Stinky mandarin fish has no shortage of fans in first-tier cities, but hui cuisine is always embarrassing from the inside out.
When outsiders asked the people of northern Anhui what edamame tofu was, they confessed that they did not grow up eating stinky mandarin fish and edamame tofu. When asked by the people of southern Anhui whether the Anhui beef noodles were delicious, they were stunned, which was a noodle they had never tasted before. The regional and cultural differences in Anhui have made most Anhui people have a great sense of disapproval of Hui cuisine, and a small number of people have a narrow sense of pride. At the same time, when Hui cuisine did not break through the siege, its representative dish stinky mandarin fish became the signature of Hunan cuisine restaurants.
Outsiders do not know that Hui cuisine is not the same as Anhui cuisine, it is only as a small number of regional eating habits in the form of business cards popularized throughout the province; diners also calmly accept dry pot stinky mandarin fish appeared on the Hunan cuisine table; even fewer people know that in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty, it briefly ranked first among the eight major cuisines.
1861 was not peaceful for the people of Huizhou.
Due to the Rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, all parts of Huizhou were burned and looted. The Huizhou Jixi Tai clan was forced to flee to Suzhou, where they opened restaurants. At that time, Hui restaurants mainly sold snacks, selling roast in spring and soup buns in winter, and often serving fritters, flatbread, and topping noodles. A few years later, the Tai clan went out of the mountains and migrated to Suzhou as a whole, and the entire family made a living through catering, and in just ten years, more than a dozen Hui restaurants were opened. Since then, the Hui chef led by Ji Xi has gone to the vision of diners.
Jixi stir-fried vermicelli is a major representative of the noodles that continue to this day.
In Shanghai, not far from Suzhou, another team from Jixi is also opening a huiguan. In 1885, Hu Shanzeng of Jixi Shangzhuang raised funds at a cash register of 100 yuan per share, and Hu Shi's father, Hu Tiehua, also participated in the merger and management, adding "DongDapuLou" and "Nandapulou" on the basis of Dapulou, not only dealing in various pastries, but also good at cooking traditional Emblem dishes, braised square meat, mandarin fish, plate duck, heavy oil meat, rich color, and became famous. Later, Tai also transferred to Shanghai, and there were more than 70 restaurants opened by the family alone. "Old Shanghai" once mentioned: "Shanghai restaurants, at first only Huizhou, Suzhou, after jinling, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang pavilions." ”
Before the 1920s, Shanghai's Hui restaurants were almost at their peak, accounting for more than a third of the total number of restaurants. And each family has a handy dish. The fried eel back of the big middle building, the braised paddling of the big rich, the fried eel paste and chrysanthemum pot of the big Jiafu, the fried meat and big blood soup of the great Chinese curd, the braised belly of the three-star building, and the three shrimp noodles of Dingxing. "Shanghai Local History Materials" frankly admits the status of Hui cuisine in the Republic of China period: "High and low grades are complete, and diners from all sides are salty." Deeply favored by Shanghai diners, the emblem dish has also gained a reputation, accounting for several of Shanghai's main food markets, and has a considerable position in the local culinary world. ”
In the nineteenth year of the Republic of China (1930), the stock of great Chinese restaurant was opened in Xiaonanmen, Zhonghua Road, Shanghai.
But it is not difficult to see that Huishang has improved the taste at this time, trying to cater to the taste buds of Shanghainese, and even appeared to please Western guests with the restaurant "Kade". However, no amount of improvement could withstand the arrival of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a large number of buildings were burned down, and the emblem hall had become an isolated island and was difficult to sustain. In the turbulent times, some Huiguan chose to merge with Waibang cuisine and continue to operate under the name of Waibang cuisine, most of which are Shanghai Benbang cuisine. For example, the stir-fry circles of the dishes listed in Lao Zhengxing, the back of the stir-fried eel, and the stir-fried paddling, when debunked, all carry a distinct flavor of hui cuisine. Tang Lusun also said in "China Eat": "The Tianxiang Building on Niuzhuang Road was originally the foundation of the Huiguan, and later Added Ningbo Cuisine... Since Tianxianglou is the base of the Huiguan, his duck wontons are still served in a tin-warmed pot."
Such Hui cuisine is neither as sweet as Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, nor like Sichuan-Chongqing cuisine, nor as spicy as Hunan cuisine, it follows the traditional Cheng Zhu Lixue thought of Huizhou, the taste of the dish is "moderate", and this "moderation" is both its biggest feature and fatal weakness.
However, this experience is enough to make the dietary system of a municipal unit stand together with the dietary system of a provincial-level unit, and gradually form the concept of "Huizhou cuisine". The restaurants opened by Huizhou people are called Huiguan, and the dishes made by Huizhou people become Huizhou cuisine.
It is worth mentioning that the huizhou area at that time was very different from the current Huizhou. At that time, Hui cuisine referred to the narrow but refined area of the old Huizhou Prefecture, including She County, Xiuning County, Qimen County, Yi County, Jixi County and Wuyuan County (now part of Jiangxi Province) in Anhui Province. Perhaps before the reform and opening up, the concept of hui cuisine was still accurate for diners.
Ancient Huizhou, a capital and six counties, is deeply influenced by traditional Confucianism and attaches great importance to the ancestral hall culture.
Until 1974, when the compilation of the "Chinese Cuisine Recipes and Anhui Volumes" began, everyone realized a problem, huizhou cuisine in a remote corner could not assume the role of Anhui cuisine with partial generalization, and the cuisines in other regions of Anhui were not as famous as Huizhou cuisine. Therefore, Li Jiaxiang, one of the people in charge of recipe compilation, proposed: "As a system, Anhui cuisine should be composed of three local flavors of Huizhou, along the river and along the Huai River, so that not only can the culture of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Huai River be covered, but also the beneficiaries and social influence will be expanded." This proposal was strongly endorsed by the members of the group.
Since then, people have been confused about the relationship between the three titles of Anhui cuisine, Hui cuisine and Huizhou cuisine. Sometimes people refer to Anhui cuisine as Hui cuisine, and sometimes even refer to Huizhou cuisine.
Huizhou is located in the Huangshan Mountains of southern Anhui Province, with many people and a small land, and a humid climate, which has also achieved the architectural style of pink wall Dewa and Horse Head Wall.
It cannot be ignored that Anhui is a highly culturally divided province, almost as if it were a merger of three different provinces, all because of the two rivers that pass through Anhui: the Huai River and the Yangtze River. The rivers run across, dividing Anhui into three major regions: northern Anhui, central Anhui and southern Anhui, with very different languages, architecture, and eating habits. Northern Anhui is close to Shandong, speaking the Central Plains official dialect, eating peppery soup and braised noodles; Anhui central is close to Nanjing, speaking Jianghuai official dialect, Gan language and Wu language, the dishes pay attention to knife work, fresh and sweet, more like a variant of Huaiyang cuisine; Anhui South Mountain is far away, the language is self-contained, forming a emblem language, and loves to eat pickled fermented food. Therefore, the same Anhui people can not eat in a bowl.
When the concept of "Hui cuisine" became Anhui cuisine, for the people of the entire province, there was no sense of belonging. In 2006, Anhui Province launched the "Hui Cuisine Standard System Table", and Hui cuisine was officially defined as five categories: Anhui Southern Cuisine, Anhui River Cuisine, Anhui Northern Cuisine, Hefei Cuisine and Huainan Cuisine. But what followed was not the diversified development of Anhui cuisine, but the use of the business card of "emblem culture".
Huizhou's unique edamame tofu is not accepted by residents of other parts of Anhui Province.
Hefei, the provincial capital of Jianghuai Cultural Circle, has been revising its architecture to a unified Hui style in recent years, and the Hui restaurants throughout Hefei are also mainly engaged in Huizhou cuisine with knife plate incense, stinky mandarin fish, edamame tofu, and Hu Shi Yipin pot as the signature dishes. And the Hui cuisine restaurant that grows in the first-tier cities is also almost in the main promotion of Huizhou cuisine, taking the Hui cuisine in Beijing as an example, Anhui South Water Town, Wuyi Xiaoguan, Huifu, Tongcheng Xiaoguan, no restaurant will focus on Anhui northern cuisine, without exception, are the first brand of Hui cuisine, sporadic dots in other parts of Anhui Snacks, such as Fu Li Ji roast chicken, Mengcheng baked cake and so on. Of course, driven by interests, it is indeed a shortcut to seek characteristics and promote them with symbols. Compared with the northern Anhui cuisine close to Lu cuisine and Yu cuisine, and the Anhui River cuisine close to Huaiyang cuisine, only southern Anhui cuisine has obvious characteristics and is unique.
However, the generalization of Hui culture, Huishang, Huipai architecture, and Hui cuisine that originally belonged to southern Anhui into Anhui culture, Anhui merchants, Anhui architecture, and Anhui cuisine is not only a tampering with Hui culture, but also deprives other regions of the right to inherit cultural inheritance. In this monotonous process of de-diversification, Hefei people shouted "return me hefei Jianghuai true color", and Huizhou people also screamed "don't rob Huizhou of cultural resources". Behind this, perhaps there is a proposition of cultural self-confidence and historical self-confidence.
Compared with Hui cuisine, Hunan cuisine has developed in full swing in recent years.
Surprisingly, the dish of dry pot stinky mandarin fish has been listed on the Hunan cuisine list in one fell swoop. Hunan cuisine was questioned, pointing out that its production method was very different from Huizhou stinky mandarin fish. Hunan mandarin fish is not fermented naturally, but is directly soaked in brine or stinky tofu. This point is despised by the traditional emblem chef, who bluntly says that it has ruined the emblem dish!
No matter what the history books judge, the stinky mandarin fish belongs to the emblem dish. However, the integration and development of various cuisines does not have to be labeled as plagiarism. In Beijing, because of the dry weather, naturally fermented mandarin fish is always not enough taste, and now the vast majority of Hui restaurants outside the country choose to buy semi-finished products directly from the stinky mandarin fish factory in their hometowns. The owner of the stinky mandarin fish factory revealed to me that in fact, many Hunan restaurants also order semi-finished products from them. This statement cannot be agreed with by Hunan restaurants, so it is impossible to verify whether it is true or false.
Stinky mandarin fish is sought after by diners because it smells good and is meat like garlic cloves.
However, Hunan cuisine chooses to let the stinky mandarin fish into the menu, the reason is nothing more than Chinese taste buds have long been spoiled by heavy taste, in a sub-healthy environment, only more smelly, more spicy, more numb to let the city people feel the pleasure of taste buds, just like Sichuan cuisine although constantly publicize their own hundred dishes and flavors, but the public still only love to pursue a taste of spicy; and "stink" is also synonymous with Hunan cuisine, Hunan stinky tofu all over the country streets, add stinky mandarin fish, change to the form of dry pot on the table, no violation.
In fact, stinky mandarin fish has not always been the signature dish of Huiguan. As mentioned earlier, one of the characteristics of Hui cuisine is moderation, specifically the moderation of dishes, such as the one-pin pot, knife plate incense, braised paddling, fried eel back, etc., which were all evolved according to the ingredients of the deep mountains. Odd dishes such as stinky mandarin fish and edamame tofu are not the whole of Hui cuisine, nor have they received attention in their glory.
Hui cuisine, which was in decline in Shanghai in the mid-20th century, had a brief struggle - the wonton duck was launched from the large and middle buildings, and each large casserole had a whole duck, accompanied by 40 wontons, and later divided into large, medium, and small pots depending on the number of guests. Later, almost every family emblem museum sold wontons and ducks, and if you want to say which one is the best, it is about half a pound and eight or two. Later, in order to seek profits, some shops only put a few thin pieces of duck, but the price was not cheap, the brand was broken, and eventually no one cared. This kind of opportunistic and only publicity-based business method can still be encountered in today's Hui restaurant, a knife plate incense that sells 68 yuan, only six pieces of meat, equivalent to 10 yuan a piece of meat, but the marinating time is too short, there is no taste. Freehand but not realistic, which directly led to the decline in the reputation of Hui cuisine and the loss of customers.
Huizhou knife board incense, because the camphor wood knife board used for cutting meat has been used for a long time to emit the aroma of bacon.
Therefore, when everyone found that the hui cuisine was "long-eaten and tasteless", the promotion of stinky mandarin fish seemed to be more in line with the diversified choices of modern cities. The rise of Beijing Yang Jixing stinky mandarin fish hints at the principle of being able to make a dish into a big shop, they strictly control the quality of each table of stinky mandarin fish in the past failure of Huishang, after 2000, from the original only selling 7 or 8 pieces per day and then directly sold to 100 pieces of stinky mandarin fish, which directly led to the development of the industrial chain of stinky mandarin fish, and even another reason why Xiang Restaurant joined the stinky mandarin fish.
Over the past century, Hui cuisine has experienced the decline of Huizhou cuisine, the chaos of Pan Anhui cuisine, and the era of defining Hui cuisine with stinky mandarin fish, we do not know whether it is the best time for Hui cuisine, but the dispute between cuisines and cultural labels has never been a topic that Hui cuisine should care about. A hundred years ago, Hui cuisine enriched Shanghai cuisine with its own characteristics, and now, people who use this label should continue to use its identity to tolerate and give full play to more food diversity.
Resources:
"Hui Cuisine and Hui Cuisine Standards" Yu Guangyu, Bao Xing
"Introduction to Hui Cuisine" Chen Zhongming
"How to Eat all over Anhui in Beijing" Chen Xiaoqing
"The Current Situation and Development Trend of Local Traditional Dishes in Anhui", Agricultural Products Processing Journal, Zhou Beibei, etc
"The Rise and Fall of Hui Cuisine: Another Aspect of Social Change", Journal of Gastronomy of Yangzhou University, Wang Guohua
"Hui Cai Exploring the Source" Shao Qijing
"The Inheritance of Hui cuisine and Huizhou cuisine" Tong Fengli
"Exploring the Rise and Fall of Huizhou Restaurants in Modern Shanghai" Dong Jie
"The Distribution and Change of Hui Restaurants in Modern Shanghai" Zhou Xuanyu
"Sea Food Talk" Tang Zhenchang
"On the Revitalization of Hui Cuisine" Li Deming, Wang Haibo