Chang 'an twelve o'clock food picture book, endless calories.

Just like a lady in a modern office, when she arrives in tea time, she will order a cup of Lucking or Starbuck and start a pleasant afternoon tea. How about afternoon tea for girls in Chang 'an? Go back to Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty with Meng Hui's wonderful pen and enjoy the afternoon tea in the Tang Dynasty.

Classical literature often leaves many clues about the details of traditional life, which is very interesting to ponder. A small detail is shown in Biography of Yang, which is said to be a music history of the Song Dynasty. Tang Xuanzong missed Yang Guifei too much in his later years to eat. In this case, "Huang Zhang's cherry and sugarcane pulp came last, but the emperor didn't eat it".

This seemingly fleeting plot actually involves important information about desserts in the Tang Dynasty. It should be noted that the most important sweetener in the Tang Dynasty was "sugarcane pith". Before the Tang Dynasty, maltose and honey were the main sweeteners. Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, sugarcane and its products have been introduced into China. However, the sugar-making technology at that time was not perfect. In the Tang Dynasty, only sugarcane juice was dried and boiled into concentrated sweet pulp, which was called "sugarcane pulp" and kept in containers such as cans and cans. The imperial court also stored a large number of sugarcane pith in the depths of the ice room for long-term preservation. Therefore, exquisite desserts are all made of sugarcane pulp. For example, Wang Wei has a saying "sugarcane pith rice".

There is also a very popular way to taste cherries in the Tang Dynasty, which is to pour cheese on the freshly picked cherry fruit and sugar cane pulp, which is called "cream cherry" for short. This kind of food existed as early as the Three Kingdoms period, but it became very popular in the Tang Dynasty and was called the main dessert in spring, which lasted until the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The "cheese" served here is fresh cheese that has not been air-dried, and its state is close to today's yogurt, semi-solid and frozen. So when eating cherries, such cheese is poured on bright red cherries like brine. You can imagine that the taste of fresh cheese is combined with the sweetness and juiciness of first-ripe cherries, supplemented by the beauty of amber ice sugar cane pulp.

A unique situation is that in the Tang Dynasty, dairy desserts accounted for a considerable proportion. At that time, "crisp" desserts were highly valued, and there were exquisite large frozen crispy cakes at important banquets. One of the most popular is crispy mountain, which is a bit magical. Its production process is called "Dripping Crispy", which is quite close to the method of squeezing cream and decorating flowers on cakes today: the crispness is slightly heated to almost melt, mixed with sugarcane pulp or honey, and then the woman holds it in her hand, drops it on dishes and other utensils, and makes a shape while pouring. After the sweet crisp is "drenched" into the undulating shape of the mountains, it will be firmly frozen on the plate after freezing and shaping. Before the banquet is served, some artificial colored trees and artificial flowers will be inserted as decorations.

The prosperous Tang Dynasty is an era of rich social material and people have more economic conditions and energy to pursue delicious food. Delicious ingredients from other provinces and all over the world are gathered here, so the food level has improved rapidly compared with the previous dynasties, and the extremely enjoyable court table can't stand loneliness. Thanks to everyone's unremitting efforts, many famous banquets have emerged, such as "Roast Tail Banquet", "Apricot Garden Flower Exploration Banquet" and "Cherry Banquet".

So, what do you usually eat at these banquets in the Tang Dynasty? After careful verification and bold assumptions, we made the following table, which seems to be true and untrue, but in fact it is empty because of facts. After more than a thousand years, we will restore a luxurious Tang Dynasty to you.

Geitost

Source: Palace drinks.

Deduction so far: goat yogurt.

"I've never praised the goat cheese here. It's delicious."

Han palace chess

Source: barbecue.

Deduction so far: flag flower face.

Make a chessboard-shaped cake with flour, print it with copper coins and cook it.

Jinheyu

Source: Palace banquet dishes.

Suzhou famous dish, raw perch slices, orange slices, dipped in mustard.

Give Fei a delicious brown

Source: barbecue.

Inference so far: honey is cool brown.

Contains spices and is soaked in red honey.

Red sheep stick

Source: barbecue.

Deduction so far: roast whole sheep.

Fix the limbs of pickled red sheep on musical instruments and staff. After the red sheep is cooked, lift the staff to enter the site, and then cut off the joints of the sheep's hoof.

Watch the wind disappear

Source: barbecue.

Deduction so far: soaking oil cakes.

It is made of glutinous rice dough by baking, air drying and frying. It is widely circulated in the market because this kind of cake will collapse after being blown by the wind for a while, so it is called "seeing the wind, not seeing it".

Laowa

Source: Palace drinks.

Deduction so far: strong wine

Taking rice as raw material, the originator of thick wine.

Wang chuan Xiao yang

Source: Palace banquet dishes.

Deduction so far: the cold current of color.

Zheng Fan, a famous female monk chef, takes 20 landscapes of Wangchuan Villa painted by Wang Wei in Wangchuan (south of the middle of Lantian County) as the blueprint, and uses raw materials such as bacon, meat sauce, melons, fruits and vegetables to carve and piece together a "Wangchuan sample". In the eyes of later researchers, it is the originator of today's color cold current.

Braised shrimp with strong light

Source: barbecue.

Cherry biro

Source: Palace banquet dishes.

Wang Zihui, a food expert in Sui and Tang Dynasties, believes that Robbie is similar to steamed dumplings, while cherry Robbie uses cherries instead of steamed dumplings.

Yu Wang Huang mu fan

Source: barbecue.

Deduction points so far: mixed rice/fried rice with eggs.

"Coat the rice noodles with egg fat to make them smell bad."

Milk fermented fish

Source: barbecue.

Deduction so far: fish in milk soup pot.

The original practice was to marinate the whole fish with cheese. Nowadays, cheese has been replaced by "stock soup" (milky white soup made of chicken, duck, pig bones and elbows). ), the so-called "fish in a milk soup pot".

Cold boiling of Sophora japonica leaves

Source: Palace Natsuna.

Deduction points so far: spinach cold noodles

It is a good summer product to combine cold noodles with the green fragrance of Sophora japonica leaf juice and put them in a well or an ice room for cold storage.