Why can't Sichuan cuisine, which is popular all over the country, be shortlisted for the "Man-Han Banquet"?

? Today's Sichuan cuisine is filled with the delicacies of Huguang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Luyue? |

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Every time you eat at the dinner table

If there is a Sichuanese on the table, you will always be teased

"You Sichuanese can really eat spicy food"

But in fact, the taste of modern Sichuan cuisine is not "authentic" Sichuan cuisine

It is accompanied by the immigration history of this place

. Even Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, which have never eaten spicy food, have not been as good at "eating" as they were more than 2 years ago, which is very intriguing. 1? Is the original taste of Sichuan cuisine really spicy?

I'm from Shandong, and I've only been to Sichuan and Chongqing a few times. I have friends from Bashu, and I don't know much about Sichuan cuisine. My taste enlightenment in this respect came from my Sichuan neighbor next door to my mother's old house. According to some recent internet views, it is called "low birth", but I stubbornly believe that Shandong cuisine has influenced the formation of modern Sichuan cuisine and is worth talking about.

nowadays, when we look up Sichuan cuisine, most of the high-grade and exquisite dishes are not as spicy as ordinary Sichuan cuisine, but they have the shadow of Shandong cuisine and Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine.

▲ Nine bowls are nine kinds of meat dishes for banquet in traditional banquet. The characteristics of the nine bowls are steamed vegetables, mainly steamed: the first bowl, steamed whole chicken, steamed whole duck, steamed elbow, salted boiled pork (meat buckle), sweet boiled pork (meat with sand), steamed pork with rice noodles, bamboo shoots, taro, sweet potato, kelp and seasonal vegetables.

This reminds people of the classic dish "Nine Bowls" at the beginning of modern Sichuan cuisine-nine dishes packed in a bucket bowl, including hodgepodge, braised pork, ginger chicken, meat with sand, roasted bamboo shoots, steamed elbows, steamed pork with rice flour and so on. Except for ginger chicken and meat with sand, most of them are Shandong cuisine, which seems like the simplification of Shandong cuisine in a Manchu-Han banquet. Historian Meng Wentong also mentioned this influence with interest.

▲ Ginger Chicken

Let's talk about another boiled cabbage. In the delicious but crystal clear soup, there is a tender cabbage core. This elegant and delicious dish is not spicy, but it is also a famous Sichuan dish. To say that the method of hanging soup clearly comes from Shandong cuisine.

▲ boiled cabbage

Sichuan cuisine pays attention to spicy food, which is another misunderstanding. Because spicy is not the original taste of Sichuan food at all. 2? Eight delicious Sichuan

modern Sichuan cuisine probably took shape from the middle and late 19th century to the early 2th century. Before that, specifically, before the middle of Qing Dynasty, Sichuan's diet was not famous at all, and it didn't even form its own style. Of course, some people want to say that as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties and at the end of the Song Dynasty, Sichuan cuisine has formed its own unique system. Then, the war in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties pushed the Sichuan natives to the edge of society, and the ancient Sichuan style system they inherited had little influence on modern Sichuan cuisine.

if one side has a vacuum, it will attract winds from all directions.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the well-known "Huguang fills Sichuan" happened, and Hunan and Hubei came, of course, with their tastes and delicacies. There is a staple food Guo Kui in the "Nine Bowls" banquet, which is a replica of Shaanxi flavor from name to reality, and it has been gradually refined in the subsequent development.

What deserves special mention is the "sauce flavor" contributed by mainlanders. Zhuo Bingtian, a great cabinet scholar who lived in the Jia, Dao and Xian dynasties in the Qing Dynasty, was a Hakka immigrant who moved to Sichuan from Jiaying Prefecture (now Meizhou) in Guangdong Province in the early Qing Dynasty. After the veteran of the Three Dynasties ended his official career, Zhuojia returned to his old job in Chengdu and opened the most famous "Guangyi" sauce garden in Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty in front of the "Xiangfu" in Mianhua Street.

▲ Nine bowls of meat dishes are waiting to be served

Coincidentally, another sauce garden, Yuan Lizhen, also opened in Mianhua Street. The initiator of this sauce garden is Hu Shuqiao, an immigrant from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province. Brewing spices and pickles have also brought about changes in Sichuan cuisine. At the same time, the pepper introduced into Bashu from other places has also enabled the ordinary people in Sichuan to fight against the lack of oil and salt.

during the reign of emperor Qianlong in Qing dynasty, Li Huanan, a native of Luojiang, Sichuan province, who traveled in Zhejiang province on official business, collected the cooking experience of chefs and housewives in his spare time, which was later sorted out by his son Li Tiaoyuan, and was engraved as a food scripture, Awakening the Garden Record, which was widely circulated in the catering industry in Sichuan. Gourmets in Sichuan began to understand the cuisine in Jiangnan and beyond.

▲ Mapo Tofu

If nine bowls also give people the impression of "low birth", Sichuan cuisine changed in Xianfeng, Qing Dynasty and Tongzhi period. Sichuan has become the leading granary and tax source in China, and dignitaries and upper-class people have begun to enter Sichuan. As a result, "Nantang Cuisine" appeared naturally.

the so-called south hall, or south restaurant, is a restaurant with Jiangnan flavor, which is good at steaming vegetables in a steamer, stir-frying in a red pot and cooking fish, shrimp and seafood. Before the appearance of Nantang, stir-fry in red pot has always been a shortcoming of Sichuan cuisine. Even the "Sichuan fried chicken" recorded in the Complete Works of Household Necessities is only fried until it is medium-cooked, and then "grind pepper, Sichuan pepper and fennel with a spoonful of sauce, put a big bowl of water and cook it in the pot".

in the first half of the last century, Sichuan cuisine ranked first among the four major cuisines in China. Modern Sichuan cuisine spread all over the world for another hundred years, and when people feasted, they rarely investigated the imported history of this taste.