Xin Mingxiu, the eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty, lived in the Qing Palace for more than 20 years in Guangxu and the two Dynasties, so he made friends with the courtiers such as Emperor Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi, Puyi and Yulong. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, he would write a "Palace Notes" about his court life at the end of the Qing Dynasty, in which it was particularly recorded that Empress Dowager Cixi ate 500 eggs a day, and 480 "useful" ones were eye-opening.

According to the palace notes, the place where the palace was responsible for cooking at that time was divided into two parts, one was the imperial dining hall for cooking Emperor Guangxu, and the other was the longevity hall and longevity teahouse for cooking Empress Dowager Cixi. Among them, the longevity canteen is responsible for Cixi's diet, and the longevity teahouse is responsible for Cixi's fruits, tea, snacks and other snacks.

Because of emperors, queens, concubines, etc. In the Qing palace, there are their own special "food boxes" according to different grades every day, that is, the raw materials needed for daily diet, including chicken, duck, fish, spices and vegetables. In particular, only in the longevity dining hall dedicated to Cixi, "the comprador only pays one egg every day."

How to eat 500 eggs a day? In fact, Empress Dowager Cixi only had 20 eggs a day, but these comprador certainly didn't buy them according to the normal quantity in order to get some benefits. The court notes stated that "everything that Empress Dowager Cixi bought by comprador was deducted by one point" so that everyone could make money, so she reported the number of eggs to 500, which made everyone happy and kept Cixi from knowing.

Not only longevity dining room, but also imperial dining room. They will do the same thing for every ingredient. It is reported that Emperor Guangxu can't even eat a kilo of purple rice every day, but the Imperial Restaurant buys 25 kilos of good purple rice every day.

These extra rice are often pocketed by leaders of all sizes. "There are four people in a class, namely chef, chef, big candle and two candles." Two kinds of people, each person is given 10 kg of good purple rice every day, and they are sold separately to make a profit. Of course, the 480 extra eggs in Shou canteen are also treated in this way.