The ancient people's dependence on nature was very strong. If we look at the poems of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, such as "When the Crab Remembers the Frost*", "The Tide of the Fish is More", "The White Fish Purple Crab Is Four Times Fat", "The Peach Blossom Spring Water Pufferfish", etc., we can imagine that the living habits and conditions of the average person at that time were nothing more than the level of "sunset picnic cooking fish kettle, autumn water sail selling crab boats". Until the Qing Dynasty, like the area around Ding Zigu, which is far from the city wall, it was still a simple cooking method such as "cooking red crabs in clay kettles and catching white fish in green silk". However, we should not forget that it is this simple cooking method that lays a deep foundation for Tianjin cuisine to move towards "time" and "season", to special flavors, and to a higher grade in the future. Tianjin poet Zhou Baoshan's "Bamboo Branches of Jinmen" has the words "Seasonal Orders and Delicacies", which explains why Tianjin people pay special attention to the customs of "responding to the time" and "responding to the festival" in terms of diet. The so-called "timely" is to put it bluntly, what to eat in what season, and the seasonality of the product determines the seasonality of the Tsu cuisine.
The river and sea scales produced in Tianjin are extremely seasonal and difficult to preserve, which causes Tianjin people to eat river seafood very seasonal habits, and spring, summer, autumn and winter, each has its own bias. Once a fresh aquatic product was listed, buyers flocked to it within a few days, "everywhere in Jincheng, cooking smoke is everywhere, and eaters are feasting."
The so-called festival is a special attention paid to the food of the festival. Tianjin has always taken "agriculture and fishing as the first priority, poetry and books as the key", "five parties and miscellaneous places, and the last people", so that Xi Shang is extravagant, and there are more years when the customs are passed on to the people.
Since the ancient People of Jin, they have been married, prayed for New Year blessings, worshipped ancestors and worshipped the ancestors, and thanked the gods and worshipped buddhas, all of which have primitive sayings, and they also have their own exquisiteness. However, with the development of the times and the evolution of society, Tianjin people have faded their faith and gradually formed the custom of replacing etiquette with food customs, doing Buddhist things with food, and commemorating various festivals with beautiful food, which has been inherited to this day.
So, how do Tianjin people "respond to the time" and "respond to the festival" in their daily lives?
Let's start with The Spring Day. On that day, it is to eat green radish or purple radish, cabbage shreds, called "biting spring" (there is a meaning of "biting off the purple pineapple spring just arrived, a year of life Bu Spring Wind"), "set a feast, spring cake".
Spring Festival is the most important festival of the year, originally a farmer custom, the hard-working farmers celebrate the harvest at the end of the year, put on pigs, cattle, sheep, grain, fruits and other offerings, thank the gods for their gifts. With the change of the times, people's reverence for God gradually faded, the offerings were enjoyed by people, the worship of God became a ritual, and diet became the focus. On the thirtieth night of "one night is even two years old, five is divided into two years", every family must eat dumplings, taking the meaning of renewing the child. This dumpling should be made into at least three or four fresh fillings for the New Year.
On the first day of the first lunar month, "all vegetarians", "relatives and friends worship each other, several days of mutual banquets, and spring wine on famous days".
In the second year of the first year, he worshipped the god of wealth and ate the whole dish of noodles, with the intention of coming from the source of wealth.
In the third year of the first year, I eat "saving stuffing" (taking the meaning of "saving stuffing for the meal is three sums"). Later, it developed into the first two sides of the first dumpling, the third grade of the hezi to the home (earned), and the hezi plus eight (taking the meaning of "eight days of the hezi family is not scattered"), the hezi plus nine, the hezi bend (the hezi was originally a symbol of reunion and beauty, here meaning "the hezi bends to get more") and so on.
On the fifteenth day of the first month, in addition to "glutinous pill food, full moon" (symbolizing reunion), it is also necessary to steam hedgehog and mouse-shaped pastry, and drive the yuanbao (when offering, the hedgehog and mouse face outward; after the sacrifice is completed, the face is changed to face inward, indicating that the gold and silver treasure has been driven home).
The fifteenth day of the first month is the "filling in the warehouse" festival, and as usual, it is necessary to eat "dry rice and fish soup".
The first day of February is the "Sun Birthday", to cut paper for chicken, paste tofu, baked sugar cake, for the sun.
At the beginning of February, two hundred insects are stung, called "dragon head up", with grain bran leading the dragon to home, is the day "eclipse cake, pancake powder (commonly known as "stewed seeds")".
After the spring sting every year, the ice and snow melt, the shrimp are coming, the fishermen are breaking the winter ice outlet to pull the frozen net, two or three days of time only consume more than 100 kilograms of energy, if the wind damage and life is dangerous, so the waterlogged aquatic products at this time are particularly valuable. The shrimp, as the name suggests, is that its listing time is short, and ten days pass in a flash. The shrimp is four or five centimeters long, the skin is thin and tender, fat and delicious, the color is pink and white, can be fried, can be stewed, or fried, or peeled and stuffed, is a valuable seafood; after a little time, the skin is thick and thick, and the taste is inferior.
At the end of February, Tianjin gourmet puffer fish went on the market. "Eat a fresh meal, and you won't be wronged if you die", mainly for puffer fish. The second is the popular food crucian carp, the head is large and small, although it is difficult to go to the feast, but the family boiling or fish balls, but also the family table food.
In March, the sea crab went on the market, and a poem said: "Jinmen will be boiled in March, and the sea crab will be full of prosperity."
Around the time of Qingming and Valley Rain, when the spring thunder first sounded, the specialty yellow croaker and shrimp in Bohai Bay swam in groups near the mouth of the Haihe River and went on the market one after another.
At the beginning of September, the Ninth Yang Festival, the ascending tour, metaphorically ascending step by step, "The Jade Emperor Pavilion is towering and ascending, and the small eaters make cakes and breakfast with the Wanqing Pavilion, and quickly call the chrysanthemum wine drunk and pottery." "Borrow" cake " harmonic "high", there are many kinds of cakes such as: sticky cake, fried cake, cut cake, pot cake, dried cake...
In winter, Tianjin people like to eat hot meals, and there is a custom of eating wontons on the day of the winter solstice. In addition, winter melon ball soup, noodle soup, shabu lamb, haggis soup, all kinds of "casserole stew" and "shabu-shabu" are all winter delicacies, especially hot pot, Tianjin people have a special love for it, such as "shabu lamb" and white meat slices, vermicelli, cabbage synthesis of "white pot", shrimp, crab, meat synthesis of "three fresh pots"; crab yellow, crab meat, shrimp, shrimp, chicken, sea cucumber, white meat, magnolia slices synthesis of "assorted pot"... A family or friends sit around, eating and chatting, which not only enhances emotions, but also sets off the atmosphere, and enjoys it. In addition, the silver fish, purple crab, iron sparrow, and leek yellow, which are also known as the four treasures of winter in Tsumen, have become the "pretty dishes" of the restaurant at this time. Silver fish purple crab hot pot, sour sand purple crab, Koryo silver fish, fried bird and dishes made with leeks add to the winter diners' table. It's really "delicious early winter".
On the eighth day of the first lunar month, "eat la eight porridge and cook it with rice beans and dates and chestnuts." Tianjin proverb: "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, don't be hungry, after the eighth year is the year." On this day, I also have to cook some green beans to eat, that is, the beans. For almsgiving. Nowadays, not many people know about this move. Twenty-three should be sacrificed to the stove with sugar melon and rice cake. The nursery rhyme says: "New Year's. Twenty-three, King Stove, go to heaven. Twenty-four, write the conjunction. Twenty-five, sweep the soil. Twenty-six, fish stew. Twenty-seven, slaughtered the rooster and slaughtered the hen. Twenty-eight, white-faced hair. Twenty-nine, steamed bean basket. Stay up in the dark for thirty nights. That is to say, after Lapa Ba, it is necessary to prepare New Year goods and Gifts, and the most common New Year goods must also include chicken, duck, fish, meat, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, kelp, eggs, pine flowers, gluten, vermicelli, vegetarian noodles, flower cakes, steamed food and so on. The New Year gift includes silver fish, purple crab, pork, pine flowers, shochu, tea, fresh goods, snacks, green leeks, flowers and so on. The Qing Dynasty Fan Bin's "Small Order of Jinmen" said: "Jinmen is good, and the treasures are heavy." The quakerbone shark skin is wrong, and the crab slave clams are fresh. Roe deer feed the New Year. "In the old days, in addition to preparing snacks on Chinese New Year's Eve night, chicken, duck, fish, meat, fruit and other offerings were also prepared, and this custom is still preserved and continued.
From this point of view, the "timely" and "seasonal" foods and dishes in Tianjin's "food customs" are rich and colorful, and some food customs are also very "said". These have had a certain impact on the formation and development of Tianjin cuisine.
However, the reason why Tianjin cuisine can develop to this day is that its saltiness is more like the preferences of social consumer groups.
Tianjin people recognize the old plaques, not only because these old brands are genuine, quality and quantity, but more importantly, because the technology is unique and maintains the traditional and special Tianjin flavor. According to the "Jinmen Jiluo", the old Tianjin people ate sugar fried chestnuts, to eat Zheng San fried under the Dongmen Arch, and his door hung a sign "Select Zunhua big chestnuts". Hand-picked one by one, frequently add syrup when frying, and the fried chestnuts are sweet and peeling. There is a poem cloud: "I prefer more chestnuts on the street, and stir-fry with sand until it is very loose." Eaters come here to buy no matter how far away they live. Tianjin people always have to buy the "Zhang Er" family under the drum tower when they eat peanuts, or the "big head" in front of the Temple of Literature. Whether it is the melon seeds of the "big head" family, they are all big white hearts. To eat fine sugar (that is, southern sugar) is best in their own hutong or East Gate Yongyuan Zhai, eat a good stuffed sugar is on the mouth of the Drum Tower North Jinsheng Garden. Eat the Lantern, Hubu Street Xiangde Zhai is the best, how much to buy, how much to shake, a big filling, glutinous and fresh; eat the mooncake Mao Jia Gang Lane Sheng Lan Zhai is the best; sesame cake is the most east gate a poinsettia. Xiang Dezhai is the most skilled at home-style branding and turning hair; the size of Chun Chun Chun De is well-known. On a series of Hutong Ding Boyu sugar piles, sticky zi is also famous in Jinmen, he sold the sugar piles selected from the best materials for processing, sugar boiled to the best heat, placed in one or two days, fell on the leather jacket is not sticky.
Go down to the restaurant, eat lamb buns to go to "EnfaQing" on East Road; eat pork buns to "Chen Fool"; eat dumplings to "Yanchunfang", eat shabu lamb, roast beef to "Yongyuande". It is better than Beijing's "grilled meat"; eat eight bowls to "Ten Jinzhai" and Tianyifang; eat grilled sea cucumbers to "aggregate"; eat fried flounder and grilled sea sheep to go to "Yanbin Building"... Eating high-end banquets is most famous for "Eight Great Achievements".
The "Jinmen Jiluo" also records that there are many old brands: "Dongquanju is in Maojia Gang Lane, small dishes." Luzhuangzi Wind Temple Yuhua Zhai, Ximen Inner Arch under the Fu You Shun, sauce meat, miscellaneous. Guijia Hutong Shunchang, ribs. Big hutong chicken house, chicken fat fire. Burned wheat and large buns in front of Ganlu Temple, Hou Jia Hou Dog Ignored, Xiang De Zhai and so on."
Others include: Dongquan noodles, Gulou Dongdanjia buns, Chajia Hutong small steamed food, Guy Lane Zhang Xiaoguan beef stew, Gulou North Street in ten fried grasshoppers, socks Hutong meat fire, Xitou Mujia rice shop boiled crucian carp, duck king's boiled duck, Yangcun cake dried, Zhilan Zhai cake dried, Ming Shun Zhai mixed baked cake and chicken soup wontons, Du Call qi fire and Shanggangzi noodle tea and so on.
In order to eat "famous brands", Tianjin people are looking for these "old brands" that are cheap, affordable, technically sophisticated, authentic, traditional and in line with the unique tastes of Tianjin people. They did not hesitate to run from Hexi to Hebei and from the south of the city to the east of the city. This special food custom of tianjin people has been inherited from generation to generation...
As the saying goes: "One side of the water and soil nourishes the other"; "one side of the water and soil creates the food culture of the other side". Since ancient times, Tianjin has gathered the people of the five places to migrate, and the food customs of the eight domains: the eunuchs and rich people talk about "table noodles" and "food must be abbots"; the poor and poor people emphasize "mothers and children" and "eat must follow customs". Today's Tianjin people still like to eat The Pot Ba dishes of Dafulai, the vegetarian buns of the stone gate, the fried cakes of the ears and eyes, the twist flowers of the Eighteenth Street... Happy birthday feast celebration of relatives and friends still have to go to the Red Flag Restaurant, Dog Ignore, Dengying Building, HongqiShun, Yanbin Building, these are well-known in all directions of Jincheng "old brand".