptions.
In Li Ziqi's video, traditional Chinese food culture has always been the main line, using a large time span of footage to record spring ploughing and summer planting, autumn harvest and winter Collection, three hours and three meals, four seasons of rural life, a beautiful picture of pastoral pastoral slowly unfolded, won a large number of Western audience praise. "These cases show that Chinese food culture is excellent, confident, and has extremely strong vitality." Yang Le said.
"Shang Food" has been broadcast in many overseas markets, gaining a good reputation and attracting nearly 90 overseas media reports. For the overseas hit of the series, Yang Le said: "We also hope that through this pure food drama, in a silent way, we can realize the efficient and extensive export of traditional Chinese food culture in the world, and show the world the charm of an ancient Chinese civilization with a long history and profound heritage." ”