First of all, the type of diet

(1) Grain: As an agricultural nation, the Han nationality has always occupied a major position in the diet. There were no crops such as corn and sweet potato in Song Dynasty. According to local conditions, the food of northerners is mainly millet and wheat, while that of southerners is mainly rice.

There are many kinds of pasta. "What you eat on the fire is called sesame seed cake, what you eat in the water is called soup cake, and what you eat in the cage is called steamed cake". Song Renzong's famous Zhao Zhen, in order to avoid the emperor's anonymity, people regard steamed cakes as sesame cakes, also called cage cakes, similar to steamed bread today. Soup cake is noodle soup, which is in the process of evolution from noodle to noodle, also called noodle. ① The sheep noodles, tung skin noodles, meat noodles and cooked tung skin noodles sold in Kaifeng food store, and the pig sheep noodles, shredded chicken noodles, three fresh noodles and bamboo shoots sprinkled with meat noodles sold in Lin 'an noodle shop all belong to soup cakes. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, "medicinal chess noodles" appeared, which was "only one minute thin, as thin as paper". Sesame cakes, also known as Hu cakes, are sold in Hu cake shops in Kaifeng, including door oil, chrysanthemum, wide coke, thick edge, pith cake, full hemp and other varieties. Some sesame cakes are undoubtedly stained with sesame seeds, while oil cake shops sell steamed cakes, sugar cakes, packaged cakes, lead plates and other varieties. Food stores and night markets also sell white meat Hu cakes, pig pancreas Hu cakes and vegetable cakes. Prickly heat is also called rice cake, and Su Shi's poem says "green oil is tender, yellow and deep", which is undoubtedly fried pasta. There are various kinds of pasta for sale in Lin 'an, collectively referred to as "steamed food". In addition, it is estimated that it should also be made of rice flour or flour. ②

There are steamed buns, wonton and ③ pasta in Song Dynasty, such as plum blossom steamed bread, Cao meat pie, bamboo shoot fern wonton, grouted steamed bread, thin skin spring cocoon steamed bread, shrimp steamed bread, meat cake, sugar steamed bread and imperial academy steamed bread.

Rice and millet are mainly used for cooking and porridge. There are seven treasures porridge, five flavors porridge, millet porridge, sugar bean porridge, sugar porridge and cake porridge in Lin 'an area. In the Song Dynasty, there was a custom of drinking Laba porridge in both north and south. Kaifeng is called Qibao Wuwei porridge, and Lin 'an is called Wuwei porridge. On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, "people cook red bean porridge to worship the god of food, which is called population porridge.

The difference of staple food between north and south in Song Dynasty is quite obvious. But in the Northern Song Dynasty, 67 million stone rice was transported to Kaifeng every year, so some northerners, especially officials and soldiers, also lived on rice.

At the turn of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, with a large number of northerners moving south, the double cropping system of rice and wheat in the Yangtze River basin became more common.

(2) Vegetables: Vegetables occupy an important position in the diet of Song people, which is known as "vegetables are not as good as valleys". There are many varieties of vegetables in Song Dynasty. In Lin 'an Mansion of Liangzhu Road, there are varieties of vegetables, such as moss heart, dwarf yellow, big white head, small white head, yellow bud, mustard, lettuce, spinach, lettuce, bitter vegetable, ginger, onion, onion, leek, garlic, eggplant, cucumber, wax gourd and preserved wax gourd. In Huizhou, on Jiangnan East Road, the vegetable varieties are mustard, celery (including bamboo celery and cress), garlic, onion, ginger, leek, coriander, Yuntai, alfalfa, spinach, radish, lily, taro, burdock and water bamboo. 8 Fujian Road Fuzhou has various vegetables, such as fermented grains, mustard greens, radishes, black sunflower, white beans, lettuce, Yuntai, Cai Yong, Jinshui, pineapple, bitter vegetables, oriental lettuce, eggplant, amaranth, coriander, Hao Tong, bracken, ginger, onion and leek. Many vegetables also have different varieties. According to the "Fungi Spectrum", the fungi are famous products such as Fugu mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus, Chestnut shell mushroom, Tricholoma matsutake, Dictyophora, Maigu mushroom, Jade mushroom, Yellow mushroom, Purple mushroom, Four Seasons mushroom and Amanita mushroom.

Second, the prosperity of the catering industry

The catering industry in Song Dynasty developed synchronously with the commodity economy, especially in big cities. Kaifeng City in the Late Northern Song Dynasty

The catering industry in Kaifeng generally includes restaurants, food stores, cake shops and tea shops. The food styles and cuisines of restaurants can be divided into three categories: northern cuisine, southern cuisine and Sichuan cuisine.

The catering industry in Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty included tea shops, restaurants, tea-matching hotels, noodle restaurants and vegetarian restaurants.