October 1, 1949, was the day when New China was officially proclaimed to the world. It was also from this day that the people of Chinese stood up completely, and the great People's Republic of China was born from then on, standing majestically in the east of the world! This day is also the happiest day for the people of Chinese, celebrating with the whole world and rejoicing in the whole country. That is, on this evening, the CPC Central Committee held the first state banquet of New China at the Beijing Hotel, entertaining distinguished guests attending the founding ceremony of New China, which is known in history as the "first banquet of the founding of the country."
Since then, the "first banquet of the founding of the people" of New China has also been covered with a mysterious veil, in the face of such a rare "feast of the world" for thousands of years, many people are full of incomparable curiosity, and today I will unveil the secret of this great feast for you.
First of all, hardship and simplicity are the traditional virtues of our Chinese nation; hard work, wisdom, kindness, and benevolence are the innate nature of the Chinese nation. Therefore, even the unprecedented "first banquet of the founding of new China" in history will not depart from these main attributes. The ingredients are ordinary and ordinary, but the selection of ingredients is very elaborate, and the essence of it is not the luxury of the style, but the profundity of the kung fu.
The cuisine at the opening banquet was personally examined and approved by Premier Zhou Enlai at the time, and was designated as Huaiyang cuisine among the four traditional cuisines in China, with a total of 16 kinds of dishes, including 4 kinds of cold dishes, 8 kinds of hot dishes, and 4 kinds of dim sum. Whether these dishes were placed at that time or today, they are actually very ordinary, but the requirements put forward by Premier Zhou Enlai are: to use ordinary ingredients to make high-end cuisine, the materials must be exquisite, and the cooking skills must be exquisite; to show the world the breadth and depth of Chinese cuisine with a real and integrated "human delicacy" that integrates the spirit of the Chinese nation.
Why should the cuisine of the opening banquet choose Huaiyang cuisine and not other cuisines?
Characteristics of Huaiyang cuisine: The raw materials of Huaiyang cuisine are mainly aquatic products on the banks of rivers and lakes, because Huaiyang cuisine originated in Yangzhou, located in the water town of Jiangnan in China, and the aquatic products are extremely rich; the taste is light, salty and fresh and slightly sweet as the main taste, which is more suitable for the public taste, and the maximum balance is the length of the northern and southern cuisines. Other cuisines, such as Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Lu cuisine, etc., belong to the heavy taste type cuisine, with strong regionality and obvious audience particularity. Although the taste of Cantonese cuisine is somewhat similar to Huaiyang cuisine, the production process of Cantonese cuisine is more complicated, the cost of raw materials is relatively high, and it has a certain luxurious atmosphere, so it is not selected.
This is why the dishes at the opening banquet should be approved as Huaiyang cuisine. Next, let us see how extraordinary the state banquet dish is. I only selected 5 of the classic dishes for everyone to enjoy, and did not list them all.
The 5 classic Huaiyang dishes at the opening banquet, the pinnacle of the gastronomic world, are not luxurious but kung fu
Crispy grilled crucian carp
Crispy grilled crucian carp, as the name suggests, the material is mainly crucian carp, this ingredient is ordinary enough, now people who have not eaten crucian carp should be very few, the price is not expensive, the average person will do. But the "crispy crucian carp" at the opening banquet is a little different.
This dish is a classic dish of Huaiyang cuisine and is one of the four cold dishes in the "Opening Banquet". The taste is salty and spicy, slightly sweet and crispy, and the bone is crispy and fresh; the material is not ordinary crucian carp, but fresh autumn crucian carp from Huaiyin, Jiangsu Province, and the length is about 7cm. Because the crucian carp from Jiangnan Water Town, the meat is more tender and delicious, which is related to the "sweet" nature of Jiangnan Lake.
Although the name is crispy grilled crucian carp, in fact, it is not grilled at all, but fried in oil until golden, put into a casserole, spread with sauce melon shreds, sauce ginger shreds, green onions, red pepper shreds, and then add an appropriate amount of soy sauce, sugar, balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, rice wine, fine salt, water, using a small heat to simmer out, for more than 2 hours. The juice in the pot cannot be poured out, and finally it is drizzled on the crucian carp.
Where to eat crucian carp, it is simply a work of art!
Oil-drizzled chicken
Chicken drizzled in oil is also a traditional famous dish in Huaiyang and is also a cold dish. The raw material is the mountain free-range chicken, because the free-range chicken, the food is mostly grass, vegetables and insects, so the meat is more elastic, strong but smooth and tender, the meat flavor is stronger.
This dish is a test of the chef's skill, and its essence lies in the "drizzle". Even if you use hot oil to continuously blanch the chicken, so that it achieves the effect of crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The sauce used is made of minced shallots, sesame oil, spicy soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, sugar, and broth, with a slightly sweet and sour taste, and the final dish is first chopped into strips with a knife, and then pieced into the shape of a whole chicken and drizzled with sauce.
The state banquet is the state banquet, the same is the oily chicken, to make this taste, I can only say "difficult"!
Bone removal goose paws
Bone-breaking goose paw is a blockbuster dish in the cold dish of "The First Feast of the Founding of the People's Republic of China". The goose paw used in this dish comes from the "Taihu Goose" in Taihu Lake, Jiangsu Province, which is not an ordinary goose. Taihu goose is very rich in nutrition, protein, amino acids and vitamin content is very high, Taihu goose paw compared to the general goose paw has the characteristics of wide, thick flesh, strong toughness.
To make this dish, the most testing thing for the chef is "bone removal", not that as long as the bones are removed, if so, everyone will do it, but to basically keep the goose paw intact after the bone is removed. Therefore, in the selection of materials, try to choose a large head, convenient to remove the bone, and the cooking time should be moderate, such as not enough time, the goose paw is too hard, it is not easy to remove the bone; if it is cooked badly, it is easy to deform. When cooking, you can first take out 1 bone removal to try it, if the soft and hard is appropriate, you can remove the remaining goose paws from the bone.
The bone-splitting goose paw also uses a sauce, which is made of white soy sauce, salt, balsamic vinegar, sugar and five-spice powder, and after pouring the sauce, it is also drizzled with sesame oil.
Goose paws are delicious, bones are hard to tear down, it's really hard for the state banquet chefs!
Braised cucumber strips
Braised cucumber strips, this dish can be said to be the most simple dish at the opening banquet. But under the exquisite cooking skills of the state banquet masters, you can also taste extraordinary delicacies: refreshing and delicious, chewy, transparent, still melon.
Don't look at it as an inconspicuous cucumber, it comes from distant Shandong. And the cucumber selected is a tender cucumber with a thorny white frost, uniform thickness and bright green.
Its approach is also peculiar, which is very different from our usual approach. First marinate the cucumber strips with salt for a few minutes, then put oil in the pot, add the peppercorns to burst the aroma, and filter out the peppercorns, then add the dried chili peppers to fry the spicy flavor, add the cucumber strips to stir-fry evenly, put the pan and plate, and then use the salt, sugar, balsamic vinegar, cooking wine and broth to mix into the sauce, and finally drizzle with sesame oil, pour the sauce to make it.
I didn't expect a few cucumber strips, and there was so much learning in it. The main essence of this dish lies in the word "stew"!
Yangzhou Lion Head
Yangzhou lion head, because the meatballs made are plump, like the head of the male lion, so it is named "lion head". This dish is Premier Zhou Enlai's favorite dish and is also the world-famous signature dish in Huaiyang cuisine. Its most typical features are: light but not light, fat but not greasy. However, it is not easy to make this dish well, and the requirements are even higher to go to the state banquet.
The main ingredients used are fatty pork belly and the top clear soup of the state banquet, and the ratio of lean meat to fatty meat should be 7:3.
The preparation of this dish is very elaborate, time-consuming and laborious, and there are many materials used, and there are many places to test the chef's skills in the process of cooking. Materials to use: pork belly, water chestnut, white wine, fine salt, pepper, sauce, soy sauce, sugar, onion, ginger and garlic, sesame oil, eggs, cabbage, etc.; the key to the practice should be paid attention to: pork belly should be cut into small pieces by hand; as long as the lion's head is golden and yellow, the whole process should be simmered slowly over low heat, and must not be simmered over high heat.
The famous Yangzhou Lion's Head, which is the product of the superb cooking skills of the state banquet masters, is no wonder our Premier Zhou is amazed!
I just want to share the dishes of the first feast of the founding of the country here, in fact, I do not have to list them all. Seeing this, everyone should also understand what kind of situation the dishes at the opening banquet are. In fact, to sum up: even if it is the first banquet of the founding of the country, all the ingredients for the dishes are ordinary ingredients that we can usually buy and eat. The main difference is that there are unique and strict conditions for the selection of materials, but the biggest difference is that these dishes are from the hands of China's top chefs, spreading the profundity of our Chinese cuisine to the world, not in luxury but in Kung Fu!
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