A wonderful paper on Zhejiang cuisine and China cooking.
Zhejiang cuisine, referred to as Zhejiang cuisine, is one of the eight major Han cuisines in China. It has beautiful scenery, rich products and delicious food, so the proverb says, "There is heaven on earth and Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth." Zhejiang province is located on the coast of the East China Sea, with dense water networks in the north, and is known as the land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River. The southwest hills are undulating, rich in food and game. The eastern coastal fishing grounds are densely populated and rich in aquatic resources. There are more than 500 kinds of economic fish, shellfish and aquatic products, with the total output value ranking first in China. Rich in products, delicacies, unique features, known far and near. Zhejiang and Haidong [2]? The coastline stretches for thousands of miles and is rich in seafood. The famous Zhoushan fishing grounds include yellow croaker, hairtail, grouper, splendid lobster, oyster, clam, shrimp and crab. Rivers and ports are everywhere. The famous Taihu Lake is adjacent to Huzhou in the south, and there are extremely rich species of rare freshwater fish such as mandarin fish, crucian carp, freshwater shrimp and lake crab. It is also the main producing area of rice and sericulture, and is known as the "land of plenty". There are mountains in the southwest, and the delicacies and game have always been famous, such as mushrooms in Qingyuan and black fungus in Jingning. In the middle is Zhejiang Basin-Jinqu Basin, namely Jinhua Granary. Jinhua ham, which is famous at home and abroad, is made from Jinhua Liangtouwu, one of the famous lean pigs in China. Together with the world-famous Longjing tea in Hangzhou and Shaoxing old wine, they are all indispensable and excellent raw materials for cooking. Zhejiang cuisine is rich in Jiangnan characteristics and has a long history. It is a famous local dish in China. Zhejiang cuisine originated from Hemudu culture in Neolithic age. The basic style of Zhejiang cuisine was formed through the pioneering and accumulation of ancestors of Yue State, the maturity and stereotypes in Han and Tang Dynasties, the prosperity in Song and Yuan Dynasties and the development in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The formation of Zhejiang cuisine has its historical reasons and is also influenced by resource specialties. Zhejiang is close to the East China Sea, with mild climate and convenient land and water transportation. The northern half of its territory is located in the Yangtze River Delta Plain, with fertile land and rivers, rich in rice, wheat, millet, beans, vegetables and aquatic products, and fresh in all seasons. The rolling hills in the southwest, rich delicacies, flocks of farm chickens and ducks and fat elephants all provide solid and rich raw materials for cooking. Specialty products include: Fuchunjiang shad, Zhoushan yellow croaker, Jinhua ham, Hangzhou You Xiang bean curd skin, West Lake water shield, Shaoxing duck, Yue chicken and wine, West Lake Longjing tea, Zhoushan Portunus, Anji bamboo chicken, Huangyan tangerine and so on. Rich cooking resources, numerous famous products and superb cooking skills make Zhejiang cuisine stand out and become a unique system. Zhejiang cuisine has a long history. "Huangdi Neijing Su Wen Yi Dao Fa Fang Lun" said: "The city of the East is the beginning of heaven and earth, the fishing of salt, and the water near the seaside. People are addicted to salt, so they are safe. " There are records in The Land of Chu and Yue ... "Rice, rice, soup and fish" in Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi. It can be seen that Zhejiang cuisine has a history of thousands of years. In addition, archaeologists from China excavated an early Neolithic cultural site in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang in 1973. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are a large number of indica rice, chaff, water chestnut seeds, gourds and dates, as well as more than 40 kinds of animals such as pigs, deer, tigers, elk (four elephants), rhinoceros, geese, crows, eagles, fish, turtles and crocodiles. At the same time, ancient pottery stoves and a number of daily-use pottery such as pots, cans, pots, plates and bowls were unearthed. According to the research of scientists, these cultural relics are about 7000 years ago, and they are one of the earliest Neolithic strata found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coast. During the Spring and Autumn Period of Wuyue, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Yueji (now Shaoxing), the capital of Yue State, made use of its superior geographical environment and resources, and under the influence of the economy, culture and technology of the Central Plains countries, after ten years of life and lessons, the agriculture, commerce and handicraft production in Qiantang River Basin developed rapidly and laid a solid material foundation. In order to restore the country, Gou Jian stepped up his armament and built a large chicken farm in Jishan, Shaoxing, formerly called Jishan, to prepare chickens for the front. Therefore, the oldest dish in Zhejiang cuisine is Shaoxing's famous dish "Clear soup and Yue chicken". Secondly, Hangzhou's "Song Saoyu Soup" comes from "Song Wusao Fish Soup", which has a history of 880 years. From Liangzhu in the suburb of Hangzhou to Hemudu in Yuyao, an ancient site of human activities, it is proved from the bones of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and ducks that the cooking materials of Zhejiang cuisine were quite rich four or five thousand years ago. Traditional famous dishes such as Dongpo meat, bacon, honey sauce fire recipe and Huatuo chicken are all inseparable from these cooking materials. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Jiangnan was spared from war for hundreds of years, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened in Sui and Tang Dynasties, the offshore sideline business in Ningbo and Wenzhou was expanded, and foreign trade and economic exchanges were frequent, especially in the Five Dynasties (AD 907), when Qianliu and wuyue made Hangzhou their capital, the economy and culture developed day by day, the population increased dramatically, and business flourished. It was once known as "the wall is 20 miles, and the room is 430,000". Economic development and trade exchanges have greatly promoted the development and rise of cooking, making the cooking skills of court dishes and folk diets at that time develop by leaps and bounds. Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhejiang cuisine played a major role in "Southern Cuisine". Nandu in Song Dynasty was called the second great migration of the Chinese nation, which played a great role in further promoting the innovative development of southern cuisine centered on Hangzhou. In this great migration, a large number of celebrities, dignitaries and working people in the north moved south and settled in Zhejiang, bringing the cooking culture of Kyoto in the north to Zhejiang, which made the cooking skills between the north and the south widely exchanged, the catering industry flourished and famous dishes came into being. Wu's dream, the old man's repeated victories in West Lake, and the meticulous past events in Wulin all record the prosperity of Hang Cheng food market and the delicacy of Hang Cheng food. According to the records in Meng Lianggu, Volume XVI, Tea Shop, there were more than 280 kinds of colorful dishes in Hangzhou at that time, and the cooking skills reached 15 or more. There are many exquisite and luxurious restaurants, and ordinary restaurants are "all over the streets", and the cooking flavor is both north and south, which is a prosperous scene. For hundreds of years since the Southern Song Dynasty, although the political center is in the north, Zhejiang is bound to be one of the regions with the richest material resources, developed culture and prosperous industry and commerce. A large number of famous chefs from the north gathered in Hang Cheng, which enabled hangzhou dishes and Zhejiang cuisine to enter the development stage from the bud, and Zhejiang cuisine has since stood in the national Lai cuisine forest. Up to now, the famous dishes in the Southern Song Dynasty for more than 800 years, such as stuffed orange with crab, steamed sheep with soft-shelled turtle, preserved Dongpo, South fried eel, Qunxian soup and two-color kidney, are still famous at high-end banquets. In Shaoxing, besides clear soup and Yue chicken, there are braised chicken, frozen meat, fried shrimp chicken and coconut bran shrimp balls. Ningbo's pickled vegetable soup, yellow croaker, roasted moss, rock sugar turtle, pot-cooked eel, Huzhou's old-fashioned shrimp, colorful shredded eel, Jiaxing's fried crab powder, fried shrimp and crab, etc. It has a history of hundreds of years. Wenzhou is close to Fujian, influenced by Fujian cuisine, and its cooking is light, mainly seafood. Three pieces of fish rolls, three pieces of shrimp and other dishes have a long history.