The Historical Origin of Fujian Cuisine

As early as the "Yongjia Rebellion" in the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of gentry in uniform from the Central Plains entered Fujian, bringing with them the advanced science and technology culture of the Central Plains, blending and communicating with the ancient Yue culture in Fujian, and promoting the local development. During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the brothers Wang from Gushi, Gwangju, Henan Province, led troops into Fujian and established the "Fujian State", which played a positive role in promoting the further development and prosperity of Fujian's food culture. For example, before the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains had begun to use monascus as a cooking ingredient. Xu Jian's Book of Beginners in the Tang Dynasty says: "Guazhou Monascus is half-cooked, soft and slippery, and the entrance is scattered." After this kind of monascus was brought to Fujian by immigrants from the Central Plains, due to the extensive use of monascus, red distiller's grains with special flavor also became a common ingredient in cooking. Monascus fish, monascus chicken and monascus meat are the main dishes of Fujian cuisine. "Red Rice Cooking" has become the foreign trade of Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou, with merchants gathered in all directions, increasingly frequent cultural exchanges and the introduction of overseas skills. On the basis of inheriting traditional skills, Fujian cuisine has absorbed the essence of various dishes, adjusted and changed the coarse and greasy customs, gradually evolved into a fine, light and elegant character, and even developed into a high-style Fujian cuisine system.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, a number of famous shops and talented chefs with local characteristics emerged in Fujian. At that time, Fujian was an important area of foreign trade, and Fuzhou and Xiamen once experienced abnormal market prosperity. In order to meet the entertainment needs of bureaucratic gentry and comprador class, there are many famous restaurants in Fuzhou, such as Juchun Garden, Huiru Perch, Guangyu Building, Hakka and Another Day, and in Xiamen, there are Nanxuan, Leqionglin, Quanfulou and Shuangquan. These restaurants are famous for their Manchu-Chinese banquets, official dishes or local flavor, which promotes the formation and continuous improvement of local flavor. In particular, the "Juchun Garden" in Fuzhou has experienced vicissitudes and flourished for a hundred years; Xiamen's "Nanxuan" has a bumpy history of 80 years. They have a strong team of chefs, outstanding business characteristics, flexible service forms, novel dishes and famous flavors. Such as "Buddha jumps over the wall", "golden bamboo shoots with minced chicken", "stewed sea cucumber with three fresh ingredients", "scallop", "shredded chicken nest", "litchi meat" and "diced chicken with sand tea" are all famous dishes and delicacies created by them. While creating many famous dishes, these famous shops have also cultivated famous Fujian cuisine masters at home and abroad, such as Zheng Chunfa, Chen, Qiang Zugan, Huang, Hu Xizhuang, Yang Simei, Chen Binding, Zhao, Zhu, Yao Kuanyu, Zheng Yuchun, Qiang Mugen and Qiang Ququ.

Fujian cuisine is a combination of local dishes with different flavors from Fuzhou, southern Fujian and western Fujian. Fuzhou cuisine is the mainstream of Fujian cuisine, and its dishes are characterized by refreshing, tender and elegant, mostly soup. Fuzhou cuisine is good at seasoning with red distiller's grains, especially paying attention to the preparation of soup materials, giving people a feeling of "hundreds of soups and flavors", and the unpleasant smell comes from the nose. For example, the dishes such as Velvet Soup with Wide Belly, Meat Rice with Fish Lips, Shredded Chicken's Nest, Light Vegetable Chicken Soup, Stinky Fried Eel and Light Stinky Fresh sole are all rich. Minnan cuisine is very popular in Xiamen, Jinjiang, Youxi and Taiwan Province Province in the east. Its dishes are fresh, mellow, tender and light, and it is famous for paying attention to ingredients and making good use of spicy food. They are unique in using sand tea, mustard, orange juice, medicines and fruits, such as "Dong Pi Zhu Long", "Steamed Fish", "Fried Beef with Sand Tea", "Braised Beef Tendon with Onion" and "Angelica Beef brisket". Western Fujian cuisine, popular in Hakka dialect areas, is characterized by freshness, fragrance and alcohol. He is good at cooking delicacies, slightly salty and greasy, and makes good use of ginger, especially in the use of spicy spices. Such as "stir-fried ground monkey", "boiled fish white", "braised stone scales in oil", "fried mushrooms", "honeycomb lotus seeds", "golden bean curd", "unicorn elephant belly" and "rinse nine products" all clearly reflect the traditional eating customs and strong local colors in mountainous areas.