Anyone who has lived in China must know the term "Manchu-Han banquet"! This word originally refers to the general term for the highest banquet standards in the Qing Dynasty palace. With the passage of time and the changing of times, the term "Manchu-Han banquet" now refers to the banquet with rich dishes, complete dishes and delicious taste.
As for the meaning of "Man-Han banquet", it can be seen from the literal meaning that the banquet dishes include the special foods of the two ethnic groups, Manchu and Han, which must be of extremely high standards, excellent taste, and extravagant consumption. After all, the royal family of the Qing Dynasty treated guests to dinner, and hosting the banquet represented the royal family's face and the strength of the court. And this kind of high-level banquet often has various political purposes and is by no means as simple as eating.
1. The "banquet" is so big that one cannot eat it
The "Manchu-Han banquet" must include various delicacies of the two ethnic groups, Manchu and Han. It is said that there are 108 dishes. There are 54 southern dishes and 54 northern dishes.
1. What is the Manchu-Han banquet?
First of all, you need to know something about the Man-Han Banquet. The Man-Han Banquet does not end after one meal, but lasts for three days!
Man-Han Banquet
The "Man-Han Banquet" is divided into "six banquets". These "six banquets" include: banquet for vassals, banquet for courtiers, banquet for longevity, banquet for thousands of old men, banquet for nine whites and festival banquet. These six banquets each represent different meanings, and the dishes are also different.
The vassal banquet is a banquet for royal family members and vassal kings. The main guests of the courtier banquet are the court officials. The Wanshou Banquet is actually the emperor's birthday party, and the emperor's birthday is called the Wanshou Festival. During the longevity banquet, all civil and military officials, concubines, and royal relatives came to the banquet with birthday gifts for the emperor. At the beginning of the banquet, all the guests raised their glasses and said: I wish the emperor a long life! Lucky words such as long live long live long live are actually wishing the emperor a happy birthday.
The Qiansou Banquet was initiated by Emperor Kangxi. It was first held in 1713, which was the 52nd year of Kangxi. In this year, Kangxi was 60 years old. In his lifetime, Kangxi expanded his territory, regained lost territory, quelled rebellions, wiped out Yugu from the former Ming Dynasty, and captured Aobai to quell the rebellion. It was indeed a great achievement. Kangxi once personally led the imperial cavalry to attack Galdan and regain the Mongolian tribes, and appointed wise ministers to order the Fujian navy to regain Taiwan. The young Kangxi felt satisfied looking at the prosperous country he had managed. He wanted to celebrate the Longevity Festival with the elderly all over the world. So he hosted a banquet for a thousand old people in Changchun Garden and held the first Thousand Old Man Banquet. The Thousand-Sou Banquet was held four times in one year of the Qing Dynasty.
Also started during the Kangxi period, there is the Jiubai Banquet, which is a banquet set by various Mongolian tribes to show their loyalty. Seasonal banquets are the general name for all seasonal banquets in the palace.
Compared with eating at home, the Manchu-Han Banquet is rich in dishes and extravagant. The bigger difference is that every holding of the Manchu-Han Banquet contains various political purposes. Either for diplomacy, war, or to show good royal style and court ethos, etc.
At the banquet, the guests were drinking and chatting happily on the surface, but secretly they had different thoughts. Political forces with different stances were secretly wrestling to achieve their goals. They competed with each other for fear that one of them would accidentally fall into the disadvantage.
2. Everything is edible and worth a thousand dollars
Although the political wrangling under the table is tiring, the dishes on the table are really rich.
The richness of the 108 dishes in the "Manchu-Han Banquet" is beyond our imagination. In other words: things that fly in the sky, things that run on the ground, things that swim in the water, things that grow on trees, things that are buried in the ground, things that are native to the country, things that are paid tribute, birds and animals, delicacies from mountains and seas, exotic fruits, all kinds of fine wines and delicacies Vegetables, fruits, pastries, etc. Only if you can't imagine, there is no "Man-Han Banquet" that you can't eat.
Four Happiness Dumplings
The various dish names in the traditional cross talk "Reporting the Names of Dishes" can be found in the recipes of the Manchu-Han Banquet in nine out of ten. The richness of the Manchu-Han Banquet is not only because of its precious materials and high cost, but also because it contains a wide variety of dishes, which makes people dazzled.
The rich variety of dishes is reflected in the common mountain wild vegetables such as celery and thorn buds, which also appear at the banquet as main dishes or side dishes. Precious ingredients such as bird's nests, bear paws, shark's fins, monkey heads, deer tails, camel humps, shark skins, puffer fish livers and other valuable ingredients are common.
The raw materials of the Manchu-Han Banquet can be seen from a dish called "rice glutinous rice orangutan lip". The main material of rice noodles orangutan lips is not the lips of orangutans, but the meat of elk faces. Elk are also called Si unlike. There are only more than 2,000 elks in my country, all of which have been recorded by the state. They are extremely precious national first-level key wild protected animals. Orangutan lips are dried meat from the face of elk, and are the most precious among the "Eight Treasures".
Elk
2. Eating food is also eating culture
Although there are 108 dishes in the Manchu-Han Banquet, every dish is carefully prepared, even the dishes The dishes are all unique. There are 108 dishes, each with its own flavor, hundreds of dishes with hundreds of names, and thousands of dishes with thousands of colors.
1. Poetic dish names
The Manchu-Han Banquet is the general name of the six major banquets. Participating in the banquet is not just as simple as eating food. The banquet itself includes many procedures, take the feudal banquet as an example. The general procedure of the feudal banquet includes: pre-meal tea, various snacks, fruits, preserves, etc. After the tea and fruits are the appetizers.
After the appetizers, there are 4 types of pastry including golden cakes, 4 types of pickles including sugar garlic, accompanied by fine wine and soup. Wine here is not as simple as pouring the wine into a jug, putting it on the table, and drinking it yourself. This "good wine" requires the accompaniment of court musicians and various beauties from Manchu and Han Dynasty to pour the wine. Finally, this jade dew and fine wine can enter the mouths of the guests. With this kind of ultra-high-end service, you can taste Moutai even with plain water.
After that, the dishes are served in the following order: 3 main dishes such as anchovy fins, 2 pastries, 3 royal dishes such as coriander and fried pigeon, and 3 main dishes such as eight-treasure wild duck. Then there are 2 kinds of pastries, 3 main courses and 3 main courses, followed by 2 kinds of pasta, followed by 2 kinds of barbecue, 3 kinds of imperial dishes, a bowl of stomach-nourishing porridge, and a fruit plate at the end. Finally, the waiter served the beautiful woman with fragrant tea, which meant farewell tea.
Baishoutao
The process of serving the banquet is roughly the same. Except for the slightly different dishes, individual procedures are slightly different. It can be seen from this that the banquet has rich dishes and complicated procedures.
Although the procedure is complicated and time-consuming, every delicious dish you eat is a pleasure just by the name of the dish. And it’s hard to imagine what the raw materials are by just hearing the name of the dish without looking at the dish. For example: Xishi milk, sweet brocade, mandarin duck roll, great rescue, red plum and pearl fragrance, auspicious dragon flying together, dragon and phoenix tenderness, sand boat stepping on green, magpie climbing plum blossom, two dragons playing with pearls, crystal plum blossom bag, three fresh dragon and phoenix balls, etc. wait.
There are also some dishes that directly use the names of the ingredients as the names of the dishes, and they are even commonly eaten at home. But the imperial diet must be different from ordinary people in every aspect. First of all, the name must be elegant. For example, stir-fried quail eggs with cabbage can be made at home. We named it stir-fried cabbage with quail eggs, but in the palace it was called Yutu cabbage.
Nostoc is a kind of algae that southerners like to eat. It is also eaten in the palace, but it must be paired with mushrooms, and the finished dish must be arranged in the character "year", which is called "Nian" mushroom nostoc. . Bear paws with peach-shaped fish antler are called jade palms for longevity. Camel paw meat and green vegetables are called Shazhou Tacui. The shredded chicken and fish that are cooked and fried separately are called Longfeng Rouqing.
As for the name of the tea, it is fresh and elegant, not stained by the secular world. For example: Yanghe Spring Green, Junshan Silver Needle, Lushan Yunwu, Jasmine Bird's Tongue and other exquisite and beautiful names! It sounds fresh and timeless. Before the tea reaches my lips and throat, just hearing the name is already clearing my heart.
The fragrance of red plum beads
2. It is really "beautiful and delicious"
The dishes prepared in the imperial dining room at the banquet represent the face of the royal family, so not only must the taste be exquisite, It should be good, the name is elegant, it should be highly ornamental, and it should pay attention to the color, fragrance and fragrance.
The Xishi milk dish not only has a nice name, but also looks good and tastes wonderful. Xishi milk is made from pufferfish ribs, which are the testes of pufferfish. Although the name only has three characters, the method is not simple.
First take 20 puffer fish ribs and steam them in a pot with boiling water, then add seasonings and oil and stir-fry, then add broth and simmer for a while, then use the natural red color in the food, such as the red color of amaranth, to cook it. Dye it into a light red to pink color, then add gorgon powder to collect the thick juice. After the juice is collected, add pepper oil to complete the process. When eating, it is also served with half a pound of bittern and a special sweet sesame sauce to enhance the flavor.
When the finished dish is served, I hear the imaginative name of Xi Shi milk and look at the smooth, tender and shiny fish meat, with a light red to pink color and the unique fragrance of puffer fish. If there is a seemingly invisible lingering on the tip of the nose, the diners will definitely move their index fingers and want to raise their glasses and use their chopsticks immediately.
Also delicious in appearance and taste is the lotus tofu. The dish of lotus tofu must be shaped like its name. Mix tofu puree, minced pork and egg white seasoning evenly, then shape it into the shape of a lotus pod with your hands, use green beans to make lotus seeds, steam it in this shape over medium heat. After taking it out of the pot, put it into a large soup bowl, put cooked spinach leaves inside the soup bowl to serve as lotus leaves, then pour in the egg soup, and it's done.
Lianpeng Tofu
The exquisite appearance and fine workmanship of the royal meal are generally like this.
3. "Man-Han Banquet" or "Man-Han Banquet"
Although the name "Man-Han Banquet" is widely circulated, its origin is controversial.
1. Debate over the origin
Some people say that the word "Manchu-Han Banquet" comes from the cross talk program and comes from Guankou "reporting the name of the dish". Others say that the "Man-Han banquet" evolved from the official banquet in the Qing Dynasty. Because during the Qing Dynasty, officials mainly came from the Manchu and Han nationalities. The Manchus ate "Manchu banquets" and the Han people ate "Han banquets". The general order is to fill the Han banquet first, and then go to the Han banquet after the "full banquet" is completed. The Manchu chef prepared the full banquet, and the Han chef was responsible for the Han banquet. So the chefs of the two ethnic groups began to compete, each showing their special skills. Over time, the term "Manchu-Han banquet" came to be known.
In addition to these two statements, the third statement is more convincing to people. There was no such thing as a "Man-Han banquet" in the Qing Dynasty, and the term "Man-Han banquet" only appeared in some literary works. The "Manchu-Han banquet" appeared after the founding of the People's Republic of China, or to be precise on the tenth anniversary of the National Day. At that time, in order to showcase Chinese traditional culture to the world, our country gathered elite chefs from all over the world to show off their unique skills and show off the long history and culture of this great country. After continuous integration and communication, improvement and innovation among many people, the "Manchu-Han Banquet" was finally created!
Ancient Paintings of Sitting
Nowadays, many Chinese people admire Western etiquette, especially table manners. In fact, our country has attached great importance to etiquette since ancient times. Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, treat others with courtesy no matter when and where you are. The young master should be gentle and gentle, and the young lady should be gentle and charming.
The etiquette at banquets is extremely particular, and a slight mistake may make your generosity laughable. Not only the etiquette, but also the use, material, shape, color, and placement of tableware, and even the clothes of the serving ladies must complement the purpose of the banquet and the taste of the dishes. Every dish, every cutlery, every glass of wine must never be careless.
Just one banquet encompasses five thousand years of accumulation and inheritance of China. What comes into your mouth with each chopstick is not only delicious food, but also inheritance and culture.