Empress Dowager Cixi staged the long journey of the ancients: all the way to escape and all the way to eat.

1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled in haste. Originally, people should enjoy themselves on the road, but the queen mother is the queen mother after all! During the 53 days of fleeing to the west, she spent a lot of money, ate and drank, tasted the local characteristics of Shanxi and tasted the taste of Shanxi cuisine. From corn stalks in ordinary people's fields to wowotou millet porridge to satisfy hunger; From ordinary farmers' home cooking to local snacks; From the high-end banquet of dignitaries to the luxurious Manchu-Han banquet, she deeply felt the highest state of super-eating, and deeply observed the taste of local food in various parts of Shanxi. During her two days in wenxi county, Shanxi Province, she actually spent two hundred and two thousand pieces of silver, which is equivalent to the sum of money, grain and tax in this county for three years. It's really "a bucket of gold a day"! Such extravagance and waste can't help but make people stunned.

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First, people are on the road, filling their hunger with corn paste and mung bean flour.

1900, when Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled hastily, disguised as an old village woman, and escaped from the Forbidden City with only some scattered silver coins. Half a month before I entered Shanxi, I was displaced. Even Cixi herself said, "I am a grandmother completely." At this time, a bowl of millet gruel and half a steamed corn bun are enough to satisfy the Queen Mother who lives a luxurious life all day. Eat, meet the needs of survival, the great desire of life, and the foundation of demand. When survival is threatened, everything is a cloud, and filling your stomach is the most important thing. On the way to the West, the Queen Mother, known as Lafayette, was eager to meet her basic needs at the first time. 1On August 30th, 900, I arrived in Tianzhen County, Tongzhou by car, and that was all. Tianzhen is located at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Mongolia provinces, and it is also the only way for Hebei to enter Shanxi. Cixi and her party spent the night in a temple called Ciyun Temple. At that time, the diet prepared for Cixi was very sloppy. It is said that they only drank a bowl of corn porridge. On September 1 day, Cixi arrived at Julebao, Yanggao County, Datong, and spent the night in a deep house compound on the north side of Cundong Road, namely Wang Guan Tunli's home. At this point, Xiaomi porridge and Wowotou have been difficult to explain to this Lafayette. The Li family prepared local specialty mung bean noodles for Cixi, as well as brine made from wild vegetables such as mushrooms, fungus, herbs and yellow flowers. But before this bowl of noodles was imported, someone came outside to make trouble. Several local young students broke their legs while picking wild vegetables on the mountain and came to beg for medical expenses. It turned out that in order to please Cixi, the eunuch secretly ordered the local camp and forced the villagers to go up the mountain to collect. Cixi beheaded the eunuch in a rage. Early the next morning, Cixi dared not stay long and ordered to leave immediately. It is estimated that because of the storm, the bowl of mung bean noodles didn't taste anything, so the mung bean noodles didn't get praise from the Queen Mother and didn't get any popularity.

Second, taboo, the Shanxi famous dish "Fengpawo" was renamed "Jinfeng Lying in the Snow".

The next day, Empress Guangxu and her party arrived at Datong Mansion, where the preparations were well done and the materials were sufficient. At that time, the famous restaurant in Datong was Fenglinge, which was very famous in the Ming Dynasty. Local officials found a famous chef in Fenglinge to cook the most famous dishes in Datong for Cixi and Guangxu. One of them is called "Fengpawo", which is the specialty of this store. At the end of the Ming dynasty, it began to spread among the people. Its method is to cook a chicken and put it in a big plate, then put some fried dry powder strips under it, and put 10 fried boiled eggs and fried tofu next to it. After eating this dish, Cixi asked the names of the attendants around her. The attendants immediately went to the door to ask the waiting officials. Officials thought that Empress Dowager Cixi's trip was called the Western Expedition, but it was actually just an escape. The word "phoenix lying in the nest" was afraid of being killed, so I racked my brains to come up with a name "golden phoenix lying in the snow" to make a dish with the meaning of being down and out. This dish has since been named "golden phoenix in the Snow". The chef of Fenglinge also specially made 9 cages of "steamed dumplings with flowers". In the transparent thin skin, there are 9 kinds of minced meat, including chicken, duck, fish, shrimp, crab, cow, sheep, pig and rabbit. The top of steamed dumplings is peony, lotus, rose, peony, magnolia, rose, autumn chrysanthemum, rhododendron and plum blossom, which is so delicate. At this moment, the life of Cixi and her court officials and entourage who traveled all the way has been obviously improved. After getting rid of the dilemma of corn paste, Cixi's stomach has begun to be picky about food.

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Third, enjoy the moon in Xinzhou Mid-Autumn Festival and taste 24 Shanxi cuisines in one meal.

Cixi moved on. After hearing the news, officials from all over the country sent people to send food and gifts. Cixi's voyage to the West coincided with the eighth month of the lunar calendar. She originally planned to go to Taiyuan for the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the rainy season was difficult and she had to walk in Xinzhou for the New Year. Although I am on the road to escape, I have to pay attention to the royal holiday. Shortly after Empress Dowager Cixi got off the sedan chair in Xinzhou, she lived in Xinzhou Gongyuan. The courtyard is spacious and bright, and the four corners are completely swept away. In the yard, melons and fruits are fragrant, gongs and drums are loud and full of festive atmosphere. Cixi's personal maid recalled: "For more than a month, sometimes I ate well and sometimes I ate badly. This meal, officials of all sizes ate the most: four cold dishes, four stir-fried dishes, four small bowls, four medium bowls, four big plates, and finally a big bowl of soup. This table is called' Four Four to the End'. " Empress dowager cixi was served by the emperor and queen in a splendid private room, and she ate better than this. After dinner, according to the custom in the palace, the queen went to offer sacrifices to "Taiyin Jun". In the southeast corner of Hiram's courtyard, a sacrificial table was set up and incense was inserted. There are four plates of fruit and four plates of moon cakes on the table. The moon cake is half a foot high. In addition, in the middle of a big wooden plate, there is a round moon cake with a diameter of one foot, which is specially made for rabbit sacrifice. There are two new edamame and four bowls of green tea. Empress Dowager Cixi and her party became more superstitious because they fled abroad, for fear of offending ghosts and gods and bringing disaster to themselves. This is especially true for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Therefore, as long as there is an opportunity to kowtow to ghosts and gods, everyone is vying to participate. They are devout in Yue Bai, and pray to God that Cixi will only rest in Xinzhou for one day. However, among the tributes provided by local officials, there is still a famous place that stands out. At that time, State official Xu Handu presented a tile cake made by Wang Fenglong, the owner of Ma Hui Town. After Cixi ate it, she named it "Dragon and Phoenix Tile Cake". Therefore, Xinzhou tile cake was touched by the royal family, and since then it has become more and more famous and become a famous food.

Fourth, the small shop in Taiyuan spent tens of thousands of dollars in two hours.

10 September, August 17th of the lunar calendar, Cixi finally arrived in Taiyuan. In Taiyuan, the Governor's Office decorated the palaces of Cixi and Guangxu, and all the furnishings were prepared for the emperor to visit Wutai Mountain during Jiaqing period. I didn't use it in those years, but this time it happened to be used to entertain Cixi. Her maid-in-waiting said that everyone in Taiyuan is like being in a palace. Empress Dowager Cixi is famous for her luxurious diet. De Ling, a female official who once worked beside Cixi, commented on Cixi in the book "Royal Fragrance Record": "Empress Dowager Cixi's life can be said to be for' eating' ..." In Taiyuan, Cixi's dietary standards have been greatly improved. After more than half a month, Cixi and her party moved on. They secretly reported in a small shop in Taiyuan, and spent tens of thousands of silver in more than two hours, so the cost of the Queen Mother staying for one night was even higher: according to records, in Xugou, the local area spent 52,000 silver. On June 2nd 10, Cixi and her party entered Qixian County, Jinzhong, where they were received with a grand reception, and the Qiao family even presented delicacies. According to the records of Liu Dapeng in Qing Dynasty, the food standards of Shanxi merchants were quite high at that time: "The business here is so luxurious that all merchants call it a light meal, but in fact, there are rare treasures, giant turtles and fresh fish here, and all the delicacies are delicious. Because of custom, there is nothing wrong. " The standard of canteen for employees of Shanxi merchants is close to luxury. In the face of the visit of the supreme ruler at that time, it was considered a rare opportunity, and naturally he would try his best to make a fuss about the diet of the Queen Mother. There is nothing wrong with high standards. The key is to pay more attention to the degree of exquisiteness. When Cixi arrived in Qixian in August, it happened to be around the second Mid-Autumn Festival. The mooncake given to Cixi by the Qiao family was called "Snow Lotus Crisp". This kind of moon cake was baked by a famous pastry shop in Qixian at that time. The cakes made in this shop are delicious and exquisite, and the "Snow Lotus Crisp" is for the Qiao family, which ordinary people can't enjoy. This cake is not only amazing in taste, but also as the name suggests, it is skin like snow, oily and greasy. If you don't eat, just watching makes people feel good. Cixi, a gourmet who is very picky about food, can't help but be full of praise. After Empress Dowager Cixi arrived in An, she also ordered people to take "Snow Lotus Crisp" from Qiao's house for her to taste and give it to the accompanying ministers, princes and Gege. After that, every Mid-Autumn Festival, the Qiao family will send people to Beijing to offer "Snow Lotus Crisp".

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Houma gave a banquet in Manchu and Chinese for the driver, and Wenxi spent 202,000 silver in two days.

When Cixi and her party went to Houma, local officials in Houma began preparations a month ago, and the local government specially recruited 80 chefs. Business day and night, careful configuration, full banquet 108 dishes, all guaranteed supply. Quwo, Wenxi and other places followed suit. Wenxi spent two hundred and two thousand pieces of silver in two days, which is equivalent to the sum of money, grain and tax in the county for three years. According to the regulations of the Qing dynasty, the standards of accommodation and food supply for officials at all levels must be carried out according to their duties. Not to mention the standards of the queen mother and the emperor, just the princes and ministers will supply a seat of "Shangbaba" every day, with eight dishes and eight bowls of chicken, duck, fish and delicacies; Middle and lower officials give a "288" every day, the number of dishes remains the same, and the quality is slightly lower than that of "88"; Even the escort can't be lower than the standard of "the next six or six", and chickens, ducks and vegetables are indispensable. In more than a month's time, Cixi and her party thoroughly turned Jinnan area of Shanxi into a standard imperial dining hall from eating steamed buns and eating grass. Nowadays, Houma also has famous local dishes such as "Fishing for the Moon at Sea" and "Long Xianbao", all of which are folk famous dishes handed down by the chef, which can be regarded as the contribution of Cixi's westward journey to Shanxi's famous local dishes. Cixi's trip coincided with the drought in Shanxi, and the huge reception expenses undoubtedly made the local economy in Shanxi worse. However, in terms of diet, it successfully completed an intimate exchange between the royal family and the people. The imperial chefs in the Forbidden City learned how to make steamed buns and food bases, and the royal Manchu banquet and dishes also floated to the people, enriching the Sanjin cuisine.