Food, sex, and sex are also inseparable from the poor family, and the rich family is even more inseparable. "Dream of the Red Chamber" describes a lot of color and sex, that is, the so-called "sexual culture", but there is no less ink and less brain to describe "food", that is, the so-called "food culture", so that "food" and "color" are complete. What does the Food Culture of the Red Chamber include? Let's talk about Cao Xueqin's Red Chamber Banquet.
The Banquet of the Red Chamber includes birthday banquets, birthday banquets, seasonal banquets and light banquets. Specifically, there are Red Chamber staple food, Red Chamber dim sum, Red Chamber dishes, Red Chamber drinks, Red Chamber fruits, Red Chamber supplements, Red Chamber medicinal food and Red Chamber condiments. Chinese cuisine is divided into four major cuisines: Su, Lu, Cantonese and Sichuan. Yangzhou cuisine is the main genre in Jiangsu cuisine. Red Chamber cuisine belongs to the yangzhou cuisine system. When Cao Xueqin wrote about the Banquet of the Red Chamber, she mostly based on her childhood experience in Jinling and Yangzhou. Cao's home in Yangzhou and Jinling lasted for 60 years. Lin Daiyu, the protagonist of "Dream of the Red Chamber", is a Yangzhou girl who grew up in the Green Yang City. Her father, Lin Ruhai, and her mother, Jia Min, both died in Yangzhou. "Lady Jia Xian died in Yangzhou City, Leng Zixing gave a speech on the Rongguo Mansion" opened the curtain of the Dream of the Red Chamber.
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is a literary and artistic work that comprehensively reflects the life of China's upper class in the eighteenth century. It describes in detail the daily life of aristocratic families. There are many depictions of food. variety. There are many names. There are meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, soups, staple foods and beverages, and snacks. Some wrote down the names, some commented slightly, and some gave detailed descriptions. There are three meals a day of ordinary food, such as fat chicken and duck, stewed eggs, fried gluten, fried bean sprouts and fine rice and so on, these are home-cooked rice. There are also some descriptions of special dishes at banquets, such as steamed duck, ham stewed elbows, rouge goose breast, pheasant melon seeds, lotus leaf soup, etc., from the cooking of these dishes, we can see the level of cooking skills at that time, and the types and names of dishes involved in "Dream of the Red Chamber" are so many that they are incomparable to ordinary novels. There is no chapter in the novel that specifically describes diet, but it is described in the middle of the story, which further enhances the artistry and appeal of the novel. As a rich and luxurious family of bureaucratic landlords, in their daily diet, especially in various banquets, there are several expensive and delicate dishes. Therefore, "Dream of the Red Chamber" writes about the life of an aristocratic family, and it is commensurate to write that its diet is expensive and rare. From another point of view, the delicate description of food and drink, the prestige of dishes, is also to expose the luxury of rich and noble families, and its meaning is quite profound.
The dishes described by the author in "Dream of the Red Chamber" are related to their experiences, one of which is the influence of the family. The second is his personal experience. For a long time, the Cao family has a tradition of studying drinking, and Cao Yin is fond of taste, and he is very considerate of food. The Cao family lived in Yangzhou for a long time, Kangxi made six southern tours, Cao Yin went to Yangzhou Pagoda Bay four times to greet the driver, Kangxi lived in Jiangning Cao Mansion, and The Cao family used authentic Yangzhou celebrity chefs. Of course, Xueqin is very familiar with the "southern taste" of China, so it is natural to describe Yangzhou cuisine in "Dream of the Red Chamber". The dishes written by Cao Xueqin, like other contents in the book, are also false and real, true and false, and in many places, the original author wants to satirize the "violent death" and makes necessary exaggerations, but it is not unfounded fabrication.
Cao Xueqin not only writes dishes, but also cooks, many of which he has tasted or cooked by hand, such as eggplant, lotus leaf soup, poria cake, bird's nest porridge and so on. In "Dream of the Red Chamber> Cao Xueqin gave a detailed introduction to the selection, ingredients and cooking methods of these dishes. In terms of raw material cutting, Red Chamber cuisine is mainly based on local specialty raw materials. "Dream of the Red Chamber" the twenty-fourth time "roasted pheasant", the thirty-eighth time "caged steamed crab", the fortieth time "pigeon egg", the forty-ninth time "pheasant melon seeds", the fiftieth time "fried quail", the sixtieth time "sauce radish fried", the sixty-first time "fried gluten", the eighty-seventh time "spiced kohlrabi", all take local products as raw materials. Red Chamber cuisine is widely spread in Yangzhou and used by famous teachers. The pigeon eggs in the dream of the Red Chamber, now known as silver ear pigeon eggs, skirted pigeon eggs, pigeon egg toast; pheasant melon seeds, now known as fried pheasant slices; sauce radish fried, now known as sauce radish head.
Caged steamed crab, fried gluten, and spiced kohlrabi are still under their old names. In terms of cooking methods, stewing, roasting, and frying are common methods of Red Chamber cuisine. Stew is one of the best cooking methods of Red Chamber cuisine, using low heating and slow cooking of wide soup, which is known for rot. The sixteenth "Ham Stewed Elbow" in "Dream of the Red Chamber", the sixty-second time "Steamed Chicken Brewed with Wine", and the "Nanjiu Roast Duck" that Cao Yin loved to eat are all fire dishes, which are also famous dishes in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. "Gold and silver hooves", "hoof simmered ham", "three sets of ducks" or "southern wine set duck", the ingredients of these dishes are basically the same as the cooking method. Fork roast is a special cooking method in the Red Chamber cuisine, in the "Dream of the Red Chamber" forty-ninth time there is "char siu dragon breast", this method is not only popular in Yangzhou, but also widely spread in the north, such as roast chicken, roast duck and so on. In terms of snacks, the eleventh "jujube yam cake" of "Dream of the Red Chamber", the nineteenth "Laba Porridge", the thirty-ninth "Chicken Fat Roll", the forty-first time "Cream Fried Various Small Noodle Fruits", the fifty-fourth "Lantern", the sixty-second "Silver Wire Noodles", and the seventy-fifth "Moon Cake" are all popular snack varieties in Yangzhou.
The decoration of the ballroom also adds a lot to the effect of the banquet. The more upscale banquet must have good tableware, restaurant tables and chairs, clothing and lights, etc., and the surrounding environment is contrasted to form a beautiful and harmonious atmosphere. For example, the guest scene of Jia Mu's banquet in the TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber" is a reproduction of the banquet in the Red Chamber. On the front is the Double Dragon Play Pearl Gate Tower of the carved beam painting building, under which there is a large "Danfeng Chaoyang" red carved lacquer inlaid jade screen, hollowed out on both sides, the lattice window is embedded with Jinling Twelve Pieces of lacquer painting, matched with a golden yellow soft satin curtain, the roof has lotus flower lanterns hanging down, the hall is all made of antique dining tables, tableware, waiters have been trained in body shape, dressed in imitation of people, Qingwen and other costumes, it is even more charming.