Winter is the season to eat hot pot! But you know what?
Ancient emperors could not resist the temptation of hot pot. Empress Dowager Cixi is even more fond of "chrysanthemum hot pot"!
Eat the fireworks of the Forbidden City, taste the human flavor of the Forbidden City. Let's take a look at the "Forbidden City Banquet".
"Forbidden City Banquet" was jointly completed by Yuan Hongqi, a researcher at the Forbidden City and former deputy director of the imperial court department, and Gu Yuliang, a Chinese chef. Taking the new ingredients recommended by the Qing Dynasty court as the line, taking the food recorded in the "Meal Bottom File" as the case, and taking the Qing Dynasty court eating habits as the taste, more than 80 little-known imperial meal reconstruction archives, 80 long-sealed royal restoration cuisines, awakening the cultural memory of "600 years of the Forbidden City".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > emperor also loved to eat hot pot</h1>
At the beginning of the new year, the table full of uneven sizes of the yuanbao hot pot and the rich food in the pot set off the festive atmosphere of the royal New Year.
Hot pot, also known as warm pot and hot pot, is a "cooking and food integration" utensils for warm cooked food and cooked raw food.
The hot pots of the Qing Dynasty court have their own unique historical traditions and dietary characteristics. The early qing dynasty royal family lived in today's northeast, the northeast of the frost-free period is short (only four months a year without ice), the weather is cold, so developed the habit of eating cooked food, with warm tableware. After entering the customs, the living environment has changed, but the habit of using warm tableware in winter has not changed. In the menu that records the emperor's dietary life, there are records of the use of hot pots and warm pots. The emperor's winter feast is also mainly based on warm pots.
The most prestigious "Feast of a Thousand Sorrows" in the Qing Dynasty was a warm pot feast arranged in three textures of silver, tin and copper according to different identities and different grades.
There are two basic forms of warm pots: one is a pot with a stove, the furnace is burned with charcoal, the water can be boiled, raw fish, meat, vegetables can be cooked in boiling water; the other is a combination, consisting of five parts: pot, stove bracket, furnace ring, stove plate, and alcohol bowl. The warm pot can be cooked at the same time, or it can be warmed by the pot alone.
The warm pots used in the Qing Dynasty court are of excellent texture and have a variety of shapes. The materials are gold and silver inlays, sterling silver, enamel, tin, copper, ceramic and so on. The shapes mostly mean auspicious, festive, glorious and rich, and there are square victory shapes, plum blossom shapes, melon and fruit shapes, octagonal shapes and so on. There are single pieces used, there are pairs, and there are dozens or hundreds of pieces of the same style.
▲ Qing Dynasty Guangxu silver gilded Shouzi hot pot (hand-drawn)
The Banquet of the Thousand Sons was held four times at the court of the Qing Dynasty, and the Kangxi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor held two times each. The Banquet of the Thousand Sorrows was a large-scale wine banquet held by the Qing Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong to attract his subjects. In history, the Feast of a Thousand Sorrows began in the Qing Dynasty and ended in Qianlong, and when the emperor was old, he felt that he had never had the "diligent rule" in ancient times, and feasted on those old ministers who had made contributions to the country, and each time it was at least two or three thousand people. People are already familiar with these things, but I am afraid that many people do not know where, how to eat, and what to eat at the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows.
The pomp and procedure of the Feast of the Thousand Sorrows is very exquisite. Before the banquet, under the command of the Prime Minister of the Outer Dining Room, the banquet was set up in advance according to the level of taste of the elderly who entered the banquet. In addition to the imperial feast in front of the throne, a total of 800 banquet tables were set up. The banquet tables are arranged in two opposite directions, east and west, with six rows per way, ranging from twenty-two to one hundred tables in each row.
Chinese New Year's Eve hot pot
According to the strict feudal hierarchy, the banquet was divided into two levels of first-class tables and second-class tables, and there were obvious differences between tableware and meals. First-class feasts are arranged in the hall and on both sides of the porch. The maharajah and the ministers of the first and second grades, as well as foreign envoys, feasted at the first-class banquet table.
After the fifty-year feast of qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor also rewarded these old men. Reward items include Ruyi, Shou Wand, Chao Zhu, Mink Skin, Wen Play, Silver Medal, etc.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Cixi's favorite chrysanthemum hot pot</h1>
Empress Dowager Cixi most likes chrysanthemum hot pot in autumn.
When "chrysanthemum hot pot" is mentioned, people think of Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty. In fact, Tao Yuanming, who "picks chrysanthemums under the eastern fence", will always put a few chrysanthemums in the hot pot when eating hot pot, and the chrysanthemum hot pot has continued from Wei Jin to the Tang Dynasty. Xu Ke recorded the popularity of chrysanthemum hot pot in the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes":
In the winter of the Beijing Division, the restaurant sells wine, and there is a small kettle in the case, which is a soup, blazing fire underneath, and the meat slices of chicken, fish, and sheep are placed on the plate, and the guests throw themselves in, and eat them cooked. There are miscellaneous chrysanthemum petals, known as chrysanthemum hot pot, suitable for drinking, to each thing are raw and cut into silk as a piece, so it is known as raw hot pot.
Chrysanthemums have been known as "longevity flowers" since ancient times and have high medicinal value. The Shennong Materia Medica lists chrysanthemums as the top grade and writes:
Main wind, dizziness and pain in the head, disembodied eyes, tears, dead muscles of the skin, malignant rheumatism. Long service, good blood, light body, resistant to aging and prolonging life.
Eating chrysanthemums has a long history. Chrysanthemums smell fragrant, soft and refreshing, and are a good dish. There are also many ways to eat, which can be eaten fresh, dry, raw, cooked, stewed, steamed, boiled, fried, burned, and mixed. It can first be seen in the famous sentence in Qu Yuan's "Leaving the Troubles": "The fall of drinking Mulan is exposed, and the fall of Autumn Juju is the fall of The Autumn Ju".
The wonders of chrysanthemums were also recognized by the ancients, and the ensuing chrysanthemum porridge, chrysanthemum tea, chrysanthemum soup, chrysanthemum cake, and chrysanthemum wine were also widely circulated and loved by people.
Eating chrysanthemums in autumn is one of the traditions of the concubines of the Qing Dynasty. Eating chrysanthemum hot pot qingxin defeats the fire, piping hot pot wafting chrysanthemums with the unique fragrance of chrysanthemums attracts people inside and outside the court, and competing for chrysanthemum hot pot has become a beautiful scenery.
Cixi at the end of the Qing Dynasty paid great attention to health maintenance, her knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine was rich, she knew a lot about the wonders of chrysanthemums naturally, and her nutritional value was well understood. I am also fond of chrysanthemum hot pot. It is recorded in Deling's "Records of Imperial Fragrance" that Empress Dowager Cixi's beloved chrysanthemum hot pot uses a chrysanthemum called "Snowball", which has short petals, is fragrant and clean, and is suitable for cooking. The book also mentions that the imperial dining room will prepare chicken soup or broth in the Silver Shou character hot pot. Then place the sashimi, raw chicken slices, etc. that have been peeled and cut neatly in several silver plates, and then put the chrysanthemum petals into two silver plates, plus a sauce plate filled with sauce and vinegar and other spices...
Concubines of the Qing Dynasty court ate flowers and also ate pollen together, which is a traditional eating habit that can not only play a role in health maintenance but also have a good beautification effect.
-END-
Text: Yuan Hongqi Gu Yuliang
Photo: The Forbidden City Banquet
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