The Origin and Development of Cantonese Cuisine

Cantonese cuisine and other local cuisines are all part of Chinese food, and both originated from the traditional culture of China. However, compared with the Central Plains cuisine or other cuisines, the precipitation of its traditional food culture is not as deep as that in the Central Plains and other regions. Influenced and nourished by overseas culture for a long time, Cantonese cuisine attaches importance to inheritance, but its tradition is not solid. It is flexible, fresh and young, and it is the most innovative role in China's diet system. It absorbs many advantages of western pastry and exotic food, and attaches importance to active reference and absorption. Digest the advanced aspects of foreign food culture, and then integrate into the national food culture.

Cantonese cuisine has a wide range of materials, not only rich in main ingredients, but also rich in ingredients and seasonings. In order to express the flavor of the main ingredients, Cantonese cuisine is very particular about the choice of ingredients and seasonings, and the ingredients are not mixed. Seasoning is to bring out the original flavor of the main ingredients, both of which are mainly fresh. Pay attention to color, fragrance, taste and shape, and take taste as the main body.

Cantonese cuisine is dazzling with a variety of materials. Almost everything that flies in the sky, crawls on the ground and swims in the water can be eaten. Needless to say, partridges, sparrows, leopards, civets, pangolins, seal fish and other wild animals and birds; Cats, dogs, snakes, rats, monkeys, turtles, and even grass worms that are mistaken for "leeches" by ignorant people are also among the cooking. Once cooked, they immediately become exotic and delicious, making consumers applaud and sigh "exotic".

Another outstanding feature of Cantonese cuisine is fine and fine dosage, exquisite materials, exquisite decoration, good imitation and innovation, and various varieties. 1965 "Guangzhou Famous Cuisine Exhibition" introduced 5457 kinds.

The third feature of Cantonese cuisine is that it pays attention to quality and taste, and the taste is relatively light, seeking freshness in the clear and seeking beauty in the light. And with the change of seasons, there is light in summer and autumn, and it is rich in winter and spring, pursuing color, fragrance, taste and shape. Food tastes clear, fresh, tender, cool, smooth and fragrant; Seasonings are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty; This is the so-called five flavors and six flavors.

The famous Cantonese cuisine includes roast suckling pig, boiled shrimp, Long Hudou, Taiye chicken, braised pork with taro, braised skirt wings, scrambled eggs in Huangpu, braised Mi Chong, dog meat pot, multicolored shredded snake, chrysanthemum, dragon and tiger, phoenix and snake soup, all of which are famous Guangzhou dishes with local flavor.

Cantonese cuisine is also one of the eight major cuisines in China. Its formation and development are closely related to Guangdong's geographical environment, economic conditions and customs. Guangdong is located in the subtropical zone, bordering the South China Sea, with abundant rainfall, evergreen seasons and abundant products. Therefore, Guangdong's diet has always been blessed. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the Spirit of Huainanzi contained the fine and extensive selection of Cantonese cuisine. It is conceivable that Cantonese people had mastered different cooking methods to cook different smells more than 1,000 years ago. Before that, the Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu was exiled to Chaozhou. In his poems, he described dozens of foreign bodies such as horseshoe crabs, snakes, octopus, frogs, octopus and Jiang Yaozhu in chaozhou people, which made him feel uncomfortable. But in the Southern Song Dynasty, octopus and other seafood were the top delicacies of many local dishes. In terms of ingredients and taste, it is all raw food. After that, there were not many pigs, cattle, sheep and deer eaten raw, but the habit of eating sashimi, including sashimi porridge, has been preserved to this day. But it's still the kind of situation where the white-cut chicken is cooked and the thigh bone is bloody. The characteristics of Cantonese cuisine, such as exquisite knife work, exquisite ingredients and clear but not light taste, are vividly displayed.

Cantonese cuisine is also good at learning from the strengths of various families, using it for my own use, and often learning new things. Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish, a famous dish in Jiangsu cuisine, is well-known in the north and south of the country, but you can't go to a Cantonese banquet. Although Cantonese people like to eat mouse meat, the name of the mouse is not elegant. The famous chef of Cantonese cuisine changed the fish into a man named Qiuhuayu, named Chrysanthemum Fish, with a skillful knife worker. After such a change, it is convenient and hygienic to eat one mouthful with chopsticks and knives and forks. After the transformation, Jiangsu cuisine became Cantonese cuisine. In addition, the cooking methods of Cantonese cuisine, such as soaking, roasting, roasting and Sichuan cuisine, are all transplanted from the explosion, roasting, roasting and frying of northern cuisine. The new frying and frying methods are formed by absorbing the similar methods of western food and improving them. However, the transplantation of Cantonese cuisine is not a mechanical copy, but a combination of Guangdong's extensive raw materials, fresh and tender texture, and people's tastes like fresh and always new, thus developing. For example, the steak of northern cuisine is generally seasoned, roasted until crisp and rotten, and topped with oil, which is called clear steak. The steak of Cantonese cuisine is cooked or steamed until it is greasy, and then pushed on the clam, which is mostly manifested as steak with ingredients. Representative works include Babao roast duck, shredded chicken and preserved meat. Guangdong's food culture is closely related to all parts of the Central Plains. One of the most important reasons is that there are many mainlanders who established another dynasty in history. Officials sent by the dynasties to govern Guangdong and relegate brought the northern food culture, and many chefs passed on their skills to their local counterparts, or opened their own shops to directly introduce the local food culture to Lingnan people, making it an important part of Cantonese cuisine. After the Han dynasty, Guangzhou became the transportation hub of Chinese and western sea routes; Most foreign businessmen gathered in Yangcheng in the Tang Dynasty, and merchant ships came in droves. At that time, compared with the inland areas, Guangzhou's economy developed rapidly.

Well-known are the Man-Han Banquet in Nanyang Hall, fragrant perch balls, drunken shrimps and crabs in Jufeng Garden, assorted cold dishes, one pot and one product and high-quality sesame balls, the semi-crispy rice balls in Yubolou, the crispy crucian carp in Fulai, the roast duck in Wanzhan Hall, the Jiangnan Baihua Chicken in Wenyuan Garden, the braised abalone slices in Nanyuan Garden and the Dinghu vegetarian dishes in Xiyuan Garden. Wang Ji's roast suckling pig, Xinyuan's fish cloud soup, Jinling's duck slices, Guan Zhen's clear soup fish belly, Taotaoju's fried crab, vegetable root incense, Lu Yu's skinned suckling pig, Baiyun pig hand, Taiping Pavilion's western-style sauce pigeon, etc.

Cantonese cuisine consists of three local flavors: Guangzhou cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine and Dongjiang cuisine. Guangzhou cuisine includes famous dishes from the Pearl River Delta, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan and Zhanjiang. It has the widest area, complicated materials, fine selection of materials, superb skills, good at changing, exquisite flavor, clear but not light, fresh but not vulgar, tender but not raw, oily but not greasy. Try to be light in summer and autumn, rich in winter and spring, good at stir-frying, and need to master the temperature and oil temperature. Chaoshan cuisine belongs to Fujian, and its language and customs are similar to those of southern Fujian. After being affiliated to Guangdong, it was influenced by the Pearl River Delta. Therefore, Chaozhou cuisine is close to the strengths of Fujian, Guangdong and Anhui cuisine, and it is a school of its own. He is good at cooking seafood, especially soup, vegetarian dishes and beets. Fine knife work and pure taste. Dongjiang cuisine, also known as Hakka cuisine, originated in the Central Plains. At the end of the Han Dynasty and the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, he moved south to avoid war and lived in Dongjiang, Guangdong. Its language and customs still retain the inherent characteristics of the Central Plains. Most dishes are meat, and few are aquatic. The main ingredients are outstanding, paying attention to fragrance, weight and saltiness. Casserole dishes are famous for their unique local flavor.

There is also a school of Hainan cuisine in Cantonese cuisine, which has fewer varieties but has the unique flavor of tropical food. In cooking, Cantonese cuisine is mainly fried, but also stewed, fried and roasted. Pay attention to fresh, tender, cool and smooth, and there was a saying of "five flavors and six flavors". The "five flavors" are fragrant, loose, smelly, fat and strong, and the "six flavors" are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and fresh. At the same time, pay attention to color, fragrance, taste and shape. Many Cantonese dim sum are baked in the oven, which has the characteristics of western food. The main famous Cantonese dishes are crispy roast suckling pig, Long Hudou, Taiye chicken, national food, Chaozhou roast eagle goose, monkey brain soup and so on. Among them, "roast suckling pig" is the most famous specialty in Guangzhou. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, roast suckling pig was one of the "eight treasures". Roast suckling pigs spread all over the country in Qing Dynasty, and now they are very famous in Guangdong. With the changes of the times, cooking has been continuously improved, and the goal of "color like amber and real gold" has been truly achieved. The skin is crisp and soft, and the inside and outside are fragrant, which is suitable for the tastes of southerners. "Laoyeji" is a traditional famous dish in Guangzhou, which began in the late Qing Dynasty and was interrupted in the 1970s.

The origin of Cantonese cuisine can be traced back to the early Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. In ancient times, before the arrival of immigrants from the Central Plains, the ancestors of the Yue nationality in Lingnan had a unique diet style, such as eating white snake fish clams and raw food. It is recorded in Liu An of the Western Han Dynasty that "the more people get pythons, the better they eat". In the Song Dynasty, Zhou Qufei's "A Generation Beyond the Ridge" also recorded that Guangzhou people "don't ask birds, animals, insects and snakes what they eat". This is inseparable from the geographical environment of Guangzhou. Guangzhou belongs to the subtropical water network zone, where insects, snakes, fish and clams are particularly rich and easy to get, cook and eat, forming a lively and vigorous eating habit.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Han people in the Central Plains have been moving southward into Guangzhou. They not only brought advanced production technology and cultural knowledge, but also brought the Central Plains diet style of "never tired of cooking in detail and never tired of eating in essence". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, a large number of businessmen from all over the Central Plains entered Guangzhou, and Guangzhou's cooking skills were rapidly improved. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guangzhou's food culture reached its peak. According to the related documents in the second year of Qing Daoguang (1822), "Guangzhou Xiguan meat forest is full of wine and sea, with no cold and heat, no day and night."

In the 1920s and 1930s, Guang Chuan's food customs, North-South compatibility, Chinese and Western combination, and special food snacks emerged in large numbers. In the long years, Guangzhou people not only inherited the tradition of Central Plains food culture, but also absorbed the foreign and various cooking essences, and constantly absorbed, accumulated, improved and innovated according to local tastes, hobbies and habits, thus forming the food characteristics of diverse dishes, exquisite cooking skills, high quality and delicious taste. In the past hundred years, it has become one of the most representative and influential food cultures in China. This is based on the three cuisines of Shandong cuisine in the Yellow River valley, Sichuan cuisine in the Yangtze River valley, Jiangsu cuisine, Shanghai cuisine and Guangdong cuisine in the Pearl River valley, or four cuisines (namely, Luchuan Suyue) or eight cuisines (namely, Luchuan Suyue Min). Up to now, Guangzhou's diet, whether it is the variety and quality of food, the number and scale of restaurants, or the food environment and service quality, is second to none in China. At present, there are nearly 20,000 restaurants with 900,000 seats in the city.