Discussion on the three major misunderstandings of the three steaming of The Yang Dynasty
Chen Xichun, male, born in 1943, has been engaged in cooking and teaching for more than 40 years, and is a national special chef. He is the chief editor of the "Textbook for the Unified Compilation of Cooking Majors in Hubei Provincial Technical School", participated in the compilation of the book "Three Steamings in Qiuyang", and published a number of papers in "Chinese Cuisine" and other journals.
(Foodie with picture, non-professional monster)
The first misunderstanding: many people think that the three steamings of the yang are the peaches, and the three steamings of the yangs are the three steamings of the peaches.
This is a misconception that there is something wrong with the view of history.
The "Qiuyang" in the three steamings of Qiuyang refers to the old Qiuyang, not to the current acre and three points of land. The official Xiantao territory is only more than 2,500 square kilometers, and the territory of Qiuyang when the "demolition of the county and the establishment of the city" in 1986 was also so large, but pushing forward, the qiuyang is much larger. We should trace back to the changes in history and interpret the connotation of "Qiuyang" in a broad sense and macroscopically.
According to the Jiajing Qiuyang Zhi, the area of Qiuyang was "unified in the five counties during the Sui Dynasty: Qiuyang, Jianli, Jingling, Yongshan (the ancient name of Hanchuan), and Hanyang", which was called Qiuyang County. The size of Qiuyang County is unknown.
From the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1278) to the change of the prefecture to The Prefecture of Qiuyang, to the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1621) when the Prefecture of Qiuyang was demoted to a county without a collar, for more than 340 years, the area of Qiuyang included present-day Xiantao, Honghu and Tianmen.
During the period of becoming a prefecture or Qiuyang County, the area of Qiuyang also included all the surrounding counties and cities such as Xiantao and Honghu, Tianmen, Hanchuan, Hanyang, and Jiayu. This basic framework continued until the June 1951 flood partition. So much so that Honghu's friends often write nostalgia for the three steamings of Qiuyang, and regard the taste of the three steamings of Qiuyang as the taste of their hometown.
Similar to the Sui Dynasty, before and after the founding of new China, Chuyang once set up an office with jurisdiction over seven counties and one city: Hanchuan, Hanyang, Chuyang (including Honghu), Jiayu, Puxi, Jianli, Shishou and Xindi.
In short, Qiuyang has never been equal to Xiantao, and the "Qiuyang" in the three steamings of Qiuyang is not equal to Xiantao, and we may as well regard it as a synonym for "Jianghan Plain". That is to say, although the three steamings originated in Qiuyang, it is impossible to specify which village and which town it is in Qiuyang.
Therefore, a long time ago, I have talked about a point of view: The three steamings in Qiuyang are the general term for steamed vegetables in the Jianghan Plain. In other words, there is a steaming system in the Jianghan Plain, and many steamed vegetables are gathered within the system.
The second misunderstanding: People often ask which three steamings are the three steamings of Qiuyang.
This is actually a pseudo-proposition, a theoretical problem.
The "three" in the three steams of Qiuyang should be an adjective that means "many", not the real number "three". In Chinese, the "three" in "three things are not three", "three or five groups", "three orders and five Shens", etc.; the history books say that in the pre-Qin period in China, "three" means many; the Buddhist commentary on "three thousand worlds" is, "Three is not a simple number of three, it is a very large number of metaphors, it is the third of the moving life, and the third of the movement is the meaning of infinity"; Lao Tzu also said in the "Tao Te Ching Chapter 42", "Dao Sheng one, one life two, two birth three, three life all things". In the interpretation of the "three", Buddhism and Taoism show amazing consistency. The three steamings of Qiuyang must not be understood as three steamed dishes. In fact, those who fly in the sky, run on the ground, swim in the water, and grow in the fields are all included in the "three steamings", which are the breadth of the sea and the hundreds of rivers, and the multitude of all kinds. More than 30 years ago, when I provided information to the "Chronicle of Qiuyang County" and was interviewed by a television station, I repeatedly proposed that the "three" characters in the three steamings of Qiuyang should be interpreted as such, but unfortunately no one paid attention to it.
Xiantao people have discussed the connotation of the three steamings of Qiuyang for many years, and have decided to confirm which three steamed dishes it is, and it ends in confusion. A few years ago, some people proposed that the three steamings of Qiuyang are steamed fish, steamed meat, and steamed vegetables, and it is difficult to justify themselves. Steamed fish can not be said to be a dish, what kind of fish is steamed, blue fish, eel, crucian carp or Wuchang fish? Also, what part of the fish, is it the whole fish, the chinese part of the fish or the fish belly? Similarly, steamed meat has a lot of meat, and vegetables have more varieties, which cannot be said to be a dish. Later, it was proposed that the three steaming dishes of Qiuyang were steamed: meat and poultry, aquatic products, and fruits and vegetables. Although it is a step forward, it is still not satisfactory. According to this logic, the names of dishes are named according to the classification of raw materials, and if an ingredient is a dish, then there are only three or five dishes in the world. Both of these formulations are deeply trapped in the strange circle of paradox, on the one hand, it is said that there is no dish and no steaming, and on the other hand, it is exhaustive to investigate which three steamed vegetables, is it not contradictory!
A man's voice was always too weak to be answered, and it was not until 1990 that a ray of light came. In May of that year, the "Chinese Famous Recipes (Hubei Flavor)" compiled by the province included four dishes of tamales, tamales, steamed white balls, and pearl balls, all of which made a note that "it is one of the traditional three steamed dishes in Qiuyang", indirectly but very clearly stating that "The three steaming dishes of Qiuyang are not just three steamed dishes". This objective understanding has cleared the obstacles for the development of the three steamings of Qiuyang, broadened the road, and liberated those who insisted on using the word "three" as a quantifier from the tip of the horn.
My second point is that the three steamings of Qiuyang can be literally translated as "Chuanyang multi-steaming". That is what we often call "no vegetables and no steaming".
The third misunderstanding: one says that the three steaming of The Yang is on the picture, and the picture above is the mixing cage or the steaming of three.
Although the mixing cage and steaming three are also one of the three steaming series of Qiuyang, but as a publicity symbol, there is a problem.
Directly put on the steamed three things, that is, three drawers each contain steamed meat, steamed fish, steamed vegetables, just like shouting "Qiuyang three steaming is three dishes". It's also too stupid to be too direct, let's still talk about the mix.
Confusing the mixing cage with the three steamings of The Chuyang is an easy mistake to make. The so-called mixing basket is a mixture of ingredients, steamed together until cooked, together with the steamer on the table. This practice did not exist in the past, and it has only appeared in recent decades.
After the mixed cage was born, it was blindly used by many simple restaurants without thinking, and the meat ingredients were gathered in a cage, regardless of the size of the heat required for various ingredients, the length of time, the beard and hair were grabbed, all steamed, and only needed to be unloaded, juiced, and served on the table, and everything was fine. This dish is used to fill the hunger, it is difficult to agree as a delicacy, and it is even more sinful to say that it is an intangible cultural heritage.
Then again, it's okay to put several kinds of tamales in one basket, as long as they are well combined and cleverly matched, there is nothing wrong with it, especially in winter. Before I retired, I taught the cooking technique of Qiuyang Three Steaming at the reception of the Hubei Provincial Safety Department, using the same mode of caged seating, but I did not say that it was a "mixed cage", but came up with the term "original cage", and named it "original cage steamed four treasures". "Mixed" means disorganized, while "original" highlights the original juice, original taste, original shape and the connotation of returning to the original. A word difference, a judgment like a mountain.
My "Original Cage Tamales Four Treasures" is made up of four ingredients, two meats and two vegetarians. At that time, the leader of the Provincial Security Department asked me: "Why is it the Four Treasures, and can't it be made into three treasures, five treasures, and six treasures?" I said, "It doesn't matter if you can or not, there are no certain rules." I don't do three treasures, one is to worry about being a little monotonous, and the other is to avoid misleading guests, thinking that the three steamings are three dishes. I don't do five treasures because the five parts are difficult to accurately allocate. As for the Six Treasures, if they are not well grasped, they will appear chaotic, and the weight will be too large to cover the other dishes on the table. Or the four dishes are more moderate, the variety, color, shape, metaphor are good, such as everything is as expected, the four seasons are safe and so on. ”
The "original cage" can not be directly called The Three Steamings of Qiuyang, but it is done well, is widely recognized, and it is also possible to become one of the representative dishes. Deputies are exemplary, must concentrate on research, strive for excellence, and withstand the test of the market.
My third point is that the mixed cage can never be equated with the three steamings of the yang. If the skills left by the ancestors are trampled on so much, what face do our generation of chefs have to see the ancestors in the future, and what to inherit and carry forward the three steamings of Qiuyang!
So, what picture is used to represent the three steamings of Qiuyang? In my opinion, a steamer or koshiki seems to be more appropriate.
In addition to the three major misunderstandings, there are also two small misunderstandings to mention.
First, some people say that the technique of three steaming in Qiuyang is steaming, which I think is inappropriate, it should be based on steaming, including rolling glutinous rice steaming, bald steaming, buckle steaming, stew steaming and so on. In the three steamings of Qiuyang introduced in "Chinese Famous Recipes (Hubei Flavor)", the steamed mackerel and tamales are steamed, the steamed white rounds are bald steamed, and the pearl balls are steamed with rolled glutinous rice. Another example is the lotus seed, which is stewed and steamed. In the Chuyang folk banquet, half of them are steamed dishes, mostly steamed, and the steaming is divided into powder buckle, soup buckle, crisp buckle and clear buckle. In the restaurant should be the dish, the small slip shop uses steaming, and the larger restaurants and hotels mostly use large steamers, using a multi-button steaming method. Such as steamed pork belly, soup button belly slices, clear buckle ribs, crispy button eel and so on. To say that the three steamings are steaming is obviously incomplete.
Second, some people say that cannon steaming is the traditional technique of three steaming in Qiuyang, which is also incorrect. Cannon steaming is a new technique that draws on the oil-flushing techniques of other places. The advantage of flushing oil is that it stimulates the spicy taste, but it loses the characteristics of "original juice, original taste, original shape, light and low fat" of The three steamings of Qiuyang. Of course, the three steamings also need to be developed in the reference, can not be stuck in their own ways, in order to develop, it is also necessary to properly improve themselves.